620 – “Who knew liquor was THAT flammable?”

Dhur just put one whole point into his Bluff skill and is itching to use it!


While I was drawing this strip, something occurred to me: how would a Dungeons & Dragons-style city handle emergencies like fires, giant sinkholes, hurricanes, and earthquakes? Would there be a department that handles such matters, like a fantasy-world version of FEMA? I mean, sure, you might be able to call upon the Royal Mage or whoever for the occasional fix, especially if whatever happened actually affects them directly (i.e. There is a fire threatening the city library, or a giant’s hurled boulders just smashed the best brewery in town). However, after being called upon for the 12th time to help with a fire at the local creamery, any wizard might get a bit… testy and resent the time taken away from their studies.

Given that I have established that in Ardris (the world MeatShield takes place in) there are artificers (which, for the uninitiated, are kind of like magical MacGyvers, making magical devices out of almost anything), I imagine they would be the ones called upon to help in this manner. Not that they would be terribly happy about it either.

Do you have any ideas for how the City-State of Kilanio might normally put out a fire like this? Leave me your ideas below in the comments!

Take care,

~Rob