Katia: Stop trying

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Jan 182012
 

Practical_Thoughts wrote:
Wow Katia. Was boiling the well really too hard for you? So instead you do ten thousand things that take all day including using spells you don’t even know. You have one spell! Fireball. All you had to do was cast it over and over until the water reached the boiling point with the only hazard being some hot steam. It wouldn’t even have to be actually boiling to kill the fish! The woman wearing the apron, who’s name you still don’t know, might have been a really big help to you, but who knows where she is now. Why didn’t you finish trying something that you actually know something about (that you have done before like using fire) instead of dropping it immediately and doing everything you know nothing about like archery, fishing, ice spells, etc?

Yeah, you confess that you probably could’ve handled that better. Much better.

You just… had this idea that if you kept trying, maybe you’d be able to pull off something cool and spontaneous that would elegantly solve everything. Maybe pierce both fish with one arrow, or shoot a lightning bolt from your fingertips. Something that would make you feel kind of like a hero, rather than a wannabe-wizard using someone else’s magicka to slowly boil water.

Oh well. Not everyone can be a hero like in the stories, you guess. You make yourself a solemn promise to stick to safe and reliable methods in the future.


Kobold wrote:
Congratulations, Katia! You saved the well from being poisoned, and by extension, the entire town! You go, girl!

Though on the bright side, you apparently did keep the well from being poisoned! Not to mention those fish will probably die a slow, painful death from all the metal hooks moving through their digestive tracts. So even if you got nothing out of it, your actions possibly saved people in the future from suffering indeterminate amounts of harm. Fuck yeah!

You give yourself a celebratory low-five.


NotTheAuthor wrote:
You know, there is such a thing as trying too hard. You don’t have to – and likely won’t! – have a solution to every problem. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but that doesn’t mean you should try to the point of hauling enough masonry to build a small castle halfway across town.

Right then.

You… guess this job was kind of a bust, and it’s time to just cut your losses and move on.

You’ve probably still got another hour or so before the Guild opens. Maybe you’ll just… wander around town for a while, or buy a snack. Or hell, maybe even see that vampire so you can at least end the day with enough coin to get Quill’s book if you want.

You’re still excited about visiting the Guild tonight and you know you’ll feel better once you actually get there, but this whole slaughterfish ordeal has left you feeling kind of melancholy and bummed out. Here was your first real chance to show everyone in town that you’re not just some skill-less nobody. Your first real chance to show them you can actually do things when you put your mind to them. And when you tried, you just… couldn’t.

Someone more skilled and intelligent than you, they could probably find some way to take care of those fish. They’d probably know some trick that’d make it real easy. But you… you’ve already tried everything you could think of.


ferd1991 wrote:
I’m surprised you haven’t take into consideration CLIMBING DOWN THE WELL WHILE USING THE ROPE.

Almost everything.

>

  • Zayle

    Whew. I was scared for a minute.

  • Useful

    Am I the only one who gets the feeling that the Well leads to a world of blood, pain and a very tatty robe?

    • JustSomeRandomGuy

      Clark Griswold: “Do you smell something?”
      Cousin Ed: “Yeah. Fried pussycat.”

    • Dragon

      No. I suspect this will end badly as *sunglasses* well.
      :3

  • soiveheard

    Not a bad update… I just wish there was more!!

  • Question

    Low-five? Don’t you mean low-four?

    • JustSomeRandomGuy

      Not if you count the dewclaw. Which Katia may or may not have.

      • DestinedFateX

        Lol Katia only has four fingers because of the art style here; everybody in TES:PREQUEL has four fingers :p

        • SotiCoto

          She clearly has six fingers visible. Three on each hand (not including thumbs, obviously, since they’re not fingers). Not sure if she is hiding another pair somewhere… but it is definitely more than four.

      • Trilbydude

        Ah yes, the dewclaw. The most useless of claws.

      • Felidire

        Pretty sure the dew claw is equivelant to that of a thumb, which i’m pleasantly surprised she didn’t lose during this whole ordeal.

    • Kazerad

      Better question: if she’s giving it to herself, shouldn’t it be a low-eight?

  • Someone Somewhere

    No. Nohoho. No. Let us not. This is a bad idea, and anyone who supports this should feel bad. If those fish can chew through a metal bucket, what does fur and flesh do besides offer an interesting method of suicide? No maneuvering space, sharp teeth, no armor of any kind, no real weapons, probably out of mana… No, a thousand times no. She needs to walk away now before things get worse.

