Our heroes find loot of not only questionable value, but questionable character...
Nerd By Northwest #362 - "Magic Swords Should Be Seen and Not Heard"
(Click on the image to see the full-size version)
Thanks to everyone for being patient with the long hiatus between strips (or at least not posting hate comments 😏). I've been helping my mother with a bunch of to-do tasks and household maintenance, and combined with keeping up with Bitcoin and market action that leaves little time for anything else. Can't say when I'll be back on a more normal schedule, but hopefully I'll find more time to crank out more comics after we return home to Mongolia next week.
Anyhow, this strip borrows from the actual loot our party got from running the "Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl" adventure. We did in fact get the Frost Brand sword, Staff of Frost, and Ring of Fire Resistance in the space of one hour of play. Normally all great items, but in that arctic setting and against cold-immune monsters they're all about as useful as a condom inside a nunnery...
Now one thing I DID change for the strip was making the frost brand sword sentient, with a personality and will of its own. Such things are a long-standing staple of D&D and fantasy fiction... quite often they are malicious personalities that seek to influence or control the wielder into committing evil acts or pursuing a path to self-destruction. But what if the magic weapon's personality wasn't evil, but was simply just a douchebag? You know, the guy who likes to correct everyone on trivial stuff that doesn't matter, eats the last piece of pizza when he knows it was yours, and constantly says inappropriate things that make ladies uncomfortable like "Hey sexy mama, you got a twin sister?"
The only thing I'm missing is a name for this magic sword. So let's crowd-source this sucker... what do YOU all think its name should be? The winner gets their idea memorialized forever as the name of the sword in this webcomic! Which in real terms means that, along with a couple bucks, would get you a gas station cup of coffee. 😁
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