Actual Foreshadowing!
The Hunting Horror is a major reveal, but the story can’t pause to explain every detail in the middle of the action. Instead, the necessary information is woven into earlier scenes, ensuring that when the Monster in the Dark is unmasked, the audience already understands the key elements without disrupting the pacing.
Some scenes might seem unrelated to the Hunting Horror at first, but they provide essential context that makes its later reveal feel natural. By establishing key details of the setting and its rules beforehand, the story avoids unnecessary exposition dumps during critical moments.
In other words, actual foreshadowing!
The Indescribable Horror
The popularity of Call of Cthulhu has made the concept of an indescribable horror relatively commonplace. Including one in Comic 1289 establishes that such creatures exist in Rich’s setting, allowing the Hunting Horror’s later reveal to proceed without excessive explanation.
This comic also clarifies that animals are immune to this effect, preemptively addressing potential questions about their reactions.
The Blue Poet
The more banal the name for a monster, the more likely it is to be some eldritch abomination with the objectively wrong number of body parts.
Rich introduced the Hunting Horror as a Haunter of the Dark, an alternate name preferred for its parallel structure with “Monster in the Dark.” The name is banal, and Rich uses Comic 1288 to acknowledge this. Additionally, “eldritch abomination” is a technical term in Call of Cthulhu, which Rich invokes to either connect the Monster in the Dark to that ruleset or simply establish that his setting includes such creatures.
The Hunting Horror’s single wing is an inherent oddity Rich had to acknowledge. Comic 1288 preemptively frames this, ensuring that when the monster is revealed, its unnatural design is already accepted rather than requiring explanation.
The Home Run
Rich loves baseball. I imagine him testing different attack motions for the Hunting Horror and noticing that a wing slap from a single wing in the middle of the back resembles a baseball swing. While other factors contribute, this motion likely plays a role in the big hit in the Tower Scene.
Depicting a baseball swing earlier in the story establishes a visual precedent, making the Monster in the Dark’s similar motion after the reveal feel natural rather than confusing. This subtle reinforcement helps the audience recognize the attack without breaking immersion.
A Breath of Fresh Air
A comment in Start of Darkness where the Monster in the Dark acknowledges its terrible smell creates an apparent plot hole, as the issue is never mentioned again. Establishing that Redcloak, a known associate of the Monster in the Dark, has access to a solution subtly confirms that such remedies exist. By setting this up in advance, the reveal can include a visible cue indicating both the presence of the stench and how it is being managed, sidestepping the difficulty of portraying smell in a comic.
Too Hot to Handle
The Hunting Horror takes damage in light: less in torchlight, more in daylight. Its Fast Healing 10 generally overcomes this damage, making this weakness more a way to cancel its Fast Healing than a way to defeat it.
However, even with Fast Healing, the question remains over how the Monster in the Dark should react if it’s taking and healing damage every round. In this comic, Haley and V, who lack Fast Healing, ignore and even trivialize 1d6 points of damage per round. This establishes that such a level of damage can be disregarded entirely.
This framing ensures that when the Hunting Horror shrugs off light exposure, it aligns with existing expectations rather than raising unnecessary questions.