Thog’s a barbarian. In berserker mode, he’d be pretty tough.
I’ve never thought of it as young-- more like it was spellbound, or perhaps took a good, brain-scrambling shot to the head at some point.
I’m betting on it being Complains-of-Names. 
Heh.
thog would be a good puppy-daddy.
If we see a purple IME blazing out of those eyeholes, we’ll know for sure!
It’s a bit out of character for Thog or another barbarian to wear armor that heavy, though. They don’t get heavy armor proficiency by default, and even if they take the feat for it, they lose their faster movement rate in heavy armor.
When you’re a gladiator, you don’t get much choice.
I think it’s a new character that we’ve never seen before, and will probably only appear in a few strips and never be seen again.
Could it be Nale? Tarquin, like Elan, is a sucker for drama. And having Elan’s brother pop up during his welcome party would certainly be dramatic.
You mean there are Barbarians that don’t swap Fast Movement out for Pounce?
Doubtful considering that the bounty hunters confused Elan for Nale just a couple of days ago (implying that Nale is still on the loose) and the champion has clearly been around for a while. Not only that, but Nale’s build (multi-class fighter/rogue/sorceror who specializes in enchantment spells) doesn’t seem like the material needed for building a feared gladiator. Elan once took him down with a rapier.
It could be a legacy role, every time the Champion dies they sweep it under the rug and replace him. In addition, there could have been other Bounty Hunters that actually found Nale in the meantime. But Occam’s Razor and all that.
Well, if the Champion dies, it would be in the arena, so that would have to be a mighty big rug.
It would certainly satisfy Elan’s sense of dramatic irony if Champion was someone the Order had run into before, but most of the actual fighters they’ve run across are now dead, Thog being the most notable exception.
Or if we hear it say “GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“I,” he said, “am not the real Dread Champion Roberts.”
Eh, there’s plenty of magical trickery in the D&D world that I’m sure could make it look like he was alive. Like if it looked like he was down, someone cast an Animate Dead from the rafters, and he won, then gracefully had the enchantment wear off under the pit. Would make one hell of a “dramatic comeback” too for the spectators.
New strip. Love the Queen riff. And Roy’s so considerate.
Hee! Love the title of this strip – now my only problem will be getting the earworm out of my brain.
Nice reveal, nice underlining of Roy’s moral compass. Can’t wait to see what comes next!
Easy. Elan is going to intervene on Thog’s behalf, on account of how they got to be buddies when Elan escaped from chokey.
I did not think it would be him.
<hands over bet money to everyone who guessed it>