Pickles' plan comes together at last...
Nerd By Northwest #326 – “Once a Cook, Always a Cook”
(Click on the image to see the full-size version)
Oof!... didn't plan on it taking this long to complete this double-size strip, but to say it was challenging in drawing some of the action is an understatement. The idea of drawing a character who is wall-running is SO much easier than the actual act of doing it! While I think it came together well, I admit looking forward to doing some simpler strips for a bit!
Admittedly it's true the adventurers (even with almost all of them without weapons and only their low-level spells remaining) could probably take down even an extra-tough hill giant like The Keeper. They are third tier adventurers after all, and Sir Marko still possesses his weapons & armor and Wayen the monk needs no weaponry to kick a lot of butt. And yes Dann Zando the Bard also has his weapons and most of his spells as well... but hey he's a bard, so it's not like he's gonna matter anyway! 😉
But like Pickles pointed out, this way there's that extra benefit in ensuring the giants' freed orc slaves don't start looking at the adventurers like those marooned Looney Tunes cartoon characters who hungrily hallucinate their buddies looking like a scrumptious beef roast or tasty hamburger. And while deep-fried hill giant is far from the ideal meal, when feeding dozens of hungry orcs you can't go wrong with a metric ton of meat! Well-seasoned meat too, and not just salt; the container Pickles shot with her Catapult Spell to blind the giant was a blend of chili powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Effective AND yummy... like she said, no matter what you gotta take a little pride in your work!
And with The Keeper now out of the picture, in the next few strips it's time for our adventurers to focus on what's REALLY important... finding the LOOT!
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That's a pretty nasty way to win a fight, but I suppose the best giant is one that's dead and cooked in hot molten lard! If it's olive oil it might even be tasty.
These are hill giants (the inbred, fat hillbillies of the giant world) so you know they'd cook EVERYTHING in lard and that's the only cooking fat you'd find in their pantry. If any of them other than the chief's wife ever ate salads, they'd probably put lard on that too.
Olive oil? Pfft.... olive oil is for those hoity-toity cloud giant snobs... 😏
Right, but how do you divide up the XP? One plate at a time?
It goes by restaurant kitchen heirarchy! As the head chef (or chef de cuisine) Pickles gets the biggest share of XP, with Nolan and Wayen as deputy chefs (sous chefs) getting the 2nd biggest shares. The rest are at best station chefs (chef de partie) next down the XP share list. Except for Brentwick... like any pinche dishwasher or busboy, he's pretty much at the bottom for everything... in terms of respect as well as the XP. 😄