The party is admitted to the Godsmoot, with some funny business by "Durkon".
Cast
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Durkon Thundershield (as vampire) ◀ ▶
- "Durkon" ◀ ▶
- Veldrina ◀ ▶
- Wrecan ◀ ▶
- The Creed of the Stone:
- Exarch Gontor Hammerfell ▶
- Usher with Brown Hair ▶
- Usher with Morningstar ▶
- Usher with Sandy Hair ▶
- Usher with Shaved Hair ▶
- Goliath ▶
Transcript
- Panel 1, Page 1
Gontor: Welcome honored pilgrims! Welcome to the Godsmoot.
Gontor: I am Gontor Hammerfell, exarch of the Creed of the Stone.
- Panel 2, Page 1
Wrecan: The Creed of the Stone is a religious sect that worships Elemental Earth itself.
Wrecan: They’re administering this meeting as a neutral party.
Belkar: Thanks, Sacred Knight of the Expository Aside.
- Panel 3, Page 1
Gontor: Step forward into the Circle of Truth and speak your business.
Veldrina: Me first! Me first!
- Panel 4, Page 1
Veldrina: Hi there I’m Veldrina and I’m the sanctioned representative of the Western Pantheon and I’m running really late and you haven’t started without me please tell me you haven’t.
- Panel 5, Page 1
Gontor: You are not too late. Go forth into the Great Nave, Veldrina, and take up your designated place.
Veldrina: Great! Is there a placard or something telling me where to—?
Gontor: We have ushers.
- Panel 6, Page 1
Gontor: Next!
Roy: Hey there, I’m Roy Greenhilt, serving as bodyguard for Durkon Thundershield, who’s a pretty strong cleric of Thor.
Roy: We’re not actually here for the meeting itself, but we wanted to talk to some of the—
- Panel 7, Page 1
Gontor: I am sorry, young man, but the Godsmoot is a meeting of utmost secrecy and reverence.
Gontor: Only the formal high priest of each of Northern Gods may attend, and Thor’s emissary has already arrived.
- Panel 8, Page 1
Gontor: Since you are already here, you may, if you wish, wait outside until the meeting has concluded.
Roy: Works for me.
"Durkon": But not for me.
- Panel 9, Page 1
"Durkon" (whispering): whisper whisper whisper
- Panel 10, Page 1
Gontor: …
Gontor: You may enter.
- Panel 1, Page 2
Gontor: In fact, I will escort you to the Great Nave personally. Your bodyguards will be shown to the gallery.
"Durkon": Perfect.
Roy: Uh, I’d rather we not be separated, if it’s all the same to everyone.
Belkar: Yeah! We need to stay with our cleric. You know, for the guarding of the body and stuff.
Wrecan: Technically, our official role is just to get the clerics here safely.
- Panel 2, Page 2
Wrecan: But don’t worry. The cathedral is considered neutral ground for the servants of all the gods. He’ll be perfectly safe from the other clerics, even though he’s a wretched undead horror.
- Panel 3, Page 2
Belkar (whispering): It’s not really his safety I’m worried about, though.
Wrecan (whispering): Ah, got it. Smart.
Wrecan (whispering): Well, if he attacks another representative, he’ll be violating the terms of the Godsmoot and they’ll dust him on the spot.
- Panel 4, Page 2
"Durkon": Dinnae worry, lads.
"Durkon": I’ll just wait patiently ‘til thar done wit thar meetin’ an’ then I’ll call ye down an’ we can find one ta resurrect me.
Usher with Sandy Hair: If you’ll follow me?
Roy: Uh, yeah, lead on.
Belkar: This stinks worse than that gnomish cheese Elan brought back from town that I ate without asking.
- Panel 5, Page 2
Belkar: He used his vampire whammy on that dwarf guy, I just know it! He must’ve found some way to hide the swirly eyes!
Roy: I don’t know. I would think that would be the first thing someone guarding the door would ward for.
- Panel 6, Page 2
Roy: But the gallery should overlook the nave—
Roy: —assuming they bothered to follow the naming conventions of gothic architecture with their magical pop-up cathedral—
Roy: —so we should be able to keep an eye on him from afar.
- Panel 7, Page 2
Roy: It’s not a perfect solution, but it—
Roy: Belkar?
- Panel 8, Page 2
Roy: Ah, crap.
Wrecan: Hey, where’d your halfling friend go?
Roy: Off to make a butt-load of skill checks, I’d guess.
- Panel 9, Page 2
Inside the temple, Belkar sneaks behind Gontor and "Durkon", who have turned a corner with their backs to him.
Gontor: I did not know your goddess would be sending a formal delegate to this event.
"Durkon": Yes, I know. It was a bit of a last minute decision, really.
D&D Context
- The magic circle at the entrance appears to be a Zone of Truth spell. It is a 2nd level cleric spell which compels all within its radius to speak only the truth.
- Though the vast majority of Clerics worship deities, it is possible for a Cleric to worship a non-divine force, including powerful beings like demon lords, concepts like magic, nature, or philosophical ideas, or hand puppets. Worship dedicated to one or more of the four classical elements is a concept that goes back to 1st Edition, where the Temple of Elemental Evil was a cult dedicated to worshiping corrupted elementals. The Creed of the Stone is well within this tradition.
Trivia
- Roy's comment about a "butt-load of skill checks" on page 2, panel 8, refers to Belkar's comments in the previous strip about sneaking into the Godsmoot.
- Roy is familiar with the naming conventions of gothic architecture; it was previously revealed (in #808) that he has skill ranks in Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering).
- This is the first appearance of the members of the Creed of the Stone: Gontor Hammerfell, Goliath, and the four ushers.
- The runes around the Circle of Truth are written in Blambot's Dwarven Spirits font. When deciphered, it reads "THIS IS A CIRCLE OF TRUTH WHICH IS LIKE A ZONE OF TRUTH ONLY IT WORKS ON UNDEAD FOR NARRATIVE REASONS. TRUE DAT."