Webcomic / Rain Burn

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Rain Burn is an ongoing fantasy/adventure webcomic made by Virmir, following the misfortunes of a young volcano dragon named Renbrand, the kleptomanic three-tailed kitsune Roko Kirihoko, and Princess Saida, the royal heir to the quetzocoatl throne, and as sweet as a spring day.

Brand is making a pittance bestowing flames to a local village, but thanks to the interference of Roko, finds himself in huge heap of trouble with the corrupt sky god Queen Vetra, Saida's mother. It only gets worse from there.

You can read it here.

Note that the entry will be heavily spoilered due to the generally fast pace of the comic.

This comic provides examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Roko pointing out to Lord Retanlong that Lord Suzocon presented himself as his gift to Retanlong. Retanlong finds this hilarious and actually starts howling with laughter... which just brings more misery on his kobolds but a boon to Roko and Saida.
• Adorable Evil Minions: Retanlong's kobolds. "Evil" is doing a lot of work with Retanlong, but Humpbert, the kobold he calls upon to check on quetz!Brand, takes the cake.
• Asian Fox Spirit: In this universe the kitsune are uncommon but well known. The two we meet are KIRIHOKO Roko, a kleptomaniac rogue, and Lord Suzocon the eight-tailed kitsune. Though he looks and acts like one of the good-aligned kitsune, he's corrupt and evil, and very good at hiding it until he springs his traps.
• Body Horror: For a buddy comedy, this comic has a surprisingly amount of it. Capped by Suzocon-sama's lab, full of malformed, twisted Miyos.
• Black Humor: In the comic itself and by Virmir, who loves to describe his comics with pithy little Sarcasm Mode sentences. Example: As Lord Suzocon is devouring a screaming quetz bodyguard, Virmir's comment is, 'Hello, vore fans.'
  • Plenty in the comic as well. As the decayed remnants of Roko's body appears, complete with Glowing Eyelights of Undeath, he makes this cheerful announcement to Brand and Saida:
  Dead!Roko: i'M bAcK tO nOrMaL nOw!
  • The sight and smell are so horrifying that Dragon!Saida promptly does a Vomit Indiscretion Shot - of lava. Which sets Dead!Roko on fire. What's his comment?
  Burning!Roko: wHy iS iT sO hold?
  • Dealing with Retanlong's loaded with this. Of special note is when he mentions how delicious quetz are to the quetz princess — and then winks at her. Saida's terrified at first that Brand's already been Eaten Alive, but it turns out he's been captured and is being held elsewhere in the lair.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Volcano Dragons. Retanlong, the dragon-god, is possible to reason with but very temperamental, and like all Volcano Dragons he considers live quetz a delicacy. Something he cracks jokes about to Dragon!Saida, much to her horror.
  Retanlong: (after Saida asks him to release quetz!Brand) A quetz...? I would never let a quetz go. They are very hard to catch...
  Retanlong: ... and quite delicious. *winks at dragon!Saida*
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: After the Mook Horror Show, Suzocon effortlessly reverts back to his affable mask, as if he'd just eaten a plate of sushi. Blows up in his face when Brand points out he hadn't actually done a Total Party Kill.
• Cool Shades: Prince Taran has a pair that looks pretty fly. How cool he actually is depends on who you ask. The random, innocent Ave he blasted to ashes just to make a point? He'd probably disagree.
• Crapsack World: While on the surface the world seems to be getting along okay, as Brand and Saida travel to different locales to search for a way to switch their bodies back, it becomes obvious something is terribly wrong in the entire world. Most of the deities have been corrupted, and it all started back when the Greater-Scope Villain Puppetmancer tried to take over the world with an army of golems. He was stopped... but after the war, all the gods that fought him began to fall to evil, including all the present deities. Nobody knows why... yet.
• Cumbersome Claws: After Saida switches bodies with Brent the volcano dragon she has some trouble adjusting to his claws. Accidentally popping Roko's balloon body for one.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In an odd twist, the protagonists versus the Big Bads. Most of the time, all they can do is run. However, a Big Bad suffers the biggest one in Suzocon vs. Retanlong. Two hits. Suzocon getting hit by Retanlong's Meltdown attack, and him hitting something far in the distance and going up in a spectacular mushroom cloud.
  Retanlong: Ah, therapeutic.
