Sep 052012
 

This instalment will be very boring unless you have JavaScript enabled, and a reasonably modern browser.

story1184
story1186
story1185
story1188
story1189
lightbeam
story1187
story1190
story1190

Additional resource credits:
Ch’marr – codeomancy

story1191

  • Unclever title

    Kat? Katniss? Katniss Everdeen? Hey are you listenin-OHGOD. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

    WHOOPSWRONGSTORYSORRYGOTTAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Bobatron

      WAIT! It just wants to love you man!!!!

    • Bladix

      win.

  • sabata2

    Fire.

    Fire!

    FIRE!!!

    WAKE UP!!!

  • unclecho

    Awesome. too bad we won’t be able to get down to the bottom of why katia has these dreams. Oh well, maybe next time.

  • Derp

    This is highly interesting. I REALLY REALLY want to see what happens next.

    • Wisbi

      Agreed.

      • Ankoku

        Here Here

        • my name

          Hear, hear!

          • Insane-Randomness

            HUZZAH!

          • goldcat99

            YES OK WOOO HORAY

          • Curtisimo

            C-C-C COMBO BREAKER
            I approve.

          • andy610

            Aye!

          • The riddler

            Hear, hear… Hear?

          • Jirky-Kake

            Yes, I can hear, damn it!!!

          • zerofade

            WARFACE!

          • Umbreon

            Go forth, Katia, dear! Be brave, and face tomarrow! Obviously, from those words above you, someone cares, and will help you.

          • Zerithos

            Aaaaah wtf has happened in my absence? Why is noone being annoying on this stream of comments? I love this.
            Go go Katia! I mean run the hell away kind of go!

  • TechSmurf

    This has become something much grander than an MSPA-style adventure.

    • kotekzot

      it’s also become greater than most screens.

      • Bahb

        I’m pretty sure the scrolling is intentional.
        I think the light and Katia looking upwards is supposed to draw us upwards. Kazerad could confirm this of course.

        Though honestly, great work in pushing the boundary of the medium here. I don’t think scrolling and boundaries have been utilized so well over the last pages (even if this one wasn’t intentional).

  • Lowblock

    Does he just go “kat hey kat” and then it stops?

    • Kazerad

      Yeah. This one isn’t very long at all.

      • Calvin

        I like it. IMO, the less stuff you have to go through to reach where you were if you somehow end up back at the beginning, the better. Lucky for me, you seem to have that down pat. Almost like playing an actual Oblivion mod with episodic releases! Keep up the exemplary work, Kazerad!

      • cake

        not that it isn’t as megawsome as ever, but it’d be nice to know a page is over when it is. I missed content twice thinking it was over and now I kept looking for content after I’d already seen it all.

        fuck you firefox megawsome is totally a word

        • Name!

          It’s megaawesome.

      • goldcat99

        um pardon me but is katia ever going to get something that lets her become a mage?

        • xKiv

          Like some confidence? Probably. Not sure if she will hold on it though.

          • Some guy

            katia had confidence. she just lost it
            again
            and again.

          • Zerithos

            She’s already a mage. And I killed waaaay too many mages in my playthrough. 100% resist magic FTW.

        • Goldcat99

          I ment like a magicka restoreing thing

          • ArcaneMonkey

            In this case, i don’t think there’s any way she can get magicka regeneration(unless soultrapped things still naturally produce magicka?) and her best bet is to get a ton of potions of magicka or something else she can drain magicka from

            or just get lots of people casting spells at her

            Yeah, i tried the whole Atronach mage thing, doesn’t work out that well

    • Jirky-Kake

      Going on a limb here and saying she’s finally waking up from her nightmare… Damn, seeing what else or finding out what happens next that’ll scare the living shit out of more fans is always fun, but I guess getting woken up by someone seeing her “technically naked” is a thrill, also :3.

      • Dragon

        Mm. Tv Tropes calls this “Crashing dreams”.
        Looks like she is about to wake up, but I wouldn’t mind some more nightmare fuel myself.

    • Jet

      lol that statement looked really off to me for like two minutes then I remembered she’s dreaming and when someone is trying to wake you up you hear their voice in the dream coming from another figure xD

  • Oh boy.
    Digging this, mate. Really am.

  • Ransom

    Clicking on the bookmarked webpage, and then seeing the new format freaked me out!

    Who’s calling to her? I must know! Great job Kaz.

    • Relem

      The person calling her is in the church right? Martin, was that his name?

