Cafe de Nuit

Post below if you'd like to see another Ravenloft comic, updated as frequently as I have the time.

For those of you with slower modems, a version that only displays one page at a time can be found here:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Starcrossed/

Dramatis personæ

"Santine"


Found under mysterious and suspicious circumstances, Santine has nonetheless grown up into a seemingly normal young woman... with the possible exception of her personality.

Father Desmarais


Once an active anchorite, Father Desmarais has settled down into a position of authority in the Souragnen Low Church of Ezra. His education, speaking patterns, and collection of books make some wonder if he is native to Souragne, but the good Father has never seemed inclined to discuss it.

Father Benoit


A priest of the Low Church of Ezra, Father Benoit was Santine's caretaker for much of her childhood. Unfortunately, the two had a mutual dislike of each other, which remained up until Benoit passed away.

Marie Delacroix


Marie spent most of her youth working the hard life of the poor in Souragne. She managed to escape and make a better life for herself... until she made the dumb mistake of coming back. Despite this setback, Marie does her best to keep in good spirits: she prefers rum, but is willing to try anything else that seems interesting.

Jean-Louis Girot


A wealthy landowner from Souragne, Girot was everything you would expect of a man spoiled rotten from his earliest years: vain, arrogant, and spending entirely too much time on his hair in the mornings. At least, he was until a mysterious accident destroyed much of his house and badly scarred his face. He still spends too much time on his hair, but seems to be willing to swallow his pride to own up to his mistakes, which is probably all that can be asked of him.

Zoe


A formerly troubled and depressed girl from Souragne, Zoe seems to have not only completely recovered from a near fatal accident, but also shows a kindness and bright outlook on life that she seemed to lack before. If there were any negative side effects from the incident, they have yet to be noticed by the people around her.

Fredrik Diavor


A young man from Borca, Fred left his home some time ago, claiming anywhere else would be preferable to staying there. He was forced to rethink this statement after he collapsed about ten minutes after setting foot on Souragne. With Santine's help, he recovered and has decided that Souragne is still better than Borca; sugar is cheap, the coffee is fresher, and the passerbys seem a lot friendlier.

Terry Bouchard, aka Terrance the Magnificent


A theatric stage magician, Terry was one of the first people Santine met in Port-a-Lucine. Although slightly condescending and arrogant, he's willing enough to both help and explain to those in desperate need of it.

Elijah Winters


A quiet, pale man who looks like he's in the dying throes of a heroin addiction. By all accounts, an accountant.

The Mysterious Alchemist


Nothing much is known about this elegant gentleman, save that he has a really nice hat.

Disclaimer: Ravenloft is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, at least I'm pretty sure they are, they've been passed around. This fanwork is not meant to challenge any copyrights. No profit is being made off of this work. Please don't sue.

Absolutely!

Isabella, I'm jealous of your scenery. That must have taken you quite some time and effort to finish. Aren't bricks just such a pain in the a** to draw?

I'm glad you decided in the end to make a comic. Looks like it's a mixture of pencil work, water color, and some digital editing. How long did these pages take you, if you don't mind me asking? I must confess, my jaw dropped at your art's awesomeness. Particularly the first frame caught my eye, as did the facial expression in the last frame.

If our schedules ever permit it, you and I need to do some crazy art-fest net-book for the Fraternity some time.

*claps* Splendid work! I'm looking forward to more updates, although take what time you need.

Thank you! I must confess, I have been stockpiling pages for a while now, so updates will come quickly until I run out. An art jam sounds super fun, although I haven't the slightest idea when or what we'd do it on.

The pages up now are all digital. I received a Wacom tablet as a Christmas present several years back and usually use it for my work for the FoS. Each of those pages took about a day to do. I must confess right now, however, that making each panel a gorgeous piece of artwork in its own right got kicked in the head pretty quickly in the project - not only for the obvious reasons of it taking forever, but also because it caused problems in the layout later on in the comic. This layout is alien to me, so, the art style is going to go into flux for a while as I experimented with different techniques. It finally settles into a more cartoony style later on, nothing jaw dropping I'm afraid, but hopefully one that will still be enjoyable.

As a note, I have a series of stories in mind, many of which have already been planned out (I say this because I know that before I actually manage to get those stories done someone will come up with the ideas in them on their own and I will look like a bigger hack than I actually am). The main goal here is not to get bored and quit. Wish me luck!

It should be easy to guess where the story is set. Can you?

Mordent?

EDIT: No, wait, there are veves on the walls. Souragne.

I'm looking foward to seeing more of this. It's quite good so far. I like that it's all black and white.

Nathan wins an e-cookie.



Thank you kindly!

Page 5 is up. There's something you don't usually see in Souragne.

If you want to know why it's not underwater at this point, the answer is.... magic.

Magic works, sure. Clerics can cast lower water, right? Something like that as a permanent effect would do the trick. Be pretty handy in dungeon construction. Groundwater isn't a problem, then. I actually really like the idea of using magic to solve probelms like that [ although I realize it probably doesn't matter at all, in terms of the story ]


Wonder what they are looking at that's so shocking!

That is superb, and I'm looking for the next part!

Joël

Oh, I'm so happy! Thanks, thanks a lot!

Phantom That doesn't mean we will let you out of the sweatshop yet! Keep drawing or you'll meet my whip!

buh...buh...but I was liking the outside

*WHACK!* ggaaaaahhh!

I was thinking that it might be neat to put some sort of continuity between the two comics, or at least in the form of referencing to the other. For instance, later when Vincent eventually makes it back to the Chapel of Pure Hearts, if it's all right with Isabella I think it would be cool for him to hear that "There are rumors our Souragnian sect has recently lost Father Marsanne, and Brother Hien is now investigating", or something of the sort. I'd never want to intrude on any territory, just show that it's one giant world that they're part of.

Would you be cool with that Mademoiselle?

I am enjoying it, and I really think that last page could be subtitled, "Horror Check"

Of course! However, Hien is not the priest's name; it's French for "Huh?"
Sorry for the confusion. The two priests are Benoit and Desmarais.



Question: Answered!

that's some bad juju there

Thank you all kindly for the nice comments! Comic will resume on Monday, after all, the weekend is reserved for... The Phantom of the Sketchbook!

(I wouldn't want to be found hanging for intruding upon his reserved spot!)

Oh.....my.....

Definite Bad Juju.

Benoit any relation? (Aside from proving that there are a limited number of French surnames)

Ooooo, creepy!

Hmmm... what veve is that on the floor? It's not a match for any of the Souragne Gaz's designs, so far as I can tell, although the ones in the first frame were the Serpent King's symbol.

Now why would I use a loa symbol you all could just go and look up? You won't find it in the Souragne Gazetteer, but I will say that it is heavily based off a real life loa veve. I say "heavily based" because you can't cheat and guess the loa from its real-life counterpart, but I'll give an e-cookie to anyone who can figure out who's symbol it resembles.