Guesses for the future:

Torg's cape gets caught on the crossbow and he goes flying. Riff makes fun of him, but is not so secretly jealous that Torg got to go flying while wearing a cape... even if attached to a cross bow.

The Sorceress in the tower is Gwynn and she's the reason they can't leave. I'm actually surprised she was able to use the DFA at all - considering her link to the book.

The book just comes with her across dimensions. See: Ghosts In The Gas Tank.

Gwynn as the sorceress is too obvious. I'm going to spec that it's Lady Noga (sp?) prior to her entry into Timeless Space.

That...makes sense.

Ghosts in the Gas Tank did not involve traveling to any other dimensions, only to the Never, which is part of the current dimension. Every dimension has its own Never.

I have no spec on who she may have ORIGINALLY been, but it's totally the old lady with the red anima from the last few weeks. She made the monsters. and she's interfering with their return home.

Oooh. I like this spec. I, too, thought it was the old lady. However, I've been thinking that the monsters are the NoFun mutants that got zappo'd away from Sluggy Prime. But it also makes sense that the old lady is responsible for their existence. I do not know how she could interfere with their return, but I like the idea that she is responsible. Can she be interfering without actually understanding the technology? This dimension is clearly not at the technology stage of development yet - why would she need the power to work against it then? That possibility, in turn, then suggests that she, too, is not from this world (time)...

I snuck this into reactions forum in early march:
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1) Zoe can't see ghosts, no.

2) We have an old lady who can hide, or mask the true form of her anima. Her true form APPEARS to be wicked, but we haven't seen any linkable wickedness yet.

3) There's the question of how the heck did all of those monsterously large creatures stay hidden on an island, until the villagers showed up. Seems mysterious. *wiggles fingers*

4) The gang killed an important bird and feasted on its flesh. Can't blame the old lady for that.

5) Apparently the villagers regularly come to this island for food. But the gang couldn't find ANY food, other than the bird, before the villagers came. Coincidence? Maybe.
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Do you really think Pete is just gonna DROP all of this? It was such a peaceful and barren island until the old lady showed up. Seems like a touch of magic to me.

So, someone already mentioned my spec. I think the Sorceress is the reincarnation of the tribe leader with the red evil anima. I think the gang landed further along the path of evolution of this world, and more monsters have appeared, probably due to this red anima woman/creature. I am thinking she has some sort of power in this world.

I am now agreeing with you and Spirantz, simply based on the fact that Zoe got stabbed. Was she targeted for elimation because she could see through the Sorceress' facade? OOOOOoooooOOOOO MystEEEEEEErious!

*wiggles fingers*

I am not sure about the reincarnation/evolution angle, but I definitely think the Sorceress and the Shaman lady may have powers to control not just people's minds/actions but monsters' too. Stabbing Zoe either relates to her power to see true anima or was just revenge for Torg/Riff's success at killing the monsters

Tomorrow, Pete will

Hey actual information for once! Hooray!
So Zoe's mysterious power to perceive the red guys is being actively employed, and they're common enough a problem that this is useful. Interesting. Meanwhile, Torg and Riff are monster hunters with Shankcraft's absentee "help", Biyu is apparently trying to bootstrap germ theory as a medic, and Gwynn is...churning butter I guess. Well, someone's gotta do it. After the next comic where we'll get to catch up with the resident mutant, we'll have officially reached status quo. Phew!

To be fair, the Aylee chapter took a while to get to this point too.

Whenever they go into these long alternate dimension chapters, the Dimension of [__] is always in some way vitally related to the group and how they - or those close to them - affect the world. The DoP is what would've happened if NoFun Corp was unopposed and turned all of humanity into pain loving demons who also killed off everyone in the next spark. The DoR is what would've happened if the R&D wars led to Schlock winning, and put humanity's spark on ice indefinitely. The Aylee Dimension is what would've happened if Kesandru's house worked as intended, and with Schlock's help was so effective at keeping the world safe that KZK had to sic Alyee's species on everyone, leading to a precarious stalemate. And the Dimension of Lame is what would've happened if...everyone was lame? Okay they don't all follow the pattern.

So, my question is, how might this dimension relate to the DoN? I'm not sure, but it makes me inclined to believe this "Sorceress" is someone we know. Or rather an alt-version of someone we know, who's been deified after the human spark ended (given that there are no humans here). We know the chosen gods get a bit of a say in how the next spark is shaped. So the question is, who would want to create a world like this?

I don't know, but they're a woman and can use magic. That gives us four candidates I can think of: Sin'thea Le'Morte is a practitioner of Fate magic, and it's legit since we saw a fate spider hangin' around in the background of some of her panels. Anima's are kiiinda fate-ish, but also maybe not. Sylvia and Urja of Sam's Circal Mamajama, one or both of whom have the ability to literally enslave minds (I think? I forget their powersets), which is all we know the sorceress can do right now. No vamps yet tho, so that's a problem. And of course, alt-Gwynn, who I keep returning to. This certainly feels like the anti-DoR. So if that was old-man-Riff, it'd fitting to find old-woman-Gwynn overseeing this place.

Enslaving minds isn't exactly her style though. Hmm...

Hmm, so in this world there is no deception except for 'beings' with red Anima?

I'm curious as to why the gang all have blue Anima when we know all of them were capable of deception back home. I wonder if the Anima are only red when someone is being actively deceptive.

I expect this may become a problem shortly.

I suspect that if we all had visible animas, that the vast majority of us would learn not to be deceptive ever. The simplistic view - so far - is that those identified with red animas are truly "evil" people - either pure psychopaths, like the first "bedevil" Zoë identified in this village, or someone who wants to deceive for their own gain or benefit (in a big way), like the leader that Zoë identified in the first place that they landed.

The question is whether everyday emotion can ever devolve into a "deceptive" anima. That is, could Gwynn's jealousy turn her into a bedevil, or will her negative emotions always be visible and dealt with? For instance, the "muscle" in that first place they landed always seemed to be sulking, but Zoë never saw a red anima for him.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if Pete has a plan to examine the difference between Chaz (who identifies "pure" innocence) and Zoë's power to identify "pure" evil?