Yokyok discovers the dangers of taverns.
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
Belkar: Bet you a beer that the lightning was good news for my team, bad news for yours!
Yokyok: They are not my "team", murderer, merely a means to an end.
Yokyok: Your end, to be specific.
- Panel 2
Yokyok: I would normally never stoop to travel with scoundrels such as the Linear Guild.
Yokyok: However, Nale promised to deliver you to my waiting blade without requiring anything but the fulfillment of my oath to destroy you.
- Panel 3
Belkar: Hold on, does that mean you aren't getting anything from Nale, either?
Yokyok: I need no money to kill you, villain!
- Panel 4
Yokyok: I'm pure righteous justice, here to deliver your rightful punishment at the end of a sword!
Belkar: More plot-critical characters than you have tried and failed.
- Panel 5
Belkar starts writing something.
Belkar: But don't worry your orange little head about it. This will all be over soon...
Belkar: And you just gave me the idea, too.
- Panel 6
Belkar puts the paper on the door of a building.
Belkar: HA!
Yokyok: Ha?
Belkar: HA!
- Panel 7
Yokyok: This? This is to what the cold-blooded killer of my father Yikyik has been reduced?
Yokyok: Some sort of handwritten note tacked—
- Panel 8
The note reads:
| “ |
HEROES NEEDED! |
” |
- Panel 9
Yokyok looks up and sees the building is a tavern.
- Panel 10
Noises from within the tavern, "rumblerumblerumblerumblerumbl". Belkar grins wickedly.
Yokyok: Oh shi—
- Panel 11
Adventurers pile out of the tavern and attack Yokyok.
Adventurer #1: He's mine!
Adventurer #2: Outta my way!
Adventurer #3: I saw him first!
Adventurer #4: I need the XP!
Belkar: Getting paid to kill things: Cornerstone of the world economy.
Belkar: An extra 50 gp to the one who makes him scream the loudest!
D&D Context
- Adventurers starting quests in taverns is a cliché of D&D adventures, but such a convenient plot hook that it continues to be widely used.
Trivia
- The title is a reference to the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword", coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu.