Prequel - or - Making a Cat Cry: The Adventure

[Winterwind]

Not sure how I feel about this, though. I'm not sure where Katia is going at this point, so I don't have anything to anticipate beyond Katia sticking her foot in her mouth again.

Well, she's made her decision to try to break into Sigrid's house after all, so that's where it's going long-term. Short-term, she's decided that for that break-in she is going to need "supplies" (I'm not entirely sure why or what might constitute those, either, though), so she is trying to make enough money to buy those. Slaughterfish-removal was her first attempt at that, but failed due to Rajirra heading her off, so now imp-removal seems the next best option. Except she doesn't really know how to go about that, so here we are.

[guttering flame]

I like this comic. Katya is a great character, very sympathetic and her faith in optimism is quite uplifting.

Will the story continue into the ElderScrolls Oblivion storyline or will it end at that point? We're pretty close to that point by now, right? (not really familiar with Elder Scrolls)

[Squark]

I like this comic. Katya is a great character, very sympathetic and her faith in optimism is quite uplifting.

Will the story continue into the ElderScrolls Oblivion storyline or will it end at that point? We're pretty close to that point by now, right? (not really familiar with Elder Scrolls)

I don't think there's a concrete timeline. At some point, Katia will end up in a cell in the capital city with nothing but rags (and her lockpick, assuming it doesn't make a triumphant sacrifice) with a jerk Dunmer in the cell across from her. How close are we to that? Hard to say. Katia's probably still got some growing to do, at least.

[Winterwind]

I don't think there's a concrete timeline.

Not exactly, I think... however, in the beginning of the Excelsior! episode, there is this one robed elf waiting for his friends outside of Kvatch, who thinks he is there one week (could be more, but that seems unlikely) early. Given that

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that's presumably a member of the Mythic Dawn

and this having happened yesterday, that would give us a timeframe of another six days before stuff begins to happen.

At some point, Katia will end up in a cell in the capital city with nothing but rags (and her lockpick, assuming it doesn't make a triumphant sacrifice) with a jerk Dunmer in the cell across from her. How close are we to that? Hard to say. Katia's probably still got some growing to do, at least.

True. Though on the other hand, given how much she's changed over the course of the mere five days this story has being going on thus far, she probably doesn't need all that much more, timewise...

[Winterwind]

New update! That was a fairly short wait between updates, as far as Prequel goes.

Also, awww. That was adorable. All of it.

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Except the "Me too", in response to Rajirra saying she dislikes everything about Katia. That was just sad. Pretty much exactly the thing I like so much about Prequel - right in the midst of being funny, it manages to, suddenly, out of the blue, throw in a really touching line like that, that's all the more emotionally powerful for the contrast, yet without seeming out of place at all.

[Illogictree]

I only just discovered this comic over the weekend and I've read the entire thing up to this point. I have to agree, Katia gets all my d'awwws.

I don't think there's a concrete timeline. At some point, Katia will end up in a cell in the capital city with nothing but rags (and her lockpick, assuming it doesn't make a triumphant sacrifice) with a jerk Dunmer in the cell across from her. How close are we to that? Hard to say. Katia's probably still got some growing to do, at least.

I'm... not entirely sure I like the idea of Katia becoming the Champion of Cyrodiil. Sure, yeah, goes from as close to zero as possible to a huge hero, helps kill a Daedric Prince, saves world from destruction, etc. However...

Spoiler: Shivering Isles ending & Skyrim

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...the fact that the Champion takes on the identity of Sheogorath and has their own personality and identity eventually subsumed by ...his? (how would you call a constructed personality that doesn't seem to have an independent existence?)

...doesn't strike me as a GOOD ENDING, and I wouldn't want her to end up like that.

Seeing as how Skyrim showed what happened to the Champion in the interim between the games, and Prequel actually started before Skyrim was released, I'm wondering if Kazerad's plans changed once that tidbit was revealed, or if he's sticking with it - or if the whole "Katia is the Player Character!" thing has actually been a huge red herring all along.

