Aaand…K’ip is off on his grand adventure. As promised, without much further delay.
Any lingering concerns of K’ip’s about the safety and general advisability of the whole effort where efficiently quashed in panel one, by reference to the fact that this scripted cutscene has only one outcome available. He can press ‘X‘ as much as he wants, he won’t get ahead until he relents and presses ‘A‘ instead. One might recall that as a weakness common to some early console RPGs, but truth be told, it’s also always been a weakness of certains GMs in pen-and-paper RPGs, so no major changes there. =P
Then K’ip catches a lucky break and gets a short sword! Which is a lucky break in so far as it’s a reasonably effective weapon in his hands…and there are a lot of RPGs that have you start out with a dagger, a loincloth and 5 copper coins, even if you’ve just received your all-deciding, ultra crucial mission from a King who lives in a castle made of nothing but armories and treasuries. (I’m not mentioning the name “Lord British” here… oops, I think I just did.) By that standard, starting out with a useful basic set of equipment is already a treat, and K’ip appreciates it accordingly. Perhaps a bit too much, even, as acutely observed by the Elder. The cold, shiny blade calls out to that lurking dark spot in every feline’s soul… you know, the one that devours couches, curtains and smaller mammals by the truckload. >_> Well, I guess it would be counterproductive to ask K’ip to leave his more destructive impulses behind when embarking on this sort of a journey, anyway.
And then the Elder offers a further gift! And one that would actually address that “alone” thing, to boot, unlike the sword. But here K’ip acute instincts save him. With the same instinctive surety a common house cat exhibits when presented with the new puppy, K’ip senses hardly bearable annoyance in his future at the first sight (and sound) of his new fairy companion, and gets out of Dodge* in appropriate haste. And thus sets out on his big adventure with a lot more enthusiasm than you’d have predicted even four panels earlier. In that way, the fairy companion has already been very useful!
More on Thurs…uh, Monday.
* Did I mention that the Eni’lef village is called ‘Dodge’? Must have slipped my mind. It is, though, which goes back to the fact that it was founded as a tax dodge by some rich Eni’lef merchant of eras past. It’s a long story, but I don’t want to weigh my episode one down by talking about trade disputes…