Lien shows her usefulness in the aquatic milieu.
Cast
Transcript
- Panel 1
Sailor: Sir! Look out!
Hinjo: Tell that captain of yours to keep the civilians away from the back of the boat, we need to—
- Panel 2
The octopus' tentacle snakes around Hinjo who is disarmed and lifted off his feet.
Hinjo: urk!
- Panel 3
Durkon: I gotcha, lad!
Durkon severs the tentacle with his hammer, "sklurtch!"
- Panel 4
Hinjo: Thanks, again, Durkon. That's two I owe you.
Durkon: How did I cut tha tentacle wit a hammer...?
Hinjo: Any sign of Haley yet?
Lien: No, sir.
- Panel 5
Hinjo: Then we stay, for now. Not just because I owe Roy as well, but because at this point we're going to need high-level characters we can trust if we're ever going to stop Xykon's plans.
Hinjo: And since it wouldn't hurt to deny them a few of their own high-level characters, I'm going after that goblin cleric.
- Panel 6
Hinjo: But I need that damn octopus out of my way first.
Hinjo: Lien—
Lien: I'm on it, sir.
- Panel 7
Durkon: No offense, lad, but are ye sure she c'n handle a giant mollusk by 'erself?
Hinjo: We all have our special talents, Durkon. I chose O-Chul to defend the throne room because he was the toughest of us all...
Hinjo: And I chose Lien to guard the waterfront because she has a particularly useful ace up her sleeve.
Lien: Razor, I choose you!
- Panel 8
Razor the shark pops into existence from the celestial realm as Lien mounts him to attack the giant octopus.
- Panel 9
Lien sinks her spear into the octopus with a "SKLORK!" while Razor severs two limbs with a "sklurtch! sklurtch!".
- Panel 10
Durkon: Ye can have a shark as yer paladin mount?!?
Hinjo: Sure:
Hinjo: They eat devilfish, mostly.
"sploosh!"
D&D Context
- Once again, the paladin's special bond with their mount is highlighted in this strip. The possibility of a shark mount for an aquatic campaign is specifically mentioned as a game idea in the Players Handbook.
Trivia
- The running gag of paladin mounts as Pokemon is continued here. Hinjo pulls the same gag with Argent in #432. Miko began the gag in #373.
- This is the first appearance of Razor, Liens shark paladin mount.
- This is the first appearance of the Azurite Sailor with the blue headscarf.