Oct 072013
 

You eye Stephane uneasily. What’s the catch, you ask? I mean, you’re giving me a key to a building full of riches and asking me to, like, have at it. Forgive me if I expect an ulterior motive.

There is no catch, Stephane says. Sigrid is a hero in need of a push; she needs to be shown there are actual threats out there that can take away the things and power she has accrued. She needs to be shown that these threats not only exist, but can affect her. Anyway, you were the one who first proposed breaking into the Mages Guild, not I. And was it also not you who said someone should stand up to her?

I meant someone should stand up to her by refusing to lick her boots, not by robbing her. And if you want this to happen so badly, why not do it yourself? I mean, you know the building better than I do. You could retrieve my stuff, take all her money, and we’d both be happy.

Because my role is elsewhere. Imagine if I were caught stealing and lost her trust, or if the surprise of her finding me was such that I ended up with a Clannfear latched to my neck. A hero like Sigrid who could flourish and benefit the world under my guidance would be nothing but an uncontrollable monster without it.

You, on the other hand, are an expendable tool perfect for this act. Whether you leave your mark and escape unseen, escape once she has sighted you, or never escape at all, the job is done and all of Mundus will benefit.


SallowFace wrote:
I think he just called you expendable.

Katia, he thinks you’re expendable.

Flip the goddamn table.



GreyAcumen wrote:
Katia: Repeat after me – “It would be far too risky for ANYONE to attempt… unless this hypothetical person were also to happen on a reasonable portion of coin along with this aforementioned chapel key.”

He wants you to do a task that he’s too chickenshit to do himself. I don’t care how little you think of yourself, you are not expendable, and you DON’T go along with the plan of someone who thinks you are. At least not without compensation UP FRONT.


I’m not “expendable”.

Yes you are, Stephane says. There’s even a picture of you next to the dictionary entry.

That was a generic Khajiit! And he was just an example!

Look, I know you don’t want to risk doing this yourself, but I’m not an expendable tool. I may not be some kind of hero or whatever, but I’m a person, and if I’m really going to go along with this plan I want you to give me something up front for it.

And if I don’t, Stephane asks?

Then I won’t do it.

And then what?

What do you mean, you ask?

Let’s say you turn down your chance to get back at Sigrid, retrieve your oh-so-important books, and make off with a bag full of septims. What will you do then? Another night sleeping on the chapel floor with a bottle of mead? You told Sigrid and I quite a bit about yourself last night. Will you return to your friend in Anvil after another pointless failure? Head off somewhere new? Maybe go back to what you implied was your former career?

…It’s better than being dead.

Really, Stephane says flatly. He’s sure that’s what you were thinking when you climbed down a well of carnivorous fish to get a couple scales, or ran through a collapsing ruin for a couple of old bottles. I think we both know how much your life is really worth. If you were less selfish, perhaps you’d put it on the line for a good cause.


Gavinfoxx wrote:
Katia> YOU MUST DO THIS. This is a fantastic idea!


Pajaul wrote:
We are NOT the villain he is looking for. Do not actively commit a crime.


Irrevenant wrote:
Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it


AMKitsune wrote:
Katia: NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! Stephane may appear to be being helpful right now, but he’s suggesting that you do something very dangerous and illegal without any backing or support. Perhaps I should re-emphasise, DANGEROUS and ILLEGAL!

There’s no hurry, Stephane says. That is, unless you need to eat to survive. I can’t imagine you have the coin for very much of that as-is.

I’ll leave this here. Sigrid goes to sleep at four in the morning. Given your track record, and that breaking in was your idea in the first place, I trust you’ll make the right choice.


SallowFace wrote:
I think he just called you expendable.

Katia, he thinks you’re expendable.

Flip the goddamn table.


Additional resource credits:
Cider – Most of the art

  • Kazerad

    Serious talk, guys:

    With the amount of time I spend working on little mini-games and stuff, it’s becoming pretty clear that I can’t keep the comic updated at an acceptable speed AND with the level of complexity I want it to have. Now, a normal, boring person would look at this fact and conclude that I need to “choose” one or the other. But I prefer the much more reasonable conclusion: I need a second Kazerad so I can do cool stuff at a faster rate.

    When the initial cloning experiments failed, I fell back to a more conventional solution. If you’ve noticed any differences in art style in these last couple updates, it’s because my friend Cider has been helping out with the art! I am training him to be a second me, though he is still getting the style down. We decided to keep it a secret at first to see if anyone noticed, and like two people did. Now that you all know, you can entertain yourselves by trying to guess which parts were drawn by him and which were drawn by me. I’ll tell you the right answers if they make me look good.