[Winterwind]

I only just discovered this comic over the weekend and I've read the entire thing up to this point. I have to agree, Katia gets all my d'awwws.

Welcome!

I'm... not entirely sure I like the idea of Katia becoming the Champion of Cyrodiil. Sure, yeah, goes from as close to zero as possible to a huge hero, helps kill a Daedric Prince, saves world from destruction, etc. However...

Spoiler: Shivering Isles ending & Skyrim

Show

...the fact that the Champion takes on the identity of Sheogorath and has their own personality and identity eventually subsumed by ...his? (how would you call a constructed personality that doesn't seem to have an independent existence?)

...doesn't strike me as a GOOD ENDING, and I wouldn't want her to end up like that.

Seeing as how Skyrim showed what happened to the Champion in the interim between the games, and Prequel actually started before Skyrim was released, I'm wondering if Kazerad's plans changed once that tidbit was revealed, or if he's sticking with it -

If she became the Champion, we probably wouldn't be shown all that one way or the other (since I doubt Prequel is going to extend beyond being, well, a prequel); however, in that case, I'd personally cling to the thought that the official canon and the way it turns out in Prequel do not necessarily need to be the same. (And, agreed, wouldn't want that for her, no way, no how. )

Though one does have to wonder how her dreams fit into this - whether they are indeed just an attempt to make her stay as far away from the Septim-family as possible to sabotage her becoming the Champion, or if it is actually somehow connected to the Mad God.

or if the whole "Katia is the Player Character!" thing has actually been a huge red herring all along.

Yeah... at this point, I see absolutely no way to tell whether all of the pieces hinting at her being the Player Character are precisely that, or just the set-up for a giant joke. As far as I can tell, it could just as easily go either way.

[guttering flame]

There was a side-plot a while back. We saw the necromancer boyfriend write a letter to our heroine and that get killed buy Mr. Lucky Robber. I suspect it was not totally irrelevant to the main plot. Katia's friend, The Imperial Guard, will stumble upen the necromancer den and find the incriminating letter and that would be the reason Katia will get thrown into jail.

I'm not sure how well they can keep her with her new powers.

[Illogictree]

I haven't actually played any of the Elder Scrolls games, so I've basically been going off what's on TVTropes and the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, and of course Youtube videos. The possibility of this happening is one of two things that almost sort-of ruin it for me (the other being the "whenever I can" update schedule )

I'm sort of imagining the ending of Prequel going something like this... (better written, though, I hope!)

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You have just had your greatest success of your life. You are flushed with the thrill of victory and are flying high on the wings of not ****ing things up. Everyone is congratulating you and cheering you on. You are absolutely certain that nothing can possibly go wrong.

>Katia: take a victory drink.

Wait, this isn't water. You think it might be clear ru-

(black panel)

(panel of Katia sitting up on a bed of straw in prison, blinking in confusion. She is wearing nothing but rags again.)

Well, you ****ed up.

>Katia: assess situation

Looks like you're in some prison or something. There's some ******* dunmer across the corridor shouting insults at you or something.

Sounds like there's guards on their way.

(Three figures appear and enter Katia's cell)
(At first, framed by the torchlight, the third figure looks exactly like the king from Katia's nightmares...)
(...but then resolves into Uriel Septim.)
(He and Katia's eyes meet.)
(A look of confused maybe-recognition passes over his face...)
(Mirrored by a similar look on hers. She fails to curl up into a little ball in the corner and cry.)
(beat)
(Uriel looks like he's about to speak...)

Male guard: "Oh, wait, sorry, this is the wrong cell. We want the one next to this one. Excuse us, miss."

(The other three depart, locking the prison door behind them and leaving Katia in confusion.)

You have a sneaking suspicion that something important almost happened here.

>==>

(Panel is a visual callback to the very first panel of the comic.)

Well, here you are, stuck in a cell. You're pretty sure this is it for you. Your friends probably have no idea where you are, you've got nothing except the clothes on your back, and...

