As a Recap page, all spoilers below are unmarked. You have been warned.
We join the Order of the Stick, a band of adventurers fighting through a dungeon. Their members include Roy Greenhilt (dark-skinned and sarcastic human fighter), Haley Starshine (greedy human rogue), Elan (ditzy human bard), Vaarsuvius (arrogant elf wizard), Durkon Thundershield (stalwart dwarf cleric), and Belkar Bitterleaf (evil halfling ranger).
After briefly splitting the group and fighting off some enemies, Vaarsuvius finds a magic belt of Gender Changing. Roy discards the belt, but Elan goes back to retrieve it. Eventually, they reveal that they are in the Dungeon of Dorukan, here to thwart the schemes of the lich Xykon. During a rest break, Roy receives a vision from his dead father, who gives him the warning "when the goat turns red strikes true". Proceeding through the dungeon, they fight more of Xykon's minions, including a named chimera (who is killed by Belkar). Roy thinks this is what his father meant, but his father later sends another vision telling him otherwise. Meanwhile, Xykon is disgusted by his minions, but refuses to use his trump card, the Monster in the Darkness (MITD).
Eventually, they find a treasure room, but Haley has already claimed almost all of it, and tricks Roy into thinking there was none. Proceeding onward, they pass through a secret door and encounter a mind flayer, who is dragged off by a pair of lawyers for being a copyright violation. After more fighting, they encounter another adventuring party, the Linear Guild. They claim to be after a Talisman of Dorukan, and the two groups team up to achieve both their goals. The leader of the Linear Guild, Nale, then reveals that he is Elan's brother. Xykon uses a crystal ball to watch all of this.
The group splits apart to find three elemental sigils that protect the talisman. However, the Linear Guild secretly slays or defeats some sylphs that were guarding the sigils. The sigils are all activated, causing a door to appear leading to the talisman room, which is a central platform surrounded by a pit filled with old D&D monsters that the talisman controls. Here, the Linear Guild betrays the Order, revealing they were working with Xykon. They attempt to escape with the talisman, leaving the Order to get killed by the monsters. However, Roy figures out what his father meant, and has Haley destroy the talisman with a well placed arrow. After that, the Linear Guild and the Order battle. The Order wins (with some help from the lawyers).
The Order then frees one of the defeated sylphs, Celia, who reveals that she worked for the wizard Dorukan, who built the dungeon. Celia then takes the captured Linear Guild members away, while letting the Order use the employee stairs to get to Xykon. However, the Order forgets the injured Durkon, who is found by the Linear Guild's cleric Hilgya. She heals Durkon, and the two set off to find the Order. Meanwhile, Elan decides he will be the team cleric, calling on the god Banjo. Durkon falls for and sleeps with Hilgya, but breaks up with her after she reveals her own infidelity to her husband. Durkon then rejoins the Order.
The Order then finds a pair of friendly teenage goblins, who promise to take them to Xykon. Meanwhile, Xykon reveals his plan to have the Order unseal a magical gate of some kind. One of the goblins then kidnaps Haley, while the Order moves to confront Xykon and his army of goblins and zombies. Xykon then bluffs the Order into touching the gate. Elan tries to do it, only for Haley to arrive in time to stop him. Roy confronts Xykon, only for Xykon to destroy Roy's family sword. Roy becomes so enraged that he picks up Xykon and throws him into the gate, destroying him.
However, Xykon, being a lich, survives, as his chief minion Redcloak had his phylactery. Redcloak escapes with Xykon and the MITD, as the Order collects the treasures left behind. Elan accidentally sets off a self-destruct rune, forcing the Order to flee the dungeon as well. The dungeon and the gate inside are both destroyed, but the Order makes it out intact. The arc ends with cutaway panels indicating that the Linear Guild has escaped prison, and someone is after whomever destroyed the gate.
Tropes
- Affably Evil: The Mind Fla-er "Squid Thingy" that Elan encounters is polite towards him when declining to eat his brain and by the time the rest of the group find him, is playing a game of Scrabble with him (even if it might be cheating via Scrabble Babble).
- All Men Are Perverts: When Haley has a "wardrobe malfunction" while searching for traps, Elan and Belkar suggest that she checks again just to be sure. Even Durkon and Roy get in on it.
- Anti-Climax: In-universe, after all the buildup from touching the three sigils, all that appears is an ordinary door with a small "pop". Nale is surprised, having expecting something a bit more "rumble worthy".
