Tales of the Questor

Don't piss off the Questor.

Tales of the Questor is a webcomic by one Ralph Hayes (RH) Junior. It tells the tale of Quentyn, a young anthropomorphic raccoon (or "Rac Cona Daimh" or "Racconan" but who are we kidding?) who spends his days with adventure books and daydreams. When the traditional ritual where young kits choose their career for life approaches, young Quentyn shocks everyone and becomes the local laughing stock as he declares his desire to become a Questor - a type of noble hero-for-hire whose like hasn't been around for ages, and who are practically nothing but adventure book fluff. But, it turns out there are legal requirements to have one when someone offers. So begins Quentyn's own adventure - he's now an official Questor and it's up to him to do what a Questor must, even if it means having to face great dangers and things he's never had to encounter during his young, sheltered life -- and practical exile as he's tasked with a gigantic quest that requires him to head into the lands of humans.

TotQ borders between a humoristic adventure comic and a more dramatic story about Quentyn's maturing and the problems he faces due to still being a young boy, with stronger emphasis on the serious side as it has progressed. The comic is also notable for its writer's tendency to convey his religious and political views through it, though these traits have decreased over time and transferred into other mediums. At its best, the comic works its themes into an imaginative fantasy allegory, much like C. S. Lewis' Narnia novels, and it constructs a deep world that helps alleviate these problems.

Pretty well on the Idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism.

Has a Spin-Off comic: Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger.

Tropes used in Tales of the Questor include:

• Achievements in Ignorance: The creation of Wildcard was accomplished by three youngsters who had gotten themselves drunk in celebration of Quentyn's becoming a Questor. Once sober, none of them had the slightest idea how they did it. Neither did certified experts, at least until they break out the "Deep Runic Scanner" - and discover fractal patterns for the first time in their universe.
  • According to Word of God alcohol doesn't affect Racconans in exactly the same way as (most) humans. There's a point where they get smarter but lose all inhibitions - Drunken Mastery.
    • So alcohol turns Racconans into Sparks?
  • On a far less Deus Ex Machina note, Quentyn's elfshot pistol; a Magitek Automatic Crossbow which normally has "a hundred shots. Take a day or more to recharge, though..." Except his fires all one hundred at once. Turns out its regulator had been broken off, which a friend of his Wrench Wench childhood friend thought was a slick trick - and that he was lucky it didn't blow up in his hands. He then mods it so it won't, then adds a replaceable clip and settings to control rounds fired and spread.
    • Hayes seems fond of this trope. Arlen was just trying to clean up a toxic village, and getting repeated browbeatings from Obstructive Bureaucrats over the bio-engineered plants he's designed for that purpose. He comes up with a pseudo-scam to get a permit; his uncle owns most of said toxic village, but though he can't actually profit from the tainted land, he can claim the deeds as the "undisclosed assets" of a company to which the bureaucrats would grant said permit. He's even able to get permits for other biologists doing odd research. Then the bureaucrats discover the Loophole Abuse, and change the laws to have the plants destroyed. But on the day the cops come to torch the fields, the sun rises on a field full of bushes bearing berries of pure aluminium. Read about the stuff on That Other Wiki and you'll realize that he just became the richest racconan on Aerith.
      • And it turns out some of them don't just process it into metal, but crystalize it. Look up Corundum.
• Adults Are Useless: Averted.
• A God Am I: Ralph Hayes plays this one like a fiddle. Here's how it plays out:
  • The Gragum Shaman plays this one straight
  • Completely and soul-touchingly inverted in Brother Linnaeus' arc, when the Gragum chief asks Quentyn if he is God...then asks why God seems to have abandoned the Gragum. Quentyn's "letter delivery" for them is especially touching.
  • Later on, invoked twice by Quentyn during his Badass Boasts, as he refers the Gragum Shaman's claim in both of them.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Quentyn's initial treatment by his villagers after his career announcement. Subverted later on.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: 'Looking' for lux, especially in the Seven Villages, usually involves a flashy rainbow-colored background.
• Animated Armor: Pelinor's master's armor was this. When he died in it, the squire claimed it was haunted by his ghost. What actually happened is still unclear, but something is in there.
• Anti-Magic: There are small cheap rods that soak up magic like a sponge but burn out quickly, rat-wights that eat magic and use it to duplicate, and dragons are completely immune.
• Author Appeal: RH Junior really likes his anthropomorphic raccoons. Though it has to be said not to the point of fetish. This troper used to be in a D&D group with RH (yes, despite what you might think, he's an avid D&D player) and his character, starting out as a Gnome Rogue, eventually got polymorphed into an anthropomorphic raccoon. From that point on, things that happened in the D&D campaign made it into the comic and vice versa (the Elf Shot pistol started out as a Magic Missile crossbow in the D&D campaign). Which leads us to:
  • Author Avatar: Quentyn is not quite a direct avatar of RH, but after the above mentioned changes in his D&D character, Quentyn became more like the character, who in turn was more like the 'real' RH than Quentyn originally was.
• Author Filibuster: RH Junior's completely unrelated rant comics in-between the early run of the comic.
  • No longer in effect once the site was moved to a new location.
• Awesome Moment Of Knighting: Painfully subverted.
• Badass Boast: See image at the top of the page. And that's only the first half of it.
  • Given motivation, he does have a knack for it.
  • This almost seems to be the standard response to threats for Ralph's protagonists.
• Badass Creed: Quentyn, during the fight with the rat king.

The lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me,
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparedst a table for me in the presence of mine enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever.

• • This is the 23 Psalm.
• Badass Normal: The farmer's son. He not only enters and escapes Tir Na Nogh in a nearly-impossible yet completely successful rescue mission without a moment's hesitation, but he takes on an Unseleighe Sidhe armed with nothing but pies and lives to tell about it. This trope does not do his deeds justice. Quentyn may also count.
  • Quentyn as well. He's for all intents and purposes only an "amateur" lux user, his most common use of magic is from magic items (Most of which are half-broken and only work when and how they want). On top of that he's a three-foot tall adolescent raccoon-person. And yet his periodically-repeated (And ever-growing) Badass Boast is still entirely true.
• Bait and Switch Tyrant: Elder Gilder. In private, he says that Quentyn is the only one besides himself who takes the role of Questor seriously, and acknowledges that he's a rather good one. He just thinks that the existence of the position is in itself dangerous.
  • As some crooked political schemers later proved, he was right.
    • And the very next day, Quentyn proved himself so worthy of the title that Gilder holds pretty much the grandest festival the village has ever seen in Quentyn's honor.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animals: Some Raccoons and other non-human races don't use shoes at all, but many do much of the time. It varies from individual to individual.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Ralph has fun with this one.
  • Zigzagged with Quentyn's wishes: Quentyn IS very careful, but later thinks he wished for the wrong things, and then learns that he's mistaken in his second-guessing.
  • Played straight with Rahan. He wishes that he could get a real good look at Quentyn's face after a prank involving tar and feathering goes off. He does, right after the prank goes hilariously amiss. Quentyn, who has overheard Rahan, even lampshades that.
• Belief Makes You Stupid: One of the theories off why humans cannot accept 'Lux energies' and kept calling it magic (which they think is evil)
  • Or more specifically, belief in the Universal Church's tenets, after all both the author and the hero are rather devout "protestants".
• Berserk Button: Understandably, considering his size and All of the Other Reindeer status, you do not mess with children around Quentyn. You especially do not trap a 10-something scared little girl in a cage - and then hold that cage underwater.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Quentyn is one of the sweetest guys you could ever meet, right up until you hit a Berserk Button. "You shouldn't have made her cry" indeed.
  • Also, whether you're the leader of a gang of thieves or the ruler of a duchy, do not look down your nose at him. He's fully aware of just how much of a badass he is, and he's not afraid to inform you of the fact in spectacular fashion. Even if he is going to hyperventilate and/or puke from the stress as soon as you're out of sight/earshot.
• Big Bad: While we only hear about this creature from a story, and it's existence is only the theory of a mad scientist, the Patronum Monstrum, a creature believed to be the origin of all of the evil monsters in the world, creating monsters for the sole pleasure of inflicting pain on all other beings, would certainly qualify, if it exists.
• Bilingual Bonus: Luft is German for "air".
• Black Sky Take Warning: Oh crap. Also Foreshadowing.
• Blase Boast: Quentyn's father can be one evil old goat.
• Blessed with Suck