(Panel is a visual callback to the first appearance of the lockpick)

...that lockpick that has inexplicably followed you ever since landing in Cyrodiil.

(Katia suddenly looks determined and confident.)

<Insert paragraph about how far Katia has come, interspersed with a montage of panels from the comic, and how this whole last week-and-a-bit has been the prequel to something better, but now that prequel is over and the real story can begin.>

>Katia: take control of the situation.

You are Katia Managan.

You've been in worse. You know how to handle this. It's cool, you know you've got this.

(Final panel - the prison door is wide open, framing Katia as she steps out.)

THE BEGINNING

[Illogictree]

Well, I hate to double-post, but I figure it's been nearly a week so I'm feeling a little less guilty. (Partially reposted from the comments section on the comic)

I started with absolutely no knowledge of the Elder Scrolls setting; reading the comic prompted a bout of lore-diving and it seems like a really interesting setting. I love how everything important seems to be "shrouded in myth". I'm not sure I'd have the inclination to play any of the video games, however. Is there a good tabletop RPG system for it?

Current thoughts: (I imagine at least some of these have been discussed previously...)

Spoiler: Pretty long, spoilers for Shivering Isles/Skyrim

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-Whoever the Dream-Thief is, they don't seem to be experienced with creating or controlling dreams, since they seem to have lost control of the Nightmare King. I think that rules Sheogorath out as a suspect, since he's teamed up with Vaermina to create nightmares in the past. I also thought initially that the text in the last nightmare sequence was a hint that the Dream-thief is a Daedra due to the similarities to Vaermina's text, but I re-watched it and realized that it isn't really similar. Unless, of course, the Daedra all get unique text tricks. I suppose we'll find out later. But for now I'm not going to rule out one of the Divines. Note how she was in the chapel when she first heard the voice in her dreams? (It might even be Akatosh Himself. You know, giant flaming letters from a giant flaming Time Dragon?)

-Whose cult was Katia involved in? That might be relevant to the identity of the Dream-thief. Or it might not. I note how she's never really mentioned which one, though the fact she mentioned a while back "bad experiences with Daedra" makes me suspect it was a Daedric cult. For now I'm going with Molag Bal, the Prince of Bad Experiences. XD Again, though, it could be that she was in an Aedric cult.

-Tin-foil-hat watched-too-much-Dr.-Who theory: The Dream-thief is actually Katia herself, from some point in the future post-Shivering Isles. She's decided that becoming Sheogorath was perhaps not a smart move and is using her acquired powers to Bad Wolf herself into not going with Uriel when she meets him at the Imperial prison. Also she's trying to warn Gaius of what's going to happen with the Mythic Dawn. And, as typical of her BEST IDEAS EVER, she's still managing to screw it up even as a Daedric Prince. (Also: Why do I think TIME TRAVEL is part of Sheogorath's sphere? Because trying to make sense of TIME TRAVEL always leads to MADNESS!)

[Winterwind]

I'm sort of imagining the ending of Prequel going something like this... (better written, though, I hope!)

For what it's worth, I actually like it quite a bit.

I started with absolutely no knowledge of the Elder Scrolls setting; reading the comic prompted a bout of lore-diving and it seems like a really interesting setting. I love how everything important seems to be "shrouded in myth". I'm not sure I'd have the inclination to play any of the video games, however. Is there a good tabletop RPG system for it?

Not one made and published by an actual company in any sort of official capacity, to the best of my knowledge; a brief Google search tells me there appear to be a few fan-made attempts at that, however. No idea how good they might be, but I can't imagine it would be all that difficult to adapt any of the many RPGs out there to model TES pretty well. Heck, D&D without any modifications beyond limiting magic casting to warlocks would already be a pretty good fit (that being edition 3.5; I haven't gotten to play 5th yet).

