The Order of the Stick Megathread

[Art of Hilt]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

Have you read Start of Darkness?

If you have, then you will really appreciate the implication of "Right-Eye", and you'll know what that means to Redcloak.

Especially in the context of him refusing to have goblin corpses Animated instead of Raised or buried.

I remember people on this forum talking about some prequel-esque story starring Redcloak and his brother(?), but when I look in the website the only story I find is 'The Duke's Wolf'.
Then I look in Google.
So... it's an actual book? Dang. Don't think I can read it any time soon, but yeah, I think I get the general gist of the whole thing.

[Locke cole]

Well, OK. The following explanation contains massive spoilers (basically the cliff notes version of the story) for Start Of Darkness.

Warning: long, perhaps way too detailed, and it gets kinda prosey near the end.

TOO MANY WORDSRedcloak had a brother. Well, to put it more accurately, he had a brother, sister, mother, etc. But most of them, and everyone else in his village, were killed in a purge by the Azure Guard, in an attempt to rid the world of the Crimson Mantle. Redcloak donned the Mantle during the battle and was given divine knowledge of The Plan (basically unseal the Snarl and give control of its exit portal to The Dark One, the goblin god, so that he can use the deicidal monster as leverage to get equality in the world for goblinkind. His brother lost his left eye in the attack, and took to wearing an eyepatch afterward.

Eventually, the two of them recruited Xykon, as they needed a powerful arcane caster to perform the ritual to warp one of the Gates. Xykon is really bad with long names (as in, he kills people with names too long to remember), so Redcloak introduced himself and his brother as Redcloak and Right-Eye as an act of self-preservation, despite his brother's protests that going by those names were demeaning (he basically said that his brother would always have his real name to him).

Anyway, a lot of things happened, and Right-Eye became more and more fed up with the way things were going with their partnership with Xykon. He was trigger-happy, unfeeling for casualties, and got goblins killed right and left as they campaigned to reach Lirian's Gate. He told Redcloak as much, many times, but Redcloak was obsessed with The Plan. He assured his brother that it would be all worth it; when they had a Gate, Goblinkind would finally be equal, no longer a designated source of easy XP. After Xykon became a lich, and therefore stronger, more sadistic, and downright eviler than ever, Right-Eye was fed up with the whole thing. Right-Eye called it quits one day, after giving Redcloak one more chance to abandon the Plan, give the Mantle to another Goblin, and live a normal, quiet life with him. Redcloak refused and Right-Eye escaped and settled down in a quiet goblin village.

Redcloak came to visit him one day, and after a crazy set of events involving clown ninjas, Robin, and a bucket of stew, they walked back to the village with the MiTD in tow, where Xykon was waiting for them. He pulled Right-eye back into service, along with the entire village and Right-Eye's new family, under threat of death for them all if they didn't comply.

Months passed as they campaigned for Dorukan's Gate. Right-eye's family (save for his daughter, who he managed to evacuate somewhere far away) was killed in a random adventurer attack one day, while Xykon just watched. During Xykon's climactic battle with Dorukan Right-Eye finally revealed a plan he had been saving for this very encounter to his brother. He would drink a Flight potion, and use a holy-enchanted dagger to blindside Xykon during the fight, either killing Xykon or allowing Dorukan to do the same. Redcloak tried to protest, demanding to know why he was trying to sabatoge all they had worked for. Right-Eye spat this back at his brother, asking him what The Plan had done for Goblinkind. Throwing all the senseless deaths he had promised would be "worth it" back in his face, and basically telling his brother to watch and let him free them from Xykon.

So, as Right-Eye rose into the air after Xykon, Redcloak made a horrible decision. He knew that what he was doing was right for goblinkind, and he couldn't let anyone ruin all that he'd sacrificed for. Not now. "not even you. Disintigrate".

So his brother fell to the ground, dying from the injuries that Redcloak had inflicted on him. Redcloak tried one last time to justify his actions to his brother as he lay dying by his hand, and again, his brother did not accept it. And when he died, Redcloak told him "goodbye, brother", and Right-Eye responded "goodbye, Redcloak." I'll remind you that throughout the book Right-Eye never called him Redcloak, as he thought the name demeaning, always calling him "Brother".