    I’ve outsourced parts of the art to friends before, but usually just a panel or two, never on this scale. So far it’s been a surprisingly fun experience; I’ve been catching up on some other stuff and preparing things for future updates while my comic continues to update even faster than it was before. We’re going to try to kick it up a notch this coming week and see if we can update it faster than once-per-week. And meanwhile, I’m going to try to knock out a bunch of other stuff I’ve been procrastinating on, like making the fanart page not suck. It kind of needs it.

    So the moral is teamwork or something, I don’t know. Also, create copies of yourself so you can be Voldemort.

    • Psithief

      Clones? Robot duplicates are better, they come with on/off switches.

      • Zzzzzx

        But what if they turn Maverick?

        • Kiera

          dude, just EMP =3

          • Bob

            “X arrives upon a overpass view of the maverick headquarters being bombarded with fatal amounts of electromagnetic energy and thousands of the kazerads are incinerated from the inside with charred remains of their circuit boards laid out. Upon watching such a spectacle, he questions himself: How much longer will we have to fight to see our new sad cat update..”

      • Jistuce

        Robot clones? MADNESS!

      • panoz

        no no no if a clone fails you just lop heads off … way more satisfying than just flipping a switch.

        • Link

          Would killing your clone count as indirect suicide? *philosoraptor face*

          • Dragomok

            From a materialistic worldview, yes.

            From a consciousness-based viewpoint, no.

            From a Catholic perspective, in most cases no, but heavenly bureaucracy might send you some angry angel messages about wrecking havoc in their records.

            And according to Buddism, you have an actual chance of doing that if you just burrow several delayed-action nukes across the world and set the timer to ~70 years.

    • Ah, I was wondering why the slight change of art style in recent updates.

      • Wow, you’re good. I didn’t even notice until kaz pointed it out.

      • NoriMori

        I didn’t notice either! :O

        • Kyber

          I just thought she was doing something different with the eyes.

    • Lyrisath

      Wow. I did not notice at all. That’s some impressive style-emulation!

    • Prophet Lord

      He’s drawing Stephane isn’t he. Like, for the close ups. And the panel with the weird perspective in the last update.

    • Unclever title

      So the moral is: “If you can’t be Voldemort, then teamwork is okay I guess?”

      Gee Kazerad, couldn’t you have come up with something that isn’t completely obvious?

      That aside, faster updates of the same quality and complexity can’t not be good news, Awesome.

      • Kazerad

        No no, being Voldemort is HOW I’m doing Teamwork. Cider is my first horcrux. Now Harry Potter can’t kill me unless he kills Cider first.

        My next horcrux will probably be something more practical and well-protected, like the International Kilogram Prototype.

        • Ah, now I understand that part.

        • Dragon Dave

          Nah, there are better horcruxes – even better science related ones. You need something that’s completely untouchable, something so completely *out there*, that no-one will be able to even check.

          In “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”, it’s strongly implied that Voldemort might have cast a “lovely little spell” on such an item… http://hpmor.com/chapter/20

    • Nickel

      Ah. I thought I felt something different about the art in the close-up panels! That said, huge props to Cider for helping to move this along and doing such a great job on the art~ Frankly, though, I don’t mind how many Kazerads there are. So long as the art’s still good and the story well-written, I’ll be hanging on to your every update!

      Crazy-excited about the proposed update acceleration.

      • Bob

        To be honest, while most that were themselves artists would be FLOODING in to have the opportunity to work on their favorite comic/panel/story whatever thing and at the same time showcase their artistic abilities to vast others, wouldn’t it be kinda neat to have some contest for such an newly created and highly desired position?

        A contest that would challenge the artists to push their skills (in means of if they can catch up the fast pace of demand and still provide consistent high quality) to the highest so the most qualified can be picked out.

        Just an thought to the possible incoming flow of applications for such an position.

        • Dan

          Maybe he feels more comfortable working with people he know and trust.

    • AJ

      Every day that Prequel doesn’t update is a day I die a little inside.

      So, needless to say, an army of Kazerads can only be an improvement!

      • Murder

        How on Nirn are you still alive?!

        • katie

          +1

    • BlueNight

      I guess friendship… is magic?

