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Beware MASSIVE spoilers for Utterly Dwarfed.
Hel's forces
"Durkon Thundershield", former High Priest of Hel
"Durkon Thundershield"
"You are who you are on your very worst day, Durkon. Anything less is just a comforting lie you tell yourself to numb the pain. And that's who I am. Your worst day, personified."
A spirit sent by the goddess Hel to control Durkon's corpse as a vampire. He has access to all of Durkon's memories, and briefly fools the Order into believing Durkon is just a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire.
- Accent Slipup: Describes Durkon's accent as "ridiculous" and occasionally slips up while trying to maintain it, although none of the Order except Belkar suspect anything is amiss until after the vampire reveals his true motives. During his Villainous Breakdown, Durkon's accent starts to creep back into his speech, foreshadowing his defeat.High Priest of Hel: Why do I feel anything at all?? I don't unnerstand...
- Ambiguous Start of Darkness: He tries to claim
that becoming undead didn't turn Durkon evil, only gave him a chance to take revenge for being unfairly cast out by his own people and enduring Roy's self-importance. It backfires; his sheer malicious spite makes Roy realize that the High Priest isn't Durkon at all. - And I Must Scream: In "It's What's Inside That Counts", it's revealed that Durkon's spirit is trapped helplessly inside his vamped body, and something else entirely is in control.
- Animorphism: As a vampire, he can take some animal alternate forms. He's used bat and wolf forms so far.
- Annoying Arrows: Being a vampire with a Healing Factor, ordinary arrows mean pretty much nothing to him. During the fight against the Empire of Blood's army, he's seen with four crossbow bolts sticking to his head, ignoring them entirely. During the battle against the Order in Firmament, he chastises an underling for wasting an Inflict Moderate Wounds spell on repairing damage from Haley's arrows, on the grounds that his vampiric regeneration would have allowed him to recover the lost HP easily.
- Arch-Enemy: While he doesn't seem to mind the Order much he harbors a particular hatred of Roy, taking great joy in mocking his tragedies and failures and making room in his plans to fight him in person. And since he is using the corpse of Roy's best friend to destroy and defile all that said friend held dear, it is at least personal on Roy's end.
- Arc Villain: Of Utterly Dwarfed, confirmed by Word of the Giant.
- Artifact Title: He's not actually the High Priest of the Church of Hel anymore (having given it up to a random vamp cleric at the Godsmoot), but is still referred to as such because he (a) is not Durkon, (b) hasn't given himself an alternative name, and (c) it's hard to come up with a good name for him, as the Order of the Stick can testify. Even Hel still refers to him as her high priest. Justified in that his giving up his title is purely for Loophole Abuse purposes. He is still the leader of Hel's forces.
- Assimilation Backfire: The reason he didn't just absorb Durkon's memories all at once in the first place. When Durkon tricks him into doing so, it overwhelms him and causes the spirit to turn into another Durkon.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Subverted. Whenever the two converse, particularly when the High Priest needs something from Durkon's memories, perspective shifts to a kind of fleshy realm inside of Durkon's mind, where they observe memories on some kind of movie-like projection. However, Durkon is bound during these encounters and cannot "fight" the High Priest's control no matter how hard he resists, and since they take place "at the speed of thought," he can't try to force any meaningful delays either to make the others notice something's up. In the end, Durkon floods the HPOH with all of his memories, happy and sad, winning by turning the HPOH into Durkon.Durkon: But be careful. B'cause ye know wha ye are if'n ye haf me body an' all me joys an' sorrows?
Durkon and Durkonified HPoH: Yer me. - Blatant Lies: He tries to claim Malack forced him to drink Belkar's blood. Belkar retorts that Malack had to order the vampire not to drain him to death.
- Body Snatcher: He is possessing Durkon's body and ransacking the dwarf's memories to pose as him.
- Boring, but Practical: When his carefully laid trap is foiled by the Order's unexpected help from Hilgya, he immediately switches to dispelling the Order's magic buffs en-masse, dominating most of the Order and having Haley take Vaarsuvius out of the fight. He wins the fight pretty handily with this approach.High Priest of Hel: We'll be better off if I just ignore what I know about them and fight them like any other high-level party. Shut it down, all of their magic!
- Call a Human a "Meatbag": He once calls Roy a "PULSING BLOODSACK!" — but only inside his head, as it is too soon yet to reveal his true nature.
- Came Back Strong: Uses his newfound vampiric Super-Strength to effortlessly defeat two members of the Linear Guild with a simple staff, and to snap Zz'dtri's neck one-handed.
- Came Back Wrong: Not only is he a vampire, but he was purposely kept under a Thrall effect for a number of strips. After being freed, he also shows a far more ruthless personality, though he still considers the rest of the Order his True Companions... or so he claims. As of #946, vampire Durkon has been revealed to be a creation of Hel overpowering the old Durkon, and, as her hand in the world, is intent on bringing ruin to the world and Thor. Wrong, indeed.
- Character Development: Aggressively defied. The High Priest misses some of Durkon's own development being shown via his memories. He also insists that character growth isn't even possible and that people are who they were on their worst day. Ultimately weaponized by Durkon to defeat the High Priest, showing the vampire a memory he can't understand and when it demands an explanation, tricks the High Priest into agreeing to be flooded with all of Durkon's memories at once. Basically forcing the High Priest to go through the same character development that Durkon did.
- Combat Medic: He has a slew of deadly spells while retaining some of Durkon's healing powers. note
- Copied the Morals, Too: A variant of this is what ultimately does the spirit in. As he frequently says, he is a copy of Durkon on Durkon's worst day. Durkon gradually figures out how to exploit the fact that the spirit is a copy: Durkon first releases memories and emotions that are overwhelmingly powerful and complex, (and which are also so alien to the spirit) that it leaves the spirit completely bewildered and in BSOD mode. When the spirit tries to absorb more to truly be able to understand those memories, Durkon makes it absorb all of his memories and emotions, until the spirit is no longer just a copy of Durkon on his worst day, it's a copy of Durkon, period. And after that happens, the spirit acts exactly as Durkon would, which includes sacrificing itself to prevent a horrifically evil plan from coming to pass.
- Counterspell: He counters a Thor's lightning spell cast on him by High Priestess Rubyrock before teleporting away.
- Dark Is Evil: As of #946, vampire Durkon is proven to be really in control, and he plans to doom every dwarf in creation to a gloomy, awful afterlife in his goddess's name. He's only pretending to be Affably Evil.
- Daywalking Vampire: Thanks to Malack's Protection from Daylight spell.
- Deader than Dead: He was effectively absorbed by Durkon when they died, with Durkon in complete control with only some influence from him. While Durkon was resurrected, the vampire spirit isn't coming back.
- Demonic Possession: The dominant personality seems to be a spirit native to Hel's divine realm.
- Did Not See That Coming:
- Along with his main Fatal Flaw screwing him over, he also fails to consider that forces external to the Order might be actively trying to ruin his plans — such as Loki sending Hilgya Firehelm to aid the Order, allowing them to incorporate her abilities into their strategy without him knowing she is present and a threat, completely bewildering him and leaving him unable to come up with a strategy to counter her.
- He is completely blindsided by Durkon's memory of his mother sacrificing a massive amount of wealth to save a group of people she'd never met from going to Hel. Even more so by the fact that lacking Durkon's entire lifetime of growth as a person, he literally can't process it, leading to his downfall.
- The Dragon: He's Hel's strongest and most dangerous vampire and leads the others in enacting her plan.
- Duel Boss: Enforced by the Godsmoot rules. Roy was the only person who could fight "Durkon" without breaking the rules, as a Bodyguard Betrayal was never something that had been considered before.
- Dying as Yourself: Weaponized against him. Durkon tricks him into absorbing all his memories, which effectively turns him INTO Durkon. He then uses these moments of control to deliberately allow Belkar to kill him. Durkon then goes to the afterlife as, well, Durkon; the High Priest of Hel is gone for good.
- Enemy Within: Who is also an Enemy Without, since while he is an evil vampire spirit from Hel, he is Durkon's inner resentment and Heroic BSoD given life, form, and purpose. Even he noted that were he sent to another Dwarf without as much hidden resentment as Durkon, he might have rejected Hel's plan right away.
- Evil All Along: For a while, he fooled the audience along with the characters into thinking he was actually the real Durkon, just vampirified. Then The Reveal came round that he is actually not Durkon at all, but an evil entity controlling his body and pretending to be him for his own purposes.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Whilst looking over Durkon's childhood memories of love, affection, and admiration for his mother, the vampire can only express a desire to "yarf". Somewhat justified: it is comprised of negative material energy.
- While reviewing a childhood memory about Durkon being taught not to help people without permission lest he get in the way, the High Priest gets bored and asks to watch a memory about a fight. In the 2nd memory, Durkon is asked to help people pro-actively when they get eaten by monsters. Durkon makes the rather obvious observation that the selected memory was closely associated with the previous. But the High Priest completely misses the point. This is likely linked to the fact that most undead in-setting have demonstrated an inability to meaningfully develop or change beyond the state they're "set" into at creation. This come back to bite him when he brings up Roy's failures to protect people and makes the latter realize he is not Durkon.
- When he learns that Durkon's mother passed up incredible riches to fund the resurrection of miners she didn't even know, the vampire can only react with incredulous sputtering.High Priest of Hel: What? Why would she..? Why would anyone?
- In fact, this trope is actually how he's defeated: as he is the dark, unpleasant half of Durkon, he cannot understand his feelings that come from Durkon's kindness from having this pain. He needs Durkon's other half of joyful, happy memories in order to understand, but as Durkon explains, what happens if you have his body, his good memories and his bad memories? You're him.
- Evil Costume Switch: After the Godsmoot he has ditched his guise of Durkon, and has switched out Durkon's armor for dark cleric robes.
- Evil Gloating: After the Internal Reveal that he's a villain, he's fond of taunting Roy about his failures and Hel's pending victory. Overlaps with Combat Pragmatism when he surreptitiously uses his Hypnotic Eyes on Roy's allies while gloating.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He finds it hilarious to mislead his victim's friends about the nature of vampirism and gets a kick out of committing horrific actions while "in-character". Somewhat differently than other OotS examples of this trope, who are Laughably Evil, the High Priest only finds this kind of thing funny and does not understand or is repulsed by any positive emotions.
- Evil Is Petty: When Durkon's attempt to resist him not only isn't working but is actually helping him, the High Priest feels the need to rub this into Durkon's face rather than just let it continue.
- Face–Monster Turn: Subverted. The monster is its own beast entirely, with Durkon himself not affected besides being in an And I Must Scream situation. It is simply allowing the Order to believe this is not the case, and later letting Roy believe that it's a straight example to keep him from trying to hurt it too hard.
- Fatal Flaw: His inability to change or to understand others' Character Development. It bites him in the rear when he fails to understand that the Order have grown as people and in their ability to use strategy, meaning he is completely blindsided when they turn out to have a plan beyond "rush in blindly". He ends up becoming Durkon after absorbing all the memories and feelings Durkon has too fast, as he can't change being part of Durkon and unlike Malack didn't spend enough time to be his own identity.
- Faux Affably Evil: Thanks to his access to Durkon's memories, the spirit pretends to be the same old lovable Durkon, except with an unfortunate forced alignment change, when in reality, the spirit is a malign creature with no loyalty to the Order, and plotting to carry out great evil. Best shown during his discussion with the Stone priests at the Godsmoot. He amicably talks shop with one then immediately kills him and drains his blood once he has confirmed he can get away with it scot-free. Then he goes on to do the same with the other unprotected priests of the Creed of Stone at the Moot.
- Fighting from the Inside: When Durkon retakes control of his body, he says that the dark energy could take back control at any moment.
- Flight: Thanks to his bat shape or Super Smoke power.
- For the Evulz: Claims at one point that being evil is sufficient motive for destroying the world; Roy counters with evil characters who don't want to destroy it, and Belkar who's actually helping save it. Indeed, this is averted overall for him, as his real motive is a combination of Durkon's transferred resentment for his old church and to get power for his goddess.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: After being freed from Malack, he affects this behavior around the Order. He claims he's evil, but not more so than Belkar, and is thus still helping the Order save the world. As of #946 we find out it's a façade, and he's no longer Durkon at all.
- Gambit Roulette: Bordering on Indy Ploy. While very intelligent, much of his plan rely on dumb luck: had the Order not purchased an Orb of Teleportation or been as trusting of a vampire; had Veldrina not been late, missed a transport, or been as trusting of a vampire; or had the Creed of the Stone been more mindful of their spells slots or been less trusting of a vampire it would have failed without the Order's input. Justified in that he's following the plan of a super-intelligent goddess who caught an unexpectedly lucky break, so he has to work out some of the details as he goes.
