Vaarsuvius helps General Chang hold the breach.
Cast
- Vaarsuvius ◀ ▶
- General Chang ◀ ▶
- Chang's Captain ▶
- Enlarged Soldiers ▶
- Hobgoblin soldiers
Transcript
- Panel 1
Vaarsuvius is using Bugsby's Grasping Hand to move boulders to close the breach in the wall.
Vaarsuvius: Truly, it is a poor omen when elves are doing stonemasonry
- Panel 2
General Chang: Wizard, I need to speak with you. Is it true that you asked my captain to only stand these 13 pikemen in the breach?
Vaarsuvius: These are your best soldiers, are they not?
- Panel 3
Chang: Yes, they're all 5th level, but—
Vaarsuvius: And they each imbibed one of the potions I gave you?
Chang: Yes, but—
- Panel 4
Vaarsuvius: Mass Bear's Endurance!
Chang: Now look here!
Vaarsuvius: Mass Bull's Strength!
- Panel 5
Chang: It doesn't matter how many of your magical bonuses you pile on, a dozen or so men cannot hold this gap!
Chang: The enemy will simply run right over them!
- Panel 6
Vaarsuvius: General, you may have noticed that my explanations tend to consume more time than my plans themselves.
Vaarsuvius: Given that time is a factor, I simply say that is it[sic] imperative that you not send any more troops into the breach right now.
- Panel 7
Soldier (off-panel): The enemy is 180 feet away and closing fast, General!
- Panel 8
Soldier (off-panel): 120 feet!
- Panel 9
Soldier (off-panel): 60 feet! Here they come!
Chang: That's it! Captain, advance another 50 soldiers into the—
- Panel 10
Vaarsuvius: Mass Enlarge Person!
The 13 pikemen grow to giant size.
- Panel 11
The enlarged and magically buffed pikemen skewer the hobgoblins, three at at time on their giant spears, holding the breach. "splortch! schrkt! splortch! splortch! schrkt! splortch! schrkt! splortch! filcht!"
Chang (inset): ...
Chang (inset): Oh.
D&D Context
- Bugsby's Grasping Hand, used in the first panel but not called out, is V's non-trademark-infringing version of Bigby's Grasping Hand, one of their many Bigby's Hand variant spells.
- The original Bigby was a henchman of Mordenkainen, a player character played by the inventor of D&D, Gary Gygax. The name in the comic is changed to avoid trademark and copyright issues. Gygax himself was unable to use the character after he was forced out of TSR in 1985.
- Mass Bear's Endurance is the 6th level version of the 2nd level Bear's Endurance, but capable of being cast on multiple targets. It gives bonuses to Constitution score, also increasing the target's max hit points.
- Mass Bull's Strength, is similar to Bear's Endurance, but giving Strength bonuses.
- Mass Enlarge Person, a 4th level spell, doubles the height and increases the weight by a factor of 8 of a number of creatures up to the caster's level.
- The number of NPCs affected by V's Mass spells is a function of their level. The fact that V specifically asked for 13 soldiers to be brought strongly suggests that V is a 13th level wizard at the time of this comic.
Trivia
- The title is a reference to the Pink Floyd songs Another Brick in the Wall (parts I-III), particularly part II, which is the most famous, from their 1979 album The Wall.
- This is the first appearance of Chang's Captain.
- This is the first appearance of the thirteen Enlarged Soldiers.