2017-12-16 [DMFA # 1805] Spies like them

[MT Hazard]

So are those are the known spies, I wonder if there any others?

Also of interest is that in a party with Cubi and demons (at least one of them) the dangerous one there is a being.

[Tapewolf]

Also of interest is that in a party with Cubi and demons (at least one of them) the dangerous one there is a being.

Not necessarily.  Given what we know I would not put it past Hizell to have 'Cubi in his service - a promise of protection for their clan if they help kill the others.
Either way, it is rather horrible to see those three 'Cubi laughing and joking with someone who would happily murder them at a moment's notice.

So.  Cameos.  Sierra Den I recognise, and I think that's probably Paige (but it could be an effeminate-looking Paladin).  The cheetah girl looks familiar, as does the snep with the purple hair.  But I can't put names to either of them.

As for Valentina, does she know she's pitting herself against someone so powerful she can run multiple instances of herself?  It seems a bit like Piflak is cheating - or possibly slipping if she's measuring herself against so low a bar.

EDIT: It'll be interesting to know how Dan reacts to the fact that Abel was supposed to be at the party but was maimed by Hizell...

[mithril]

i believe bird guy in panel three is Benjamin from The Eye of Ramalach
the Cheetah lady might be Mihari, the katbox's mascot..

the short one in the second panel with the stripped ears might be Jigsaw from LastRes0rt..

[Akktari]

Cheetah!!!

That is all.
(My favorite animal)

[Cassi-kun]

As for Valentina, does she know she's pitting herself against someone so powerful she can run multiple instances of herself?  It seems a bit like Piflak is cheating - or possibly slipping if she's measuring herself against so low a bar.

I don't think she expects too bad of an outcome - if she's at one of Piflak's parties, she likely knows how strong Piflak is.

And it seems Piflak is watching her for business reasons, as she says Valentina is there for corporate espionage and to "discredit" her. If she was sold out to a company she didn't already own, it would impact her on a financial level at least.

[Reeves_Dove]

Also of interest is that in a party with Cubi and demons (at least one of them) the dangerous one there is a being.

Not necessarily.  Given what we know I would not put it past Hizell to have 'Cubi in his service - a promise of protection for their clan if they help kill the others.
Either way, it is rather horrible to see those three 'Cubi laughing and joking with someone who would happily murder them at a moment's notice.

Considering that Piflak mentions he's a well-known adventurer, I doubt they're unaware of who they're talking to. And we have seen that Piflak does have security at the party - they dragged off one party-crasher already. Plus, it seems likely to me that in order to get invited to a Piflak party, you have to be known to have good impulse control - good enough at least that you're not going to start attacking the other guests just because you're an adventurer and they're not a Being.

And that's before taking into consideration the likelihood that Piflak's parties are considered a non-combat area. (Well - she probably has fight pits set up, if you want to do that, but that's a controlled setting. Entirely different.) Not to mention the social humiliation that'd follow if you tried to attack one of her guests and had the bad luck to survive - being on the "never getting another invite" list is probably the death knell for a lot of careers, and it would certainly not look good on most resumes.

[Merlin]

Sierra and Paige are the only peeps I recognise (I only recognise characters I have drawn myself, apparently)

[WhyNot?]

Either way, it is rather horrible to see those three 'Cubi laughing and joking with someone who would happily murder them at a moment's notice.

Considering that Piflak mentions he's a well-known adventurer, I doubt they're unaware of who they're talking to. And we have seen that Piflak does have security at the party - they dragged off one party-crasher already. Plus, it seems likely to me that in order to get invited to a Piflak party, you have to be known to have good impulse control - good enough at least that you're not going to start attacking the other guests just because you're an adventurer and they're not a Being.

Well, he's well known as an Adventurer and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. I really doubt he's well known, he'd never be used for spy gigs for one, as the agent of a guy who wants to commit genocide. Just because he won't kill them here, due to how stupid that'd be, it's still unsettling to see people having a friendly conversation with someone whose default is crossing reasons why it'd be prudent to let them live off instead of coming up with reasons why he should kill them which is what most people, even if those reasons suck, do.

