Webcomic / Tales from Somewhere

"Life has never been so good."

— Ghilrond, The Secret

Starting publication in 2009, this is a Fantasy Webcomic created by Las Pinter.^note Who is also a troper All stories take place in a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired world called Somewhere, and can be read here.

The Legend

Focused on the life of three adventurers, Morten, Brem Ghdin and Nandiel, this comic begins shortly before they're thrown in jail. Morten is a human warrior, bored of spending his life in a town behind God's back. Nandiel is an ever-annoying, always disappointed elf wizard. Brem Ghdin is a dwarf priest, who has some anger issues. After the prison guards and executioners find out that Brem is a priest, the trio is immediately released (because of the fear of the inquisition) and the adventure begins. They are exposed to the sadistic and dark mind of the Dungeon Master.

The Secret

This story begins in the desert, literally in end of the World, where Ghilrond, the elf guardian of the realm, and his wizard companion, Fandrulin, are waiting. Shortly after the story begins we can find out what were they waiting for: the edges of the World began to move. This is a kind of an apocalyptic event. They want to save their realm and they have a plan. Shortly after that the wizard mysteriously vanquishes, and Ghilrond has to travel alone by foot to Luvendiron, the capital city of the world. In the first town he meets with Lyrineth, the human thief girl, who helps him to survive some unlucky events (misunderstanding with the locals, punishment of the lord, prison, etc.). Thanks to that, these two birds began to travel together, and their adventure is continuing.

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The two comics provide examples of the following tropes:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: In The Secret, Sewers Ghilrond climbs down to a sewer, which is big enough to provide a place for the bandits to hide.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: In the beginning of The Secret the edges of the World are started to move towards the center of the realm. Any living creature that touches the "wall" will die instantly.
• Alternate Universe: In ''The Legend" there is a parallel universe, where there is an empire which has the ability to travel to alternate universes for gathering resources and enslaving the people.
• Art Evolution: The first page of The Legend warns readers of the shift in art style over time, from stiffly-drawn simplistic blob shapes to realistically shadowed and textured designs.
• Bag of Holding: In The Legend Morten uses a bag to pull out useful tools when he is cheating
• Bar Brawl: Almost every time the characters are in a tavern it ends up with a tavern brawl.
• Bilingual Bonus: In The Legend The ambassadors of the great chicken, Morten uses the Latin language by saying randomly: "Sumus legati magna pullum! Discedere ad inferos!". Which means "We are the ambassadors of the great chicken! Go to hell!"
• Call-Back:
  • In The Legend, The God taketh away Morten remembers that they were locked together in the prison with a priest (brem), which is an unusual thing.
  • In The Legend, Stinky is near Morten remembers that they agreed with Welhaim to continue their conversation after the feast.
• Character Level: In The Legend the characters are usually leveling up after a sub-adventure or greater fights.
• Circling Birdies: In The Legend, "One More Beer", the character that Morten had tossed out of the window in the last strip now has small yellow stars circling their head.
• Curse Cut Short: Morten frequently curses, but it is is always cut short one letter into the curse, such as "motherf..." and "f...". Usually he cuts himself short, but other characters sometimes cut him off instead.
• Destination Defenestration: In The Legend, "Eye Contact", Morten tosses an unnamed character out the window of the tavern because they tried to insist on taking his spot at the bar. It is soon revealed that he does this on a regular basis.
• Elfeminate: Nandiel, the elf in the party, is mistaken for a woman during their introduction.
• Facepalm Of Doom: In The Legend, A Wizard warlock witch sorcerer transforms the people into zombies by putting her hand on them.
• Game Master: The Legend story is basically an adventure led by a GM.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In The Legend, Silent Harvest, Morten rips of a zombie's arm and slaps another one with it.
• Groin Attack:
  • In The Legend, Legendary fight a fishman tries to kick Morten in the nuts, but he has a groin protector.
  • In The Secret, Balls Ghilrond uses his pistol to shot the most precious thing of a man.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy:
  • In The Secret, Shut up! a guard enters the prison area without any precaution.
  • In The Secret, Not an idiot an obviously idiot guard tries to outrun the arrows.
• Hit Points: In The Legend, Dwarf priest Brem heals 30 HP for Morten.
• Improbable Weapon User: Morten often uses a chair as a weapon.
• Info Dump: In The Legend, Giving a quest Nandiel has to listen to a long explanation.
• Killer Game Master: In The Legend there is definitely a Game Master, who tries to kill the characters. He was even communicating with them in the Changing the difficulty page. Also he is very sensitive for cheating.
• Pictorial Speech-Bubble: In The Legend, "Goblins Fight", Nandiel casts his spells with a speech bubble containing an image of the effect instead of the name of the spell.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • In The Legend, "The Spot", a fight breaks out over a faceless character declaring that a seat at the bar was their favourite spot.
    "This.Is.My.Spot."
  • In The Legend, "Nose Problems", Nandiel expresses his anger over Morten having bit the bridge of their nose.
    "You! Bit! My! Nose!"
• Self-Insert Fic: Morten, the first character in The Legend, was based on a character that the creator played in their Dungeons & Dragons group, as explained in this news post. Nandiel and Brem Ghdin are based on characters created by the other players, and chosen because the players based these characters' personalities on themselves.
• Travel Montage: Chapter 2 of The Legend begins with a collection of panels where the three main characters are going through a field, forest, river, etc. It ends when the characters are attacked during the night.
• Visible Silence: In The Legend, "Scream For Me", both Nandiel and Morten are stunned into silence. Brem takes this as his cue to explain why they shouldn't be yelling so loudly.
• Wizard Classic: In The Legend, Nandiel is an elven wizard, who wears robes and carries a staff, but he doesn't use it to cast spell. As an elf, they cannot grow a beard, but he is very rigid on what is appropriate behaviour.

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