      • Mlpfltrshyrls

        Friendship is best magic.

    • Mr.Duck

      You’re a cool cat Kaz

    • tjk

      I wanna be a cool Kazerad #2 too!

      • tjk

        No seriously I’d devote a huge amount of time towards that

        • Dragomok

          Your comment sort of reminded me of this

    • Irrevenant

      Oooooohhhhhhh. So that’s why these last few have been faster. Super cool.

    • Nickel

      With the amount of time I spend working on little mini-games…

      I’ve been catching up on some other stuff and preparing things for future updates…

      –Kazerad

      Theory: new mini-game is in the works and it involves sneaky!Katia breaking into / out of the Mages’ Guild.

      If so, I love this comic forever, I swear. I SWEAR.

      Also:

      I’m not “expendable”.

      Yes you are, Stephane says. There’s even a picture of you next to the dictionary entry.

      I was hoping there’d be a panel showing this dictionary entry, much like the panels showing Katia’s tragic attempt at self-fanfic/autobiography. It would have been hilarious~ Somebody please make this happen. You will get all the adoration my tiny, shriveled heart can muster.

    • Riddles

      If that is the price to be paid for a decent speed of updates then I have no problem at all with it. Considering how the differences are barely noticeable it doesn’t seem like a problem at all.

      Anyways, we already have the default art style and the more realistic ones that are more commonly done in the closeups and detailed scenes, having another art style might be pretty cool.

    • fohfuu

      This may be an unpopular comment, but…Kaz, please don’t continue with this person. Their art is simply too different in a way I can’t explain. It just doesn’t look as good.
      If people will wait months for Lackadaisy Cats to update, they can wait weeks for Prequel. And I’d rather wait weeks for Prequel than get outsourced Prequel.

    • manarim

      Is the Cideriness connected with the colours having been a little weird for the last few updates? I’ve noticed them shifting around from frame to frame and stuff. At first I thought it was just that her eyes were still weird, but… I wonder.

    • MrNature72

      So you need some help.

      Fair enough, I can understand that.

      I’m a writer striving to enter the professional market, and I need a kick. I do most of my work in the sultry art of dark fantasy, but I’ve dabbled in everything from sci-fi to comic book superheroes.

      Nonetheless, I’ve been tagging along with your story and I’m really interested if someone able to help you story-wise would be of any kind of use to you.

      I specialize in character development and psychology. I get how hard it is to develop a character. Every single being has to walk, talk, and act in a certain manner. It’s how you make things interesting.

      My email is [email protected], and if you DO contact me, please send a cc to [email protected], it works like a back up.

  • stupidjellyfish

    Katia still sucks at everything.

    Even talking.

    • Zzzzzx

      Well, there is one thing she doesn’t suck on anymore…
      (bad joke)

      • barbs

        Wait! She used to suck? That sounds painful.

        • tronn

          More like scrape and lick, to be honest.

          • Story Mode

            Guys?…just stop it please

          • stupidjellyfish

            what have i done

          • tjk

            Nah, you see, vampires don’t suck. We scrape, and lick! Scrape! And lick!

          • Bob

            Sometimes I dread coming to the comments section of the site. Its like entering shivering isles.

          • Littlepip

            What have you done… Jelly? Should I call you jelly? Well what you have done is trigger some rule 34ers to quote some of their katia fetishes… (Ew) (oh and no offence people from Zzzzzx to tronn, just saying my opinion…) (maybe i should join bigspot.com… Make 1 cent for every opinion… XD)

          • tronn

            Fetish shmetish, that’s a humorous reference. Just a step below observational comedy and well above puns!

  • Thank you, last panel, for reminding me that tables are actually heavy.

    • Zzzzzx

      Or maybe Katia just has noodle arms.

      • Neowildstar

        or BOTH. I mean those tables aren’t made of pressed wood shavings like they are now. They’re made from what pretty much amounts to hunks of LOGS.

        • Bob

          Oh dear she flipped the tables.

          AND THEN SHE WAS BANNED FOR A BAJILLION YEARS FROM THE BAR AND THE KEY WAS LEFT INSIDE.

  • Psithief

    Four in the morning, huh?

    T, move slider until the shops will be open, rest.

  • That guy who likes writing really long nicknames because he’s a really bored person this is taking a while isn’t it?Wait no, it isn’t, so what are you doing tonight?Im writing really long names because I’m bored, I enjoy watching cats cry though, do you?