- Glad You Thought of It: How he convinces Roy to take him to the Godsmoot. As the High Priest puts it to Durkon, he's a vampire, making things seem organic when it's really a cruel unnatural facade is his entire thing.
- Healing Hands: Inverted, since all evil clerics channel negative energy. He can still heal, but they won't be on-the-spot conversions whenever he wants.
- Healing Factor: He has a vampire's fast healing powers, so he doesn't need to spend healing spells on himself anymore. Notably, in the strip where Belkar shanks him in the chin, it's regenerated before the end.
- The Heartless: According to the High Priest of Hel, a vampire's spirit may be created by the patron god of undead for the country they originate from, but they are shaped by the negative emotions within the victim's own heart. As a result, the High Priest of Hel has inherited Durkon's negative feelings for the way the dwarves made him The Exile. But that also means that even though he is not technically Durkon, he is in fact influenced by Durkon's core memories. When Durkon shows him the most important memory that made himself the selfless person he is today, it causes the High Priest to be so conflicted and confused that he allows Durkon to give him all his memories at once, causing the High Priest to assimilate into Durkon.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After absorbing all of Durkon's memories and effectively becoming Durkon, he realizes he may only have a brief window before his old nature reasserts itself, so he lets himself be staked before that could happen.
- High Priest: Of Hel, though this also means he's most likely the only priest of Hel. It allows him to represent his goddess at the Godsmoot like any high priest, though. He later passes the title down to one of his newly sired minions, allowing him to leave the Godsmoot to carry out the next part of Hel's plan without voiding her vote.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- His attempt to Dominate Roy backfires when it makes Roy realize he's not the real Durkon.
- His retaliation to Belkar by dominating him into jumping off the ship encourages him to get a Feather Fall item, which saves him from falling down a mountain.
- He absorbs Durkon's memories as much as possible so the assimilation is completed faster and he becomes the only persona (a process that takes a few months according to him). He ends up being the one assimilated after taking too many memories of Durkon's happiness a the same time. Something Durkon gets him to ask for, by triggering a Villainous Breakdown via invoking Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, through showing him the memory of his mother sacrificing a lot of wealth to save a group of people she didn't even know from Hel. This apparently resulted in him being permanently merged with Durkon with the latter in control, granting Durkon his memories.
- Human Shield: He promises Durkon that he won't kill his son before it's time for Hel to destroy the world if he stops plotting to somehow use his memories against him. But Exact Words apply, and he uses Kudzu to prevent Roy from throwing his sword at him by placing Kudzu on his lap. Ironically, Durkon promptly turns the tables on him with Exact Words of his own.
- Hypnotic Eyes: As a vampire, he can dominate a person's mind by staring into their eyes, allowing him to control their actions telepathically.
- It's All About Me: His own motivation besides serving Hel is to take revenge on the dwarves for Durkon's exile, mentioning that unlike his host who put other's needs before his he intend to do what he wants the most: hurting the world that has always hurt Durkon Thundershield.
- Karmic Death: He originally intended to assimilate Durkon completely by stealing his memories gradually. Durkon tricks him into taking all of them at once, turning him into a copy of himself and ultimately resulting in the vampire suffering the fate he'd intended for Durkon.
- Kick the Dog: Drains the blood of several priests of the Creed of the Stone at the Godsmoot, since they are not protected by the rules. He also cruelly brings up Roy's dead brother when fighting him, and pokes at Roy's private insecurities on the subject to break his will. The latter turns out to be a mistake. The former is all part of his master plan.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He kept absorbing Durkon's memories in order to carry out his plan. The above-mentionned Assimilation Backfire and "their" subsequent death means that Durkon ended up with his memories instead.
- Logical Weakness: While vampires usually need three days after death to rise as undead, all of Hel's forces were raised immediately after death thanks to a spell of Malack's. This means that unlike other vampires they don't have a coffin where to retreat and reform when dusted. Furthermore, Word of the Giant confirmed that, while assimilating all of the host's memories take months, the bulk of it is done during these three days where the vampires has nothing to distract them from doing so, and can therefore process them at their own pace. Which is part of why Durkon was able to overwhelm "Durkon".
- Loophole Abuse:
- He will keep his promises, but he is perfectly willing to break the spirit of them via Exact Words.
- The dwarven council has defenses, but they are loaded with loopholes to the extent that the Exarch speculates that their founders wanted the ability to tamper with the vote themselves. The High Priest comes up with abuses that effectively turn the dwarven council's own defenses against them.
- Made of Evil: He is, by his own admission, composed entirely of negative energy.
- Magic Knight: Even worse than Durkon since he has vampire perks.
- Magic Staff: He keeps Malack's, after the latter gets smoked by Nale and Zz'dtri. And unlike Malack, he uses it as a melee weapon too, using its spells to protect him from daylight. And, off-panel, to accelerate the vampiric transformation process to create vampiric minions from the Creed of Stone priests.
- The Medic: Since vampire clerics channel negative energy, it's going to be a bit harder for him to heal his companions without ahead-of-time preparation. Now that he has gained other vampire followers, it has gone from "bug" to "feature".
- Mocking the Mourner: During his first fight with Roy, he taunts him by discussing the accident that killed Roy's brother Eric, and asking how many pieces his body was in afterwards.
- The Mole: For Hel, in the Order of the Stick.
- Monster from Beyond the Veil: OOTS-verse vampires run on this. Those turned into vampires are not just reanimated into an undead bloodsucker, but a freshly created dark spirit takes over the body while the original soul inhabitant is chained in their own psyche and can only watch as the spirit commits atrocities using their body.
- Monster Progenitor: He's not the first vampire, but he's the first dwarven vampire that is a high-level cleric to boot, and instantly gets a position as Hel's High Priest as he's the only priest of Hel. And later on, he makes more dwarven vampires as Hel's gambit unfolds.
- Morphic Resonance:
- Even when transformed into a bat, he keeps his beard.
- Downplayed with his wolf form. He has the same shades as his usual form, but any possible beard is hidden under the preexisting fur of a huge wolf.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His Breaking Speech convinces Roy that he isn't Durkon, which makes him stop holding back. Even fighting Roy at all counts as this since the High Priest acknowledges he just needs to survive to win and could turn into an incorporeal mist and wait out the clock. This also results in Roy willing the Greenhilt Sword into a Weapon of Legacy.
- No Name Given: He doesn't have an actual name, just his title. And later he doesn't even have that anymore, since he's abdicated his position as High Priest of Hel to one of his freshly sired minions. The Order itself notes that it's difficult to come up with a name for him. The fandom generally calls him Durkula, Durkon*, or Greg, the latter two names courtesy of the linked strip. In a sense, as of strip #1130 his name is Durkon Thundershield.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Drops Durkon's accent completely when he reveals himself as the High Priest of Hel at the Godsmoot, which normally wouldn't count as this except for the fact that he's still pretending to be Durkon undergoing a Face–Heel Turn at that point.
- Not Himself: The most reliable way to see that this is not Durkon, even a corrupt Durkon, but rather something else entirely is that he is merely affecting Durkon's natural Funetik Aksent, and sometimes slips in moments of high stress.
- Oh, Crap!:
- His reaction to finding out Thor is onto him.
- And again when Roy breaks free from his vampiric gaze.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The events of the Godsmoot reveal that he has been carefully, systematically, working to have the Gods destroy the world on behalf of the goddess Hel. That they plan to recreate it afterwards does nothing for the people currently alive.
- Our Vampires Are Different: He is a dark spirit, keeping the soul of the real Durkon chained inside his own mind.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Invoked in Belkar's claim that Durkon wouldn't have the control weather spell prepared or use it to calm a storm, since he could simply pray to Thor instead. Given that Durkon has used that same spell to call lightning, his god's specialty, this argument doesn't hold water with Roy. But later, right when he is on the verge of delivering a successful Breaking Speech to Roy, he makes a slip that makes Roy realize he isn't Durkon at all.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: He's the High Priest of Hel... because he's the only priest of Hel. Now he's no longer her high priest, nor is he her only priest anymore.
- Paint It Black: Upon being vampirized by Malack, beyond a vampire's complexion his armor turns quite dark and his beard gray.
- Palette Swap: When talking to Durkon inside their shared mind, he appears as a monochrome version of the dwarf. When he absorbs all of Durkon's memories, his color palette switches to match the original Durkon.
- Portmanteau: "Yarf" = yawn + barf.
- Possession Implies Mastery: Literal interpretation of "possession" aside, this trope is averted, and subverted.
- The High Priest of Hel can't make use of Durkon's powers since they're granted by Thor, who naturally isn't inclined to help him. At the same time, however, he doesn't need to borrow Durkon's powers, as he is a priest in his own right and can call upon Hel instead. It helps that his party members aren't knowledgeable enough about religious or divine magical matters to recognize the parts where the two power sets fail to overlap.
- The subversion comes in that, while he has access to all of Durkon's memories and can call them at will, he needs to "look up" the memory to make use of it, rather than having instant knowledge of everything Durkon has ever experienced. More than once he's slipped up his disguise or failed to realize something crucial because, while Durkon had a memory of the relevant knowledge, the vampire never recognized that he would need the info in the first place until it is too late. Additionally, the fact that he's merely "reading" Durkon's memories as if from a library, rather than experiencing them himself, means that he often misses contextual clues or fails to realize why two memories might be connected in the way Durkon sees them. This is notable when two of his spawns inform him that the Order has a blonde cleric. He assumes they're talking about Minrah, when they are actually referring to Hilgya Firehelm.
- Ultimately, a complete aversion of this trope is his downfall: just because he possesses all the memories needed for Durkon to come to terms with a traumatic and confusing memory of the past, doesn't mean he's mastered it. This leads to him quite literally becoming Durkon.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: He uses his vampiric gaze to make Belkar jump off the Mechane whenever the halfling tries to jump him. It never takes.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Apparently, he doesn't like his job involving being inside Durkon any more than Durkon does. Heck, he doesn't even dislike Durkon personally, although this does not extend into caring in any way about Durkon's well-being either.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes turn red when he reawakens as a vampire.
- Reforged into a Minion: After Malack defeats him, he makes Durkon into a vampire thrall. As it turns out, he's actually Hel's minion.
- Shadow Archetype: He's the part of Durkon that the dwarf has been denying. Every spiteful thought, every stray feeling of hate or despair. Durkon denies that they're alike, but after showing him visions of his past along with a Breaking Speech, he leaves Durkon in a silent Heroic BSoD. Fittingly enough, he's finally defeated not by overpowering him, but by completing him with all the good times Durkon ever had, turning him into the Durkon we know.
- Sizeshifter: Hel's might allows him to turn into a giant dwarf, like Durkon does with Thor's might.
- Smug Snake: He's evil and he takes great pleasure in rubbing his control over Durkon's body in Durkon's face. Lampshaded in strip #983.Durkon: I'd ne'er become tha tool o' yer mistress' reckoning if'n ye were na usin' me as a frickin tool!
HPoH: OK, sure, but my way I get to act much smugger about it. - Stating the Simple Solution: The High Priest Lampshades the fact that he could easily achieve victory against Roy by entering his mist form and waiting for the gods to finish their vote on whether to destroy the world, except that he wants the satisfaction of killing Roy himself. He also has a trump card in case it all goes wrong anyway: an antilife shell.
- Super Smoke: He has the standard vampiric power of turning into mist. He employs it at the Godsmoot to escape Roy when the fight against him starts to turn sour. He points out he could have done that from the start, but enjoys too much torturing Roy to use the easy way out. Also, like Malack he can still talk under this form, which contradicts the D&D rules.
- Token Evil Teammate: Even more so than Belkar, since he's actively trying to bring about the end of the world.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Just after being vampirized — since he's effectively a newborn person in an adult's body — he has to be reminded not to always talk at full volume, blunders into full sunlight and doesn't realize that the "sorry, your Gate is in another pyramid" message is no longer relevant when the Gate is blown up... in the pyramid they just left. He gets better after Malack is killed and he's released from his thrall.
- Touch of Death: Harm, slay living, and the inflict wounds line are all among his favorite combat spells. As a vampire, he can also induce a Level Drain effect with his touch, and uses it to great effect while fighting Roy.
- Turn Undead: As a vampire cleric, it's likely this power of his will now bolster/rebuke/command undead instead. Though one could say that Durkon has literally turned undead.
- Undercover When Alone: Prior to The Reveal, the High Priest of Hel (a few slips aside) maintains Durkon's accent even when absolutely no-one is around to hear it. Presumably, given the comic's lack of a fourth wall, maintaining his cover to the reader is a completely valid in-universe motivation for this.