- Bad Boss: Our first sign of what Xykon's like to work for. A bunch of ogres come complaining to him about being paid, since it seems he hasn't paid them at all ("that does seem to be the crux of the issue"). So Xykon kills them and resurrects them as zombies. Later on, Redcloak has to complain they're running low on goblins because he keeps throwing them into the Gate.
- Blah, Blah, Blah: Strip #51, from Thog's point of view while Roy talks.
- Bland-Name Product: In the intro to the book, where they can't say the real name of the game for trademark reasons.Player 1: Let's play Demons & Delves.Player 2: No, let's play Dwarves & Donjons.Player 3: I prefer Drakes & Daggers.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Turns out Banjo actually does count as a god, but even with Elan's belief behind him, he can barely zap non-believers like Roy.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Xykon takes it up to eleven when Roy tries invoking his father's vow to slay Xykon for killing his mentor. It takes Xykon a while to remember killing some guy in Greysky City called Firion (he killed five guys with that name in one night). Eventually, he does remember... because it was laundry night and it took forever to get the mess out of his robe.
- Cargo Cult: When Durkon goes missing, Elan tries to become a cleric with his hand puppet Banjo the Clown as a god.
- Characterization Marches On:
- Redcloak has a moment of Card Carrying Villainy when he and the Monster do an Evil Laugh, something that is jarring with his later characterization of not being evil for the sake of evil.
- When Haley has a wardrobe malfunction, the decidedly male members of the Order stand around to watch it happen. While it is in-character for Belkar (and maybe Elan, since he was attracted to Haley) to do that, it's very odd and out of character for Roy and Durkon to do it, considering their professional characterizations later on.
- Chekhov's Gag: When introduced, Zz'dtri is blatantly established as a knock-off of Drizzt, which is how V defeats him, getting the lawyers to drag him off.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- In strip #113, in Roy's flashback, a little kid can be seen sitting next to his mother. He'll be slightly important eventually.
- In strip #32, the not-a-Beholder is told "We'll call you". They do ... For the final book. According to
The Giant, they will become an important ally.
- Curse Cut Short: Belkar gets cut off calling Yikyik a "little sh-".
- Dope Slap: Nale applies one to Elan when he fails to notice how their backstories match up.
- Dramatic Irony: When Elan points out the Order's accomplishments (defeating Xykon, capturing Nale, destroying the gate), the audience sees panels (Xykon shown to be alive, Nale escaping prison, and the destruction of the gate resulting in someone hunting down the Order) which shows that their accomplishments were All for Nothing.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Tarquin, Nale and Elan's dad, first appears in Nale's flashback in strip #50, his face covered by a helmet but with standards bearing a "t". He won't make an appearance in the story proper for several hundred more strips.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Durkon fails to recognise Hilgya as a cleric of Loki, putting it down to a lack of knowledge (religion), even though later strips show Durkon is highly schooled in dwarf religion, of which Loki figures pretty prominently.
- Epic Fail: While the gang's trying to sneak, Elan rolls a four, which would be bad enough, but he feels the need to bellow this to everyone else while they're right next to him. Twice.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Eugene Greenhilt's introduction tells you all you need to know about him. He doesn't get any warm and fuzzier later.
- The Monster in Darkness initially appears very monstrous and evil... then pleads to be let out of the dark because he finds it scary.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Belkar, Vaarsuvius and Haley all fail one while surrounded by goblin ninja. Then when the ninja try to point out they're right there, Belkar fails a Listen Check as well. Then, Elan fails to spot them as well, and figures that's a good time to rest.
- Haley, Elan and Belkar all manage to not notice the arrival of Trigak, a chimera that's much larger than them.
- Roy fails to hear Thog killing the Earth sylph, and her loud last words.
- Once Elan activates the dungeon's self-destruct mechanism, Belkar laments their luck, only for everyone else to point out the large door labelled "exit use in case of imminent explosion".Haley: Seriously, Belkar, put some ranks in Spot already.
- Fantastic Racism: Belkar hates kobolds, and Yikyik the kobold hates halflings right back.
- For Inconvenience, Press "1": ThorPrayer, which makes things so much worse for Durkon when he tries requesting a few healing spells for a battered Elan.
- Former Teen Rebel: Haley is able to figure out the goblin teenagers are being rebellious due to her own goth phase when she was fifteen.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Elan gets a visit from them when he considers saving Nale or not. Then he gets Lawful and Chaotic Angels as well, which are much less helpful.