• Death Glare: All the villains have them and Quetz!Brand isn't bad at them himself. But as they prepare for Prince Taran's arrival, the most blood-curdling one comes from Lord Suzocon:
  Lord Suzocon: Brand, if you fail to maintain focus... you are no longer useful to me.
• Discovering Your Own Dead Body: Roko finally notices his corpse over a hundred pages after his death, and tries to possess it.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Repeatedly involked in the fight between Suzocon and Taran. Taran hits Suzocon with a levitation attack so powerful it makes a mushroom cloud when he hits the ground. [[spoiler:Suzocon No Sells it, gets up, and smashes Taran into the ocean in Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors. Then hits him repeatedly with his Meteor-Summoning Attack. Right as Suzocon's sure that Taran is neutralized, he blasts back up out of the water, gives a thunderous roar, and hits Suzocon with his Ancestral Weapon, damaging the shrine, wreathing Suzocon in lightning, and taking out quetz!Brand as collateral damage.
• Eaten Alive: Something the Volcano Dragons enjoy doing and in the past, nearly did so to a very young Princess Saida before Brand rescued her.. Lord Suzocon quite enjoys this too, as one of the royal bodyguard of the quetz finds out in the worst way imaginable.
• Elemental Powers: Each of the major demigods seem to embrace an element. Vetra, Taran and the quetz are air-elementals, which gives them power over the rain and lightning. Ayal is an Earth elemental. Darya is a water elemental, and Lord Suzocon is obviously a fire-aligned kitsune. There's the actual fire elemental, Retanlong, a full grown volcano dragon. There are also gods which tow the sun and the moon around the world, which Vetra is seeking to capture and imprison to take control of day and night.
• Epic Fail: Lord Suzocon's plan blows right up in his face. The time he took to subject the green quetz to being Eaten Alive allowed an unseen fourth quetz to firewall the throttles and escape... making the arrival of Prince Taran imminent. His critical Failed a Spot Check results in a Gosh Dang It to Heck! full of Unusual Euphemisms.
  • Then Prince Taran has one when he completely fails to notice both Suzocon below him and the crystal antennas that Suzocon is busy raising around him — and tries to blast Quetz!Brand instead of Suzocon. It does not end well.
  • Suzocon has another one when he doesn't realize that 1) Retanlong can smell out kitsune through their disguises, and 2) Roko could rat him out to Retanlong before he shows up. Instead of being greeted courteously, he gets a Wave-Motion Gun right to the face.
• Evil vs. Evil: Prince Taran and Lord Suzocon having a throwdown. Suzocon not only No Sells Taran's attack, he uses it to power one of his devices and starts laughing.
• Expendable Clone: Miyo, Lord Suzocon's servant, turns out to be an imperfect clone that cannot sleep, and dies a horrible death. Later, Suzocon takes Roko to his Mad Scientist Lab - which is full of cloning tanks with horribly malformed Miyos in them.
• Extreme Omnivore: Surprisingly enough, Lord Suzocon. He ate a quetz guard horn, armor, and all, and it didn't give him the slightest pause afterward.
• Failed a Spot Check: A really egregous example. Prince Taran, responding to Suzocon's killing of his scouts, mistakes Quetz!Brand for Suzocon and tries to blast him... despite the actual Suzocon being undisguised and right below Brand on the ground. Not to mention the shrine defenses Suzocon was busy cranking into place the whole time - and which Taran put himself right in the middle of.
  • Suzocon also critical-fails a spot check when Retanlong's kobolds all flee for their lives out of his lair, as Suzocon walks into his lair. He would have been better off following the rest of the kobolds.
• Fantastic Racism: Dragons and Quetz don't really get along. And Volcano Dragons like Retanlong really hate kitsune.
• Faux Affably Evil: The three main villains, but especially Lord Suzocon. Impeccable manners and etiquette, until he no longer sees a need for it, and then the mask drops hard.
• Floating City: The city of the Quetz, Laputa.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Lord Suzocon the kitsune turns out to be an Arcane Artificer, and reads the source and nature of Vetra's Eyestone. It's not one of Omin's eyes, but a fake she made herself. He also sets up a charging station for it, and offers to swap their bodies back for Brand (in Saida's body) charging it.
• Gender Bender: Of the mind swap variety.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Played with. As Lord Suzocon devours the quetz bodyguard, the scene cuts away from him, but his victim's screams and the *snap* sound effect are fully visible to the reader. At that point, Brand's actually trying to shield Saida from the horrible sight of someone who might be one of her own family being Eaten Alive.