    • The Nerevarine

      I could not agree more. There were times when I was outnumbered, or outmatched and the safest course was to find myself nowhere near the confrontation. Early in my adventures, this involved turning tail and running. Nowadays I have fancy teleportation spells and scrolls and trinkets, but I still like the feel of the wind in my face as I cross the land in long strides.

      Not that I’m saying that Katia has failed, it is just that she has come to a situation where she is outmatched and she should get herself away soon.

      • Dousiq

        Those mark and recall spells sure are handy for getting back to where you keep your stuff, aren’t they.

        • The Nerevarine

          They are also useful for quests. If you set your mark to a house you have in a city, you will have access to travel options. This is very useful if you have finally gotten a needed item and now are so lost you can’t find your ass with a map and two hands.

      • Nameloc

        I’m considering changing my user name to some Elder Scrolls character so I can comment-roleplay too.

        • Jonn

          Sir Nameloc? What are you doing out of Weye?

  • Unodacat

    Using the rope to climb down sounds like a terrible idea. You’ll just find yourself in more trouble than you were before. Best cut your losses.

  • Joh

    …nooooooooooooooo…

  • BlackEagle

    Killing fish in a barrel sounds easy, but not when they’re slaughterfish.. Just cut your losses and move on.

    One hour seems like just enough time to get some free training (or at least set up an appointment for some free training). Adventuring wizards need a fall back when they run out of magicka in combat. See if the old Redguard is still around or someone at the fighters guild!

    • They have “slaughter” right there in the name, for Septim’s sake!

      • The Nerevarine

        More men and mer die due to slaughterfish related swimming incidents than do adventurers during their escapades. Slaughterfish are the number one cause of death in any large body of water where dreugh are not found. Hell, Slaughterfish EAT dreugh.

  • Dousiq

    Slaughterfish are easy to deal with when you’re a redguard with a specialization in long swords, but the fact remains that you aren’t.

  • Bad_Skeelz

    On the one hand, climbing down the rope probably is a terrible idea that will, at best, leave you grimy before your big introduction to the Mages’ Guild. On the other, it would be really great if Katia can succeed and stick it to mean old Practical Thoughts.

  • Pacce

    For the love of all things, tie the rope around your waist first thing so you don’t fall, drown, get eaten, and become a horrible corpse in the well that people will make fun of for generations.

  • 62firelight

    Man, finally an update. Wonder what will happen if she goes down the well using the rope o.O

  • R’Becca

    Yaay, updateessss. Katai is awesome.

  • Ultimamax

    do it bro

  • der

    She’s going to be stuck inside the well while the Invasion of Kvatch occurs.

    • Kyle Hyde

      ^^^^

    • Karnewarrior

      YES YES YES SO MUCH YES THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS

      • The Nerevarine

        No. No it would not. From what I have heard of this ‘Mythic Dawn’ (and I have had the displeasure of meeting some of them) they will be brutal. They are insane and believe in some tripe about Mehrunes Dagon claiming something that is his. This boggles my mind, because there are few things that belong to Mehrunes Dagon. I once had posession of one of those things, but it has disappeared. The other things are tied to his boundless sadism.

        To say that this beautiful realm belongs to him is….. demented.
        Sheogorath! What have you done?

        • JustSomeRandomGuy

          No, it’s not demented. To illustrate, let me draw from another game: Minecraft. I’ve spent literally days building some fantanstic structure, then rigging it just right so that when I pull a measly little lever, the whole thing is vaporized all at once in a fantastic synchronized explosion, which I then laugh at. Mehrunes Dagon is the daedric prince of destruction. Well, what’s the point of destroying something that was lousy to begin with? That’s why he likes killing people so much. You can’t kill daedra, you can only banish them temporarily. People can have a much more permanent demise. Therefore, we can logically assume that the better something is, the more Mehrunes Dagon will enjoy destroying it. So perhaps he created Mundus himself just to have something to break.

          • The Nerevarine

            I have to ask, are you a Mythic Dawn member in disguise? And if Mehrunes Dagon made Mundus, why are the Eight part of the fabric of that place? And it is said that the moons of Tamriel are the corpse of Lorkhan, who tricked the Eight into pouring much of their essence into the realm of Mundus.
            If Mehrunes Dagon made Mundus, why must he invade?