      • Urist McNoble

        Oh GOD.
        That wont end well.

        • Stankloid

          What? Martin’s awesome! Although it will be funny if she gets woken up from a nightmare about the emporer by the emporer’s son.

      • ArcaneMonkey

        that would explain both the presence of the fire and of the king, but I don’t believe he learned her name. and even if he did, he wouldn’t call her “Kat.” so our choices are mostly people she’s relatively familiar with.it could be Quil-weave(unlikely), Asotil(I doubt he’s call her anything but “citizen”), Sigrid(please no), and Nah(?)(just calling her “cat” due to being racist)

        • Chichimi

          My bets on the the girl who tried to poison the well, personally.

  • Oh no the website disappeared!

  • Shadow

    Katia: wake up

    • Jirky-Kake

      Not the place but ok πŸ˜›

  • stupidjellyfish

    Cat*

    • Miauw

      Damn, this one is awesome! Love the new theme. Will it stay in the real world.
      (as far as a world can be real or fake in the TES universe)

  • Dovahkiin

    someone is attempting to wake you.

    • Zerithos

      IS IT FREAKING ERANDUR?

  • Steve Potluck

    It is always nice to find that instead of another Dilbert daily comic strip, the RSS feed tell me prequel updated instead.

  • Curtisimo

    I’m guessing someone is trying to shake her awake in the waking world. So, SUCK IT, NIGHTMARE! Didn’t count on OTHER PEOPLE, now did we?

  • Krystalkitty

    This is such a cliffhanger. I need to know what happens to her!

  • KeyFox

    Anyone else in love with the fact that the entire page is now a theater?

    • Goldcat99

      YES

  • tech

    HEY! LISTEN! HEY! HEY! LISTEN!

    • Nex

      WATCH OUT!

      • Wolligepoes

        LOOK

  • gyromorgian

    It’s not real.

  • TB Tabby

    This is getting ridiculous. Now I’m getting a taste of the ole Dee-Aye-Ay-Ay.

  • Sokanas

    If you close your eyes really tight and cover your ears the bad monster will disappear

    • Cthulhlu

      That never, EVER works.
      apart form the times that it dose.

      • Jirky-Kake

        Doing this made my eyes pop a blood vesel and then screaming in the agonizing pain, i accidentally made myself go deaf by applying to much force covering my ears. Finally able to open my eyes and blur out of all the hazyness, the monster was still on my computer screen. No, this did NOT work.

  • Zer0DusT

    it’s gonna be martin, though she’s gonna freak, he’s the olny one whos dabbled in daedric before, even if it isn’t, i get the strong feeling she’ll reveal her nightmares to them, they’ll talk about vaerminia, she’ll find arkved, steal the orb and maybe get cured; though we know making a cat cry is the point, she’ll proably get cursed more, trapped in the tower “for eternity” and then escape due to her strong will power

    that being said the opposite can be true, and he may genuinely help, my proof of this?

    from the wiki:”The wizard Arkved has the Orb of Vaermina… snatched from the dreams of my followers and dragged into the waking world.”

    how the hell didn’t that happen before hand?

    • Zerithos

      Because the real villain here is Sheogorath.

  • Mimi

    Hey Kaaaatia, are you awake? Hey. HEY! Stupid cat, WAKE UP!

  • someone

    Hey, Katia, do this:

    1. get ImageZoom
    2. Right-click and wheel up on the monster.
    3. Keep wheeling up until it disappears!

    • That Guy

      You know if you do that in real life, but zoom out, you can see cthulu and his unspeakable minions encircling YOUR world?

      • Zerithos

        And if you zoom out in the picture eventually you’ll see the daedra lords laughing their heads off.

        • Zerithos

          Shit! *princes!

  • That Guy

    Now who in Kvatch knows her by name?

    • That Other Guy

      Notice that they’re not calling her by her full name, just ‘Kat’.
      They could easily just be calling her, well, cat.

    • unclecho

      Well, She did talk to almost everyone in Kvatch πŸ˜› Although the person is calling her by Kat.

      • ChasingWagons

        And when he talks, he spells her name right. Wait…

  • Shinden

    Aaaaw yeeeeah another update, post-haste! Also it took over the whole goddamn page again! Love it!

  • Squato

    Well DAMN this comic has REALLY made something for itself! Thank you everyone for making this one of the most interesting comics out there. πŸ˜€

  • Cyph

    Don’t you just want to pick her up and carry her away from all this? She looks so damned adorable.

