^ 28 Comments...

1. dalewake
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:09 am

   Another player enters the scene. Wonder if this is a shapeshifted Ghorshach

2. Lictre
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:25 am

   Nah, just another of Maldik’s leash-holding co-conspirators who’s letting the little idiot know that he’s still the class dunce, and the teacher is having to take him in hand. Usually accomplished with a hickory switch, or a straight-edge, yardstick, or if we’re fortunate, a spiked Kivalian baseball bat.

3. zangoules
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:27 am

   It had to be a bishop XD, he reminds me of Tim Cury. Also as for Mr. Up shits creek without a paddle…BOOSH!

4. Lebbrin
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:30 am

   Yay! Friday morning not Friday night. Thank you JED!

   SO, the queen is not the only one who has guessed Maldik’s co-conspirators. This is going to get interesting. Now, who brought the ale?

5. Lebbrin
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:32 am

   DOH! Don’t put anything in arrows, the editor thinks it’s HTML code. What was supposed to be before the ‘beer’ comment was… {Quickly pops several bags of popcorn and passes them around.} NOW, who brought the ale?

6. The Old Hack
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:33 am

   [snicker] I hear a bald Gabriel Byrne.

7. LorannaPyrel
   June 25th, 2010 at 12:52 am

   Not even five minutes out of the Queen’s cell, and Maldik is being shown why he should have made amends with his mother. At least she had ties of blood to him.

   The Bishop’s face looks kind of freaky; that sunken cheekbone looks a little plastic. His whole face sort of does, now that I look further, except when he’s scrunching up his brow in panel 3. Not sure if that’s intentional or not; the Bishop’s -outfit- is very nice though.

   I agree though, this guy is definitely a bald Gabriel Byrne ^_^

   Loranna

8. Joe
   June 25th, 2010 at 1:10 am

   “Salvage a victory…” Hmmm… It’s even possible that our friend the Bishop works for the Queen.

9. Gremalkin
   June 25th, 2010 at 3:30 am

   And the joker enters the table, finally the full deck is out.
   How will the cards fall? Only god (and JED) knows.
   May you play the cards right my friend,
   because we are all watching.

10. JustMe
    June 25th, 2010 at 3:58 am

    And thus started the fall of King Maldik the Moron, or rather, that’s when he get’s saved from his litlle dive of a cliff with a deep ocean at the bottom, and get’s thrown into a pit full of sharp objects and pointy teethy thingies….

11. AdamZero
    June 25th, 2010 at 4:53 am

    This guy seems like bad news, just from the whiff of things. Also….

    THE BISHOP!

    *music plays, credits roll*

12. Soulworker
    June 25th, 2010 at 7:01 am

    So quickly the queens prediction comes true…the puppet show is about to begin and the Bishop is attaching his soon to be minion’s strings…

13. Wolf
    June 25th, 2010 at 7:35 am

    InCestusWeTrust - I have been reading the Harry potter fanfic. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108 Just started on chapter 24. Just curious, how many folks caught the reference to the Dragaeran Cycle from the Jhereg Series, by Steven Brust, at the opening?
    “J. K. Rowling coils and strikes, unseen; Orca circles, hard and lean.”
    As compared to “”Yendi coils and strikes, unseen. Orca circles, hard and lean” verses 13 and 14 of The Cycle.

14. Retiarius
    June 25th, 2010 at 9:02 am

    A bishop is about to demote “king” Maldik to a pawn. (And after he finished visiting the queen in her “rook” prison.

    I’ll leave the lame knight chess pun for someone else, I did the other lame puns.

15. InCestusWeTrust
    June 25th, 2010 at 9:30 am

    @Wolf, they’re ALL good, but yes i got that one. I have all the Taltos books, heck I’ve even read Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar & Grill but I most prefer the Phoenix Guards books and To Reign in Hell.

    @JED. Awesome new player-character. Something about all the priests of Thrasu we have seen (the Normos town square, Liri’s flashback) shows a *ahem* hands-on religiousity, neither ascetic nor hedonistic. This bishop won’t delegate the torture of infidels, (for their own good, of course). The nose and sneer are more Richard O’Brien if not the hair or the shoulders.

    Will be off-line till Tuesday, Thanks for the HIMYF wrap-up. great job. Now you can finish ‘The King is Dead’, heh, heh.

16. Lebbrin
    June 25th, 2010 at 2:15 pm

    I must investigate this Gabriel Byrne. I don’t know the reference.

    With the bald head and thin face I am hearing Patrick Stewart in his best Shakespeare mode.

17. Fatuncle
    June 25th, 2010 at 2:21 pm

    Now that’s plain speaking.

18. Lora
    June 25th, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    Maldik has a terrible fashion sense (his pants).

    Lebbrin, when you say Patrick Stewart all I can think off is Next Generation. And that fit fairly well with the red theme.

    Wonder who the bishop works for; himself, the queen or the real king?