[Tapewolf]

Considering that Piflak mentions he's a well-known adventurer, I doubt they're unaware of who they're talking to. And we have seen that Piflak does have security at the party - they dragged off one party-crasher already. Plus, it seems likely to me that in order to get invited to a Piflak party, you have to be known to have good impulse control - good enough at least that you're not going to start attacking the other guests just because you're an adventurer and they're not a Being.

What they are probably unaware of, unless like Piflkak, they are doing a very good job of hiding it, is that this particular adventurer works for Hizell, i.e. someone who would pay a valuable cash prize for your head and clan mark.
The danger is not that he's likely to attack them during the party because he is not.  But these individuals might still miss the next party because they've been found in a ditch minus the aforementioned body parts.  He doesn't even have to kill them himself, just tell Hizell where they live or any other weaknesses they've let slip in polite conversation.  When Piflak starts asking questions, he can flee to Hizell's domain where a 'Cubi is going to have no chance of extraditing him.

[e_voyager]

sound reasonable. i doubt is any living being want's to be made into pie. even if it's a delicious pie.

[PhycoKrusk]

What they are probably unaware of, unless like Piflkak, they are doing a very good job of hiding it, is that this particular adventurer works for Hizell, i.e. someone who would pay a valuable cash prize for your head and clan mark.
The danger is not that he's likely to attack them during the party because he is not.  But these individuals might still miss the next party because they've been found in a ditch minus the aforementioned body parts.  He doesn't even have to kill them himself, just tell Hizell where they live or any other weaknesses they've let slip in polite conversation.  When Piflak starts asking questions, he can flee to Hizell's domain where a 'Cubi is going to have no chance of extraditing him.

I have doubts about that scenario, if only because information is more valuable than a dead cubi, and because Piflak is unlikely to ask questions because she doesn't need to; unless he's already normally in Hizell's domain, Torin would just stop showing up at the Guild one day.

Kind of curious though that no one's yet mentioned that, if Torin is there to spy, Hizell might be incredibly interested to know about this new guy with wings that showed up and is a very big deal for some reason.

Then again, maybe not. He's hiding his headwings, and unless I'm mistaken, his clan mark still hasn't appeared. Torin may just mistake him for an angel — likely not unusual, given whose party he's at — ask a few leading questions and think nothing else of the encounter. So as long as Dan doesn't give his last name, Hizell probably won't suspect anything.




Because even if you're a Great Wyrm of the Last Age, you can still be a chump.

[Tapewolf]

Kind of curious though that no one's yet mentioned that, if Torin is there to spy, Hizell might be incredibly interested to know about this new guy with wings that showed up and is a very big deal for some reason.

Not sure there's much to mention on that account since that's basically the summary of the last two pages.  Piflak intercepts Dan at the entrance to warn him to hide his head-wings and clan mark, since Torin is spying for Hizell.  Fortunately Dan has been primed by Fa'Lina on the fact that Hizell will consider him public enemy number one as soon as he is known to exist.

[WhyNot?]

Kind of curious though that no one's yet mentioned that, if Torin is there to spy, Hizell might be incredibly interested to know about this new guy with wings that showed up and is a very big deal for some reason.

Then again, maybe not. He's hiding his headwings, and unless I'm mistaken, his clan mark still hasn't appeared. Torin may just mistake him for an angel — likely not unusual, given whose party he's at — ask a few leading questions and think nothing else of the encounter. So as long as Dan doesn't give his last name, Hizell probably won't suspect anything.

Well Piflak did say that he should be 'Cubi incognito' because of spies, this is just her pointing out who and why they'd be such an issue. It may be too early to tell but it doesn't seem like there's going to be anything to mark him out as any sort of big deal so anything short of him mentioning his last name and it ringing a bell somewhere down the line from Torin to Hizell shouldn't be a problem and Dan's probably not dumb enough to do that. So as long as he doesn't bump into somebody who knows his name, doesn't like him and has no idea when to keep schtum it'll be fine...