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-Whoever the Dream-Thief is, they don't seem to be experienced with creating or controlling dreams, since they seem to have lost control of the Nightmare King. I think that rules Sheogorath out as a suspect, since he's teamed up with Vaermina to create nightmares in the past. I also thought initially that the text in the last nightmare sequence was a hint that the Dream-thief is a Daedra due to the similarities to Vaermina's text, but I re-watched it and realized that it isn't really similar. Unless, of course, the Daedra all get unique text tricks. I suppose we'll find out later. But for now I'm not going to rule out one of the Divines. Note how she was in the chapel when she first heard the voice in her dreams? (It might even be Akatosh Himself. You know, giant flaming letters from a giant flaming Time Dragon?)

I always interpreted it more as, the Dream Thief is the King, so the sudden change in behaviour is not due to any loss of control, but because acting this way now serves to further the Dream Thief's plans. As to who that might be, I'm at a complete loss, however.

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-Whose cult was Katia involved in? That might be relevant to the identity of the Dream-thief. Or it might not. I note how she's never really mentioned which one, though the fact she mentioned a while back "bad experiences with Daedra" makes me suspect it was a Daedric cult. For now I'm going with Molag Bal, the Prince of Bad Experiences. XD Again, though, it could be that she was in an Aedric cult.

Hmmm. I kind of assumed Katia having been in some cult was just a joke (and set-up to make Gaius ill-disposed towards her); it didn't actually occur to me the cult itself might have been important. It's certainly a possibility; however, given that Katia's dreams started when she was a small child, almost certainly before any involvement with any cults on her part, I'm more inclined to think it really was just a joke nonetheless.

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-Tin-foil-hat watched-too-much-Dr.-Who theory: The Dream-thief is actually Katia herself, from some point in the future post-Shivering Isles. She's decided that becoming Sheogorath was perhaps not a smart move and is using her acquired powers to Bad Wolf herself into not going with Uriel when she meets him at the Imperial prison. Also she's trying to warn Gaius of what's going to happen with the Mythic Dawn. And, as typical of her BEST IDEAS EVER, she's still managing to screw it up even as a Daedric Prince. (Also: Why do I think TIME TRAVEL is part of Sheogorath's sphere? Because trying to make sense of TIME TRAVEL always leads to MADNESS!)

Heh. She would screw up this bad, wouldn't she.

[Illogictree]

For what it's worth, I actually like it quite a bit.

Thanks! I'm always more of an ideas person; when it comes to writing I always seem to fall a bit short IMO.

Not one made and published by an actual company in any sort of official capacity, to the best of my knowledge; a brief Google search tells me there appear to be a few fan-made attempts at that, however. No idea how good they might be, but I can't imagine it would be all that difficult to adapt any of the many RPGs out there to model TES pretty well. Heck, D&D without any modifications beyond limiting magic casting to warlocks would already be a pretty good fit (that being edition 3.5; I haven't gotten to play 5th yet).

Hm, maybe I should search the board, see if there's any opinions on this. What about the warlock in particular matches TES' spellcasting, or is that just so we don't have T1 classes running around and mucking things up?

I always interpreted it more as, the Dream Thief is the King, so the sudden change in behaviour is not due to any loss of control, but because acting this way now serves to further the Dream Thief's plans. As to who that might be, I'm at a complete loss, however.

Hm, I dunno, re-reading the nightmare sequence in question (and looting it for Jquery wizardry ) I don't see anything that indicates the Dream Thief is the same being as the Nightmare King. In fact, the Thief seems just as surprised at the King's action as Katia (and doubtless the reader).

Odd point of fact, might not be relevant, but on this page, the Nightmare King emerges from Li'l Katia's shadow. For the rest of the sequence she no longer has a shadow.

There's a thing in psychology called the Jungian Archetypes; one of the Archetypes is called the 'shadow', and it represents everything about oneself that one doesn't like. Related?

