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Webcomic / DHS Comix
aka: Free Turn

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DHS Comix is a verse of closely related webcomics by Merlin Missingham set in the world of "LaRaGa."

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/47thumb.jpg
the thumbnail of Volume 47 of Random Encounter.
The flagship comic, Random Encounter, focuses on the students and faculty of Dhark's Hero School, which gives the site its name. Other comics include:

    Ongoing Comics 
  • The Breaking, an account of a frequently-mentioned historical event 1500 years before Random Encounter as told by a convoy in RE's time, among them an old friend of Peony.
  • Dhark's Hero Stories, which is drawn and written by Rhiannon 'Puyon' Perez-Crooks, will feature the backstories of the incoming students from Random Encounter.
  • Fall, the account of the Trickster God shedding light on the events surrounding his fall from the nine.
  • Mysteries of the Obscured, the stories of the travel correspondent of a completely reputable paper.
  • Darkness Falls, some years after Random Encounter several former students attempt to defeat a dark curse.
  • Death's Door, hiatus, the story of the Death Mage proprietor of an apothecary called "Death's Door", and a strange new person who arrives at her shop one day...
  • Short Shift, a series of short stories that in some way involve changing and shifting. Updates as full volumes on a non set schedule.

    Finished Comics 
  • New Game+, taking place 50 years after Random Encounter, the story of a boy caught up in a holy war, a streamlined version of...
    • New Game, a Canon Discontinuity comic about a new crop of DHS students, among them the boy just mentioned.
  • Way Back Home, centering on the ghost of a murdered father, with hints toward events leading to DHS's current incarnation.
  • Daisy/Peony, the backstory of a recurring Random Encounter character.
  • Free Turn, following the misadventures of a youth after being transformed by an annoyed potion-maker, interspersed with single-chapter stories with the common theme of transformation.
  • Loose Change, following an inept priestess of the god of change.

A running theme is the persecution of "Tricksters", worshippers of Jake, god of lies and illusions, who has made an enemy of the other gods, making his cult anathema to all others, with treatment ranging from grudging toleration to summary execution.

The site also adopted The Dragon Doctors when its author finally gave up on The Duck as host, but despite frequent cameos in either direction, said comic takes place in a very different setting.


This webcomic provides examples of:

  • Accidental Marriage: Paige's entourage mentions that due to "tradition", her escort has to be male, pushing Claw into a Twelfth Night Adventure. They fail to mention that part of the tradition is the escort becoming prince consort when they get home; fortunately, Claw falls for Paige, and Paige doesn't mind Claw is a woman. Paige's bodyguard Wrath implies that she'd always been a lesbian.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: While how bad she is up for debate, it's Free Turn's main antagonist Miss E who puts an end to cross-through nuisance Gabriel Malach's antics, as opposed to Loose Change protagonist Silphy, who's too kind to leave him inconvenienced long enough to learn a lesson.
  • Bluff the Imposter: A trick of the Inquisition is to ask for nonexistent paperwork, hoping Tricksters will attempt a Jedi Mind Trick to produce it.
  • Book Ends: The 2018 Fool's Week story updates start with somebody wanting bigger wings to fly with, paying a greedy Change Priest for them. They end with somebody wanting bigger wings to fly with, trying to get them from greedy Tricksters pretending to be Change Priests.
  • Continuity Cameo:
    • Danni Marble in New Game+.
    • Saffron's appearance in Nettle's flashback in volume 10 of Random Encounter. Deimi and Dyaris appear in the same flashback.
    • Saffron also appears in Way Back Home.
    • Demi, Malo, Miss. E, and Carla from Free Turn briefly appear in Volume 35 of Random Encounter
    • Daren Marks appearing in the Convoy in The Breaking after his role in Daisy
    • The paintings of various heroes and historical figures in Dhark's Hero School. This includes portraits of Deimi and Dyaris, Lavendar, and the founders of the school.
  • Dead to Begin With: Way Back Home
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Shauni San appears in Volume 2 of Random Encounter, 7 volumes before her proper introduction.
    • Mason a revealed newcomer to DHS made his first appearance in Volume 12 of Random Encounter, working in his Auntie's restaurant.
    • Puyon, another revealed new student, appeared in Volume 24 and Volume 26 as a member of Mylenor's trickster mob.
    • Hexetani, another future DHS student, appears in Free Turn to purchase a potion from Miss E.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Tish of 'Deaths door' refuses to believe in vampires, despite living in a world with magic, gods and monsters.
  • Forced Transformation: Priests of the God of Change's magic "can be used for changing anything into anything else". A specific example of this is Gabriel Malach, who in both stories he's appeared in has changed the protagonist of that volume into a feral animal.
  • Karmic Transformation: Gabriel Malach is a jerk Change Priest who likes to change people into animals and then demand apologies and money to fix the changes he forced upon them. He ends up becoming the pet guinea pig of a jerk change potion-maker who demands apologies and money to consider fixing the changes they trick people into.
  • Last of Her Kind: Loki is the last survivor of a cursed family.
  • Mark of Shame: Feathries' wings darken the first time they kill. People are naturally quite wary of dark-winged feathries.
  • Oh, My Gods!: Obviously, constant. Most people are weak henotheists, so "oh my god(ess)" is occasionally heard, but more common is "oh gods," or "oh Fels" referring to the twin gods of luck.
  • One-Steve Limit: It's a plot point that "Mana" is the name of both the (future) headmistress of DHS and Zamil's son.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Jake tricks Zamil into accepting an unimaginable penance by interrupting everyone who tries to tell him that time in the living world is frozen during judgment.
  • Rebellious Princess: Daisy, who swears allegiance to Jake at her inheritance ceremony.
  • Resurrective Immortality: The clanners.
  • Shapeshifting Failure: Shapeshifters can only stay transformed For a few hours before they have to change back to their default form, staying transformed for longer than this makes them ill. Of note is that shapeshifters can any form they chose, while other kinds of shape changes (Mimic's, Were's, Felimara) have only one to three alternative forms, but no apparent time limit.
  • Shout-Out: Before settling on "Peony," the former Princess Daisy spends some time as Hyacinth.
  • Stealth Parody: In-Universe, Peony's "Trick Tracts."
  • Take That!: "Trick Tracts," over-the-top comics denouncing Tricksters - written by Peony.
  • The Cameo: Put on your seatbelts, kids, this will be a long one.
    • Shauni San is a cameo from Samantha Lowe's Realm of Monsters. Also from Realm of Monsters, Silver, Josiah, Opal, Jeff, and Shauni briefly appear in a crowd in Volume 3. Volume 38 features many Dryads from Realm of Monsters. Gwangia and her family appear in Trick Tracts 1. Gwangia appears on her own in Way Back Home page 125.
    • Merlin states in her character page that Nix Thorne is a cameo.
    • Sierra Den appears in both Loose Change and Random Encounter. He appears in Random Encounter twice as the owner of a poultry farm. He also appears as a student from Hero High (albeit Wingless) in Free Turn.
    • Daryil from Project Future plugs himself in as a God of Debauchery. Daryil also appears in Way Back Home on page 75. Also from Project Future, many characters from Jayhawk Cybernetics appear in Daryil's drumline volume 31. Jakob appears in the end of Volume bonus of Volume 40 and in Daisy on page 25. Page and Jakob also appear in Trick Tracts 2. Illiath and Daxxon appear as part of the Inquisition in Peony. A Fox Guard and anthropomorphic Panther appears in Way Back Home. Simeon Kaye appears in New Game+, page 108. Kamdan appears in page 16 of Death's Door a a customer.
    • From The Epsilon Project, Sidney, Richard, and Sheila appear in Trick Tracts 2 as Advanced Gardens & Snails players. Professor Farklik appears as an NPC in said game. Richard appears in Peony as a member of the Inquisition as well. Sheila and Panda appear on page 144 of New Game+
    • From Benjamin Buran and the Ark of Ur, Bejamin appears in Way Back Home as a member of the Hero's Guild.
    • Another character who belongs to Cubi Kistune, Raxuno appears as a customer in Death's Door on page 6.
    • The Scout from Heads you Lose appears in Peony as a Trickster. Erich and Crake appear as Gardenian Guards in Volume 43 of Random Encounter.
    • From The Axe Man Cometh, another comic of Tapewolf's, Mary Backbreaker appears in Peony as a member of the Hero's Guild.
    • In Volume 41 of Random Encounter, page 14, when Claw and Paige return home, a huge crowd appears as a 'proper welcome home'. Some characters in the crown include (the following listed are people listed as Furaffinity usernames) bradypodidae, sofox, turnsky, and keleth. Tapewolf's Enoch from The Epsilon Project appears. So does 'Therony the Bard'. Puyon's characters, Nargis and Dume, appear from her current unpublished work, Price of Manipulation.
    • Turnsky and Keleth appear in Peony page 18. Therony is in this crown as well. Bradypodidae appears on the following page. Keleth also appears on page 94 of Way Back Home.
    • From The Dragon Doctors, Sarin and Mori appear as Lord Atea's guards in The Breaking.
    • Speedball's characters, Pix and Mina appear as officers in Death's Door on page 13.
    • From Puyon's unpublished work, Price of Manipulation, Puyon appears as a trickster and future student. Additionally, Karatauze appears in volume 39 as the border guard. Panarys appears as a background character in 'Peony'.
    • Doxy, a character who belongs to Tempest_Ryo, appears on page 124 of Way Back Home.
  • Twelfth Night Adventure: Claw spends multiple chapters in drag to meet Princess Paige's demand for a "traditional" escort.
  • Winged Humanoid: Feathries (feather wings), Scalers (bat like wings), Fey (insect like wings), Griffs (feather wings) and Felimara (bat like wings)and golems (? wings)
  • Worth It: Claw says this of a scar she got rescuing Paige.

Alternative Title(s): Random Encounter, New Game Plus, Way Back Home, Daisy, Free Turn, Peony, The Breaking, Loose Change, New Game

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