Strange Brew 12
29 Mar 2016 · page 583 of 1306
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Comments (33)
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The tea?
I'd gather the crevasse the pendant got thrown in is connected to the local water, somehow, and that's what's causing this. It's something to do with the water, at least.
My only issue with that is he hasn't eaten in two days. If he hasn't been drinking either, he wouldn't be even remotely peppy. My first thought as well, and likely what it is, but that's going to bug me. My second thought is it's in the local food, rather than the water
He's been drinking booze. There's a little water in that, and it's from elsewhere. I say it's the water. Baked food has the local water mixed into it. He might be all right with imported soft drinks and deep-fat-fried or roasted meat, but I think locally-grown vegetables are out.
As much as I want it to be something entirely mundane, I don't recall any specific biological function wizards need to cast magic. Unless just being nauseous is enough to stop you from tapping the khert- wait, wrong comic. I'll just list the clues I've found so far.
01: Sid and Harry came straight to the inn; there were no other inns in the area.
04: It's an eighty year old curse, and any active spell would've burned out years ago, according to Sid.
05: Harry and Gren eat biscuits; Sid anxiously crumbles his instead. Lady Witmore made her fortune off the local natural mineral water, building a spa. She bought a diamond that gave her the curse, and she promptly lost it on a hike.
06: The curse can strike any time after a wizard arrives. It starts with a feeling of weakness, then nausea, a strange sense of dread. And fatigue and dizziness as well. Sid faints immediately after sipping his tea.
07: First morning of the curse, Sid couldn't sleep a wink, found that a hot bath just made him feel worse, and is utterly disgusted by breakfast.
09: 3 March, Lady Witmore has a worsening fatigue, weakness, and dizziness after having purchased the diamond. 12 March, Lady Witmore chucks the gem into a crevice, possible into the groundwater. 20 July, Lady Witmore notes the curse has returned, along with some nausea.
10, 11, 12: Sid spends the day drinking, and at the second morning, finds his appetite and magic returned.
I've seen folks talking about the gem getting into the groundwater. The seasonal effect strongly suggests that it has something to do with the time of year, or temperature.
You missed a clue: Sid felt better immediately after having stolen, or at least having noticed having stolen, Harry's pipe.
See.. you never know.. Maybe the whole water thing is a red herring, and it's all about giving back something you've stolen?
Can't be the returning. He felt better right as he admitted that Harry deserves a better partner/Harry yelling at him/accidentally stealing the pipe.
My guess is that boiled or not, the water causes temporary illness in those touched by magic (Sid's a wizard and the amulet was magical). The reason Lady Whitmore got ill AGAIN was because she was pregnant.
I considered pregnancy too :D I just like idea of misdirection :P Heh.. maybe the amulet isn't magical and the water is just toxic... and wizards are more susceptible to it (and the idea that something will happen :P)
Sid's magic has a personal curse -- It takes things.
Sid realized that his magic had returned when the little curse manifested by taking Harry's pipe. Hence the sudden squee.
That is not a clue, but a cue to search for a clue: What allowed the magic to come back?
Correction, Lady Witmore wrote she felt worse when wearing the curious diamond. Also no is questioning the diamond's origin or why it was curious.
Definitely something in the water supply, but how to find it? Sending a diviner out and prod around any holes they find along the course of the supply comes to mind.
Harry keeps Gren around because she can smell magic. I'm not entirely sure why Harry hasn't just taken Gren around to see if she can smell anything, like a lost cursed diamond.
The moors are generally pretty huge, and she threw it out decades ago! Gren's good, but not THAT good.
I am starting to think that Kate has read ahead of us.
No fair! That's cheating!
Ladies and gentleman, I think we may be overlooking the most important hint of all.
Harry blushed when Sid hugged her.
HahaHA! HAHA!
YES!
No offense to Mr. Baird, but most of us solved it back around part 5. Props on the fairplay howdunnit, and it's certainly a really clever solution, but Conan Doyle you ain't (our ability to confer with one another probably helped, though. Certainly can't have hurt).
A little rude :) No-one's claiming to have written Holmes!
Yeah, rude isn't what I was going for, but reading it now, it does sound pretty rude, doesn't it? Sorry about that.
What exactly did he spend yesterday drinking anyway? I didn't think Sid drank much alcohol in general, I'd think that most such drinks wouldn't feel good if you were sick to your stomach, and pretty much any other beverage would likely be made with the local water. So, I'm still not entirely convinced it's the water. I'm not sure what else it could be though.
At last Mr Malik has learned the true secret of how to impress a lady - do the washing up!
and don't fotget the title of the story. Strange brew points to the water/ tea as well.
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what is going on in panel one. Can anyone clue me in? I figure the curly tuft in the top right coule be Sid's goatee, side burn, or the nape of his neck. But what the heck ar all those jagged black lines in the bottom half?
Can anyone clue me in?
The jagged lines are shadows under wrinkles in Sid's clothes.
Holding on the panel border XD
I love that detail, it's wonderful
Now that Harry has learned how to grab panel borders and turn pages, these stories are going to move along at a much faster pace.
It is magical, he said "wizards in training", so I ask you what do we know about magic?
It is magical, Sid said "wizards in training", so what do we know about magic?
I didn't want to think that they were that duplicitous. Plus, the innkeeper inherited the place and wanted the curse removed so her husband can join her else she'd sell the place.
This reminds me of Nate the Great.
Tea. Cursed Tea.