A big thank you to everybody who’s donated money to Digger this month–I dunno if it’s the Christmas spirit or what, but I’m very grateful! Thank you so much!
Digger
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And there she is! 😀
Someone needs to give her a hug before the questions.
Questions like what happened? Where is Ed?
Yeah, she needs to be told that there is no more threats.
‘Otter
She will need lots of hugs and a warriors drink to wake-up.
Why is the hole still there? I thought it was kept in place with magic from SGV. With him dead, wouldn’t the hole collapse? And with the hole still in place, she could go back down and maybe attempt to retrace her steps. Just a thought.
Umm…. Boneclaw Mother has no ears……
BC’s ears are back and down, in startlement from the whump.
I was thinking that about the hole too. Apparently, we were wrong. Not that I mind, necessarily.
Aw, Digger looks so cute in the 3rd panel, especially if I pretend Digger’s nose is actually an anime-style mouth. XD
PS: Why yes, I am sleep-deprived, why do you ask?
I love Digger! She’s awesome! *kiss*
@WorkingVolition – I think it was *Ganesh* who magicked up Digger’s tunnel. Digger is going to be royally pissed off when she figures it out. If you think about it, nobody else is left. He-Is probably didn’t have the strength. He was on life support, after all. SGV had other ways to get out – he was probably trying to wait out the magic on the shackles.
Of course, She-Is-Fiercer may have been involved, but I don’t think so. She’s got a tough liver, and probably wouldn’t forgive He-Is even after 12,000 years.
It might even have been Mother-of-Earthquakes… but my money’s on Ganesh.
I believe at some point the Statue of Ganesh stated that it did not magic up Digger’s tunnel (which might have been in response to an accusation) but the Statue of Ganesh could say that without deceit if Ganesh was responsible. As the Statue said, being the Statue of Ganesh is not the same as being Ganesh.
What Statue said there? That’s the polite form of ‘Bring it, lady’.
Just because the tunnel’s magic’d up, doesn’t mean that it’ll fade immediately. SGV wanted a solid connection to the region, until his plans were finished…
Umm, why did SGV want a connection to the temple of Ganesh? I’ve read right through Digger twice, but I seem to have missed that plan both times, help!
Isn’t it a truism in any form of conflict, from armies through to personal combat and apparently all the way down to argument and discussion, that an attacker who finds yielding where they expect resistance will be off balance and unable to effectively proceed?
Anyway. Magic in the world of Digger is already known to persist long after its originators have departed. It will fade in time, which is part of why abandoned dwarfholts are dangerous places, but it does have ontological inertia. Things that are magicked up stay that way when their creators are long dust, and cause trouble for wombats who tunnel into them.
Ha ha, I love the Statue. I’m an atheist and I want my gods to be like that :P.
VOTEY: http://topwebcomics.com/vote/10180/default.aspx?id=10180
Digger in the top ten? Yes please.
Also donating to Ursula goes down well – do you have space for any financial gratitude for this awesome story?
Atre, as of this post, Digger was solidly at #22, so top ten is possible. I’ll vote again when I get home, I’m on the work computer now, so I get two votes every day 🙂
Sneaky trick for people with DSL:
Unplug your DSL modem. Wait five seconds. Plug it back in. It will reboot and grab a new IP address from your service provider (for most providers, anyway). You’ll have a whole new opportunity to vote for Digger.
This probably works for cable modems, too.
@ Barry
IT WORKED!
Hee hee hee
Top ten here we come.
This comic is way awesome. I wish you the best and hope some day to be able to make a purchase. I cannnot remember who mentioned it, but the idea was for a compilation hardback…that would be awesome and what a great suggesstion >^+^< I really like how you work from the dark into the light in your work. It reminds me of working with graphite powder. Lots less messy, like the M&Ms of drawing
😉
“Do I have to go beat up Jhalm now?” Classic.
…if Digger was a guy, then he would need a *wheelbarrow.* Because that last statement alone– the willingness to Do The Next Thing after what she’s been through– would mean that, as a guy, he had Great Big Brass Ones. Whoah.
Since, however, she’s female, she… no, no; she still merits a wheelbarrow. She can port whatever she damn well pleases in it, but she still earns one with that. ^___^ Wow. **seriously impressed**
Yay! Speaking of Jhalm, I wonder what he’s been doing…I bet that the next strip is him barging in wanting to arrest Digger again.
