Beyond the Western Deep

Spoilers: They probably aren’t! But Cain’s still a bit salty right now, so that sarcasm might be a little tough to pick up on. Falling down a hole and landing on a pile of mystery objects that feel kind of like rocks except some of them are pointy and they all sound maybe sorta like bones (?) would be enough to ruin anyone’s day.

Yurk’s actually doing him a favor by not telling him what’s at the bottom of the pit–because hey, then Cain might try to move his head! And 9 out of 10 doctors do not recommend moving your head after falling onto a pile of bones.

The 10th doctor was like “Wait, a pile of WHAT?” So I hung up the phone and pretended I’d never made the call in the first place.

Instead of guest art this week, I’ll share some of the wonderful art that’s being drawn up by Rachel for Outfit August! There’s a prompt list she’s following, and banging out some super cool Western Deep stuff while she’s at it!

First up, a minimal base for Dakkan and Quinlan–going with swimwear for this particular prompt!

You might wonder whether Quin is actually a good swimmer after his calamitous experience in the Deltrada waterways in Chapter 3, but the truth is, if you’ve got a lutren as your best friend, you kinda need to be a good swimmer. Quin just had a lot of factors working against him (super-fast, freezing cold water, and of course the fact that his shoulder was still on the mend)!

The next prompt was “monster”, which meant we got a great follow-up piece to Quinlan wearing his ridiculous treewalker onesie. You know the one…

AAAH HE’S COMIN’ FOR YA!

For the “monster” prompt, Rachel decided that if Quin was already in a treewalker outfit, she had to put Dakkan in a shark outfit. So:

That’s exactly the sort of thing the lutren would find in their equivalent of a Spirit Halloween Store. Dak had just better make sure he stays away from the beachside taverns, otherwise he might run into a shark hunter who’s had a bit too much to drink and wind up dodging some spears!

While working on this piece, Rachel also concocted a fun follow-up sketch that I really love–what appears to be Quin and Dak participating in a celebratory shark dance!

I love the idea of an official lutren shark hunting season that kicks off with a big festival in Lutra, where all sorts of fun dances, performances, and good luck rituals take place to ensure a bountiful harvest of shark leather and that the shark hunters are protected from harm.

And I also love the idea that Dakkan is somehow saddled with doing this shark dance for a big important part of the parade and he needs a partner to do it with. Quin would…probably need some convincing to throw a giant shark costume over his head and march around with it X)

ANYWAY, see you all next week!