- Undying Loyalty: Subverted. The newly raised Durkon is his own beast entirely. He is simply pretending to be the old Durkon so that the Order will accept him, fooling them into helping him accomplish his goals for his goddess.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After he is freed by Nale and Zz'dtri, he attacks the former and kills the latter. This is probably because he realizes it's in his best interests to maintain the illusion that he's still Durkon (and, hence, the Linear Guild's enemy) so he can remain with the Order and catch a ride to the Dwarven Lands. That, and as a being of pure negative material energy, he literally can't feel gratitude and realizes the two of them are scrubs who are useless to him anyway.
- Villain Ball: Like Xykon, he prefers toying with his opponents and will kill innocents even if it is counterproductive.
- Villainous Breakdown: Begins having one when he sees Durkon's memory of his mother revealing she gave up a massive amount of wealth to save a group of people she'd never even met. Due to lacking Durkon's life time of character development, he can't process it to the point that he willingly lets Durkon flood him with all his memories and experiences at once, letting Durkon turn the tables on him.
- Walking Spoiler: On two levels. First, the very fact that Durkon is a vampire is a major spoiler for late in Book 5, Blood Runs in the Family. Second is the fact that this being is not Durkon, but is commandeering his corpse, with the original stuck in an And I Must Scream situation.
- Wall Crawl: He can climb sheer walls without visible effort; another standard vampiric power.
- What You Are in the Dark: Claims to be this for Durkon, being shaped from his worse moments. Ultimately it's deconstructed in the moment of his defeat. Sure, he's Durkon on his worst day. But as Durkon himself says, he's had other days since then.Durkon: Ye told me b'fore tha ye are who ye are on th' worst day o' yer life. An' tha's true. Tha's 100% true. But ye know who else ye are? Ye are who ye are on tha next day. Tha day ye wake up an' haf ta decide: are ye gonna make this tha new worst day o' yer life, or na? [...] Ye are who ye are on all o' yer days. All o' 'em. Includin' tha worst an' tha best. Ev'ry single one counts. All tha way ta tha end.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Connected to Evil Cannot Comprehend Good above — he cannot comprehend how self-sacrifice works, giving Durkon the opening he needs, telling him that he needs to know what love, pain, sadness, pride, and so on really are in order to comprehend him, giving him all his memories just so he can process emotions.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The literal personification of this. When he first came into existence, he learned of Durkon's worst day in his life, and he feels it. In many ways, he is what Durkon might have become had he not met Roy. Durkon uses this against him, as he has that memory but not without the lifetime of character growth and experiences to properly process it.High Priest of Hel: ...but for that one moment? You felt exactly what I feel. ...And that's who I am. Your worst day, personified. Hel may have created me, but she shaped me to fit perfectly in the hole in your heart.
- Would Hurt a Child: A given since he is an Omnicidal Maniac. Exploited in a particular instance, too: Upon seeing Hilgya bringing her's and Durkon's baby with her into battle, he uses the baby's life as leverage in making a deal with Durkon, and later forces a Dominated Hilgya to give him the baby to serve as a meat shield.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Has proven to be extremely adaptable. He arranged for a tie at the Godsmoot, forcing the demigods to vote. Hel already suspected how they would vote or convinced them to vote her way, but when Hermod votes against the destruction of the world he is shown to have a backup plan: with the last god to vote being Dvalin, who refuses to vote without polling the heads of the dwarven clans, he had vampire Gontor Hammerfell steal the Teleport Orb from the Mechane, allowing them to teleport to the elders and dominate them. And he relinquishes his position as High Priest to one of his newly-vampirized minions, allowing him to accompany Gontor (as the physical presence of a High Priest is necessary for Hel's vote to remain valid).
"Gontor Hammerfell"
"Gontor Hammerfell"
"Our church is a frontarchy. Prove otherwise."
The vampire spirit now controlling the body of the former Exarch of the Creed of Stone. He serves as a dutiful subordinate to the spirit controlling Durkon.
- Berserk Button:
- Anything not behaving as it "should" enrages the Exarch. This is because the real Exarch had his entire life planned out for him by his family but chose to join the Creed of Stone, which baffles the vampire.
- Case in point, his reaction to a door not opening. In his opinion, if a door won't open, it should just be a wall.Gontor: [madly trying to open a door] Do you want to be a wall, is that it? Do your job, you disobedient ingress!!
- Control Freak: He wants everything to behave like it's "supposed" to.
- Death by Irony: Doesn't like the way the system encourages "last-minute thrashing" when it's clear you're doomed and feels dwarves should just accept their deaths. He dies in a situation he can't win, thrashing around during a Villainous Breakdown about how this "isn't how it's supposed to go." For bonus points, he's a huge Control Freak who lost a rule-fu match to Durkon mere moments prior to this death.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: He's baffled by the real Exarch's decision to throw away the rather cushy job and arranged marriage his family was giving him to go join the Creed of Stone. On its head this seems like Evil Cannot Comprehend Good, but in his defense, dwarven culture places a greater emphasis on honoring one's family than most other races and not worshiping any actual gods is counterintuitive when their existence is fact.
- Did Not See That Coming: He didn't expect Hel's plot to rig the vote being foiled by, of all things, a broken table.
- The Dragon: He definitely considers himself this and seems to be the most loyal and prominent of "Durkon's" minions.
- Dragon Their Feet: After "Durkon" is defeated, he is still around to go through with the plan to enslave the clan heads, and can still succeed if the Order doesn't reach him in time.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: He believes the current system, under which dwarfs are sorted either to Hel or Valhalla based on whether or nor they died honorably, to be unfair and structurally biased. He instead wants to create a system in which everyone is condemned to eternal suffering without any chance of salvation.
- Exact Words: He doesn't consider drinking Little Whiskers' blood as a violation of "Durkon"'s order to not drink the blood of any person on the airship because the tiger's not really a person.
- Extreme Doormat: Because his host went against his family wishes to live his own life he prefers taking orders and doing what he is told.
- Face Death with Dignity: He sees the dwarven honour system as defying this trope. If a dwarf is unarmed and surrounded by enemies, honour mandates that they stand and fight, despite knowing that they have no chance, because otherwise they go to Hel. The Exarch feels that if they're going to Hel anyways, dwarves will be able to accept their death without any of that violent last-moments thrashing. Ironically, when he dies, he dies doing the last-minute thrashing himself.
- Loose Lips: Spells out Hel's plan for rigging the council vote — going to Firmament and mind-controlling all the dwarven elders. "Durkon" wasn't mad at "Gontor" for spilling the beans because it happened right after Roy tempted fate and the timing was just too perfect.
- Near-Villain Victory: His last thrall is in the process of answering "Yes" to destroying the world when the thrall is cut off by the Lord Speaker of the Dwarven Council of Clans, who temporarily suspends the meeting thanks to an obscure rule requiring an unbroken table fashioned from the "corpse of a tree" in order for voting to legally take place — a table which Durkon just significantly damaged by breaking the roof, causing a rock to fall on it and break it in half.
- Rules Lawyer: Is delighted to find a loophole in his master's orders that allows him to drink from one of the creatures on the Mechane (technically, a tiger is not a "person"), and later exploits the Dwarven rules of the council of clans to ensure Hel's desired outcome. He only fails because it turns out Durkon (the real one) is even better at "following the rules" than he is.
- Smug Snake: He mocks the Order's animal companions when he steals the teleport orb, gloating about how he's easily stronger than them. He also boasts that the Order can't disprove the claim that their church is officially run by whoever runs first into the room, knowing that even though this is ridiculous, the rules of the Godsmoot will still protect the new High Priestess of Hel nonetheless and the Order can't do anything about it.
- Super Smoke: One of his many vampire powers is to take a gaseous form. He uses it to get onboard the Mechane.
- Swarm of Rats: He summons one from the bowels of the Mechane to fight the Order's animal companions.
- Too Dumb to Live: Furiously declares that he can kill all but one member of the council because they are no longer protected by the rules of the meeting. It does not occur to him that those same rules are no longer protecting him until a mob drags him into the sunlight to be burned to dust.
- Un Evil Laugh: He tries for a dramatic evil laugh but can only manage an embarrassing "Bwee hee hee hee hee hee!" Hel later gripes about his poor grasp of "basic villain stuff".
- Villainous Breakdown: After his plan is foiled, he flies into a complete blind rage and proclaims he'll kill everyone but one council member... not realizing that now that rules of the meeting aren't in effect, he's completely vulnerable to the army right outside. He then dies screaming in disbelief as he's dragged into the sun and incinerated.
Female Human Vampire
Female Human Vampire
"Listen, after we're done here, me and her are gonna go try some messed up stuff she's been thinking about for like a bajillion years. Want to come with?"
A vampire controlling the body of a Creed of Stone member. Unlike the other vampires, she gets along well with her host spirit, who turns out to have been concealing evil desires and thus has no objection to the vampires' plans.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Thinks that babies are cute, apparently.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: It turns out her host had been "repressing some major evil tendencies her whole life", and has embraced vampiric possession as a means of finally pulling a Face–Heel Turn. This results in the host and vampire spirit developing a genuine Villainous Friendship, much to the High Priest's envy."Durkon": She doesn't even do that thing where she pretends to be horrified while secretly thrilled?
Vampire: Nope, she's just down for whatever. It's great! - Dark Action Girl: She's a capable cleric in her own right, and manages to help "Durkon" turn the tide of the battle against the Order.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Is decapitated by Belkar, after she lets her guard down when the Order is seemingly defeated in Firmament.
- Gorn: Plans to inflict this on someone, enough so to require a poncho.
- Hypnotic Eyes: When the vampires collectively employ Hypnotizing Gaze on the Order, she enthralls Belkar, and is delighted to find his bloodthirstiness causes him to attack his teammates (under the pretense of "protecting" the unconscious Vaarsuvius) with barely any prompting.
- In the Back: While her guard is down, a revitalized Belkar leaps onto her back and jams a wooden stake into her spine. This is quickly followed up with a decapitation.
- Karmic Death: She hypnotized Belkar into attacking his teammates. Later, she's caught off guard and decapitated by him.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: When jumped by Belkar, she attempts to cast Harm on him, but he jams a dagger in her throat before she can finish the word, and is decapitated a panel later.
- Likable Villain: Her host finds her to be this, and in general she's relatively laid back and chill. Doesn't stop her from helping the other vampires try to destroy the world and kill everyone in it, though.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: Uses sonic lance on Vaarsuvius.Vampire: Ha, see? I told you. No one ever protects themselves against sonic damage.
"Durkon": Yes, yes, you don't need to gloat. - No Name Given: Despite being one of the High Priest's chief lieutenants, standing out like a sore thumb in a crowd of mostly dwarvish vampires, and playing a major role when fighting the Order of the Stick in Firmament, she isn't given a name.
- Off with Her Head!: Belkar beheads her. More specifically, he slashes her throat so hard he cuts clean through her neck.
- Perky Female Minion: She's rather chipper and upbeat for a vampire, and frequently celebrates whenever something during battle goes right. At least part of it seems to stem from having a perfectly willing host, which spares her from the internal struggling that irritates the High Priest and other vampires.
Former Creed of Stone Usher
Former Creed of Stone Usher
"Hey, minions, quit standing around and stop all these dwarves! Like, kill them or whatever."
A vampire controlling the body of the usher for the Creed of Stone who showed Roy to the gallery during the Godsmoot, and was the last of the four vampire clerics to teleport out. Becomes "Gontor's" de facto second-in-command after "Durkon" and the female human vampire are killed.
- Buffy Speak: Speaks a little like a Valley Girl and tends to vaguely refer to things as "stuff" or "whatever".
- Killed Offscreen: Gets beaten up by Minrah off-page and flung into a shaft of sunlight as a Brick Joke after the climactic confrontation of the vampire story arc.
- Dark Action Girl: Being a vampiric cleric, she gives both Durkon's cousin-in-law and Minrah a run for their money.
- The Dragon: Essentially what she becomes to Exarch "Gontor" once he becomes The Heavy. He's the oldest surviving vampire, she's next in line, and the only other physical allies on their side are thralls, summoned monsters, and a flighty young vampire cleric who doesn't seem much of a fighter.
- Mook Lieutenant: Stays outside to lead the thralls keeping the heroes distracted while the other two last surviving vampires are in the council chamber.
- No Name Given: Lampshaded."Durkon": Take the other one here with you.
Former Usher: Hey, I have a name, you know.
"Durkon": Do you, though? Do you?
Former Usher: ...no. - The Quiet One: Tends to let the other vampires do the talking. Possibly because her own speech pattern is very unimpressive.
High Priestess of Hel
High Priestess of Hel
"I hereby issue a formal request that [Malack's staff] be turned over at once, in accordance with protocol."
The new High Priestess of Hel after the former High Priest abdicates his position so he can go to Firmament.
