Crystal confronts Bozzok for making her into what she is now.
Cast
- Haley Starshine ◀ ▶
- Bandana Secundus ◀ ▶
- Crystal (as golem) ◀ ▶
- Bozzok ◀
- Hieronymus Grubwiggler ◀
- DGS Aide-de-camp ◀ ▶
Transcript
- Panel 1, Page 1
Crystal: YOUR FAULT
Bozzok: Did you kill Starshine already? And then forget how to use doors?
- Panel 2, Page 1
Crystal punches Bozzok in the midsection.
Crystal: YOU DID THIS TO ME
Bozzok: Ooof!
- Panel 3, Page 1
Bozzok is knocked to the ground.
Bozzok: What the hell? Crystal, stand down!
- Panel 4, Page 1
Crystal lunges with her knife at Bozzok on the ground, but Bozzok dodges and stands back up.
Crystal: WHY
Bozzok: That means, “Stop!” you idiot! Crystal, stop!
- Panel 5, Page 1
Bozzok: Grubwiggler, something’s wrong! She’s not following orders!
Grubwiggler: Yes, I see. I suppose that’s one of the dangers of making a golem self-aware.
- Panel 1, Page 2
Crystal cuts Bozzok across the face.
Crystal: WHY DID YOU DO THIS
- Panel 2, Page 2
Bozzok: Don’t you have some sort of override or something?
Grubwiggler: I would—if she were a standard-issue flesh golem.
Grubwiggler: But you asked me to integrate her existing mind and personality, which complicates matters.
- Panel 3, Page 2
Grubwiggler: Emotions are tricky. You can’t really sort out the ones you want from the ones you don’t.
Grubwiggler: That’s why clients generally pay me a great deal of money to provide them with minions that don’t have any.
- Panel 4, Page 2
Grubwiggler: If you were willing to pay me extra to craft a minion that gives up the main benefit of employing a golem, who was I to argue.
Grubwiggler: Also, I was curious to see what would happen. Now, I know.
Bozzok runs and grabs a bastard sword.
- Panel 5, Page 2
Bozzok jumps at Crystal, raising his sword above his head.
Bozzok: Fine, I’ll just take care of—
- Panel 6, Page 2
Bozzok swings his bastard sword, but Crystal parries, catching the sword in one of the notches in her knife, "CLANK!"
- Panel 7, Page 2
Crystal twists her knife, shattering both blades, "KRAKK!!"
- Panel 8, Page 2
Bozzok: Don’t just stand there croaking! Cast a spell or something!
Grubwiggler: …No.
Grubwiggler: No, I don’t think that’s in my best interest at this time.
- Panel 9, Page 2
Grubwiggler: I’m sick of your banal little guild’s petty intrigues interfering with my magical research.
Grubwiggler: All I want is to be left alone, and I suspect your eventual successor will be more willing to accommodate that desire.
- Panel 10, Page 2
Crystal: WHY DID YOU DO THIS
Bozzok: I’ll pay you double! Triple!
Grubwiggler: Farewell, Bozzok. You were never as clever as you thought you were.
- Panel 11, Page 2
Crystal: LOOK AT ME
Crystal slams Bozzok to the floor with a double fist strike, "WHOMP!"
Bozzok: Grubwiggler!
Grubwiggler: Teleport.
Grubwiggler disappears with a "POP!"
- Panel 1, Page 3
Outside the building.
Bandana: There you are! Shoot, you run fast with them boots.
DGS Aide-de-camp: Is the monster inside?
Haley: Yeah. Along with her master, whom she’s in the process of turning against.
- Panel 2, Page 3
Haley: Listen, how much trouble would you be in with your boss if you just stay out here and have a little chat instead of getting too involved?
DGS Aide-de-camp: Less trouble than I would’ve before she stepped on his face.
- Panel 3, Page 3
Inside
Crystal: GRRRRRRR
Bozzok: Crystal, come on, we’re pals, right? Remember all those good times we had together?
- Panel 4, Page 3
Crystal: NOT PALS
Crystal: ALWAYS CALL ME STUPID
- Panel 5, Page 3
Crystal: ALWAYS TELL ME WHAT TO DO
Bozzok: Well someone has to!
- Panel 6, Page 3
Bozzok: What, were you suddenly going to start thinking for yourself, you lazy little brat? Don’t make me laugh.
Bozzok: You’ve never been anything but a rabid dog who needs someone to hold her leash.
- Panel 7, Page 3
Bozzok: I don’t know what lies Starshine told you to get you all twisted around, but stop being such a gullible moron and get back out there and—
- Panel 8, Page 3
Crystal: I HATE YOU
Crystal punches her fist right through Bozzok's midsection, "SPLRTCH!!"
- Panel 9, Page 3
Crystal: I HATE YOU
She lifts him over her head and slams him to the ground, "THUNK!" Bozzok dies.
- Panel 10, Page 3
Crystal: I HATE YOU
Crystal continues to pummel Bozzok's lifeless corpse, "WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!"
Crystal: HATE
- Panel 11, Page 3
Outside, Haley, Bandana, and the DGS Aide-de-camp listen to Crystal vent her hatred on Bozzok's body, "WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!"
Crystal (off-panel): HATE
Crystal (off-panel): HATE
Crystal (off-panel): HATE
Crystal (off-panel): HATE
D&D Context
- To break Bozzok's sword, Crystal had to make a Sunder attack, with Bozzok receiving a +4 bonus to the opposed rolls since he was wielding a two-handed weapon.
Trivia
- With his death at the hands of Crystal, this is the final appearance of Bozzok, guildmaster of the Greysky City Thieves' Guild. Bozzok was a prime antagonist of the Starshine Family. He exiled Haley from Greysky City, and tried to have her killed when she returned. He also turned her uncle Geoff into a spy against her father, causing Ian Starshine to spend three years incarcerated in the gladiator arena of Tyrinaria and later the Empire of Blood. He first appeared in #492, and appeared in eighteen strips overall.
- With Bozzok's death, Hank is likely the new guildmaster of the Greysky City Thieves' Guild.
- This is also the final appearance of Hieronymus Grubwiggler, wizard and maker of flesh golems. He first appeared in #575.