Webcomic / Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic

Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic is a webcomic by Rich Morris, following the lives and (mis)adventures of the D&D monsters of the Black Mountain, and their interactions with the rest of the world. As the comic went on, more and more characters got added to the cast, and now plenty of "good" humans and other characters living outside of Black Mountain get their own arcs as well.

Notable for its sense of humour, sketch-like yet very nice artwork, and complex character development and interaction.

For the first several years of its existence, new episodes were published every day, seven days a week. Eventually, real life intervened, and Morris switched to a "when it's ready" schedule.

A word of warning for those who browse TV Tropes at work: it has some NSFW elements, mostly casual nudity.

Has a character sheet.

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Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic provides examples of:

• Action Mom: Mrs. Bloodhand is by far the best fighter around.
• Aerith and Bob: Extremely prevalent. The comic opens on Gren and Bob. We also see Arachne and Charlotte, Lucas and Cadugan, Eric and Runtherd, ...
• Affably Evil: It'd be easier to list the evil characters who aren't this.
• All Love Is Unrequited: On the kingship tournament, Runt develops a Precocious Crush on Sidonie, Sidonie is smitten by Sir Catianus, while Catianus hooks up with Adwen.
• Altar Diplomacy:
  • As Mrs. Bloodhand is well aware of orc traditions, she arranges for Glon to marry a princess of each of the great orc clans.
  • Appears also regularly in the human realms, as both King Eric and King Runt are expected to marry for the sake of political convenience.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Actually, Lawful Evil. It's parodied in the school mini-arc when a young gnoll gets scolded by the teacher for being good in class.
• Amazon Brigade: Bound to show up any time the drow get angry... or bored... or just feel like killing and maiming some people.
• Angry Collar Grab: With his Cloudcuckoolander attitude, Cap'n Fang manages to make several characters angry which results in him getting pulled close by the collar and being shouted at repeatedly, like here and here.
• Anyone Can Die: Very apparent, especially in the Lost Valley arc, with a couple characters, including a half-brother to one of the main character's love interest being offed fairly early into the storyline.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: "My place is haunted by 16 ghosts and they all say there n'aint no vampires!"
• Armor-Piercing Question: From Arachne to Lewstrom of all people.
  Arachne: Must feel good, doesn't it? After all these centuries, to finally have what you've always wanted. I mean, it is, right? What you've always wanted. To be king of the dead. Supreme ruler of all... That's why you became a lich, right?
  Lewstrom: I don't... I don't remember.
• Arranged Marriage: Multiple instances, including Glon and his wives.
• Art Shift: Twice.
  • Strip #674 is done in Stick Figure Style as a homage to The Order of the Stick.
  • Strip #1076 shifts to medieval tapestry along with rhyming narration, as a homage to Ed Gorey and the theme song of the TV show Mystery!
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Satyrs, and Cadugan's deertaur friend Buck.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Both Gren and Bob and Clover and Eric.
• Babies Make Everything Better: Although there wasn't much need to improve their relationship with his wives, Glon looks even happier once he gets kids.
• Badass Family: Mrs. Bloodhand, her son Glon, his three wives, and Glon's adopted brother Lucas are a very dangerous foe, and that's without counting all the other allies each of those can bring in.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Lewstrom achieves total victory, essentially taking over the entire world and enacting a zombie apocalypse. The only reason it doesn't stick is that, with ultimate power over the fate of the world in his hands, he decides that it's not actually what he wanted after all and gives it up. Just to drive in how unambiguously he's won, the process of giving it up involves casually killing off his own god by feeding it to someone else's god. He's so casually practical about it that the entire Heel–Face Turn only takes three four-panel comic strips, to unweave a conquest that involved more than a year of content.
  • Ranna's victory is so overwhelmingly complete, she takes over the afterlife.
• Bag of Kidnapping: Clover is caught this way once.
• Barred from the Afterlife:
  • The gods of Man and the gods of Orc couldn't agree on who should claim Glon the half-orc, and he convinced them to send him back to life so he could determine which of his two heritages was his "true" one.
    Glon: And if I don't choose, do I get to live forever??
    The Gods: Don't push it, kid. There are a lot of Hells, y'know.
  • Glon's dying human father asked to be buried with three grave coins, instead of the usual two. This means that he was technically denied a proper burial, and therefore has an excuse to stick around as a ghost.
• Beam-O-War: That's how a magic duel between Kurassa the elemental wizard and Sha'ir Waleed is pictured, in the aptly named strip "Fire and Water" (with Splash of Color to boot).
• Being Evil Sucks: Lewie never wanted to be evil, and he is cursed for that with bad luck. The rest of the cast, however...
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Rannite worshippers forcibly convert prisoners with torture. After several torture sessions, most prisoners will break, swear their loyalty to Ranna, and completely mean it.
• Berserk Button: Several characters have these:
  • Do not harm, attempt to harm or insult Glon in front of his mother;
  • Do not harm, attempt to harm or insult any member of Glon's family where he can hear you;
  • Do not steal from Arachne;
  • Do not mess with Gren, it upsets Bob the Beholder;
  • Do not sacrifice scorpii blood to Lolth!!! She really doesn't like the taste.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Bob is, all things considered, a fairly nice guy for an evil creature, and rarely causes much trouble beyond satisfying his own libido. That said, you still shouldn't forget on of the cardinal rules of adventuring: Never, ever, under any circumstances, piss off a beholder!
• Beware the Silly Ones: When Eric finally realizes his feelings for Clover, his adviser objects on the grounds that there would be no political or economic benefit. And then word reaches the Halflings.
• Bewitched Amphibians: Gertrude the Valkyrie is seen antagonizing a wizard. Next strip, she's a frog with pigtails, asking the other frog in the cage What Are You in For?.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: Helen and Cypress have a Love Triangle over Ryann, while Ryann also recognizes Helen and Cypress themselves as being an item. They end up resolving it with a three way kiss.
• Black Boss Lady: Captain Safana. From the moment she gets introduced she makes it clear she takes flack from absolutely no-one aboard her ship, whether they be royalty, priestesses or wizards. And she's ready for the latter, carrying an anti-charm amulet making her immune to mind-control attempts.
  Captain Safana: Okay, listen up. Here are the rules on board this ship. I don't care if you're the kid of a sultan or a czar or a goddess. I'm in charge, I give the orders.
  I catch any of you priestess trying to "convert" my crew, you get out and swim.
  No magic gets practiced on board without express orders from me.
• Black Comedy: Inevitable when the main protagonists in a comedy strip are bad guys; there's a lot of humor derived from situations that would in real life be anything but funny. Still, the trope isn't nearly as omnipresent as you might think.
• Break the Believer: Averted, the members of the Cult of Jone don't have time to process their hero just decapitated them.
• Brick Joke:
