Vaarsuvius comes clean to Roy on what they saw in the Snarl at Azure City during the Soul Splice. Roy picks a place to make a stand.
Cast[]
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Belkar Bitterleaf ◀ ▶
- Vaarsuvius ◀ ▶
- Blackwing ◀ ▶
- Five Soldiers of the Empire of Blood
- A Velociraptor
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Roy: This is brilliant. They're fighting each other out there while we regroup.
Vaarsuvius: It will only last a minute or two, so I strongly suggest you employ it to its maximum utility.
Vaarsuvius: Lightning Bolt.
- Panel 2
An arrow bounces harmlessly off of Belkar's head. "plink!"
Belkar: So do we have a plan to beat these guys?
Roy: I could not care less about beating them. I just want us to get away alive.
Roy: Or get away undead, in Durkon's case.
Roy: What we need to do is find a way out of here that is hard for them to follow.
Vaarsuvius: I retain one additional Fly spell to cast, but there are six of us. The encumbrance would make pursuit effortless, even by foot.
- Panel 3
Vaarsuvius: Perhaps we should employ the flying carpet?
Roy: We lost it the first time the Linear Guild attacked.
Belkar: Seriously, you missed a lot.
- Panel 4
Vaarsuvius: ...Have you looked inside the Rift yet?
Roy: What, the Snarl rift? No. We don't know whether what we are seeing is really what's in there.
Roy: It would be just like Girard to put an illusion over the hole leading to the god-eating horror.
- Panel 5
Vaarsuvius: ...Sir Greenhilt.
Vaarsuvius: When battling Xykon in Azure City, my familiar was able to see inside the open rift there and also witnessed a world separate from our own.
Vaarsuvius: Given the lack of cooperation between Soon and Draketooth, it is highly unlikely that the latter glamered the Rift being guarded by the former.
- Panel 6
Vaarsuvius: I did not disclose this at the time because I was...embarrassed...about the details of my encounter—
Vaarsuvius: —which include several key decisions that showed shockingly poor moral character on my part.
Vaarsuvius: Decisions that also led to my recent truancy.
- Panel 7
Roy skewers a gigantic velociraptor and its rider atop it with a single stroke of Greenhilt. "sckltcht!"
Roy: Uh, OK... but I don't think this is this is the time or place to—
Vaarsuvius: It is never the time! It is never the place!
Vaarsuvius: I am telling you now so that it is done.
- Panel 8
Roy: ...OK...
Roy: Shojo said that the Snarl destroys souls. If there's even a chance that's true...no, we can't take that risk.
Roy: Dying, I can handle. Not that. Not when Xykon is still out there.
- Panel 9
Roy: Bring Haley and Elan back. We'll make our stand here, together, if nothing else.
- Panel 10
Vaarsuvius and Blackwing fly through the air in silence. Arrows fly hither and to around them.
- Panel 11
Vaarsuvius: Go ahead.
Blackwing: I'm so proud of you!!!!!
Vaarsuvius: *sigh*
D&D Context[]
- Lightning Bolt is a 3rd level spell which deals 1d6 per level of electrical damage, hitting all targets in a straight line.
Trivia[]
- Vaarsuvius has been separated from their party since #843, "Lack of Foresight".
- What Blackwing saw in the Azure City Rift was revealed in #672, the final strip of Don't Split the Party. The rest of the party (except Durkon) were able to see inside Girard's Rift in #900, Hole in the Middle.