- Heroic BSoD: Roy momentarily, when Xykon breaks his sword.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Roy initially doesn't realize the blatantly evil Linear Guild are evil.Haley: Jeez, grow a Sense Motive.
- Idea Bulb: Of course, since it's Elan having the idea, it's just an idea candle.
- In Medias Res: The story begins with the Order slaughtering their way through goblins. They don't explain why they're doing what they're doing for a while, which naturally gets a Lampshade Hanging.Belkar: We have a goal?Roy: Sure. Why do you think we're here?Belkar: Well, I figured we'd just wander around, kill some sentient creatures because they had green skins and fangs and we don't, and then take their stuff.(the entire party glares at him)Belkar: What?
- I Resemble That Remark!:
- Haley gets outraged at Belkar accusing her of stealing his potion, while she's holding the potion she stole from him.Haley: My daddy was a First Edition thief. It runs in the family.
- Belkar asks what kind of brain-dead moron could screw up protecting the spellcasters, as V and Durkon are surrounded by enemies because Belkar wandered off to kill enemies.
- Haley gets outraged at Belkar accusing her of stealing his potion, while she's holding the potion she stole from him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Roy tries reading the others the riot act for forgetting Durkon, Haley points out she, Belkar and Elan are so irresponsible that it's unreasonable to expect any better of them. Roy concedes the point.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Trigak is killed in the middle of swearing vengeance on the Order.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Xykon's body is destroyed, he instructs Redcloak and the Monster In The Darkness to flee, as they can continue their Plan elsewhere.
- Naked People Are Funny: Elan's Insane Troll Logic leads him to conclude that if more armor makes you less stealthy, less clothes makes you more stealthy...and no clothes makes you invisible!
- No-Sell:
- The first sign the gang are updating to the 3.5 edition is Durkon being attacked by a goblin, who bounces off him.
- Belkar completely ignores an Unholy Blight spell.
- Outrun the Fireball: Invoked by Elan, for the sake of drama.
- Pass the Popcorn: While waiting for the Order to show up, the Monster uses Xykon's crystal ball to watch them, even making itself some popcorn. Despite his initial outrage, Redcloak joins in watching Durkon and Hilgya having sex.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "YOU. BROKE. MY. SWORD!!"
- Reverse Psychology: Used by Xykon to get the Order to go near the Gate.
- Rule of Three:
- In Elan's exposition, Haley tries interjecting with "and treasure" every time. On the third, she admits that it doesn't make sense.
- A jumpy Durkon unleashing Turn Undead on Roy and Vaarsuvius.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: For some mysterious reason, Dorukan had one in his dungeon. Elan ends up activating it and destroying the gate.
- Ship Tease: It's hinted early on that Haley's interested in Elan, when she mentions wanting to see what his Charisma looks like "under the hood", and later on when she takes advantage of being invisible to cop a feel of his butt.
- Slasher Smile: Roy is way too overjoyed at the thought of getting to beat up Nale.
- Snap Back: Thanks to Owl's Wisdom, Belkar gets a boost in his atrociously low Wisdom score, and realizes his aggression and anger are pointless. Just as he's vowed to never harm anyone again, V retracts the spell, and Belkar goes back to being a knife expert.
- Survived the Beginning: Half the Linear Guild was lost the first time they met the OotS gang. Since then, the three survivors have consistently made it away while their newer members tend to get Put on a Bus or killed. (Though other characters have not been so lucky, notably poor Miko. And even [Nale and Zzdri, one of the three aforementioned survivors plus another original member who came back, have bought it lately.)
- Tempting Fate: About to step through a door when Haley hasn't found any traps, Roy asks how bad it could be.
- Unreliable Narrator: Hilgya paints her arranged marriage like a torture, but the flashback panels shows her husband doing everything he could to make her happy.
- Unsound Effect: "Touché", when Elan stabs Nale.
- Unwitting Pawn: Nale tricks the Order into unlocking the wards protecting Dorukan's Amulet, coincidentally showing Xykon how to unlock Dorukan's Gate. Xykon almost tricks the Order into doing the same.
- Who's on First?: Roy and Haley get into a prolonged argument about going up or down a level.
- Wrecked Weapon:
- Elan's starting weapon is a rapier, until Belkar manages to Sunder it by shouting.
- Xykon breaks Roy's sword.
- Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: A mindflayer sees the brains of all the Order. Elan's a diet coke, Haley's a sundae, Belkar's a taco, Durkon's a bowl of porridge, V is a burger, and Roy is a turkey with all the trimmings.
Belkar: Don't worry, we'll churn out another one soon enough.