We are going to be up to our eyelids in gold-crazed trouble.

• Bodyguard Crush: Nessie to Quentyn after he saved her from three Gragum cultists.
• Bothering by the Book: Quentyn, of all people, pulls this on hostile politicians: A covenant clause means a contract will be passed someone's successor--in this case, Quentyn of Freeman Downs, who is considered the successor of Quentyn of Ridgedale. The clause must, by Racconan law, specify a number of generations--but if it doesn't, limitation protocols restricts it to one, which means it won't apply to Quentyn of Freeman Down's successor, something that the Expansionist Party overlooked. Quentyn, armed with this knowledge, goes out to fulfill the contract or die trying.
• Boxed Crook: The squire
• Brick Joke: Artimeus mentions a scholar that found the Racconans, though he doesn't believe him, we know have a couple of pages from his journal.
  • Not entirely--these Filler pages were taken from the Tales Of The Questor CD, and were from a longer storyline on the CD. The pages were drawn long before the strip mentioning the journal.
• Bring News Back: Trying to bring back news of the dragon's rampage.
• Broke Your Arm Stabbing A Dragon
• Celestial Deadline
• Character Filibuster: A few in-world strips are essentially giant blocks of text, with political meaning both within and without the comic.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Linneaus the Priest, who might be a lost boy in another story's one hope.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Quentyn
• Colossus Climb: With a dragon. One twice as big as the one Quentyn was prepared to face.
• Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: used in-story when Quentyn's "proof" that the human coins were fake turned out to be a research failure on his part, but it fooled the bad guy anyway.
• Cool Old Guy: The Eldest.
  • And to an insanely greater extent, Quentyn's father. The fact that he effortlessly combines Crowning Moments of Awesome and Funny repeatedly throughout the comic cements this trope as an understatement for him.
• Cool Sword: Wildcard
• Cross-Melting Aura: Fae lords are tougher than the regular Mooks.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Church of the Sojourner fits Christianity with a stag strapped on the side, while the Universal Church aims more for pointing out some of the more misguided and superstitious results religion can lead to, without being actually evil.
  • They were a lot worse in the back-story.
    • It was recently revealed that they once suffered terribly from several religions, not just Hayes' thinly-disguised fantasy version of the early Catholic Church.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: "Cold" Magnetic iron.
• Doing In the Wizard: After over a hundred comics of treating Lux as just the Racconans' technical term for their medieval-era world's Force Magic version of Functional Magic, complete with constant uses of terms like "spells," "magic," and "wizard," the fundamentalist Christian author devoted a text-heavy side arc to explaining that the force that looked like magic, acted like magic, sparkled like magic, was treated like magic, and frequently called magic wasn't really magic. Another side arc, much later in the comic's run, went further and showed the tragic consequences of Racconans referring to their magic-like powers as magic, implying that they weren't even going to use magic-related terminology anymore.
  • As You Know
  • Culture Clash / Sufficiently Advanced Raccoons / Clarke's Third Law: While the raccoons had a deep understanding of Lux, humans believed it was powers of the supernatural, and wasn't able to comprehend when Racconans tried to explain it.
  • Sure, Why Not? ... so (in-universe) a group of Racconans adopted words like "magic" and "wizard" to pose themselves as supernatural beings. The raccoon leaders and the clergy were... not amused, but the terminology stuck.
  • Get Thee to a Nunnery
• Deadpan Snarker: Artimeus is quite good at this.
• Description Cut: At least twice so far.
  • In Fenwyck:

