Haley for once does not haggle to buy adamantine weapons.
Cast
- Haley Starshine ◀ ▶
- Bandana Secundus ◀ ▶
- Crystal (as golem) ◀ ▶
- Eartha
- Ferdinand
Transcript
- Panel 1
Inside a weapons shop.
Ferdinand: There’s just no way around it, Eartha. It’s almost the end of the year, and we’re still deep in debt.
Eartha: Oh, Ferdinand, how could this happen?
- Panel 2
Ferdinand: Gnomes these days just don’t appreciate good old-fashioned masterwork weapons.
Ferdinand: Either they use magic, or some new-fangled gizmo to do their fighting for them.
- Panel 3
Ferdinand: We’ll have to close the shop at the end of the month and sell off the rest of the inventory at a loss.
Eartha: But your great-grandfather founded this shop!
Ferdinand: I know, dear, but what else can we—
- Panel 4
Haley and Bandana burst through the front door at the same time.
Haley & Bandana: DO YOU SELL ADAMANTINE WEAPONS???
- Panel 5
Ferdinand: Uh, yes, I think I have some old ones in the back that my father forged when—
Bandana: Gimme! Now!
Ferdinand: Alright, let me see what I have...
Haley: Hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry HURRY!
- Panel 6
Ferdinand: Looks like I have a handaxe, a short sword, a dagger, and—
Haley and Bandana snatch the weapons, "YOINK! YOINK!"
Bandana: Short sword!
Haley: Dagger!
- Panel 7
Ferdinand: Very good, that will be—
Haley: Money!
Haley tosses a huge bag of gold and jewels without even looking.
- Panel 8
Crystal smashes through the wall of the shop, "CRASH!"
Crystal: STARSHINE
Crystal: YOU CAN’T HIDE
- Panel 9
Haley and Bandana attack with their adamantine weapons, "SHTHHHK! SCHLASH!"
Crystal: RRAAAARRRGHHH!
- Panel 10
In the background, Haley sticks her tongue out at Crystal, while Eartha and Ferdinand observe their generous payment.
Eartha: We can afford to get the wall fixed.
Ferdinand: We can afford to retire to the tropics.
Eartha: Let’s do that one.
D&D Context
- Masterwork items are items made with such high quality that they receive bonuses to hit (but not to damage) even though they are not magical.
- Flesh Golems such as Crystal have immunity to magic and damage resistance against most attacks, except those caused by adamantine weapons.
- This strip seems to lampshade the economic oddities of D&D worlds. A masterwork adamantine short sword and dagger would cost 3,310 gold and 3,302 gold, respectively. For comparison, a typical laborer rolls Craft or Profession and then earns half their result as labor for the week. A typical 1st-level commoner or expert blacksmith with 4 skill ranks and average Wisdom (+4) would earn 2-12 gold per week, and even a skilled one (5th-level and 8 ranks, 16 Wisdom, Skill Focus, masterwork artisan's tools, an assistant helping with Aid Another, leading to a +18 in total) would only manage 9-19 gold a week. Assuming the latter is closer to their output, Haley and Bandanna handed Eartha and Ferdinand the equivalent of nine years' worth of earnings in the process of buying two weapons.
Trivia
- This is the only appearance of Eartha and Ferdinand.