• Insult Backfire: Suzocon, after dodging a number of his attacks, calls Prince Taran, one of the most powerful warriors in the world, only the second best quetz at combat. Taran promptly spits back that Eight-Tails is a fine one to call anyone "second best!"
  • Suzocon himself gets one of these in the kobold village, from Roko of all people.
  Lord Suzocon: You are dead. Gone. Nothing!
  Roko: I'm here right now!
• Jive Turkey: Prince Taran speaks a lot more like a dance club DJ than a quetz demigod, and wears a pair of shades straight out of a manga.
• Just Eat Him: Subverted. Lord Suzocon's way of dealing with any obstacles smaller and weaker than him, and it blows up spectacularly in his face when doing so to a quetz royal guard attracts Prince Taran's attention.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Brand to a T. Saida even calls him "Sir Brand" throughout the comic, and he once saved her from being eaten by his fellow Volcano Dragons.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After menacing them for multiple chapters and burning anyone that gets in his way, Lord Suzocon gets tricked into presenting himself as tribute to Retanlong. Who promptly blasts him into orbit. Turns out dragonfire is stronger than foxfire.
• Mad Scientist: Lord Suzocon. What he has in his basement is every bit as horrifying as Alphys' hidden lab.
• Man on Fire: An unfortunate pair of kobolds in Retalong's lair learn the hard way what happens when you displease an elder volcano dragon.
  Retanlong: Idiots!
  Kobolds (running out of the lair on fire): We're sorry, your lordship! We're sorry!!
• Mood Whiplash: After the Mook Horror Show and apparent Total Party Kill at Suzocon's shrine, Brand points out a fourth quetz is escaping. Cue the Cluster F-Bomb, as only Virmir can write it.
  Lord Suzocon: Sand, stars, and trees, BLAST IT!!
• Mook Horror Show: Vetra's royal bodyguard shows up and tries to rescue Saida from Suzocon. What he does to them is pure Nightmare Fuel, and he doesn't even have to try very hard.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lord Suzocon. Even Darya, until then the most powerful Big Bad in the series, openly admits she will not go anywhere near his island.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Roko is infamous for this - his kleptomania kicks off the plot. When Lord Suzocon threatens them with death, Saida responds by dropping the Eyestone in front of him. Which makes a dangerous situation far, far worse.
  • Roko averts this when he tells Saida to let him do all the talking to Retanlong. By now the audience is right to expect him to blow it up in everyone's faces, but instead he pulls an Uno Reverse move on Lord Suzocon and gets him and Saida a boon instead of being eaten.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Taran and Suzocon's cage match destroys the shine defense shield, Suzocon's Re-Animator lab, and ultimately the shrine itself, freeing Roko and allowing Saida to try and locate Brand.
  • Suzucon sends Saida and Roko into Retanlong's lair to convince the dragon to invite him in. And that's exactly what Roko does: By telling Retanlong exactly who's waiting outside, and what he is disguised as. Retanlong is furious. hauls himself up to his full height, and issues one order:
    Retanlong: Let the kitsune enter.
• Nightmare Face: When Lord Suzocon drops his mask he always wears one of these as a threat. That's especially true when he devours the quetz guard, and his Slasher Smile is the last thing that guard ever sees — other than the teeth. Close second is when he later dangles Saida over his gaping maw, showing her exactly what her fate will be if she doesn't obey him.
• No-Sell: Lord Suzocon is entirely immune from smaller quetz' lightning attacks. When Prince Taran arrives instead he puts up a shield, which completely absorbs Taran's lighting attack. Later subverted in that A powerful enough lightning attack shatters the shield crystals, giving Taran an open target in the form of Suzocon and his shrine.
• OOC Is Serious Business: After Suzocon hits Taran with his Meteor-Summoning Attack, Taran drops all the jive talk and roars, then hits Suzocon and his shrine with a full power Elemental attack, which badly damages the shrine, destroys the basement lab and scores a direct hit on Suzocon.
• Oh, Crap!: More than once. For example, this is Brand and Saida's reaction to the Eye Stone rolling off the floating city.
  • The look on Green Quetz's face when Suzocon's paw steps on his tail is pure Oh, Crap!. With good reason.
  • Saida and Roko have a massive one when Lord Suzocon abruptly shows up to crash Retanlong's party and immediately reveals himself to them. It's well justified.