Duke Fenwyck: The Racconans of folklore are a bartering people. It is simply their way to postpone any binding decision 'til a night's sleep and a good breakfast. I assure you, he knew every word he was going to say tomorrow before he even left the room.
[Later, in their room]
Quentyn: I have no idea what to say to him tomorrow! I mean, what on earth do you charge for slaying a dragon?

• • And in Grymalkin:

Duke Grymalkin: Well, any such scholarly querying will have to wait -- this morning he took his men "to see where the dragon attacked." No doubt he is using some arcane Racconan art to divine the nature of the beast he pursues...
[cut to Quentyn, holding a book and a quill]
Quentyn: Okay ... so what did it look like?

• Drunken Master: Between them Quentyn, Kestrel, and Fen created Wildcard, a weapon whose intricacies stumped the best minds around, out of a enchanting-practice sword while completely drunk.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?
• Dumbass Has a Point: Squidge isn't exactly intelligent but he's still the one who finds a solution no one else noticed.
• Dungeon Punk: The Seven Villages, especially Sanctuary City. Not so much the rest of the world due to the Universal Church banning magic.
  • Though technically luxcraft is a science, it just looks like magic.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: And how. On any given adventure Quentyn winds up dragging himself by sheer will to victory half dead and humiliated, with no one having believed he could of gotten even halfway to where he is. Fortunately, the author is really good about rewarding him for his hard work afterwards.
• Eldritch Abomination: While not as immune to being punched out as your average world-ending horror, the rat-king is an absurdly powerful and remarkably intelligent being with only one goal: to feed. Within the comic it's demonstrated as wanting and able to destroy and consume anything and everything with lux. Word of God says that includes pretty much anything alive.
  • Actually, the shadow rats produced by the rat-king are ephemeral and sustain their existence by consuming Lux. The rat-king itself is a flesh and blood creature that needs actual food to survive... and sends out the shadow-rats as drones to fetch food back to itself.
  • Also subverted when Quentyn fights a "Chooley", a Cthulhu look-alikeKraken that isn't nearly as tough as it looks.
• Empathic Weapon: Wildcard
• Epic Fail: Rahan tries to tar and feather Quentyn as a prank. Squidge gets on the act and completely turns the tables.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Quentyn blows an Expansionist conspiracy to hell and gone when he takes up his predecessor's Impossible Task rather than let his hometown be repossessed.

I've found schemers and plotters are rarely able to cope with simple things like honor and courage.

