Arayanna: What?
Arayanna: Where am I?
Arayanna: Hello?
1b.
Arayanna: Corvus?
Corvus: Indeed.
Arayanna: Where are we?
Corvus: Ah. This is a space-time bubble. A handy little creation of mine. It gives us time to speak without disruption.
2a.
Corvus: Here. Clean yourself up.
Arayanna: Thank you.
2a.
Arayanna: Wait...your clothes..are you from Earth?
Corvus: I spent a great deal of time there, yes, but I do not think I would say I am from Earth. To be honest, I am not
sure where I am from originally.
Corvus: Well, anyway. Enough of that. How may I be of assistance?
3a.
Arayanna: I am in serious trouble and I need your help.
Corvus: Alright. And what will you do for me in return?
3b.
Arayanna: That's not how this usually works. Can't I just compel you to do as I ask?
Corvus: Ah, the Summoner's battle of wills...
4a.
Corvus: You can certainly try to force me to capitulate, but would it not be preferable to enter into a mutually beneficial relationship as
opposed to that of a master and a reluctant, possibly vengeful, servant?
Arayanna: Yes, I suppose that would be better.
4b.
Arayanna: Alright then. What is it that you want?
Corvus: I want out of here.
Arayanna: I am not sure I understand.
Corvus: I want my body back. Well, I suppose that is an unreasonable request. I want a body. I want to live again in flesh.
5a.
Arayanna: I can do that!
Corvus: Really?
5b.
Arayanna: Well, I cannot do that, personally, but I know someone who can. I think...
Corvus: The last person who I dealt with made similar claims, but he was just a liar, like all the others before him. Why should I trust you?
6a.
Arayanna: I occasionally work for a being that calls himself The Merchant. He collects souls and creates and distributes summoning stones like
the one I used to contact you.
Arayanna: If anyone knows how to get you a new body, it is him.
Corvus: Intriguing. I think I actually believe you.
6b.
Arayanna: I have to be honest with you - I am currently on a mission that will take me several weeks and cannot be interrupted. All of my dealings
with The Merchant have come at a cost, meaning I will have to do something for him before he will do anything for me.
Arayanna: So it could be several weeks or months before I can get you out of here.
Corvus: As best as I can tell, I have been here for hundreds of years. A few more months will be tolerable.
7a.
Corvus: Well then, I believe we have an accord.
Corvus: And now for current your problem...I assume super human strength and speed will be of assistance?
Arayanna: Yes, that should do nicely.
Corvus: Alright then.
7b.
Corvus: I bestow upon you the Blessing of the Tonquia.
Corvus: Have fun.
Don’t make Arayanna angry.
You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.
Yes!! 😀
Still updating daily
Corvus is drastically more rational than I expected. He actually knows and can state clearly what he wants.
Furthermore it’s not a terribly unreasonable thing to want nor a terribly unfair exchange for what he can do, even if it’s likely well beyond the means of most who’d be in a position to summon.
I expected that he’d be driving a bargain to be paid in dubiously-consensual service to overpowering lust or blood to feed overpowering rage. By comparison to that low bar he’s extraordinarily civilized.
What were you expecting from Corvus? Remember, Fiet is also highly rational and is a Summons
The fact he understood that what he wanted may not be possible for Aray to make happen, and that it will take time before she can even make the attempt and still helped her says a lot for him
One might think that being stuck inside a pebble for hundreds of years and only being allowed out when someone wants to boss you around would drive a person a bit mad. Corvus is holding it together quite well for someone in his situation. I could have easily made this conversation two or three pages with more on Corvus’ situation and how previous “owners” had treated (or mistreated) and deceived him. But – gotta keep the story rolling. And I really want to get Arayanna the Tonquai on the screen. 😀
Excellent. The teeth were a nice touch.
The nails look much longer and claw-ish as well.
Very long nails. I need to get a toenail to toeclaw mod from DAZ I think.
Thank you. 😀
Time to Wolf out!
Close – but not quite wolfy this time. 🙂
Rosa’s reaction in the second last panel, perfect “Oh shit!” moment 🙂
Thank you!! 😀
“Have fun” – I wonder if Corvax is able to watch what happens next.
Hmm. I will have to think about that one. The logistics of summoning does have a few loose ends…
Well, he was already aware of what was going on at the time of being summoned – SOMEWHAT aware… then again, maybe he just proposed the super-human strength/speed because that’s his gist, or because this is what he was doing last time, so he imagines this is what he is known for/expected from him, and not because he could see what’s going on… (the “I assume” line could work both ways).
