Comic for May 4 2016

[BadJoke]

Where are the human civilians? Isn't that supposed to be their city?

The Wolf Keidran working for the Templars could be fearing for their status if the alliance with Tigers came into being. The Templars aren't exactly known for being reliable allies, so they could well throw the wolves working for them under the bus if they found the felines more useful for the time being.

Except Tigers aren't being recruited here. They're just making a political alliance or a pact of non agression, not a massive recruitment for Templar ranks.

I think back to that wolf from before, why work with the Templar? Do control spells have to be on a collar, or how do they even work?

Or he is doing it for the money. Or he believes in world peace under human rule. Or thinks humans will win anyway and so makes sure to be on the good side. Or maybe like Euchre he was searching to improve his magic among the bests and ended agreeing with their vision of the future.

It's not that hard to push people towards treason, you don't necessarily need magic.

Wolf Keidran working for their own empire. It would explain why they seem to be trying to prove that they are the Templar; they want their two enemies to weaken each other and potentially wipe one of themselves out for them.
Wolf Keidran working for the Templar. The only reason I can come up with for them doing it is that the attack is meant to fail. Everyone finds out that they were Wolf Keidran and think they were simply masquerading as the Templar to try and reinforce within the Tiger Keidran that the Templar truly are their friends and that the Wolf Keidran are the enemy.
A Templar splinter group. The reason is more or less self-explanatory.

The first two are possible, and I think the third is somewhat compatible with the second.

Still, if the second/third looks possible in a comic, as a plan itself it's incredibly unreliable. There's too many parameters, too many speculation... To succeed a plan must be simple. The more complicated, the biggest your chances of failure.

And then there's Creepy girl and Master Stalker who look happy to have thrown Trace in the middle of the upcoming madness... Which sounds even more intricate...

EDIT: Am I the only one thinking that, with his stretched out face and the tip of his hood pointing upwards, looks like an alien?

[Bellhead]

It has been an age since I posted here last, so let me make this worth it. My guess is that these are Wolves operating under a False Flag to mess up the Tiger/Templar peace accords. However, the last time we saw red Mana crystals... *checks archive* Never mind. The Bastian tower was blue. My memory is clearly shoddy. That said, red Mana in general has mind altering and generally corrupting effects on the user. As such, I propose that anti-Keidren forces within the Templar are backing these Wolves from the shadows.

Think about it. The alliance will be disrupted, and once the Wolf "Puppets" are taken out or self-destruct, the "Mainstream" Templars will believe that it was all a Wolf plot, while the "Hardliner" Templar sit back and reap the rewards.

You forgot Here and Here.

Also, you're thinking of black mana, not red mana. Black mana crystals are made from dying earth, and corrupt the user with mind-destroying symptoms. We know pretty much nothing about red mana, except that some crystals glow red while being used.

And yeah. Wolves. No better explanation, given the crystals. And the portal. And the lack of color on the emblem that nobody thought to mention, but not the twisted emblem, because that's just a trick of the camera. It's turned sideways by Cloakie's arm.

[amenon]

Hang on, hang on, hang on. If this were wolves pretending to be humans, then clearly the crystals would be hidden under the robes. The crystals are visible; so clearly these are humans pretending to be wolves pretending to be humans

Relevant.

(Seriously, though, it would be trivial to make an argument for why humans would want or need crystals here, so... yeah. All I'm sayin' is that it's the Templars, one way or another. Always blame the Templars )

[TinyVoices]

(Seriously, though, it would be trivial to make an argument for why humans would want or need crystals here, so... yeah. All I'm sayin' is that it's the Templars, one way or another. Always blame the Templars )

Humans don't need crystals, but I would think if you were going into battle you'd want more than one mag.

[CrRAR]

Awesome stuff!!! Amazing shift to dark and brooding suspense. Natani be damned. I'm worried now that Keith has booked it for the boundary what will become of him. *wimper*

Now, everyone (especially you Tigress #37) pile through the Riftwall portal!!! Post haste. Not all are destined to burn in the this two-timing hellfire!

To safety! ...maybe?

