Arriving at the temple entrance, Roy attempts to open the door, but is surprised by some acolytes of Thor, causing him to accidentally activate a Glyph of Warding.
Cast[]
- The Order of the Stick
- Mr. Scruffy ◀ ▶
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- Assistant Overnight Caretaker Acolytes of Thor
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
The Order descends a rope ladder to the ground.
- Panel 2
Haley: Hold up, guys. I want to search for traps.
Roy: Good idea. No handles certainly implies they don't get a lot of visitors through this side.
- Panel 3
Haley: Oh, yeah, look at that: Glyphs of Warding, on the middle stop. Set to go off for anyone who's not a worshipper of Thor.
Haley: Should I disarm it?
Roy: No, let's just step over it, if we can.
- Panel 4
Roy: We're breaking into their temple in the middle of the night—even if we did get they key from their boss.
Roy: let's not trash their defenses right before we ask them for help.
- Panel 5
Roy: So let's see... no lock, no obvious place to put the stone...
Roy: maybe if I just touch it to—
- Panel 6
"CLICK!"
Roy: Well, there you go. That was easy.
Roy: OK, let's find whoever is in charge and—
- Panel 7
Voice #1 (off-panel): Turn Undead!
Voice #2 (off-panel): Searing Light!
Voice #3 (off-panel): Daylight!
Roy: GAAH!!!
- Panel 8
Roy stumbles backwards onto the Glyph of Warding, "BBBZZZZT!!"
- Panel 9
Tinna: Get out of here, bad night creatures!
Rogo: Tha assistant overnight caretaker acolytes o' Thor command ye ta begone!
Minrah: You should just run away before we use our holy power that we definitely have more of!!
Roy: All I can see are spots.
Belkar: You're not missing much.
D&D Context[]
- In panels 2 and 3, Haley uses Trapfinding a rogue class feature, which enables her to use search to find magical traps. Similarly, only rogues are able to use Disable Device to disarm a magical trap.
- Glyph of Warding is a 3rd level cleric spell which creates a magical trap to harm anyone who passes the ward.
- Turn Undead is a cleric class feature which when invoked can cause undead to flee or possibly be destroyed.
- Searing Light is a 3rd level cleric spell which projects a ray of light from the caster's palm, dealing 1d8 damage for every two caster levels.
- Daylight is also a 3rd level cleric spell. It is cast on an object and creates bright light in a 60 foot radius around the object. Despite its name, it would not destroy vampires as would actual daylight.
Trivia[]
- The title is pun on the Catholic military order the Knights Templar, and the acolytes, who are there to guard the temple at night. The Knights Templar existed from the 12th to 14th centuries.
- This is the first appearance of the assistant overnight caretaker acolytes of Thor, Tinna, Rogo, and Minrah. They were not named until the next strip. Minrah's full name would be revealed in 1135.
- The Glyphs of Warding are typed in Blambot's Wizardspeak font. When deciphered, they read, "Don't @ me about how Glyph of Warding works."