Song of the Eastern Sands: Page 39
This week, the Sand Spiders take the first legitimate job they’ve ever had! We get a wonderful exterior establishing shot of the Abadis Tavern alleyway, Asha rocking a head-bandage after her head-banging practice on a Canid assassin went awry, and we also finally get the name of Janik’s father!
Not a whole lot going on this week to report on, except for the fact that if any of our readers are planning to attend PAX West next week, I will be in attendance at the League of Geeks booth helping to promote Armello! So do drop on by and say hello!
ALSO! Rachel is planning on doing an art stream tomorrow (Sunday) at around 8pm Eastern, where she’ll be working on the bumper artwork for Chapter 3. You can drop in on the stream by following this link right here!
nice haul, indeed, Sand Spiders. at least the job’s legal this time!
also, Ermehn look pretty badass with headbands.
I’m just as confused as Asha here… but then again, she did take a nasty blow to the head…
anyway…. why hire a gang of thieves with a shady source to escort Rowan’s daughter and possibly stop an assassination attempt? why strike Nessa when the kingdom wasn’t even involved in the mess at Deltrada? who IS that source? so many questions!
Ermehn do look good in headbands. Asha could be Feyn’s sister here.
https://westerndeep.net/comic/chapter-2-page-64/
Surprise twist: she actually is his sister, and he’s hostile and cranky because he still hasn’t gotten over their parents taking her out of the wastes and leaving him behind all those years ago.
I hope that isn’t actually the case, because it would be super sad, and kind of awkward if she ever met Quin.
Asha: Hey, I heard you are the captain of the Tamian…fighting force? Your friend told me that you just came from the Northern Wastes!
Quin: Yes…yes…to both questions.
Asha: What is it like up there? I’ve never been, but my brother has lived there his whole life. He sends me letters when he can; tales of his dealings with the Canid mostly. I hear the Canid don’t get along well.
Quin: I suppose.
Asha: He was cast out of our family before my parents fled the land, never told me why though. Aaanyway, a really nice tribe took him in and he’s lived with them ever since. He drew me a sketch of their face markings in case I ever ran into one of their members! It’s a single black rectangular-ish sash across the top of the muzzle.
Quin: Oh, uh…
Asha: And he always tells me about this cool white bandana that he filched from a Vulpin trader. It’s like, his favorite thing for some reason…
Quin: …
Asha: Says it makes him look like a total badass. I actually just bought one myself but it’s really just serving as a bandage right now and…why are you looking so nervous all of a sudden?
Quin: I need to go.
I bet that Rowan asked them to help in order to keep the Canid from finding out. Why would they suspect a few street thieves?
You’re right, that alleyway does look very nice.
For a second there I thought Asha was a completely different character, but now that we see her in that getup she looks even more awesome. I agree with thewartable in that Rowan’s reasoning behind getting the thieves to help is to prevent from them getting tracked down by the assassins so easily.
Still though it’s pretty gutsy of him to even rely on vagrants who just broke into your business, but I guess saving his life manage to smooth that thought out lol.
Varuna’s texturing and colors never fails to impress, I love the emotion behind this piece. Seriously, keep up the good work!
“Another nice haul, brahs.”
But it looks like the Sand Spiders are going to get a chance to unwind and resupply before they head off on their quest after all. This is good, from there perspective, though I’m surprised Rowan allowed it.
Beck was right, though; Terria is a very long ways away. Look at the map if you’ve forgotten; they are quite literally going to have to traverse half the continent just to get to the border. Not to mention that Janik is likely to be suspicious of anything they say, right up until an assassin tries to slit her throat that is.
The adventure clearly changes gears here, and this page reignites my excitement for the second half of SOTES. Can’t wait to see the rest.
Chances are ,if my gauge on what’s gonna happen next on Chapter 3. The Sand Spiders might end up finding her at Cenolau instead of trekking all the way to Terria.
you’re right. looking at the map, a Terria-Cenolau-Nessa trip is better than a “direct to Nessa” trip.
also, if it took about a week to go to Deltrada from Terria, it will take a bit more than that (10-15 days, maybe?) to go to Cenolau to resupply. there are also possibilities of stopping by smaller cities or villages in between to stay for the night. then it’ll take another week or so to go to Nessa after Cenolau, so the total travel time would be almost (or more than) a month long.
considering SotES happens a few days after the incident at Deltrada, and Janik left at around the same time as Quin, Dak, and Kenosh, she should either be at Cenolau itself, or just past it (approximately one-third of the way to Nessa).
**INHALES DEEPLY**
so, the Sand Spiders should run into her about halfway to Nessa (assuming she came from Cenolau to resupply)
ONE MORE THING– there’s a way that the Canid soldiers stationed in Nessa (and possibly the other Kingdoms) knew about the incident at Deltrada before everyone else.
birds. they use courier birds to deliver messages, so info travels faster than by a messenger on foot. at the end of Chapter 2, a Canid guard sends a message via bird to (most likely) Arklow, probably to King Janus. after hearing about what a certain Sunsgrovian diplomat did, he’s enraged, assumes that Sunsgrove works with the Ermehn now, and sends out assassins to eliminate any and all Sunsgrovian diplomats
but that’s just my theory :)
You’re right that Janik is likely far closer to Cenolau than she is to Terria.
I though about that, too, then considered that the Sand Spiders, as evidenced by Beck’s line, had no way of knowing that she may be far closer than the border. I then proceeded not to include this line of reasoning in my previous comment, since it seemed logically sound. Sometimes I outwit myself.
Let’s hope that Rowan clarified his daughter’s likely progress to our gang of thieves, lest they pass her by on their journey to Sunsgrove.
Bandaged Asha looks pretty awesome.
Yeah. I was thinking the same thing about Janik having left already and they might somehow find her on the way.
So what did Asha do with the canid assassin after she caught him? You can’t just lug him around, and turning him over to the authorities would lead to Uncomfortable Questions.
Well hey, Batman just leaves the villains in a conspicuous location for the authorities to find on their own…
Probably because there wasn’t anyone more qualified in the vicinity.
Or he was in an hysterical state and it wasn’t a rational decision.
Or maybe hoping they’d die.
this story is really intresting, but what about quinlan and dakkan and co??? just wondering!!
Hey there lol! Thank you for your comment! :) Quin and Dak are still a major focus of the story. We’ll be catching up with the two of them in the very next chapter!
I love the shift from “IDK Terria’s kinda far-” to “…suddenly, this prospect soudns far more reasonable.”
I like the details of the pots in the alley way- keeps it from looking bare and abandoned. And the contrast between the interior and exterior walls makes for a very interesting contrast- I assume the exterior is covered in clay or something.