What a flavour pairing
The Reverend is boiling the kettle. I suspect he feels like it’s the only thing he can do.
STEEPLE – A Scary Go Round Comic
by John Allison
The Reverend is boiling the kettle. I suspect he feels like it’s the only thing he can do.
“Clerical error.” xD
You’re not the only one to collar that joke.
Now I’m wondering if this whole storyline started with John thinking up this joke and built the rest to lead up to it.
I’m pretty sure Allison has been looking forward to this punchline all year.
All gas and gaiters!
“It’s just a year and a half of your life down the tube. Plus assorted unholy effects on your immortal soul. No big deal, lovey.”
“No reason to be shaken to your core…. again.”
Not a year and a half though – only since “last autumn”, as per Ludmilla here: https://steeple.church/comic/to-die-from/
Clo says it on this very page. See above.
Duh! You’re right, of course. (I did have a feeling there was something I had overlooked!)
Billie may be wondering how many hit dice of witches she can turn.
Or how many d6s she gets to roll for her Fireball.
(Though personally, for interior work, I preferred Lightning Bolt. That old-school Fireball needed a LOT of space to run wild & free.)
Whereas the lightning bolt’s tendency to bounce can be exploited for enhanced Pot Black effects.
For those wondering about the allusion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_Black
Could be better.
While interior lightning bolts were always fun, I tended to get myself a lot…
Upwards of 30 Standard Dungeon Cubes, if I recall correctly.
33,510 cubic feet, or 33.5 10’×10’×10′ cubes.
I ran a 3.P game once where the PCs were world-hopping. At one point I had them hop into a world that ran on AD&D rules. The mage almost incinerated herself the first time she threw a fireball.
All the best Armor Classes are negative.
That made me laugh, Mr. Campbell!
If the next storyline will really be the last, this feels like the beginning of the end. (༎ຶ︿༎ຶ)
“The Reverend is boiling the kettle. I suspect he feels like it’s the only thing he can do.” In USA folklore from the 1600’s to the early 1900’s, the husband was always sent to boil water during childbirth if he insisted in being close and participating in childbirth. The explanation was that this kept him busy, feeling useful, and out from underfoot.
“Go do something useful with yourself. And by useful, I mean completely useless.”
I unwittingly tapped into a primal instinct!
Oh it’s just the British thing to make a cup of tea whenever there’s a crisis. Solves everything, a nice cup of tea. And biccies.
Tell us more about these “biccies”.
Biccies = Biscuits
But the biscuit selection is just as important as providing biscuits themselves. Failing all else, there are old dependables to fall back on – as Peter Kay once said, the Chocolate Hob-Nob is “The SAS of biscuits” – you can parachute them in to solve any crisis.
I grew up in Stockport only a stone’s throw away from the McVitie’s factory. If the wind was in the right direction, the whole neighbourhood smelled of baking – delightful location!
For us Yanks, SAS = Special Air Service.
I’d always seen this in books and movies, but didn’t realize until now it was intended as a distraction. I had always wondered exactly how much water was needed for sterilizing instruments, it seemed like a lot.
If you have to tell someone that a thing you did is funny before you actually explain it, then you already know it is most definitely *not*.
So the despicable duo have a tiny bit of self-awareness. Not much, mind you.
I feel that way about people starting a sentence with, “Interestingly…”
Aww. Seeing Billie’s eyes get huge and full with tears is so sad. This is definitely a trauma for her. I hope it doesn’t make her go back on her decision. As a Satanist her character has become more independent and strong. Also, she had many doubts even before the vision. I’d like to know who the ghost was, Mr. Clovis?
Also if Tom gets word of this, it means he may finally have the ammunition he needs to get Billie out of COS for good.
I suspect that the mere suggestion that Tom would do anything for good might result in him spontaneously combusting …
Try shouting it?
I don’t see where that would matter to the CoS, should Billie not want it to matter. Doesn’t matter how she arrived if she wishes to stay.
