The Order of the Stick meets the oddly similar Linear Guild.
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
Belkar: Ugh. I hate kobolds...
Nale: Hail! Well, it certainly is nice to see a friendly face here in the dungeon!
Roy: Uh, yeah... so, who the hell are you?
Nale: Why, adventurers, much like yourself I'd wager. We are known as the Linear Guild.
Yikyik: Blech, halfling...
- Panel 2
Elan: Wow! We're the Order of the Stick!
Nale: Fascinating.
Roy: It certainly is nice to meet another fighter.
- Panel 3
Roy: Clearly, you must be the leader of the team. Perhaps we could compare tactical notes.
Thog: thog like breaking stuff.
- Panel 4
Roy: ...
Roy: Never mind.
- Panel 5
Nale: You'll have to forgive Thog. Intelligence was his dump stat.
Nale: As a point of fact, I am the leader and strategic genius behind our quest.
- Panel 6
Roy: You're kidding.
Nale: Not at all. My name is Nale. Allow me to introduce my colleagues.
Nale: This is Sabine, my second-in-command, and Hilgya Firehelm, my spiritual advisor.
Nale: Our tracker, Yikyik.
Hilgya: Say hello to the nice adventurers.
Yikyik: Bite me.
Nale: And finally, our team wizard, Zz'dtri.
Zz'dtri: ...
Nale: He doesn't speak much.
- Panel 7
Haley: Hey, wait a minute. Aren't dark elves evil?
Nale: Oh, my, no. Not since they became a player race.
- Panel 8
Nale: Now the whole species consists of nothing but Chaotic Good rebels, yearning to throw off the reputation of their evil kin.
Haley: Evil kin? Didn't you just say they were all Chaotic Good?
Nale: Details.
- Panel 9
Haley: What are the scimitars for?
Zz'dtri: They're standard issue.
D&D Context
- Zz'dtri is a parody of the drow elf Drizzt Do'Urden, the breakout character of the D&D Forgotten Realms novels by R.A. Salvatore. He is known for dual-wielding scimitars and trying to escape the evil reputation of the other drow elves. Zz'dtri's speech bubbles are always grey instead of black, indicating that he speaks softly.
- As implied in this comic, "Drizzt clone" was a major cliche of D&D in the 1990s and early 2000s, as Drizzt's popularity led to many fans of him creating PCs that mimicked him (typically a Chaotic Good drow wielding dual weapons and a background as an outcast).
- Drow were introduced in the 1977 Monster Manual, and became a playable race in the 1985 Unearthed Arcana, both for AD&D (1st edition)
- "Dump stat" is slang for the stat which you put your worst ability score into, usually because it's not that important for whatever class you are playing.
Trivia
- Obviously, this is the first comic in which the Linear Guild are formally introduced (although they appeared in the previous comic). Oddly enough, only Hilgya is introduced by her full name.
- In panel 2, Nale's comment, "Fascinating", is a catchphrase of the character of Spock from Star Trek. This calls attention to the fact that Nale's goatee is an intentional reference to Spock's evil opposite in the Star Trek Mirror Universe, originally appearing in the 1967 episode, "Mirror Mirror".