    So many updates so soon? Oh you spoil us, either that or I’ve gotten so used to waiting ages for updates that the current update schedule seems pretty quick.

    • Story Mode

      same here.

  • tronn

    Oh man, the Khajiit bartender just kills me! Also, Stephen’s comment on the dictionary was a nice touch, that’s like double racism.

    Congrats on getting a co-author, I think you made the right choice. Hi Cider!

  • RedSpine

    Katia, sometimes what is lawful is not what is just, and it takes an outlaw to settle the score.
    Whether you agree with that or not is ultimately up to you.
    That being said, wouldn’t it be a shame if somehow Sigrids supply of mind control perfume were to be spiked somehow? I mean, alchemy is such a precise art that who knows what slipping a little fire salt into the mix would do to it.

    • Lyrisath

      Take a closer look at the last few pages. She doesn’t rely on it any more. She used it as a stepping stone to learning legit persuasiveness and commisioning enchanted items to enhance her charisma.

      Though I don’t suppose she wears many of those when she goes to sleep (unless she commissioned an enchanted nightgown). But now there’s a thought… maybe Katia could find them, wear them, and turn the tables on Sigrid when caught with her own force of ill-gotten charisma.

      If that works on Heroes.

      • Phantomspaceman

        Everyone in Tamriel sleeps in all their clothing, remember?

        Glad you’re collaborating with someone, Kaz. I was worried you’d burn out and quit.

        • tronn

          Me too, the lagging update speed and constant delays made me afraid that Kaz had lost his enthusiasm for the project.

      • xKiv

        Didn’t Sigrid also have to use the musk on Katia, who was very resistant to the idea of losing everything again?

        • Dragomok

          Exactly (look again at the two last panels).

          I thought it was obvious by now that Sigrid relies on her enchantments for everyday occasions and uses some musk when she needs to go supersayainavatarstatebloodragelimitbreak on somebody.

      • Bartimaeus

        Katia should totally steal Sigrid’s enchanted nightgown, assuming she has one.

  • Blank Mage

    A new artist is fine too. Just be careful that he doesn’t attempt to kill and replace you. I hear that happens when you outsource.

    • 65534

      double racism

      is fine too

      It’s as if I never left /b/.

  • jayngfet

    Right, so this is obviously going to fail.

    Try to take the key, then hand it back to Sigrid. There’s no way you can just walk in and take your stuff back with nothing going wrong. Best case scenario is you at least get back whatever you had that isn’t worth anything and you don’t wind up in a dungeon.

    • C0Mmander

      While probably the most sensible thing I’ve heard so far, there’s the problem that if she decide to do so, Singrid may know that her charming spells didn’t work and may then try to keep her powers secret by eliminating those that know to much.

      • jayngfet

        If we try to hand the key to Sigrid then make a hasty exit, we only have a small chance of dying.

        If we try to steal everything back from Sigrid, we’re one summon spell or shout from the guards away from a messy, more immediate death.

  • Oh man, that table flip.

    • tronn
      • OH MY GOD KATIA WHA.. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP! STOP! STAHPWHAFUGAHHHH

      • Lol that’s awesome!

      • RampantSeaTurtles

        Well then. What pun caused this?

        • Casey

          I think I found exactly what caused this. But I can’t seem to quote it in a link, so I’ll just copy and cite the source. I will be laughing for hours!

          bobucles says:

          Nice table flip, Katia. It appears to have more “cats always land on their feet” in it than you ever will. Perhaps you’d have more success by taping yourself to the table and landing flat on your face.

          • Lokion123

            OH GOD,thats just a TOTAL insanity,does she have a cat pun CATalyst w/ her or what!?

  • Phaux Redtail

    I like how the liquid in the glass changed color when it fell on the ground, I assume it’s the real color of whatever it was he was drinking.

  • Dan

    You mean that those weir close-up wasn’t made by you? They look good.

  • The bartender got so tired of their conversation that he poured himself a drink.

  • The guy who is far too Observant

    I notice Stephane’s drink turns Yellowish when it hits the ground in the last panel.

    Could that hold any significance? Probably not. But as my name suggests…

    • tronn

      Katia sees alcoholic drinks as Special Water.

      • The guy who is far too Observant.

        Ah, alright. Must’ve missed and/or not noticed that detail.

        • So you are saying that you are not observant enough? 😀

          • The guy who is far too Observant

            I notice the strange details, not the obvious ones.

