TRANSCRIPT:
DELL: There’s the mercy for thieves and assassins on my land.
MORCAI: Soooo - No questioning, yeh?
DELL: You did well to spare one of them. But I already know where these two came from and who sent them. It concerns the unfinished business between you and I.
MORCAI: Ahh. The job, yeh?
DELL: Oh yes. You will need to pack for a bit of a trip. There’s no hurry - yet. Still, it is best you arrive at the right moment. (hands Morcai a scroll) Memorize all this and then destroy it thoroughly.
MAHD: Is Tom going away?
MORCAI: Sorry darlins. Got to pay the bills, yeh?
DELL: Don’t fret, ladies, if I am any judge, he will return again safely.
FEEBY: We miss Tom already!
MORCAI: So, my lord, can I -
MORCAI: Fuuuuck me, lord Dell ... Neat trick, yeh?
MAHD: Silly Tom! Lord Dell not fuck you! We fuck you!
FEEBY: Yes! We go inside! Time for good fuckings before Tom go!
39 thoughts on “Paying The Bills – Page 1094”
Sita
So. Another mission for our ethically-challenged not-a-hero. Hooray!
The girls are lovely. Want to see more of them too!
jedraft
Oh I will show as much of them as I can, definitely. Looking forward to more NSFW up-dates featuring them on Patreon!
Warm regards,
JED
jd.
And off they ride into the sunset…
I love Morcai’s face in panel 1. He’s all like “Ouch!” with a side of “What?”
Also, Lord Dell scores points on my board for: not being afraid of killing the bad guy himself, commending Morcai for keeping him alive anyway, and explaining why he killed him. Not to mention that the “unfinished business” seems to be something that Morcai won’t necessarily object to, unlike what one might have feared.
Now, the job is likely to entail someone or something already present in the current plots. And lots of bad guys are already done for or Urtt, so I’m a bit afraid that the job might result into an attack on an ally. (I mean, if it’s about Macon — I won’t consider Maldik as the head of any plot — there’s already plenty of reason to kill him. Then again, if it’s a strong ally of Macon’s…)
About Lord Dell’s uncanny stealth ability, JED, I apologize but I had re-read the following page recently and it had to spring to mind: http://english.bouletcorp.com/2017/11/16/hide-and-sick/
SeanR
This is a webcomic where the heroine regularly throws things as heavy as or heaver than horses around.
This is a webcomic where the hero can effortless reduce a tunnel wall to lava, or call lightning from the sky.
This is also a webcomic where the guy above showed the proper way to catch a crossbow bolt, and the best way to give it back.
I would say the nobleman’s supernatural ability to disappear, especially in a wood, is more than justified…although I’m wanting to know the past adventures of Lord Dell. I suspect he had a few.
jd.
Point duly taken, sibling. You are entirely right, of course.
So I’ll hasten to narrow down my point: not to criticize the realism, or supposed lack thereof, of this particular development. Merely to submit a webcomic page, that I found funny and somewhat related because of mysterious disappearances on either side.
jedraft
To you both –
Yes, I like the cliche’ Sometimes the cliche becomes a cliche because people just like it.
That being said, this is Lord Dell’s wood. He has had a long lifetime knowing it, and there’s a lot of trees and stuff.
Just sayin’.
😉
Warm regards,
JED
jd.
A very good point about the cliché. I’d even say that’s the main reason something becomes a cliché. (After all, what’s the point in overusing an item if people already hate it? Unless you do edgy, non-commercial, alternative, artistic stuff, of course.)
Again, I for one am not criticizing this page, about realism or anything else. That being said, I appreciate your providing a quite convincing rationale for anyone who silently would.
I was going to add that fooling Morcai is some neat trick already, but fooling the girls’ expectably keener senses is even better; still, it may well be that they see it as a prank on Dell’s behalf and don’t want to ruin it. Not to mention that in this specific instance, they have waaaaay better things to do than discuss “sweet true Lord Dell”.
Ganurath
Lord Dell is Batman now, and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.
Logan_D
As soon I saw your post that “Lord Dell is Batman now” his voice immediately changed in my mind to Adam West. No seriously – not Christian Bale or Batfleck. Not even Michael Keaton.
ADAM FUCKING WEST.
Frankly I’m amazed at how well it WORKS in my head canon! LOL!!! 😀
jedraft
I love this SO much.
LOL!
Warm regards,
JED
Jean
I spittaked at Ganurath’s comment…until I saw yours, and then I choked, and nodded. A lot. Like an Adam West Campy Batman bobbleheaded PopCap doll.
Thank you. So. Very. Much.
Someguy
No need to convince anyone I believe. Of course I already agree with you so perhaps I’m biased. I can’t imagine anyone disagreeing with you but then I can’t imagine why anyone would willingly put the toilet paper so that it comes out under the roll. Bloody heathens.
jedraft
Because. Some folks are just contrary that way.
Warm regards,
JED
jd.
No they aren’t.
(… What?)
jedraft
I love it. 😀
Warm regards,
JED
jd.
For me to be entirely convinced, he’d have to be brooding from the battlements of Dell Keep (since it doesn’t appear to have gargoyles).
That being said, I just characterized him as a forest ninja in another comment, and obviously I thought of Morcai as a ninja. However, elaborating on that thought I had to notice that Morcai uses too much showmanship to be a true ninja. Then it hit me: a grinning showman who kills without a second thought, making jokes about it all along?
… Wouldn’t that make Morcai the Joker?
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, I give you JED. The man who made the Joker work for Batman and be convincingly happy about it!
