| abstract | - Wannabe adventurer Ciria gets her first quest - to fetch four runaways from the local Old Folk's Home. The reward is great and the job seems easy enough - What could possibly go wrong? Well, as it turns out, the four escaped characters are a gang of adventuring veterans, having quested together for 40 years. They are, however willing to go along peacefully - provided that Ciria lets them finish their current adventure first... The Cast
* Ai Yah - This monk can be counted on to provide moral guidance, make literature references and be the Straight Man to the other, zanier characters.
* Ben, Arch-mage, exposition and comic relief.
* Ciria. Born in an inconspicuous village, and raised there by very normal-seeming parents, Ciria thirsts for adventure, despite the conflicts it causes with her well-developed common sense.
* Nimble, pickpocket, punster and leader of the gang, he was raised in the gang from a young age. Cunning and Genre Savvy, he favors creative solutions to his problems.
* Hook Horsebane - sarcastic Dwarven war veteran with multiple prosthetics and a mercenary attitude. Enjoys arguing with Ai.
* All Genes Are Codominant: Averted in Ben's case. He is a half-elf, but has a full beard, because his Y chromosome was inherited from his human father. It is stated that his sister look more elf-like, though.
* Bare-Fisted Monk: Ai fits the trope, and was indeed very helpful when escaping unequipped from a dungeon.
* Celibate Hero: Ai is determined to avoid sinful behaviour. Which is why his negotiations with some prostitutes for a back massage are amusing...
* Chew Toy: Stony loses his bar regularly. Subverted in that he has adapted to the inevitable, and receives monetary compensation for the various disasters.
* Cloudcuckoolander: Ben regularly talks to his staff, and sometimes make weird statements (which may nonetheless turn out to be correct).
* Contractual Genre Blindness: This strip
* Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Will the Necromancer invites the gang in for a business proposition over tea - served in skulls, of course.
* Divine Intervention: The Gang's Divine Patron gives a discrete nudge to things from time to time.
* Exposed to the Elements: Ai Yah normally goes about in a loincloth. For a holidays strip, while the rest of the Gang had donned thick winter outfits, he's geared up, too - in a vest, shorts and sandals...
* Elves vs. Dwarves: Played straight; at any rate, Dwarves don't seem to care too much for Elves, while the latter are being more graceful about it.
* Fat and Skinny: The thin, cynical Orc scout Tikker and his inexperienced nephew Kogg, a burly Orc/Ogre crossbreed, fit the trope perfectly.
* For Science!: Check Elondaro's reaction to the comment on animists and plagues.
* Gender Blender Name: Aren't asian people named Ai usually female?
* Hot Skitty-On-Wailord Action: Kogg (Half-Orc/Half-ogre) is the product of a drunken bet by Tikker's older brother that he could seduce an ogress. He won the bet, but lost his life.
* I Have This Friend: Ben is embarrassed, purchasing magic books for Ciria.
* Just Between You and Me: Kazprok, main antagonist in the first chapter, captures the Gang and promptly gives them a lecture - complete with zombie-held blackboard -- about his current Evil Plan. After voting on it, the Gang gives his plan the grade "You'll never get away with this!". It is stated that the TOP grade is "You FIEND!"
* Mauve Shirt: Several Orcs have been named, and given some panel time.
* Never My Fault: This strip:
* Not What It Looks Like: this strip, where Ai has just spent a few hours teaching the employees of a "massage parlour" to actually give an acceptable back massage.
* Our Orcs Are Different: Orcs in Golden Age are green-skinned savages, on the darker side of Neutral, who while chiefly being Mooks still manage to get some screen time.
* Running Gag: The Troll Bridge tends to be destroyed fairly regularly, to the annoyance of its Trollish Barkeep.
* though this is mostly an Informed Ability, since we only have one chapter (and a few flashbacks) to base this on.
* Separated at Birth: Elondaro and Will. One was raised by Elves, the other by Necromancers. It turns out that the Necromancers grabbed the wrong baby. In the end we are informed the Will and Elondaro were not twins, but triplets...
* Sidequest: Averted by Nimble. When Elondaro suggests that the Gang perform a small quest for him to gain his trust, Nimble responds by showing official documentation that they are, in fact, trustworthy.
*
* Or sometimes invoked by Nimble...
* Spit Take: Happens off-panel in an I Drank What situation.
* Spy Speak: In this strip, Ben uses a codephrase to get to a secret portal hidden in a library.
* Subverted in that he got the phrase wrong - the librarian later implies that most everyone does, and that she directs anyone speaking cryptically to the room with the portal, just in case they're NOT a random loonie.
* Sword and Sorcerer: Ben and Hook used to be mercenaries together, before the gang formed, and when Ben was more reliable.
* Tempting Fate: Usually played straight, but subverted in this strip when Ciria says "It's good to know that Mom and Dad are safe from the bad guys I get to face". Cue panel of parents with some of said dangers -- having soundly beaten them up. Hey, even irony can only do so much...
* Unfortunate Names: Hook Horsebane dislikes his Epithet.
*
* Since we never hear his original last name, one may assume it was even worse...
* Unusual Euphemism: Elondaro, about a villainous tree: "Son of a beech".
* Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Zaphaster Badwill the Unholy ("Call me Will") was named and raised by the guild of Necromancers.
* With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Ben's zanyness is a direct result of knowing too much magic (especially, his favored school, Chaos magic). It has been stated that magic can overwrite your brain, which is why students memorize all those gestures and words, to make casting harder, or at least something you don't do in your sleep.
* You All Meet in An Inn: Inns are good places to find quests.
* You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Justified in that only non-humans have weird hair-colors
* Younger Than They Look: Orcs have short lifespans - the Orc scouts Tikker and Kogg are 14 and 9 years old, respectively.
* You Wont Get Away With This: How the group reacts to the Necromancer's plan.
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