• Exact Words: An important point in the Wild Hunt arc. Black Tom is trapped and cannot warn the prince or free himself thanks to careful pre-planning on the prince's part. The Selieghe Absinthe also denies seeing Quentyn's track - while he hides in a pond not two feet away. Best used hereand here
  • This is also the reason why Latin is used when communicating with the Fae, especially when it involves a boon: Latin, being a dead language, never changes. This means that any wish made in Latin can never be prone to Loophole Abuse due to language changes over time. Thus, a boon made in Latin is permanent, while one made in any other language is only good for a few centuries at best, and that's provided there's not a loophole in it due to slang terms or semantics.
  • Also, the hunt is over only when the cock crows the dawn--AND ONLY WHEN the cock crows the dawn. To the Prince's horror, a rooster does indeed crow the dawn, and the duke will swear to it before the Fae court. Turns out there was one rooster the Prince missed by not taking nicknames into account...
• Failure Is the Only Option: Inverted. Quentyn's quest is to bring back a bunch of lost artifacts to fulfill an old contract, otherwise the land his hometown sits on will be repossessed. He has little hope of bringing back all the artifacts before he dies, but if he dies trying, the debt ends with him, and his ultimate goal is fulfilled.
• Fake Action Prologue
• Fan Vid: The comics' first major story arc is powerfully summarized in this awesome fan video.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Partially subverted, in that we see a Racconan guard captain use a shotgun in an early story arc, but aside from Quentyn's lux-shooting Magitek Elf Shot pistol, and a quick bit with a homeowner firing up through his roof at Quentyn(mistaken for a thief), we never see another firearm. Somewhat justified, since the Racconans have few metal resources and no trade ties.
  • • Also justified because of their inherent physical limitations, as explained here. The long and short of it is that they're still at the flintlock stage of development, so until they invent cased ammunition, any gun big enough to actually hurt something bigger than they are (which is just about anything) will send any Racconan save their equivalent of football players flying backwards from recoil. Most of the fuzzballs aren't even big or strong enough to carry a BFG the size of a human rifle.
  • And also, they can fire lightning from their hands and don't really need guns in normal situations. It's like they come with a built-in gun. "There's no such thing as an unarmed Racconan."
• Fictional Political Party: Antillia has a more relaxed approach to politics than the American two-party system; parties form around political goals and dissolve after those goals are met, instead of pursuing goals and garnering support over generations - the Rac Cona Daimh hate the very idea of generational power gathering in such a manner. Exposition; all seven Hidden Elf Villages are currently in a downturn; though the were built in a fertile and wealthy area, they've been cooped up in it for over a century, and are starting to feel the crunch in recycling metals and such. This has led to the rise of two particularly powerful parties; the Open Traders, who want to begin carefully trading Luxtech with nearby kingdoms for more minerals, and the Expansionists, who just want to steal land from nearby kingdoms.
• Filler: Used occasionally to take the edge off the periodic Schedule Slip. Particularly frustrating when the climax of the Dragon storyline is intercut with a human scholar's travel-log into The Seven Villages, three or four pages at a time per page of the main storyline.
• Foreshadowing: Just lost a chickenor two...Not a problem whatsoever...
  • This implies that this will result in trouble in a future adventure of Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger.
    • And the possibility of "an emergency shortcut through Tir Na Nog" implies that that could happen at any time.
• Foregone Conclusion: Narration is always first person by Quentyn, looking back on the events of the story. You don't know how long after it is, and what condition he's in at that point, but you know he lives at least long enough to record the story in his journal.
• Fridge Horror: The Duke experiences this in-universe here.

Servant girl: I... Can only imagine what is running through your mind, Your Grace...
Duke of Fenwyck: At the moment? That time you told me there was a monster under my bed when I was ten.

