unsounded

14_76

I feel the flinching shroom would make a nice pet.

14_75

Of course we don't have horses or cows in this world so Lem would call "Bulldog's Eye!" rather than "Bull's eye!"

The mines are no longer operational since the Foi-Hellick began their rebellion but that doesn't mean it's been totally quiet down there...

Some friends came in from out of town over the weekend and we went to Busch Garde...

14_74

Captain Claggart is good people, you think? You may recognise his "Biscuit-bellied city toff" line. Duane recalled it last chapter when startled by the discovery of the eviscerated waterbaby, something that reminded him keenly of the floating and gutted Plat boys he'd done his best not to think too much about during the last fifteen years.

14_73

Goofy bit of trivia:

Years and years and years ago I used to RP video game nonsense with friends over AIM. Duane got his start in these chat RPs when a friend of mine needed someone to play the bit character brother of her character Grissom, from a game we adored called Vagrant Story. This bit character who was known in the game only as "C...

14_72

Get it together, Duane, or Claggart's going to lose his patience.

14_71

Duane may be on the cusp of an important realisation that he probably would have done well to have come to a little sooner.

14_70

Captain Claggart lives in perpetual fear of his spellwrights going off on philosophical tangents while the world closes in to kill them all. Common occurrence in the Aldish military, no doubt.

But I'm with Will: the heck is that noise.

14_69

In the first half of the chapter, Duane is the dominant brother. He's the cocksure new officer with a lot to prove and a squad of boys he's trained and is very proud of. But now the ground's figuratively and literally crumbled from beneath him, and Lemuel gets to show him how a soldier is supposed to act even in the blackest of caverns. Lemuel g...

14_67&68

Two pages today~

When last we left Unsounded, Duane’s Company had been attacked in the night, his apprentice Jon cut down, and Duane separated from his boy-soldiers by an earth-shattering explosion! Now he falls into the black ogre caves of Avelpit district to a fate yet unknown. Meanwhile? A group of Aldish dissidents led by a man known...

Hanging out in Discord today~

Come on by if you want to gab! https://discord.gg/jFeGeZT 

14_66

I don't personally think Duane deserves Sette's friendship all that much, but he has her. She gets real cross these days if you upset him.

14_65

I just find this idea fascinating. It's not one I've seen often explored when writing about the undead. If your physical brain is gone and we're going with the idea of a soul - whether you're a ghost or a sentient zombie or a skeleton - what would your memory be like?

Kasslynians have fairly unique biology in that their soul and t...

14_64

Sette, stop being so meta.

14_58-63

Six pages today, find them attached. I really hate breaking up into individual updates a scene that's meant to be frenetic and chaotic. You just lose all impact!

We'll pick up on Monday back in the present day. Duane needs a metaphorical breather from his tale, and his audience has a few comments. Like: "I thought this story was about the ...

14_57

I'm not comfortable calling out any of the players in this situation for acting poorly, bravely, or morally; in extremis who knows what we'd do. But sometimes, maybe, your soul shrinks away from a certain action or order, and you pull your hand back without even deciding to do it. That's your humanity right there.

14_56

Duane's having a grand ol' time.

In case you were curious, the art in this scene was particularly difficult to do. Lots of different characters at lots of different heights doing really arcane things that aren't that easy to visually depict! I struggled for what felt like ages over how to show that Zap! in the sixth panel, tried all kinds ...

14_55

The number scaring Jon is Mogul’s Number; a measurement from one to one-hundred that reflects the agitation in the local khert. If it gets too high, the khert will kill casting wrights. If it reaches full agitation, it will stop answering pymaric commands entirely and even fail to enforce all the rules of reality. Bad times for everyone. But i...

14_54

Enough of this emo crud; to action!

(Duane will explain duress assaults on the next page, no worries)

14_52&53

Two pages again today!

I reeeeally enjoyed this small scene of them as kids. Papa Adelier was a very hard worker and Duane had to hustle to keep up with him. On nights like this though when dad would pass out against the stacks he tried to finish his own chores as quietly as he could to let him snooze.

Mama Adelier died from complica...

14_50&51

Two pages today, find the second one attached.

If you ever read the story "Interior Emanations," you might recognise a very smol Sarthos in the second panel. Alas, it is the only time we ever shall see her in the comic. 

14_49

I got a lot of Big Feels when it comes to trying to connect with your family after being the first one to manage to go to college. All of Duane's affectations he developed to help him deal with a more privileged class of people just come off as a superiority complex to his fam.

Leave his nose alone though, Lem, we can't all have petite fey...

14_48

Duane's little drawing was fun to do. A more realistically proportioned Magnus.

Before Duane's transfer to Lemuel's Company a month ago the brothers had spent the last four years really only communicating via letters, and a few rare holiday get-togethers. In certain ways they've become strangers to each other. Lemuel's been waiting for the...

14_47

Duane's not all that fond of his little brother's foul mouth, but what's to be done.

Anyway, Lem should be excited about toes because Duane's observation about fingers and toes is a comment on the brothers Adelier, I'd say.

14_46

I wonder what it was Jon couldn't discern. Probably nothing important. Nothing Duane had any interest in hearing, anyway.

14_45

Duane is scared, exhausted, worried about his crazy brother and about his own ability to handle any of what's suddenly happening, and you want to question him now, Jon? D:

14_44

And we're back!

Duane is wigging out, especially without any of his lads' attention immediately on him. His brother's a headcase, the sky was raining blood and vliegeng, and apparently a few hours have passed without the other shoe yet dropping and he's ready to burst.

Let's see how this goes.

14_39-43

There are some fun special effects to go with this musical number if you check it out on the site. I'm not sure if they enhance it but they were fun to make!

This is a very raunchy song, but every time I tried to tone it down it felt like...

14_38

My second favourite Lemuel page this chapter, I think? I don't know, I'm not doing drawing the whole thing yet.

The way he snaps at Duane and Duane knows precisely what he wants brings me joy. They came up with this way of looking at the longer-lived castes when they were kids - probably Duane devised it since he's a math nerd - and I thin...

14_37

I like Captain Claggart, I can't help it.

Next week is some craziness. I will probably do a big dump of the rest of this scene on Wednesday, I really don't want to break it up.

14_36

There are lots of little details I've tossed around in me brainstuffs when it comes to the ridiculously older characters like our portly spear-friend here, but the most pertinent on this page are teeth. His surely must be false. The market for dentures in Alderode has got to be enormous as teeth just don't last a century, even if the rest of you...