Cursed, of Course: A Fantasy Comic

[ti'esar]

So I'm guessing this is just where I originally suspected this story would go: not any deep dark secret concerning Pellan personally, just something bad he learned about via his adventuring. But I suppose there's still time for a curveball.

Why do I feel like we've heard the name Kal-At before...?

Edit: We have - apparently it's where the Shining Spear (as in "Company of the") came from. And looking at it again, there's definitely a similarity between its design and Queen Kyren's in the story.

Hmmm.

[Kantaki]

„All that's left of the Kal-At Empire is bones and vengeful shadows”

Huh. Sounds like it could be a pretty good description of Pellan.
Somewhat distorted, but seeing that there's another- and when there're two it opens the possibility there're even more -it could be that it applies to them as a whole.

But even if Pellan's condition wasn't caused by the queen's poorly phrased wish it could still be connected.
What if Pellan learned this story the hard way?
The curse might be a consequence of going to Kal-At.
The locals might not be happy with some adventurers disturbing their rest (and plundering what once was theirs).

With would also explain why that other skeleton is looking for Pellan.
Guess who had the brilliant idea of visiting that place and drew the ire of those „vengeful shadows” on the party.

Edit:

Why do I feel like we've heard the name Kal-At before...?

Edit: We have - apparently it's where the Shining Spear (as in "Company of the") came from. And looking at it again, there's definitely a similarity between its design and Queen Kyren's in the story.

Hmmm.

Well, the mercenaries were from „the far deserts of the old Andaran empire”.
The leader's spear is described as being „a artifact spear of Kal-At design”, so it's possible it found it's way into her possession some other way.
Maybe a family heirloom or payment for some job before she founded the Company of the Shining Spear.

I strongly doubt Kyren was the only one carrying this type of weapon and considering she fought several wars there are many ways one of them could have ended up with Bortha's crush.

[Shoreward]

Bad news, people. My desktop's boot files got corrupted somehow, and now it won't start. My comic itself is backed up on an online drive, but some planning documents (and a good deal of other things, but those aren't related to the comic) are either gone or inaccessible, and the computer is inoperable at the moment.

I'll hopefully be sending it in for repairs and recoveries tomorrow, but there's a chance I've lost a good deal of my stuff and I'll need to spend some time doing a little recovery of my own.

Please note: the comic itself, including my buffer and templates, are backed up online, assuming I did that correctly all these months. It's mostly ancillary stuff contained in other folders that may be lost in all of this.

It's a pretty big deal, so if I don't update this week, I'm dealing with that.

[ti'esar]

Yikes. Sorry to hear that.

[Shoreward]

Ended up having to reinstall Windows, which is a pain. Lost a bunch of stuff, but I've been judicious with comic backups (even moreso now). Spent the first part of this week rebuilding lost plot and setting documents, but that's not so bad. Got to re-examine details and clean things up in the process.

Back to our regularly scheduled program, I guess.

Update!

Page 73 - It's Raining.

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[ti'esar]

This is the second fancomic I've read in a week where the audience's wild speculation got an in-story voice.

But yeah, I think she's got it. And now I'm definitely leaning towards Kantaki being right as well - the other cursed guy is after Pellan because they were on the same expedition and blame him for what went wrong.

Edit: Although now that I think about it, "vengeful shadows" sorta evokes the "Other Skeleton's" weird dark gray speech bubbles - which Pellan doesn't have. So maybe Pellan's a modern victim of the Kal-At curse but the other guy is original flavor and after the person who robbed their tomb.

[IntelectPaladin]

Thank goodness, a quality update. Welcome back, Shoreward.
If one thing were abundantly clear in this comic,
it's than Pellan has had enough. And perhaps rightly so.
I've just about run out of things to post, so...perhaps I should just stop posting.
Thank you for reading this.

[The Fury]

Anyone else notice Pellan physically pushing Cat's word balloons away? Nice.

Also, word balloons are squishy apparently.

[Kantaki]

Cat. There are some questions you just don't ask.

But I can't deny I'm curious myself.
Pellan definitely was going to say „leave”.
Leave where?
Or should it be whom?

Was he- or they assuming a bigger team -forced leave a place by whatever went wrong, possibly in a way that makes returning difficult at best?