            “Murder scene? Oh what lovely curtains they had.”

          • I see 🙂

      • C0Mmander

        That or the brevage was see through and thus would not appear as blue when on the brwon floor.

        • That made sense..

        • C0Mmander

          Auto-corrector. I need to learn to use it. It’ll make sure I don’t look like an idiot…

  • Name (required)

    I don’t like how “second Kazerad” sounds. It’s just… unnaturally. Clones are always imperfect.
    But cooperative work sounds just perfect. It’s difficult to do all alone, and teamwork is a right thing. In general, the co-authorship may even bring advantages. Not only advantages like more free time, also maybe new features style. Even though I recently joined, I really like this project and look optimistic on the changes.

  • Bluedragon

    Oh, great – now I’ve got another person (Cider) that I get to investigate, find their every haunt on the Internet, snoop about, etc. But as long as Kaz is still in charge of the story line, I guess I’m good with that. As for our poor expendable khajiit, destiny is calling and I don’t think there’s much we can do to prevent it. Time to set your alarm to 4am Katia. And practice your sneaking skill. (Oh gawd, this is gonna hurt!) But really, what has she got to lose? Not much… not much.

  • bobucles

    How can Stephane know so much about Sigrid’s past yet be completely excluded from her events? It’s not as though he can CHARM any sort of information from Sigrid, and she doesn’t seem the kind of incompetent that blurts out her own secrets. He’s lying. There’s more at stake than what he’s letting on.

    ~~~~~
    Nice table flip, Katia. It appears to have more “cats always land on their feet” in it than you ever will. Perhaps you’d have more success by taping yourself to the table and landing flat on your face.

  • Story Mode

    Hey Cider welcome to our little comunity 🙂 .All hail to Kazerad and Cider.All hail to beloved ones!

  • cake

    that bartender in the background? he’s the most important character of the story. I bet he’s a daedric prince.

  • Alex

    How come the water turned to piss when it hit the floor?

    • tronn

      It never was water in the first place.

      • VC

        What are you talking about? It’s obviously just a normal GLASS OF WATER.

    • Piss. Haha. Piss. Well yeah I guess Stephane drinks piss like Bear grylls.

      • Name (required)

        Oh, that’s why he’s so … sour

  • Ransom

    Hopefully this leads to Katia gathering various allies and an Ocean’s 11 homage.

  • Spatzist

    All of this just makes me really, really hope that Katia ends up being the CoC, if only to shove it in Stephane’s face later.

    • Shazbot

      I’m kinda hoping she isn’t, actually. Not much interesting about a character that cannot fail or be defeated.

  • Armael

    >Katia takes key
    >STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM

    • Bob

      Gods knows how many times that bullshit happens to me often…

    • Story Mode

      Asotil is that you?

  • Rufus the Ineffective

    Going by his reaction, I want some of what the barman’s drinking.

  • I love the idea of doubling the kazerads! Even for me, it takes up to a week to update my comic, and it doesn’t have any gifs in there. I wish I had someone I could trust to do half my work! Lucky you. Can’t wait for bigger, better, faster homestuck-style upd8 speed.

    As for katia, I really think her time is almost up.

    • xKiv

      The universe isn’t ready for two Kazerads.

  • zortharg

    Why should anyone be offended by being considered expendable by someone else? Everyone considers everyone else expendable and that is just the normal course of daily events. If you ever put your own life at risk voluntarily, you are tacitly admitting that your own life is expendable even according to yourself, so why should you get bent out of shape because someone else considers your life expendable, and as he pointed out, she very readily risks her own life for trivial reasons. So if she gets upset at him for considering her expendable, then she is holding him to a higher standard of how much he must value her life than she does herself.

    • Uzi_Man

      Nobody is expendable, no matter who. Objects and things are. Therefore, when you say someone is “expendable” that person will obviously feel offended because you’re seeing him/her as a tool.

  • Ransom

    You know, if Katia does turn out out to be the Champion of Cyrodil, this is going to have been one ironic conversation.

    I’m rooting for you Khajit!

  • Deverca

    Take the Stephane’s key and do the job. Get your stuff back, plus perhaps a small “commission”… but don’t get greedy. Then to take the heat off your trail, leave a calling card. Write a “robbery reciept”, and forge the signature of a certain unsavory orc. It’s the least he deserves. Then get your gone on and hightail back to QW’s with her letter!

  • Horus

    WHY DID THE WATER TURN THE FLOOR YELLOW.