  • In 2009's April Fools strip, Arachne steals a time-traveling car for a few moments. A year later, we find out what she figured would happen.
  • Pops up during the search for a new King of Elegrost.
    Lucas: "Pull the axe out of the rock"? What if that idiot kobold pirate managed to figure it out?
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Arachne has troubles remembering princess Dewcup. Her brother Glitterbranch has to get more specific, too.
• The Cameo:
  • The only person who understands Cap'n Fang is Homsar.
  • In a later strip, the Ninth Doctor makes a wrong turn from The 10 Doctors. Arachne briefly steals his clothes and Drax's car.
  • Appears that Han Solo shows up for a few strips. He's referred to as "Hans".
  • Sam the Eagle (from The Muppet Show) is one of the kenku.
  • The American Idol judges (Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell era) are the judges for the Black Mountain bardic competition. Sort of.
  • The Ghost Hunters show up starting in #833 to debunk the haunting of Grayfort castle.
  • And, would you believe it, Mickey Mouse??
  • Nitrine (accompanied by Griplen, Graplen and Groplen) from Flaky Pastry makes an appearance in #1711.
  • Cohen the Barbarian in strip #1799, while Gadgia is dressed as Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • And the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew in strip #1673.
• The Captain: Captain Safana
• Cast of Snowflakes: Despite the rather simplistic and cartoonish art style, Morris gives the characters small but distinctive details in their facial features, hairstyles, and expressions that make them all look remarkably distinct despite the massive size of the cast. It's especially impressive with the species that tend to have similar features (orcs have giant, bulbous snouts, huge eyes and big smiles, drow have thick wavy hair and sharp facial features, elves have soft, delicate features and long flowing hair) but are all still easy to tell apart from one another.
• Character Development: Damn near everyone. Lucas and Glon are currently Bash Brothers and ruler/heir of their respective realms, remarkable for a pair who started out like this.
• The Chessmaster: Louie, of all people. In-universe Maula Bloodhand has a reputation as this, though she's semi-retired at the start of the comic so we never really see her pursuing a strategic goal.
• The Chosen One: The high wizard of Northrealm places an axe in a stone to find who will be the next king. He is horrified to learn that it is Captain Fang who manages to pull the axe from the stone. To cover up his folly, he brainwashes Runt into thinking he's the one who pulled the axe out instead.
  • Subverted in that no one wanted to choose the king with this method anyway, and they just went to selecting a king with a tourney.
• Cloudcuckoolander
  • Cap'n Fang. "My sandbox is crunchy."
  • Most kobolds seem to have some of these traits, though none as bad as Fang.
• Classical Chimera: A Chimera appears as one of the first major characters of the series, with the heads consisting of a friendly but dim-witted lion, a brainless dragon and a goat who is the Only Sane Man, often dragged along by the other two despite his protests. Despite making for a dangerous menace, the lion and dragon's antics keep it from being a credible threat.
• Coincidental Dodge:
  • Princess Goldie escapes a crossbow bolt by leaning to pet a squirrel.
  • Considering Cap'n Fang is completely oblivious to his surroundings, this is the only kind of dodge he ever does... all the time.
• Coins for the Dead: Baron Greyfort arranges to be buried with three coins instead of two. He argues with a goddess that since the funeral rites have not been properly observed, he cannot enter the afterlife, so that he can continue to watch over his family as a ghost.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Well, most of the protaonists are members of canonically "evil" races, so...
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: In "Clover Does Her Thing, although underwear tends to be a rarity in this comic (for both men and women).
• Comic-Book Time: Averted, as some storylines relatively close together take place years apart (such as leaving Runt a teenager and returning an adult).
• Comic Trio: Chimera manages to be this all by himself. The lion head is the leader, the dragon head is the idiot, and the goat head is the complainer.
• Continuity Nod: Strip #1063 contains one in each of its 8 panels... in 8 of its 9 lines. Justified as it is a contest of bards, and bard...ing, aside of musical talent, is also a matter of spreading news with new songs. Thus each contestant presents a recent song of fairly recent exciting tales... experienced first-hand by the cast of the comic, of course.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Demonstrated in "Not the Blood of Coritanus", where the bard's polite request to a monster succeeds after her quest companions get killed when attacking the beast.
• Cuddle Bug: Cuddles, the Cloaker.
• Dark and Troubled Past: And one that Lewstrom had almost forgotten.
• Death of the Old Gods: By the time she was banished, Ranna, God of Evil, had managed to eat the majority of the gods, only leaving the handful that were able to hide until the last battle.
• Defeat by Modesty: In "Anything You Can Do", Giovanna defeats King Eric by cutting the belt of his pants. Hey, he started it, you can't slice at a lady's corset and expect no retaliation.
• Deliberately Painful Clothing: Charlotte wears her studded leather armor with the studs on the inside. Like a lot of drow, she's a big masochist.
• Dem Bones: King Lewie and his minions are skeletal undead.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Arachne is about to deliver the coup de grace to Ranna, with a weapon designed to make sure her soul dies with her body. Then she's tackle-glomped by the Drow-fied Princess Dewcup, giving Ranna room to throat-stab Arachne and return to her real body. And in retaliation for Arachne's attack, Ranna uses her restored full strength to destroy Black Mountain.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Queen Hyeesha lets the plan slip.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Wolf and Glon. No. Seriously.
• Did You Just Have Sex?: The entire crew could see it.
• Didn't Think This Through: A vampire tries to turn a cyclops, but didn't take into account just how much blood he had.
• Disability Immunity: In a Lord of the Rings plot. Turns out the rings tempt and take over their wearers by working around inhibitions. One of these is given to Charlotte. Yeah, good luck with that.
  Cyclops: Any creature with half a brain will totally submit to its power!
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: Princess Goldie, as a parody of Princess Classic, was bound to have such a moment.
• Disneyesque: The design of many a character is reminiscent of the style form Disney Studio. The tone of the webcomic is rather more adult than that, though.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Tends to happen a lot to Charlotte and Arachne... as well as quite a few other characters.
• The Ditz: Charlotte, and also Lolth.
• Does Not Like Men: Arachne, along with most other drow, publicly professes to look down on men and treat them as dirt. In private, though, she has a slightly different opinion.
• Dominant Species Genes: The child of a human and a halfling is correctly predicted as a halfling.
• Dramatic Drop: Maula Bloodhand drops the teapot she was holding when Glon reveals his name to her, and she realizes he's her son.
• The Drunken Sailor: Cap'n Corona of the Crown Jewel keeps himself constantly so drunk he mentally matches Fang.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Royal Family of Umbril showed up as C-listers in "Turg's Saga", over a thousand strips prior to "Reflections in the Sand".
• Elfeminate:
  • Only the Drow are on the safe side.
  • Cadugan is repeatedly mistaken for a female elf.