Hmmm. I kind of assumed Katia having been in some cult was just a joke (and set-up to make Gaius ill-disposed towards her); it didn't actually occur to me the cult itself might have been important. It's certainly a possibility; however, given that Katia's dreams started when she was a small child, almost certainly before any involvement with any cults on her part, I'm more inclined to think it really was just a joke nonetheless.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the whole "nightmares started before she was a cultist" thing. It's a long time to set up for a joke, though; her having been involved with a cult is mentioned on the very first page. (OK, exact quote is "trouble with cults", but still...) Then again, it could both be a joke and be relevant at the same time - the nightmare king was introduced as a joke to blow off a silly name suggestion, after all. (when it first comes up, it seems to indicate that the nightmares are CAUSED by her phobia, not the other way around. Oh how things change.)

Heh. She would screw up this bad, wouldn't she.

Yeah, I can imagine it all too easily. XD Unfortunately I don't think this idea holds any water, since Vaermina at least has some suspicions on who/what it is, and interference from the future would probably require knowledge of future events to unravel. I'm not saying that Daedra can't have metatemporal awareness of some kind (after all, we probably don't know everything... or even much at all... about them), it's just unlikely. Also the idea that Kazerad would tie the game's storyline in with the with the comic's like that feels like a bit of a stretch when he's been keeping them separate so far (and doing a good job too - like I said, I fully enjoyed the comic without knowing a thing about the games beforehand).

Still, the Elder Scrolls themselves are made of TIME HAX and MINDSCREW, so anything is possible at this point. If someone namedrops the Scrolls, it'll start looking more likely.

More random thoughts:

Spoiler: No spoilers, just long.

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-At first I thought that Katia's telekinesis ruled her out as the PC. I even discussed it with one of my friends who HAS played Oblivion and he confirmed you can't start with TK spells. HOWEVER, watching gameplay videos I realized that, since the PC lacks any sort of complicated pick-up-and-manipulate-object animations, it looks like they're using close range, non-spell telekinesis.

-All she needs now is to learn a healing spell and some stealthy skills, and she will basically have the PC's base set of skills. (aside from Save & Load, perhaps?) edit: The coming infiltration of the Mages' Guild should give her time to practice those stealth / thief skills. Maybe the lockpick will finally be of some use?

-Katia may be a Hero herself. We know that there can be more than one Hero around at once; after all, the heroes of Daggerfall and Morrowind are probably still around when the Champion gets started, so again it's not a lock that she's the Champion but it's more likely. Also, it would explain why she's had such a terrible life, and why it's turning around now: the gods can't interfere in her fate, and up until a few days ago she refused to take her fate into her own hands. Also, any measure of control in a Hero's fate would be a prize worth risking a Daedric Prince's wrath. edit:She may be a pawn in a game that she doesn't understand now, but remember: a pawn can easily become a queen.

-My guess for what the next major thing will be? After trying to slay the imps, that is? 30-plot-thread pileup. Gaius will head to talk with Sigrid about contacting Vaermina again with the new info that some other cultist is having similar dreams. Katia will attempt the plan to break into the Mages' Guild while he's there. Gharag, on an even bigger lucky streak than ever, will finally let it go to his head and decide to steal back the huge diamond that Sigrid conned him out of, and whatever treasure she might have besides. ASOTIL will discover the letter Dmitri was sending her and jump to the conclusion that she is guilty of "consorting with necromancers" and, since he knows she is in Kvatch, will head there himself. What follows is everyone running into everyone else at once, catching Katia in the act, probably while confronting Gharag, everyone coming to the wrong conclusions at once, and then a huge Flash chase scene / minigame. At some point, Katia's learning TK will actually turn out to be lucky for Gharag after all; Kvatch will narrowly avoid being burned down (possibly several times); and our hapless heroine will end up in some ways better, in some ways worse off. For extra right-in-the-feels, Sigrid will have read Katia's defacements to the book and will, before this whole thing goes down, be feeling genuine remorse at her actions and will be planning on trying to make it up to her. Following this, she's no longer so kindly disposed to her, and tells her so. edit: Alternately it will be Sigrid who will sort the whole mess out (with a copious helping of her bug juice perfume) so that Katia doesn't have to go to jail. Also, narrow possibility that Gharag will kill ASOTIL during the fracas, and Katia will be blaming herself for it.