    • Akatosh

      The bartender decided Stephane needed the ‘special’ water… I’m sure you can figure it out.

      • Bob

        Get off your high horse dragon god, you can’t even figure out how to keep the humans from breaking the fabric of space and time with those holy scrolls your friends made during one night while intoxicated.

        • Akatosh

          Well, I don’t recall that night. I was, preoccupied, with Mara at the time. I remember Zenithar sprang for the kegs though.

          • Bob

            Hey don’t you judge man. That divine actually busts his ass to get shit done. He deserves dat booze. All you do is sit there looking high and mighty and not even control your older son, Who’s now literally drowning in the time stream cause you raised him wrong.

          • Akatosh

            I’ll tell you the same thing I told the judge: that’s not my kid, never seen him before in my life.

  • A really really really small person that lives in the back of your head, feeding off your motivation in life!

    Katia, all these other ideas are stupid. Here’s what you’ll do, because, well, I didn’t see that priest pay for what you just drank/damaged. So you will bend the plate back, wipe up the milk with your tunic. Put the glass back on the table. Grab the key.
    Leave. See if you can get more training from that ex-warrior guy. You will need it. Spend your time when moving around town keeping to the shadows, being stealthy. Might want to learn more about that from that totally-normal-jam+neck-fetish person who so kindly banaged your eye. Also. Thank that person for that, and ask about the seeing through things, might come in handy.

    Please, please, don’t screw this up. You’ve spent so ****ing long achieving nothing. If you achieve this, and outwit a HERO, you can do ANYTHING.
    Should probably find some way of refilling that mana pool too…

  • Balhok

    What about a compromise: you take the key and take back your stuff AND you destroy the mage guild by taking off your amulet inside (while being close to the exit preferably).

    That way you can get the hell out of Jerk Town satisfied.

  • Work with the guard to find a legal loophole to protect yourself.

    • Bob

      Pretty sure they would be the LAST person to ask for such a job since their fetish involves prosecuting everything that even twitches to the extreme extent of the law.

  • Man of Mer

    Flipping the table? “A” for effort Katia, “A” for effort.

  • Anonymous

    Okay this is hands down the best webcomic.

    WHERE IS THE MERCH I NEED TO GIVE KAZERAD SOME MONEY ASAP

    • Bob

      Dunno if there are any for now, but they did give out awesome pins for those who beaten the infamous chase game.

    • tronn

      Unfortunately there’s not going to be Prequel merchandise since Kaz doesn’t own the IP it’s based on. The best you can do is to commission art from Cider, I guess?

      • Anonymous

        That’s not the official word, right?

        People have been selling derivative works of art online since forever.

    • Kazerad

      What kind of merch do you want?

      • xKiv

        ant.

  • Bob

    Ha, in the background you can see the bartender finally giving himself a shot to help dealing with his bullshit job and katia, the supposedly racist kajhitt.

  • Stap him with the key until he say is is expendable

  • Bluedragon

    Anybody notice the new fanpage? Looks good but I can’t create an account – captcha’s not working for me. I just get a blue grid and a couple curves thus no idea what to type in. Just me? Found this which may be related: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-si-captcha-for-wordpress-image-appears-but-does-not-contain-letters-grid-and-curves-only.

    • Kazerad

      Oh, shit, wait, that wasn’t supposed to be published yet! I hope absolutely nobody else noticed.

  • Dezrath

    Fuck it, time to go all in on this shit. Either you do it and it pays off, you go back to Quill relatively rich and in general better off, or you blow it and die horribly. You COULD not do anything, but like Stephane said, then what? Life’s been making you his bitch, time to grab your metaphorical strap-on and peg his bitch ass.

  • Eightbabies

    I don’t feel like searching through all the comments to see if this is already mentioned, but Kazerad, or the new partner in crime, might want to fix the spill color. The vodka spills in the last panel and turns yellow.

    • The guy who is far too Observant

      Look at my name.

      I can assure you, I’ve mentioned it.

    • Woodledude

      It’s not vodka, it’s general alcohol. Katia just sees it as “No-no Water”. If that’s the term you want to use.

    • Lux

      Vodka? You mean the GLASS OF WATER, that like the ones at the dinner party, is marked to differentiate it from an actual glass of water?

  • Herp

    Katia should spend the next few hours crouched down and crawling against a wall just around the corner from a guard, obviously.