Actually, I think I like the latter explanation better. Would kind of match what we saw so far. He doesn’t know her, doesn’t feel like sharing his story or whatever, until she proves she is not just another liar. So he goes with an approach of “This is what I want, this is what I can do for you if you, you sound plausible enough so I’m gonna give you a try”. And if he doesn’t know what’s going on, maybe this explains how he was cheated in the past. At any rate, since he is giving a blessing, and not taking over the summoner, it does sound like it can go either way…
Yea, that’s pretty spot on. I think there’s a dash of “I don’t really have any other choice but to try trusting you” in there as well.
But Corvus is a sneaky bastard, for sure. If you remember, Trarg mentions using Corvus too often takes its toll. Corvus sucks a bit of life off the users he doesn’t like everytime the contact him. Hopefully Aray stays on his good side…
I would have to say not. I think the spirit has to be in the current realm to experience what is going on there. Corvus was summoned, and then immediately created his handy-dandy space time bubble where they could chat. Once he released his “get big and scary” spell, he was dismissed back to his temporary realm where he has nothing to do but re-read the same 1984 issue of Popular Mechanics.
Corvus and The Tonquai are cameos from one of my oldest D&D campaigns DM’d by my friend Mike. Corvus was a very powerful mage played by my friend Gary. My character was an Ogre named Tonka. Tonka was a good-natured fellow who just wanted to adventure and, in most situations, do the heroic thing. Corvus was a sneaky SOB who was always getting Tonka into trouble or worse. (He killed him a few times “by accident”).
After the characters became too powerful to build reasonable campaigns for, Mike jumped us a few hundred years into the future where both Corvus and Tonka had become the leaders of warring nations – the Corvidea and the Tonquai.
Tonka had lived a long life spawning many little Tonkas before dying of old age and alcohol poisoning.
No one ever knew what happened to Corvus.
Mike was by far the best DM I ever knew. It was a great campaign and Gary was one of the greatest players I ever had the privilege to throw dice with. 😀
Wow, I really need to reread this comic. I don’t remember this Corvus at all, or Aryanna knowing about Earth. Yay! Been looking for a reason to do that anyways!
Corvus is briefly mentioned in Chapter 10 Page 7. You’d have to go back to Chapter 2 Page 23 for Aray’s first mention of her time on Earth. But, I do recommend re-reading from the beginning. I do it a lot. 😀
I noticed that the vote incentive was somehow missing it’s text. That has been fixed. Next incentive will be up in soon.
Ah! I thought Maeye whas perplexed or something by what Aray said. Or needed some time to find her words.
Hadn’t even noticed there was text missing, but now have both versions saved 🙂
I hope that the gift Aray got from Corvus won’t backfire and turns Aray into a beast. Why else did Rosata screamed no when Aray summoned him ?
Rosata screamed the same way that someone screams when they see their abductee grabbing a weapon. I don’t think she knows exactly what Aray was summoning, since the arena master was using Corvus in secret. Ofc there could be lots of different explanations of how she could know, but the simplest scenario is “oh no, she is summoning help, I’m gonna have to unexpectedly fight someone now”.
Yup. She realized she missed something and things are about to take a turn.
Corvus looks a lot like bearded-Spock from Star Trek: Discovery!
LOL!
(To be clear, that’s a Good Thing ™)
I notice Corvus didn’t specify the new body had to be male. Heh.
No he did not. I don’t think he even cares if it is human.
Give him a goldfish body?
LOL.
I’ve been religiously, obsessively updating this page every day. Can’t wait for the action to start.
Hoping to have the next page out tomorrow. 😀
Woohoo!
Don’t forget to vote every day
Thank you! 🙂
Heya friends. The next page is a cookin. Lots of characters in each panel. Anytime I get more than 3 chars in a render it basically kicks the shit out of my computer, or DAZ, or both. But essentially it ends up being 1 hour + per render. So, I tried breaking things up into pieces and putting the pieces together in post work. That worked pretty well except I kept forgetting to create pieces. Anyway. Make pieces. Putting shit together. Its getting there. So its so late. Ugh.
Next page will go more smoothly cause much less characters.
That’s cool, Feori. Do what you must to get it right. We’ll just keep refreshing.
And voting 🙂
OK. All images are rendered, post-worked, and positioned. I just need to block in the text. The page will be out tomorrow evening. So sorry for this long delay!
You know what they say, patience is a virtue and we all have it in us. Still, I nearly can’t wait to see lots of characters all together having fun. Reminds me of a family reunion. 😀