I can't wait till an obnoxious amount of people pour clown-car perv box style from the other end which is now in a gardening shed...or explode out of a closet on some poor unsuspecting shopkeeper. Half the world away.

lulz are to be had, tears are to be shed. Next time on Twokinds!

[Dadrobit]

First, let me say, "Hot Damn!" Those last two panels are sexy. Love the cloth folds simulation and shadows there on the cloak. Awesome job on that and the general ambiance of the town under fire.

Seriously, kudos.

(Seriously, though, it would be trivial to make an argument for why humans would want or need crystals here, so... yeah. All I'm sayin' is that it's the Templars, one way or another. Always blame the Templars )

Humans don't need crystals, but I would think if you were going into battle you'd want more than one mag.

Aye, but it would also work to further convince the Tigers that the Templar weren't involved.

My magic crystal ball tells me that this is all orchestrated by Brahn. He sends in some Templar disguised as Wolves disguised as Templar to attack the town. Then Brahn swoops in and saves the day unmasking the 'Templar' to actually be 'Wolves'. This further establishes not only the Templar image as the good guys to the Tigers, but also vilifies the Wolves as well. Both are great for Brahn and his attempts to found the Human/Tiger alliance.

If the 'Wolves' were unmasked, but were found to not be carrying crystals, then the Tigers would immediately be suspicious about how they were casting magic in the first place.

[avwolf]

Belated thought: I think the 'Meanwhile...' transition tells us that the Natani thing is occurring in realtime rather than flashback-mode.

That was something that struck me too.

Ah, so they're Wolves. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed that we're getting the obvious answer. Ah, well, I guess I was too clever by half. I still don't know why the Wolves would bother; it seems weirdly out of character for them. A reverse-double-cross by Templar-aligned Wolves is possible. That seems too clever by at least half as well, but at least it'd explain why they'd be doing this.

Here's my question: Is the final panel to establish that sometimes the Templar wear masks, since we have heretofore never seen a Templar wearing that kind of mask and we need it to be plausible? Or is it showing the Templar Tower in the town blowing up, which would be a very smart action by attacking wolves, since it'd pretty much put the Wolves and the Templar on even ground magically speaking?

[amenon]

Ah, so they're Wolves. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed that we're getting the obvious answer. Ah, well, I guess I was too clever by half. I still don't know why the Wolves would bother; it seems weirdly out of character for them. A reverse-double-cross by Templar-aligned Wolves is possible. That seems too clever by at least half as well, but at least it'd explain why they'd be doing this.

Have you not been keeping up? The state of the art is humans pretending to be wolves pretending to be humans

Or is it showing the Templar Tower in the town blowing up, which would be a very smart action by attacking wolves, since it'd pretty much put the Wolves and the Templar on even ground magically speaking?

That's not the Templar Tower. At a guess it could be something off of the building on the right here. [2016-01-14]

Edit: Or looking at it more carefully, it would appear to be whatever's behind the statue on the page I linked. If the sound effect was even funnier, I'd guess bell tower

Edit 2:

<~Tom> amenon: The thing blowing up is the belltower from the first panel of this page: http://twokinds.keenspot.com/archive.php?p=905
<~Tom> I thought about giving it a "bong!" sound effect as it was blowing up, but figured that might be a bit silly.

So close to making a good call

[avwolf]

Edit: Or looking at it more carefully, it would appear to be whatever's behind the statue on the page I linked. If the sound effect was even funnier, I'd guess bell tower

You're right, the Templar tower is most likely the rather spiral-looking tower there. This is just an arbitrary square stone tower built in the middle of the city so that Kei can dump hot oil on revelers that get out of hand or whatever. And we thought he didn't understand the Basidian perspective on things. I guess there's the third option that maybe it's there to establish that this is all serious business, what with it getting blown up.

[Kit.]

Both are great for Brahn and his attempts to found the Human/Tiger alliance.

The question is whether Sirus acts for or against Brahn.

[Phaing]

I ish confounded ...


Wolves, Templars, Masks, secret cultists, dupes.... Hmmm.

Okay, so we know the Gate was used, and we know that there were Wolves "sighted" nearby, and like everyone else I assumed it was the B-team. Whoops.
My only reason to do so was the OOC knowledge that the Inn with the other end of the gate had been over-run forest Wolves and (supposedly) destroyed. Whatever the case, it is in Forest-Wolf occupied territory now...

