Uh, oh.
I’m sure it’s been mentioned before, but man do Laurin’s ion stones seriously make her look drunk.
Heh, I hadn’t noticed that until now.
Heh. Tarquin’s fatal flaw is that he thinks he’s in control of his own story.
He’s already noted that he was just making Roy look badass; if he’s misjudged and gone after the real hero of the piece he’ll be in trouble. Of course, he’ll be in trouble even if he doesn’t - because if Roy is the main hero, then Tarquin is just some B-story distraction to build character development for his son, move the plot along and provide a temporary obstacle before the Big Boss fight with Xykon, and Tarquin would never admit that he’s not the Big Boss himself. That’s what’s driving him here - it’s not that he really cares that much about Elan; it’s that if Elan isn’t that important, neither is he.
I think I need to sit down now - trying to second-guess genre-savvy characters is dizzying.
TowelFace looks remarkably like Charlie Brown in panel five. Don’t ask me why – something about the eyes, even though Burlow has drawn that expression many times before.
(Sorta) called it, though I said Tarquin might gate troops to intercept the OOTS, rather than go himself.
Ah, the classic T-Rex versus Triceratops fight, a staple of my childhood. (OK, it’s an Allosaurus, whatever.)
I’m really looking forward to seeing what favor Laurin calls in from Tarquin.
I’m also wondering when the heck this book is going to end. Just when it looked like we were getting to a good stopping point, Tarquin is back in the thick of it. This might take a while.
And the scary part is, they are on the same day that started in this strip.
It’s got to be late afternoon by now, doesn’t it?
Tarq daddy really really wants this. Thrown away an army, using the last favor and going into debt.
How’s this for an ignoble ending for him; while he’s romping around the desert there is a Coup back at the palace, Laurin and towel face abandon him after Durk-ula drains all his levels and Roy beats the crap out of him, but doesn’t finish him off because of Elan begging for mercy.
Left a powerless, broken nobody, alone in the desert. Only alive because of his sons good heart. Not a story too many bards will sing about.
As several people have noted, Tarquin’s biggest mistake is failing to read the title of the strip. He incorrectly thinks that he’s the heart of the story. If he realized he’s just a supporting character (like Nale or Miko or Tsukiko) he might be more cautious about challenging the real lead characters.
Au contraire, mon frere.
That’s a classic storytelling combination or o’erweening pride and villain gets comuppence. And that IS the sort of thing bards can tell for a hundred years. Hell, Stickverse Shakespeare could write about it.
It’s just that Tarquin won’t like his role in the story very much. Sure, he’s resigned - he says - to being offed by some up and coming hero and considers that a cost of doing business (“Sure, the last ten minutes sucked but for the last 30 years you were treated as a God!”) but what if ‘the last ten minutes’ end up lasting 20 years?
I think we’re overdue for an Elan crowning moment of awesome in battle. Durkon got to kill the drow wizard and display some new abilities. Roy’s leadership and fighting was impressive plus he decapitated a dinosaur for cover. Belkar got to ride a freaking dinosaur. Vaarsuvius came from left field (or under the field) to spew magic everywhere. The only ones that haven’t done something note-worthy are Elan and Haley (though arrows raining from the sky is pretty sweet).
My prediction is that Elan does something in the next battle that is awesome and demonstrates true heroic character and ability. It will be enough to dismantle his dad’s plans or convince Tarquin that Elan is actually thriving under Roy. Unfortunately, I have no idea what kind of skills or plan Elan would have in order to stop his father’s meddling. 
yes–that link back to the start of the day in #836 reminded me that Elan has a plan for dealing with his father that does not equal defeating him. I would guess we will see that plan unfold.
Haley DID just come off of acting as “human decoy” for the Silicon elemental so she has had some moment of glory in the past hour, if not immediately during the Tarquin battle.
So this might be interesting - it sounds like Tarquin wants to target just Roy now, the others secondary (and Elan and presumably Haley not at all). So we’ve got two casters of presumably higher spell levels than V or Durkon, plus a (near epic?) fighter, all targeting Roy first, vs a really run down OOTS nearing the end of their strength.
Elan figuring out the illusion/Microcosm trap way before everyone else was pretty awesome. But I agree, I think his planning with Durkon needs to come to fruition now. Especially if they want to survive the onslaught from Tarquin/Laurin/Miron.
He won’t beat Tarquin just yet. There’s a whole storyline with Ian and Aunt Ivy to resolve first.
What’s with the tiny protection-from-arrows disc on TowelFace’s forehead?