• End of an Age: At the tenth anniversary of YAFGC, the Black Mountain, home of many of the characters and place of many story arcs, is destroyed by Ranna. This event marks the beginning of the Age of Shadows. Even when Ranna is finally defeated, there are lasting consequences, namely, the fact that most of the gods were killed by her, and the world's magic being weakened by a significant degree.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Goddess of Evil Ranna is so horrible that even the orcs and Drow hate her.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Apparently, Thomas the Bard is quite popular.
• Evil Is Hammy: Even Lewie's ring thought so.
  Ring: (thought) Great. Ham and cheese. Am I the only one who can smell it?
• Expo Speak Gag: Pops up with Cadugan yelling at Lucas.
  Lucas: For a guy who spends all day with trees, you've got a remarkable vocabulary.
  Cadugan: The owls bring me books sometimes.
• Expy: "Me? A vampire? Inconceivable!"
• Eye Scream: On the very second strip, Gren pokes Bob the Beholder right in the central eye for daring to make the pun, "Beauty is in the eye of the—AAAAAAAEEEEEEIIIIII!!"
• Face–Heel Turn: Meegs is never exactly heroic to begin with, but she finally becomes a Rannite gorgon and lures Bob into a trap.
• Facepalm: Throughout the comic. Captain Fang is the main inspirator.
  • Gren, thanks to her uncle Vesch breeding midget direwolves.
  • Strip 206: "Hostile Takeover"
    Arachne: [thinking while facepalming] We're not getting out of this port alive.
  • Captain Fang makes Arachne a repeat offender.
  • Done on an epic, royal level when King Eric realizes who he'd want to marry.
  • Goldie is a Cloudcuckoolander as much as Captain Fang, but talks coherently enough to share her entertaining thoughts. Making a goblin who wants to eat her facepalm is the new record.
  • Captain Safana manages the impressive feat of combining the facepalm with a Death Glare.
  • Captain Fang even provokes one from a Goddess of Chaos.
• Faint in Shock: Lucas drops like an empty armor the day he learns that he's not the baron's son, but the blacksmith's.
• Fanservice: Lots and lots of it; for both genders. Characters tend to lose their clothes a lot, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and if they don't, there's a fair amount of Clothing Damage happening.
• The Fool: Fang apparently hasn't the slightest idea of what he's doing, but is ludicrously lucky, so usually he wins — and even when not, still manages to survive unharmed.
• Full-Frontal Assault:
  • Charlotte, given that she was walked in on post-coitus.
  • Mrs. Bloodhand, since she was removed from a drow torture chamber. When she went to get her armor back, it wasn't so much for protection as to lower the amount of marriage proposals.
• Fun with Acronyms: Glon is accepted into The Stunties and Halfbreeds Infantry Team.
• Gelatinous Encasement: Sentient gelatinous cubes glide around the passages of Black Mountain, absorbing and dissolving those foolish enough to walk into them.
• Gender Bender: Which leads, in the case of Cadugan, to Attractive Bent-Gender.
• Gender Equals Breed: Averted with Clover and Eric's son, who is all halfling even though he has a human dad. See Half-Human Hybrid for an explanation.
• Gender Flip:
  • The one year anniversary strip is a Gender Flip of the first strip. Well, except for the ending.
  • Strip #1411 is a gender flip of Little Red Riding Hood... also with a twist ending.
• Genius Ditz:
  • Bob isn't terribly bright and is easily Distracted by the Sexy, but he's a very competent fighter, especially where Gren is involved.
  • It's not entirely clear whether Captain Fang is this or just incredibly lucky, but he manages to do pretty well for himself all the same.
• Gilligan Cut: Lucas suggests to Cadugan that he'd disguise as a woman to infiltrate Jone's camp, since being a half-elf he's the most androgynous of the two. Cadugan glares. Cut to Lucas in drag.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Worship can cause mortals to ascend into gods, and continued worship is needed to sustain their divinity. Unless they're careful, the way everyone perceives them can warp the gods' original personalities and even their own memories to match public opinion, which is what ended Ch'Thier's original Jerkass tendencies and shaped her into a Goddess Of Good, while removing Ranna's positive qualities and warping her into a God of Evil.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Seems to be standard for Drow Males, or slaves of the drow in general. Clothes are a privilege.
• Gonk: Glon's wives are drawn extra ugly, especially compared to his harem of willing girls. He soon learns to appreciate their other qualities.
• Groin Attack:
  • On meeting Clover for the first time, Glon gets a first-hand demonstration of how a halfling can be in a combat unit... with a punch to the groin.
  • Used by Giovanna in "Shoulda Brought a Codpiece".
  • Threatened by the Queen of the Drow on Wolf in "A Secret Assignment and an Overt Warning".
  • And by Arachne on a big gladiator in "So Much for SPARTAAAAAAA".
• Half-Human Hybrid: Most notably Glon and Jone (who suffer a lot of Half-Breed Discrimination for it), but also Cadugan and Taidor. Clover and Eric's son is just a halfling. In YAFGC universe there are several groups of species that can interbreed and the offspring will be a fullblooded member of one of them. These include human/halfling, goblin/hobgoblin, hobgoblin/bugbear, gnoll/flind and others. The author will write pages and pages of details about the subject if asked.
• Hand Signals: In strip #242, they demonstrate that quite a lot can be got across with a few gestures.
• Hated by All: Everyone hates Ranna. Even the demons that have appeared don't like her. The only ones who don't are, naturally, her followers. And even then there are exceptions.
• Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?: All but name-dropped in strip #1682.
• Heel Realization: Hell of a thing for a self-admitted evil character, but Lewstrom finally remembered why he wanted to become a Lich in the first place... and realized he had been manipulated by Kila for all this time. Suffice it to say, he doesn't take it well.
• Here There Be Dragons: Here there be "a deadly labyrinth filled with creatures most foul"
• Heroism Incentive: In strip 1950 (NSFW), the halflings traveling with the Elf maiden aren't too happy about diving into the ocean... until they see the topless Sea-Elves waving to them.
• His and Hers: A pair of Orcs do it with their swords.
• Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: The rise of the sunk city of Ruun and the destruction of the Black Mountain mark year zero of the Eighth Age.
• Homage: The entire "Lich of the Rings" arc is a tribute/parody of The Lord of the Rings.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The same crystal that allows Kila to manifest is also used to bring Lolth into the world, and after Lewie realizes she has manipulated him, Kala no longer has Lewie's faith to protect her from Lolth's predations.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Turg and the Sphinx. Turg is the Skitty in this case, oddly enough. And in strip #1506, we see exactly how it works. And the Sphinx is pregnant — daawwwww. Turg lampshades it in response to Glon's understandable befuddlement:
  Glon: But she's... so... and you're... If you ever wanted to... how would you...???
  Turg: There is magic in our world, Glon. Anything is possible.
• Hot Teacher: Miss Steatoda, Hot Drow Teacher.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Though Eric isn't particularly huge for a human, he's twice as tall as Clover.
• Human Mail: Charlotte, after one too many millstone moments, is packed into a wooden crate and shipped off as a slave.
• Hurricane of Puns: In the appropriately-titled "Com-pun-ionship"
• Hurt Foot Hop: Yes, it can happen even to a god.
• Hypocritical Humor: Arachne hates when people's prejudice stands in the way of love.
• Ice-Cream Koan: What is it with kobolds?
• Identical Stranger: Lady Sidonie of Falconheim and Astrid Wormhunter look enough alike that people confuse them, which results in Sidonie getting kidnapped instead of Astrid. Astrid takes advantage of it to escape those kidnappers, who want to drag her back home to an Arranged Marriage she wants nothing with.
