3254 The Eyes Have It
Hi gang;
Went quiet again, sorry. Been a rough week. I DO have a strip that was supposed to go up yesterday, but I got really busy with storm prep. Yes, Hurricane Dorian is going to slam us pretty hard today and we fully expect to lose power. So I’m anticipating not having an update ready for Monday. Sorry about that.
Don’t worry, though. We’re well above sea level, we’re sheltered where we are and we’ve taken all sort of precautions including locking down the yard and stocking up on food and water. All we’ve got to do now is wait it out.
See you again soon!
-Rich
___UPDATE SEPT.10_________
We have POWER!! Bwa-haw haw!
And in even better news, I have tomorrow’s, Friday’s and Monday’s strips ready to upload this evening, assuming the power stays on. Areas near us have been complaining about fluctuations, so fingers crossed we’re back on for good here.
Y’know, at some point, even in the darkest times, people are just going to make lemonade out of lemons. Just need to find the juicers… and bring all the lemons together…
Even better if you dip the cut ends of the lemons in sugar and fry it in a pan till the sugar is caramelized. Then juice it. mmmmmmmm Do it right, and it’s amazing. Little raspberry and cinnamon, and it’s like a pastry in a glass.
To steal a quote Key and Peele: "You done messed up A A Ron"
A Grell. The cool headed brain with a plan. That has now come to fruition.
Oh. Oh no.
Grell! Damn, is it good to see you.
I think you done good.
<3 <3 <3 !!!!
So yeah, Snierr, might wanna change your mind on that whole "let’s get the Beholder to work for us" thing.
All together now:
"EX. TER. MI. NATE~"
"Resistance is futon!" said the sofa to the chair 😛
Forgive this but I feel it must be done.
YES! YES! YES!!! *doing the Daniel Bryan celebration*
Eye think I see a problem with Snierr’s plan. She did not fore-see this, or think twice, and is probably about to end up a pile of ash… and we all know how much Rana loves welcoming her failed priestesses home… That should wipe the snierr off her face.
And on that subject… I sincerely hope that there was some ruse, and the Bloodhand clan is not dead… But if they are, Glon at least has returned from the dead before… and while Rana may have wanted them dead, I really don’t think she understands what it means if the entire Bloodhand clan — especially the current matriarch of that clan — is in the afterlife… with her. And a certain Drow we all know and… well, are at least fascinated with. Things are about to get real interesting in the afterlife if they are dead.
Arachne isn’t in the afterlife. She ceased to exist when she died. She was killed with a blade meant to destroy Ranna’s soul.
In the last panel of 3176, someone is skulking around Ranna’s hell unnoticed…
https://yafgc.net/comic/3176-angry-evil-goddess/
If it’s not Arachne, I’m out of guesses.
Jone?
Meant to destroy Ranna’s soul, yes, but would it destroy the soul of a regular mortal? (Okay, quite irregular, in the case of Arachne, but still…) Only time will tell.
It looked like they got petrified, not disintegrated or something. They weren’t on-screen after the beam passed, but this supports their uncertain status.
Well, Bob surely knows that petrified doesn’t have to be permanent (he and Gren were using that to keep their next meal until they wanted to eat him/her). Would he be feeling THAT guilty if he only petrified them? Though I suppose he could have been exaggerating the guilt to make sure Meegs was convinced. Goodness knows, I can believe that Meegs might overlook that petrified does not exactly mean dead. I hope that is the case.
Ah-ah-ah!
I love to count!
t!
Yeeeeessssssss!!!
Yeah. Beholders.
All I can think is of a term we used in the USN – Bohica!
I read this before leaving for work in the morning.
SUCH a good way to start the day.
t!
Angry Beholders! They’re gonna hurl themselves at the castle, topple Snierr’s tower, and thereby free Gren.
Well, well. What a turn of events! Eventhoguh, I wonder how did Grell convinced them to help. I mean, I somewhat doubt that they would help out a kinsman to rescue a goblin out of generosity. They however, might would band together to prevent one of them being abused… or they are just simply upset about losing their home, and now they found a way to deal with it…
Anyway, they are now here, and they are angry. And in the end, thats what counts.
I think it’s the You Blew Up Our Home thing. As we saw from the very beginning, Beholders are not overfond of Goblins.
And they are Angry. So I’m gonna guess it’s a revenge thing.
But still, I love how it brings home Rancourt’s point about evil as opposed to Evil.
And, even though I don’t think it’ll turn out to be the case, the notion of Ben coming to the rescue of *Gren,* of all creatures, fills me with deep-seated joy. If this is the last arc of the current generation, it’s a hell of a way to come full circle.
t!
