The Heroes close their eyes to protect themselves from the vampires' gaze attacks, though Haley notices a flaw in this strategy.
Cast[]
- The Order of the Stick
- Mr. Scruffy ◀ ▶
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- Minrah Shaleshoe ◀ ▶
- Brother Sandstone (as vampire) ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Blue Beard and Bald Head ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Blue Shirt and Beard ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Brown Beard ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Purple Dress ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Short Green Hair ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Brown Ponytail ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Green Beard and Hair ◀ ▶
- Vampire Dwarf with Green Shirt ◀ ▶
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Belkar: You've got to be kidding me! We're stuck mint-in-package until tomorrow?!?
Roy: No, you've got to be able to dismiss the spell early, right.
Vaarsuvius: I can, but doing so is not without some risk.
- Panel 2
Vaarsuvius: Rescinding the Forcecage will require the same mental effort as casting a new spell—
Vaarsuvius: —giving our would-be desanguinators a few brief moments in which to swarm us before I can recover and cast an offensive spell.
- Panel 3
Sandstone: And we'll be ready when you do, elf.
Sandstone: Master told us to come for you first.
- Panel 4
Minrah: Brother Sandstone!!
Sandstone: Hello, Minrah. It was very difficult to keep myself from biting your face off, but Master gave us explicit instructions to lay still.
- Panel 5
Minrah's eyes become swirly has she falls under Sandstone's dominating gaze.
Sandstone: But if you kill the elf for me now, we can escape to another plane together while this world burns.
Minrah: Unnnh...
Sandstone: Think how many demons you could kill if you had eternal life!
- Panel 6
Roy: No! Close your eyes!
Roy pulls Minrah away from Sandstone.
Roy: He wants you to knock out Vaarsuvius so the Forcecage can't be dropped and we're trapped in here!
- Panel 7
Roy: In fact, everyone close your eyes! They can't use their gaze attack if you can't see them!
Elan: Got it, Roy!
- Panel 8
Everyone shuts their eyes except for Mr Scruffy.
- Panel 9
Mr Scruffy starts to lick his foreleg.
Haley: So, I can't help but feel like maybe we've taken a step backwards here.
D&D Context[]
- As V notes, dismissing a spell is a standard action, precluding them from also casting a spell in the same round.
- Vampires have a Dominate gaze attack which functions the same as the Dominate Person spell. Since it is a gaze attack, it requires the target to be able to see their eyes.