The Legacy of Dominic Deegan: The Unending Snark

[Vinyadan]

New comic is up, though there's not much to say about it. What is worth mentioning, though, is that the new chapter is titled "Natural Necromancy."

Is

Death

Zombies

[Celestia]

New comic is up, though there's not much to say about it. What is worth mentioning, though, is that the new chapter is titled "Natural Necromancy."

This can only mean one thing: We're going back to Maltak.

God have mercy on our souls.

I can already feel the life draining from me.

[Kantaki]

I guess that's another series of updates with unconnected landscapes...
Someone wake me up when something's happening.

So tempted to fill the whole post with "Are we there yet?"...

[Celestia]

It's Easter Island! But it's not an island! And the statues are poorly designed and lazy!

[Mewtarthio]

After the death of King David, the Callanian realized that their attempts to contain Maltak by force were doomed to failure. For decades, the noble house of Damaske had led Callan's forces to defend the world from that accursed land of impossible geometry and unfathomable motives. Now, in just a few short years, Damaske lay in ruins, and a single mad king had removed the border guard, allowing Callan and Maltak to mingle in horrible, torturous, time-distorting ways. True, they would rebuild in time, but they were forced to acknowledge that the threat of Maltak was eternal, and their vigilance would falter for good eventually.

To that end, the great mages of Maltak erected the Stone Sentinels to ward against Maltak until the very earth itself was naught but dust. They are at once fences and signposts. While they cannot affect the world in obvious ways (for such magic would eventually run dry), their very presence reasserts the reality of the land around them, preventing Maltak from spreading forward. To those who would ignorantly cross their borders and be subjected to madness (or worse, orcification), they serve as a warning. No humanoid being can look upon their forms, hands clasped in supplication, and fail to understand their desperate pleas. Gaze into their hollow eyes, forever frozen in stony horror, and you can hear the whispers of a voice that transcends language: "This is not a place of honor. No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here..."

[Celestia]

Page

Ah, I knew it was only a matter of time until the art legitimately got in the way of comprehension. I don't know what's going on in that last panel. Is that vines, lines of ink, some sort of evil corruption, or something else? Who knows!

[random11]

Page

Ah, I knew it was only a matter of time until the art legitimately got in the way of comprehension. I don't know what's going on in that last panel. Is that vines, lines of ink, some sort of evil corruption, or something else? Who knows!

I thought they were just vines, indicating it's a place long abandoned or at least a place that isn't taken care of.
We had so many travel fillers, that I don't even know if this place has any importance or if we'll just skip to the next location on Monday.

BTW, this time he isn't just walking randomly, he is following a map.
So I wonder, do all the people who leave mongreltown to this general direction pass through the same places?

[Traab]

I figure its a trap house. Sort of like how venus flytraps attract insects by scent, the wild edge house trap traps travelers by looking like a sound, if creepy cottage, only to seal shut and absorb their next meal.

[Kantaki]

Are we there...
Oh, that cottage looks important.

Page

Ah, I knew it was only a matter of time until the art legitimately got in the way of comprehension. I don't know what's going on in that last panel. Is that vines, lines of ink, some sort of evil corruption, or something else? Who knows!

Looks like cracks to me.

[Vinyadan]

I figure its a trap house. Sort of like how venus flytraps attract insects by scent, the wild edge house trap traps travelers by looking like a sound, if creepy cottage, only to seal shut and absorb their next meal.

Are we there...
Oh, that cottage looks important.



Looks like cracks to me.

[random11]

Update

What do you know, these things WERE vines.
I award myself two internet points.

Also, did we mention lately how super courageous a comic is with a main protagonist who is deaf and mute because the author has to come with interesting ways of communicating without speech bubbles?

[Traab]

Thank god there are books everywhere that explain whatever is currently going on. Also magic based on writing stuff with ink. Im pretty sure the one and only time snouts deafness has been a real issue and not a gag is when he first met the ink witch and she said something to him before collapsing. The arguing in the street between ink witch and orc witch then the later argument with the angry ink people could sorta count, but was more treated as a joke in the first case, and not critical in the second. That first one though was the moment where what she said could have gone in a dozen directions. "Help me." "Run." "Mortal dog, i will wear your entrails if you touch me!" "Rosebud."