-edit: Katia's insistence that her parents don't love her kind of feels a bit hollow. They did give up their jobs and relocate for her sake, and they did spend a huge amount of money on that fake cure for her not-having-magic-ness.

-edit: She mentioned on the first page about 'withdrawing the rest of her inheritance' to fund her trip. Are Katia's parents deceased, or is this from a different relative? Or is this a situation like in the Prodigal Son, where the son demands his share of the inheritance from his father before moving away himself?

[Winterwind]

Thanks! I'm always more of an ideas person; when it comes to writing I always seem to fall a bit short IMO.

I think you're being overly modest. Or harsh with yourself.

Hm, maybe I should search the board, see if there's any opinions on this. What about the warlock in particular matches TES' spellcasting, or is that just so we don't have T1 classes running around and mucking things up?

Partially that, yes; I figured a T1 class would be able to do too many things that go beyond what TES' spellcasting (as performed by the respective games' protagonists in the actual games, anyway) is capable of. The other thing is that I think the at-will, cast-as-often-per-day-as-you-like nature of warlock invocations is a better way to emulate the way magicka works (since magicka regenerates really fast, allowing for orders of magnitude more spells per day than what other D&D caster classes might accomplish).

Hm, I dunno, re-reading the nightmare sequence in question (and looting it for Jquery wizardry ) I don't see anything that indicates the Dream Thief is the same being as the Nightmare King. In fact, the Thief seems just as surprised at the King's action as Katia (and doubtless the reader).

How do you figure that/what do get the Dream Thief's reaction from? As far as I can tell, we only ever see one entity throughout the nightmare (even though it grows to monstrous proportions in the end), which then tries to communicate with her, but is interrupted by the fire (which I assumed was her real-life situation intruding into the dream).

Odd point of fact, might not be relevant, but on this page, the Nightmare King emerges from Li'l Katia's shadow. For the rest of the sequence she no longer has a shadow.

Don't know if it's of consequence, but definitely a neat detail.

There's a thing in psychology called the Jungian Archetypes; one of the Archetypes is called the 'shadow', and it represents everything about oneself that one doesn't like. Related?

Hmmm. On one hand, there is a lot that Katia doesn't like about herself, and it's definitely a major part of the story. On the other, I don't see how the King being representative of that would make any sense, nor what that meaning that might have.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the whole "nightmares started before she was a cultist" thing. It's a long time to set up for a joke, though; her having been involved with a cult is mentioned on the very first page. (OK, exact quote is "trouble with cults", but still...) Then again, it could both be a joke and be relevant at the same time - the nightmare king was introduced as a joke to blow off a silly name suggestion, after all. (when it first comes up, it seems to indicate that the nightmares are CAUSED by her phobia, not the other way around. Oh how things change.)

Indeed.

-At first I thought that Katia's telekinesis ruled her out as the PC. I even discussed it with one of my friends who HAS played Oblivion and he confirmed you can't start with TK spells. HOWEVER, watching gameplay videos I realized that, since the PC lacks any sort of complicated pick-up-and-manipulate-object animations, it looks like they're using close range, non-spell telekinesis.

Yeah, pretty sure that's supposed to be her learning how to use the E-key.

-All she needs now is to learn a healing spell and some stealthy skills, and she will basically have the PC's base set of skills. (aside from Save & Load, perhaps?) edit: The coming infiltration of the Mages' Guild should give her time to practice those stealth / thief skills. Maybe the lockpick will finally be of some use?

-Katia may be a Hero herself. We know that there can be more than one Hero around at once; after all, the heroes of Daggerfall and Morrowind are probably still around when the Champion gets started, so again it's not a lock that she's the Champion but it's more likely. Also, it would explain why she's had such a terrible life, and why it's turning around now: the gods can't interfere in her fate, and up until a few days ago she refused to take her fate into her own hands. Also, any measure of control in a Hero's fate would be a prize worth risking a Daedric Prince's wrath. edit:She may be a pawn in a game that she doesn't understand now, but remember: a pawn can easily become a queen.

