Elan's illusion saves the day. (Surprisingly.)
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
Daigo: Are they still behind us??
Durkon: Aye, but dinnae worry. If'n ye hold steady for a mite, tha lightnin' o' Thor 'll clear a path through 'em, fast as...
Durkon: ...
Durkon: Well, fast as lightnin', I guess.
Elan: Although I didn't mind it so much in strip #1...
- Panel 2
Elan: No! Durkon, don't! They have our hostages back at their orc village!
Daigo: Hostage, Elan. Singular!
Elan: This is just a minor diplomatic setback, it happens all the time. Like, really, ALL the time. But if you start zapping them, we won't be able to talk to them at all.
- Panel 3
Daigo: Well then do something fast, my arms feel like they're made of ochre jelly.
Daigo: Durkon, you should really consider switching to chainmail, it's a lot lighter.
Durkon: A long beard an' tiny pinchy loops o'metal dinnae mix as well as ye might believe.
- Panel 4
Durkon: Elan, use one o' yer illusions!
Daigo: Yeah, trick them into giving up the chase!
Elan: How do I do that??
Daigo: What am I, a main protagonist? How should I know? Just DO SOMETHING already!
- Panel 5
Elan: Uh...OK...OK, I can do this...
Elan: Major Image!
- Panel 6
An image starts forming in front of the orcs.
- Panel 7
Six more illusory orcs appear in front of the real orcs, seemingly joining in the pursuit.
- Panel 8
Daigo: Did you...
Daigo: Did you just cast an illusion of a SECOND horde of angry orcs?
Elan: I panicked! It's all I could think of!
- Panel 9
Daigo: Great, now they're going to feel MORE confident about chasing us, 'cause now it looks like they outnumber us 40-to-1 instead of just 20-to-1.
Daigo: In their minds, you've double the odds against us!
Elan: Don't bring your fancy math into this!
- Panel 10
Durkon (inset): Daigo, lad, watch an' learn...
The orcs stop running.
crong: crong say hold on. new guys have situation well under control.
gok: gok agree. seem very competent at core rampaging skill set.
mungu: mmm. good fundamentals.
- Panel 11
gok: suggest crong let other orcs chase humans and dwarf.
crong: crong agree. crong's heart not in chase anyway.
mungu: mungu concur. mungu rather finish grammar lessons for today.
crong: mmm.
- Panel 12
crong: yes, crong hope crong get to verb conjugation before end of week.
gok: gok look forward to first-person pronouns.
mungu: capital letters intrigue mungu.
D&D Context
- Ochre jelly is a monster in D&D that attempts to envelop its prey and digest it with acid.
Trivia
- Just like in Thog's speech, in all of the orcs' speech, no capitals are used and the text is bolded. The conversation in the last two panels pokes fun at these stereotypical orc speech patterns.
- In the first panel, Elan continues his thought from the last panel of the previous strip regarding the use of in medias res, noting that the Order of the Stick web comic begins with this technique.
- It is established that Durkon's armor is Full Plate in #25, Armor Begone.
- This is the final appearance of the Short-haired Female Orc with green hair who first appeared in the previous strip.
- The title refers to the previous strip.