- Authority in Name Only: She's only designated High Priestess so the "former" High Priest can leave without invalidating Hel's vote at Godsmoot. The vampire in Durkon's body is still considered the leader of the vampires, and even Hel herself refers to him as "[her] high priest".
- Carry a Big Stick: Wields a mace.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She can be seen in human form in the background of this page.
- My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours: She tries to pull this on Roy when she demands Malack's staff back, but while Roy returns it, he breaks it first.
- The Remnant: Along with the curly-haired vampire cleric raised in Firmament, she is the last of Hel's vampire spawn created by "Durkon" after the remainder were destroyed either at Zenith Peak or during the fighting in Firmament.
- Rules Lawyer: Even though she's taking over the position the previous High Priest of Hel (in Durkon's body) vacated, Roy is technically only the bodyguard of the previous High Priest and not her, so he can't attack her as he attacked the previous priest.
- The Needless: Like most vampires, she only requires blood to stay alive (well, undead). While the other High Priests at Godsmoot are set up life-sustaining measures to wait for Dvalin's vote, she is seen waiting impatiently near the exit.
- Now What?: Last seen sulking at the Godsmoot as all of the other divine representatives deal with mortal needs that she doesn't have.
"Brother Sandstone"
"Brother Sandstone"
"It was very difficult to keep myself from biting your face off..."
A vampire created after the real Brother Sandstone died trying to keep Hel's vampires out of Firmament.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: He pulls a Heroic Sacrifice to prevent the vampires from ransacking Firmament, only to be reanimated as a vampire himself and suffer a Face–Monster Turn.
- The Corrupter: While trying to dominate Minrah, he also tempts her with first escaping to another plane before the world's destruction and then eternal life to fight demons.
- Hypnotic Eyes: He tries to use his vampiric gaze on Minrah, a cleric of Thor assisting the Order.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Is destroyed when Roy stabs him with his greatsword.
- Mook Lieutenant: Seems to be the leader of the group of vampires that attack the Order on their way to the Firmament.
Curly-haired Vampire Cleric
The Curly-Haired Vampire Cleric
"How about we take that whole 'deciding' thing off your plate for you?"
A vampire controlling the body of one of Brother Sandstone's underlings, who serves as a minion to the vampire version of Sandstone, then to "Durkon", then to the Exarch "Gontor". Ends up being the one to control the dominated elders during the clans' vote.
- Dark Action Girl: Downplayed. She participates in several battles against the Order, but has the Running Gag of fleeing each confrontation when it goes downhill.
- Dirty Coward: Has so far survived three different encounters with the Order simply by abandoning her masters and fleeing every time.
- Meaningful Background Event: When she mists out and abandons the Exarch to his fate, it's easy to miss because she's mostly hidden behind a speech bubble at the time.
- No Name Given: Like most of the vampires.
- The Remnant: Along with the High Priestess of Hel who was spared due to being protected by the rules of the Godsmoot, she is the last of Hel's vampire spawn created by "Durkon" after the remainder were destroyed either at Zenith Peak or during the fighting in Firmament.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Turns into mist to escape when the tide of battle turns against "Sandstone's" ambush, spends most of the fight between the Order and "Durkon" dodging out of the way of attacks before finally escaping and leaving "Durkon" to die, and then mists her way out of danger again when she realizes the Exarch's plan has gone sideways. More humorously, she also gets bored and wanders off while the Exarch is arguing with his giant summoned worm.
- Super Smoke: The vampire ability to turn into mist is what allows her to escape destruction so often. The third time, she returns to her solid form as soon as there's no opponents around, because she's still faster on foot than as a cloud.
- The Virus: Durkon and company kept track of which vampires they destroyed and despite her comparable weakness, meaning she's unlikely to be able to turn anyone near as powerful as her superiors were, they instantly make plans to hunt her down and destroy her because one vampire can always make more.
- The Watson: Since she was created only recently, she's not up to speed on the details of Hel's plan, providing someone for "Durkon" and "Gontor" to explain things to for the audience's benefit.
Goliath Vampire
The Goliath Vampire
"Master said to smash you for Hel!"
Race: Vampire (spirit controlling a dead goliath)
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown, probably Fighter or Cleric
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown, probably Fighter or Cleric
Alignment: Lawful Evil
A vampire controlling the body of one of the Creed of Stone's guards, left to guard the door to the Godsmoot by "Durkon" and "Gontor".
- The Brute: Being the biggest (and likely strongest) member of the Creed of Stone means he becomes this when they all get turned into vampires.
- Bullfight Boss: Belkar spent most of their fight dodging him, while provoking him into charging. He would have fallen for it, charging right off the edge of the mountain, but the fight is interrupted first.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Fights with a massive hammer roughly the same size as himself.
- Dumb Muscle: To the point where even Belkar opts to outsmart him instead of fighting fair.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Casually chopped in half by Roy on his way out of the Godsmoot.
- Rasputinian Death: After being presumably drained of all his blood and turned into a vampire, he then survives being chopped in half, and is only finally put down by a blast of flame from V.
The Death Worm
The Death Worm
"So I think I'm doing a pretty good job and I got permission to eat people, so I'm just gonna take a moment and treat myself."
A monster sent by Hel herself at the end of the arc to defend the Council of Clans, so that the Order of the Stick can't interfere with her plan.
- Affably Evil: It is rather polite and conversational for a giant undead worm trying to help bring around the end of the world.
- Breath Weapon: Can spit out a cone of cold against the Order of the Stick.
- Exact Words:
- It feels the need to ask the Exarch whether an invisible V and Haley counted as enemies to deal with.
- Averted when the Exarch ordered it to "guard the door", but the worm quickly figures out the spirit of the order is to not let anyone in, even through another entrance.
- Eyeless Face: Its only facial feature is its fanged maw. The Order's unsure at first whether they've defeated it since it can't get the usual Wingding Eyes of death.
- Hidden Depths: The Worm offers philosophical insight to Character Development when conversing with Belkar.
- Laughably Evil: Its absurdly affable and polite demeanor despite helping cause the end of the world makes virtually every scene with it utterly hilarious.
- Punch-Clock Villain: It has to do as his summoner demands, and doesn't get angry till it suffers Tongue Trauma. Before then, it converses casually with Belkar about Character Development. When it suffers enough damage, it mildly says it's time to take a rest and returns to the Negative Plane.
- See the Invisible: Despite its Eyeless Face, it can see an invisible Haley and V, making it a Spanner in the Works for the Order. Note that it explicitly says they are invisible, meaning it did not just sniff them out or hear them.
- Shout-Out: Its Eyeless Face is designed so that it bears a strong resemblance to the Xenomorph of Alien fame.
- Swallowed Whole: The final fate of Kandro when the Death Worm gets serious.
- Tongue Trauma: Courtesy of Kandro, who cuts the worm's blue tongue to free a fellow dwarf. It leaves the worm with a lasting speech impediment.
- The Undead: As befitting a servant of Hel, the Death Worm (a Nightcrawler) is not part of the living beings but powered by negative energy. It doesn't die, so much as returns to the Negative Plane to rest.
Thor's forces
Minrah Shaleshoe
Minrah Elle Shaleshoe
"I will join you in your quest! Smashing the forces of Evil is why I joined the temple in the first place."
One of the acolytes guarding the Temple of Thor in Firmament. She joins the Order of the Stick in the fight against the vampires invading her town.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: At the very end of Utterly Dwarfed, she joins the team to help stop Xykon for the seventh and final book. She even refers to herself as the "New Girl" of the Order.
- Action Girl: She's nowhere near the Order's level (both mentally and by literal Character Levels), but she can still swing a mean hammer, and is ultimately the one to defeat the former Creed of Stone usher, who's a fairly powerful vampire cleric.
- All There in the Manual: In the commentary for Utterly Dwarfed, the Giant clarified that Minrah counts as Durkon's cohort rather than a full-fledged member of the party.
- Ascended Extra: Goes from a Guest-Star Party Member to accompanying the Order for their Final Battle against Xykon, making her one of the main characters of the final story arc of the comic.
- Back from the Dead: A dominated Hilgya kills her with flame strike during the battle against Hel's forces. Durkon later resurrects her off-panel in time for the raid on the dwarven council chambers.
- Berserk Button: Spurious individuals or as she puts it, "fake people" or "phonies", which makes sense given her philosophy of Be Yourself she gave to Belkar. It also explains her sudden outburst toward Redcloak as she smashes him for rejecting the offer and giving him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech over his failings as the shepherd for his people because of his own pride, summing him up as a "big phony".Minrah: Sorry, sorry. I know we're here to persuade him, not smash him, but fake people just make me so mad!
- Be Yourself: Essentially her advice to Belkar, mixed with Carpe Diem.Minrah: You're not a type! You're a person, a person who does stuff! If you want to be different, do different stuff!
- Big Damn Heroes: Descends divinely enchanted hammer-first — which is further empowered by Thor's might — on Redcloak, who is unnecessarily prolonging an implosion spell on Durkon after their deliberations go south.
- Buffy Speak: Isn't the most eloquent of people, as shown below with her describing her oath to avenge someone's death as "the avenging thing for you".
- Changed My Mind, Kid: At first she's happy that she finally gets to go to Valhalla, but after finding out that all of creation is at stake — and has actually been wiped out multiple times — she runs back and orders Durkon to raise her after his own resurrection so she can help.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Is very much of the mind that those who have the ability to act for the greater good have the responsibility to do so, as evidenced by her joining up with the Order of the Stick on three separate occasions — one of which had her already in Valhalla when she decided to turn back since there was still more she could do to help.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Her telepathic speech bubbles are yellow.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The reason she can't do much but play healer for the Order during the vampires-in-the-Firmament crisis is that she didn't prepare any particularly impressive spells for what was supposed to be a quiet night of watching the temple.
- Dark Secret: She has a personal secret that worries her so much she doesn't want anyone to hear about it even after she's dead and in the afterlife. Whatever it is, Thor tells her not to worry about it.
- Determinator: She doesn't let anything Roy say keep her from joining the Order of the Stick, or keep her incredibly low levels from helping Durkon kick Redcloak's ass.
- Don't Explain the Joke: She has a bad habit of picking apart the implications of whatever Badass Boast she's just made, along with being needlessly detailed and pedantic about the most minor of things. Elan takes it as a sign she'll fit right in with the Order.Minrah: Oh, Brother Sandstone! Save me a seat in Valhalla, for I will avenge you! Before I need the seat, obviously! The seat is for later! I guess my point is, I'll eventually need the seat after some other unrelated battle, and I'd appreciate it if it was still available when I got there, in return for me doing the avenging thing for you now!
- Dramatic Irony: She gives a spiel to Belkar about how making personal changes and meeting new people results in the new people only knowing the changed you. While she's saying this in the context of herself toward the rest of the Order, it just as easily applies to Belkar in regards to her.
- Dynamic Entry:
- She reenters the story by punching Durkon in the face after they've arrived in the Celestial Planes.
- Later, when Redcloak blindsides Durkon with an implosion spell and drags it out to an excruciatingly painful end, Minrah descends in the nick of time using a combination of wind walk and Thor's might in order to crush the goblin under Mjölnir Junior.
- Fantasy Character Classes: Finally breaks the trend of each party member being a different class. She's a multiclass character, being both a fighter like Roy, and a cleric like Durkon.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: When she sees Durkon in Valhalla she says that he doesn't need her hammer to kill him since "I carry my fists in my heart!"
- Guest-Star Party Member: She accompanies the Order for their battles against Hel's vampire minions throughout the back half of Book 6. As of strip #1180, she declares her intention to join the Order in the Final Battle against Xykon, making her the Order's 11th-Hour Ranger.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's blonde and (initial brusqueness with the Order aside) a kind-hearted warrior firmly aligned with the forces of good.
- Hypocrite: She gets in Hilgya's face for failing her save to avoid being dominated, but she nearly did before Roy intervened. Admittedly, she is lower level, is a fighter/cleric multiclass, and didn't have a baby to provide a circumstance bonus, and she still managed it in the big fight.
- I Thought Everyone Could Do That: Like how Celia didn't realize humans couldn't all cast lightning, Minrah wasn't aware that humans and halflings lacked Darkvision.
- Jumped at the Call: Twice. As Durkon notes, the first time, she helped out despite being attacked without warning in the middle of the night. The second time, she literally turns down Valhalla to help the Order defeat Xykon.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": She's a brave defender of Thor's temple in Firmament. Durkon himself compliments her on her initiative to battle the forces of evil. But her attitude toward Thor himself? Total Fangirl.Minrah: [as she rides Thor's back when he flies] I have literally had this dream at least a dozen times!
