Fetch Quest Saga of the Twelve Artifacts

Our heroine, Saffron Lachesis, among a Field of Blades

"It is special because it is a gift. Cherish it. Take care of it. And some day, years from now,...use it to protect what's most important to you." —King Roland Lachesis to his daughter Saffron, about her cane sword.

Saffron Lachesis is one of the two princesses of the Kingdom of Strife, although she doesn't quite look at all like a typical princess, preferring instead to utterly wreck the living daylights out of any criminal who is unfortunate enough to come across her, regardless of his original intent. She doesn't quite get along with her more conservative twin Nephilim. Ever since their father, the great king Roland Lachesis, left the kingdom for no apparent reason, they had to take care of it in his stead, sibling bickering and all. Nephilim's only solace from her trials and tribulations is the young Fafnirian and younger Happily Adopted sister Ambrosia Verdandi, whose desire to become a doctor someday she cautiously supports.

Meanwhile, from the Kingdom of Cicle, to the far north of Strife, a Child Prodigy in the arts of magic, Felicia Whitewind, is traveling to its capital, Strife City. As she travels, she is suddenly attacked by a couple of thieves. Although she defends herself quite well, it takes a stranger known only as Lionel "the Lucky" to dispatch them. After they meet, she accepts his offer to escort her to the city.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Fetch Quest: Saga of the Twelve Artifacts is a webcomic series written by Mike Renner of In Wily's Defense fame and drawn by Alan Solivan, the Original Manga Artist. Although it reuses characters from both IWD and Tales of Southtown, it does have its own storyline and world, complete with people of all races and a compelling plot.

Updates by the chapter as of September 5, 2010. Not to be confused with a Fetch Quest in any respectable RPG.

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Tropes that this Web Comic series employs:

• Action Girl: Saffron, Felicia (in her badass mode).
• Adult Child: Saffron can be this sometimes.
• Aerith and Bob: We've got characters named Nephilim, Rabi and Darius alongside others with names like Lionel and Lindsay.
• All There in Shiori's Codex: here
• A Minor Kidroduction: Saffron has one in the Prologue.
• An Ice Person: Momo
• Awesome McCoolname: Lionel "The Lucky"
• Badass Bookworm: Felicia Whitewind
• Badass Longcoat: Lionel.
• Badass Princess: Saffron
• Bald of Evil: Rabi and Darius's boss.
• Bare Your Midriff: Saffron always wears a midriff tank top.
• Big Eater: Saffron.
• Black Magic: The Demons give this out to anyone willing to seek them instead of the Seraphim for power.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Chizuru Yamamoto. Third Sword of Terra (i.e. third strongest member of the Terran military), yet is obsessed with fashion and generally does not like being responsible.
• Calling Your Attacks
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Although not necessarily in danger, Saffron has no problem starting a casual conversation with Lionel in the middle of their sparring match without missing a beat.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Remember the two thugs Saffron beat up in Chapter 1? They've kidnapped Nephilim nine chapters later as some misguided attempt at revenge due to mistaking her for Saffron.
• Curse: Those who obtain their magic from Benimarkum, Demon of Anguish, can add insult to injury by cursing the victims' wounds.
• Cute Monster Girl: Ambrosia Verdandi.
• Cranial Eruption: Saffron gets this as punishment for hitting Lionel with a chalkboard eraser, though to be fair, she didn't see him coming. She gets another by stealing Nephilim's tea.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Even with three Goddesses, and their eight Seraphim, they are primarily worshipped (at least in Zephyr) through a church led by a pope.
• Death Glare: Dr. Lindsay Troy has one that could shatter diamonds, as seen here.
  • Pope Hajin also has a couple.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: Lionel
• Different As Night and Day: Saffron and Nephilim; it's almost impossible to believe the two are related.
• Doomed Hometown: Ciel, Lionel's hometown, thanks to Alastair Eros.
• Dr. Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Dr. Lindsay Troy
• Elemental Powers: Felicia is so good at magic that she had mastered all but two elemental powers in her youth.
• Ermine Cape Effect: Averted hard with Saffron, who wears her casual wear in a formal meeting.
• Face Palm: Ambrosia after Saffron rushes off to rescue her sister despite having No Sense of Direction.
• The Fashionista: Chizuru and Nephilim, to the point that Felicia and Ambrosia think they'd form a great rapport.
• Field of Blades: The cover of Chapter 11.
• Five-Man Band (though some tend to share roles):
  • The Hero: Saffron
  • The Lancer: Lionel "the Lucky"
  • The Smart Guy: Felicia, possibly Ambrosia Verdandi.
  • The Big Guy: Lionel, again.
  • The Chick: Nephilim, Ambrosia.
• Genki Girl: Chizuru.
• Girlish Pigtails: Momo
• The Glasses Come Off: Protip: Don't mess with Felicia. No, seriously.
• Great Offscreen War: Empuzu implies in his first appearance that Terra and Zephyr had a war at one point, and that his and Chizuru's presence in the latter country might start another if they were found out.
• Happily Adopted: Ambrosia.
• Hot Chick With A Sword: Saffron, definitely.
• I Am the Noun Retribution
• Idiot Heroine: Saffron. She leaves the "smart stuff" to Felicia. As she herself says when she happens upon the hideout of her sister's captors:

Saffron: "You think of something smart to do. I'm gonna do something big and stupid!"

