#durkon

Ahh, so much to love in this strip:

Classic Durkon - making sure to lead the dangerous foes away from his team mates even as he flees for his life. Plus, it was satisfying to see that he always had a genuinely workable escape plan in mind; Durkon is far too high wisdom to take such a big risk without one.

Minrah actively improving on said plan of escape with an extra layer of subterfuge that Durkon is too lawful/straightforward/fundamentally honest to think up on his own.

Redcloak being smart enough to nearly unravel the whole damn plan in pretty short order (which is fitting, considering it was Redcloak who came up with the shell game during the Battle for Azure City)

"We are loving you so much, Miss Oona!” Pretty much sums it up, yes.

More tension/open antagonism in Team Evil. I wonder whether Durkon and Minrah overheard any of that, and whether they can factor it into future strategy if they did?

Redcloak being pedantic

Seemingly there is a lot riding on the success of Durkon’s mission to get Redcloak on board with saving the world. We know that this is the best, perhaps the only opportunity the gods will have to permanently contain the Snarl. We also know that if the mission fails, Loki is likely planning to somehow screw up the vote at the godsmoot, which will mean the end of the current world. That’s a lot of pressure. It also seems like Redcloak is the only person qualified to carry out the mission. Thor specified that we need the donation of a ninth level spell slot with the Dark One’s quiddity (which means you can’t just get a different goblin cleric to help with Thor’s plan, because there simply aren’t any others who are capable of casting ninth level spells). All in all, it seems a lot like Redcloak’s participation is essential to there being a happy ending to the story (which is one of the few things we know we’re going to get... for some, at least).

But a lot of people are still skeptical that Redcloak would ever willingly work with the Order. I mean for a start, with a setup like that it seems almost too obvious that Redcloak will help; how else will we get the happy ending? I think lots of people are expecting a few curve balls along the way, and not without good reason. There are still a lot of unknowns in the story, including:

 the mystery of the Snarl – what’s with the planet in the rifts, why is it acting differently than expected?

 the IFCC – they are clearly planning something big, we just don’t know what

Both of these plot-lines have potential to shift the whole outlook of the story once they come to light, and they could negate the necessity or exact details of Thor’s plan (and there’s probably more alternative scenarios I haven’t even thought of). On the one hand, I doubt Rich Burlew would have created this special mission for Durkon only for it to turn out to be completely irrelevant. On the other hand, I think the most important aspect of the mission isn’t necessarily whether it is completely successful. It is important because attempting to negotiate with Redcloak will likely showcase two of the major themes of the overall story. Those themes being:

a) Exploring the moral implications of treating certain ‘monster’ races as simplistically evil disposable villains who it’s fine to kill on sight, despite the fact that they are sentient beings with free-will. Redcloak’s history and motivations cut right to the heart of this message, but so far, you’d need to read Start of Darkness to get a full appreciation of why he is so disgusted with player races and gods alike. Giving Durkon a mission to negotiate with Redcloak on behalf of his deity provides an opportunity for these issues to come to light (and hopefully, the Order of the Stick and the gods themselves will have to actively engage with them)

b) The importance of communication rather than violence as a means of resolving conflict. Which isn’t to say the comic pushes the idea that violence never has a place (particularly in a D&D universe where evil, world-destroying monsters actually exist) but the comic does repeatedly make the point that the instinct to use violence as a first resort is not a good thing. In fact, it’s part of the whole reason the goblins came up with their desperate, Snarl-wielding plan in the first place.