Once Digger’s story wraps up we can move on to “The Boneclaw Mother & Statue of Ganesh Show”
Please check your local listings for dates and times.
I still think Boneclaw Mother Grim eyes and Murai are sitting on Jhalm. That would keep him quiet.
Yes, what did happen with the whole Jhalm-Murai-Boneclaw Mother standoff anyway? …all right, I admit I’m being impatient.
Digger needs votes at around double its current level to break the top ten.
Any reader who can do the modem trick or runs an illegal botnet would be great.
A compilation book would certainly get my purchase 😀
I thought those bot things didn’t work for this kind of voting. Don’t the ‘bots have to get past the matching the pictures to the name before it accepts the vote? Also, I still want to know what the Thing is that B.C. is referring to. I mean, I don’t think I want it done to me personally, but I’d like to know what it is.
@Duckwhisperer:
http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=847
There’s the thing explained.
“The Thing” is where Boneclaw Mother apparently looks straight into your soul, twists the weakest bit of it and thus brings you into line to do what she wants you to do. Most mothers, and a great many grandmothers, can do it as well.
And this, clearly, is when we find out what happened with Jhalm (well, maybe in a few days, after Digger catches them up on what _she’s_ been up to, but at some point she will insist they explain why she no longer has to worry about Jhalm. Because since Grim Eyes, Boneclaw Mother and Murai are all in the temple, which Murai was previously holding against all comers, clearly Jhalm is no longer an issue.)
And I really really hope there is a compilation volume. One way or another, I want all this in hardcopy, but if it is all in one, I don’t have to worry about misplacing whatever volume it is that I want RIGHT NOW.
Re the tunnel — for some reason, that “whump” sounded to me like a fall, more than a pull-self-out-of-tunnel-and-collapse. Since I can’t tell if there’s a tunnel behind/under Digger in the graphic, I’m suspending judgment on the question of how she got back to the temple. Magic continues to seem a possibility to me; clarification will probably ensue.
Duckwhisperer — I’m pretty sure “The Thing” is the thing that many older and cantankerous relatives do or try to do, often done by mothers and occasionally by very good teachers, where they reveal the inside of your own head to you in ways that are basically useful but often profoundly embarrassing. Which would make sense of the Statue’s comments, too; the refusal to be embarrassed by one’s flaws is about the only way I’ve seen to survive Thinging 🙂
By the way, guys — read the info at the Top Web Comics List — there are some kinds of what is essentially cheating that the creator there is willing to put up with on the grounds that preventing them would be too burdensome, but there are some — easier to catch — that will result in the comic being pulled entirely from the list. So please choose wisely 🙂
well, I remembered “The Thing” slightly wrong – relevant strip here:http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=847
I thought the tunnel was gimmicked to connect Digger’s original tunnel to the temple. He-Is’ cavern was built under the temple, so the tunnel to that would stay.
Please NOBODY USE BOTS to vote for Digger on Top Webcomics, that IS considered cheating and can get Digger taken off the list even if Ursula had nothing to do with it D: Votes coming from a human on multiple computers is ok.
Thanks Madam Atom, Mouse, and Gramina The Thing has been explained. Not Ben Grimm, ’cause he was The Thing too. I meant the the other thing that…Oh never mind, I’ll go lie down before I hurt myself.
You know what would be awesome? Even though Jhalm has retreated, Boneclaw Mother should do The Thing to him.
What if…Boneclaw Mother teams up with Granny Weatherwax???
I’ll go hide under my bed just in case.
Boneclaw Mother and Granny might just be pen pals.
Magic was just used to connect Digger’s original tunnel to this part of the world; there wasn’t anything supernatural about the tunnel itself once created. (can’t remember where it was explained in the comic, but it was pretty early on).
Digger should not be playing second fiddle to Goblins, c’mon people, VOTE!
http://topwebcomics.com/vote/10180/default.aspx?id=10180
Granny and Boneclaw Mother. That sounds like the weirdest fanfiction ever, I swear to Ganesh. Terrible. Horrible. And it would kick your ass a thousand ways to Sunday.
