I just noticed a very important word in today's comic

[Gilthans]

Second panel: "The spell is set to notify both her and us..."

Who is "us"? It implies Soon knew who Girard was talking about - so is Girard still in contact with someone with the OOTScribble (not a long list...)? Or is it someone else of importance?

[Gift Jeraff]

My guesses:

-An army or group of some kind. (Could give credence to the idea that Girard is/was Lord Tyrinar (and/or Elan's father), or perhaps several of the nations that have popped up on the Western Continent over the years were merely illusions.)
-He cracked and started using the royal third person. (Could go in hand with the above.)

[Forbiddenwar]

Second panel: "The spell is set to notify both her and us..."

Who is "us"? It implies Soon knew who Girard was talking about - so is Girard still in contact with someone with the OOTScribble (not a long list...)? Or is it someone else of importance?

My guess is Lirian and Dorukon. He ven says "we even have a pool going" and a betting pool is no fun with just 2 people.

I think the scribble group didn't break up, they just let Soon think they did.

[Herbstfarben]

He means his illusionist familiar which nobody can see until needed.

[The Extinguisher]

Yeah, I think it's pretty much a given that Soon was the only one out of the loop in the Order of the Scribble

[NerfTW]

I assumed the other members of the Order of the Scribble as well. Also, Shojo mentions that there are wards on all the gates that alerted him to the situation with Lirian and Dorukon's gates. So Girard was probably pointing out that in addition to the "gate has been destroyed" warning system, there was a seperate warning system to see if Soon was seeking out the gates for some other reason.


This also gives support to the "Soon lied about something to his followers" theory. We don't know for sure that it's just Girard being upset about Kragor. At this point, it's looking like there was something more going on between Soon and the others that we don't know about.

[Gift Jeraff]

I suppose Lirian and Dorukan make the most sense, but then the choice of words are rather odd. "Both" makes it sound like there are only 2 parties. "Her and the rest of us" or "all of us" would make more sense. EDIT: Or even just "notify us".

[Somewhere]

I don't think that it's the rest of the Scribble. By separately pointing out Serini, the 'us' is some other 3rd party, IMO. If it was going to be the rest of the Scribble, then 'us' instead of 'her and us' would've been the case.

So, I'm thinking either multiple personalities or he's got flunkies/unknown allies.

[B. Dandelion]

Yeah, that really leapt out at me too. But. Everything we've seen of Dorukan and Lirian points to them breaking the oath with each other and no one else. In SoD, Dorukan complains about it in a letter to her. I wonder if Girard is bluffing -- trying to make the blow worse by suggesting ALL of Soon's former party members turned against him?

[Morquard]

Might also just have been a typo on the Giant's part, and was supposed to be "her and me".

[DBear]

Us---mebbe Girard and Serini had kids?
Somebody tell me I'm crazy.

[Forealms]

Similar to what Morquard said, I think the Giant originally intended to write "her and me," then thought that sounded a bit awkward when said out loud and tried to change it to "both of us," but ended up accidentally making a two-phrase hybrid.

Edit: And yes, DBear, you are crazy.

[Ubergeek]

But if the entire OotScr had some reason for writing Soon out of the picture, makes you wonder how much Soon told Shojo is accurate.

Especialy considering everything the OotStk knows about the gates came from Shojo.

Then again, maybe this is just crazy thinking...

[Super_slash2]

The answer is obvious.

Girard's tattoo is sentient.

Speculation!

[NerfTW]

But if the entire OotScr had some reason for writing Soon out of the picture, makes you wonder how much Soon told Shojo is accurate.

Especialy considering everything the OotStk knows about the gates came from Shojo.

Then again, maybe this is just crazy thinking...

I was thinking about that. All we know about the gates comes directly from Soon. His version of Kraagor's death made it seem like there was no choice, yet Girard implies that there was a choice of who was going to "die" in that sealing, possibly due to how it had to be sealed.

There have also been no first hand accounts of anyone looking into the rifts outside of Shojo's story. And in the story, we hear that animals were "disappearing", not turning up dead. It's becoming more and more possible that the nature of the Snarl might be a bit different than previously thought, and Soon wanted to do something the others didn't approve of. For all we know at this point, there's no Snarl at all.

