"Durkon" explains how a cleric of Hel could overrule the will of Thor on the subject of storms and lightning.
Cast
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Durkon Thundershield (also as vampire and as spirit) ◀ ▶
- "Durkon" ◀ ▶
- A Cleric of Thor
- Four Dwarves
Transcript
- Panel 1
On deck unDurkon continues to cast his spell.
"Durkon": ...Control Weather...
"Durkon": ...Control Weather...
- Panel 2
Inside Durkon's head
Durkon: Thor's mastery o' storms is absolute! Yer daft if'n ye think Hel's magic can squelch it!
"Durkon": You're forgetting your theology. Surely, you must've learned about this at some point.
- Panel 3
"Durkon": Ah, here we are.
Flashback to Durkon in school as a young cleric.
Cleric of Thor: —and one of the most crucial of these many accords between the gods is the Domain Agreement.
- Panel 4
Cleric of Thor: The Domain Agreement states that even though each god is absolute master of their specific aspect of reality—
Cleric of Thor: —they will allow followers of other gods limited and well-defined access to manipulate that aspect using clerical magic.
- Panel 5
Cleric of Thor: That is why we clerics of Thor can cast Flame Strike, even though fire is part of Loki's portfolio.
"Durkon": More to the point:
"Durkon": Once that contract is broken, my dread mistress is free to retaliate in kind.
- Panel 6
"Durkon": If Thor declared this storm beyond the reach of clerical magic, then Hel would do the same for, say, bubonic plague. Or smallpox.
"Durkon": To say nothing of the poisons that would go unneutralized, or the dishonored dead that couldn't be raised.
"Durkon": The toll would be staggering.
- Panel 7
"Durkon": And when all was said and done, it would be your precious Thor who'd invoked the wrath of Odin and the rest for breaking the truces—
"Durkon": —while Hel would be swollen with the power of those millions who'd died of curable ailments.
- Panel 8
"Durkon": Face it: You're just not that important, Durkon.
Durkon: Ye evil bastard! Thor'll find a way ta punish ye!
- Panel 9
"Durkon": I've seen enough of your memories to know how much you value The Rules.
"Durkon": I guess you don't like it so much when they're working against you.
- Panel 10
"Durkon": The best part is, if you can barely remember this stuff, there's no way those morons out there will know.
"Durkon": The good little weather cleric will calm the storm, just like he should— and they won't suspect a thing.
- Panel 11
On deck. Belkar is trying to stab Durkon. Roy is restraining him with one hand, while holding the rope with the other.
Roy: Are you trying to sink us???
Belkar: He had a spell prepared that will actually solve our problem. That proves he can't possibly be Durkon!!
D&D Context
- Control Weather is a 7th level spell which changes the weather in the local area.
- The left chalkboard drawing in the fourth panel is a simplified version of the 1st Edition alignment chart.
- Unlike Elan, a bard, who can only know a small and relatively set number of spells and cannot swap them out easily, and Vaarsuvius, an evoker, who can only prepare spells scribed in their spellbook and cannot prepare certain categories of spells, Durkon, as a cleric, can prepare any main-list cleric spell below a certain level. Because of this, the only explanation for why Durkon might not have a given spell in a certain situation is that he didn't feel that it would be necessary that day, which can lead the more rule-minded readers to the conclusion that Durkon is very bad at planning. One of the more lampshaded cases of this is in #837, where he didn't bother to prepare Control Winds while visiting a place called Windy Canyon.
Trivia
- The title is a pun on Riders on the Storm by The Doors on their 1971 album L.A. Woman. This is the second strip title to pun on this song. The other is #690, Riders on the Worm.