- Literal-Minded: A variation — she seems to understand idioms pretty well, but she assumes everyone else needs to be told when something is not intended literally.Minrah: Did everyone I know tell me, "Oh, I don't really think you're the type to be a cleric?" Yes! Did I listen to them? No! ...I mean, I listened, or else I wouldn't have known they said it. But I didn't let it stop me!
- Logical Latecomer: Even though she voluntarily joins the Order of the Stick, she is often puzzled by the party's numerous idiosyncrasies, not having had six books to get used to it like the readers have.Minrah: I'm so confused.
- Loophole Abuse: She made a promise to take it to her grave that her cousin was in love with her coworker Tinna. That doesn't stop her from telling it to a soon-to-be-resurrected Durkon so that he transmits the message, though. After all, now that she's dead she technically kept her promise, and she deems life is too short.
- Magic Knight: As a Cleric/Fighter, Minrah is adept at both spellcasting and martial combat.Minrah: Don't worry about me, I was a guard before I was a cleric. I'm not the best caster but I have a hammer and I know how to swing it.
- Master of None: Falls into this rather than Jack of All Stats due to her relatively low level compared to the Order.
- Mauve Shirt: Has a little characterization and a background as a temple guard before she decides to accompany the Order... and subsequently dies during a battle with Hel's forces. Then gets to interact with the real Durkon in the afterlife. And then she rejects Valhalla and tells Durkon to resurrect her when he gets back because she can't just sit back and party in the afterlife when all of existence is in danger. And THEN she joins the Order on their quest to stop Xykon.
- My Beloved Smother: When told her daughter is going with the Order, Minrah's mother "freaks out" by passively-aggressively making her five sandwiches and sighing as she looks at her daughter's baby pictures. Minrah says she knew better than to tell her she actually was killed or things would be worse.
- Nice Girl: Minrah can be a bit sarcastic at times and seems to be overly pedantic in general, but she's overall a kind and considerate person who tries to think the best of people and is even willing to sacrifice her richly deserved place in Valhalla in order to help save the whole of reality from the Snarl.
- Odd Friendship: Both Utterly Dwarfed and the beginning of the final story arc show her forming one with Belkar, of all people. Not only does he talk to her about his Survivor Guilt over Durkon's Heroic Sacrifice and she in turn helps inspire him to be the best possible version of himself that he can be, but they bond over their shared annoyance in having to literally look up to the rest of the party thanks to their short statures. What certainly helps is that she's being exposed more to post-fake Character Development Belkar here than how he was beforehand, and so doesn't quite know of the utter depths that he can sink to.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: While Minrah is supposed to be significantly lower-level than the seasoned adventurers that make up the Order, according to calculations on the OOTS Wikinote she should be at least level 10, which is actually quite high. Even if the calculations are wrongnote , she's still quite an effective adventurer in her own right.
- Phrase Catcher: "You obviously didn't get a lot of time to talk to Elan" and variants.
- Plug 'n' Play Friends: Subverted, with her working well with the group in the Dwarven Lands, once they leave Roy struggles in adding her to the team due to having a lot going on. Belkar of all people makes an effort to have her integrated by asking about her spells etc.
- Refusing Paradise: A mild case. Minrah tells Durkon to try and raise her, stating that she'd rather risk being claimed by Hel than sit around Valhalla and not helping save the universe. However, she's still perfectly okay with hanging in Valhalla to knock back a few while waiting to be resurrected.
- Secret-Keeper: Aside from the Dark Secret above, Minrah promised to keep a secret that her cousin had the hots for her colleague, and promised to take it to her grave. She tells Durkon to let them know; she's no longer obligated to keep it since she did take it to her grave.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: She tears into Redcloak's self-serving arguments and his sophist defenses for justifying the potential genocide of all goblins. She admits in the next strip it was because "phonies" make her so mad:Minrah: You — you're just putting a bunch of imaginary goblins in the future ahead of the ones alive right now! Aren't you their leader?? They follow you! You're just a... a big phony, talking about stuff like equality and justice to make yourself feel better about shoving them off a cliff! I don't think you care about them — you just feel bad about not caring!!
- The Watson: Minrah being killed in the fight against the vampires and sent to the afterlife at the same time as Durkon gives the latter someone to talk to at length about their prospects. And also, allows her to ask Thor for answers (to the audience's benefit), including some that the god would rather not have given to Durkon.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Gives a speech of this type to Belkar near the beginning of the final story arc, telling him that he's capable of legitimate changing himself for the better and not just simply faking it.Belkar: Eh, I'm not really the "do your best" type, as I'm sure the others would tell you.
Minrah: Don't say that! That's loser talk! You're not a type! You're a person, a person who does stuff! If you want to be different, do different stuff!
High Priest Hurak
High Priest Hurak
"But I know tha lad. He's so Lawful, if I command him ta stay away until I send fer him, he will — even if it means spendin' tha rest 'o his life exiled!"
The former High Priest of Thor. After learning that Durkon was destined to bring doom to the dwarves the next time he "returns home", he decided to send Durkon into permanent exile, reasoning that if Durkon left forever and never returned, the prophecy couldn't come true.
- The Needs of the Many: Thinks he is upholding this when he sends Durkon away, reasoning that it's better for one dwarf to wander the human world forever than for all the other dwarves to suffer doom.
- Poor Communication Kills: The fact that he didn't tell Durkon why he had to leave so suddenly and never come back ultimately created a deeply hidden resentment which would become the basis of Durkon's vampire self. Especially since, as Roy points out, Durkon would have happily exiled himself if he knew it would keep his people safe.
- Posthumous Character: Hurak died before the story began.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: He causes this. Worried that Durkon would bring doom to the dwarves the next time he returned home, he exiled Durkon... which eventually results in Durkon being turned into a vampire and returning home to bring doom to the dwarves.
High Priestess Rubyrock
High Priestess Rubyrock
"I would not venture a guess, but it is truth. And truth always has a use."
The current High Priestess of Thor, who obtained the position after Hurak passed away.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: She has a small zigzag scar on the side of her face. The scar is shaped like a lightning bolt, which is fitting for Thor's high priestess.
- No Name Given: Lampshaded. She goes the entire Godsmoot arc without being identified beyond "High Priestess of Thor" which leads to this exchange.Roy: I met your high priestess at the Godsmoot.
Minrah: High Priestess Rubyrock?
Roy: Sure. Probably. - Reasonable Authority Figure:
- She revokes Durkon's exile and allows him to return home, although the Monster in the Darkness unfortunately intercepts the message and prevents Durkon from getting it.
- After seeing Roy's heroic actions at the Godsmoot, she decides she can trust him, and so gives him a runestone that will allow him to easily enter Firmament so he can more effectively oppose Hel's forces.
- She also repeats her order to Roy that Durkon's exile is terminated. When Roy asks why it matters since Durkon is both dead and violating it (involuntarily as a vampire's puppet), she admits that she doesn't know what could will come of the news, but states that it's the truth and that truth has power. Roy tries to exploit it during the battle with the vampire but is knocked unconscious before he can reveal it to the trapped Durkon. It ultimately does matter as the news of the exile being ended and the Brewmaster's confession of the reason for it helps Durkon overcome a lot of mental issues he had.
- Shock and Awe: As a priestess of the god of Thunder, she wields Thor's lightning. She tries to fry "Durkon" with it, but the vampire counterspells it.
Tinna
Tinna
One of the acolytes guarding the Temple of Thor in Firmament.
- Astrologer: She's an astronomer at the temple of Thor. She offers to do Roy's and Elan's horoscopes to learn more about their future.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Minrah's cousin apparently has a thing for her, but is unable to act on it.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder:Tinna: I'm an astronomer, not an adventurer.
- Spear Carrier: Appears just in one small scene defending Thor's temple in Firmament. She's later part of the assault on the dwarven council, but is cut off from the rest of the group by the stone ramp created by Durkon crumbling.
Rogo
Rogo
One of the acolytes guarding the Temple of Thor in Firmament.
- Spear Carrier: Appears just in one small scene defending Thor's temple in Firmament.
Firuk Blackore
Firuk Blackore
"'Tis a risky business to screw wit prophecy."
The brewmaster of the main temple of Thor back when Hurak was in charge.
- Dramatic Drop: Upon hearing that the the lead vampire besieging the Firmament Temple of Thor is/was Durkon Thundershield, he drops a tray of beers in shock. For a dwarven brewmaster to waste perfectly good beer, that certainly means the situation is serious.
- It's All My Fault: Says this upon learning of Durkon's fate.
- Magic Potion: Has a number of high-level potions and elixirs in the temple brewery and his own personal stash that he offers to the Order. It comes with being the temple brewmaster.
- Mr. Exposition: Serves as one to the Order, explaining the circumstances of Durkon's exile.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At first, he wasn't too broken up about Durkon's exile. He never liked it, but he understood it. After a few decades thinking on it and discovering the results of the exile, Firuk breaks down into a frightened, raging, and crying mess over not telling anyone the truth about why the exile occurred.
- Talking to the Dead: Rather angrily screams at Hurak, who is long dead, for creating a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.
- The Watson: Had the prophecy explained to him by Hurak, allowing the readers to learn about it as well.
Brother Sandstone
Brother Sandstone
Another member of Thor's clergy.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Becomes a vampire after Hel's forces kill him.
- Shock and Awe: He tries using Thor's lightning against the vampires, but all it results with is some static on the line to Hel.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Dies trying to keep Hel's forces out of one of Thor's temples.
Thundershield Family and Friends
For Durkon Thundershield, see The Order of the Stick.
Sigdi Thundershield
Sigdi Thundershield
"Let's go back unnergound, aye? Tha sky's pretty, sure, but ain't no place fer us dwarves."
Durkon's mother. Briefly mentioned by her son early in the comic, she appears in flashbacks much later. She is widowed, her husband Tenrin having died before Durkon's birth in an accident while fighting a troll.
- Action Mom: Upon the return of her son, being one-armed doesn't stop her from jumping into the battle against the dwarven vampires.
- An Arm and a Leg: She lost her right arm in the same accident that cost her husband his life. She refused to let go of Tenrin and had to be forcefully pulled away. Afterward, she couldn't afford to have her arm restored, and feels that she has "enough hands" with her extended family. Eventually, Durkon offers to regenerate her arm for free, but Sigdi refuses anyways.
- Back in the Saddle: So she says when joining her son's party in battle.Sigdi Aye, ha ha! It's good ta swing an axe again!
- Badass Family: She, her husband, and her son are all very brave and badass dwarves, but she also has an adopted extended family of the dwarves she resurrected, and they are all to a one as equally badass.
- Berserk Button: Durkon saying they've been living on handouts causes her to furiously snap at him that she earned every cent of her pension.
- Big Good: Clearly serves as one to her extended family during the assault to stop the Clan of Council Elders.
- Call-Back: An In-Universe example: when Durkon was very young, she saved a co-worker from falling off a cliff, holding his hand til they're able to be pulled up. We later learn that it's a repeat of the same situation with her husband before Durkon was born but she wasn't able to pull him up.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed. Sigdi has lived her whole life helping others with no expectation of a reward (she even protests when a priest of Thor tells a group of dwarves she just gave up a fortune to have them raised from the dead). The flipside of that is that she has an almost pathological aversion to being helped by anyone and will treat even gifts from friends as debts to be repaid. Several of her friends and family have moments where they express frustration with Sigdi's reluctance to accept a helping hand for no reason.
- The Clan: The five dwarves she resurrected became her unofficial family, and their extended friends and families became hers too. When she calls for backup, a small army of dwarves, some of them high-leveled and powerful, immediately come to her aid.
- Doting Grandparent: It doesn't take her long to start cooing over her new grandson Kudzu even though she's only known about his existence for a minute or two.
- Establishing Character Moment: In her first comic, she saves another dwarf single-handedly, then brushes it off as nothing and makes Durkon his favorite dinner.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Administers one to Durkon when she wants his undivided attention. "Durkon Allotrope Thundershield!"
- Game-Breaking Injury: Was forced to retire from the military after losing an arm. Durkon mentions he pretty much grew up on her veteran pension (and support from his extended family, which was a struggle for Sigdi to accept) because she never got or looked for a job afterward.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: She calls for her extended family to fight Hel's minions.
- Good Is Not Soft: When asked what would have happened if the dwarves she raised were evil, she mentioned that she was a warrior before and, as she had told Durkon growing up, she brought them into this world and she could send them right back out. She also nonchalantly threatens to end Hilgya if she harms Durkon again.
- Good Parents: All of Durkon's memories of her are happy ones. She teaches him how to be a proper adult dwarf, and when he makes mistakes, she treats them as learning experiences instead of failures. As a result, it's easy to see how he grew up to be such a heroic character. However, while she certainly had good intentions, two of those lessons led to disaster on the surface, after Durkon was expelled.