• I Need a Freaking Drink: Can you tell Lionel's not a people person?
• Interspecies Romance: Implied by the presence of the Fafnirians
• It Was a Gift: Saffron's cane sword. See the quote at the top.
• The Ladette: Saffron, full stop.
• Let's Get Dangerous: You won't like Saffron when she stops holding back...
  • Especially when you piss her off.
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• Meganekko: Felicia double-subverts the modest part of this.
• Mismatched Eyes: Aria
• Modest Royalty: Saffron and (arguably) Nephilim.
• My Greatest Failure: Lionel losing against Alastair, and thus losing his loved ones in his backstory. The fact that he lost again to Saffron makes that slightly Harsher in Hindsight.
• Mythology Gag: All the Goddesses were once Angels to another, much lazier and more egotistical God.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: According to Shiori's Codex, Nephilim is quite popular among suitors while Saffron has yet to receive a proposal since most men are intimidated by her Super Strength.
• No Sense of Direction: Saffron

Ambrosia: One time when she was a kid, she got lost in the castle for several hours trying to find her room.

• Odd Camaraderie: Chizuru and Empuzu. One takes his duties as the Second Sword of Terra seriously, the other's a Bunny Ears Lawyer.
• Oh Crap: Lionel. Big time.
  • And again with Rabi and Darius.
  • Also Played for Laughs in the first chapter after the prologue when Saffron effortlessly defeats those two thugs.
  • But Played for Drama as well at the end of Chapter 16 (excluding the bio and Side-Story Bonus Art).
• Ominous Opera Cape / Black Cloak: Here.
• Our Monsters Are Different / Half-Human Hybrid: Oh, where to begin,...
  • Our Angels Are Different
  • Our Dragons Are Different
  • Our Elves Are Becoming Female-Only
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: And very, very violent.
• Parental Abandonment: Saffron and Nephilim's father, King Roland, left for no apparent reason, and their mother died prior to the story's beginning.
• Rapunzel Hair: Ambrosia
• Rebellious Princess: Saffron, no less.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Saffron and Nephilim, respectively.
• Scenery Gorn: Holy...
• Schedule Slip: It started out updating on a M-TH schedule (with a few extra chapters for a head-start), then overran its Strip Buffer once and was temporarily on a Monday-only schedule that ended at Chapter 9, Page 2. Then it went on hiatus so that Alan could catch up with life. Thankfully that hiatus ended on 9/5/2010 with the release of Chapter 11: The Princess of Swords.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Alastair. The guy who found him should've known better than to release him by touching that crystal.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Felicia tends to lapse into this, as Ambrosia notes:

Ambrosia: Felicia, I'm twelve. Don't throw around big words.

• Shipper on Deck: Nephilim shows signs of this toward Lionel and Felicia
• Shock and Awe: Alastair, The Ghost in the Crystal, of the dark kind.
• Shout-Out: Aside from the world of Bideogamu being based on several RPG tropes, along with some other Video Game tropes thrown into the mix, we also have:
  • Sunshine Islet is, according to Word of God, inspired by a volcanic island that was the setting for one episode of the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon.
  • Brock (Rabi and Darius's superior) and Giovanni (his own superior) seem to take their names from Pokemon.
• Squishy Wizard: Felicia just can't keep up with Saffron.
• Stealth Hi Bye: Here.
• The Stoic: Empuzu, at least compared to the others. All he does when Alastair shows up in Zephyr again, preceded by a massive earthquake, is to glance at him while calmly drinking his tea.
• Super Strength: Saffron.
• Teen Genius: Felicia. See Elemental Powers above.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Saffron and Nephilim, respectively.
• What Year Is This?: The Ghost in the Crystal would like to know.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Lionel, again
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Ambrosia
• Worf Effect: Poor Lionel...
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Played straight with the common humans, the Seraphim, and the Goddesses, but limited with the Iliwati, and completely averted with the Tangashen.
• You Have Failed Me: Giovanni gives Brock (the gang leader) this treatment after the latter's run-in with Saffron and Felicia.