The Order discusses why Odin may have chosen to give Hurak the prophecy despite not wanting to end the world: to allow Durkon to help defeat Xykon.
Cast[]
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Haley: Look, he's not my god or anything, but it's a little scary to think that he could've just stopped this from happening and didn't.
Roy: Well... we've already thwarted Xykon's plans three times, right? We needed Durkon to pull that off.
- Panel 2
Roy: What if, without Durkon, we all end up dead somewhere in the middle of the first dungeon, and Xykon finishes his plan and takes over?
Roy: Odin might not want Hel to win, but maybe he wants Xykon to win even less.
Roy: Durkon getting turned into a vampire is just an unfortuante side effect of doing what needed to be done to stop Xykon.
- Panel 3
Firuk: Couldnae 'e haf sent one o' 'is own clerics, then, 'stead of ruinin' tha poor lad's life?
Roy: Absolutely, he could have—if what we needed was a cleric.
- Panel 4
Roy: not if what we needed...
Roy: ...was Durkon.
- Panel 5
Roy: Durkon is the one who talked me into giving the rest of you a chance in the first place, after all.
Haley: When you got killed fighting Xykon, he did snap me out of feeling sorry for myself.
Vaarsuvius: He had nothing but kind words when I was at my lowest, following my... ill-advised bargain.
Elan: He convinced Miko that Roy wasn't evil! For a while, at least.
Belkar: I'm not going to say something all poignant, so don't ask.
- Panel 6
Belkar: ...
Belkar: He didn't blame me.
- Panel 7
Roy: Any other cleric worth his Wisdom probably would have given up on us for being grossly incompetent, both individually and as a group, bur Durkon stuck it out.
Haley: OK, I guess that sorta makes sense, but... if the prophecy is grue then we have no chance here. Odin already said that Hel is going to win.
Roy: Did he?
- Panel 8
Roy: His prophecy said there'll be death and destruction—which Evil Durkon is already dishing out.
Roy: Maybe it's already been fulfilled, and what happens next is up to us.
- Panel 9
Haley: So, Odin probably knows what's going to happen next, but we don't?
Roy: Yeah. I mean, same as always, right?
- Panel 10
Elan: Also, Durkon was good for a lot of tree-related punchlines at the end of comics like this.
Belkar: I know, right? I feel like me and the bird are working double-time just to pick up the slack!
D&D Context[]
- Wisdom is the prime requisite ability score for clerics. It gives them bonuses and governs what level spells they can cast.
Trivia[]
- Durkon has played a crucial interpersonal role in the group:
- Durkon talked Roy into letting the other join the Order of the Stick in On the Origin of PCs.
- He snapped Haley out of feeling sorry for herself in #444.
- He had kind words for Vaarsuvius after the disastrous Soul Splice in #667.
- He convinced Miko that Roy wasn't evil (for a while), in #202.
- He didn't blame Belkar for his death at the hands of Malack in #877.
- Durkon's fear of trees is a running punchline in many comics. The fear is normal among dwarves in the comic.