Comic #768: Tough Cheese (Patreon)

I found myself wanting to revisit the merchants after last week's comic. The idea for cheese-smithing came to me last week as I read comments on this comic's reddit thread. I even literally commented the exact premise for this comic. Numerous commenters mentioned that Elling was a secret spy and the cheese shop was likely a front, which gave me the idea for the joke in the second panel.

I'm still not entirely sure if I'll continue this merchant narrative next week, but I'm enjoying it. It reminds me a lot of some of my earlier comics, especially all the NPC arcs. I also enjoy the aspect here of mixing meta game mechanics with actual lore from the game. There really are rats in the cheese shop, and Elling does work for SI:7.

I wanted to add the rat early on in the comic, and right before posting it I realized I had completely forgotten to include it. It ended up being a literal last minute addition. I wasn't entirely sure it was clear the rat was breaking it's teeth on the cheese, but hopefully that comes across. Here's a closer view: