Chapter 3: Page 23
Did Quin max out his Lockpicking skill in the character creator? I don’t remember — I know I gave him perks in Agility and Hand-to-Hand, but Lockpicking might’ve been in a different tree. Dakkan’s the fast-talking brawler type, so he doesn’t even get lockpicking skills unlocked until he’s like, level 50 or something.
By that point he could just be kicking down doors like Feyn was in chapter 2 (and Feyn’s Door-Kicking skill was totally maxed out, but at the expense of his Longfall stat, which honestly would’ve come in handy at the end, there).
I actually gave Quinlan so many points in Agility that I wasn’t able to put any starter points into Charisma, so he’ll have to earn that naturally over the course of the adventure. Just gotta keep making the right dialog options and we’ll be good. Of course it’s going to be a little tough to know which is which — sometimes there are just no good options in a situation.
This week, instead of guest art, I wanted to share this really fun piece of art that Rachel did last weekend. She shared it up on Twitter, but for those not following either of us on there (and if that’s true why the heck aren’t you!?), it was this wonderful follow-up of our Western Deep High School AU April Fools:
In our unofficial official Western Deep High School AU, Janik is totally the captain of the WDRHS debate team. Her family has a long and storied history in it, with her own father won the regional debate championship back when he went to school at WDRHS. Therefore, Janik feels it’s her duty to live up to his reputation (and yes, somehow win even more than her father).
Have a great weekend, and see you all in the comments! :)
((Also, if you want to play with the Mass Effect dialog choice wheel generator I used for the Quin image above, feel free to mess with it here: http://portalation.com/funstuff/dialogue.php))
[yep, a few of the small details of this page are unfinished. I know. I’ll fix ’em when I have the time, but now is not that time.]
I … see no bothersome unfinished details there, Rach. All looks fine to me!
And my, what a limber Tamian Quin is! In the immortal words of Bart Simpson, “I could do that; I just choose not to.”
And those final two panels had me lol’ing. I mean, it’s so obvious that that must be what Quin has in mind (at least in terms of conventional adventure storytelling) that Dak’s query seems ridiculous … so why does Quin react the way he does? The whole thing just strikes me as hilarious, in the best possible way.
Little moments like that are what I live for in “BWD!”
Quinlan just wanted to admire the handicraft of a beautiful Ermehn quarrel and Dakkan is already assuming that he’s going to save them. Way to heap pressure on the poor guy!
I think the unfinished details are the blood on Quin’s sleeve…?
Yup! Rachel will add in those details later — she just wanted to make sure the page was in a good spot for today :)
In the immortal words of… someone, somewhere: “not everything is a lockpick.”
Man, I didn’t think Quin could pick locks, let alone with his feet, but he’s even more of a nimble Tamian than I remember. If this is the kind of leveling up you did for him behind the scenes, then that was some serious grinding! (just how many bandits/random encounters did you go through before reaching this point!?)
Dak, don’t you start doubting or else once Quin’s done, you’ll be pained more than any Canid punch you put up with the night before!
Cool picture of modern Janik, Rachel. (also, long time no see-I didn’t think I’d find you talking here again) She’s definitely upping the ante on her part; all part of making plebs out of the entire student body. Maybe her debate skills are a pain for Dak though, if she’s the one he’s trying to schmooze when it comes to homework!
(with the dialogue wheel, I’m kinda curious to see Quin acting on the other choices and how they result…makes for some interesting sketches)
I’ve been swamped by various things lately. Hope to make it in more often to leave my stupid remarks c:
lol what you mean “what?” Quin? What else you gonna do with that arrow? throw it really, really hard?
the little expressions between the two get me here. I love how puzzled Dak looks and vice versa hahaha! and modern Janik being all smuggy and what not. HEY I bet she’d make a fine leader *unlike some people out here grumble*
It never even crossed my mind that Quin can even pick a lock, but I got the hint with the maxed out agility skill. He probably had to grind through a *lot* of tree walkers to get enough exp for that lol
I like the idea of Janik in the debate team! She might be able to finally defend WDRHS from the Nessa Preparatory High School! XD
Also, Quin, if your story line takes you to being in a very high diplomatic position, save some points for charisma. You don’t want to wear any embarrassing charisma buff items now, would you?
