MitD asks Tsukiko help to find his friend. Tsukiko is busy analyzing the Gate ritual.
Cast
- Xykon (as doll and on poster) ◀ ▶
- The Monster in the Darkness ◀ ▶
- Tsukiko ◀ ▶
- Boot Wight ◀ ▶
- Isamu ◀
- Five or Six Wights
Transcript
- Panel 1
Boot Wight opens the door to Tsukiko's room in Xykon's tower. A sign on the door has a hobgoblin head with a line through it and reads, "Keep out!"
Wight: Mistress you have a visitor.
MitD: Uh, hi. I know I'm not allowed in your room, because of the thing with the peanut butter, but I thought you could help me. You know since you do both.
Tsukiko: Hey, I don't know where you heard that rumor, but I didn't know that crypt-thing was a woman. It's hard to tell when they're just a skeleton.
- Panel 2
MitD: What? No I mean, you know both arcane and divine magic.
Tsukiko: Oh, right. Never mind that other thing then.
- Panel 3
MitD: See, I need magic to find a friend of mine and make sure he's safe.
Tsukiko: I would love to help you, except that I have no interest in helping you.
- Panel 4
Tsukiko: Lord Xykon asked me to learn this way complicated magical ritual and then explain it to him.
Tsukiko: He asked me, do you get it? This is my chance to prove my worth and earn his love.
Tsukiko: Too bad it makes, like, no sense at all...
- Panel 5
MitD: I don't think Xykon has any love to earn Tsukiko.
Tsukiko: Sure he does, he just hides it beneath that tough bony exterior.
MITD: He doesn't hide anything beneath this bones. I've seen.
- Panel 6
Tsukiko: Look, everyone knows that the undead are the antithesis of life, right?
Tsukiko: Except, people are jerks. Lying, untrustworthy jackasses, every one of them. Everyone knows this, too.
Tsukiko: So, logically, undead must be the opposite of that: caring, sensitive, honest souls who are oppressed by the living majority and their negative stereotypes.
- Panel 7
Tsukiko: They just need someone like me who understands them, so that they can realize it.
MitD: And the bloodsucking, and level draining?
Tsukiko: Natural defenses against predation.
- Panel 8
MitD: Ummm, yeah, I don't really think it works that way.
Tsukiko: We'll see how it works when Xykon sweeps me off my feet and tells me I'm the only minion for him.
Tsukiko: Now get out of my room.
- Panel 9
MitD: Fine! Read your stupid half of a ritual, I'll find someone else to help me!
Tsukiko: Sounds good to—
Tsukiko: ...
- Panel 10
Tsukiko: Of course! Half a ritual! That's why it doesn't make any sense. I'm reading the middle of a spell and thinking it's the beginning!
Tsukiko: So if this is really the second line of the chant, then... yes, yes, that's it! Ha ha!
- Panel 11
Tsukiko: Hey! You! Come back tonight, and I'll cast whatever spell you want to help find your friend.
MitD: Really? Hooray!
- Panel 12
MitD: You know I really didn't like her at first, but I guess she's not that bad.
Undead Isamu eats a human head, "munch. munch. munch."
D&D Context
- In D&D, there are two types of magic, arcane magic and divine magic. Arcane magic is that which is used by Wizards and Sorcerers, and stems from hidden knowledge of the underlying structure of reality (hence arcane), and divine magic is that which is used by Clerics and Druids, and channels the power of the gods. Tsukiko, as a Mystic Theurge, can use both forms of magic proficiently.
- A Crypt Thing is an undead originating from the Fiend Folio, resembling a skeletal humanoid.
Trivia
- Tsukiko's Xykon doll is visible on her bed in panel 1. She previously had the doll when she showed up in her nightgown to fight Vaarsuvius in #653.
- This is the final appearance of Isamu, one of the Azurite Resistance who was turned into a wight by Tsuikio. He first appeared in #511.
- The title refers to both Isamu and the person he is eating.