  • Jadon

    You know, it just dawned on me.

    The entire area was filled with wood.

    Katia’s mind, in the depths of her own terror, is FILLED with dry tinder. Think about that, Katia, the girl with a problem centered around settings things accidentally on fire, who’s learning to channel that flame, is confronted by her worst, innermost fears…

    … and it’s standing in a pile of kindling.

  • Aquilux

    I love how you’ve broken the story out of the frame and spilled it all over the page, but this time it was a bit frustrating to scroll down and try to see what’s happening to Katia only to find out that I missed something above.

    • Ch’marr

      You dont miss anything… it doesn’t “activate” until you look (scroll) up.

  • rua’iri

    What happened to the humor ? i miss it while these are really impressively made, it was the characters and humor that made me keep comming back, its been nothing but these dreams for months now. I’ve been following it since i think the 2nd or 3rd one way back when…. and tbh i kinda miss Katia πŸ™

    • But… how can there be comedy without tragedy?

      Love without hate?

      Sweet without sour?

      Python without Perl?

      Chocolate without carob?

      • Fily84

        You sure about the Python part? I don’t even know Perl… πŸ™‚

      • xKiv

        Computer without COBOL and Fortran?

        Cake without mustard and ketchup?

        • Zerithos

          You forgot mayonnaise on the cake!

      • panoz

        no its how can you have python without a flying circus

    • Ankoku

      PC without crap… i mean mac

  • Sammitch

    Needs something at the end to indicate that it is the end. This and the last one I’ve stared at extra long waiting for something else to maybe happen.

    • Fily84

      I Agree

  • Casey

    I like how everyone is giving Katia encouragement, but there’s one thing some seem to have overlooked. Katia is currently a grown up young lady outside of this, which means at least she will survive even if it impaled her again before she wakes up. But that isn’t my point. If this is a dream she may yet be able to change things enough to overcome her fears. If it’s a flashback, she won’t be able to change a thing since it already happened, in which case we may be seeing the (later) events that really drove home her fear of royalty that plagued her for her whole life. I say “later events” because she was bothered by the shadow of her toys earlier on. You know how most little kids tend to hide behind mommys leg around new people. I feel like I’m missing something else I wanted to explain… A little help? Ch’marr? I’ll think of it later.

    • Hey… I have as much control and understanding of this as you do! πŸ™‚

      • Casey

        I new it! I knew I should have asked Kazerad. Of course I don’t expect spoiler details. That’s what the story is for. Anyhow, it still hasn’t come to me. My train of thought is still boarding at the station…

  • Olla

    Aww hes a nice giant monster thing he just wants to play. Give him a huggle.

  • Cthulhlu

    Its not a crown, its fragments of its skull… Manimarco? that you?

    • unclecho

      Interesting, never thought of that. Would make sense.

  • NeoDarklight

    I’m still looking forward to more!

  • Ugh

    Well from the last couple of updates I got some ideas of whats going on, I think that Katia is royalty. The royal figure always comes from her own shadow as far as I remember. She might have overheard when she was young that she was born of royal blood, the idea must of scared her so much that she forced herself to forget, the nightmares are a subconscious reminder to her of what she is. She said before that she used to live in a castle before, that her father was a steward for one of the nobles, but they had to move out because of her nightmares and fear of royalty. As far as I know she never made mention of who her mother was, does she even know? This is important because in elder scrolls lore, a baby’s race is determined by the mother. We can tell that her mother was khajiit, but she doesn’t say what her dad is, I wonder if the dad she had, the steward, was even her real father? Maybe that was the real reason the father bought a farm and moved out of the castle, katia blamed it on herself and her nightmares, but really her father found out his wife was having an affair?

    Also I wonder who is calling out to her, I think it is someone that closer and more familiar with her because they are calling her kat. I think it might be Dmitri, but he died you say! yeah a freshly dead body in a den of necromancers wont go unraised for long! pluss we saw the cat in town with the welkynd Stone and note attached to it, i’m assuming that was his doing.

    • Timbles

      daaaaamn. that’s a good theory.

      • Zerithos

        Scruffmeister?

  • DPro1

    DonΒ΄t be afraid, stand up and ask who is it and listen what he or she has to say

  • ChasingWagons

    Yeah, I would DEFINITELY be more worried about spontaneously generating golden floating words hovering over my head rather than the rapidly spreading fire or the giant scary-as-fucking-shit monster behind me OH NO THAT’S JUST FINE.
    Tempt her with cake, Martin.