• Friend to All Children: There all along, but especially prevalent in his attitude towards Marsha; he's completely aware that she's too young to be responsible for her actions, and is very sweet towards her even as she pulls his whiskers and twists his tail.
• Funny Background Event: this strip.
• Furry Comic
• Funetik Aksent: If you can't tell what the hell the swamp dwelling Racconans are saying, try sounding it out.
• Gang of Hats: Various street gangs.
• God Guise: Non-Rac Cona Daimh lux users tend to end up with their own cargo cult, even if some of them don't have much power.
  • Actually, Word of God (and now the comic) states that human lux-users, while extremely rare, are far more powerful than Rac Cona Daimh. The opposite is true for the Rac Cona Daimh, where the inability to see or use lux is so rare that it's considered a disability. The widespread use of lux among the Rac Cona Daimh means that they understand it well and have been able to develop most of their technology to incorporate it. So while the Rac Cona Daimh may not be nearly as powerful as human wizards, they are much more proficient and knowledgeable in their use of lux and lux-based technology.
• Good Shepherd
• Happily Married: His parents.
• Hearing Voices
• Heroic Sacrifice: Quentyn believes this to be the only option after inadvertently releasing (and, if he doesn't succeed, feeding and reenergizing) the Rat King. Nothing at this venture is going to save him, and if it gets loose the entirety of Antillia will be next on its menu, so he has to make sure it dies with him.
• Honest John's Dealership: Merchant Max. You mustn't deal him with while you're drunk, but his goods are reasonably decent quality and his advice to Quentyn of how to talk turkey in the Human Lands is on the money.
• Honor Before Reason: At times, but not when he takes on the quest to retrieve the artifacts. If he takes the quest, he may never see home again. If he doesn't, he won't have a home to go back to.
• Humans Are Warriors: see here
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: They look like creepy, newborn rats. Eugh.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: When the Unseileighe's spy raven was attempting to flee the castle, none of the guards came even close to hitting it.
  • Apparently chambermaids have better aim than trained guards.
• Impressive Pyrotechnics: Quentyn's malfunctioning Elf Shot pistol - which fires off its entire payload in one giant burst, although it is later fixed.
  • Also, the distress flare he uses to swat off a dragon attacking his luftship. The folks below literally ooo and ahh at the pretty lights in the sky.
• Instant Messenger Pigeon: Averted bigtime. Quentyn sends a message via sparrow to his parents, but seconds after he sends it, it gets eaten by a hawk.
  • Averted again when a bird refuses to go out into cold weather.
• Instant Knots: The entire point of a "Glimmer Rope".
• It Got Worse: The entire dragon arc has been a big Break the Haughty arc for an overly-confident Quentyn. It starts with the duke's hired swords abandoning them in the middle of the night. Then Sam left too. Then Pelinor refuses to follow him into the dragon's lair. Then it turns out they've tracked down the wrong dragon--this one is bigger. Oh, but Sam and Pelinor come back! And they kill the dragon! But Ember was maimed in the process, and they have to put her down. And then it turns out there were two dragons, and when a dragon smells a dead dragon, it goes into a berserker rage. The younger one starts burning the countryside with no one able to stop it. And then, to top it all off, the duke's personal priest comes back, admonishes him for working with "witch-rats," and all but announces the start of a holy crusade to bring the region back under the church's control--especially the neighboring duchy.
• Jackie Robinson Story: Subverted with Kestral in that the Engineering faculty head and male students were tired of having to encourage getting more females into the demanding Comprehensive course, only to have practically all the females drop out. Once Kestral proves she's seriously going to see her education through, they begin to accept her.
• Jumped At the Call: Sometimes seeming to beat the Call to the punch.
• Karma Houdini: Brutally subverted when...
• Karmic Jackpot: The Fae Lord sets a hunt for Quentyn, who just happens to be a protected race AND blessed by a being honoured by the Fae, make this a huge no-no twice over. He ends up getting triple the normal punishment: three boons for Quentyn to choose.
  • The result: "Oh, CURSE you, Racconan!"
• Kid Hero: Quentyn's a youngster when he becomes a Questor. This is used against the Archivist's Guild later on.
• Kill It with Fire: A simple Lux application by our hero can turn a simple candle flame into an impressive shortranged flamethrower attack.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Quentyn's first time seeing a cow.
• The Lost Woods: Where the squire says they can take refuge
• Mage Killer: The rat-wights eat lux, which in racoonan society is extremely dangerous. Then there are dragons, who were clearly built to fight lux users. They're immune to all magic, but they are able to sense it and really, really hate it.
• Mana: By Any Other Name, in this case, Lux.
  • Based on the professor's explanation , it's closest to 'qi'/'ki'/'chi', as mastered by martial artists.
• Meaningful Name: This + Exactly What It Says on the Tin = Wildcard.
• Mercy Kill: Quentyn must do this to the mortally-wounded Ember.
• Mood Whiplash: First Quentyn and his friends suffer defeat, bereavement and injury. Then they realize their failure has had wider consequences than they suspected, and they have to go on the run because they're afraid the victims will blame them. Elsewhere, events are unfolding that seem to prove their fears entirely justified. And then without warning the scene shifts to... this strip.
• Morph Weapon: Wildcard can add this to it's long list of abilities
• Naked People Are Funny: Admit it, you laughed, You Bastard. Poor Quentyn.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: His impressive heroics eventually changes that.
• Never Land: The elves, with an unpleasant twist.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Quentyn and the second dragon.
• Oh Crap: Done a number of times, but most prominently by the Princeling when he finds out that, the moment he called the Wild Hunt on the "hairy little mortal", whose race and mystical cowlick made him taboo for such twice over, he completely and irrefutably screwed himself.