• If It's You, It's Okay: Seems to be how Lucas views his relationship with Cadugan. When his father ('s ghost) is shocked that Lucas is sleeping with a man, he explains — "You want to know if I like boys. I don't know. I like that boy."
• Ignored Epiphany: Charlotte in strip #1845.
  Charlotte: Even trying to sate my old hungers, I couldn't shake my feelings for Lotharia. And then the obvious solution hit me!
  Lucas: Release the sacrifices and confess your true feelings to Lotharia?
  Charlotte: No! Carnal excess! More sacrifices!
• Improvised Clothes: Lucas Greyfort, once finding himself unfortunately naked while traipsing in the woods, notices that one of his monstrous companions is a cloaker (a D&D monster looking like a floating cloak) and decides to use him as an improvised cape. When said cloaker is asked why he didn't eat the human when he had the chance...
  Cuddle: Meh, he tastes like stupid.
• Improvised Weapon: Gadgia decapitates several Gi-Ants with a CLOAK.
  Gadgia: A true orc is never unarmed.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Is Glon's wife from the Shadowtalker clan Gadgia or Gaggia? The comic titles use the former name, but in the character tags, she's called the latter.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Arachne's near-death at the hands of a berserk Glon has a rather different reaction than expected.
  Glon: I... I've got... wives and... I'm... go.
• Insult Backfire: Wolf have a good answer to the questions about the place of a male warrior in a matriarchy.
• Interrupted Cooldown Hug: Glon manages to talk down an enraged Jone, via a "Not So Different" Remark. And as Jone looks like she's going to fully embrace Glon's offer of forgiveness, Shaija shoves her off a cliff.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • To the point where it's easier to count the exceptions to this trope than the ones that play it straight. Hell, the comic started out with a romance between a goblin and a beholder.
  • All of the generally human-shaped races (so far: several elf types, humans, halflings, dwarves, orcs, and goblins) are clearly the same species, and can freely cross-breed with each other (except orc/drow, apparently). Gnolls and humans are apparently distinct species: a gnoll/human political marriage requires concubines for both parties to produce heirs.
• Invincible Hero: Rich must have a crush on Maula Bloodhand. When she shows up, the fight's over. Maliciously subverted during the Cult of Jone arc, when Maula gets a nasty scar on her eye and a pronounced limp at the hands of Jone.
• Jaw Drop:
  • Beholders have a pretty large jaw, so when Bob does it, it's impressive.
  • Lewie the Lich, being mostly a skeleton, can literally drop his jaw to the floor.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: Jone Half-Orc is an ultimately harshly deconstructed version.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Used by Mr. Izquxxisquid the Illithid in Merriah, in what totally isn't a Shout-Out.
  Mr. Izquxxisquid: Listen to me. These are not the drow you're looking for.
  Guard: Hey guys, these are not the drow we're looking for.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Lewie the Lich gets a moment of this when he points out to Queen Maula that she needs to stop worrying about her son and start worrying about the kingdom. Maula's reaction is a shocked "By the gods... Lewie is right."
• Joke and Receive: While crossing the desert, Princess Adina, both hungover and still sleepy, is getting aggravated by her older siblings and thinks to herself, "Oh Mighty Ch'Thier, deliver me from rotten siblings." The very next second, her sister Sahar is grabbed by a Roc Bird and taken away.
  Adina: [screaming toward the sky] I WAS KIDDING!
• Kick the Dog: Just in case you started to think of Jone as a (relatively) innocent bystander in her "army's" slaughter, there's the random slaughter of one of her devotee, just for a dagger.
• Literal Genie: The genie in the "Arabian Nights" Days story arc. Not out of malice, though, but extreme stupidity.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Most of the evil characters, and a fair few of the good ones. It'd probably be quicker listing all the characters who didn have some traits of this.
• Love at First Punch: Lady Adwen and Sir Catianus are rather... evenly... matched.
• Lustful Melt: Clover, on being complimented by her future husband King Eric, just can't keep herself together.
• Mad Oracle:
  • The Beholder King is very ancient and has acquired great power, allowing him glimpses of events yet to come. And although he insists he isn't mad, he's still more than a bit loopy.
    Beholder King: Direct confrontation will stop the destruction of our people. [...] ... Or will that cause the total desctruction of our people? Ah, whatever. Stupid precognition.
  • The "Wise Man" of the Haran tribe accurately points out Adina and Vachiritei's next steps to carry on with their adventure. Bad news, though, is that he's a kobold. Slightly less crazy than Fang, at least.
• The Magic Goes Away: It doesn't go away completely, but it is greatly weakened. Ranna drains away much of the world's magic for her own purposes, and most of what remains is dedicated to keeping Ranna sealed away forever, leaving very little left for casters and magic items to use. Ch'Thier's floating tomb falls from the sky, and when Lewie tries to cast a spell, it only results in sparks. Lewie expects it to take decades for it to recover to where it was before, if it ever does. In the meantime, mages are forced to move to other fields such as alchemy and astrology, with only the strongest still capable of so much as igniting a candle.
• Mama Bear:
  • Never mess around with Glon if his mother is even theoretically able to see it, and don't insult him either.
  • Same with threatening to make Jone into a prostitute.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Prince Glitterbranch, turned into a female drow by magic, can't help it but check the goods.
• Marshmallow Hell:
  • In "A Face Fulla Charlotte"
    Glon: It's reeeeeally good to see you, Charlotte!
  • Judging by Aeden's reaction when a bugbear princess does it to him, the "Hell" part is pretty accurate!
• Masochism Tango: Glon nearly killed Arachne, a fact which turns her on.
• Meaningful Name: The Drow tend to have names related to spiders: Anancy^note named after Anansi, the spider god of African Mythology, Arachne^note  named after a character in Classical Mythology who ended up turned into a spider and where we get the word arachnid, Charlotte^note  from Charlotte's Web, and Wolf ^note  a breed of spider.
• Medieval Stasis: On display in the comic's backstory, but once Ranna is defeated and The Magic Goes Away, there begin to be signs of technological advance. And throughout the comic, there have been occasional flash-forwards showing a more technological future.
• Mind Screw: The Displacer Kitty tends to evoke this reaction.
• Mi'raj: The primary religious order of Drostardy has for main symbol... a "bunny unicorn", as seen once on the mitre of a priest. The comic being based on D&D, the almiraj probably do exist in this world.
• Misplaced Sorrow: When Meegs loses her apprentice, she's apparently inconsolable. Because...
  Meegs: (thinking) By the gods!!! Now I have to go through that damned apprentice audition process again!!
• Minion with an F in Evil: Charlotte initially, "a little bit evil" but mainly The Ditz. But not anymore...
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: The Mirror of True Reflection.
• Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: Goria White-Eye (an orc) was sold to a brothel where she eventually gave birth to a half-human half-orc daughter. The brothel's owner thought the girl would be an excellent investment in several years as an "exotic". Goria fled, but later had the same offer made by a different pimp.
• Monochromatic Eyes: The drow appears to have no pupils.

