The Linear Guild uses the chaos of the battle to escape from the Azure City prison.
Cast[]
- The Linear Guild
- Miko Miyazaki ◀ ▶
- Tsukiko ◀ ▶
- The Kidnapper ◀
- Chlorine Elemental ◀
- An Azure City Soldier
- An Azurite Prison Guard
- A Hobgoblin Soldier
Transcript[]
- Panel 1, Page 1
The Chlorine Elemental (periodic table entry "17 Cl 35.453") turns on Tsukiko, who responds with a Lightning Bolt. The Kidnapper watches from a barred window.
Chlorine Elemental: Kill all humans.
- Panel 2, Page 1
Inside the prison.
Kidnapper: HA! I knew I made the right call staying in prison. That Tsukiko chick is getting her ass kicked by an elemental!
Kidnapper: It’s so much safer up here!
- Panel 3, Page 1
Outside, Tsukiko dispatches the elemental with a spell, which also causes the prison wall to crack.
Tsukiko: SHOUT!
- Panel 4, Page 1
A large chuck of masonry from the prison wall falls on the Kidnapper, killing him, "THUNK!"
- Panel 5, Page 1
Nale: Well, now, really, what did you expect after a line like that?
- Panel 6, Page 1
Nale: Thog, give me a boost, I think I can squeeze up there…
Thog: thog always dreamed of being footstool, thog never thought dream come true.
- Panel 7, Page 1
Thog lifts Nale up on his shoulders to the hole in the wall.
Thog: *sniff*
Thog: it everything thog imagined, and so much more.
- Panel 8, Page 1
Outside, Nale approaches an Azurite Soldier in combat with a hobgoblin.
Nale: Charm Person!
- Panel 9, Page 1
Nale: Give me your sword.
Solider: Yes, sir!
The soldier hands over his katana.
- Panel 10, Page 1
Hobgoblin: Hey, thanks! I guess I’m lucky you really needed a katana!
The hobgoblin impales the soldier with his longsword, killing him.
- Panel 11, Page 1
Nale: I prefer longswords, actually.
Nale kills the hobgoblin with the katana, "slash!"
- Panel 12, Page 1
Back in the prison.
Sabine: He sure is taking a long time out there…
Thog: nale only been gone for four panels.
- Panel 13, Page 1
Sabine: Thog, when someone in a comic strip says, “he sure is taking a long time,” it indicates that time has passed between panels.
Thog: ohhhh! sabine smart!
- Panel 1, Page 2
Nale walks into the prison past the corpse of the prison guard, holding the hobgoblin's longsword and the guard's ring of keys.
Sabine (off-panel): Nale, there you are.
Nale: Interesting trivia fact: The guard with the keys has a higher-than-average Will Save for a fighter.
- Panel 2, Page 2
'Nale opens Sabine and Thog's cell doors.
Thog: thog free, free as the wind!
Sabine: Oooo, I missed you so much, baby!
Nale: Me too, now let’s get out of here.
- Panel 3, Page 2
Sabine: What about the ex-paladin, do we spring her?
Nale: Honey, she snapped your neck!
Sabine: …I got better.
- Panel 4, Page 2
Nale: No, no other prisoners. She can find her own way out. I’m sick of dead weight on this team.
Nale: I mean, “Pompey”? What was I possibly thinking?
- Panel 5, Page 2
Sabine: So, are we going to go find the Order of the Stick and kill them?
Nale: As much as it seemingly violates the Linear Guild charter, not today, dear.
- Panel 6, Page 2
Nale: There are already way too many characters involved in the action here:
Nale: My brother, his followers, Xykon, HIS followers, the paladins, the ex-paladin, probably a few D-listers we don’t even know about…
Nale: If we stuck around here, we wouldn't get nearly the amount of spotlight that we, as major recurring villains, deserve.
- Panel 7, Page 2
Nale: Besides, why make this into a three-way struggle for Soon’s Gate, when there are two other perfectly good Gates out there waiting to be found?
Nale: Let them fight over this one, we’ll sneak off an[d] capture another, don’t you agree?
Sabine: …
Sabine: Oh, sorry. I kinda got distracted when you said the word, “three-way”.
- Panel 8, Page 2
On the parapets of the castle.
Sabine: So, does this mean we’re giving up on revenge?
Nale: Don’t be silly, the never-ending escalation of petty revenge will continue, but at a more prudent time and place.
- Panel 9, Page 2
Sabine takes flight, carrying Nale while Thog hangs on to her foot.
Sabine: Then where are we going?
Nale: Shopping. Thog and I left all of our magic items in Cliffport.
Nale: After that, wherever our evil schemes take us, my dear.
- Panel 10, Page 2
Thog's stomach gives a mighty "RUMBLE!!!"
Nale: Which, apparently will include another ice cream parlor.
Thog: hooray!
D&D Context[]
- Lightning Bolt is a 3rd level wizard spell. A staple of attack spells, it does 1d6/level damage to a maximum of 10d6.
- Shout is a 4th level wizard spell which does 5d6 sonic damage as well as deafening the subject. Brittle objects, such as the stone wall behind the elemental, take 1d6/level damage up to a max of 15d6.
- Charm Person is a 1st level spell which causes the subject to treat the caster as a trusted friend and ally. Nale apparently tried it on the guard with the keys but he made his Will save to resist the effects.
Trivia[]
- This is the final appearance of the Chlorine Elemental, which first appeared in the previous strip.
- This is the final appearance of the Kidnapper from #420.
- "I got better" is a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where a peasant claims a purported witch turned him into a newt, before offering the quote as a halfhearted claim for why he currently isn't one.
- Nale picked up Pompey as a replacement spellcaster for the Linear Guild in Cliffport in #254. He was a lower level caster, still as student at Warthog's.
- Thog's love of eating ice cream was first shown back in "Linear Storytelling".