Or was someone left behind?
Someone who was important either for Pellan or the mysterious stranger personally/another party member or the team cohesion, causing the party to turn on each other and resulting in Pellan's current state?

Or maybe someone who could've helped avoiding the curse or whatever caused them to abandon the quest?

Another remainingquestion would be the time-frame.

When did Kal-At fall to Kyren's foolish wish?
And when did Pellan's quest fail?
Both relative to eachother and to the present that is.
Because I still doubt Pellan is the same age as the other members of the group.

And Pellan running around without his armor
brings a certain bit of dialogue from the Skulduggery Pleasant books (specifically Kingdom of the Wicked) to mind.

[ti'esar]

Or was someone left behind?
Someone who was important either for Pellan or the mysterious stranger personally/another party member or the team cohesion, causing the party to turn on each other and resulting in Pellan's current state?

Or maybe someone who could've helped avoiding the curse or whatever caused them to abandon the quest?

Hmm.

Hmmm. (Specifically the eighth panel)

[HalfTangible]

If someone had been left behind, I'd think that Pellan would've had a stronger reaction to "who was in your team" and "where are they"

I find it interesting that he started to say he needed to "lea-". Leave? Lead?

[danielxcutter]

Not sure what to say, so I'll just vibrate from hype in my corner over here.

[Shoreward]

Update!

Page 74 - Good Morning.

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[ti'esar]

This doesn't just seem faintly ominous to me alone, does it?

[IntelectPaladin]

This doesn't just seem faintly ominous to me alone, does it?

Oh, no, that's quite an ominous bit of story there.
On the other hand, I really need to congratulate shoreward on this one.
For perhaps the...let's say, 54th time. I'll be more accurate next time around.
That is one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen drawn, anywhere,
let alone in a webcomic. Of course, 'Cursed' is hardly an average webcomic.
Typing of which, I'm looking forward to seeing just what it is Pellan has done, even if it's nothing.
Also, is that a sunrise or sunset?
Which means we get to see whom else has done what, so it's a win-win.
Thank you again for reading this!

[danielxcutter]

Whoa... You sure you don't want to go places with this comic, if you catch my drift, Shoreward?

[Shoreward]

Page 75 - Sights.

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[ti'esar]

Crystals. Why is it always crystals.

So I guess that's the final, official confirmation that Stormfallen really do literally fall out of the sky.

[IntelectPaladin]

So I guess that's the final, official confirmation that Stormfallen really do literally fall out of the sky.

And now for the follow-up question, will these stormfallen prove dangerous, or merely annoying?
I bet 1 "I told you so" on the former.

[Kantaki]

Crystals. Why is it always crystals.

So I guess that's the final, official confirmation that Stormfallen really do literally fall out of the sky.

Which explains a few things about Cat.

And now for the follow-up question, will these stormfallen prove dangerous, or merely annoying?
I bet 1 "I told you so" on the former.

Yeah,no. Not betting against that.

I mean just going by the one we know?
Those things are definitely dangerous.
Lets hope they're either gone already or our heroes can resolve the situation peacefully.

Never mind, forget the last one.
With their current track record this would so escalate to violence even Skitter would shake her head.

[Shoreward]

Update!

Page 76 - Forward.

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[danielxcutter]

Anyone want to bet that the Stormfallen had something to do with this?

[Kantaki]

Anyone want to bet that the Stormfallen had something to do with this?

Yes, yes that sounds rather likely.

Time for Escalation™?

[Shoreward]

Update!

Page 77 - Symbols.

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[ti'esar]

Have we seen that crossed-hammers crest before? From the design alone, I'd assume some kind of mining/smithing/metalworking guild or organization.

[danielxcutter]

Have we seen that crossed-hammers crest before? From the design alone, I'd assume some kind of mining/smithing/metalworking guild or organization.

Very likely, yes, but not the only option. We might get some info quite soon, though...

[Shoreward]

Update!

Page 78 - Connections.

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Alternate Title: Charades.

[ti'esar]

...man, I suck at charades.

[EldritchWeaver]

The mute girl belongs/belonged to that guild?

[danielxcutter]

Someone needs to buy her a pen and a looooooooot of paper to write on.