Thor tells of how the gods are split on the issue of the Dark One, and he outlines Durkon's mission: to convince Redcloak to cast one 9th level spell to seal the gates.
Cast[]
- Durkon Thundershield (as spirit) ◀ ▶
- Minrah (as spirit) ◀ ▶
- Thor ◀ ▶
- Loki (as illusion) ◀ ▶
- Dark One (as illusion) ◀
- Tiamat (as illusion) ◀
- Rat (as illusion) ◀
- Skadi (as illusion) ◀
- Sunna (as illusion) ◀
- Tyr (as illusion) ◀
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Thor: When the Dark One first ascended, he was still weak. All I saw was another evil god—one who had, as a mortal, killed many of my followers.
Thor: I thought if I attacked him before he could gather strength, I could defeat a force for evil safely.
- Panel 2
Thor summons an image of Loki interposing himself between Thor and the Dark One, with Tiamat and Rat watching.
Thor (inset): Loki stopped me. In fact, it was Loki who first realized what the existence of a purple god could mean.
Thor (inset): He did his best to keep up a good relationship with the Dark One, with the intent of someday letting him in on the secret of the Snarl.
- Panel 3
Thor: Unfortunately, the Dark One learned about it on his own, and cut off all ties with my brother.
Thor: Loki tried to re-establish communications, but the Dark One just melted Loki's emissaries and anointed his planar legions with their liquified remains. And then he dropped out of their private chat group!
- Panel 4
Thor summons an image of three Northern gods.
Thor: None of the other gods have successfully contacted him since then.
Thor: Not that we could agree on what to do if we could.
Sunna: Now that we know violet quiddity is possible, we should wait for a god that is more reasonable.
Tyr: I'd rather continue this cycle for all of eternity than give one damn inch to that goblin.
Skadi: I was on board until this stuff with the Gates came up. It's not worth the risk to our home planes.
- Panel 5
Thor: The Twelve Gods are similarly split. Some don't want to negotiate with the god responsible for what happened to Azure City.
Thor: Rat is apparently furious.
Thor: And I hear that most of the Western Gods don't even believe the Dark One really is a new color.
Thor: Tiamat is the only one who's ever met him in person, and they think she's lying to further some scheme.
- Panel 6
Thor: That's why I need you, Durkon.
Durkon: M-me?? I'm suppos'd ta convince a god??
Thor: No, no, no.
- Panel 7
Thor: You need to convince the Dark One's high priest—you know him as Redcloak—to help us.
Thor: We need him to channel his god's purple quiddity into the process of sealing the rifts.
Thor: We need only a drop or so—one 9th-level spell slot should do it. We can handle the rest.
- Panel 8
Durkon: Lord Thor, I... I ain't exactly a diplomat. Mebbe thar's another cleric better suited...
- Panel 9
Thor: Oh? The guy who just talked a vampire into nonexistence thinks he's bad at persuasion?
Durkon: Och, tha were a special circumstance.
Thor: Good news! This is literally the single most special circumstance ever. You'll do fine.
D&D Context[]
- In the last panel "special circumstance" refers to Circumstance Modifiers to die rolls in D&D, suggesting that Durkon will receive a bonus on the die roll to convince Redcloak to go along with Thor's plan. This would presumably be a diplomacy skill check.
Trivia[]
- This is the latest appearance of:
- The Dark One, god of goblinoids. He first appeared in Jirix's vision of the afterlife in #704, "Dead Men Give No Speeches". He makes nine additional appearances in comics published outside the web comic, principally in Start of Darkness. It also shows his primary or preferred weapon to be axes.
- Tiamat, goddess of the sea and dragons. She has appeared in five strips, first appearing in #273.
- Tyr, Skadi, Sunna, gods of the Northern Pantheon. Their only other appearance is their voices speaking through their high priests in #999, "The Vote in Gods' Aye". This is their first visual depiction in the comic. They can be identified here by their visual similarity to their high priests in #999.
- Rat, one of the Twelve Gods. His only other appearance is with the rest of his pantheon in #407, "Fading"