Blackwing uses his total lack of magical skill to save the animals aboard the Mechane.
Cast
- Mr. Scruffy ◀ ▶
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- Bloodfeast the Extreme-inator (as lizard) ◀ ▶
- Crew of the Mechane
- Mischief of Hel ◀ ▶
Transcript
- Panel 1
Onboard the Mechane. Blackwing is being bitten by several rats while others scurry about.
Blackwing: I just want to say that it's been an honor and a privilege serving as animal buddies with all of you.
- Panel 2
Mr. Scruffy leaps in and kills the rats holding Blackwing down.
Mr. Scruffy: MrrrOWWrrr!
Blackwing: Scruffy! Ha ha, yeah! Make them work for it!
- Panel 3
Blackwing: Thanks pal, I owe you one.
Blackwing: Though I don't think you'll have long to redeem it. There are way more rats than even your claws can handle.
Blackwing: What this encounter needs is a wizard-animal. Or, barring that, a wizard.
Mr. Scruffy: Mrrrrr.
- Panel 4
Blackwing: Wait, I've got it! We don't need a wizard if we have some of a wizard's magic right here!!
Blackwing: Scruffy, clear my way to the desk!
- Panel 5
Mr. Scruffy clears the way to the desk while Bloodfeast is seen to the side, fighting the rats.
- Panel 6
Blackwing: Now keep the rats off my tailfeathers while I check out this scroll V just finished.
Mr. Scruffy: Mrrror!
Mr. Scruffy kills another rat.
- Panel 7
Blackwing: Hmmm. OK. Well... the bad news is that this is a scroll of Locate Creature—
Blackwing: —which is a completely useless spell in the current situation.
- Panel 8
Blackwing: The good news is that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.
- Panel 9
Blackwing: Abra candelabra!
Blackwing: Frippity fruppity frooj!
Blackwing: Pottericus mimicus!
- Panel 10
Blackwing and Mr. Scruffy get off the desk, going as far as they can as the scroll begins emanating magic...
Blackwing: Now take cover!!
- Panel 11
The blast of the malfunctioning spell damages the door with a loud "PFOOM!", much to the surprise of Felix and Kwesi on the other side.
D&D Context
- Locate Creature would normally allow the spell caster to find a particular creature, but since Blackwing lacks all three of the requirements to properly use an arcane scroll, a scroll mishap was bound to happen. It would seem that the result of the mishap was the first of the list of possible effects.
Trivia
- Blackwing's magical invocation uses a mix-up of the classic magical word, Abracadabra, some nonsense along the lines of Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, and a reference to the faux-latin incantations of spells in Harry Potter, the fantasy novels by J.K. Rowling.
- The text on the scroll reads: "strip #970 p5 establishes that magic items explode when activated improperly".