Tarquin remains even-tempered about Enor and Gannji's escape by looking at the larger financial picture.
Cast
- Haley Starshine ◀ ▶
- Elan ◀ ▶
- Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator ◀ ▶
- Tarquin ◀ ▶
- Kilkil ◀ ▶
- Gannji ◀ ▶
- Enor ◀ ▶
- Empress of Blood (on banner) ◀ ▶
- A Crowd of Spectators
Transcript
- Panel 1
Enor: Gannji! Are you OK?
Gannji: Enor, your wing bands! They got cracked in the trampling!
Enor: So, you're OK, then?
Gannji: Yes! Turn around.
- Panel 2
Gannji breaks the bands holding Enor's wings folded using his spear as a lever, "crrrrrAAAK!"
Enor: Ohhh! It feels good to stretch!
Gannji: Stop stretching and stand still, I need to pry off the other one, too!
- Panel 3
Enor takes flight, carrying Gannji.
Enor: Hooray, I can fly!
Gannji: OK, but can you fly a little bit higher? I think the big carnivorous beast noticed us.
- Panel 4
Bloodfeast The Extreme-inator opens its mouth wide to bite the pair mid-air.
Gannji: Pull up! PULL UP!
- Panel 5
Bloodfeast snaps his jaws shut with a loud "SNAP!!", but Enor flaps his wings and climbs just out of reach.
- Panel 6
Tarquin: OK, that was a pretty cool piece of flying.
Elan: Really? Aren't you going to rant about how they escaped your clutches?
Tarquin: Hey, I know a daring escape when I see one. Besides, the crowd LOVES that stuff. Listen to them cheer.
- Panel 7
Tarquin: Good thing, too. These games were starting to suck.
Elan: I don't get it.
Elan: They defied your authority! Doesn't that make you angry?
Tarquin: Sure, but not as mad as spending fifty grand on a propaganda event that no one even remembered would have.
- Panel 8
Tarquin: Plus, we confiscated that bounty we paid to them, right?
Kilkil: Yes, sir. As well as the full WBL for an NPC of their level, times two, minus their gladiator equipment and the cost to replace the soldiers that just got eaten...
- Panel 9
Kilkil: I calculate that the empire turned a total profit of 66,435 gp on their capture.
Tarquin: See? Why should I get upset, they paid for these entire games and then—
- Panel 10
Gannji: HEY, TARQUIN! Choke on this!
Gannji throws his spear at Tarquin.
- Panel 11
The spear embeds itself in the wall just behind Tarquin's head, "thunk!"
- Panel 12
Kilkil: Correction: 66,437 gp.
Tarquin: Their every move makes my victory more complete.
D&D Context
- WBL stands for Wealth By Level, and is a table of the expected wealth of a character based on level, as more powerful characters also have better equipment and other possessions. Presumably, all their possessions were confiscated when they were arrested. Incidentally, since Kilkil put a number on their combined WBL (minus expenses), Gannji and Enor's levels can be guessed: they are approximately 13th level[1], a little lower than the level of our PCs.
Trivia
- The allosaurus is as yet unnamed, but it is revealed later to be the same dinosaur tamed by Belkar in #922 and named in #926.