The nobles of Azure City show their petty rivalries are more important to them than the defense of the city.
Cast[]
- Roy Greenhilt ◀ ▶
- Team Evil
- Hinjo ◀ ▶
- Lien ◀ ▶
- Kubota ◀ ▶
- General Chang ◀ ▶
- Azure City Noble with Beard ◀ ▶
- Azure City Noblewoman ◀
- Four Ninjas
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
Hinjo: Lien, I want everyone who can't fight loaded onto a ship tonight. Too old, too young, too sick, too weak.
Lien: Sir, that will be thousands. Tens of thousands, maybe more.
Hinjo: Commandeer any private ship you can. Dump any cargo that's not food. Have them sail at dawn—if all goes well, they can come back in a few days.
- Panel 2
Chang: A few days? What if the army lays siege, it could take months!
Roy: It won't. Xykon has no interest in the city itself, and he's not terribly patient. He'll try to seize what he wants as soon as he possibly can.
Kubota: Wait—if we KNOW what this guy wants, why don't we just give it to him??
Hinjo: Daimyo Kubota, I can assure you it's not that simple.
- Panel 3
Kubota: I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be exactly that easy.
Kubota: Look, "Lord" Hinjo, I know this is your first day on the job and all, but it seems to me that you are rushing this city into a war we don't need to fight and may not win.
Kubota: I propose we send a diplomatic envoy to this Xykon and see if we can't agree to terms.
- Panel 4
Hinjo: That's not really viable.
Kubota: Maybe it would be for a man with a little more leadership experience...
Kubota: Someone like myself, perhaps...
- Panel 5
Roy: Step back, Mustache Lad.
Roy grips Kubota's shoulder and pulls him back.
Roy: You know, this isn't some band of disgruntled peasants upset about the latest tax hike.
Roy: You can't come to terms with an inhuman soulless corpse animated by pure evil. Xykon cares for nothing but your complete and total—
- Panel 6
Cut away to the Team Evil camp.
Xykon: YAHTZEE!
Xykon: Yes!
Redcloak: Sir, shouldn't we be planning for tomorrow's battle?
Xykon: Feh, you're just mad because I keep winning fair and square.
Redcloak: Yes, you've figured me out, my desire to formulate a basic strategy for impending invasion is solely because I am unable to roll five of a kind.
- Panel 7
Cut back to the war council.
Roy: —destruction.
Kubota: Yes, well, then I see no reason to send my forces into a suicidal battle when other options have not been explored.
Kubota: My samurai and men-at-arms will join me on my personal ship with as many members of my house as I can fit.
Azure City Noblewoman: Indeed! My forces will not participate, either!
- Panel 8
Azure City Noble with Beard: May the Twelve Gods forgive you if Azure City falls while under your rule, Hinjo!
The nobles leave.
Hinjo: Well THAT could have gone better.
- Panel 9
Hinjo: Of course, men like Kubota don't care if the city falls or not, as long as he comes out of it with his power intact.
Hinjo: Now that they know what we're facing, they'll wonder of the whole thing could be avoided if I suddenly joined my uncle in the afterlife.
Hinjo: I suspect they will move against me shortly...
- Panel 10
Roy is holding off a band of ninjas who have appeared stage left.
Roy: I concur.
D&D Context[]
- It's something of a minor miracle that Roy was able to Spot the ninjas, considering past performance.
Trivia[]
- This is the first strip in which Lien is called by name.
- This is the final appearance of the Azure City Noblewoman. She first appeared in #412.