Kaspall

The Captain (center) and Lieutenant de Montfort (left) question a witness.

Kaspall is a Fantasy murder mystery Web Comic written and drawn by Lucy Lyall that started in 2005.

Within this comic, Kaspall is the name of the unusual city in which the story takes place. This city is remarkable for two things:

• First, the network of gates leading into and out of a world formed entirely of places thought about and imagined by the people of this world, called the Skein.
• Second, the many individuals from other worlds who have accidentally found themselves in Kaspall by mistakenly wandering through a gate of this kind in their own world.

Around the time this story begins, several events are occurring in tandem: a new off-worlder by the name of Alex Gray is being processed by the O.W.R. ("Off-Worlder Registration"); a student psychomantic (mind-mage) named Caroline is doing a field project at the Skein Institute for Professor Jaiva; the Captain and Lieutenant de Montfort ("Call me Harry. Please.") are investigating a curious series of murders; and, in a small Greenacre Street apartment building, Sam Goldbourne is behind on his rent. Oh, and something odd is happening at a certain mysterious estate.

These facts are, of course, connected.

We recommend starting at the beginning.

Contains examples of:

• Alt Text: Starting in Scene 20, pg. 228.
• Anti-Magic: And being in a no magic zone makes people ill or at the very least, queasy.
• Art Evolution: Less so than in many webcomics, but quite visible between, say, Scene 1 and Scene 28.
• Bad Liar: Professor Jaiva is merely bad at lying — Avril is full-out this trope.
• Bonus Material: The Misc. Box.
• Deadpan Snarker: Hazel, the landlady, and Sam Goldborne, her least favorite tenant.
• Doomed Moral Victor: Beatrice Ulfor sees herself as one.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Captain. The only thing that hints at as much as her gender is half a not-telephone conversation between Hazel and Avril.
• Fantastic Racism: Apparently many worlds had this problem, judging by Sam's reaction to the idea of a human-only one.

Sam: I can just imagine. Everyone equal. No-one looking down on you all the time. You could just be satisfied, you know? It must have been amazing. Alex: Oh. Um. ...yes. Alt Text: Yes. It's just like that. Also, sometimes it rains free money and kittens — though it's best to stay indoors when that happens.

• Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Character Q&A.
• Funny Background Event: All kinds of licenses.
  • Also the signage at the hospital.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Not gods, but stories — in the Skein, those tales which are widely remembered and retold exist strongly, and those which are less recalled more weakly.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: Unusually, the one person they told was the entirely trustworthy police lieutenant. Who thinks they're all idiots for not telling anyone.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Sam Gouldborne, to the astonishment of people who know of him as "the jerk who never pays his rent" — although as a Non-Action Guy Cafe Pot-wash he can't actually accomplish much more than getting himself beat up.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: Kaspall takes place in a world that's mostly populated by anthropomorphic characters, but humans (and other species) frequently get transported there by accident and have to try to integrate into its society.
• Medium Awareness: Sir Haydon realizes he's fictional.
• Nonverbal Miscommunication: Discussed here, with some Alt Text lampshading.
• Not So Stoic: The Captain is pretty much unfazed by everything that occurs — right up to the point in Scene 26 where she discovers the Ulfor have started kidnapping people by the dozen right off the streets.
• Oh My Gods: "Circle!" and "God's shape!", as explained here.
• Petting Zoo People: A major fraction of the Kaspall population, including most of the main characters.
• Playing Possum: The Captain resorts to this to see how Avril reacts.
• Recursive Reality: The Skein.
• Replacement Goldfish: The original Joseph Haydon was Katherine Ulfor's husband.
• Scare'Em Straight: The purpose of the story of the Veritarc.
• Spanner in the Works: More than one:
  • Sam, doing his job as Alex's guide — when Hazel only forged his signature on the paperwork because she didn't want a stranger hanging around the house.
  • The OWR, which handed a dangerous artifact back to Alex rather than put it in their safe because they had no clue about it.
• Story Within a Story: The Skein is composed of the stories thought about by the inhabitants of Kaspall. Jaiva suggests that stories within the Skein might reach a point where they could dream stories themselves.
• Tempting Fate: Sam, reassuring Alex, as noted by the Alt Text.
• Trapped in Another World: Many, many characters — the OWR is specifically tasked to help these people deal with being displaced to the city Kaspall.
• Webcomic Time: Noted in the Alt Text of this page.