Belkar's moment of glorious return is ruined by the rest of the party.
Cast[]
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Vaarsuvius ◀ ▶
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- Little Whiskers ◀
- Goliath (as vampire) ◀
Transcript[]
- Panel 1, Page 1
Goliath: Grrrarrr!
Goliath swings and misses with his enormous war hammer, "WMPFCH!"
Belkar: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought vampires had fast reflexes or something.
- Panel 2, Page 1
Belkar: I guess we can throw that into the pile of untrue vampire myths—
Belkar: —like that they can all fly, or that they're interesting conversationalists.
- Panel 3, Page 1
Belkar (thinking): OK, I got this.
Belkar (thinking): Who needs weapons? I can beat this loser. Or at least get him the hell out of my way.
- Panel 4, Page 1
Goliath: Master said to smash you for Hel!
He swings and misses again, "WOOSH!"
Belkar: Eh, Master says a lot of stuff, like, "Ach! That manly halfling just chopped off my head!"
Belkar: Wait, that one's still in the future. But you get the idea.
- Panel 5, Page 1
Belkar (thinking): If he charges me, I can trip him and give him a good push over the side of the mountain.
Belkar (thinking): I don't care if he can rock-bat his way back up, it'll hurt going down and I can get inside.
- Panel 6, Page 1
Belkar scoops up some snow.
Belkar: I'm surprised they didn't break a fang trying to turn you in the first place.
Belkar: Must've been like biting a rock, only dumber.
- Panel 7, Page 1
Belkar tosses a snowball at the vampire.
Belkar: See, your first mistake was getting into a fight with a halfling in the snow.
Belkar: We literally have bonuses for this!
- Panel 8, Page 1
The snowball hits the vampire in the face with a "SPLAT!".
Goliath: GRRRR!!
- Panel 9, Page 1
Belkar (thinking): OK, that did the trick. One more round and I can get back to exposing "Durkon" for what it really is.
Belkar (thinking): I think I'm definitely going to go for the flip.
- Panel 10, Page 1
Goliath charges.
Belkar (thinking): Here it comes...
Belkar (thinking): Almost...
- Panel 11, Page 1
Belkar (thinking): NOW!!
- Panel 1, Page 2
Roy leaps out from the temple, bisecting the vampire with his sword in an arc of green flame, "WSHHCNCT!"
- Panel 2, Page 2
Roy: You were absolutely right about Durkon and I was wrong.
Roy: Now he's trying to destroy the world and we need to stop him.
- Panel 3, Page 2
Belkar: I was—But—
Roy: Hurry up, let's go!!
- Panel 4, Page 2
Belkar: What the hell is the point of facts if I don't get to gloat about knowing them first?!?
- Panel 5, Page 2
The vampire's torso crawls towards Belkar, preparing to energy drain...
Belkar: And you couldn't even let me beat one measly vampire before you—
- Panel 6, Page 2
Vaarsuvius, Blackwing and Little Whiskers fly over Belkar, and V blasts the vampire, killing it before it manages to touch Belkar.
Blackwing: Heads up!
Blackwing: Coming through!
- Panel 7, Page 2
Beat panel. The vampire mist floats away.
- Panel 8, Page 2
Belkar: I'll just go get my daggers.
D&D Context[]
- In page 2, panel 6, V appears to use the 1st level Burning Hands spell.
- Goliaths are a race of creatures related to giants in D&D. They were first introduced in the 2004 Races of Stone supplement for D&D 3.5.
Trivia[]
- Belkar is weaponless since "Durkon" biting/grabbing him in a dire-wolf form in #996.
- In page 1, panel 9, Belkar refers to the flip he contemplated in #1015.
- This is the final appearance of Little Whiskers, Veldrina's tiger companion. He first appeared in #987.
- This is the final appearance of Goliath (not a canonical name, taken from the strip's title and his presumed race), a former member of the Creed of Stone who was turned into a vampire. He first appeared in #994.
- The title could be a reference to "David and Goliath", with Belkar representing David, and also to the race of the creature, as referenced above.