Haley uses Elan's Potion of Glibness +30 to great effect.
Cast[]
- Haley Starshine (also glib) ◀ ▶
- Elan ◀ ▶
- Arena Guards with Manual ◀
- Three Soldiers of the Empire of Blood
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Haley: Crap! Dead end!
Elan: Don't worry, Haley. I think we can take em.
Haley: Of COURSE we can take them, Elan. I just don't think we can take them without, you know, killing them.
- Panel 2
Elan: Wait—I know! I can cast Disguise Self to look like my father!
Haley: Maybe... OK, yeah, I can make that work, just keep quiet. No offense, but you literally can't bluff to save your life.
Haley: In fact, I think your bluffs usually endanger your life in new and exciting ways.
- Panel 3
Elan holds out a bottle labeled "Philter potion of Glibness (+30 to Bluff)"
Elan: That's not a problem, Haley.
Elan: Check it out: I bought this back when we were separated.
- Panel 4
Haley: Elan, why didn't you tell me you had one of those? Save the illusion, gimme that!
Elan: Haley, you don't need that, you already have a bazillion points in Bluff.
Haley: Exactly.
Haley takes the potion, "swipe!", and drinks it, "chug!".
- Panel 5
Haley glows orange, and her speech balloons now appear orange-ish for the rest of the strip.
Haley: The entry in the manual was written as an elaborate test of your adherence to procedure, which you've passed.
Guard #1: But it says—
Haley: Anything written in there that contradicts what I'm telling you is just another part of the test.
Guard 1: Oh.
- Panel 6
Haley: Congrats on your vigilance, though! You're getting promoted! Report to the courthouse for your new assignment.
Guard #1: Right now?
Haley Right now.
- Panel 7
Guard #2: Maybe we can get palace duty.
Guard #1: Yeah, nothing ever happens there.
Haley: Behold, the power of lying! You can pretty much alter reality, if you try hard enough.
Haley: Watch:
- Panel 8
Haley: You don't hear or see us.
Guard #3: Huh. Must be a trick of the light.
- Panel 9
Haley: You don't work here anymore.
Guard #4: Crap, how am I going to pay my mortgage?
- Panel 10
Haley: You're actually a yellow-footed rock wallaby.
Guard #5: Screw this guard stuff, then. I'm gonna go find a wizard to polymorph me back.
- Panel 11
Guard 5 hops away, "hop! hop! hop!"
Elan: Wow, this is awesome! We can just waltz right in and rescue your dad now!
Haley: Yeah, it's pretty cool. I just need to be careful not to get too carried away.
- Panel 12
Haley: Incidentally, it's not at all weird that you worship a puppet, Roy really respects your opinions—
Haley: —and the answer to your question from the last panel of the previous strip is, "No, not at all."
Elan: I knew it!
D&D Context[]
- The crossed-out label is a reference to the fact that the name changed from "philter" in AD&D 2nd Edition to "potion" in D&D 3.0 Edition. The potion mimics the effects of the 3rd level bard spell, Glibness giving +30 to bluff checks.
- The Bluff skill allows the character to have their lies believed. Haley's Bluff skill is maxed out (18+), and the potion provides +30, so even bluffs which are outrageous and incur a +20 Sense Motive modifier to the guard's assessment of the bluff are likely to be believed.
Trivia[]
- The Yellow-footed rock-wallaby is considered one of the handsomest members of the marsupial family.
- Elan's question from the previous strip was, "Is having someone who points out all the cliches in all your plans always this annoying?". Haley is taking the opportunity of the glibness potion to convincingly lie to Elan about all the things he doesn't want to hear.
- The title, likewise, reinforces a lie that people don't want to know the truth about, as well as being a reference to the September 21, 1897 editorial in the The Sun (a New York newspaper), known for its famous line, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".
- This is the final appearance of the Arena Guards with Manual from the previous strip.