It can't be... I waited decades...I made sure you were all long gone...WHY ARE YOU HERE???

• • And here's one from Quentyn. Beware, spoilers:

Oh Lord. Oh Lord. We had tracked down the wrong dragon.

• • Earlier, Quentyn facing the Rat King and its horde of shadow wights.

Did you ever know you were going to die?

• One for Sorrow, Two For Joy: A fay lord collects like a magpie.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: It is unwise, when assuring a girl that she looks like a girl, to mention her hips.
• Open the Door and See All the People: Quentyn Quinn gets this. He's in his pajamas. The next time, pajamas would have been an improvement.
• Our Elves Are Better: Or at least they were...
• Pyrrhic Victory: The dragon is dead! And Quentyn's arm is broken, the head is way too big to haul back as a trophy, and poor, poor Ember... (look up at Mercy Kill). As Quentyn puts it:

It was the bleakest, emptiest victory of my life.

• Post Dramatic Stress Disorder: Yeah, Quentyn, Son of Quinn, the Questor of Freeman Downs, is an unrelenting Badass who can deliver the most Badass Boasts with the greatest of ease. It's just that afterward, he always realizes that he also happens to be a teenager who can bite off more than (he thinks) he can chew with the greatest of ease. At least the second time he didn't throw up.
• Precision F-Strike: Using Symbol Swearing, of course, but it does show up when Quentyn remembers the water-activated dynamite in his pocket--while he's underwater.
• Precursors: The Lemurians.
• Pretty Butterflies: Wildcard produces them once.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: NEVER threaten Quentyn's friends and family. Ever.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Quentyn says that human coins are forged because the heads are facing to the right instead of the left. He's wrong, as the heads can face either way. He's absolutely right about the coins being forged, though.
• Rule of Three: the fae lord is asked three times about each boon, which is the point at which they take effect.
• Rules Lawyer: Pretty much all of the Fae, and identified as such, though the Seleighe and the Unseleighe are specifically mentioned.
• Schedule Slip: The strip has gone through periods of this; it is currently updating once a week.
• Servant Race: The Fae.
• Shout-Out: The title of the first human nation Quentyn befriends? The Duchy of Fenwyck!
  • "...it's dangerous to go alone. Take this."
  • One to Men in Black
  • There's so many here that it's difficult to name them all, but if this isn't a shout-out to "Labyrinth", this troper will eat her hat.
    • Need mustard? It's one of M. C. Escher's seminal works... that appeared in Labyrinth.
• Shrouded in Myth: the dragon. Within days of its appearance.
  • Fridge Horror: Unless each account of it is correct, which could only mean one thing: Dragons. Plural.
    • Except for Especially the sock stealing one...
    • Oh crap.
• Skunk Stripe: Quentyn's white lock.
• Smooch of Victory: Quentyn's not quite expecting it.
• Spanner in the Works: Without his realizing it, Quentyn's accepting the artifact quest to save his village thwarts the people who wanted to use the situation for political gain.
  • Subverted in that Quentyn is hardly The Fool. He knows what he's doing, he's just unaware of the full consequences.
    • If anyone's The Fool here, it's the people he's being the Spanner to. The one thing they failed to account for in their plans: Someone doing what was honorable, just, and right.
  • Squidge is one as well. A very deliberate one.
• Spin-Off: Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger
• Squick (In-Universe): The kids that were captured by the Fae made the mistake of asking the mirror-fairy where babies came from. Their reaction was... well, as expected of children.
• Still Got It: Squidge, being a bogeyman, was despondant because he thought he wasn't scary anymore (his intended victim thought he was cute). In the Rat King Arc, he successfully scared off a bunch of rat wights by appearing as a monstrous cat, which delighted him to no end. Then he used his powers to turn Rahan's prank completely upside down.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Racconan wizards are basically university academics.
