Page Descriptions - A Tale of Colonies

< Previous • Index • Next >

This article contains all the Moonless Age page announcements made by the authors of the canon sidestory, *A Tale of Colonies*. These often elaborate on or clarify details not explicitly stated in the comic itself, but regardless provide a sort of commentary for each page. *A Tale of Colonies* was written by Runes & Madea, and illustrated by Felix "Firefox" Novara. The epilogue was drawn by Tin “Koong” Dreampath. Page announcements are only available for Part 2.

## Page Announcements

### Pages 21-30

#### Page 22

**Madea**: *This first page of Vaelia's Story part 2 has arrived! The young locust queen, Skwerk, goes on to scout the fortress and finds the missing squad member, Ilmssyn, in the middle of being interrogated! The Sharen in charge of the penal colony is revealed to be Kio'nel, from Chapter 31.*

#### Page 23

**Madea**: *Kio'nel's interrogation of Ilmssyn continues, with the expected results. Kio'nel has the Black Sun irregulars hang Ilmssyn from the wall. Skwerk flies around to witness this event and flies off.*

#### Page 24

**Madea**: *We cut to Suren, Vaelia, Syrak, and Nacht as they sit and discuss possible courses of action with other squads leaders. Skwerk arrives and manages to communicate what she found...*

#### Page 25

**Madea**: *The squad reports what Syrak saw, the plan is set into motion, and the squad moves out. Now the real challenge begins...*

#### Page 26

**Madea**: *And now, the real operation begins. Once again, the young locust queen proves her worth and Nacht gets to show off her marksmanship abilities; which are considerable.*

#### Page 27

**Madea**: *The operation continues. In this page, Vaelia catches a pair of Black Sun sentries off-guard and rescues Ilmssyn, proving that the garrison has been caught completely off-guard. Thus far, the Sarghress appear to have retained the element of surprise.*

#### Page 28

**Madea**: *The plan starts coming together... sort of. Nacht goes to secure the gate leading to the penal colony, while Suren and Syrak go deeper into the garrison to sabotage the gearhouse powering the lift. Emperial, this one's for you. :]*

#### Page 29

**Madea**: *Ilmssyn is rescued, and things start getting out of hand. No plan survives first contact with the enemy. :3*

#### Page 30

**Kern**: *Madea cannot connect to the forum today. The operation continues and things are getting a bit complicated. To help people understand the flow of how things have gone, there are two entrances to the garrison: the colony gate leads down into the penal colony, and the bridge gate which heads back into the wastelands near the mist sea on the surface. There is also a lift in the middle which heads down to Dariya'ko (which is where that gear house was). Right now, Suren and Nacht are in the middle of the garrison, stalling Kio'nel; meanwhile, Ilmssyn, Vaelia, and Syrak are at the bridge gate, operating the controls.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled adventure.*

### Pages 31-34

#### Page 31

**Madea**: *Ilmssyn strikes back! Tossing the charged mana grenade, it explodes at the dragon's feet, causing it to rear up and dislodge its rider. The stalling tactic has worked, and the slaves have reached the penal colony gate and entered the garrison.*

#### Page 32

**Runes**: *IT'S OKAY PEOPLE, THE DRAGON IS FINE! :D*

#### Page 33

**Madea**: *The slaves flee across the bridge and Suren begins retraction, choosing to stay behind and delay pursuit as long as possible. The squad, given their charge, must move on.*

#### Page 34

**Madea**: *The final page in Vaelia's story, showing that happy endings are fleetingly possible! Note that even though it says "The End," that is only for the primary arc with Vaelia. There is a two-page Sharen epilogue coming tomorrow and the day after, so stayed tuned!*

### Epilogue Pages

#### Epilogue, Page 1

**Madea**: *The Sharen epilogue, page 1. Kio'nel, having lost a major skirmish against the Sarghress, returns to Chel'el'Sussoloth immediately after the battle. Having gotten a haircut to make himself presentable for this critical meeting with Commander Sarv'swati to report his failure, he arrives only to find that bad news was right on his heels....*
***Editor's Note***: The epilogue pages were drawn by a different artist, who unfortunately drew Kio'nel based off his pre-timeskip appearance. (Although the first artist did not draw the hair with colour as originally intended, making it somewhat even.) It was decided to leave it as is, and is now canon. May as well look presentable when you face the music.

#### Epilogue, Page 2

**Madea**: *:3 So, as everyone can see, Sarv has murdered Kio'nel for his remarkable incompetence. Since he managed to miss an entire invading force and failed to die gloriously in redemptive battle, she has rectified the situation with death; judge, jury, and executioner in the case of his failure. And a bit of catharsis, there.

Kio'nel's story is an unfortunate one, the kind not normally displayed in epic stories but all too common in history. He was smart, but his troops were complacent and didn't take his orders seriously, which played heavily in his failure. Trying to do the right thing, his rotten timing was such that he managed to report just in time to find out an attack happened shortly after he left. His life, and death, have been a tragic footnote in the slow downfall of the Sharen.

And, yes, had to contrast the overly optimistic Colonies ending with that Chel-flavoured brand of reality. :T*

### Special Pages

#### Pissing Match Chibi

**Kern**: *Felix had yet to send us the page. We had to resort to pee joke to save the update day. Now that it's up, Felix shows up up with the real page... Expect it soon.*
***Editor's Note***: It's not an official chibi, but damn if I'm not pulling it off the news feed for posterity. :P