The reunited team enters the Hall of Outdated Monsters.
Cast
- The Order of the Stick
- Nale ◀ ▶
- Thog ◀ ▶
- Sabine ◀ ▶
- Yikyik ◀ ▶
- A horde of monsters from the 1st and 2nd editions that did not officially update to 3rd edition, including:
Transcript
- Panel 1
The members of the Order and the Guild emerge from three doors into a huge room. The room consists of an arching bridge over a pit full of monsters that leads to a circular platform. In the center of the platform a cone of white light shines down on an amulet.
Unknown #1: Hey guys.
Unknown #2: Hey.
Elan: Wow. This place is huge!
Nale: See, this is more what I was expecting.
- Panel 2
Roy: Damn, that is a lot of monsters.
Elan: Wait... is that what I think it is?
- Panel 3
Elan (off-panel): A dracolisk!
Elan (off-panel): Oh, and hordlings!
Elan (off-panel): And a death dog, and a guardian daemon...
Elan (off-panel): And I don't even know what that one is supposed to be!
- Panel 4
Vaarsuvius: I have not seen any of these creatures in years.
Nale: Indeed, every monster in the pit was never officially updated to 3rd Edition.
- Panel 5'
Nale: But see, they had to go someplace, right? They didn't just disappear. The wizard Dorukan crafted his Talisman to lure those monsters here, where they could be safely locked away.
- Panel 6
Elan: Ooo, an osquip!
Nale: That is the talisman's power: to bring all outdated monsters under the wearer's control.
- Panel 7
Elan: Why aren't they attacking?
Nale: The magic runes here ward them off. Were they to be broken, they would surely destroy us.
- Panel 8
Nale: They are a hateful, bloodthirsty, and poorly-concieved lot of vile fiends!
- Panel 9
Flumph #1: *sniff*
Flumph #2: There there, try not to take it personally.
D&D Context
- D&D has a long history of large Monster Manuals. With that many monsters there are many that are less well-constructed than others. This strip serves as a send-up to many of those old monsters. Some of these monsters did end up being updated for D&D 3.0 or 3.5 in other supplementary material, while others had actually already been updated to D&D 3.0, and Rich Burlew must have been unaware of the update.
- A dracolisk is a cross between a black dragon and a basilisk. It first appeared in the first edition in the adventure module The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982), and was reprinted in the original Monster Manual II (1983). They would be later updated to D&D 3.5 in Dungeon #151 (October 2007).
- Hordlings are the primary inhabitant of the Gray Wastes of Hades, a strongly evilly-aligned plane. The hordling (hordes of Hades) first appeared in the first edition Monster Manual II (1983). They would later be updated to D&D 3.5 in Dungeon #124 (July 2005).
- Death dogs are undead dogs with two heads. Their bite can cause zombification. They are rumored to be descended from Cerebus. They first appeared in the 1st edition Fiend Folio (1981). Despite being included in the Hall of Outdated Monsters, death dogs had already been updated to D&D 3.0 a year prior to the publication of this strip, in the 2003 Fiend Folio.
- Guardian daemons are a type of daemon. It first appeared in the 1st edition Fiend Folio (1981). Daemons were more fully fleshed out in the 1983 Monster Manual II, which omitted Guardian Daemons.
- The monster with a rabbit on top that Elan doesn't know the name of is a Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing. The rabbit is part of the monster, used to lure other creatures to a seemingly unassuming stump. The wolf-in-sheep's-clothing first appeared in the 1980 adventure Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and was reprinted in the original Monster Manual II (1983).
- An osquip is a six-legged rat-like magical beast. It first appeared in the original first edition Fiend Folio (1981). Osquips had already been updated for D&D 3.0. It was first updated in Dragon #282 (April 2001), and later in the 2003 Races of Faerûn, for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
- The Flumphs are jellyfish-like creatures that float in air instead of water. They are helpless if flipped on their back. They were first introduced in the Fiend Folio (1981). Flumphs would later be updated for D&D 3.5 in the adventure "Box of Flumph" by Tim Hitchcock in Dungeon magazine #118 (January 2005).
Trivia
- This is the first appearance of the Flumphs. They were destined to become one of the most frequently referenced running gags in the comic.
- Nale calls the monsters a lot of "vile fiends"; most of the ones named were introduced in the Fiend Folio.
- Flumphs were the only Lawful Good creature introduced in the Fiend Folio, a fact they take offense to.
- This is the first appearance of the hordlings and the dracolisk.