Marcus
so…. Me think Lord Dell comes from a long line of men (and probably women) who solved problems for the Crown before they became problems for the People.
jedraft
Oh great. another character with a long involved back story from the previous war that I have to write.
Thanks, man. Thanks a lot.
😉
Warm regards,
JED
jd.
I love this phrase, brother. (Yes, I’m assuming that someone who calls themselves “Marcus” is male. My bad if not.) I may well reuse it in other circumstances unless you object.
(Also, JED, I just noticed that this story had already ridiculously übercompetent people in various fields: fighting, raw physical ability, music, magic, boobs, intellect, statecraft, diplomacy, strategy, tactics, sweetness, friendship, irritatingness, faith, wisdom, sex, patience, to name but a few. And meant in a good way. But I don’t remember we ever had a forest ninja. Thanks for providing what I hadn’t noticed was lacking.)
SeanR
Thank you, Jedraft, for turning off the moderation. Having a conversation when several days worth of comments were made visible at once was difficult.
SeanR
Never mind. I guess the server hiccuped.
SeanR
Oh, this is odd. IF you post a comment, THEN you can see what probably amounts to all the comments waiting to be approved. If you do not, you can only see, at present, three comments.
Yeah. I’d say the server is glitched, still.
jedraft
Well, I didn’t do a thing. So yeah, whatever it is is not intentional
Warm regards,
JED
Lora
I think Lord Dell has secretly (or not so secretly) trained as a Ranger. 😛 I don’t complain.
I like the girls’ priorities! Fuck first, read later. 😀
jedraft
😀
Well, he definitely has some mad skills.
And yes, I like characters whose needs are basic and straightforward. Very refreshing.
Warm regards,
JED
Lora
Oh, btw. something went wrong with the rendering of the last panel, because Mahd’s top goes through Tom’s leg.
jedraft
THANK YOU for pointing that out! You get a Princess No-Prize for that one!
Fixed now.
🙂
Warm regards,
JED
Just_IDD
Obviously Maud didn’t want to drop Tom while running so she tucked his leg between her breasts for safekeeping. Its only the wise choice 🙂
Lora
No problem. It’s irritating when it doesn’t render right. 😉
3Xp4t
> MFW
> No catgirl-like forest troll sisters in love with me
> who delight in fucking me to exhaustion
> and exist for the very day when they can see me again
Wai even live?
Also: When you are Lord Dell, you just know how to do these sort of things. Props for one less evil guy in the world.
a
Lord Dell pretty obviously was the “help” these two hunters had.
So, why’d he set that all up?
SeanR
I tend to disagree.
Certainly these two poachers/would-be murderers weren’t aware of Lord Dell as anything but an adversary. They commented on the lords reputation, and how that impinged on their own chances.
I find it more likely that someone “sold out” the man, and this was their opening salvo for gaining backdoor access to the lords lands.
It is, however, possible that the lord knew of this in advance that he could have stopped it early, if he wanted to, but decided to see how it played out.
It is also possible that he only just finished, er, “sweating”, the hireling that he did catch, and only then knew to come riding out to see what could be recovered of the event. It may have also made up his mind on how to use the marker he had with Morcai, or even whether or not to use the marker at all.
My guess is, this is a little war, between “loyal” members of the nobility, in a bid to change the size of their respective estates. To present a fait accompli to the crown. Since the Dells were never favorable to the current line of succession, the perpetrators, (or should that more properly be “the perpetraitors”), could possibly even get away with it, provided Lord Dell died in an “accident”, or “while resisting”.
SeanR
As to the “sweating”, it is generally acknowledged that torture is, at best, of nebulous value in acquiring intelligence.
That said, imagine the following scene. Lord Dell is looming over one of his own rangers. The man has clearly been abused, but Lord Dell walked in, ordered the abuser to leave, or to stand down, and then, looming,and quite calmly, with one booted foot upon the seat of the chair the man is lashed to, delivers the following speech.
“Just so we’re clear, you will die for this. It is no longer a question of you surviving this transgression. Now, the question is not how long you will live, but how long you will die. I am about to go riding out to resolve this. If I can’t, and especially if I do not return, then these men here have been instructed to start torturing you but making sure you survive until Saturday. If I am able to fix this little mess you made, I’ll come back, you’ll be in no worse shape than you are right this minute, and you will be killed cleanly, also on Saturday. Your choice.”
jedraft
Obviously? Hmm.
🙂
Warm regards,
JED
A
Well, slitting someone’s throat when they’re about to talk seems like the thing to do if one doesn’t want anyone present to hear what they will say, doesn’t it?
He also confirms that there’s something like an inside job going on, but mysteriously doesn’t find it worth talking about, again, as if he already knows and doesn’t want to divulge anything.
Then again, maybe he’s just generally dodgy as hell?
MikeLinPA
I am really glad how happy these three are together.
jedraft
The scene in “Willy Wonka”:
Willy Wonka: But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.
Charlie Bucket: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after!
Morcai is currently the happiest character I have in “Zona.” Can’t promise he’ll stay that way, but there we go.
🙂
Warm regards,
JED
EmmaC
JED, please, dont’ make him unhappy. I’m sure no one wants to make him unhappy.
Isn’t funny? We took to Morcai who was one of the weirdest, shadiest (?spelling), bad-guy-but-serve-the-good-side character we met.
Now, I want him happy, as much as I want Zona and Mentl happy… and still wish Tula will be one day.
You, sir, have the gift of creating powerful characters, that we will hate or love on your command.
Uhl
Love these ladies. That was the perfect comeback!
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