    • DPro1

      oops i forgot that part hahaha but anyway its just a dream anything could happen, but thanks for your sarcastic comment

  • heidtmare

    My monitory is 1440×900 and im getting irritated about having to constantly scroll up and down to get the full effect!!!

    • InvaderNiveon

      My monitor is 1920×1080 and I even have to scroll up and down to get the full effect.

      • Zerithos

        Hehehehe. My monitor is fricking tiny, but I can zoom out and see the whole thing!

  • Narnik

    Well.

    Everyone go home now.

    Kazerad wins the jump scares

    • Zerithos

      Naaaah. The teletubbies win the jump scare contest EVERY TIME.

  • Ohhithere

    Wake up.

  • Nex

    HAIL Ch’maar the greatest Codeomancer!

  • Carbisari

    You’re not alone!

    It might be a good time to wake.

  • Ankoku

    just saw the kings eyes,
    that’s a nice touch, Keep up the great work Kazerad
    we are most impressed

  • Will

    Asotil needs to be carrying her out of a burning chapel with handsome face, then they need to kiss and they hook up. Because Asotil is me, and that’s what I would do.

    • Sam

      “Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.”
      Edgar Cayce

  • DustyMuffinsss

    Great. Now it looks like Mundus and I want to kill it more :I

  • ArcticWolf131

    Best wake for your savior, perhaps they’ll be able to help if you tell them what happened at the guild?

  • Rather unrelated, but I wanted to leave this somewhere it would have a chance to be seen by you!

    I’ve been working on a lot of projects as of late, and thanks to Prequel I’ve been incredibly inspired, as a thanks I wanted to give you some fan-music I made: http://soundcloud.com/zenuel/making-a-cat-cry πŸ˜€

    I’m also happy to make more if you need any for anything, thank you for the amazing journey thus far~

    • Kazerad

      I see things pretty much wherever they are hidden! And wow, this is pretty nice; I like how seamlessly you managed to mix the gamey retro instruments and the more realistic ones. Great work =D

      I’ve already got a couple musicians in tow for when I need help, but hopefully you wouldn’t mind if I stuck this in the music section of my fanart page?

  • Sam

    Time to wake up Katia

  • Realization: The king is a chucklevoodoo

    • Timbles

      What’s a chucklevoodoo?

      • Zerithos

        Nonono! You’ve got it all wrong! It’s a wumpus!

  • wolf

    I guess Katia Managan’s name was originally Kat Hey Kat, then. …Hmm.

  • Steven Miles

    Katia: Royals are just figureheads! Have no fear!

  • waffles

    use the insults of cat jokes in your dream, go supernova and light the darkness with FIRE, and then wake up. :3

  • Aulakauss

    These last three have been simply amazing. The interactive staircase, the evolving King (and the explosion at the end, wasn’t expecting that), and then Katia’s little subtle hint to scroll up from the way her eye is pointed.

    This is absolute genius. Loving the hell out of it.

  • Eatsfalconpunch

    And so Solaire of Astora floated down from the heavens, praising the sun on the way down, and saved Katia from the evil king

    • Sam

      bravo sir, bravo

  • Willhelm

    Woah man! This is intense! Like the crickets outside my apartment have stopped chirping, no police sirens, no babys crying, no public violence, nothing! Just silence as everything waits for the next update! INTENSE

  • psicolo

    The format is awesome but I’m getting tired of not knowing if I’ve reached the end of the content for the day. Spending an extra minute just scrolling up and down wondering if your javascript is broken or if it’s done is kind of annoying.

    I’m starting to miss the normal comics vs. super long delay for minimal story development for the sake of a cool page.

    There is still a story right?

  • hhhnnnnnggggggg

    Well, crap.

  • hhhnnnnnggggggg

    Katia should train herself to lucid dream, its the only way. You can’t read in your dreams. Reading constantly throughout the day as a “Dream check”. If you train yourself, you’ll do so in dreams as well and when it triggers that you realize your dreaming it usually just wakes you up or lets you take control! There’s other ways I don’t remember.

    Then..

    TURN INTO A DRAGON

    • Zerithos

      I read in my dreams.

  • Zorpike

    I wonder if it’s the nightmare king that’s talking to her. Maybe all this time, he’s just been playing around, and thought Katia was his friend…

    • Kaze’aze

      Yeah… no.