          • feuer_faust

            Well, it’d be very doing if he could just waltz in and hit the big red button. Assuming, hypothetically, that Mehrunes Dagon created Mundus, it’d be infinitely more exciting if he made it able to act in ways he couldn’t anticipate. Sort of like rolling dice to determine success or failure in games.

          • The Nerevarine

            So you’re saying that the Daedric prince of destruction actually created something? Something whose sole purpose is not destruction?

          • JustSomeRandomGuy

            If Mehrunes Dagon made Mundus, he made it specifically for the purpose of invading it. Its purpose would be destruction in that case, just not immediate destruction. Remember, something is only worth the effort required to aquire it. Stepping on a bug is nothing. Slaying a dragon is a legendary feat.

  • Anonymous.

    So, uh….
    5 days for some text and a single new panel?
    Come on, Kaz.

  • Malefactor

    Things low five is a euphemism for: Masturbation

    Frotting

    Ass slapping

    Hand jobs.

    Also getting a hi5 only down low.

    I’d say it’d be wiser just to say “give yourself some applause” or something

  • Bambi

    DO IT FAGGOT!!

  • This is like. The worst. Idea. Ever.

    Ever.

    That kitty better be highly skilled in close-quarters anti-murder-fish combat if she doesn’t want her legs to end up like the unfortunate buckets.

  • eternity08

    I think this is something that Katia has to do. I don’t mean this literally but more as a form of a confidence booster. Think about it.
    So, my suggestion is just forget her from going down the well (and thus stopping her from achieving her full potential) and think of ideas of how to help her.

    P.S. By “full potential” I mean seeing what she can actually do, not having all her stats at 100.
    P.S.S. For some reason the Skeleton Key from Skyrim jumps to mind.

  • NoriMori

    I don’t understand why everyone is so opposed to this suggestion. I’m curious to see what happens. I mean, it’s not like she’s going to submerge herself in the well. She’s not THAT stupid. I hope.

    I dunno, I guess I’m one of the few people here that wants to see Katia succeed here. I realize that she doesn’t have to succeed at everything she tries, but after we’ve(!) invested so much time in it, I want to see it through to the end. Even if it means doing something that seems dumb. Katia’s been doing dumb things since she got here, and look at the progress she’s made! If she hadn’t done the dumb thing of exploring the ruins and touching the blue fire (what’s that called again), who knows if she ever would have found out how to do magic. And if she hadn’t done the dumb thing of drinking again and ending up at Quill-Weave’s, she would have missed the dinner, and (somewhat) getting over her fear of royalty, and meeting Asotil and thus having someone to escort her to Kvatch.

    Everyone seems to feel that this forebodes doom. I think it forebodes UNEXPECTED SUCCESS AND PURE AWESOMENESS.

    @Anonymous,

    “So, uh….
    5 days for some text and a single new panel?
    Come on, Kaz.”

    It’s called pacing. Besides, all the panels look new to me, dude.

  • someone
    • eternity08

      Nice

  • (required)

    This can only possibly end in tears.

  • rawmeat

    those things ate through a metal bucket dont risk it

    • The Nerevarine

      Those things eat through EBONY ARMOR. Don’t do it!

      • Wind

        She needs electric spells. That way she can blast the water with high-voltage magicka and fry the damn fish without getting close.

      • Righteous Almond

        I don’t think 105 pound Katia (By my estiment, she seems to be in good shape) would be able to swim, kill evil hate-everything fish while wearing 200 pound ebony armor.

  • Wind

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I just finished up the Skyrim side-quest “A Night to Remember.” The irony of it all is that my character is a Khajiit mage (same thing from Morrowind on), and the quest is about how you got drunk off of 3 drinks and went on a drunken rampage all over Skyrim; then you spend the next 20 minutes retracing your steps from last night. I think I laughed so hard I busted a lung.

  • Illidan

    ferd1991, YOU FOOL!
    DO YOU WANT TO KILL US ALL?
    YEAH, CAPS LOCK ASSAULT RIFLE OF INSTANT RAGE!

    • ferd1991

      If I said only slightly, would you believe me?

  • Weaselsmasher

    Katia, dear, you DO realize that if things don’t go just right, what people will see is “the khajiit who put slaughterfish in the well”, right?

    Just go tell the vampire that there’s a stash of vials of blood hidden in a chest in the bottom of the well. You can omit that it’s slaughterfish-blood and it’s still in the slaughterfish.

