I think the lesson of today’s episode is strikingly obvious: That it is crucial for small business owners to offer side benefits like parking validation, in order to set their business apart from the competition. The applicability of this lesson is not restricted to red-skinned, horned, winged, noseless, crook-teethed business owners with red, glowy eyes…but perhaps red-skinned, horned, winged, noseless, crook-teethed business owners with red, glowy eyes would benefit particularly from learning it, since they face a number of additional challenges in the public relations field.
It is very commendable that Mopey is trying her hardest not to discriminate against red-skinned, horned, winged, noseless, crook-teethed humans with red, glowy eyes, of course…but perhaps that also shows that she still hasn’t adapted fully to her fantasy surroundings. In fantasy fiction, mere superficialities like being a red-skinned, horned, winged, noseless, crook-teethed human with red, glowy eyes are usually still completely indicative of a person’s underlying characters – save in rare cases where the DM is trying to pull of a teaching moment…but the DM our heroes have met never seemed to avail himself of teaching moments, so I think Mopey could have discounted that consideration.
Today’s episode also reveals, at long last, how the (censored) of Vecna ended up in that high-rising fortress. Not that that’s a question that would have troubled the reader up to this point, since it seems a perfectly suitable place for an important artifact to be kept, anyway, but still…So it was King Harkinian who was behind it all. Which doesn’t really matter much, either, but what’s perhaps somewhat relevant is that it was a good king. If an artifact is placed somewhere on the orders of a good king, it obviously doesn’t bode well to remove it from there, that’s how that sort of context is regularly constructed in fantasy fiction.
Another useful lesson from today’s clip: if you’re trying to keep a fortress inviolate by putting up a large sign pointing out that it’s invincible, make sure to include a translation in barbarian pictograms. It’s not like barbarians are inconsiderate, but if nobody tells them that a certain fortification cannot be successfully besieged, you can’t really blame them for successfully besieging it. The evil cat-people have less of an excuse, although they might argue that the taking of the fortress by the barbarians gives them a plausible reason to doubt its invincibility.
And, of course, in the meantime the fortress has also been successfully invaded by K’ip and company, and by our group of heroes…so, all told, perhaps King Harkinian wasn’t that much better than his reputation, anyway.
More on Mon…uh, Thursday.