19. John
    June 25th, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    dalewake - Ooo! There’s a thought!

    Lictre - Oh, gods, you just made me think of Kivalian baseball! LOL! Imagine if the Erogenians and Kivalians had settled their differences on the diamond instead of the battlefields …

    zangoules - Boosh, indeed. And it gets worse before it gets better.

    Lebbrin - Of course not. Macon is an observant, predatory political opportunist. Though it was Tethik, not Yanora or Macon, who first put two and two together.

    The Old Hack & LorannaPyrel - Actually, the inspiration for Macon’s appearance and some of his mannerisms come from the British actor Peter Guiness. Especially the roles he played in “Ivanhoe” and “The Raven In The Foregate.” Both characters evil men of the cloth. As to his looking a little odd, that’s on purpose.

    Joe - In a world where giant gals with H-cup bosoms run around half-naked with no brassierres, and nebbish musicians from San Bernardino can shoot fireballs from their hands with Jerry Lee Lewis, it’s pretty clear that anything is possible.

    Gremalkin - Well, I wouldn’t say Maldik is actually playing with a full deck.

    JustMe - Possibly. Or, perhaps he gets tutored and rises to the occasion and becomes great - or perhaps signs his birthright away for the sake of an empty promise. Or perhaps he finds his inner king, but still can’t fill the inside straight. Or perhaps …

    AdamZero - AHAHAAAA! “OK, Devious, Don’t move!”

    Soulworker - Who knows, this may work out for the best.

    Wolf - No problems with the fan fic discussion, but maybe you could dust off the Forum and start a thread for it there?

    Retiarius - “Good morning, good queen!” “Good day, good knight!” “Good grief, another day gone by already.”

    InCestusWeTrust - I will be finishing “The King Is Dead” very soon.

    Fatuncle - If this were a mafia family, he’d have slapped him across the face twice by now.

20. Fred
    June 25th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    I just LOVE those multi-colored pants Maldik is wearing. Shows what a special person he is just by his selection of clothes!

21. Fatuncle
    June 26th, 2010 at 4:48 pm

    Fred
    Those aren’t pants. Maldik forgot to put them on this morning. They’re long socks. Unmatched long socks.

22. warnie
    June 27th, 2010 at 12:38 am

    Ahh thus enters the priesthood. was waiting for them to show their hand and what do you know -its deep down and dirty as well.
    poor maldick almost seems hes in a gang bang , the way he seems to be constantly screwed from all sides.

23. Ed
    June 27th, 2010 at 12:31 pm

    hmmm… I was thinking the Cardinal was taking a risk - Smaldik may be looking for someone to hurt he ISN’T afraid of…

24. T'Renn
    June 27th, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    Y’know, even if this bishop is actually Evil, and has his own agenda, I have trouble believing that his own plots could be worse for Kivalia than Maldik’s, what with his being, you know, High Treason, Regicide, betraying honorable allies to confirmed-carnivorous enemies who think even HE’D be delicious. With enough sauce, anyway.

25. Mish_lady
    June 28th, 2010 at 8:26 am

    The way I’m thinking, it’s a little bit of both of the way we’ve been thinking. If Gudik is dead, the priesthood-knowing Maldik’s intelligence and mannerisms-will most likely try and/or succeed at using him as a puppet. Yet also, it is in the bishop’s self interest to make sure that the country doesn’t go to hell in a hand basket. If it does, there goes all of his power and influence, right down a lizard’s throat, as well as literally, himself. So the bishop has to step out of the shadows for a few minutes, if only in pure self preservation to make sure there is still a country he is still spiritual ruler of.

26. Uhl
    June 29th, 2010 at 7:05 am

    So now we see why the city tolerates if not openly condones the local priests yelling “Barbarian Heathen” or something similar at a well known visiting Dignitary, one from a country whose allegiance is urgently needed for the sake of survival. The whole priest class apparently thinks that way, and then another thought, it’s ALWAYS the priests who get painted as Machiavellian traitors, Rigelou in Three Musketeers, various members of the clergy in Robbin Hood (even a nun murders him in his sleep), and so on.

27. Lebbrin
    June 29th, 2010 at 9:16 pm

    ctrl-r… ctrl-r…. ctrl-r…

28. Prairie Son
    September 3rd, 2011 at 12:56 am

    Actually, Uhl, that nun was his sister, and {if the Sherwood Chronicles are true RH-lore}, ol’ Rob butchered half a monastery because they didn’t shell out protection money and burned a priory for saying Mass for the soul of his enemy.

    So many issues with the popular impressions of Robin Hood. His first name is Norman, the Good King Gone Missing is Edward I, Maid Marian is only listed on the first page (our hero is planning on raping her if she won’t submit willingly), etc.

    Also, there’s Friar Tuck.

    Also, it is Richelieu, plus the other Cardinals who served as Chief Ministers, generally by trying to restrain the Kings and Nobles. Look where that got Thomas Beckett.

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