Dismounted, the Vector Legion melee with the Order of the Stick continues on foot. The Order focuses their attacks on the spellcaster, Miron, who is removed from the field.
Cast
- The Order of the Stick
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Haley Starshine ◀ ▶
- Elan ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Durkon Thundershield (as vampire) ◀ ▶
- Vaarsuvius ◀ ▶
- Mr. Scruffy ◀ ▶
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- "Durkon" ◀ ▶
- The Vector Legion
Transcript
- Panel 1
The Order of the Stick and the Vector Legion approach each other.
Tarquin: What the hell is wrong with you?
Laurin: Tarquin, wait—I need to finish healing!
Tarquin: How did you all get to such a high level without anyone teaching your place?
Vaarsuvius: Sir Greenhilt, I believe Xykon is feeling chilly today.
Roy: I understand.
- Panel 2
Tarquin charges at Roy, who ducks, "duck!", and Tarquin misses as he goes by, "WOOSH!"
- Panel 3
Roy carries through after ducking past Tarquin and hits Miron, "SLASH!!"
Miron Shewdanker: Horrid Wilt—
The spell casting is interrupted, "fizzle!"
- Panel 4
Vaarsuvius: Disintegrate.
The Disintegrate ray shoots out at Miron, "ZAP!", but he evades, while Roy parries Tarquin's dagger with his sword.
- Panel 5
Belkar: Oh, I get it! Gang pile on scarf guy!
Belkar tumbles and plants both daggers in Miron's back, "skthrrk! shthrrk!"
Miron: Nnnhh!
- Panel 6
Haley flies down as Belkar tumbles past, her boots trailing green fire as she rapidly fires four arrows into Miron, "thunk! thunk! thunk! thunk!"
Miron: AAAHHH!
- Panel 7
Miron is surrounded by a black glow.
Tarquin: Miron, you coward—don't you dare bail on me! Suck it up and drink a potion!
Miron: It's not me, it's my Contingency spell! All that damage triggered it to—
- Panel 8
Miron disappears with a "pop!"
- Panel 9
Roy charges at Laurin.
Roy: Okay, one down, two to—
- Panel 10
Laurin's mind errupts with crackling yellow streaks of psionic energy radiating out and touching every mind around her. Tarquin appears unaffected while the others appear to be in various amounts of pain.
D&D Context
- In the first panel, Laurin likely uses Body Adjustment, a 3rd level power, to heal herself.
- Horrid Wilting (which was interrupted) is an 8th level spell and causes 1d6/level damage of dehydration damage, to a maximum of 20d6 in an area of effect against selected targets. Miron is at least a level 16+ Sorcerer or a level 15+ Wizard in order to cast this spell, so the damage would have been at minimum 15d6, had it gone off.
- Disintegrate is a 6th level spell and does 2d6/level damage to a maximum of 40d6 (Vaarsuvius is 16th level, so 32d6). It requires a successful attack roll and the target can make a Fortitude save and take only 5d6 damage.
- Contingency is a 6th level spell which is coupled to another spell. When certain defined criteria are met, the second spell is triggered. In this case Miron set the Contingency to trigger a Teleport when he took more than a certain amount of damage or his hit points dropped to a certain level.
- It is unclear which psionic power Laurin is using in the last panel, but it is presumed to be Mental Disruption due to the fact that it does not seem to damage the characters (otherwise Belkar would likely die) and is not confined to a cone, like Psionic Blast. The author has indicated that he did not have a specific power from a rule book in mind when he drew the comic.[1]
Trivia
- Vaarsuvius' line in the first panel that "Xykon is feeling chilly" connects the fact that Xykon is usually the most powerful spellcaster they are facing, and that Miron wears a scarf. Thus the spellcaster is chilly, and is wearing a scarf, identifying for the party who to target first in order to disrupt spell effects. Compare to the exchange between Haley and Vaarsuvius in #716.
- Panel three is believed to be Roy's first real-world use of the Spellsplinter Maneuver.