The Order discovers a secret door. Elan discovers a nameless horror beyond...
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
Vaarsuvius: Stop!
- Panel 2
Vaarsuvius: Elf sense... tingling!
Vaarsuvius: Secret door... nearby!
- Panel 3
They stand next to a door labeled "Secret Door". Roy points to the door.
Roy: You are a finely tuned Searching machine, V.
- Panel 4
Roy and Vaarsuvius walk off stage right.
Vaarsuvius: Feh, Search is cross-class. I consider myself fortunate when I can find my own spellbook in the morning.
Elan opens the door
- Panel 5
Elan inside the room with the door closed. The inside of the door has a sign which reads: "Please close door when you are done being secretive". Next to the door is a poster on the wall of a kitten hanging from a branch with the caption: "Hang in there!"
- Panel 6
Squid Thingy sitting in a beanbag reading "Psionics & You".
Squid Thingy: Hey I'm trying to be secretive in here!
Elan: Aaah!!! It's a—
- Panel 7
Elan (thinking): Mind Flayer? Illithid? Psionic danger?
- Panel 8
Elan: Squid thingy!
- Panel 9
Elan: So... Are you going to eat my brain?
- Panel 10
Squid Thingy "sniff sniff" in Elan direction
- Panel 11
Squid Thingy: No, I'm cool, thanks.
D&D Context
- Squid Thingy is a mind flayer (a.k.a. illithid), a classic evil monster that uses psionic attacks and is able to suck brains out of skulls and eat them. Mind flayers first appear in The Strategic Review (the precursor to Dragon magazine) #1. They subsequently were published in the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual. They were updated for D&D 3.x in the 2000 and 2003 Monster Manual for D&D 3.0 and 3.5 respectively.
- Elves are entitled to make a Search check whenever they pass by a secret door. The Player's Handbook says "an elf's senses are so keen that she practically has a sixth sense about hidden portals."
- A cross-class skill is one that is harder to learn than a class skill. It requires two skill points to increase by one rank, and its rank is capped at the character's level divided by 2. Because Vaarsuvius is a wizard, the Search skill is cross-class.
Trivia
- Spiderman's spider sense would tingle to warn him of danger.
- This is the first appearance of the Squid Thingy the mind flayer.
- Mind Flayers are often said to look like Cthulhu.