A part of Tom certainly wants her gone…
If the ghost really was Mr Clovis, I’m afraid the “murdering hag” can only be one person. When Mrs Clovis gets home, Maggie won’t be the only one to have some explaining to do.
YES. It really put a bad shadow on Mrs. Clovis. Maybe it was an accident, maybe Mr. Clovis was an evil man. But if he was the ghost, the murderer was probably his wife, or maybe his mother-in-law? Perhaps Mrs. Clovis’s decision to help the church began as a way to atone for her sin.
I don’t seriously think that Billie will leave the Satanists for good, even if the discovery that the crisis that caused her to join them was based on an illusion. Billie might revert to Christianity for a while out of guilt or shame, but ultimately it comes down to what she said to the Rev himself during “Hell on Wheels” – The sex is a lot better with Satan!
I took everything she said to the Rev about why she switched as evasion.
Given Bllie’s slinky black get-ups that are barely hanging off her contours while hailing Belial in the ritual chamber, I doubt it! Even Billie’s day-to-day wear has featured bare midriffs (Hell on Wheels) and backless tops (Author Unknown). Frumpy she ain’t.
Don’t misunderstand a goody-two-shoes, they’re only frumpy to you. Frigidity in that sense (at least as I understand it) is not related to moral uprightness.
I kind of thought it was the ghost of the vacuum cleaner. I’m not sure why or how I came to that conclusion.
Ah, they’ll have to bring in a druid to banish it, then. Nature abhors a vacuum.
Clotilde burning all the comments section goodwill she earned with that quick broom-work.
Wow, to think that Lud and Clo just kind of showed up as characters for this particular story only to find out they are possibly behind one of the greatest mysteries in the entire series! Is it any wonder that Apocalypse means “unveiling,” or “revelation?”
They first appear in Steeple issues 4 and 5 (either, or both, I get confused) and also appear (in flashback) The Silvery Moon.
Ok, I’ll have to look back on those issues then.
I have to ask. In the first panel is that string of Victorian fakery eerily linked to Maggie’s knee tattoo? Or is it just a really cool visual effect? I hope that the witches don’t spot the attempted subterfuge.
I don’t know, but I’m dead curious as to what that string of (apples? Christmas ornaments?) was meant to do. Billie & Maggie tied it to the bed in a previous strip.
A string of apple-shaped holiday lights, it seems to me. Meant to create a fittingly eerie greenish ambiance, perhaps?
I have to give them credit for wanting to free Mary though.
Maybe she likes the misery. Did you think of that?
They just tweeted it out
So was Maggie’s ghost just som rando who had access to this information through general spirit realm chatter? Talk about your deus ex magicum!
Personally I’m convinced it was the sesh gremlin, but in spiritualist lore, spirits generally have access to information humans don’t – there are various explanations for this, including being able to observe and listen in on a lot of happenings without being noticed.
And the Reverend has overheard the answer to the question he posed Billie back in the previous storyline (or the one before that, I’m not entirely sure).
For reversal of occult clerical errors, please press your bloody thumbprint into the Dark Book of Azgoth. One of our service imps will contact you within 3 cycles of the dark star.
LUDMILLA NO!
I would be so happy to see Billie leave Tom. She rightfully belongs beside the Rev.
Is anyone else wondering when Jason’s storyline will be brought to the forefront and dealt with? Feel like that little cliffhanger tease has been buried.
Since the next story’s apparently the last Steeple story, I assume that’s where it’ll be dealt with.
Ok, my guess is that Billie will leave the Church of Satan. Then she and Maggie will set up a new sect.
This is an interesting opportunity.
Who’s going to pay for Billie’s ruined dress?
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that her ruined life may be more important.
Is anything going to happen with the ectoplasm? Nobody seems to be paying any attention to it, but it doesn’t appear to have been mopped up.
I expected that the spirit would use it for some sort of manifestation.
Also, no floating trumpets during the seance. A great lack. These really add to the ambience.
The most unfortunate part is that I think… I actively wonder if this legit worked out for everyone. In their favor. … I mean except for Tom. But screw Tom.