Haley presents an econometric analysis of the combined group's prospects.
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
The order of the stick is exiting stage right.
Roy: Could you excuse us for a moment Nale?
Nale: Certainly.
- Panel 2
Roy: OK guys, what do you think about this "Linear Guild"?
Suggestion from the rest of the Order
Person #1: Alternate universe?
Person #2: Doppelgangers?
Person #3: Mirror of Opposition?
Person #4: Evil twins?
Person #5: Doppelgangers?
Person #2: I said that already.
Person #6: Hackneyed plot device?
- Panel 3
Elan: But I like Nale. He's friendly, and seems oddly familiar.
Haley: Elan, look at that Sabine woman:
- Panel 4
Cut to Sabine.
Haley (off-panel): She's wearing red leather. I mean, red leather?? Of course she's evil!
Sabine: ♪
- Panel 5
Elan: I think we should ask them to join forces! There's are six of us and six of them. With all ten of us—
Haley (interrupting): Twelve, sweetie.
Elan: With all twelve of us, we could really crush Xykon!
- Panel 6
Roy: Surprisingly, Elan makes a good point. (Which probably just proves that we've stumbled into some bizarre alternate reality.)
Elan: Yay!
Roy: If both groups are going to raid the dungeon anyway, we can cut down on losses by working together.
Haley: I guess...
- Panel 7
Haley: But adding six more adventurers will cut our treasure share down. to 8.33% per person per encounter.
- Panel 8
Haley breaks out an easel with a bar graph and a pointer.
Haley: And decrease our Treasure-per-Encounter ratio by an estimated 11.378% for the entire expedition.
- Panel 9
Haley: Which, when compounded with loss of XP for those same encounters, puts us 14.7% behind our expected RWT Index—that's Recommended Wealth Total —for this character level!
- Panel 10
Roy: Haley, y'know, treasure isn't really that important.
- Panel 11
beat
- Panel 12
Haley: Don't EVER say that to me again.
D&D Context
- The Dungeon Master's Guide does actually have a table showing the recommended wealth level of players by level.
- Mirror of Opposition is a magic item that creates duplicates of whoever looks into it that automatically attack the original.
Trivia
- Whoever suggested 'evil twins' was correct, at least about Nale.
- In panel three Haley refers to "that Sabine woman". The Rape of the Sabine Women is a legendary episode in Roman history where the men of Rome, under the founder Romulus, had no women, so they abducted (raped, in the old sense of the word) the women from the nearby Sabine people.
- Vaarsuvius is missing their right hand in Panel 2.
- Doppelgänger is a German word for the lookalike of a person. It translates as "double goer." Doppelgänger was used twice in panel 2, i.e. the "Doppelgänger" went twice.