The Order of the Stick

The critters from Roy's bag tucking him in is a wonderfully heartwarming scene. It's especially considerate of them considering what he did to their bag.

Thanks goodness that deadly sphinx pox subplot was resolved.

My favorite bit was Belkar asking to be brought up to speed on all the stuff about their journey that he never cared to pay attention to before.

That awkward moment when Character Development makes you cognizant of the notes you haven't taken.

...Heroes’ Feast would’ve been a better way to cure the whole crew.

Does Durkon have the levels necessary for the entire Order and crew of the Mechane?

Also, Heroes' Feast requires 1 hour of uninterrupted eating for its effects to activate and considering they are in a hurry and Roy wanted to sleep off his drunkenness, it's likely Durkon thought it would be better to use his spell slots for Remove Disease.

Yeah, probably. I think the joke might have been better, too.

"Wow Durkon, this Heroes' Feast is great! What's the occasion?"

"I just felt like doing something nice. Plus, it includes a cure disease effect, so it's an easy way of curing the deadly sphinx pox you all contracted."

Though the feast might not cure magical diseases. The description doesn't explicitly say.

Edited by Discar on Nov 26th 2019 at 12:06:19 PM

I wonder who Vaarsuvius is sending too?...

The most likely people I can think of are their partner and kids.

x4 Worst-case scenario he uses two sixth-level spell slots and casts it twice. Better than using over a dozen spell slots on Remove Diseases.

It would be pretty funny, though, if there wasn’t quite enough food for everyone and Minrah had to sit out, because she didn’t contract Sphinx Pox and has to eat normal rations, sitting there dejected because even the cat gets to eat the miracle food.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Nov 26th 2019 at 4:41:31 AM

You also have to remember time, not only do they need to hurry to the North Pole, but the Mechane has been idling, straining the damaged equipment and using fuel.

In addition, because of the comic's Medium Awareness, Durkon likely knows that the end of a book is coming and with it the lack of encounters and a timeskip, even if that timeskip is likely only a max of a few days.

And finally, the Order's final major roadblock between them and Xykon (Hel) has very minimal resources to even prevent the Order from making it to the North Pole and we don't know of anyone else.

This all leads me to believe that Durkon felt the wasted spell slots for a day were better than wasted time.

If the Mechane had had to idle for an hour while they ate, it would’ve just gotten to the North Pole an hour faster with its speed-of-plot abilities.

But I’m sure the only real reason Durkon went with Remove Disease instead of Heroes’ Feast is that it’s faster and easier to explain to an audience with no D&D knowledge that the former will cure the Sphinx Pox.

Edited by shigmiya64 on Nov 26th 2019 at 5:25:32 AM

The comic in general doesn't have Medium Awareness, it's just a universe that runs on D&D rules. Elan would be able to tell the book is ending, but that's more due to his knowledge of tropes than actually knowing he's in a comic.

See? Weasels and rats can be good, too! <marshmallow goos onto the floor>

Haley literally stole a diamond from her cast page though?

No the protagonists defiantly know they're in a comic, they can tell when they're on panel and where on the page the panel is. Characters have even deduced tactical information from how the comic cuts away from them. It's how the bad guys deduced the Order had figured out Malek was a vampire.

I wonder if many people in this setting find themselves inside comics about their lives, it might be a frequent thing. Most characters never seem to be too weirded out by it.

The gods specifically made this world as a "self aware stick figure fantasy parody". The medium-awareness is built-in.

There was also a part during the flesh golem subplot where they realize that the cutaway must mean that there's bad guys coming for them.

And Roy running out of room to explain the airship because of the splash panel...

I also think they can see things from the perspective of the panel. They comment on the art style, they fail to see things behind the black, Roy even comments on how his shoe sizes are always arranged left to right in respect to the panel's perspective,

Which, and I know this is over thinking things in the pursuit of world building, makes me wonder if they bumped into some other characters who are also in a comic they'd get, like, double vision.

Or if, immediately after a panel that is going to become a flash point they feel queezy about appearing in two panels on two different pages at once.

This might be a plot point in a fan fic I pencilled.

I'd imagine they're letting O-chul and Lien know that the Order is on their way to Kraagor's Gate. Those two have been offscreen staking out Team Evil for this entire book.

Which probably means we can expect the next strip to cut away to them.

The question is, what will we cut away to? Healthy paladins giving the news of what Team Evil is up to? Or dead/captured paladins unable to relay the recent happenings?

O-Chul won’t be dead. Rich said in the commentary to Book 4 that O-Chul was going to have a large role in the plot later on, and he’s only been in a few strips since then.

I don't think he's going to be dead. O-Chul returning to the plot just in time to resolve (among other things) the MITD's whole thing doesn't feel accidental. It's not without reason that O-Chul's here for the final book.

For similar reasons, I don't think he'll have been taken prisoner. O-Chul being Xykon's prisoner feels rehashy. We've done that before.

So I expect O-Chul and Lien's stakeout is going well.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Nov 27th 2019 at 4:29:21 AM

So, an scenario just came to me and it's probably complete bunkum but is it possible for the Monster in the Darkness to make a Will Save and resist Xykon's order to eat Redcloak, possibly thanks to Ochul's final plea?

It's not a bad conclusion to the Monster in the Darkness's arc in learning how to think and decide for himself, eh?

Edited by fredhot16 on Nov 27th 2019 at 5:21:09 AM

I think it’s very likely.

One of the things I like the most about the new information that the Dark One is the key to containing the Snarl is the prospect of Redcloak and O-Chul having to work with each other.