I think I've milked the mysterious-robed-strangers-coming-down-the-road bit for all it's worth at this point... Unfortunately for you, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop. Not only will you have to wait a couple more days for this party's identity, but you can expect to meet many more mysterious-robed-strangers. It may be an over-used plot device, but this setting just cries out for its use.

This is the first page I've done on high-quality art paper (before now they've all been done on recycled printer paper) and I'm not certain I like it. I probably need to buy something finely textured like printer paper, but thicker. All this is to help excuse how granular these panels look.