But, I have never seen Wolf-Keidran being shown as so powerful. Incredibly so, if they have just separated a Boss-Templar from a Dragon just outside town, and a Royal one at that.

So... what if they are not?
What if it's all BS?
Maybe it is because I just saw a movie called "now you see me" (don't bother) but I am wondering if this is all a case of misdirection. Has more than one guy tried to get past the barrier yet? Is that dramatic entrance and flaming whatever all an illusion?
Why?

Why go to the trouble, if the aim was not to go all einsatzkommando and wipe a bunch of people out?

Well... just spit-balling here... but if I wanted to kidnap a Princess of Dragons, and hold her prisoner after I had snuck her back through that Gate, I think I'd want a lollapalooza of a diversion. I'd save the real magic for taking that hostage.
A coupe like that could end the war very quickly, in favor of the Lupusand.
Last I saw, she was headed up a cliff, and what was up top didn't look like part of the town.

Just throwing in my 2 copper pieces.

[MirceaKitsune]

Those templars... they beautifully embody everything I hate the most. But things are once again becoming interesting

[Ddraig]

Spoiler!

It has been an age since I posted here last, so let me make this worth it. My guess is that these are Wolves operating under a False Flag to mess up the Tiger/Templar peace accords. However, the last time we saw red Mana crystals... *checks archive* Never mind. The Bastian tower was blue. My memory is clearly shoddy. That said, red Mana in general has mind altering and generally corrupting effects on the user. As such, I propose that anti-Keidren forces within the Templar are backing these Wolves from the shadows.

Think about it. The alliance will be disrupted, and once the Wolf "Puppets" are taken out or self-destruct, the "Mainstream" Templars will believe that it was all a Wolf plot, while the "Hardliner" Templar sit back and reap the rewards.

You forgot Here and Here.

Also, you're thinking of black mana, not red mana. Black mana crystals are made from dying earth, and corrupt the user with mind-destroying symptoms. We know pretty much nothing about red mana, except that some crystals glow red while being used.

And yeah. Wolves. No better explanation, given the crystals. And the portal. And the lack of color on the emblem that nobody thought to mention, but not the twisted emblem, because that's just a trick of the camera. It's turned sideways by Cloakie's arm.

Hmm... So both instances of red mana occurred with a spell that was designed to feed off the victim's life force, both were cast by a keidran via mana crystals. Anyone notice anything else in common that could be used to narrow it down?

As for the perpetrators, cloak, (normally) hidden crystals, oddly shaped mask and hood, and prior evidence of motivation lead me to believe they're wolves. Even the crystals would be hidden if Cloaky hadn't accidentally moved his cloak out of the way

Ah, so they're Wolves. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed that we're getting the obvious answer. Ah, well, I guess I was too clever by half. I still don't know why the Wolves would bother; it seems weirdly out of character for them. A reverse-double-cross by Templar-aligned Wolves is possible. That seems too clever by at least half as well, but at least it'd explain why they'd be doing this.

little bit here and there was another one where it was explained that Nat and Zen were sent to kill Flora *just in case* the tigers were brokering a peace treaty with the humans, but I can't seem to find that second one now.

[ReBob]

I think I'll go on record and say these are wolves, for sure. Showing the crystals is an intentional clue, no red herring misdirection. We'll at most see one defeated in the chaos and a few people find out (maybe one or more of our narrative characters), but the town will be destroyed and everyone flees in all directions.

Motivations and allegiance are up in the air, could be anything.

Wonder how wrong I'll end up being.

[The Rookie]

So, I had a thought regarding our favourite dragon fan girl and the Princess.

Reni would have likely taken Sarah to be detained for the time being, right?

So what are the chances that they'd be at or close to where the canine Kiedran are being held while this is all happening? It'd be interesting to see if a few of these cloaked figures drop in to release the captives (If these are Templar wolves, it'd make sense to the human loyalist alive. If they're normal wolves, an opportunity to gain more recruits) or kill them only to find themselves face to face with a dragon and an Adrakist.