  • Saida herself, dangling right over Lord Suzocon's maw, is wearing a huge Oh, Crap! on her face. Considering what he'd done to her guards earlier, it's totally justified.
  • Suzocon gets one himself when he steps into Retanlong's lair on invitation, starts up his spiel, and Retanlong doesn't bother talking to him, but is charging up the furnace for a full power blast right in Suzocon's face.
    Lord Suzocon: Ah, Lord Retanlong, you are a gracious host. Your invitation is a great honor, and one I intend to return...
    Retanlong: *Says nothing, but his mouth is wide open and glowing white hot.*
    Lord Suzocon: ...Eh??
• Reveal Shot: Brand waking up to see his own body staring back at him.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Brand and Saida absolutely qualify. Brand is crude, rude, and a Knight in Sour Armor. Princess Saida is the nicest quetz in the whole story, by far.
• Shown Their Work: For the most part, Virmir does an excellent job doing the research; for example, the quetz people bring rain, as the original Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was said to do.
  • This is most apparent with Lord Suzocon. For example, he first appears as a two-tailed kitsune. But Roko, being another kitsune, can see through kitsune illusions and instantly detects Suzocon has eight tails. Suzocon reverts to his native form, and when Roko doesn't, he becomes quite offended - it is a serious breach of etiquette for a kitsune to remain disguised in the presence of another kitsune.
  • Later, Roko explains that an eight-tailed kitsune is very powerful but not quite god-tier, and to be extremely careful around him. Roko is proven dead right.
• Sarcasm Mode: Brand has no shortage of this, but it's the artist Virmir himself that's best known for this, in his pithy little captions.
  [during a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by a Big Bad] : "Brand is helping."
  [after a Curb-Stomp Battle, with a very hungry kitsune hovering over a green quetz guard] : "Green guy's got this."
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Suzocon reveals himself in the kobold village and expresses disappointment in him, Roko finally gets sick of his bullshit and short The Reason You Suck speech. Even when Suzocon points out he's dead and worse, a mana lich, Roko comes right back at him. The caption to that one makes it all worth it:
  Grown fox argues with balloon animal.
• Skewed Priorities: No matter what, Roko will try to steal whatever he wants the moment he sets eyes on it. Even during a volatile magic ritual to get his friend his wings back. It doesn't end well for him.
• Slasher Smile: When Lord Suzocon busts out one of these, there will be pain involved. A lot of it. As three quetz royal guards and Roko all find out the hard way.
  • Roko of all characters gets one of these on his balloon face when he realizes Suzucon is injured far worse than he appears, and decides to rat him out to Retanlong to be rid of him once and for all.
• Swallowed Whole: Played for pure horror in the case of Lord Suzocon.
• Surrounded by Idiots: The look Lord Suzocon gives Brand after yet another interruption of his Eyestone-charging experiment is pure Marvin the Martian.
  Suzocon: What is it now, Brand?
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Subverted. When quetz guards come looking for Princess Saida, Quetz!Suzocon attempts to bluff them. It doesn't work out very well much to the guards' regret.
  Quetz!Suzocon: Who is your commanding officer? How many are in your unit?
  Orange Quetz: We could ask the same of you!
  Quetz!Suzocon: Worm, you would do well to answer to your superior!
  [The orange guard attempts to blast Suzocon and all hell breaks loose.]
• The Bus Came Back: After leaving him battling Prince Taran on his island, Saida and Roko abruptly realize Lord Suzocon, in disguise, is following them in Retanlong's kobold village.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Prince Taran blasts Suzocon's magic absorption shield... and the evil kitsune starts laughing maniacally.
  • Suzocon gets one of his own when He realizes that Rentalong isn't listening to his pleasantries, but is instead charging up his Elemental Attack - a Wave-Motion Gun. He gets one 'Eh?' before the blast hits him full in the face.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Retanlong's Meltdown attack, with the power of a full scale volcanic eruption. Kobold!Suzocon gets it at point blank range. Ouch.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: For the most part, the comic is a light buddy comedy, until one of the Big Bads shows up, and to a one they are absolutely vile.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Lord Suzocon realizes just how bad the mistake he made was, he starts rapidly spouting Unusual Euphemisms.
• Voices Are Not Mental: It’s a medium without audio, but Brand notices his voice sounds different even before seeing Saida in his body.