1 Lambert: {to his fellow party members, with the blacksmith shop in the background} Where are we going to get 2000 gold pieces? I need a new sword!
2 Mordekai: How about we rob some rich merchant caravan?
3 Lambert: Perfect!
3 Draak: Draak like!
3 Kyros: I'm in!
4 Alvissa: Really, guys. Can we at least wait until we start on the quest before doing anything illegal?

The fantasy characters are based on actual characters run by players in my gaming group.

When I wrote this, I thought to myself, "That's exactly what Alvissa's player would say in the same situation."

And then I thought, "And this is exactly the sort of situation the other players would create, too."

Ah, gamers. An endless source of inspiration.

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2013-08-21 Rerun commentary: It's not really clear why Lambert needs a new sword so desperately. He seems to have a perfectly good one in his hand.

As mentioned back in the rerun commentary for #17, in my real life campaigns on which these comics are based, Alvissa was played by the same player who played Paris in the space theme. And as mentioned in the rerun commentary for strip #26, Paris's player was studying for a Ph.D. in Old Norse literature at the time (which she has now completed). This was the inspiration for Alvissa's name. I don't know the exact details, but certainly the "Alv-" part of her name is based on the Old Norse word for elves. I think the word "Alvissa" might actually mean something like "she-elf" in Old Norse.