As an aside one thing that I've always questioned is that if dragons bought in Edward because of his connection to Dee why did they never consider checking out his house? It seems like that'd be the first thing someone would do. It does make me question if they grabbed him for other reasons or, considering the only person to say dragons have him is Biggs who is somewhat of a manipulative liar, whether that's true at all.

[Tapewolf]

As an aside one thing that I've always questioned is that if dragons bought in Edward because of his connection to Dee why did they never consider checking out his house? It seems like that'd be the first thing someone would do. It does make me question if they grabbed him for other reasons or, considering the only person to say dragons have him is Biggs who is somewhat of a manipulative liar, whether that's true at all.

IIRC Edward went into Hizell's domain himself, presumably at Dee's behest and then got caught, I don't think he was dragged off there.

[The One Guy]

Then again, maybe not. He's hiding his headwings, and unless I'm mistaken, his clan mark still hasn't appeared.

His clan mark has appeared; it happened during his fight at the Soulstealers.  However, since then he's been covering it up with makeup.

[WhyNot?]

As an aside one thing that I've always questioned is that if dragons bought in Edward because of his connection to Dee why did they never consider checking out his house? It seems like that'd be the first thing someone would do. It does make me question if they grabbed him for other reasons or, considering the only person to say dragons have him is Biggs who is somewhat of a manipulative liar, whether that's true at all.

IIRC Edward went into Hizell's domain himself, presumably at Dee's behest and then got caught, I don't think he was dragged off there.

I don't quite recall that being mentioned in the comic itself. From what I can tell the comic Edward related scenes, starting from when it's first revealed he's captured by dragons, go: Biggs saying he's safe, Daniel thinking about camping, Mace disregarding him as not relevant, Lex and Pyro talking about her childhood and Taun saying she knew where he was. Nothing in there to indicate why it happened. Maybe it was said in a forum post? Kinda like when Amber implied Dee specifically sought out Lost Lake ages before we knew why it was important to her.

[Dracologist]

Now I want to see if Dan has the DDR skills to hold his own against a clan leader.  That would be so much fun to watch.

[Tapewolf]

I don't quite recall that being mentioned in the comic itself.

I can't find that either, now. Probably best to disregard it, then...

[Prroul]

Then again, maybe not. He's hiding his headwings, and unless I'm mistaken, his clan mark still hasn't appeared.

His clan mark has appeared; it happened during his fight at the Soulstealers.  However, since then he's been covering it up with makeup.

You know, that reminds me,

We see here that at least Aliph knows exactly who Destania is, that Dan is her son, then later, after recovering, admits to knowing which clan he must be from. And while Aliph is certainly knowledgeable in many areas, and certainly competent within his core strengths, he doesn't exactly have the best information-gathering network that we've seen, and his anti-social attitudes should only reinforce that.

So... how did he know, even back then. And more importantly, who else knows?

[Tapewolf]

We see here that at least Aliph knows exactly who Destania is, that Dan is her son, then later, after recovering, admits to knowing which clan he must be from. And while Aliph is certainly knowledgeable in many areas, and certainly competent within his core strengths, he doesn't exactly have the best information-gathering network that we've seen, and his anti-social attitudes should only reinforce that.

So... how did he know, even back then. And more importantly, who else knows?

In 388, we see a flashback from an unknown prior encounter between Dan and DP, where he references Dan's 'Cubi-ness.

In page 871 we see that Destania/Biggs and DP have come into conflict previously.  This is interesting because DP seems to be on the same side as Destania when it comes to dragons.  His thoughts after recovering were thoughts of forming an alliance with Dan and through him, Cyra - not of putting an end to Dan's interferences forever by informing Hizell.  Plus the manor has a statue of a horse eating a dragon...

[Jigsaw Forte]

The short one in the second panel with the stripped ears might be Jigsaw from Last Res0rt...

I'm usually either too oblivious or particular about things to say one way or the other. Although it would be a nod to my sneaking Jigsaw into a guest comic ages ago, since she was only visible from the back.

The next question -- is she there as a musician, or has she suitably impressed Piflak with an impersonation of a Piflak-clan Cubi that Piflak is more than happy to play along?

Of course, I'd be shocked to see her again regardless... cameos are quite "blink and you miss it" as is.