The errant shot of the poisoned arrow segues the reader back to Vaarsuvius at the breach in the wall.
Cast
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Vaarsuvius ◀ ▶
- Miko Miyazaki ◀ ▶
- General Chang ◀ ▶
- Chang's Captain ◀
- Six Enlarged Soldiers ◀ ▶
- Female Low-Level Cleric ▶
- Another Low-Level Cleric
- Zombie Dragon ◀ ▶
- The Death Knight ◀ ▶
- Skeletal Steed ◀ ▶
- Hundreds of Dead Hobgoblins, and a Few Living Hobgoblin Soldiers
- A Company of Ghouls
Transcript
- Panel 1
The poisoned arrow from Grand Larceny Prisoner's thwarted attempt on Hinjo's life flies through the air.
- Panel 2
It glances off the right horn of the Zombie Dragon, "puh-ting!", with Roy's lower half visible on its neck.
- Panel 3
It ricochets off a crenelated wall near a barred window, "puh-toong!" Miko Miyazaki can be seen inside, lost in despair.
- Panel 4
It flies directly towards the head of Vaarsuvius, who is busy casting a spell.
- Panel 5
It bounces harmlessly off V's Protection From Arrows spell, "puh-tang!", and lodges in the ground, "thunk."
- Panel 6
Vaarsuvius resumes spell casting.
- Panel 7
General Chang: Captain, report!
Captain: So far, so good, General.
Captain: We've lost three of the giant soldiers so far, but we now have a line of low-level clerics healing them every few rounds.
- Panel 8
Cut to a huge mound of dead hobgoblin soldiers with the giant Azure City pikemen continuing to skewer the ones still living.
Chang (inset): And the enemy?
Captain (inset): Taking heavy casualties, sir, but they show no signs of slowing down the assault.
- Panel 9
Chang: That's not a good sign. The hobgoblins I've fought have always been good soldiers...
Chang: They wouldn't continue a tactic that was meeting with such failure.
Vaarsuvius: General, if I may?
- Panel 10
Vaarsuvius: I think you are overestimating the intellect of these foul creatures.
Vaarsuvius: It is my belief that they are continuing to attack simply because they are not bright enough to devise a strategy on their own.
Vaarsuvius: There is no other logical explanation.
- Panel 11
Vaarsuvius: I feel confident in stating that since the enemy has so far failed to field a credible melee threat for your magically-enhanced soldiers, you should have no problem holding the breach for the day.
- Panel 12
Cut to the Death Knight outside the wall.
Ghoul: Sir, we finally have enough corpses to serve as a ramp for your horse.
The Death Knight rips apart his Xykon costume, "rrip!! rrip!"
Death Knight: THEN LET THE REAPING BEGIN!!
D&D Context
- Protection from Arrows is a 2nd level spell, which works pretty much as advertised.
- A round is the standard division of time during combat. Canonically, a round equals 6 seconds, during which time each player and each non-player character or monster gets an action.
Trivia
- The title is a pun on the term "military intelligence" which refers to spying and the like, but in this case refers to Vaarsuvius' high intelligence yet lack of understanding of military tactics.
- This is the final appearance of Chang's Captain, who first appeared in #427.
- This is the first appearance of Female Low-Level Cleric.