The Girdle of Feminity/Masculinity makes its triumphant return.
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
Roy: I cannot believe you sent all of our equipment away, leaving us defenseless!
Elan: Really? Because I can totally believe I did something like that.
- Panel 2
Roy: OK... OK, if we can't fight, we can still run. Get one of these windows open, we'll climb out and down to the ground.
Elan: Got it!
- Panel 3
Three shuriken crash through the window, "teeysh! teeysh! teeysh!"
- Panel 4
Roy: Crap.
Shadowdancer (off-panel): Give it up, Your Majesty! You're surrounded! Let whoever you've got in there with you go, so you can die with honor!
- Panel 5
Elan points at a closet.
Elan: Roy! In here!
Roy: Good! Go!
- Panel 6
They hide in the closet and close the door.
- Panel 7
Roy: Elan.. this isn't an exit! It's a janitorial closet!
Elan: I know! It's perfect.
- Panel 8
Roy: Elan, you do know that the term, "mopping up the bad guys" is a figure of speech, right?
- Panel 9
Elan: Roy, I have a plan. Now that we're out of sight, I cast Disguise Self on you so that you look like a hotel staff guy. Then we tell the assassins we ran in here when the explosion went off, and we just walk out.
- Panel 10
Roy: Disguise Self, Elan. The spell is named Disguise SELF.
Elan: Right, so I just disguise yourself.
- Panel 11
Roy: Perfect. You get as close as you possibly ever could to a workable plan that could save our asses, and it fails because you can't grasp the grammar involved.
- Panel 12
Elan: Wait! I just remembered! I have the perfect disguise right here...
- Panel 13
Elan holds up the Girdle of Feminity/Masculinity.
D&D Context
- The Girdle of Feminity/Masculinity first appeared in the AD&D (1st Edition) Dungeon Master's Guide. It is a cursed magic item which turns the wearer into the opposite gender. It was designed to appear identical to a Girdle of Giant Strength (a powerful item), tricking players in to immediately donning it. It can only be removed with a Remove Curse spell.
- Disguise Self is a 1st-level Bard spell that places an illusion on the caster to make them appear different.
Trivia
- This is the Girdle's first appearance since Elan picked it up back in Comic #9, I am Curious, Elan.
- The title refers to the fact that the author pointedly chose to have Elan retrieve the magic item, yet left the thread of this plot element hanging for 224 strips, and almost exactly 2 years of real-world time.