Vaarsuvius tries to get the rest of the Order to acknowledge Blackwing's existence.
Cast[]
- The Order of the Stick
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- Big Bird (as illusion)
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Roy: OK gang, Belkar says he has a lead on what I need for the mission, so let's split up, do some shopping, and meet back at this spot.
Roy: Preferably sometime before the end of the book.
Haley: I've got loot to sell, so Elan and I will hit the magic item tents.
Durkon: I'll join ye, lass.
Vaarsuvius: In that case, we shall seek out a vendor of reagents and components, so that we may purchase those required by my most powerful spells.
- Panel 2
Roy: "We"?
Vaarsuvius: ...Yes, that is the pronoun I used.
Roy: Vaarsuvius, you're the only one left. Who are you going with?
Belkar: Please tell me you haven't cracked and started using the royal third person.
- Panel 3
Vaarsuvius: I refer to my raven familiar, Blackwing, who shall accompany in this task as he has done for all others.
Vaarsuvius: Long have I neglected him, but that has now concluded. He has agreed to be a more active participant in our quest.
- Panel 4
Roy: ...
Roy: Your what, now?
Belkar: You have a familiar? When did you get a familiar?
Haley: Huh. I didn't know that.
- Panel 5
Vaarsuvius: You did not—Miss Starshine, you were the one who bequeathed upon him his Common name!
Haley: I was? I don't remember that.
- Panel 6
Roy: V, I think I would remember seeing a bird hanging around this whole time.
Vaarsuvius: No, no, you do not understand. My raven only appeared when I acknowledged his existence.
Elan: Oh! Like an imaginary friend!
Vaarsuvius: No!
- Panel 7
Roy: Wouldn't a familiar have been involved in all our adventures so far, though?
Haley: Yeah, where was this alleged raven when you were turned into a lizard?
Belkar: Or when you were attacked by that death knight?
Vaarsuvius: But—but he was actually THERE for those events!!
Haley: Was he?
- Panel 8
Vaarsuvius: Look—look here. He is perched upon my shoulder this very moment.
Belkar: I don't see anything.
Vaarsuvius: That is because you have the sensory acuity of loose gravel, you moron!
Belkar: ...Did you just call me a cutie?
- Panel 9
Roy: It's a very convincing illusion of a crow, V, but I don't understand why you're trying so hard to convince us that it's been there all along when it clearly hasn't.
Vaarsuvius: It is not a crow, it's a RAVEN!
Durkon: Aye, aye, a raven.
Durkon: Best na ta challenge tha delusion.
- Panel 10
Roy: Look, whatever you and your pretend pet bird want to go do, fine, just be back here in, say, two hours.
Haley: I think that super-spell V cast may have knocked a few pieces loose upstairs.
Durkon: Aye, it's tragic, really.
Elan: Silent Image.
Elan: Look, I have a familiar now, too!
- Panel 11
Blackwing: Now that you feel my pain, the healing can begin.
Vaarsuvius: I require a reminder as to why raining arcane destruction is not an appropriate response to all of life's indignities.
Vaarsuvius: Quickly, please, before they are out of range.
D&D Context[]
- Silent Image is a 1st level bard spell, one that Elan has used since the beginning of the comics. It produces a visual illusion for as long as the caster maintains concentration on the image.
Trivia[]
- The title is a reference to the fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
- The illusion created by Elan is Big Bird from Sesame Street. This is the only appearance of Big Bird in Order of the Stick.
- This strip upends the running gag that Blackwing only appears when Vaarsuvius acknowledged his existence. It also may be a reference to D&D players constantly forgetting that they have a familiar, animal companion, or horse that they should have been utilizing the entire time. Now that V wants to have Blackwing around all the time, the rest of the party fails to acknowledge his existence, despite the events noted in the strip:
- Haley gave Blackwing his name in #154, One Bird with Two Dozen Arrows.
- In the same strip Belkar reminds V of Blackwing's existence and in what strip he first appeared.
- Blackwing attempted to eat V when V had been turned into a lizard in #178, The Early Bird Catches the Wizard.
- Blackwing appeared but failed to defend V against the Death Knight in #440, Flew the Coop.