PARTY OF TWO, THE ORIGIN: An 18-page story in thumbnail form! (Patreon)

Behold, kindly Patrons, a Party of Two story in wee, quad-thumbnail-rough form, which tells the kinda-sorta "origin story" of how the half-orc cleric and dwarf barbarian first went from being just platonic fellow adventurers to becoming incessantly boinking "adventurers with benefits."

I roughed out the story in familiar "quad thumbnail" format with four pages per 8.5" X 11" sheet of paper, but as those suckers are nigh unreadable on smaller devices, I cropped 'em to individual pages for your reading convenience. (The original-format quad layouts bookend the cropped ones in the gallery above, you'll notice.)

Interestingly, this is the first time I've ever laid out a story in this wee format, as usually I have to sketch the initial roughs at a much larger size before translating 'em back down to teeny thumbnails. This approach went surprisingly well, so I'll likely try this again down the road.

As I honestly have no idea if I'll draw Party of Two myself—let alone how I would do so, as I'm a lllllooonnnggg ways off from having a viable-for-reproduction digital art technique—for the time being I'm leaving this story in its current form.

For the record, Party of Two is in fact intended to be a romantic/ sex comedy, but this story wound up verging into Big Emo tearjerking territory, much to my own surprise. Or should I have been surprised?  Anyhoo, in the manner of Empowered, I wrote this story on a page-by-page basis with only a vague overall outline in mind, and the topic of the couple's potentially tragic religious differences arose spontaneously.

Speaking of surprises, folks...

...you might not be able to tell from the wee sketches, but that is indeed the future Hushed Half-Elf and her eventual mage girlfriend in the couple's adventuring party, back in a time before the half-elf was magically cursed with bondage—and, obvsly, before those two hooked up as well. (And, for the D&D-5e-familiar, their party also included a Kenku and a Tiefling.)

And here's my usual spiel for Party of Two: 

HE is a fierce, axe-swinging dwarf barbarian, manfully cultivating the stoic hardheadedness, bloodthirsty rage, and apocalyptic worldview required of a valiant but furiously death-seeking warrior bound for Valhalla—and soon.

SHE is a half-orc cleric worshipping a goddess of (tough) love, a good-natured healer whose relentless warmth, sweetness and affection—and horniness!—inadvertently but constantly undermines her dwarven partner's dogged attempts at steely discipline and coldblooded detachment. 

Can this starcrossed pair of dungeon-raiding, hanky-pankying monster slayers ever become more than just "adventurers with benefits?" Find out in Party of Two, folks! 

Monday on this here Patreon: More life drawing sketch sets, as usual!