We have a solid idea for page 1. We also have pieces and parts about the whole plot. Today I want to work on fleshing out the whole plot, which I'm thinking about as 10 issues of about 20 pages. The immediate scenes after our opening page are pretty obvious, but the overall story is still a little blurry in areas and I want to iron that out so that my first time through is decently smooth with, foreshadowing and such.


![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXPisvdGPZUT5wYkxWdH2WLijPnRTyKsEf7MTr7UNYLu3/image.png)




Here's page 1. Then I'll start working through trying to piece this whole epic story together.



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Page 1



Panel 1: Top third of page. A mountain ridge with two shadows walking along it, a soldier and a witch. Kind of dark and mysterious, ominous.



1. Narration: After the alliance won the war, the grand council sent a soldier and a witch to hide the Gauntlet of Kings in the X Mountains. Many had gone looking for it, none had returned.



Panel 2: Bottom two-thirds of page. Gauntlet floating above display mantel in the middle of the cave. Lut and Gaza on either side of the centerpiece with their backs to us facing the gauntlet. Parts of skeletons strewn around the floor of the cave. They have no weapons ready.



1. Lut: Ooooh!

2. Gaza: Aaaaah!



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Right after that Lut is going to go for the gauntlet. As soon as he touches the gauntlet the skeletons are going to assemble themselves in whirlwinds of dust and attack. Lut and Gaza will narrowly escape. Somehow the gauntlet will probably save one of their lives. After they get out they will try to get the gauntlet off at some point, but it won't come off. They'll decide to seek help and advice in a town, or from someone at least. The person that they find might tell them the story of the soldier and the witch. No, I think that's too early. This person will probably tell them that there's only one person that can remove it. They'll also tell them that the gauntlet is worth a lot of money and that some people would chop off Lut's arm just to get it. That seems like a good ending for the first issue, the call to adventure.



The place they have to go is on the other side of a dark forest. This forest is full of a bunch of monsters. What kind of monsters should we have? Wingless dragons, chimeras, unicorns, blood-sucking bats, giant owls, large carnivorous plants, and such. The greatest monsters of all are the Cyclops and the goblins. Both races fought together with The Alliance during The War of the Dark Sword. (All names are subject to change whenever I want, for now.) But before that, and again now, they are basically considered animals themselves, primitives at best.



So, Lut and Gaza know that there is an Aership on top of the castle. They decide that the best thing to do is steal the Aership and fly over the dark forest to... I'm not sure yet. Wherever they're trying to get for this special person that can remove the gauntlet, supposedly.



The castle is occupied by the Grand Council and their servants. But, almost everyone is out of the way for some religious ceremony on a special day, maybe just a normal day of the week. I'll have to decide how I'm going to do the calendar later. During the ceremony they sneak into the castle and make their way to the staircase that would lead to the top of the king's tower where the Aership is. But, at the base of the stairs there is a Brute. A race of fierce, cold-blooded killers. They are the ones that fought for the king. (The Dark King, The Evil King, King Lucian, King Lucian the Light. That last one might have something. Then it could be the Light Sword and The War of the Light Sword. That might work.)



They decide to get past the Brute somehow. They notice that he doesn't have his spear for some reason, only his large shield. Maybe they tip something over out of the way and the Brute goes to investigate. Then they make a run for it. The Brute chases them up the stairs. Wait, I should probably have some more sneaking in there before that for Gaza, because sneaking is his thing. Maybe he had to sneak through a window to open a door for Lut. Alright, the Brute is chasing them up the stairs. They get to the Aership and cut the ropes. They start floating away trying to figure out how to get it going. But, the Brute runs and jumps and grabs onto the rope, or the hold, or something.



There's a problem here. I have to get the Brute to be friends with Lut and Gaza, and I don't see that happening right now. How can it happen? Maybe he sees the gauntlet and respects that. No. Somehow they have to talk for a little while. Could it be while he hangs onto the rope? Probably not. Maybe Gaza uses sleeping powder on him. Maybe. Maybe that's how they get past him. But then he's just left behind. Maybe they have to come back to him to get through a door or something. Dang, problems.



Maybe they need his strength for something and wake him up from the effects of the sleeping powder to talk to him. No. I think I need them to save something that the Brute values. How can I do that? I don't know. Maybe, maybe, maybe. What if they bait him into a side closet and Gaza puts him to sleep. Lut points out that a real Brute shield is worth a lot of money. This one has been used, but repaired pretty well. There is one new scratch across the front through the bright red paint. I'm thinking the shield is this big rectangle of red with fancy gold trim around the entire edge. Lut has some repair polish that he pulls out. He's fixing the shield and the Brute wakes up. He grabs both of them, they're at his mercy, and then he sees the fixed shield. He asks why they repaired it and Lut says that "It looks better this way.", or something like that. Then the Brute notices the gauntlet.