• Summon to Hand: Quentyn is told that his bond with Wildcard will eventually let him do this.
• Take a Third Option: More than once - in fact, for many quandries, "hire a questor" is the best alternative, as Quentyn himself has noted.
• The Bully: Rahan
• The Quest: Quentyn agrees to go to an seemingly impossible grand quest to save his town from being repossessed.
• The Fair Folk
• Thicker Than Water
• Three Wishes: Quentyn's reward after the Wild Hunt. Which he uses to great effect against the Princeling Dolan.
• Through His Stomach: The advantages of a woman's touch
• Too Fast to Stop: Quentyn's speed-enhancing boots.
  • Sadly destroyed during the Wild Hunt when their heat buildup completely incinerated them.
    • It appears, however, that he's managed to either repair them, or craft a new pair, as he's seen using their wall-scaling trick later on to run up the neck of a dragon.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: Quentyn teaches the Duke of Fenwyck how to fight the Fae, and he likewise distributes the weapons and tactics to his subjects.
• Treasure Room: After Quentyn has everything the fae lord took unjustly given to the Duke.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Kestrel
  • Also Maid Ellen, at least until this happened.
• Unpredictable Results: Quentyn's magic sword, Wildcard, which can go from invincible to useless between attacks. Noteworthy in its tendency toward the useless side when it would be funny. If Quentyn's life is in danger, however, the results can be reeeeeeeeeally ugly, and even an apparently "silly" effect can turn out to be exactly the sort of vital delaying distraction needed to ensure Quentyn's survival. This may be justified by being an Empathic Weapon.
• Unreliable Expositor: Pelinor claims that ever since his master died in his Animated Armor, its been whispering and murmuring to itself, and occasionally moving. Quentyn, as one might expect, doesn't believe him. Turns out he wasn't telling the whole truth.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: It wasn't blackberry sherry, it was blackberry BRANDY.
• Variant Chess: A four-player variant with the same social role as poker.
• Weak but Skilled: The Racconnan race in general; two-foot tall "Lux"-wielding furries in a High Fantasy world of elves, dwarves, orges, etc... but their lack of power has led them to Analyze Magic Sufficiently to put them "head and shoulders" above the rest - the only Steampunk civilization on a world stuck in The Dung Ages.
  • Quentyn in particular; Despite extensive studies he's a "black ribbon" Lux user - just one step above no power at all. He's clever enough to scrape through school through rote memorization - but not brilliant enough to be a scholar or engineer. He's strong, fast, tough and well trained - but short even for a racconan his age. Put another way: he knows lots of subtle low-power spells, he's great at MacGyvering both tech and magic, and he's a Combat Pragmatist. In short, he's a pretty darn good Questor.
  • The Racconnans are also this way to human Lux users: while a human may have enough power to level a forest, it's like "a Neanderthal with a club verses you with a crossbow."
• Wham! Episode: Old Secrets story arc.
• With Due Respect
• The Wild Hunt
• With This Herring: Averted. When preparing for The Big Quest, Quentyn gets all the equipment he needs, and more. He tends to prepare for his minor quests, albeit from his own saved money, and had significant physical and scientific training.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Due to a childhood prank, he's afraid of jellies.
  • Mind, he was tricked into believing they could dissolve living flesh. Ever seen The Blob?
• What the Hell, Hero?: Quentyn to himself in the aftermath of his encounter with the Gragum -- pretty much an inverted "The Reason You Suck" Speech
• Wrench Wench: Kestrel
• Wretched Hive: The Tumbledowns
• Zeppelins from Another World: Racconans looove their "Luftships".