- First, her lesson on not helping people if they haven't asked for it (in the context of Durkon as a child trying to help her carry plates and knocking them over instead) also made him not help Roy after he'd been eaten by a giant frog, because he couldn't hear him.
- Second, more seriously, her lesson on how Durkon should bury his painful emotions and never talk about them with anyone (in the context of her grief over Tenrin's passing) also made him stoically disregard Hilgya's pleas that she loved him after he rejected her. This led her to trick her brother into losing all his money, sue for divorce, and harbour a grudge against Durkon.
- Handicapped Badass: She may have only one arm, but she's the first to react when a fellow dwarf is in danger and can still fight as actively as the rest of her family and the party when required.
- Honor Before Reason: She has a strong sense of obligation and will always pay back what she owes. Even when her "debt" is someone doing something nice for her. She spends the celebration of Durkon's ordainment worried that she can't repay Shirra for the new dress she was given for the ceremony. Shirra has to stress that the dress was a gift and that her honor would be deeply insulted if Sigdi tried to pay her for it. Kandro also comments her companions hate when she tries to pay them back, because as far as they are concerned the Raise Dead spells she paid for in the past mean she doesn't owe them anything.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Is willing to look past Hilgya having killed Durkon once, but makes it clear that any further incidents will be answered with lethal force. High-level cleric or not, Hilgya is reduced to frightened stuttering.
- Keeping the Handicap:
- She lost her arm years ago. When she joins the party in battle, wielding an axe, she's questioned why she didn't let Durkon regenerate her arm with a spell before the fight. She explains that Durkon needs all the high-level spell slots he can get for the fight, then touches upon this trope:Sigdi: Plus, I been like this fer fifty years an' change. I'm na sure I'd know what ta do wit two hands right away!
Hilgya: I don't know, strap a shield to it?
Sigdi: It's OK, lass. It took Durkon a while ta unnerstand, too. - She has a second, more sentimental reason, too: Sigdi lost her arm during the cave-in that killed her husband, and her last experience with the arm was holding his hand, trying to pull him to safety. She never let go, and comforts herself with the knowledge that, in a way, her severed arm is still there, holding his hand.
- She lost her arm years ago. When she joins the party in battle, wielding an axe, she's questioned
- Lethal Chef: Claims to have been one before Durkon was born. If Durkon's comment about her crabapple cobbler after tanking a Poison spell and his insistence on putting local food safety ordinances on the icebox instead of his art when he was a child are to be believed, she was one for some time afterwards, or at least had some major blind spots.
- Mama Bear: When she finds out that Hilgya killed Durkon with a flame strike earlier, she casually mentions that if Hilgya puts so much as a scratch on her son again, she can expect no mercy... but she'll be sure to look after little Kudzu.Sigdi: Sometimes, ye haf ta leave yer cub behind in the den so ye can brutally eliminate everythin' tha indirectly threatens 'im. It's just part o' bein' a mother.
- Martyr Without a Cause: It becomes increasingly clear as the story goes on that she thinks she can't regenerate her arm without insulting her husband's memory or somehow hurting her son. Even when Durkon points out that he has more than enough spell slots to burn a regeneration on her, and her husband certainly isn't going to be offended in Valhalla ("I promise ye 'e ain't been sittin' holdin' yer disembodied arm fer fifty-odd years while 'e drinks beer!"), she keeps stalling. She also reared Durkon on her own with little income because she avoided asking for help from people as she was worried she couldn't pay them back.Sigdi: Happiness is wha we want fer our childr'n. Na fer us.
Durkon: Ma, no. Ye dinnae haf ta give up one fer tha other. It's one thing ta sacrifice if'n it helps people, but ye sufferin' now dinnae help anyone at all. - Never Mess with Granny: Casually threatens Hilgya should she ever hurt Durkon again, all the while smiling.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She drops her accent when Durkon accused her of letting go of her husband as she resurrected five strangers instead of him.Sigdi: I NEVER LET GO!
- Open-Minded Parent: In strip #983, Sigdi states that she wants Durkon to get married and settle down with a nice "gal or fella", implying she does not mind the gender of Durkon's hypothetical spouse.
- The Paragon: Throughout her life, she's been shown to be a kind, honorable and selfless individual. Even through she was retired and crippled with one arm, she managed to save another dwarf from falling to his death. And when five miners she doesn't even know turn up dead after a tragic mining accident with no family to claim their bodies, she volunteers a large treasure given to her by her squad in order to raise them from the dead and spare them the Fate Worse than Death of serving in Hel's domain, becoming True Companions in the process.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Acts all sweet and grandmotherly towards Hilgya and Kudzu, only to throw in a well-placed death threat in the middle, all without sounding or looking any bit less kindly... then pretend like she said nothing and ask what Kudzu eats.Roy: Wow, I haven't seen a feint like that since Fencing Class.
- Pregnant Badass: She was pregnant with Durkon during the mission where her husband died, though she didn't know it until she was recovering afterward.
- Retired Badass: She mentions a pension at one point, and formerly served as a sergeant in the dwarven army. During that time she was said to have slain many monsters. She still charges into battle against the forces of Hel.
- Someone to Remember Him By: She discovered her pregnancy after her husband's death.
- Spanner in the Works: The downfall of Hel's plan to destroy the world and condemn all dwarves to eternal suffering in her domain can all be traced back to her deciding to sacrifice riches to save five complete strangers from a dishonorable death.
- Supreme Chef: Her food is compared to a gourmet chef's by Hoskin and Logann asks for "food-based expressions" of her thanks.
- Take My Hand!:
- She prevents a fellow dwarf from falling to his death by holding him with her sole hand long enough for the guards to help her. She also lost her right arm when she refused to release her husband's hand even as a cave fell in on him.
- On the receiving end in #1166 when she's clinging from a broken stone bridge with her good hand.
- Think Nothing of It: After the rescue — nothing anyone else wouldn't've done.
- Through His Stomach: A grilled cheese sandwich, just as Durkon asked for. She entertains her friends this way, with dinner parties every other Wednesday. Though she claims that before she had Durkon, she was a Lethal Chef.
- True Companions: Five friends of hers, whom she has as guests every party. They became friends because she saved their lives, using a large sum of gemstones from a chest her squad gave her to instead raise them from the dead after they had died from a poisoned gas leak. They come armed and running when she needs their help in battle, and bring the rest of the family.
- Unequal Pairing: With her husband, who was a soldier in her squad under her command when she was a sergeant.
Tenrin Thundershield
Tenrin Thundershield
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown (presumably Fighter)
Alignment: Unknown (presumably Lawful Good)
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown (presumably Fighter)
Alignment: Unknown (presumably Lawful Good)
Durkon's father and the late husband of Sigdi Thundershield, he was a dwarven soldier part of his wife's squad in which he served as a sapper. He was killed in a confrontation with a troll with dragon blood after causing a cave-in to trap it there.
- Badass Bookworm: He was described by one of Sigdi's friends as a geological genius and a "true savant" on the subject. It came in handy when causing a tunnel to collapse on a troll with dragon blood.
- Burying a Substitute: As his body was crushed beneath a massive cave in, only a bit of beard that Sigdi had in her keeping was buried at his funeral.
- Demolitions Expert: He was his squad's sapper.
- Disappeared Dad: To Durkon due to being dead.
- Killed Off for Real: There was no resurrection spell used on him because his noble sacrifice means he is in Valhalla and the only time Sigdi had the diamonds to perform it she brought back five dwarves that accidentally died a dishonorable death.
- Go Out with a Smile: Tenrin was smiling in his last moment, since he was holding his beloved wife's hand at the time. He was also glad to have saved her, the rest of the party and the nearby village from the troll, thus earning his place in Valhalla.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Caused a cave-in to save the rest of his squad from a troll with dragon blood.
- Not Enough to Bury: Since the Dwarves Never Found the Body after the cave-in, all that was buried was a hair lock of his beard.
- Posthumous Character: He was dead before Durkon was born.
- Unequal Pairing: With his wife, who was his squad leader.
Thirden
Thirden
"So, instead, I am going to tell you a completely unrelated story about a frightening monster that threatened our people — and you, in turn, are going to learn all about the wonderful world of subtext."
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Bard
Alignment: Unknown (not Lawful)
Gender: Male
Class: Bard
Alignment: Unknown (not Lawful)
One of Sigdi's frequent dinner companions, Thirden was very close to Durkon and helped him become a priest by teaching him divine lore and theology.
- Back from the Dead: Died in a mining accident years ago. Sigdi spending her newfound fortune raising him and the other four is why he and the others became friends with her.
- Commonality Connection: He and Elan bond pretty quickly due to their love of the dramatic and puns, with Thirden considering Elan to be a certified bardic genius.
- Cool Uncle: Though not Durkon's actual uncle, he functions as this. Durkon calls him "Uncle", and Thirden teaches Durkon family lore and also gets him snacks his mother wouldn't approve of.
- Dispel Magic: He and his apprentice master the "song of freedom" bardic ability. They use it to free the dwarven council from the vampires' domination, and later restore a turned-to-stone Durkon to his normal state.
- Embarrassing Nickname: He is also called "Squeaky".
- Honorary Uncle: To Durkon because of his long friendship with his mother.
- Mr. Exposition: Told Durkon how his father died and his mother lost her arm.
- My Greatest Second Chance: His resurrection allowed him to go back and finish bard school after realizing he almost died a miner.
- Pungeon Master: He and his apprentice do a lot of this with their bard songs, to the frustration of the other dwarves.
- Self-Deprecation: He makes jokes about his own bardic skills, and is also amused that his apprentice takes jokes at his expense seriously, since he never does.
- The Talk: Discussed. Durkon needs to ask him about a tough question, and Thirden immediately assumes it's about sex. But then...Durkon: How did Ma get hurt? An' how did me pa die?
Thirden: .... So, how about that sex, huh?
Hoskin
Hoskin
"Another excellent meal, Sigdi. Are ye sure ye werenae tha army's secret gourmet chef?"
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
Another of Sigdi's dinner companions. Hoskin is described as helping Durkon stay on the straight and narrow.
- Back from the Dead: Died in a mining accident years ago. Sigdi spending her newfound fortune raising him and the other four is why he and the others became friends with her.
- The Cavalry: Leads Sigdi's reinforcement with Kandro.
- Drugs Are Bad: Warns Durkon away from using pipeweed.
- Honorary Uncle: To Durkon, though they're not related. In fact, he asked Durkon's mother for marriage several times. She refused, and since then he had married another female dwarf, with Durkon officing the ceremony.
- Teeth Flying: The first time he proposed to Sigdi, she responded by punching him in the face. He's still missing a tooth to this day.
Kandro
Kandro
"How 'boot tha one where Freya gets 'er necklace from us dwarves?"
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
The third of Sigdi's dinner companions. Kandro taught Durkon how to wield a hammer and shield.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: A rare benign version. Kandro gets eaten by a summoned Death Worm in the battle to stop the mesmerized dwarven council, but rather than lamenting his passing, Sigdi and the others cheer out congratulations for dying in battle; he was getting on in years, and facing another dishonorable death by old age, so it was his chance to earn a place in Valhalla.
- Back from the Dead: Died in a mining accident years ago. Sigdi spending her newfound fortune raising him and the other four is why he and the others became friends with her.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Cutting off a Death Worm's tongue to save a fellow dwarf and then going all You Shall Not Pass! before it eats him. Sigdi is relieved that his death this time is a "proper" heroic one.
- Honorary Uncle: Like the rest of Sigdi's (male) dinner companions, Durkon calls Kandro "uncle".
- My Greatest Second Chance: Being resurrected after his dishonorable death in the mines gave him a second shot at getting into Valhalla. Given his heroic second death, presumably he got in this time.
- Violent Glaswegian: Has an even heavier faux-Scots accent than Durkon, with plenty of colorful regional colloquialisms to boot, which come out in full force when he fights the Death Worm.Kandro: Shut yer geggie an' fight, ye howlin' gobber!
- You Fight Like a Cow: In his fight with the Death Worm, he doesn't just give it some well-placed ax slashes, but also keeps insulting it non-stop in his heavily accented dwarfish.Kandro: Ye call tha fightin'? I seen more fight inna haf-pished bairn! C'mere, I'll skelp ye good!
Shirra Copperbottom
Shirra Copperbottom
"That dress is a gift from me to you, and my honor will be deeply insulted if you try to give me money for it later."
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
The fourth of Sigdi's dinner companions. Shirra helped purchase all of the equipment Durkon needed and is very close to his mother.
- Back from the Dead: Died in a mining accident years ago. Sigdi spending her newfound fortune raising her and the other four is why she and the others became friends with her.
