The party discusses what to do with the new vampire Durkon. After his defeat, Nale flees, but runs into a returning Tarquin and elements of the Vector Legion.
Cast
- The Order of the Stick
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Haley Starshine ◀ ▶
- Elan ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Durkon Thundershield (as vampire) ◀ ▶
- Mr. Scruffy ◀ ▶
- "Durkon" (as Durkon) ◀ ▶
- The Linear Guild
- The Vector Legion
- The Army of the Empire of Blood
- Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator ◀ ▶
- Tarquin's Triceratops ▶
- Bloodfeast's Rider ▶
- Brown Allosaurus ▶
- Brown Allosaurus' Rider ▶
- Nine Pteranodon Riders
- Fifteen Velociraptor Riders
- Three Hundred and Forty Soldiers of the Empire of Blood
Transcript
- Panel 1
Elan: Hooray! Durkon's back!
Haley: I thought that would take at least another 100 pages...
Roy: Look, we're shorthanded and he wants to help. We could use it.
Belkar: What about Durkon?
Roy: That IS Durkon!
Belkar: No, it isn't!
Roy: It's Durkon enough for our purposes.
- Panel 2
Roy: Whether it is or isn't, we need to keep track of Durkon's body if we're going to bring him back to life.
Roy: We may as well have that body up and around and casting spells for us.
- Panel 3
Roy: If he wanted to hurt us, he could've attacked.
Belkar: I just don't trust the idea of using a horrible bloodthirsty savage to fulfill our goals while we—oh, I get it.
Roy: Yeah, we already made the parallel.
- Panel 4
Haley searches Zz'dtri's corpse.
Haley: Oooo, wands!
Roy: OK, gang, listen up.
Roy: We may have beaten the elemental, but the Linear Guild is still up there some—
Mr. Scruffy: hissss!
"Durkon": Actually, na really.
- Panel 5
"Durkon": Nale smoked Malack, then I killed Zz'dtri an' his imp familiar bolted.
"Durkon": Tarquin an' tha flying kobold wandered off hours ago, Sabine's still banished, an' I'm 'ere wit ye.
"Durkon": So tha's pretty much curtains fer tha Linear Guild, aye?
- Panel 6
Roy: Where's Nale?
"Durkon": Popped out wit tha short range teleport spell o' is.
Roy: Then he's around here somewhere.
- Panel 7
Cut to Nale. He is out of breath and fleeing through the desert. He is looking back and doesn't notice a portal opening in front of him.
Roy (inset): Wherever he is, he's still dangerous. Everyone keep your guard up.
Nale: *huff!* *huff!* *huff!*
- Panel 8
The nose of a triceratops pokes through the portal with its armored horn. Nale stops short.
Nale: GAAH!
- Panel 9
Tarquin in full armor astride the triceratops rides through the portal as Laurin Shattersmith holds the portal open.
Tarquin: Hello, Nale. Walk with me.
- Panel 10
A huge army follows Tarquin through the portal.
Tarquin: We have a lot to talk about.
D&D Context
- Laurin Shattersmith is a psion, and uses the Wormhole power to transport the army to this location (confirmed on #913. Wormhole is not a standard D&D 3.5e power (The Order of the Stick goes by 3.5e rules, generally speaking, since the Dragon magazine strips), but rather a 2nd edition psionicist power.
Trivia
- This is the final appearance of Zz'tri, an original member of the Linear Guild. He was conceived as the "evil opposite" of Vaasuvius, as a dark elf wizard. After being taken away by The Lawyers for copyright infringement in #65, he was not seen for a very long time and most readers presumed he was permanently out of the picture. However he reappeared in #742 disguised as the elven ambassador Polozius, setting up the Guild's assault on the Order at the arena. Zz'dtri appeared in 54 strips, making his first appearance with the rest of the original Linear Guild in #43.
- This is the first appearance of Tarquin's Triceratops mount, Bloodfeast's Rider, Brown Allosaurus, and Brown Allosaurus' Rider.
- Haley's line in Panel 1 about figuring it would've taken another 100 strips to get Durkon back proper actually foreshadows the truth about vampire Durkon revealed in "It's What's Inside That Counts". It actually took not 100, but 240 strips before Durkon was officially reunited with the Order in "Do-Over".
- Roy's remark in Panel 3 references the similar parallel drawn between Belkar and Yukyuk in #838.