That aside, for those wondering about the hole: Remember Ganesh’s explanation of how the hole worked? Digger took the fossil through one dimension and into another, “tying” them together like a needle pulling thread. The stone’s still there, so I’m betting that’s why it’s still working. Just because you cut off the needle doesn’t mean the thread won’t hold the two bits of cloth together, right?
@WafflesToo: I think that was the description you were referring to? *points at previous post* I didn’t see your post before starting that one. XD
I’m on a fixed IP address, but I’m doing extra votes from my phone. Please don’t use any “black hat” methods.
It’s probably been said a few times but about the tunnel – I don’t think the magic is dependent on SGV’s being live to work, nor do I think it was necessarily SGV itself that did it.
Think of the magic like bracings in a normal tunnel. The initial effort might have been a flimsier trap, but Ganesh pointed out earlier that since Digger’s arrival, much work had been done (we now know, by the servants) to bolster and support that tunnel.
Digger also pointed out that her passageways had been widened and supported since the last times she was down there.
It’s not that the hole will collapse with SGV gone. It’s that, with SGV gone, now we CAN collapse the hole. Though I wonder if they would…
I don’t know for sure, but I think that He-Is was still capable of some tiny amount of communication, kind of dying moan for help. That’s why Ganesh got involved. Remember, Ganesh is the god of compassion…and the remover of obstacles. He-Is definitely needed compassion. And, he needed someone to help finish off SGV … and only something highly resistant to mind-affecting magic, i.e. a wombat, could do it.
Why couldn’t Helix have done it, some might ask? Because at the time that Helix was involved, He-Is and SGV were too tightly intertwined. Recall that there was a kind of love-hate thing there, that although SGV was the cause of much of the pain He-Is suffered, still, SGV was the “only one who would talk to the Eaten.” And so they were deeply connected, right at the soul. Not until the soul of He-Is had faded, not until the god was close to death, could SGV be dealt with; not until SGV pretty much was the only entity still there and in any shape to interact with the world.
Even then, not just any wombat would do; and I don’t think it was Digger alone who was needed. He-Is also needed an Eaten. He had to have Ed. Only a hyena could have dealt the killing blow, and perhaps only an Eaten, someone who had paid the same price as He-Is, but for all the wrong reasons. Only Ed. Digger was the vehicle – the needle, pulling Ed to the cavern, making it possible for He-Is to rest, for SGV to be defeated (and maybe die since we haven’t fully confirmed that).
That’s a LOT of obstacles to get through, in order to obtain the best, most compassionate goal: freeing He-Is and allowing him the transfiguration of death. I think SGV definitely magicked up the hole; I think He-Is passively cooperated, in order to make certain that the hole would come out in front of Statue of Ganesh, who could then (eventually) figure out who needed help. I think that Ganesh (not Statue) may then have also magicked up the hole, in order to maintain the connection so that what needed to be done, could be done. But that would have been after Digger’s arrival, not before.
Why should they collapse the hole, by the way? That still might be the best way for Digger to get on home.
Does she still want to? Or does she want to leave the possibility open for her to go home, but still come back to Rath and visit?
*gah* Sorry for the wall of post
Wall of text crits for 9999! BOOM! /grin
“Okay, now where is that waitress I have to arm wrestle?”
No, no! Take five minutes.
@Duckwhisperer: You know, I’ve never seen the two of them in the same place at the same time… secret identify?
Okay everyone I’m back. after pre-Christmas getting snowed in with snow, Christmas getting snowed in with food and post-Christmas terminal depression and turkey induced constipation I’m finally in a fit state to re-join the internet. And what do is see? People conspiring to cheat on the top web-comic poll. For shame: If Digger is going to come in the top ten there, it deserves to come in on its own merits, not because of cunning number fiddling. We owe Ursula and The Story that. Besides, I really doubt it would work anyway because I’ve tried it before on other polls and in any web poll, if it’s possible to easily and undetectably cheat then all the other comics will be doing it and we get a Red Queen paradox where we all have to cheat as hard as we can just to stay in the same place in the polls relative to all the other cheating amoral bastards. Its only worh cheeting if we KNOW we are the best amoral bastard in the game.
And darn you, Veritas, the mere mention of ontological inertia sent me tropeing.
Oh and thanks a bundle Theysabet. I have to work with wheelbarrows most days and I’ll never be able to look at them in quite the same way again.
Ganesh is basically the best god. And Boneclaw Mother is great as usual.