Okay, now we're onto something. Maybe we do a flashback and reveal this specific Brutes story while also revealing that the gauntlet belonged to King Lucian the Light. Yes! There needs to be a bit more here. Why would the Brute leave with them? We find out that the scratch is from a child of one of the Grand Council members. The kids come and stab at him for fun, and make fun of him because he's a Brute. The Council doesn't care because he's a Brute. So, Lut and Gaza say he should join them. In the flashback we find out how the Brute lost his spear in battle. The Grand Council wouldn't give him a spear again, and said he could only use a shield because he's only a protector now. Good stuff. Lut and Gaza tell him where they're going to get the gauntlet removed so they can sell it. They'll split the money so he can have a new spear made and restore his honor as a respected warrior. Perfect, sounds good.



Now I'm not sure where we are in length. I think getting the gauntlet and getting to the castle after finding advice in town is issue one. Then, getting into the castle and the whole thing with the Brute is issue two.



Now, all three go and steal the Aership. I'll think more about that Aership design later.



(A few interrupting thoughts. It could be the Light King and the Light Sword, but the Dark War, because the victors decide the name of the war from this side. But, King Lucian calls it the Light War. That's a good idea. Usually the different sides do have different names for wars. Also, the Brute is starting this thing thinking about getting his spear back. But, by the end I want him to take pride in being a protector and only having a shield. Also, I want to give him a specific name in the story because he's broken away from his Brutish past now. Brutes don't have names otherwise, they're just called Brutes. Also, Lut is focused on money at the beginning, but when it comes down to it at the end he'll decide to save the day as a hero should. Then, when he can, he'll focus back on treasure again.)



The first two are sounding good. I'll move fast and light now so I can think about these things more for the next article.



Lut, Gaza, and the Brute steal the Aership. They set off. Over the Dark Forest there is a problem. They crash into the forest. They are attacked by something, maybe Cyclops. I'll have to look up how I'm supposed to write that in the plural. Then the goblin girl saves them. Why would she? That doesn't quite work yet. I'll detail that out next time. Anyway, they get the girl on their side and she leads them through the forest. Probably a flashback in there of her parents fighting against King Lucian and her being a child, something like that. That's issue three.



On the other side of the forest they come into a... town. Should they find a town, a city, a small hut? Something. Gaza has to sneak into somewhere again. He does his weird take off his clothes thing. Lut is used to this and holds his clothes, but the others point out how weird it is. We go into Gaza's backstory and explain that as a child in a rich family he escaped a lot. His doting parents hired people to take care of him. They tried different things. One of those things was putting bells or something like that on his clothes, maybe tracking devices, maybe both. So, he had to take off his clothes to get away. He found that it was useful, so he keeps doing it. He's able to get whatever they needed to get. That's issue four.



Maybe it was that the people in town were afraid of the goblin and the Brute and arrested them. Then, they had to break them out. That might be a good idea.



Now, the evil exiled king has to start coming into play around here. They also need to meet the soldier and the witch. They also need to meet the person that might be able to get the gauntlet off.



What if, what if, what if. What if they see people watching them oddly? What if someone sees the gauntlet, they have some odd eye contact, and then they turn around and run off. Later, some assassins show up. Maybe.



What if they go to see the person to get the gauntlet off? It seems like he should be a dwarf. He tells them the story of the soldier and the witch. He also tips off some people from the Light King. Yes! While the dwarf is telling the story King Lucian hears that someone has the gauntlet. We can flash to that scene to first introduce the King. Then, he dispatches people to get the gauntlet by any means necessary.



In the end the dwarf tells them he can't help them, and the King's soldiers break in and try to kill them all. Maybe they aren't Brutes, they're a group of thugs with one Brute. Our team wins the fight and gets away. They hide to sleep. When they're getting ready to fall asleep they're discussing things. They decide to try to find the soldier and the witch. They also decide to give Brute a name, because he's special. That seems like a good issue five.



Alright people, I think that's all my brain can generate right now. That's a pretty solid first half of the series.



Meeting the witch and soldier could be issue six. They tell our team how to defeat King Lucian, and part of that is getting the gauntlet off.



They're going to need to get something else to try to take on the exiled king. They need something more. That'll be issue seven.



A first bout with the King could be issue eight. Maybe they lose. Maybe someone else had joined their team in one of the last two issues. Maybe it's the soldier, or the witch, or both. Maybe one or both of them die in that fight. Our heroes retreat and regroup.



In issue nine they gather more power again. Maybe some new ally or something. A Cyclops?



Issue ten is the final battle.



That sounds like a decent plan to me. Till next time.



(Maybe a winged dragon, which are supposed to be extinct, takes down the Aership. I like it. Just thought of it. Seems obvious now. Also, notice that I'm doing the character backgrounds in reverse order of importance. I didn't plan that, but I think it's a good idea. Maybe in jail the jailer is a Brute that Brute used to fight with. Maybe he is teased for not being Brutish, or maybe he's enticed to join again, or maybe both. Maybe Aerships used to be pulled by winged dragons, but when they were driven extinct people switched over to using wingless dragons inside of wooden wheels that drive the Aership. Maybe goblin girl wants to be a soldier like her parents because they died as heroes fighting against the evil king when she was a child and she's grown up hearing about their great exploits. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts.)



Here's part one and two of this series:



http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2019/03/creating-comic-book-dungeon-buddies.html



http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2019/03/creating-comic-book-dungeon-buddies_18.html



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You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com