The Order is reunited without any help from V.

Cast

• The Order of the Stick
  • Roy Greenhilt (as spirit and bone golem) ◀ ▶
  • Haley Starshine ◀ ▶
  • Elan ◀ ▶
  • Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
  • Durkon Thundershield ◀ ▶
  • Vaarsuvius (Soul Spliced) ◀ ▶
• Celia ◀ ▶
• Ganonron ◀ ▶
• Jephton the Unholy ◀ ▶
• (1.67x10¹⁵)Q

Transcript

Panel 1

Roy: Oh, man, it's true! YES!
Celia: Vaarsuvius! It's good to see you again.
Vaarsuvius: I have no feelings on viewing you. You are largely irrelevant.
Spliced soul: Not important.
Spliced soul: Beneath us.
Haley: Gods, have I missed you.

Panel 2

Roy: This is awesome. Now we just need to get back to—
Ganonron and Jephton's souls are visible to Roy.
Roy: Wait. Who the hell are you guys, and why are you magically shackled to my friend?
Ganonron: Us? We're... uh... we're ...
Jephton: Subcontractors.

Panel 3

Jephton: Your friend is simply outsourcing all conjuration and sorcery needs for this project.
Jephton: You would be surprised how common that sort of thing is these days.

Panel 4

Modron: Thank you for calling the Pandemonium customer service center. My name is (1.67x10¹⁵)Q, how may I be of assistance?

Panel 5

Ganonron: Nice cover.
Jephton: Bluff is a sorcerer class skill.
Haley:—and even though he's still a bone golem, at least we have his body here now.
Vaarsuvius: Then I shall now locate the last two remaining members of our fellowship and teleport ourselves to their location.
Haley: You can do that?

Panel 6

Vaarsuvius: I can enact far greater feats of arcane agility than I could when last you laid eyes upon me.
Vaarsuvius: My magical energy is currently nigh-unstoppable! Witness, now, as I use my incredible powers to at long last reunite the Order of the—

Panel 7

Elan and Durkon enter the room.
Durkon: Hullo?

Panel 8

Elan: Haley!
Haley: Elan! Oh my gods!

Panel 9

Haley leaps into Elans arms and they kiss.

Panel 10

Elan: I missed you so much.
Haley: I thought... I thought you were...
Vaarsuvius: NOT AGAIN!
Ganonron: KILL!
Jephton: KILL!
Belkar: Hey, I'm not a fan of the mushy stuff either, but try to keep it in perspective.

D&D Context

• (1.67x10¹⁵)Q is a Modron, a native of the Outer Plane of Mechanus (also known as Nirvana), the plane of pure Law. Modrons take the form of various geometric shapes and live in a strict hierarchy. This one appears to be a quadrone, the fourth order of base Modrons. Quadrones and other Modrons were first introduced in 1983 in the AD&D Monster Manual II. They were updated for D&D 3.5 in 2007 in issue #354 of Dragon magazine.
• A Bluff check is required to successfully lie to another character. As Jephton notes, Bluff is an in-class skill for sorcerers. Cross-class skills cost twice as many skill points for each rank.
• Jephton's lie about them being "subcontractors" refers to the fact that the three spliced souls all specialize in a form of magic Vaarsuvius is incapable of using: Ganonron and Haerta were a conjurer and a necromancer, respectively, meaning they specialize in schools that Vaarsuvius had barred, and Jephton was a sorcerer, which is a different class entirely.

Trivia

• The Modron in panel 4 parodies a outsourced call center.
• This is the first time the entire Order of the Stick is in the same strip in Don't Split the Party; they last appeared together in the final strip of the previous book in #484. Of course, Roy remains dead at this point.
• This is the only appearance of (1.67x10¹⁵)Q.

External links

• View the comic
• View the discussion thread