  • AthiosDvK

    A soft, strange glow from above? It doesn’t seem dangerous at all compared to what you’re currently faced with, my dear Khajiit. Anything is better than here.

  • tronn

    A ray of hope? What the freaking bullshit is this!?

  • Solkov01

    Oh dear god, what the hell has this become?

    Alright. I say we have to fight it for her. Kill it with our words.

  • Merne23

    yaaay! waking up!
    spreading dreamfires = OH NOES

  • ThatGuy

    1. Find Vaermina
    2. KICK HER ASS!!

  • Duck,duck,Katia

    Thoughts when I saw glowing light:For you are katia managan!DRAGONBORN!*Fus roh dah nightmare king into space*…Best.Thought.Ever.

  • Sloppy Turd

    Man, I just want to rush in and save her!

  • Tycholarfero

    God, being tired, reading and listening to a shit ton of creepy shit, and then, going on here this late probably isn’t good for my mentality. I jumped and nearly had a heart attack when I saw the current form of the emperor, Jesus Christ. Do go on and make more great things, good sir. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.

  • Razerkrow

    Awaken, awaken! Mustakrak…Wait, that was not it.. Anyway, the demon/ghost/nightmare-thingy looks like a friendly guy to me.

  • Gasz

    Why don’t you try to talk or communicate with… it? Maybe it knows something about you, something terrible and wants to warn you… with, uh, nightmares?

    ….Or it is just an enemy that tries to kill you in your dreams…

  • Commander_AM

    i guess the divines are answering your prayers.

  • A French Guy

    Another good (and a bit creepy) chapter ! I really love this “dream realm” drawing style. You guys are doing an amazing work, keep it that way !

  • Lady

    Awww, I expected to actually get my guts spooked off. Oh well,
    what happens next I wonder

  • Uncannyscarecrow

    The King is trying to reach you, and wake you from this dream. Stop your sniveling, stand up and face him once more remember fear is only in the mind and everything is afraid of something. He is wanting to get rid of the dreamer which he fears.

  • booty lover

    i miss Booty Phantasm’s comments πŸ™

  • Kick him in the jewels! (He’s wearing a crown with jewels, right?) Kick him! Kick him in his spiky face! One-eight-hudred foot delivery! Care of your foot, to his face!

    Or maybe you need to get mad?

    Come on tuna breath! Paw him in the face! Or would that fluff ball of a foot even make a dent!?
    You gotta be kitten me, the worst you could do is snuggle him to death!
    Pretend he’s a ball of yarn! Tasty tasty yarn!

    OOC:: I think I’m gonna have to call her Tuna breath from now on. XD

  • aceDiamond

    You know what, I’m not entirely sure, but I think that might be some sort of lich.

  • Dagoth Purr

    @katia

    carefully assess the situation.

    The big monster has no stomach, and because of this, even if he eats you youd just fall out of his ribcage.

    Sure, you might get chewed up, but cuts and broken bones heal.

  • Michael

    Dear god, imagine my surprise when I check for a new update and the top of the page is all ominous pillars and tentacles.

    Also, marry me, Kaz.

  • I finally caught up.
    Damn it. I hate catching up.

  • Miauw

    You’re playing TF2 again, arent ya?
    Well, i can understand that, MvM is just so addicting.

    • We’re all working very hard! Honest! πŸ™‚

  • Red709

    >looks at update hm hm h… OH WHAT THE BLOODY HELL

    good work prequel this is the third time in a row an update has startled the shit out of me

  • Denis

    Apple, hey Apple!

  • BlueCat

    Perhaps all these nightmares are the result of Vaermina’s machinations over poor Katia’s mind. . . and the one calling her in the middle of this horrible nightmare must Akatosh, since this is his shrine and all; which would make sense with the golden flaming letters. . . and he is trying to wake her up, after she trashed his shrine :(. . . not a happy god I guess. . . GOOD LUCK KAT, It can’t get any worse then this :)!

  • tech

    Katia: Heed Vaermina

  • Elosan

    It…spoke…0_o Oh boy…

  • Mzuark

    Okay, it seems less that she’s afraid of monarchs and more that she’s afraid of Hermaeus Mora.

  • Aulakauss

    Okay, so apparently there were a lot of shits in this King-Dream / Ch’marr hacking reality sequence that I didn’t know were there.

    HOW THE HELLS DO YOU DO THAT? Can I.. Can I worship you, Ch’marr?