- Honorary Uncle: Durkon sees her as his aunt because of her long friendship with his mother.
- Rags to Riches: She was a simple copper miner who sued the pants off of the mining company for causing her death.
- Uncle Pennybags: Downplayed, as we don't really know how rich she is. But she's clearly richer than Sigdi, as she was the one who purchased Durkon's hammer and shield for him and also gave Sigdi a new dress to wear for his ordainment. On the Wall of Names of Very Rich Donors, Shirra's name is on that list. However, the text on the wall is written in the "Dwarf Spirits" font.
Mrs. Brightstone
Mrs. Brightstone
"Ye can play Smite Tha Tree wit yer Cousin Durkon next time."
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown (some sort of spellcaster)
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown (some sort of spellcaster)
Alignment: Unknown (probably Lawful Good)
Another of Sigdi's dinner companions and the mother of Durkon's childhood friend.
- Back from the Dead: Died in a mining accident years ago. Sigdi spending her newfound fortune raising her and the other four is why she and the others became friends with her.
- Good Parents: From the little we've seen of her, she seems very attentive and loving towards her children.
- Honorary Uncle: Durkon sees her as his aunt because of her long friendship with his mother.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Thanks to Sigdi bringing her back to life, she went on and continued her family line instead of it extinguishing with her dishonorable death in the mine.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Isn't seen in the present day, though her son, daughter and husband are.
Logann Brightstone
Logann Brightstone
"Ha! I scored two Thunderclaps! BOOM!"
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Male
Class: Fighter
Alignment: Unknown
The son of one of Sigdi's frequent dinner companions. During Durkon's clerical training, he occasionally helped Durkon "fall off the straight and narrow".
- Adorably Precocious Child: Has fun playing with Durkon, but isn't necessarily willing to follow the rules of the games they play.
- The Captain: As an adult, he is a captain, he uses his experience to coordinate the Thundershield extended family's attack.
- Childhood Friends: He grew up with Durkon and are so close they refer to each other as cousins.
- Stupid Sacrifice: While not fatal, he charges through a blade barrier and starts to boast how dwarves are willing to suffer for the sake of their loved ones only for Durkon to casually dispel the barrier and heal Logann's wounds.
- Took a Level in Badass: First introduced as Durkon's childhood friend, he became a captain growing up, capable of fighting earth elementals and shrugging off walking through a blade barrier.
- Your Eyes Can Deceive You: Being hit with a blindness spell doesn't seem to slow him down in battle at all; he effortlessly knocks out an opponent and disarms another while still bantering with his allies.
Kudzu
Kudzu
"Tunn unn deh! Tunn unn deh!"
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Male
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknown
The newborn, bearded child of Durkon and Hilgya.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He's an infant, so he's understandably fascinated by the glowy and shiny effects of magic being used around him, such as Hilgya using scrying magic or a magic wand. He's especially drawn to the diamond his mother used to resurrect his father, and just looks so adorably sad when the spell takes effect and the diamond disappears.
- Baby Talk: Kudzu communicates in this, notably attempting to mimic his mother's frequent use of "Turn Undead".
- Badass and Child Duo: The child half of the duo with his mother Hilgya, who carries him around in a harness. Ironically, despite the danger around them, Hilgya's high level means Kudzu is safer with her for the most part, with one very unfortunate exception.
- Baby See, Baby Do: Shortly after his mother has used Turn Undead on vampires, Kudzu is seen imitating her.Kudzu: Tunn unn deh! Tunn unn deh!
- Evil-Detecting Baby: Kicks up an immediate fuss when Vampire Durkon sits him in his lap, but reaches for the newly resurrected Durkon in the same way as he does to Elan. Notably, he immediately stops crying after the real Durkon has regained the use of his body and hands the baby back to Hilgya before Belkar breaks through the shield and kills him. He also happily waves to the Chaotic Good Elan even though he's never met the bard before.
- Funny Background Event: Kudzu's innocent, childish antics (notably, trying to grab his mother's helmet or watching with glee her scry spell) brings some visual humor to otherwise purely dialogue scenes.
- Human Shield: Vampire Durkon uses Kudzu as one during his final battle against the Order. He promised Durkon to not hurt his son directly, but if Roy throws his sword and hits the baby accidentally, that's on him.
- Meaningful Name:
- Kudzu is the name of an invasive plant that can smother other vegetation. Considering the dwarves' enmity with trees, this can be a choice on Hilgya's part of rejecting their ways. (Although it should be noted Kudzu is a plant that kills trees.) Durkon is aghast she named him after a plant, but Sigdi notes that kudzu is a survivor, so the name fits.
- His name could be Burlew's Self-Deprecation at having a Kudzu Plot.
- Can also be a Shout-Out to the Kudzu comic strip.
- Kudzu
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Invoked by Durkon, but his mother Sigdi accepts it as a Meaningful Name, noting that the kid will be a survivor, just like the plant. Also invoked by Belkar in an earlier strip.Belkar: So we're just going to glide right past the fact that she named her kid "Kudzu"? We are? OK.
Durkon's Cousin's Brother-in-law's Niece's Fiancé
Durkon's Cousin's Brother-in-law's Niece's Fiancé
"hello, durkon. nice to finally put a face to all the stories!"
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown
A remote member of Durkon's extended clan, joining the battle on Firmament.
- Ambiguously Human: He has the height and proportions of a dwarf, but he speaks in the same colored speech bubbles as outsiders, meaning he may be one himself (or a hybrid of both).
- CAPS LOCK: He speaks in all capital letters to emphasize his paladin-speak.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He wears a black suit of armor with ram's horns in the helmet. He is a pretty nice person and talks like a paladin as he fights vampires.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Durkon's cousin's brother-in-law's niece's fiancé — or, in other words, Durkon's cousinnote -in-law's fiancé.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: If he's indeed a paladin, he would quickly slaughter the undead vampires with his holy power, and so he gets sent to a plane where he's doomed to roll down a (painful) hill indefinitely til someone plane-shifts him back.
- Establishing Character Moment: One-shots an earth elemental everyone around him could barely slow down before casually introducing himself to Durkon and saying he is glad to "finally put a face to all the stories."
- Glowing Eyes: His eyes glow an eerie blue through his holy power.
- Laser Blade: He's brandishing a sword made of blue energy. It isn't clear yet whether it's a spell, a soulknife's weapon, a shaped soulmeld, or something else.
- The Nameless: Lampshaded by Minrah:Minrah: Hey! What did you do to that guy whose name I didn't catch?
- Off with His Head!: Capable of decapitating an earth elemental with one strike of his Laser Blade.
- Riddle for the Ages: In his sole appearance, the nature his powers, especially his Laser Blade, is not clarified. The one time he is about to give a precision, he's cut off mid-speech.Durkon's cousin-in-law's fiancé: yield, vampire, for you will not stand against my blade of pure—
- Second Love: To Durkon's Cousin's Brother-in-law's Niece; Durkon is shocked to hear she broke up with Thad.
- Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes: His helmet hides most of his features except for his glowing blue eyes.
- Southpaw Advantage: He's wielding his energy blade in the left hand, which makes it all the harder for Hel's vampires to avoid it.
- Speech Bubbles: He speaks in a white text in blue background bubble. It is noted in-comic as sounding unnatural by a vampire.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Doesn't even make it five pages before being plane-shifted out of the fight, though he isn't dead yet and as Minrah states they'll save him. She also avenges him by beating the vampire that did it into submission and personally throwing her into the sunlight to be incinerated.
Tinkertown
Acolyte of Hoder
Acolyte of Hoder
"I like to think of my bruised shins as my god's way of reminding me to practice my low-level healing spells."
Race: Gnome
Gender: Female
Class: Cleric
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Female
Class: Cleric
Alignment: Unknown
A helpful acolyte that Roy and the High Priest of Hel meet in Tinkertown.
- Comical Overreacting: When she hears the High Priest trying to emulate breathing and thinks it's Roy playing a dirge, she clutches her heart and yells that her "feels have been hit for maximum damage!"
- The Klutz: Chases after Roy, and immediately trips and falls down the hill. Priests of Hoder do wear blindfolds, so she might not actually be so if she could see.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She tells Roy and the High Priest of Hel about Veldrina, which ultimately results in the High Priest being able to get to the Godsmoot in time to carry out Hel's plan.
Gnomeland security commander
Gnomeland security commander
"Right, then. Knock her hat off, squad!"
Race: Gnome
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Male
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown
A commander of the Department of Gnomeland Security, an armed force which protects Tinkertown.
- The Leader: Of his squad.
- Police Are Useless: Or maybe Militaries Are Useless, as it's not clear exactly which one Gnomeland security falls into. But either way, the commander's squad is worse than useless against Crystal. Similar to Celia, their electrical weapons actually heal Crystal and charge her up.
Gnomeland security subordinate
Gnomeland security subordinate
"Use the harpoons, not the lightning gun! You're just going to charge her up!"
Race: Gnome
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown
Alignment: Unknown
A member of the Department of Gnomeland Security.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Heeds Haley's advice to get the (poorly equipped) gnomeland security force away from the duel between Haley and Crystal.
- Pragmatic Hero: Knowing that the Tinkertown gnomes are totally outmatched by the Thieves Guild, she allows Crystal to execute Bozzok without interfering even though she's not supposed to. She later helps Haley to throw Crystal into Tinkertown's fiery waste disposal system.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She works with Haley to deal with the Thieves Guild, even when that requires skirting protocol (such as by allowing Crystal to kill Bozzok).
Creed of the Stone
Gontor Hammerfell
Gontor Hammerfell
"Yes, my sisters and brothers of the Creed toiled all morning, wrestling the stone from the mountain."
Race: Dwarf
Gender: Male
Class: Cleric
Alignment: Unknown
Gender: Male
Class: Cleric
Alignment: Unknown
Exarch of the Creed of the Stone and chief administrator of the Godsmoot.
- Arranged Marriage: Was involved in one but joined the Creed instead.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Along with the rest of the Creed, he can manipulate stone. This is how they created the cathedral.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Decides to trust the High Priest of Hel, a vampire who worships an Evil-aligned goddess, with the information that he is not protected by the Godsmoot's rules and also has no magic with which to defend himself. This proves to be unwise.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He personally escorts the High Priest of Hel into the cathedral so that he can privately offer to forge an alliance between Hel and the Creed of the Stone; this would help Hel get more consistent representation in the Godsmoots. He's brutally killed for his pains.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Killed off after only two strips. Although courtesy of the vampire he became we learn that he could have had a promising career and marriage but opted to join the Creed of the Stone instead.
Passage Pass
Giantess warrior
Giantess warrior
The giantess (left), next to the human Roy for scale.
"You wretched little flea!"
Race: Frost giant
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown (probably Barbarian)
Alignment: Unknown (probably Chaotic Evil)
Gender: Female
Class: Unknown (probably Barbarian)
Alignment: Unknown (probably Chaotic Evil)
The strongest of the giants that attack the Order and the Mechane during their attempt to get through Passage Pass.
- The Berserker: Called as such by Roy. If indeed she's of the barbarian class, she certainly can rage.
- Catch and Return: When Roy throws a boulder at her, she points out how much this is a bad idea since catching boulders is a main ability of D&D giants. She then tosses it back at the fighter, flattening him.
- Church Militant: Says she will slaughter everyone on the Mechane for Thrym, her god.
- Combat Pragmatist: Eventually, she decides destroying the airship's parts is easier than defeating the Order.
- Dark Action Girl: Manages to fight Roy to a standstill.
- Elite Mook: She serves this function, being a stronger version of the other Giant Mooks that the Order fights.
- Exposed to the Elements: She only wears boots and a Fur Bikini while atop snowy mountains. Of course, frost giants are completely unbothered by cold.
- Fur Bikini: She is wearing a skirt and a bra that looks like it's made of light grey animal fur.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Claimed to have been "holding back" just to make the male giant look good, and sees Roy taking him out as a boon so she can show off what she can really do.
Kraagor's Tomb (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BOOK 7!)
Sunny
Sunny
"Hi! My name is Sunny!"
Race: Beholder
Gender: Hermaphrodite
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknownnote
Gender: Hermaphrodite
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknownnote
A beholder working with Serini to eliminate any unwanted intruders in Kraagor's Tomb.
- Adaptational Personality Change: In D&D, beholders are just the worst — they're living embodiments of paranoid, narcissistic megalomania who hate one another for the slightest variations in form and (in still later editions) tend to reproduce by dreaming up an Enemy Without for themselves out of sheer insecure xenophobia. Sunny, meanwhile, is a Gentle Giant Cheerful Child who turns out to be Birds of a Feather with Elan once the initial hostilities are resolved. Justified by the fact that Serini raised Sunny from spawning.
