Roy discovers that his sword, though not originally starmetal, can be reforged as a starmetal sword that will cause extra damage to undead.
Cast[]
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Roy: You're saying that there is no starmetal in my sword.
Smith: Correct.
Roy: None.
Smith: Correct.
Roy: Not even a little?
Smith: Your sword was fashioned entirely of everday[sic] terrestrial steel, sir.
- Panel 2
Roy: Why would that dwarf lie to me?
Smith: I am a forger of swords, sir, not a speculator on dwarven motives for falsehood.
- Panel 3
Roy: Well...I guess THIS won't be of much use to me.
Smith: By Monkey's tail! I've never seen such a bounty of starmetal!
- Panel 4
Smith: It would be an honor to reforge your blade as a starmetal sword, sir.
Roy: But... there's not enough metal here for that!
- Panel 5
Smith: Sir, a blade that size made of pure starmetal would weigh 300 pounds and require the use of all of the starmetal that has ever fallen from the sky, ever.
Smith: Most of it does tend to burn up, in the atmosphere, you know.
- Panel 6
Smith: An alloy of the starmetal with your sword's original steel would make a potent weapon however.
Roy: How potent?
- Panel 7
Smith: I estimate a 25% increase in attack accuracy, with a corresponding enhancement to damage.
Roy: It's OK, you can just say "+5 sword" here. We do stuff like that all the time.
Smith: Oh. Then yes, a +5 sword.
- Panel 8
Smith: After the forging is complete, though, you may notice one...side effect.
Roy: Fantastic. Because, you know, nothing can ever be just randomly positive.
- Panel 9
Smith: It is likely that your sword will sometimes glow with a deadly green energy that is particularly harmful to the undead.
- Panel 10
Smith: In order to counteract, I recommend—
Roy: No, no, I think I'll manage to somehow struggle through.
D&D Context[]
- A "+5 sword" means a sword with a +5 enhancement, which provides a plus 5 on rolls to hit and a plus five on rolls to damage. It's generally considered bad role-playing to discuss game mechanics in in-character speech. Part of the humor of the OOTS comic is that the characters discuss such things all the time.
Trivia[]
- Nale revealed that he sent Roy off on the sidequest for starmetal as a diversion so they could regroup in #142, Misdirection and Subterfuge. In typical fashion for Nale, the ruse backfires, giving Roy an opportunity to improve his sword.
- This is the first appearance of the Azurite Swordsmith.