The simplest way to get a bunch of Beholders ready to help is not so much helping a foolish youngster upstart who betrayed his race to live with goblins, but to point out that Rannites think they can do this with any Beholder.
Now, each Beholder may have his own motivation, but the one common motivation is to make sure no one gets the idea that they can be blackmailed or toyed with.
Oh yeah! Beholder Calvary to the rescue!
Remember when we were young, and we thought AN ARMY OF BEHOLDERS would be a *bad* thing?
t!
Wonder what Meegs is thinking?
Stercus stercus stercus, moriturus sum?
I was thinking "Teleportus me-us the <BLEEP>us outa here!"
I don’t care what she’s thinking. =_=
I just want to see a disintegration ray go through her head.
I think Meegs is beginning to understand the meaning behind the phrase, "slowly dawning horror." Step by step escalation of realization.
Oh yeah, that goes for the Rannites too.
"Hey, Meegs, what does this sign say?"
"Niagara Falls."
"NIAGARA FALLS! Slowwwwwwly we turn….step by step. Inch by inch…" BZZZAAAP!
> BZZZAAAP
I think you mean, "BERZAP."
Moo ha.
t!
Well, that’s if Bob does to Meegs what he did to the Bloodhands, then it’s "BERZAP." If he uses another technique, it could be BZZZAAP!"
However, if Rich uses "FRRRAAAAAP" as the sound effect, then it must be Taco Tuesday.
"Death by Taco Tuesday" is now the name of my late Eighties alt-rock band. (Or if it isn’t, it really ought to be.)
“Death by Taco Tuesday” guaranteed to wipe out the competition in a battle of the bands!
To get that many chaotic-evil critters in one place you have to motivate them. Oh, boy did you motivate them. Unfortunately, you are not the Almighty, so this is likely going to be some version of a curb-stomp battle. Bob has friends, powerful friends. Hmm, is that one of the famous curses? "May you come to the attention of powerful people." You have their attention.
Beholders are Lawful Evil
https://yafgc.net/comic/0030-misaligned/
It looks like Bob wasn’t expecting this.
No one expects the Beholder Inquisition!
Nope. It was basically the Grell realising that Bob was not smart enough to see he was being played, so he did his own thing. That the Beholder Cavalry is not taking orders from Bob means the Rannites are toast no matter what.
I think I can anticipate Bob’s dialogue on the next page.
Bob: "Slowly I turn…"
( YouTube — /watch?v=MYP1OBZfFK0 )
Argh! I only saw this after making my above post, and then scrolling down here. Ah well. A tip of the hat to your fine taste in comedy. 😀
«Lawful Evil: perhaps it ain’t pretty, but contracts are enforced.»
Plus: We’re Beholders. Nobody pushes one of us around and gets away with it.
Yikes!
Didn’t see that coming!
Behold! What is this I am seeing?
PS I like the female beholder with the eyelashes 😀
And is that Bob’s dad?
Ben & Barb are Bob’s parents and… I guess grandparents of Bob2..?
Bob2 is Bob’s little brother ("YOU REPLACED ME???") so Barb & Ben are his parents too.
Bob2’s introduction: https://yafgc.net/comic/0359-bob-meet-bob/
Unless Bob2 has grown up a LOT, I don’t see him actually in the crowd scene. I guess he’s behind someone and will show up later. Probably to totally school someone who thinks they’ll try taking the harmless baby Beholder hostage.
I believe panel 6 is Bob2, note the smaller size of his sphere. He hasn’t been a baby in a good while though, and he was extremely powerful even as a ‘child’.
Thank you for correcting me on Bob2! 😀
> I like the female beholder with the eyelashes
This.
Rich is amazing.
A Beholder is basically a big circle, with two circles inside, and three circles above. And he created a KABILLION different designs for them!!!
t!
There’s even an orc looking beholder. I wonder what the backstory to that one would be.
One day cute orc lady taking a bath when…
Egad.
t!
You done goofed, lady. 😀
Oh.
Oh my.
I don’t know if Bob knew to get the Beholders together, but I think Grell did. And now, things are going to get messy.
Remember dear, karma is only a bitch if you are.
Sounds like Bob did kill the Bloodhands. 🙁
Squee!
Y’know, something just occurred to me:
Did the Beholder King ever wake up from his nap?
Ref: https://yafgc.net/comic/2168-his-royal-whateverness/
And I have now just read Elfguy’s comment in the previous strip….. 🙂
I know the phrase "better late than never" rings true in this scenario but…
Damnit, Grell! You couldn’t have gotten this group together just a day or two earlier? Might have prevented several royal bloodlines from being slaughtered! (Yes, I know there’s a fair chance they’re not all ACTUALLY dead but STILL…)
I’m not convinced they’re dead.