- Adorable Abomination: The comic's art style makes Sunny look like a giant smiley face with an enormous doleful eye, adding to their friendly disposition.
- Ambiguously Evil: Whether or not Sunny is truly evil is yet to be revealed, but they are pretty friendly for a beholder, greeting the Order cheerfully. They also prefer not to use any lethal powers against a heroic party. It's eventually revealed Sunny was adopted by Serini right after they budded off their parent (who Serini had to kill) and reared them, explaining their vastly different personality.
- Anti-Magic: One of the usual powers of a beholder is a cone of anti-magic emitted by the central eye.
- Ascended Extra: Before their second appearance in "See It Coming", Sunny was originally just a part of a seemingly inconsequential gag, featured in only a single panel. In the final arc, they are working with Serini to stop the Order and their friends.
- Charm Person: Charm Elan with one of their eyestalks in order to trap the others. Later charm Mr. Scruffy into attacking Belkar. An attempt on Vaarsuvius is foiled by mind blank, however.
- Comically Missing the Point: They're Sarcasm-Blind and Literal-Minded to a comic degree.
- Early-Bird Cameo: First seen in "Biting the Hand that Feeds Me" as a one-off joke character.
- Eye Beams: As a beholder, each of Sunny's many eyes can fire off a magical effect. Their main, central eye emits a cone of Anti-Magic, while their smaller eyes can charm, cause fear, petrify, slow, put creatures to sleep, manipulate objects with telekinesis, and disintegrate stuff.
- Eye on a Stalk: Beholders are the most iconic D&D monsters with such a feature. Sunny has a crown of height eyestalks atop their round body.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Sunny's cheerful demeanor completely wrecks Serini's intent to cause fear among the Order of the Stick.
- Fatal Flaw: Sunny's friendliness is a drawback when in a hostile confrontation. Aside from it making them a lot less intimidating, it makes them limited in combat because they're unwilling to use lethal force and more likely to listen to their adversaries. There's a reason Sunny gets angry when Elan tries to use the "magic word" — that being "Please", of course — because they're predisposed to being polite. On a lighter note, Elan is able to turn its vivid imagination against it with a Performance check, getting it to blink its central eye (and briefly disrupting its Anti-Magic effect) with an evocative description of a dry, dusty desert.
- Fluffy the Terrible: A many-eyed Eldritch Abomination named Sunny.
- Handicapped Badass: For whatever reason, Sunny has only eight eyestalks, while ordinary beholders have ten. And for all accounts, the missing eyes are the ones with the most powerful and deadly powers. This makes Sunny handicapped by their species' standards, but the remaining powers are still quite efficient and can shut down a high-level adventuring party with ease.
- Happily Adopted: By Serini. While the halfling is normally pretty gruff, Sunny manages to bring out her softer side. The strip "Budding Emotions" reveals that Serini tried to recruit Sunny's spawn-parent for Kraagor's Tomb, but the beholder attacked her and she had to kill it. She couldn't bring herself to abandon the little bud growing out of it that would become Sunny to whither on the spot, though, and adopted them instead.
- Last Episode, New Character: While they first appeared in Book 1, Sunny's relevance has been expanded upon in the final arc.
- Logical Weakness: Sunny's Anti-Magic field is emitted from their main eye, which is the only eye not on a stalk, meaning Sunny has to turn their whole body to focus it on something. Anything that breaks line of sight, even just by making them blink, causes the field to go with it. With Belkar having gotten his baleful polymorphed Allosaurus out of his Bag of Holding, gazing at the party would remove the transmutation and temporarily restore Bloodfeast to his normal self.
- Mind over Matter: As a beholder, one of their eyes has telekinetic power, with which they are able to carry O-Chul and Lien up a cliff and levitate Elan's lute. It also yanks Haley's bow out of her hands during a fight. And it can also be used for a "telekinetic hug" on their adoptive mother.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Sunny could be the poster child for a minion who should be Lawful Evil instead not wanting to seriously hurt people. It helps that Serini is Good herself, so it probably rubbed off on Sunny.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Sunny decides to look up to use Anti-Magic on Haley's fire arrow — which moves the Anti-Magic field away from the party, allowing Durkon to heal Roy and Belkar to get Bloodfeast out of his Bag of Holding.
- They then keep Haley's bow locked in place with telekinesis, thinking Haley wants to grab it as a weapon. Nope, she uses it as a swing to knock Serini off Sunny.
- Oculothorax: As a Beholder, Sunny is a spheroid creature with a central eye and a mouth underneath.
- Onion Tears: Elan gets Sunny to blink by talking about how hot and dry the desert sand is, especially when it gets in your eye.
- Parental Title Characterization: Calls Serini "Mom". Serini annoyedly tells Sunny not to call her that when working.
- Power Nullifier: While inside their lair, Sunny wears a special contact lens on their central eye to neutralize the Anti-Magic beam and thus not affect the magic items around. The tricky part is to put the lens on the eye through Mind over Matter without the beam neutralizing the telekinesis.
- Power of Trust: Sunny was taught to trust people by Serini, which is diametrically opposed to the usual personality of a beholder, which is usually self-isolated and xenophobic.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Sunny can pull this to rather impressive effect, helped by the fact they put all eight eyestalks plus central eye behind it.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Sunny refuses to kill or indirectly kill any of the Order, such as Serini asking them to petrify Haley (which would shatter her from the height she's at), which indicates they're not Lawful Evil like most beholders. Notably, while firing off a salvo of their magic eye beams, they avoid using "#8."
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that Sunny is working with Serini is a major plot point relevant to the seventh and final arc.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Since "beholder" is copyrighted, the characters in-universe forget what they're called and use "the monsters with the magic eyeballs" and "the eyeball thing" instead.
Mimi
Mimi
Race: Mimic
Gender: None
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknown (probably Neutral)
Gender: None
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknown (probably Neutral)
The biggest of the mimics working for Serini, Mimi joins with the adventurer party seeking to protect Kraagor's Gate.
- Ambiguous Gender: Although her humanoid form looks like a woman and Serini addresses her with female pronouns, mimics in D&D 3.5 are canonically sexless and reproduce by budding, so it's unclear if she has any significant gender identity.
- Chest Monster: A member of the most well-known species of such monsters. Serini makes good use of her abilities to trick would-be invaders to Kraagor's Tomb's "backstage". Belkar once jokes about asking her to turn into a treasure chest.
- A Dog Named "Dog": A mimic named Mimi... not very creative, Serini.
- Extra Digits:
- Played with. Mimi's humanoid shape has five-fingered hands with distinct thumbs, much more realistic-looking than the usual three-fingered hands of the comic's stick figures. Naturally, other characters find it extremely weird. Also used as pretext for a Take That! to early A.I. artworks.Serini: Yeah, it's weird. They can copy anything but for some reason they always mess up the hands.
- In a later strip, she answers the question of how long she'd been working with Serini (seven years) by sprouting two more fingers on her left hand, to Haley's disgust.
- Played with. Mimi's humanoid shape has five-fingered hands with distinct thumbs, much more realistic-looking than the usual three-fingered hands of the comic's stick figures. Naturally, other characters find it extremely weird. Also used as pretext for a Take That! to early A.I. artworks.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Standard D&D mimics can only typically take the shape of inanimate objects. Mimi can fully turn into a functional humanoid form, no doubt to ease up her movements and interactions with the Order.
- Morphic Resonance: Mimi keeps yellow eyes and a grey/green coloration even in humanoid form.
- Mundane Utility: Among the many shapes she can take, is... a ladder to help the non-flying party members in climbing. (Or a cushion... or a soapbox.)
- The Speechless: Mimi cannot speak, though she can still communicate through gestures, aided by her shapeshifting.
- Visual Pun: Yes, Mimi is a mimic... in more ways than one when she mimics Serini Giving Calder the Pointer Finger.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Her main shtick as a mimic, of course. She's first seen blocking the escape route of the Order by mimicking stone over a cave entrance. She seems to be smarter and more advanced than your typical mimic, even able to take a humanoid form.
Calder
Calder
"This time, you will submit to me! I will see your bones crumble to charcoal!"
Race: Red Dragon
Gender: Male
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknown (probably Chaotic Evil)
Gender: Male
Class: N/A
Alignment: Unknown (probably Chaotic Evil)
A red dragon that Serini conscripted into guarding Kraagor's Tomb, at a time she wasn't yet looking for volunteers. As a result, the wyrm is murderously revengeful toward her.
- And I Must Scream: He was trapped in suspended animation by a magic circle since he surrendered to the Order of the Scribble. He is gravely unhappy about the situation when he is freed. His spell resistance stopped his consciousness from being suspended so he experienced decades of solitary confinement.
- Asshole Victim: His fate of suffering through an And I Must Scream situation is legitimately awful... but one has to remember that he was, and still is, an evil red dragon who once controlled an entire cult of brainwashed people and attempts to kill the Order just because they aren't servile enough.
- Blessed with Suck: Thrice-damned spell resistance finally bites the possessor in the ass. Serini's stasis-trap method of keeping the monsters ready normally keeps them unconscious as well as unmoving. Calder has enough spell resistance to stop the former but not the latter, resulting in a few decades of And I Must Scream.
- Breath Weapon: With a red dragon, some incineration is to be expected. Calder uses a flame breath to open the fight against the Order of the Stick, scorching those not skilled with Evasion. Later, when brought to the floor and swarmed by the party, he breathes fire on himself to shake them off, confident in his own immunity.
- Charm Person: He's an experienced mind-bender. He used mind-controlling magics to rule a whole cult when the Order of the Scribble first found him. When the party meets him in the dungeon, he uses dominate monster to entrance Sunny and manipulate the beholder into dispelling the circle binding Calder with the anti-magic eye. He also casts a dominate person spell on Roy, but the latter is protected by mind blank.
- Clint Squint: His eyes seem to be fixed in this expression by default, which illustrates his utter contempt for Serini and her allies.
- The Dreaded: Serini is terrified when she finds out Sunny is going toward him and immediately rushes back after them. And for good reason; according to her, the last time they fought, it took all six of the Scribblers to take him down.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The Order of the Scribble can be seen subduing Calder back in the 2015 calendar, released over 9 years before Calder's first appearance in the comic proper.
- A drawing by Sunny that appears in "Mental Block" shows him encountering Serini and Kraagor roughly 30 pages before his proper reveal, complete with broken horn.
- Facial Markings: Not Calder himself, but all the mind-controlled members of his cult had a red dragon tattoo over their shaved heads, to show their allegiance.
- Faux Affably Evil: Calder greets the Order of the Stick with articulate pleasantries, but uses his flame breath on them because Roy's tone is "insufficiently servile".
- A God Am I: He had a penchant of charming people to form cults worshipping him.
- Immune to Fire: As is normal for a red dragon; he can even directs his breath weapon on his own body with no risk of getting hurt.
- Know When to Fold Them: He surrendered to the Order of the Scribble when they first defeated him. Unfortunately for him, that just meant he was subjected to And I Must Scream for decades instead.Calder: Had I known that you would trap me in my own body in an endless waking nightmare, I would have fought you and your wretched allies to the death!
- Predecessor Villain: Calder and his cult were one of the many threats the Order of the Scribble faced in their day, before their creation of the Gates and decades before the events of the main story, and he has been trapped in Kraagor's Tomb ever since. Once he is released from his stasis, he immediately turns to getting revenge on Serini and establishing his cult again.
- Removed Achilles' Heel: By his own words, Calder has managed to rid himself of the vulnerability to cold damage that red dragons like him usually suffer from, possibly through the Suppress Weakness/Overcome Weakness Monstrous Feats from the Draconomicon.
- Revenge: The moment he is released, his first thoughts are on fatal revenge on Serini for being trapped in Kraagor's Tomb for so long. Roy notes that he has a point to his anger, but he proves to be quite evil, resulting in attempts to negotiate quickly falling through.Calder: I am going to torture and kill that halfling in spectacularly gruesome fashion, and what happens between us afterwards will be largely up to you.
- Shout-Out: A dragon named "Calder" can only be a reference to the sculpture Flying Dragon by Alexander Calder. (That, or the fact that he debuted on a calendar.)
- Tail Slap: Even pinned down by Bloodfeast, Calder's tail proves long enough to reach Sunny, and strong enough to knock out the beholder by sending them bounce against a wall.
- Underestimating Badassery: He is very unimpressed when he sees Belkar give Bloodfeast a Fastball Special into an anti-magic field... at least until he's got Allosaurus fangs in his neck.Calder: Serini, these allies of yours are truly pathetic. They are already resorting to throwing small harmless— GLRKT!
- Visual Pun: While the party (or individual members) have encountered dragons before, this is the first time they encounter a dragon in a dungeon.