  • RocketFetus

    This can only end

    *puts on shades*

    WELL

    “YEAAAAAAAAAAAH”

    • BlackFox

      Lol XD

    • TheLogicalOne

      I almost laughed, then I realized how OVER USED that is…

    • Dousiq

      Well well well, what have we here?

      A bad pun? You should dig a little deeper.

  • redjarman

    Forget the fish, they’re gonna starve death stuck in a well anyway. TO THE MAGE GUILD!

    • redjarman

      *to death. I’m stupid.

      • friendly troll

        Don’t be so hard on yourself. 🙂

  • BlackFox

    Wow, slow down kitty. I dont want you to do anything that can harm you at the momment.
    Think about it. If you climb down the well, the slaughterfish is probably going to: worst senario, Kill you
    If you sill would make it they would probably bite and ripp your beutiful dress.
    Going to the mages guild extremly harmed and/or in a very poor state would not be the way to introduce yourself to a bunch of fancy mages.

    Remember that the name of the fish is slaughterfish… SLAUGHTER-FISH… think about it…

  • MichaelB

    oka katia, follow these instructions.
    first, find a rat (bear with me)
    second: kill the rat and stuff it into your pack (trust me, it’ll be worth it)
    third: climb down the well using the rope as support, and stop about 3 feet above the water.
    fourth: dangle the rat over the water, make sure to let some of it’s blood drip down
    fifth: when a slaughterfush jumps out of thre water to grab the rat, you snatch it in mid-air and kill it with your teeth then stuff it in your pack.
    sixth: repeat untill all the slaughterfish are gone.

    this way you’ll not only get the fish out, but with a quick fireball, you’ll have some nice cooked claughterfish for dinner
    🙂

    • TheLogicalOne

      Into the suggestion box, that’s where this is supposed to be typed into…Don’t worry, I’ll do it for you.

      • MichaelB

        dont forget to say it was from me!

  • ya know……nothing horrible has happened to her lately.

    i think it’s about that time again……. >_>;;;

    • The Nerevarine

      She’s climbing down a well with at least two slaughterfish. At what point did you doubt that something bad was going to happen?

  • Righteous Almond

    What a great idea, why not just climb down with the “rope” you got from Quill-Weaves room, into a confined, water filled space that is filled with fish as big as your arm. Did I mention the teeth? But hey, cats love water, and in the heat of the moment struggle to keep yourself from experiancing a horrible, fishy smelling death, you might discover you have a power other than fire balls. Yay for optimism.

  • polybius

    So, how do you exactly decide whether or not to draw the side fluffs on Katia’s face? Because at first I was left with the impression that only close-up shots required them but this last page has completely shattered my theories.

    • TheReason

      I think your right about the close-up = face fluff thing; the last panel might just be to show that her heads turning/is turned more towards us but not directly.. or something xD
      So hopefully no theory shattering today~ 😀

  • Riddler

    Hey I don’t know how to use that command post thing so can someone please put this up?

    Plan A: her magic is created via emotions right? When ever she is pissed ( or angered) at a cat burn fire happens, we need electricity. If she feels existed or perhaps a better term would be electrified, zap goes the fishes. If this works than other emotional manipulations will mean more magic

    Plan B: the slaughter fish are just like sharks, if they smell blood they attack even if it’s another slaughter fish. It’s a bit messier but katia can do this while staying safe and with all that blood in the water, she can easily sell some to the vampire with a jelly fedish

    Pick which ever one you want just please put one up there! Thank you

    • Riddler

      Plan B: cry one drop of blood over well attached to nothing, just a drop of blood to start the WSFF ( well slaughterfish fighting federation!) booya

  • Riddler

    Also did anyone think to look in those crates and barrels by the walls?

  • Nooooooooooooohahahahahahaha Kaz you sneaky jerk. Just slip that last one in there right as she walks away. That panel had me laughing so hard… with horror. Can’t wait to see what happens XD

  • This comic really has lost its charm and become monotonous. The adventures of a slutty, drunken, khajiit stumbling around and waking up with all sorts of random strangers after drunken one night stands (with possible argonian lesbian action?) Funny, exciting and fresh. The khajiit getting stuck in terrible situations, trapped and with all hope lost? Quaint and amusing. The kjajiit being stuck in awkward situations where shes surrounded by her worst fears (nobility) and terrified she’ll mess up? Relate-able and convincing. The pain-fully slow accent to wizardry, which never actually takes place, and is filled with more boring side-quests than an adventurer’s quest log, each pointless comic taking at least a week to complete? Stale, bland and tasteless. Spice it up man! SPICE IT UP!!!!