• Ms. Fanservice: The Drow have a matriarchal society with no nudity taboo, adapted directly from their description in the setting rules.
  • Nymphs and Satyrs are this both in-universe and out, since they're fertility spirits.
  • Harpies are an all-female species that can't wear shirts (only one ever manages to actually get a shirt over the wings).
  • Some of the female gods of humanity are depicted Roman-style, with one bare breast to symbolize honesty and/or fertility. Not strictly this trope, but inadvertently qualifies.
• Mouth of Sauron: The annoying, insane kobold who follows Jone around, as Jone herself is either mute or simply refuses to speak to anybody.
• Multiple Head Case: Multipe cases.
  • The Chimera: the dragon head is an idiot, the lion head is a Cloudcuckoolander, while the goat head is quite smart but doesn't control the body and thus is often very frustrated with the other two.
  • Though even the Chimera isn't as bad as the hydra.
  • There is also a small story arc about a couple of ettins having love troubles, since both heads of the female ettin like the same head of the male ettin but not the other. The male ettin ends up asking the Chimera for advice.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Duke Owen Grayfort convinces the goddess Ch'thier to let him have one final conversation with his sons, Glon and Lucas. In order to ensure he can continue to help Lucas in the afterlife, he tells Lucas to bury him with three coins instead of the traditional two, and proceeds to tell Ch'thier that the third coins made for an "improper burial," and therefore grounds for a haunting!
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Implied in "Survivors".
• Nay-Theist: The Drow and the Orcs reject their respective patron gods in the wake of their war due to said gods' behavior.
• Nipple and Dimed: The comic does not shy away from showing women's (or men's) nipples.
• Noodle Incident: That Bawdy Song about "the lady and the sausagemaker". All we know is that it's extremely Intercourse with You.
• Not Me This Time: When Glon unexpectedly comes back to life at his own funeral, many glares are leveled at Lewie the Lich.
  Lewie: Don't look at me! I had nothing to do with this!
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • Lewie the Lich, who turns out to be a Knight of Cerebus. And manages to pull this the second time, on his return.
  • Charlotte, once she gets a taste of real power in the Lost Valley arc.
• Now or Never Kiss: Lucas and Cadugan share a passionate clinch while being charged by Jone.
• Nude Nature Dance: Several characters run into some satyrs and nymphs in the woods, and get caught up dancing with them. When Gren decides to take a break, she is surprised to find that she's naked.
• Oh, Crap!: A suitably epic one for the drow queen "The Agony of Defeat".
• Omnicidal Maniac: Jone. The fact that her first victims are men (and jerkass) make the women think she's a defender of their cause.
• One Head Taller: Lucas is taller than Cadugan. It's not so much an implication that Lucas is more dominant, but works considering that Lucas has greater rank than Cadugan.
• Our Monsters Are Different: This comic plays with classic D&D creatures in all manner of ways. Orcs, for example, have snouts for faces; either vaguely porcine or something like a fanged hippopotamus in appearance. This is a reference to their artwork in the first Monster Manual, where the orcs had cow heads for whatever reason. The kobolds are disliked for the same reason.
• Out with a Bang: The last tenant in Gren and Bob's new lair got into the Harpy cave and died of exhaustion.
• Outdoor Bath Peeping:
  • The comic pretty much starts this way (even though inside a cavern), with Gren the goblin girl doing the bathing and Bob the beholder doing the peeping.
  • The one-year anniversary strip presents a gender-flipped version of the same scene.
  • The sixth-year anniversary strip has another repeat of the scene, with Gren's sister Jalla and Bob's brother Bob2.
  • As well as a guest comic strip, with a gorgeous elf maiden taking Gren's spot, and a beholderling instead of Bob.
• Pirate Girl: Giovanna
• The Power of Love: The one thing all of the characters can agree on, good or evil, is that you should protect your loved ones. Although the evil characters try not to show it.
• Princess Classic:
  • Lampshaded, and possibly lampooned, in "The DinSea Princess" sequence, starting with strip #2200.
  • Princess Dewcup also starts out with echoes of this model.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Testing out his new rings of power, Lewie the Lich orders a orc to kill himself in his name. The orc promptly stabs himself.
• Pun: Only 2 strips in, and we get a beauty of a pun.
• Really Gets Around:
  • Wolf, who's slept with just about every drow in a position of power, his goddess, Mrs. Bloodhand, and (possibly) Glon. Though it's somewhat justified as it's how he climbs ranks in drow society, and later gets personally involved in their repopulation.
  • Mrs. Bloodhand has no shortage of eager young men (due to her prestige as a famous general's widow), unlucky thieves, and even Wolf.
• Religion is Magic: Priestesses of Ch'Thier are able to conjure massive thunderbolt strikes.
• Rescue Romance: Went both ways in regards to Clover and King Eric.
• Right Through His Pants: Played straight in "Love, Political Intrigue Style", but averted everywhere else.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Lucas is right about Cadugan's jealousy. We find out later that he's wrong about who Cadugan was jealous of.

• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Jone's dealing with the townsfolk that treated her and her mom like crap.
• Rules Lawyer: Owen and his family, apparently, are quite good at it.
• Running Gag: Clover the Halfling getting recaptured, stripped naked, and put in a little cage.
• Seashell Bra: Mi wears shell top, shell bottom and shell ornament. Of course, as a gen, she's small enough to pull that with normal-sized shells.

• Shame If Something Happened: Aside from citing the trope's function in the name, it also hangs a heavy lampshade on it with the last "suggestion".
• She Is All Grown Up:
  • Sittica
  • Charlotte, who was somewhat of a midget drow, seems to have acquired some more womanly proportions. Later explained as a likely side effect of the magic in the valley.
  • Puberty has been generous to King Runtherd.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mostly to other fantasy works, such as The Lord of the Rings.
  • But also to other pop culture, like Tremors in "Quakes".
  • And more recently Dungeon Keeper. See also the Cameos, above.
  • Adina sings the intro song to Disney's Aladdin in "Royal Pains".
  • Possibly Bleach in "A Little Girl on Girl"?
  • To The Muppet Show, of all things. One of the numerous sounds produced by the singing of Hu-Hu's people is "Gally-ohh! Hoop! Hoop!"
  • Not to mention Sam the Eagle as leader of the kenku.
  • Hägar the Horrible shows up as a Nord captain.
  • The whole "Krom" arc is a King Kong parody, including a direct shout-out to the 2005 movie with Krom fighting a pair of Giganotosaurus and ending up tangled in vines.
  • And according to Charlotte, the previous Kron was "a big turtle thing. Totally idiotic. Kept trying to fly and set itself on fire."
• Skewed Priorities: Most halflings know what they want...
• Slasher Smile:
  • Jone's is scary.
  • Glon once scares himself with one.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss:
  • Lucas and Cadugan start out bickering a lot and infuriating each other, but, inevitably, end up together.
  • Lady Adwen and Sir Catianus.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Chimera missed the excitement about Lewie and his rings.
• Smug Snake:
  • The noble who tries to force Jone's mother into prostitution.
  • Kurassa the sorcerer, who literally never stops smirking.
• Smug Smiler: Wolf is almost always smirking.
• Something That Begins with "Boring": One of Arachne's slaves is chained facing a brick wall. Naturally, she runs out of options very fast.
• Stealth Pun: Why she's called "Jone Half-Orc" becomes far more clear once she gains some followers.