Without Right-eye's intervention, Xykon won the battle against Dorukan. He flew back down to meet with Redcloak, still standing next to his brother's body. He tried to lie about what happened to him, and Xykon said nothing about it until Redcloak refused to Animate Dead on his brother, saying that he was going to bury him. It was then that Xykon began to rip into him, first telling him that he knew that Redcloak had just killed his brother in cold blood. He knew what Right-Eye was planning, and was never actually in any danger from it. He didn't do anything about it himself because he wanted to see if Redcloak would actually kill his little brother for him, for the Plan. And he did. Among other things, Xykon then told Redcloak that after that, he knew that Redcloak would do whatever Xykon told him to from now on, never refuse him. Because if he did, if he split from Xykon and jeopardized his Plan that he just sacrificed so much for... then Redcloak would have killed his little brother for nothing. The final panels of the book are Redcloak solemnly casting Animate Dead on his brother's body, turning it into a zombie, and following his master into their new dungeon.

So... yeah. Reminding Redcloak of the name Right-Eye, and especially bringing it up in this particular situation (Redcloak refusing to let goblins be animated into zombies instead of ressurrected or buried) means a lot.

edit: as does this one.

[Geminex]

...

Niiiiice. Very nice indeed. Thanks for the summary. Did you write that? If so, thanks for making such an effort.

Though I don't think Xykon's survival equates to loyalty to the Plan. Xykon's useful, but he's simply the sorcerer who's supposed to open the snarls. Redcloak's loyalty would be to the plan, to the betterment of goblinkind, and to keeping Xykon on his side only as long as he's useful.

[Jagos]

Which is why a lot of people feel he's a coward who hides behind big words. He just won't stand up for himself! It's frustrating...

Though I don't think Xykon's survival equates to loyalty to the Plan. Xykon's useful, but he's simply the sorcerer who's supposed to open the snarls. Redcloak's loyalty would be to the plan, to the betterment of goblinkind, and to keeping Xykon on his side only as long as he's useful.

Xykon is in control for the most part right now. RC and Xykon are allies only for this part to which he's looking to betray RC should he truly try to turn against him. RC is still believing he's doing what's right for The Plan, but Xykon is a HUGE impediment, what with the killing of hobbos left and right as well as the total disregard for anyone that isn't Xykon. The main thing that Xykon has done is make the goblins a powerful force through his own magic. As far as Xykon is concerned, he doesn't care about the Plan whatsoever. He merely wants to control the world. Period

[Locke cole]

Originally Posted by Geminex

...

Niiiiice. Very nice indeed. Thanks for the summary. Did you write that? If so, thanks for making such an effort.

Though I don't think Xykon's survival equates to loyalty to the Plan. Xykon's useful, but he's simply the sorcerer who's supposed to open the snarls. Redcloak's loyalty would be to the plan, to the betterment of goblinkind, and to keeping Xykon on his side only as long as he's useful.

That last part is what he tells himself, indeed, what he told Right-Eye at least once.

Thing is, no matter how bad Xykon's atrocities against goblinkind are, Redcloak's fatal flaw is that he simply can't back away from the path he's on, no matter what. he simply can't allow what he's invested into the Plan be in vain. He's rationalizing it by saying, among other things, that Xykon is still the greatest chance he's got, no matter how bad he gets. Even if finding a way to escape Xykon and train a goblinoid Wizard or something would be safer for goblinkind.

And after he made Xykon into a lich, escaping him became nigh-impossible. He thought that holding on to his phylachtery would give him enough leverage to control him. Big mistake.

[01d55]

I really hope Illusionist Green Arrow gets to Have Words with Redcloak.

[Art of Hilt]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

Well, OK. The following explanation contains massive spoilers (basically the cliff notes version of the story) for Start Of Darkness.

[words]

...
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaang.
Man, thanks for that, but wow, that's a hell of a backstory.

[01d55]

Originally Posted by Meister

So how do we feel about shooting couples who wander away from the crowd in the back, purely from a strategy-in-times-of-war point of view?

When you're relying on stealth to survive the fact that you are massively outnumbered, moving a bunch of freed prisoners (most of whom have no character levels) is a very risky maneuver. As that bluecloak (goblic clerics appear to be ranked by the color of their capes) correctly deduced, the slain wanderers were most likely in the path of escape.

[Geminex]

Though they could have been tied up instead of being turned into pincushions.

[Jagos]

Tied up = found later alive.

I hate to say it, but when stealth is needed, you don't leave witnesses.