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After O-Chul and Lien receive V's Sending, they are attacked by a mysterious assailant and spirited away.
Cast[]
- The Order of the Stick
- Vaarsuvius (in sending) ◀ ▶
- Team Evil
- Greyview ◀ ▶
- The Sapphire Guard
- Kraagor (as statue) ◀ ▶
- Serini Toormuck (invisible) ◀ ▶
- Sunny (invisible) ◀ ▶
Transcript[]
- Panel 1, Page 1
Vaarsuvius is completing their sending
Vaarsuvius: Crisis delayed. Durkon resurrected.
Vaarsuvius: En route to your location; arrival expected in two days.
Vaarsuvius: Please advise as to your present location; current status of Xykon.
- Panel 2, Page 1
Pan-out: revealing Lien to be the recipient
Lien: Xykon hasn't found Kraagor's Gate Yet.
Lien: His exploration pace is accelerating, though. O-Chul and I are holding position on southeast ledge over ravine.
Lien: Please hurry.
- Panel 3, Page 1
Lien turns to O-Chul who is looking through a spyglass.
Lien: That was Vaarsuvius. They'll be here in two days.
O-Chul: Good.
- Panel 4, Page 1
Lien: No kidding. I don't know why they've suddenly started risking more doors—
- Panel 5, Page 1
Cut to Team Evil outside Kraagor's Tomb. They are all banged up except for the Monster in the Darkness.
Xykon: You want to do a sixth door tonight??
Redcloak: We've done it before.
Oona: No, Oona is not thinking so many.
Redcloak: We must have. Count the number of doors and then divide by how many days we've—
MitD: Yep! Sounds right to me, let's go, chop chop, say no more!
Greyview: Agree. Better to die tonight, avoid long slide into infirmity and despair.
- Panel 6, Page 1
Cut back to the paladins.
Lien: —but if they keep up this pace, and your friend keeps marking extra doors, they'll run out of doors soon-ish.
O-Chul: At which point they will realize they have been tricked.
- Panel 7, Page 1
O-Chul: what I have yet to ascertain is how we might deduce which door the Gate is behind, even once our allies arrive.
O-Chul: If we begin opening doors, they are going to notice that—
- Panel 8, Page 1
A green dart strikes O-Chul's neck, "fft!"
O-Chul: Unnh!
- Panel 9, Page 1
Lien: What the—? A dart??
O-Chul: We're under attack.
O-Chul removes the dart from his neck
- Panel 10, Page 1
Lien: Where? Can you see—?
O-Chul: No, nothing. Must be invisible.
Lien: Or long range.
O-Chul: Not with a dart like that.
- Panel 1, Page 2
Lien: Can you hear me, whoever you are?
Lien: You're just going to attack us from hiding? Like a coward?
Serini: Pretty much.
O-Chul: That voice…where is it coming from?
- Panel 2, Page 2
Serini: Still on your feet? You're a tough one.
O-Chul: Whoever you are, you shall find we are not…
- Panel 3, Page 2
O-Chul: …going down…
O-Chul: …that easy…
O-Chul turns green from the poison…
- Panel 4, Page 2
…and collapses.
Serini: Oh, there it goes.
Lien: O-Chul!!!
Serini: Was getting worried that poison wasn't up to the task of cutting through your paladin mojo.
- Panel 5, Page 2
Lien parries a dart, pTANG!
- Panel 6, Page 2
Lien: Who are you? What do you want?
Serini: How about what you want?
- Panel 7, Page 2
Serini: Which I think right now is to not make so much noise that a certain lich hears you.
Serini: Though he's had a few encounters today, maybe you think you can take him?
- Panel 8, Page 2
Serini: Surrender now, quietly, and the man gets the antidote.
Serini: It won't wake him up, but it'll keep the toxins already inside him from burning through his arteries in the next two minutes.
- Panel 9, Page 2
Lien: How am I supposed to believe you if you won't show your face? There are a lot of liars in the world.
Serini: That's gonna have to be a judgement call on your part.
- Panel 10, Page 2
Serini: If I preferred him dead, could've kept my mouth shut about the antidote.
Serini: But I'm flexible.
- Panel 11, Page 2
O-Chul is drooling
Lien (off-panel): My gut tells me to go down fighting—
- Panel 12, Page 2
Lien: —but he would surrender.
Lien tosses aside her pole-arm
Lien: How do you out-paladin me even while unconscious?
- Panel 1, Page 3
Lien: Alright, you win, Mystery Voice. I did the noble-but-probably-stupid thing.
Lien: Now show yourself and save him!
Serini: Sorry, the deal didn't include you getting a look—
- Panel 2, Page 3
Lien is hit by a green dart, "fft!"
Lien: Aaahh!
Serini: —or staying awake, for that matter.
- Panel 3, Page 3
Lien: Yeah, that's…
Lien: …about what I…
Lien: …expected
Lien collapses
- Panel 4, Page 3
Serini: Well. That could've gone better.
Serini: Grab them before one of the bugbears spots us.
Sunny: You got it!
- Panel 5, Page 3
An invisible force pulls both Paladins upside down and begins carrying them skyward
Serini: *Sigh*
Serini: I guess we're finally doing this, huh?
- Panel 6, Page 3
Wide shot, revealing the full scope of Kraagor's Tomb
Serini: Fun while it lasted, right?
Sunny: What was, Boss?
Serini: Existing.
- Panel 7, Page 3
"The Order of the Stick will return on February 3, 2020."
D&D Context[]
- In the first panel, Lien is on the other end of the Sending spell cast by Vaarsuvius in the previous strip. Both Vaarsuvius' message and Lien's reply are exactly 25 words, the limit of the spell.
- O-Chul has a famously high Constitution score, approximately 25 based on his demonstrated hit points and resistances. So while he fails his Fortitude Saving Throw against the poison, he does seem to nearly resist it.
Trivia[]
- This is the final strip of Utterly Dwarfed.
- This strip, specifically page 3 panel 5, is a literal and figurative cliffhanger.
- At the time this strip was published, the identities of the two assailants were not known. One clue to their identities is that they have colored speech bubbles, which have been mostly used to indicate characters who are from other planes of existence, undead, dragons, or sometimes characters under some magical effect.
- As of #1226, the green voice is revealed to belong to Serini Toormuck. This is her first appearance since #277, with a gap of over 13 years and 912 strips in between. Only Sunny, Hilgya Firehelm, her husband Ivan, and Surtur have had longer gaps in callbacks, and only Sunny, Ivan (1031 strips), and Surtur (972 strips) in on-panel appearance.
- As of #1238, the orange voice is revealed to be a Beholder named Sunny, who has previously appeared in #32. Sunny has the longest gap in on-panel appearances of any characters at 1,157 strips.
- The title of the strip has multiple meanings, which reference O-Chul and Lien waiting for the Order of the Stick to arrive and being unable to see their assailant, along with it telling the readers to wait and see how the final book goes.
- In page 3, panel 1, Lien posits that O-Chul would have done the Lawful Stupid thing, though he is really a foil to that trope.