Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker

[laughing_tree]

Like the thing about geek culture winning is that there’s still that awful geek defensiveness. We don’t need to have that anymore. We can be grown-up and talk about the downside, about how this stuff has affected our lives, sometimes in a negative way. DIE! is a serious conversation about what fantasy is for, and how it has the power to make us better and the power to make us worse. -- Kieron Gillen































They're back in Die, a fantasy world they were trapped in Jumanji-style when they were teens. They escaped it after two years there, or at least five of them did:



Sol, stuck all these years, is now all weird and maybe evil. He's the new Grandmaster, having killed the old one, and he's responsible for bringing the others back.





He challenges them to defeat him, then disappears in a flash of light.













With Matt powered up, they beat the Fallen. After, they begin a trek across the Die world (which is shaped like a giant 20-sided die, not round) to reach the Grandmaster's domain and get to Sol.



















Eventually, they reach and lodge at Glass Town, the oldest city in Die ("Rivendell meets Casablanca"), which it turns out Sol conquered in the years they were away. There they meet a bunch of friendly dwarfs at an inn.



















They learn that Sol's arranged things so that the only way to reach his realm is by going on three long quests for three keys. So they're all 'screw it' and instead decide to lure *him* to *them* by destroying his Glass Town (*after* tricking the residents into evacuating). It works and he shows up all angry at how they're ruining the game.