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The sudden unexpected encounter with Xykon and Redcloak leads to all out melee between the Order of the Stick and Team Evil. Belkar is killed by a Meteor Swarm just as Vaarsuvius arrives to save the day. Finally Roy uses the Feat he learned from his grandfather to defeat Xykon. Except it turns out it was all a phantasm placed by Girard Draketooth and none of this is real.

Cast[]

Transcript[]

Panel 1, Page 1

Haley: Crap! Crap! Crap!
Roy: The goblin! Shoot the goblin!
Roy attacks Xykon with Greenhilt, "slash!"
Xykon: Whoa! Where's the witty hero-villain reparté?
Xykon: What kind of lifeless abomination do you take me for?

Panel 2, Page 1

Elan (singing): ♪♪Fight, fight, fight, fight the main villain way before we were expecting it!♪
Haley: Sneak attack!
Haley fires three magic arrows at Redcloak, "fft! fft! fft!", and two hit, "thnk! thnk!"
Xykon: Hey! No one shoots the goblin in the face but me!
Xykon: Energy Drain!

Panel 3, Page 1

Roy: Does everyone have to make jokes? Can't you just DIE???
Roy slashes Xykon again, green flames leaping from Greenhilt, "SCHRTTK!"
Xykon: Hey, I felt that one! I guess you took my advice and leveled up.
Redcloak: Heal.

Panel 4, Page 1

Roy: Then you DO remember me!
Xykon: When I'm done with you, memories are all that'll be left.
Xykon: Other people's, that is. I'm not going to turn you into, like, some sort of memory spirit or something.

Panel 5, Page 1

Xykon: Though that sounds pretty metal, actually. I should make someone research it.
Xykon: Meteor Swarm.
The party is hit by the meteor swarm, with one meteor targeting Belkar, one for Haley, and two for Roy. They are engulfed in flames.

Panel 6, Page 1

Elan: Roy! Belkar's dead!!♪♪♪
Roy: Keep fighting! They'll kill us all if we turn and run!
Xykon: That's actually true.
Redcloak: Lord Xykon, please don't point out to the scrappy underdogs that they've got nothing left to lose.
Xykon: Oh, right.

Panel 7, Page 1

Elan: Mass Cure Light Wounds!
Roy: Haley, I have an idea to fight Xykon…or more of a memory. Can you take out the cleric?
Haley: I'm trying, but he can heal faster than I can hurt him!
Xykon: Didn't these bozos used to be more of a threat?
Redcloak: They seem to have lost their main casters.
Redcloak: Harm.

Panel 8, Page 1

Xykon kills Mr. Scruffy, who had lunged at him in anger.
Vaarsuvius: Not lost. Merely misplaced.
Vaarsuvius: Forcecage.
Vaarsuvius traps Redcloak in a Forcecage.

Panel 1, Page 2

Elan: Vaarsuvius!
Haley: You're alive!!
Vaarsuvius: My superior elven hearing led me to believe that you had a stratagem if the cleric became neutralized?
Xykon: Hey! No one puts the goblin in a confined space but me!
Redcloak: Sir, you used that line already.

Panel 2, Page 2

Roy: OK…This'll work…just like I practiced…Picture the flow of energy around him…and…
Xykon (off-panel): Energy—

Panel 3, Page 2

Roy slashes with a flaming Greenhilt, "SLASH!", and the spell fizzles, "fizzle!"
Xykon: —Drain??

Panel 4, Page 2

Roy: It—it worked!
Xykon: How did you do that?? I was casting defensively!
Redcloak: He prevented you from doing so by timing his strike to perfectly coincide with the apex of magical energy.
Xykon: Yeah, but—how??

Panel 5, Page 2

Xylon: Meteor—
Roy slashes again, "SLASH!", and again the spell fizzles, "fizzle!"

Panel 6, Page 2

Xykon:Superb Dis—
"SHTHNK! fizzle!"

Panel 7, Page 2

Xykon: Greater Tele—
"SKGURTCH! fizzle!" Roy impales Xykon.

Panel 8, Page 2

Roy: You're done, Xykon!
Roy: This is for everyone you've ever killed, from my dad's master to the Sapphire Guard to Dorukan—
Xykon: Wait—Roy—

Panel 9, Page 2

Roy: —to me!
Roy bisects Xykon's skull. He dies.

Panel 10, Page 2

Haley: Holy…
Elan: Roy—you did it! You beat him!
Roy: I—I can't believe it. I really did!
Roy: I killed Xykon!
Roy: I KILLED—

Panel 11, Page 2

Belkar, Elan, Haley, and Roy stand glamoured in the hallway. Their eyes are purple spirals and mystic runes glow purple behind them. Elan drools.
Roy: Xykon…
Roy: …Hooray…

D&D Context[]

  • Energy Drain is a 9th level spell that takes 2d4 levels away from the target, with the possibility of the drain being permanent.
  • Meteor Swarm is a 9th level spell that creates four meteors. Each meteor does 2d6 damage to whoever it hits and 6d6 fire damage to creatures in a 40 ft radius. Xykon is within that radius, but as demonstrated in a previous strip, he is immune to fire damage.
  • Harm does 10 hp/level damage, except Redcloak is applying it to Xykon, who is undead, in which case it acts like Heal and heals 10 hp/level.
  • Mass Cure Light Wounds is a 4th level spell that heals 1d8 hp + 1hp/level on a number of creatures up to the caster's level.
  • On page 1, panel 8, Xykon appears to use Burning Hands to dispatch Mr. Scruffy without explicitly calling out the spell as is usually the case.
  • Forcecage is a 7th level spell which creates a 10-ft cube of force around the target, blocking most spells and physical attacks.
  • Roy uses the Spellsplinter Maneuver here for the first time. He uses it four times in total, on page 2 in panels 3, 5, 6, and 7. Roy learned the feat from his grandfather Horace Greenhilt in the afterlife in strip #600.

Trivia[]

  • Comics #885 through #889 are all part of the illusion. Note that in all the comics except #885 (before the reader is let in on the trick) the colors are all less saturated than in "real life".
  • In the illusion, Redcloak has the eyepatch over the wrong eye. His right eye was smitten by O-Chul, not his left, which would make him look like his brother, Right-Eye.

External Links[]

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