The vampires are thwarted in their attempt to enter the Temple of Thor when the key crumbles, something Durkon knew about but failed to reveal to his vampire captor.
Cast[]
- Durkon Thundershield (also as vampire and as spirit) ◀ ▶
- "Durkon" ◀ ▶
- Gontor Hammerfell (as vampire) ◀ ▶
- Creed of the Stone Usher with Sandy Hair (as vampire) ◀ ▶
- Creed of the Stone Vampire with Long Hair ◀ ▶
- High Priest Hurak ◀ ▶
- Brother Sandstone ◀ ▶
- Dwarf Defender with Black Beard ◀ ▶
- Dwarf Defender with Red Hair ◀ ▶
- Dwarf Defender with Black Skin ◀ ▶
Transcript[]
- Panel 1
"Durkon": If everyone's drank their fill, I'm just going to borrow this for a moment.
- Panel 2
"Durkon": Everyone get ready.
"Durkon": As soon as the door opens, we're going to storm the temple and—
- Panel 3
The runestone crumbles, "KRACK!"
- Panel 4
Inside Durkon's mind
"Durkon": What just happened?
Durkon: It crumbled ta dust.
- Panel 5
Flashback to Durkon with Hurak
Hurak: This stone'll unlock any door to our temple. Dinnae give it ta anyone ye dinnae trust.
Durkon: Wha if someone takes it?
Hurak: It'll crumble ta dust.
Durkon's spirit watching the flashback
Durkon: See?
- Panel 6
"Durkon": Why didn't you show me that memory before?!
Durkon: Ye dinnae ask fer it.
Durkon: Also, I hate ye an' I want ye ta fail.
- Panel 7
"Durkon": I see your defiance has bubbled back up to the surface.
Durkon: Guess so. Feelin' sorry fer meself ne'er got nuthin' done fer no one.
- Panel 8
In the temple
Vampire with Long Hair: Greater Dispel Magic!
Vampire with Long Hair: Darn it!
Usher with Sandy Hair: It's sealed so tight, I can't seep through the edges!
Gontor: Why won't it open? It's a door! That's it's[sic] whole purpose!
- Panel 9
In Durkon's mind
"Durkon": You know, if you'd told me about the stone, I wouldn't have had to kill that cleric. His death is on your hands.
Durkon: Ye woulda killed 'im anyway, after trickin' 'im inta givin' it freely somehow.
Durkon: This way, tha folks inside are safe.
- Panel 10
"Durkon": Hmm. That's true.
"Durkon": I should've known that if there was a way to thwart me by being completely passive and letting events unfold with no input, you'd find it.
- Panel 11
"Durkon": It's like fighting some kinda giant monstrous wallflower.
Durkon: I prefer ta think o' myself as yellow mold. Step on me, and I'll eventually rot your face off.
D&D Context[]
- Greater Dispel Magic is a 6th level spell. It is capable of ending ongoing spells or temporarily disabling permanent magic items. It allows high level casters a greater chance of dispelling than the lesser version.
- Transforming into a gaseous form is a special quality of vampires. The CotS vampire attempts to use this ability to seep through the cracks in the door in panel 8.
- Yellow Mold is a deadly fungus in D&D, and a classic peril of dungeon crawling. It is proprietary to D&D, and not part of the d20 SRD. It was first introduced in the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons set, detailed in Volume 2 Monsters & Treasure. The mold eats through flesh and wood, and has a chance of releasing a cloud of deadly poisonous spores into the air. In was updated for D&D 3.0 in the 2000 Dungeon Master's Guide, where the flesh eating ability was removed and the spores were changed to deal constitution damage rather than instant death. It remained unchanged in D&D 3.5
Trivia[]
- Roy was given a similar runestone by the High Priestess of Thor in #1024. She also informed Roy that the failsafe that would activate as explained in Panel 5.
- The title is a play on the title of the 1966 television series Mission: Impossible and the series of movies and video games based on this show.