Agreed on both points; I've been thinking the same.

One common theory is that the nightmares were supposed to sabotage her from becoming the Champion - given how important the Septim family is and is going to be in the Oblivion crisis, making her ill-disposed towards the Septims seems like a good way to go about this (and considering her reaction when she meets Martin during the Excelsior! episode, it seems to have been quite effective, too).

-My guess for what the next major thing will be? [guess]

I've pretty much stopped trying to speculate . However, I suspect that, since it's been brought up a few times, this dance tournament thing at the arena is going to be relevant - and for it to be relevant, I'd also think something would have to go quite thoroughly wrong for Katia (since otherwise she aught to end up with enough money not to need to participate), hence I suspect something will go quite thoroughly wrong, soon.

-edit: Katia's insistence that her parents don't love her kind of feels a bit hollow. They did give up their jobs and relocate for her sake, and they did spend a huge amount of money on that fake cure for her not-having-magic-ness.

I've been thinking the same thing. Though I guess it is possible that their attitude towards her changed over the years, especially after her alcoholism, affairs and other problems.

-edit: She mentioned on the first page about 'withdrawing the rest of her inheritance' to fund her trip. Are Katia's parents deceased, or is this from a different relative? Or is this a situation like in the Prodigal Son, where the son demands his share of the inheritance from his father before moving away himself?

I always assumed it was that last one.

[Illogictree]

I think you're being overly modest. Or harsh with yourself.

Eh, artist's curse or something. You're never 100% happy with whatever you've done; you always see the flaws and think "I could have done that better." Even being aware of this doesn't help.

I have done a little writing that I've put up on the 'net, if you're interested. http://illogictree.deviantart.com/ar...rt-1-143543210

Partially that, yes; I figured a T1 class would be able to do too many things that go beyond what TES' spellcasting (as performed by the respective games' protagonists in the actual games, anyway) is capable of. The other thing is that I think the at-will, cast-as-often-per-day-as-you-like nature of warlock invocations is a better way to emulate the way magicka works (since magicka regenerates really fast, allowing for orders of magnitude more spells per day than what other D&D caster classes might accomplish).

Unless your spellcaster is an Atronach. Psionics might be a slightly better model, though you would probably have to jigger costs a bit to compensate for magicka / pp regeneration.

How do you figure that/what do get the Dream Thief's reaction from? As far as I can tell, we only ever see one entity throughout the nightmare (even though it grows to monstrous proportions in the end), which then tries to communicate with her, but is interrupted by the fire (which I assumed was her real-life situation intruding into the dream).

Difference of interpretation, possibly, but being forced to scroll up until the King is nearly off the screen in order to read the gold text sort of indicates to me that it's not the King speaking, it's someone else. Plus the contrast between what the text says and the actions of the King; they don't jibe together. The "WHOA HEY WAIT THAT IS LIKE THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I ASKED YOU TO DO" line coming immediately after the King attacks Li'l Katia is what really convinces me the dream is out of control.

Yeah, pretty sure that's supposed to be her learning how to use the E-key.

Putting it that way kind of deflates how awesome those pages were in the comic.

One common theory is that the nightmares were supposed to sabotage her from becoming the Champion - given how important the Septim family is and is going to be in the Oblivion crisis, making her ill-disposed towards the Septims seems like a good way to go about this (and considering her reaction when she meets Martin during the Excelsior! episode, it seems to have been quite effective, too).

I figured I would cover ground other people have at some point. And that makes sense, though if the Thief was trying to prevent her from being the Champion, they've sort of hoisted themselves by their own petard. Without the dreams driving her to ultimately immigrate to Cyrodiil to start afresh, she likely wouldn't have had any reason to be anywhere near there in time for the Oblivion Crisis to start.

Also, totally guessed that Martin was secretly royalty before I read any spoilers for Oblivion. Clearly she has a constant detect royalty effect active.

