Seems our heroes have another enemy working against them...
Nerd By Northwest #359 - "How to Win Enemies and Irritate People"
(Click on the image to see the full-size version)
Plot twist!!! Turns out Lady Karen's band of adventurers were NOT behind the magic mirror trap that gave Naya and Sir Marko such an embarrassing time. Which if you think about it, kinda makes sense... would a band of adventurers that has such a one-track-mind on getting loot & treasure spend a bunch of money to buy or make such an item just to use to slow their rivals down? Probably not.
Now my original idea was to start off this comic with a panel showing Bayle the wizard throwing a huge fireball in the cave and incinerating the winter wolves in a great explosion of flame. But even though winter wolves are fictional (as well as evil) monsters, they look so much like wolves and dogs that it's easy to see how it would make some squeamish. Such as my daughter, who loves dogs SO much! So ultimately I changed my mind and decided to just draw the aftermath. Gotta try to not traumatize one's children TOO much... 😏
Now as to how Dann the Bard was spared from Bayle's magical explosion, I know there's more than a few D&D veteran players out there who know the score with that situation. As to the rest of you, however, just know that Bayle's wizarding specialty as an Evoker lets him shape devastating area-effect magic spells around people or creatures of his choice. Essentially, creating bubbles of relative safety in whatever Fireball or Lightning Bolt or Cone of Cold he's hurling about. Which is helpful when you want to kill the bad guys without really pissing off the other members of your adventuring party. Of course, that ability won't help you when you pee your pants in terror as the roaring flames or bolts of lightning rush around you mere inches from your skin... cleaning that up is a separate spell. 😁
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