Durkon gives Hilgya a lecture on what it really means to be a dwarf.
Cast[]
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Hilgya Firehelm: What's wrong?
Durkon: "What's wrong?" Yer freak'n married, tha's what's wrong!!
- Panel 2
Hilgya: Yeah, but I told you, I ran away from that. It didn't make me happy.
Durkon: Happy? HAPPY? what tha heck does happiness have to do wit' bein' a dwarf??
- Panel 3
Durkon: Ye were married in tha eyes of the gods an' our ancestors! Ya can't just ignore that when it strikes yer fancy!!
Hilgya: Oh, golly, I'm soooo sorry I can't get worked up by what a bunch of dead dwarves think about my personal life. MY personal life, as in MY business.
- Panel 4
Durkon: Ugh, listen to ya! Ye sound like one of the humans, with their "If it feels groovy, do it," and their "inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness."
- Panel 5
Hilgya: Hey, I like living among the humans. At least THEY don't shackle me with stupid rules about my love life.
Hilgya: I thought you felt the same way. Why else would you be traveling with them?
Durkon: Are ye kidding??
- Panel 6
Durkon: I hate livin' in human lands! Everythin's too big, and too bright, and too warm, and I ain't had a decent mug o' lager in five years.
Durkon: I stay here 'cause the High Priest of Thor commanded me to go forth 'nto human lands, until I was called fer by him.
- Panel 7
Durkon: I stay 'ere because it's me duty. And bein' a dwarf is about doin' yer duty, even if it makes ye miserable.
Durkon: ESPECIALLY if it makes ye miserable!
- Panel 8
Hilgya: But...I think I might love you!
Durkon: My mum taught me tha' I should always take feelings like that, and bury them inna deep dark part o' my soul and nev'r ev'r talk about 'em again. That's tha dwarven way.
- Panel 9
Durkon: Yer duty as a dwarf is ta go home and be wit' yer husband.
Hilgya: Are—are you telling me to leave?
Hilgya begins to cry.
- Panel 10
Durkon: ...
Durkon: Aye.
- Panel 11
Hilgya runs away, crying.
- Panel 12
Durkon heads off in the other direction with a tear in his eye.
Trivia[]
- After this strip, Hilgya will not appear again in-person until #1105—over 1000 strips later—though she appears as an illusion in #142 and in a picture from the print version of Dungeon Crawlin' Fools in #668. She will be replaced as divine spellcaster in the Linear Guild by Leeky Windstaff.
- Durkon in the fourth panel references hippies and the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
- Durkon's mother's words would be heard again in #1129, in the original context Durkon heard them in.