    • Kazerad

      Totally noted.

      This is the first time I’ve ever tried a webcomic so I’ve been experimenting with a lot of stuff in terms of pacing and story flow. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is that pacing a webcomic is like pacing two stories at once: on one hand it has to read smoothly to an archival reader who takes the whole story in one shot, and on the other hand it has to read smoothly to a serial reader who suffers an awkward, week-long pause at the end of every page. While I’m confident I can, in time, bring the current events around and render them sufficiently relevant and spiced, that doesn’t do much for serial readers such as yourself!

      I’ll try to kick the update speed up a notch in response. If this is a naturally slow-paced portion that ultimately works in context, then I’ll prove its relevance sooner. If I’m legitimately screwing up on the pacing, then at least I’ll get through it faster.

      Stick with me here, please! And thanks for the honesty.

      • No problem. And I do just want to express here that I do thoroughly enjoy the comics, as they are funny, original, and have a certain aspect of charm. And I also think perhaps you might want to add in a few game related puns. Since technically this is the adventures of a submersion style video game character, perhaps it would be amusing to end a weeks section with the pause menu being brought up, and Katia not noticing whatsoever. Or perhaps a “Game saved” or “Autosaving” text appearing in the top left corner, and Katia barely noticing, maybe just a sideways glance at it before she returns to what ever she was working at.

        • TSED

          No no no no!

          Keep the overt game puns out! The wonky game mechanics stuff popping up on occasion (like the orc with a PC inventory) is hilarious, but also EXACTLY right. I really can’t discourage that suggestion enough.

          As an aside that will become relevant in a minute, I found this webcomic maybe 2 months ago. It was immediately inserted into my top 5 webcomics, which is impressive given that my webcomics folder contains a number greater than 80.

          Anyway, yes, this portion IS slow. Lulls in action are important, and I think it’d be fine from an archival point of view, but it’s difficult to stay excited at the current pacing.

    • TechSmurf

      I’m enjoying the slow ascent to Wizard (beard optional). Heck, this story has made basic competency a satisfying achievement.

      Any time you catch up on a story’s archive, there’s going to be a change of pace. I’d love to see more updates, but not at the expense of you burning out.

  • Raisaki

    since the rope is on a pulley won’t it start hurtling down at a fast rate until you drop into the water and maybe drown or get eaten? BTW I’m pretty sure Quill-Weave gave you 10 coin for replacing the book alone and another 15 to stay one night so yeah you could definitely bargain some more with that guy

  • Jamie

    Just remember: You can’t spell “slaughter” without “laughter” 🙂

    • The Nerevarine

      I’d prefer that we be spelling “safety” instead.

  • TB Tabby

    No pun intended, Katia, but you may have bigger fish to fry. That woman with the poison was acting suspicious. You should try and find out where she went.

  • Arcanate

    The boiling approach would have been best.
    Oh, and when does Dmitri get his lich on and revenge his death?

  • Loki

    The Slaughterfish will likely die of starvation on their own, the woman who was going to poison the city of Kvatch seems like a bigger problem. She could have just been using the Slaughterfish as an excuse to poison the watersystem.

    Assuming you discover her true intentions (if she has any) you would be a local hero!

  • MLaRF

    What’s wrong? You gonna pussy out?

    • The Nerevarine

      I, myself, don’t ‘pussy out’ when faced with slaughterfish because I am an experienced adventurer and warrior. Compared to all the things that have tried to squash, smash, eviscerate, damn, stab, incinerate, freeze, electrocute, and simply eat me, slaughterfish are nothing. However, I am also someone who is armored and in possession of several artifacts of power. Our dear lady has only one item of note and that is the amulet that prevents her from doing magic.

      In short; I think that ‘pussying out’ is acceptable in this situation.

  • Odahviing

    Oh God, she’ll die.

  • Michael

    I wouldn’t. Even If you do somehow manage to kill the Slaughter fishes without becoming a meal, you most likely won’t have the strength to climb out. Just move on.

  • Righteous Almond

    Pour a bag of peas down the well. Fish can’t breath in peas, they’re the worst fruit.

    • TSED

      THIS. This so hard.

  • Alex

    Katia: Drink lots of poison, trick the fish into eating you.

  • dtlux14

    There is only pain down that well…

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