Never believe somebody’s dead until you’ve examined the corpse. And even then you can make a mistake.
They just HAD to go and poke the friendly Beholder till he gone mad and brought friends. =_(\
Behold the end of Snierr!
I’m kinda wondering, has toilet paper been invented yet? It looks like the Rannites would have a need for a *lot* of it right about now.
Maybe this situation is what inspires someone to invent it?
Not just an error, but a catastrophically bad error, managing to get that many enemies at one time.
At least Snierr’s end should be quick.
Yes, and then she has to face Ranna!
Not if they just petrify her.
By the way Rich, please don’t feel you need to rush and ending. Tell the story you need to tell. Even the Rannites would be put off by the stuff we raed in the news every day.
I agree to that. Besides, after seeing the Rannite’s work so long, moments like this, or events like in Tempul do bring a certain kind of satisfaction along. If the way to victory-and to the conclusion of the story paved with things like these, I am more than willing to walk it slowly.
"Is this a dagger I see before me?
No, ’tis a multitude of beholders.
Whose glaring eyes and glowering visages,
Do tell me, Snierr,
I have royally screw’d up."
— Whatever Shakespeare equivalent the YAFFGC universe has. 😀
Now have them crew the Beholder Death Star from Spelljammer.
"That’s no moon….wait….it’s the backside of a Beholder. I, uh, guess it is a moon."
Since no-one else has asked this in the comments…
You okay, Rich?
Word is that Dorian, while reduced to a category 1 hurricane, took out 80% of the power in Nova Scotia. Hopefully Rich and everyone is okay, but it might be a while before he’ll be back online.
I have my fingers crossed for him and his, and everyone else who was in the path of that monster.
Yes! We’re okay. It was big and took out some trees but we’re okay, no power but all’s well. Making this comment on my cell phone. Will get back to you all when our world is back up and running. Thanks!
Glad to hear you’re okay!
Glad you guys are well, and are beginning to dig out of the mess. Best wishes to everyone, and we’ll look forward to hearing from you when time and the power grid permit!
Glad you’re safe. Stay dry, and apologies for misrouting our weather your way!
Glad to see you’re okay!
I didn’t realise. Sorry.
First thing I do during a power cut is get a candle, realise I have to light it but don’t have any matches, so have the "bright" idea of lighting some tissue from the cooker, go to light the cooker, press the electric starter and dumbly stare at it wondering why the damn thing won’t light.
Then I remember, it’s a power cut. Duhh. Feels like going back to the stone age cause I’m so dependent on something we all take for granted every day.
So, I hope it’s not too much hassle for you and your family, Rich and you get back up and running on all cylinders soon 😀
I keep a lighter on my computer desk, next to a candle. Just in case.
My late grandfather taught me to place a lighter (and candle) in all the major rooms in an easily remembered spot. I decided for some lighters, that spot was duct-taped three inches to the right of the room’s light switch, so find the switch in the dark, you’ve pretty much found the lighter.
I grew up out in the country, far off the grid, and we currently still have a couple of wood stoves for Winter, so we have the ability to make fire readily available. But we don’t have candles all over. What we do have is LED battery or wind up lights, with rechargeable batteries in most rooms. Those would last us more then long enough to find and make fire, even on the darkest night. As humans, it is good to remember that the ability to make fire was one of our first and greatest powers.
Oh crap! An army of eyeballs!
And the Army of One-thousand Eyes marched upon the Rannite stronghold, with a great intensity of anger within their glare.
I wonder if they’re there with king beholder or if he died with black mountain and they’re all real angry
Re: Sept 10 update
Glad to hear things are getting back to normal, Rich! May your feet stay dry and your internet connection steady.
Isn’t this the same title as 1445?
GADZOOKS! It is! Yeesh. Well it’s bound to happen. 3250+ comic strips and I’m making them up on the fly most of the time. Statistically I’m shocked I’m not getting this comment WAAAY more often.
I should make a game of it. See how many duplicate titles we can find in the archives. Extra points for ones only found in the printed books.
I know for sure I used “Halfling All Melty” twice in the same STORY but later changed the second one to “Halfling MORE Melty” at some point. But other than that I can only guess.
Gadzooks. Good word, that. Use more often.
Proposal: The Eyes Have Had It.
t!
Gadzooks? Not the word I was expecting, but I like it!
I was just rereading the archives for the 7th(?) Time and noticed it. (I usually just read sections)
I normally just lurk, but since I’m coming out anyway just let me say that I’ve been reading your web comic from about it’s second year and I love it! Thank you for making this amazing story!