[Celestia]

Thank god there are books everywhere that explain whatever is currently going on. Also magic based on writing stuff with ink. Im pretty sure the one and only time snouts deafness has been a real issue and not a gag is when he first met the ink witch and she said something to him before collapsing. The arguing in the street between ink witch and orc witch then the later argument with the angry ink people could sorta count, but was more treated as a joke in the first case, and not critical in the second. That first one though was the moment where what she said could have gone in a dozen directions. "Help me." "Run." "Mortal dog, i will wear your entrails if you touch me!" "Rosebud."

I can't tell if Mookie would be the kind of guy who would unintelligently reference Citizen Kane and pat himself on his back for the brilliant reference or if he'd be the kind of guy who would be stubbornly proud of the fact that he has never and will never watch Citizen Kane. It could go either way, really.

This has nothing to do with the comic or even your post, but I'm just curious.

[random11]

Update

Are we going to meet Swamp-Thing?

Also, I don't know where he is from, but I find if hard to believe he had no other option to choose.
No big forests, desert, whatever outside the wild zone?

[Kantaki]

"The vines told me they were coming"?
Listen, nameless diary guy. I don't know where you're from*, but that's not usually a good thing.

Also, I don't know where he is from, but I find if hard to believe he had no other option to choose.
No big forests, desert, whatever outside the wild zone?

Nah, outside the Wild Zone the whole world's a giant city.

*Almost wrote wrong instead of from.

[Celestia]

The real question: is this going to matter, or is it just a brief distraction?

[random11]

The real question: is this going to matter, or is it just a brief distraction?

Given the chapter name, this does looks a bit like a beginning to something that can be related to "natural necromancy".

It still doesn't mean the entire chapter will matter.

[Celestia]

Given the chapter name, this does looks a bit like a beginning to something that can be related to "natural necromancy".

It still doesn't mean the entire chapter will matter.

Ah, so you're placing your bet on "prolonged distraction." I'll give you 1.3:1 on that.

[Traab]

Im thinking its a side quest status. There will be a hint in the book that connects to his quest in some fashion and then he will try to track down swamp thing. "I think the strangest thing that happened was, just before I entered the wild edge, I met this older fellow named dominic and he offered me some advice. he said, "follow your snout and you will never go wrong." I wonder what that meant?"

Then literally every reader of the comic does the deadpan look into camera as we realize this was the lamest method of telling us snouts about to get a companion that ever existed.

[Mewtarthio]

Snout, this is the point where you should run. You can read the book somewhere safer.

[Kantaki]

Snout, this is the point where you should run. You can read the book somewhere safer.

Even better idea- drop the book and just run.
Best case it's just gonna dissolve into mad ramblings about insane gods from beneath the stars- "The vines told me they were coming" is a good hint here.

Worst case, whatever happened here comes after the book.
On a second thought it will hunt you down anyway, so keep the madness log and hope there's something in there how to appease the dark masters.

And/Or coincidental, completely unrelated hints towards one or more of you quests.
But you'll stumble over those anyway

[random11]

Update

I know it's supposed to be tense, but the fact everything is written just reminds me of that scene from the holy grail.

[SerenaRaeyld]

I find it interesting that the narrative of the book indicates the vines might communicate audibly somehow...perhaps even entrancing audibly. So Snout may be somewhat immune, leading to a different outcome, even if he doesn't run.

[random11]

I find it interesting that the narrative of the book indicates the vines might communicate audibly somehow...perhaps even entrancing audibly. So Snout may be somewhat immune, leading to a different outcome, even if he doesn't run.

I think the problem is that the story pushes scenarios where being deaf changes something, but at the same time presenting even more unlikely scenarios to avoid the consequences of being deaf, sometimes with literal writing on the wall...

Let me ask you this, if the vines will want to communicate (even if just to lie), how long will it take until they start forming as letters in the alphabet so Snout can read them?