  • Flexy

    2 Questions:
    -How many days have gone by in the comic? Because to me it feels like just a week or something.
    -How the hell does Kazerad keep track of all the stuff over the span of a few years? I mean, the inventory things alone. God damn insane!

    • xKiv

      well … I think 3 days in Anvil, and this is the … second(?) day in Kvatch, so half a week?

      • xKiv

        OK, I just went through the entire archive to build a few-lines summary. If arrival is day 1, then day 4 was departure from Anvil + arrival in Kvatch, and we are on day 5.

        • tronn

          Katia leads an eventful life, doesn’t she?

    • That guy who likes writing really long nicknames because he’s a really bored person this is taking a while isn’t it?Wait no, it isn’t, so what are you doing tonight?Im writing really long names because I’m bored, I enjoy watching cats cry though, do you?

      Kazerad is a wizard, he has clones of himself making the comic for him now! I’m not sure how long till the clones rebel though

    • Punch caterpillars, extract protein.

      He doesn’t, not really. Some times he makes mistakes and we correct him. Though I like to imagine that he has devoted a wall of his house to keeping track of what the hell has happened. Just an entire wall covered in notes. Or since he makes the comic he has an orderly system that places each comic and its assets in a chronological order.

      • Kazerad

        “An orderly system that places each comic and its assets in a chronological order” is a really nice word for “a single 3gb folder sorted by date”.

        • Akatosh

          I can respect that, whatever works for you.

  • Kenneth

    I really wish I could throw my character in there. He could steal her stuff back (and a little extra for himself) no problem. Maybe even assassinate Sigrid if Katia was willing to perform the Black Sacrament.

  • Furnut

    All hail the mighty Kazemort!

  • I think Katia should go for it. After all things don’t start to go wrong until they start looking up, so this heist should let her get her stuff back.

    A very confused person

  • That guy who likes writing really long nicknames because he’s a really bored person this is taking a while isn’t it?Wait no, it isn’t, so what are you doing tonight?Im writing really long names because I’m bored, I enjoy watching cats cry though, do you?

    Even after staring at the khajjit in the background for the past few pages I only just noticed he cleaned that cup out just so he could have some mead/ale, wait…either that wasn’t alcohol or katias mind forgot to censor the glass.

  • VC

    I know he’s still getting the hang of it, but I agree with some other commenters that Cider’s art just feels a little /different/. Mostly in ways I can’t quite put my finger on, the comic just comes across differently, with a different vibe.

    I want the comic at the highest rate possible, but I also want to make sure nothing that made the comic so incredible is sacrificed in the process. If you can catch those differences and make sure that Cider duplicates your vision perfectly, then I’m a happy camper.

    To nitpick, I noticed Katia’s eye shape is a bit different than usual in the closeup, as was the size of her pupil. While we haven’t seen much in the way of Stephane close-up before, it didn’t quite look like something you would draw. As I said before, the comic also had a bit of a different vibe. Are you still doing all the writing and completely dictating the artistic direction? If so, I’m optimistic.

  • Mr. Skungeous

    Katia, if one were the vindictive sort, one might take the key straight to the city guard with an explanation of the circumstances under which one one acquired it. Sigrid might even be moved to part with a few choice bits of clutter of no value to her but great value to someone… less fortunate. ‘Justice’ and vindication aside, one can live without food a good bit longer than one can with a clannfear latched to their neck.

  • God

    Abusing someone’s low self esteem and poor life situation to manipulate them into doing something extremely risky and dangerous because you’re too chickenshit is not exactly priestly behavior.

    Who the fuck does he think he is?

  • tech

    can’t even tableflip properly.

  • what day is it?

    Steal your stuff and some gold the day before you leave (when she’s not there). Then leave a Gharug gro-Upp receipt. You were told she needs to learn about the threats of the world and now you have a chance to pay back Quill-Weave, who seems to be the only person (besides Ilden) who really cares about you.

  • The angry khajit in the back ground xD

  • Caim

    Steph is an idiot. Sigrid clearly doesn’t have the CHIM, she can’t be the PC.

  • Gren

    I think the first sentence:

    “…What’s the catch, you ask? I mean, you’re…”

    should be rephrased this way:

    “…What’s the catch? you ask. I mean, you’re…”

    Otherwise it would seem that Stephane is the one talking there.

  • Tigersong

    Does anyone else read Stephane’s lines in Farengar’s voice?

  • dtlux14

    Love that table flip, hate how I am getting to the end…