-Need 50 Lockpick to open Hard locks
Just got some bad flashbacks to New Vegas and trying to get the unique revolver Lucky from the hotel in Primm when I didn’t dump points into that particular skill to get it to 55 and then bring it up to 75 using a skill magazine for the Very Hard locked safe.
Aside from that, I sure hope Quin can channel his inner Mcgyver and bust his way out of his and Dakkan’s chains and get out of the cell using the arrow’s components, dirt and the ancient Dunian equivalent to chewing gum that he or Dakkan may have.
Clovis left a sharp object within easy reach of his prisoners?!? Is this some kind of underhand plan to let them escape or is the great Canid general just a big old fasioned incompetent?
I think it’s a honest mistake. Quin threw Tosch off the track so badly he forgot about the arrow when he was quick to leave in a huff.
That’s what you get for taunting the prisoners with sharp objects and then leaving them unattended, Toschie-Tosch.
My favorite part of this page is the dialogue wheel, specifically the option “Your brother was way nicer.” It would certainly be interesting to see where that went!
I also like seeing Janik in all of her debate-team grandeur. Her father won regional, so now she has her mind set on the state championship. Failure is not an option!
(Although her outfit also makes her look like she might be about to give a sermon to the good people of 1600s New England, at least to my eyes. Whatever that proves.)
I find it funny his friend thought he was going to pick the lock as I remember many times in movies or shows when the characters are trapped similar way and grab something to pick the lock and they get free.
I just went back and looked at this chapter more closely, and on page 14, Tosch is clearly (though subtly) shown dropping the bolt on the stool. Am I the only one who completely missed this?! (Side note, Tosch DOES look really short in that panel.) Also you can see the bolt clearly on top of the stool on pages 14 and 16, which I must have seen but took no notice of. Even though somebody in the comments drew attention to the seeming randomness of having a stool in the cell (by suggesting it was to make the prisoners feel bad that they didn’t get to sit on it), I didn’t pay enough attention to it to see that its narrative purpose was to be a convenient place for Tosch to set down the bolt and then forget it entirely.
In retrospect, I didn’t notice Tosch dropping the arrow (even though I reread that page at least once) because it was the page after Dak was revealed to be in the cell and unconscious and I was focusing on Quin’s reaction to that (and my own reaction too). So, well played, Alex and Rachel!
Did any of you originally notice Tosch drop the arrow?? Nobody mentioned it in the comments…
This is one of the reasons I like going barefoot: I can pick things up with my toes! Usually trash so that I don’t have to wash my hands, but now I see how useful this skill can be in jailbreak situations. Just imagine how frustrated Quin might feel if he had worn shoes to Deltrada! (Although I guess they NEVER wear shoes, right? So he wouldn’t even own any…)
Ok, I have no clue what Quin is planning to do.
Well, in the first panel he looks up, before he looks at the bolt. So that’s a clue I guess? What’s he looking at? How long the chains are? He’s not looking at the window, that’s above Dak…
Yeah, the only thing I can think of is knocking the ring off the wall somehow. I noticed that it seems water has been leaking down from above him though.
On another note, why is the bolt not covered in dried blood. Did the Canid really bother to clean it off after removing it. :P
“No, Dak, I wanted to try and cut off my hands with the blade end to slip out of the cuffs, but your idea is pretty good too!”
*Saw theme song starts playing*
I like two things about this strips the most:
1) We finally get a good close up at one of the characters’ feet. Always wanted to know how they looked like.
2) Quinlan now shares the title of “picking stuff with their feet” with Bevan.
Also, this reminds of something…
This may just be a side effect of the fact that I frequently pick things up with my feet, so it’s normal to me <_<
Yes, Rach, I remember you commenting way back during the aforementioned Bevan incident in Chapter Two that you often pick things up with your feet/toes, so it’s nice to see another such artist-insertion/RL influence/callback to that here. As to Zealot’s comment, pretty sure we’ve had some fairly detailed foot/footpaw shots before this; the fight between Quin and Crim comes to mind.
And, on a quasi-related note, it’s nice to know that Quin can apparently wipe his nose with his foot if and when the occasion calls for it. (Maybe juvenile Tamian, instead of sucking their thumbs, suck their toes?) More fun “BWD” facts and speculation!