I've pretty much stopped trying to speculate . However, I suspect that, since it's been brought up a few times, this dance tournament thing at the arena is going to be relevant - and for it to be relevant, I'd also think something would have to go quite thoroughly wrong for Katia (since otherwise she aught to end up with enough money not to need to participate), hence I suspect something will go quite thoroughly wrong, soon.

That's a good point. It'll require Katia screwing things up enough that she doesn't get the money, but also not screw things up enough that she gets thrown in the slammer or banished from Kvatch. On the other hand, she did promise that nice depressed orc that she wouldn't run off with her outfit, and if you do well enough at the dancing minigame in Katia: Excelsior! she admits that it's kind of fun. So even if things do turn out well during the upcoming Mission: Impawsible, she might enter the dancing competition anyway. I'm not saying they WILL turn out well, but there IS a backup option to get her in there.

Didn't someone in the Flash say Sigrid likes to watch the competitions?

[Fralex]

In other news, despite what you might think based on his treatment of catgirls in both his stories containing them, Kazerad turns out to be a really good guy. It just takes a horrible chicken nugget accident to propel him into action!

[Spojaz]

New page, finally. Not much new happening, apart from some character bits and gaining a quest. I almost don't want to see how Katia screws this up.

[Illogictree]

I really liked this new page upon re-reading. There's a lot of great character moments and serves to build up just how unlike Rajirra and Katia actually are. Not to mention, if Rajirra is to be believed, how unlike a typical Khajiit Katia actually is.

Also: Ha! Katia couldn't even say 'princess'!

Also also: Hey, Kazerad used one of my suggestions! Cool! I'll have to see if I can come up with another suggestion to add to the next page.

[Winterwind]

I love Katia's "best formal face". That's just adorable.

Rajirra's philosophy, while superficially level-headed and reasonable, turns out to be rather destructively negative upon closer inspection. I mean, it seems to pretty much come down to "try to get by with what you can get, and never dream of more". She really is Katia's opposite - one of them is kinda sorta incompetent and depressive, but simultaneously hopeful and trying to achieve more, while the other is more competent, confident and down-to-the-earth, but also lacking ambition to the point of borderline fatalism.

[Fralex]

I love Katia's "best formal face". That's just adorable.

Rajirra's philosophy, while superficially level-headed and reasonable, turns out to be rather destructively negative upon closer inspection. I mean, it seems to pretty much come down to "try to get by with what you can get, and never dream of more". She really is Katia's opposite - one of them is kinda sorta incompetent and depressive, but simultaneously hopeful and trying to achieve more, while the other is more competent, confident and down-to-the-earth, but also lacking ambition to the point of borderline fatalism.

Yeah, a lot of people think cynicism is more "mature" than idealism, but honestly? If you've seen how awful the world can be and still hold out hope things can be made better, that shows tremendous strength. Katia's been kicked to the curb her whole life, but she's strong. Strong in the real way!

[Winterwind]

New update (well, two days old at this point, but whatever)!

Spoiler

Show

I have to wonder whether Rajirra's life really treated her as awfully as she makes it sound. I'm guessing her family was a lot poorer than Katia's - at least, she's clearly considering Katia to be basically a spoiled teenager - but then again, I'm not sure how she would know that (Katia's family probably was fairly well off, but I don't think Katia told Rajirra this much about herself - if for no other reason than Rajirra not allowing her to).

The contrast between Katia (who is seriously concerned about the Fighter's Guild member, whom she doesn't even know) and Rajirra (who continues to be needlessly aggressive and uncaring towards Katia) couldn't be any more stark at this point.

[Fralex]

In Rajirra's defense, we know Katia way better than she does and understand why she behaves this way. We've gotten used to her tendency towards accidental racism and clingyness, and we know why she has such little confidence anything will work out. Hopefully Katia can win her over through actions, since with her charisma I doubt words will do much.

On an unrelated note, this is the first time I got a command into an update! My periscope idea didn't work, but at least Katia really liked it!