- For the other comic titled "Resource Management", see Resource Management (924).
Carnage on the wall sets the backdrop upon which the final moments of Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3 are tragically yet heroically portrayed.
Cast
- Elan ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Hinjo ◀ ▶
- Argent ◀ ▶
- Grand Larceny Prisoner ◀ ▶
- Redcloak ◀ ▶
- A Demon-Roach ◀ ▶
- Hobgoblin General ◀ ▶
- Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3 ▶
- Twelve Hobgoblin Soldiers
- A Ghoul
Transcript
- Panel 1
Hinjo astride Argent along with Elan slaughter hobgoblins on the wall.
Hinjo: Good boy, Argent! Good boy!
Elan: Orange you sorry you decided to invade?
- Panel 2
Elan: Wow, it's fun being halfway competent!
Grand Larceny Prisoner: I wouldn't know.
He kills three hobgoblins with three arrows, "thunk! thunk! thunk!"
- Panel 3
Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3 surmounts a scaling ladder. Belkar sits on the next merlon over.
Belkar: Duck.
- Panel 4
Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3 engages with an Azurite swordsman while another hobgoblin climbs the ladder behind him.
Belkar: Duck.
- Panel 5
Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3 is pierced in the heart by the Azurite swordsman. He is shocked. A third hobgoblin surmounts the ladder while the second now stands on the wall behind HWfS433P3.
Belkar: Duck.
- Panel 6
As Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3 lies dead on the cold stones of the Azure City wall, the second hobgoblin kills the Azurite swordsman with a single blow. A ghoul surmounts the scaling ladder next to Belkar.
Belkar: GOOSE!
Belkar bisects the ghoul with his dagger, "shlurk!"
Ghoul: urk!
- Panel 7
Another hobgoblin comes up the ladder.
Belkar: Duck.
Solider: Lord Hinjo, there are so many of them. What do we do?
Hinjo: Just keep fighting!
- Panel 8
Hinjo: Make them pay for every inch. For every one of our soldiers who dies, make them lose ten. Or twenty!
Hinjo: If we can inflict enough damage, they'll be forced to pull back to avoid taking more losses.
- Panel 9
Cut to Redcloak conferring with the Hobgoblin General.
Hobgoblin General: Supreme Leader, the divisions scaling the southern wall are taking heavy casualties.
Redcloak: Send a squad of clerics to the south immediately!
- Panel 10
Hobgoblin General: Very good, sir. The extra healing may well turn the tide.
Redcloak: Healing? No, they're going so they can zombify our dead.
Redcloak: We're the bad guys, remember?
Demon Roach: Oh man...I knew I shouldn't have invested all my money in that goblin life insurance company...
D&D Context
- Animate Dead is the 3rd level cleric spell Redcloak's clerics would use to "zombify" the dead hobgoblins.
Trivia
- Belkar is subject to the effects of the Greater Mark of Justice and therefore limits himself to killing undead for the moment.
- This is the first appearance of the aptly-named Hobgoblin Warrior from Strip #433 Panel 3. He will appear again in a flashback as an infant in #703, where we learn his oddly specific name.
- This could arguably be the first appearance of Kazumi Kato, as the soldier with Hinjo is identical to her and is in the right place in terms of continuity with what the forum thread declared to be her first appearance in #455.