• Straw Feminist: The women following Jone get it into their heads that they're ridding the world of evil men (admittedly, this was the case at first), but then start killing women who hold that maybe violence isn't the answer.
• Strip Poker: In "Butt Betting". The girls win, naturally.
• Stupid Evil: Princess Dewcup trying to join the drow gets a thing or two mixed up.
  Goat Head: Gotcha. I see your problem. You have confused "bad" meaning "evil" with "bad" meaning "really stupid".
  Dewcup: And that is not what I wish to become?
  Goat Head: No, you seem to have that one down pat.
• Super Supremacist: This is a common motivation for the Big Bad of the month. Usually, even the "bad guys" in the comic are Harmless Villains at worst, but many if not most of the leaders of the various factions think their people should be in charge. Thus, on the rare occasion that one leader decides to actually do something about it, some combination of Heroes, Hero Antagonists , and Harmless Villains end up working together to stop things from getting completely out of hand.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Whether or not it was deliberate, Lucas' search for Lady Adwen starts off on the wrong foot when seeking a Satyr's aid.
• Take That!: The dumbest member of the tribe in Valejo? Gor.

• Tautological Templar: Jone's herald can justify even the murder of women by writing them off as blasphemers or spies.
• This Is the Part Where...: A satyr needs an explanation on what to do when faced with a beholder.
• This Means War!: Declared verbatim by Eddie in "Eddie's Ultimatum".
• Time Skip: The comic jumps ahead ten years following the end of the Rannite War.
• Too Kinky to Torture:
  • Torturing a drow involves sticking them in a cage and refusing to torture them.
  • Arachne secretly negotiates with the enemy during a war. As her requested reward, she's sent to the torturers.
  • "Teach Me" says it all, with the Dungeon Keeper torturess admitting defeat.
  • Mrs. Bloodhand gets a go later, asking to try one of the machines and falling asleep.

• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Played With, as Glon has a "visitation dream" from Owen, combined with a routine one of him as an infant. The result unnerves Owen a bit.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Both the Fox and the werewolves retelling the history of the kingdom of Shallmar at the same time.

• Vampire's Harem: The vampire leader of the Fraternity of the Un-Deceased has a group of lingerie-clad female vampire minions who share his crypt. He refers to them as his brides, although he seems to prefer forcible recruitment to the position.
• Vapor Wear: Underwear seems to be rare in this world, and bras don't seem to exist at all. Many women wear clothes with a Navel-Deep Neckline that demonstrates this, and those who don't tend to suffer Clothing Damage (or lose their clothes altogether) that shows their lack of undergarments.
• Vengeful Ghost: Inverted (and exploited), where baron Greyfort arranges for the burial ceremony be carried out wrong so that his ghost can keep an eye on his family.
• Villainous Rescue: Lewie, of all people, saves everyone from Jone.
• Virgin Sacrifice: Young Wolf narrowly escapes this.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Wolf, Clover, Charlotte, Glon... a lot of characters wind up either partly or entirely naked for extended periods, making an Archive Binge a somewhat NSFW endeavor.
• Warring Natures:
  • Glon is half-human, half-orc. He seems to be accepted by the monsters of Black Mountain, but that might be more out of respect and/or fear of his mother , orc matriarch Maula Bloodhand.
  • It's established that all orc-human hybrids in this universe suffer this to some extant. They have a tendency to slip into a berserker rage if they lose control of their tempers (it's all part of the Orc-God's plan to breed a super-warrior to conquer the world in his name).
• Weakened by the Light: Drow react to sunlight like vampires barring protective spells.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Cyclops' lack of depth perception can lead to some Epic Fail moments.
• What Are You in For?: Gertrude the Valkyrie (on visiting from Cowboys and Crossovers) asks this to another frog in a cage after being herself turned into a frog. Yeah, that tend to happen when you piss off a wizard.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Meri-Tai scolding Cadugan and The Fox for trying to rescue Lucas from the werewolves by themselves. Then she calls Cadugan on his refusal to call on the king for help, reminding him that Lucas is one of those royals he hates and mistrusts.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Arachne refers to the Drow rulers as "Queenie" or "Yer Maj".

• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: As noted above, Jone gets all kind of undeserved crap heaped on her, but when she finally sets off on her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she goes too far. She goes way too far.
• Would Hit a Girl: "Women may rule here, but braggarts always go down."
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Princess Goldie thinks she's in a fairy tale rather than a high fantasy setting.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Apparently, this is why Queen Hyeesha has a harem. She likes to watch, and Glon and Wolf have to "perform" for her.
• You and What Army?: Twice, and both times with an army of undead:
  • Arachne with her crew face pirate Captain Matheson to enforce return of a few hostages.
    Matheson: Who, you and your piddly little cog crew? [...] We outnumber you three to one.
    Arachne: Truuuuuuue. But do you outnumber them?" [points at the lich's army crawling out of the sea]
  • The old king of Elegrost during the "Lich of the Ring" arc demands the owners of a castle to surrender and let him pass.
    Guard: Who's going to make us? You?
    King Aarod: Us... and them. [points at the approaching army of undead]
• You Are Number 6:
  • Drow males have numbers tattooed on their arms. Wolf's changes often.
  • Mahr'i eventually gets an infinity symbol as a divine sign of her permanent demotion.
• Zerg Rush: "It's never 'a kobold'... It's invariably — LOTS of kobolds."

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