[Kantaki]

I find it interesting that the narrative of the book indicates the vines might communicate audibly somehow...perhaps even entrancing audibly. So Snout may be somewhat immune, leading to a different outcome, even if he doesn't run.

Unless it's telepathy.
Or maybe someone will randomly fall from the sky and Snout has to save them helplessly wave his arms at them as they walk into the vines' waiting maws.
I mean those things wouldn't get introduced if nothing came from it, would they?

Although... The vines looking confused as Snout completely ignores them could be funny.

[Celestia]

Update

I know it's supposed to be tense, but the fact everything is written just reminds me of that scene from the holy grail.

This whole thing is quite absurd, isn't it?

I just love how Snout being deaf has never been a significant detriment to him, and it is now, in fact, serving as a benefit. What a great way to represent a disability.

[Traab]

Im just wondering what the vines were doing to the writer that prevented him from leaving but not from writing and keeping his little cottage nicely neat and tidy. Maybe they injected themselves into him and that last bit of writing was him losing the last of his motor control? Also, its hard to tell the time frame involved. I mean, we see week 3 and the vines are still approaching, then it seems to jump to week 15 and the vines have been exposed as the horrible danger they are. So does that mean these are super slow killer vines that basically entrance their victim then take several weeks growing until they can ensnare their target? Or did they get him a month or two earlier and its only now after its far too late that they released the enthrallment and with his last energy he wrote the warning?

Also, its hard to tell if the writer paid to have this cabin built or he just claimed it for himself. I like the idea of the cabin being a venus flytrap setup by the vines to lure the unwary in, but its also amusing to think he had it built here by chance.

[Celestia]

Im just wondering what the vines were doing to the writer that prevented him from leaving but not from writing and keeping his little cottage nicely neat and tidy. Maybe they injected themselves into him and that last bit of writing was him losing the last of his motor control? Also, its hard to tell the time frame involved. I mean, we see week 3 and the vines are still approaching, then it seems to jump to week 15 and the vines have been exposed as the horrible danger they are. So does that mean these are super slow killer vines that basically entrance their victim then take several weeks growing until they can ensnare their target? Or did they get him a month or two earlier and its only now after its far too late that they released the enthrallment and with his last energy he wrote the warning?

Also, its hard to tell if the writer paid to have this cabin built or he just claimed it for himself. I like the idea of the cabin being a venus flytrap setup by the vines to lure the unwary in, but its also amusing to think he had it built here by chance.

More likely that he built it, I think. After (presumably) eating him, the vines just stuck around and have still engulfed the cabin. The diary, however, specifically mentions the vines approaching the cabin. If this was some sort of trap deliberately set up by the vines, then either they'd have retreated after eating the previous victim, or they'd have been there from the start.

[Traab]

More likely that he built it, I think. After (presumably) eating him, the vines just stuck around and have still engulfed the cabin. The diary, however, specifically mentions the vines approaching the cabin. If this was some sort of trap deliberately set up by the vines, then either they'd have retreated after eating the previous victim, or they'd have been there from the start.

Good point. On the other hand, it seemed to take the vines 15 weeks to do their thing. And even thats assuming that last entry was when everything ended. Its entirely possible that the vines havent been able to leave yet. Or are in the process of leaving and by the time week 15 happened they had engulfed the entire place. Your idea is more likely but I figure we will start to see soon. The panels were looking a bit like eli and her goblin comic when the axe broke and everything was turning demonic. The real problem here is, these vines arent being portrayed as a threat to snout, they are incredibly slow moving, and unless they manage to entrance him as well, nothing stops him from walking back out the door, and this being a sad story of someone who didnt survive the dangers of the wild edge. However, its far more likely that these vines will be fast moving and aggressive despite their description of super slo mo spreading and attacking.

[Kornaki]

It's certainly the case that in the shot of the interior of the cabin, the vines barely reach the bed, but now they've encircled his head. Maybe the book is their way of entrancing snout, and he's been sitting there staring at it for a month.