[Tyrneadlues Dre]

I think the us would refer to him and possibly people he is with, Soon had his saphire guard with him, maybe Girard has others guarding the gate with him. Seeing how is reacting to Soon "coming" to his gate he might have told the information to others. Girard doesn't seem like one to follow the rules.

[Zeitgeist]

(Could give credence to the idea that Girard is/was Lord Tyrinar (and/or Elan's father)

Wait wait wait wait. What?

I didn't even know this was an "idea" going around. Being established that Tyrinar is Lawful, and Girard is as chaotic as they come (and hates fascism), this just impossible, even given what little information we have about them, that little bit is enough to dismiss this possibility entirely. What's next, Haley is really Elan's grandma?

[Daefos]

For all we know at this point, there's no Snarl at all.

Well, we still have the Dark One's word on that. It's not much more, what with him being an evil god and all, but at least it's a second opinion.

[Kish]

Wait wait wait wait. What?

I didn't even know this was an "idea" going around. Being established that Tyrinar is Lawful,

It's established that Elan's father is Lawful Evil.

It's not established that Lord Tyrinar is anything, although being Lord Tyrinar the Bloody who holds people's fathers for ransom he's certainly Something Evil.

[Haven]

Wait wait wait wait. What?

I didn't even know this was an "idea" going around. Being established that Tyrinar is Lawful, and Girard is as chaotic as they come (and hates fascism), this just impossible, even given what little information we have about them, that little bit is enough to dismiss this possibility entirely. What's next, Haley is really Elan's grandma?

It was a pretty good idea before the last two strips. Of course, there's still the (slim) possibility that he had an extreme change of heart since leaving this message.

[ThePhantasm]

On the note of Soon doing something he didn't tell his followers about: would that be linked to his comment to Miko that "redemption isn't for everyone?" Interesting...

[Zeitgeist]

It's established that Elan's father is Lawful Evil.

Arg, you got me there. My brain, at this point, automatically makes the connection between the two because unlike Girard=Tyrinar, Elan's Father=Tyrinar is actually plausible, even likely.

[Jarawara]

"The spell is set to notify both her and us..."


The 'us', of course, being... the IFCC!

I mean, think about it, having a betting pool on when Soon would break his word? That sounds just like what the IFCC would do. And then whispering in Soon's ear to prompt him into distrusting Girard enough to check up on him, all the while convincing Girard to upgrade his illusion spell to include the big BOOM. The IFCC is behind it all, I tell ya!


"Working together to build a darker tomorrow."

[snikrept]

Us is someone with 10k gp to throw around on a betting pool.

Us has money and (presumably) power. And they are on Girard's team.

[Harr]

I really can't imagine how 'us' could refer to anything except the rest of their party, aside from hair-splitting word-by-word over-analysis.

[HealthKit]

Us---mebbe Girard and Serini had kids?
Somebody tell me I'm crazy.

Umm... yeah, Haley's mom.
Duhn duhn duhnnnnn!

[Holy_Knight]

For all we know at this point, there's no Snarl at all.

Girard himself affirms the existence of The Snarl in 694.

[Conuly]

Girard himself affirms the existence of The Snarl in 694.

But does he know everything? We know that there's some level of ignorance here and misunderstanding, because of Blackwing's revelation about the planet in the rift.

[Herald Alberich]

"The spell is set to notify both her and us..."


The 'us', of course, being... the IFCC!

I mean, think about it, having a betting pool on when Soon would break his word? That sounds just like what the IFCC would do. And then whispering in Soon's ear to prompt him into distrusting Girard enough to check up on him, all the while convincing Girard to upgrade his illusion spell to include the big BOOM. The IFCC is behind it all, I tell ya!


"Working together to build a darker tomorrow."

Quite aside from Girard, for all his faults, being unlikely to consort and gamble with fiends, I'd point out that the IFCC didn't know about the rifts until Sabine got the story from Nale.

[Haven]

I really can't imagine how 'us' could refer to anything except the rest of their party, aside from hair-splitting word-by-word over-analysis.

Well, to start with, it's a really awkward way to phrase it.

Moreover, it requires assuming that Lirian and Dorukan were in touch with Serini and Girard, which, among other problems. a scene from Start of Darkness makes clear that wasn't the case.