What was the purpose of separating the party?

[Sunken Valley]

They are back now, with no fuss. I am going to assume that it was a red herring unless someone has a better theory.

[SavageWombat]

I thought it was to keep V from finishing off Zz'dtri, without V having to lose.

[ti'esar]

I thought it was to keep V from finishing off Zz'dtri, without V having to lose.

My theory as well, though it raises the question of why it was so important Zz'dtri survive - thus far, he's been essentially a glorified mook.

Of course, it's entirely possible that something else may be involved. I'm not prepared to second-guess the Giant at this point.

[Eldray]

It served the purpose of getting Yuk-Yuk out of the empire together with the OotS, which wouldn't likely have happened otherwise.

Of course it remains to be seen whether that will be significant, or he'll just be killed or escape next strip.

[Fish]

There's no possible way to tell. It could be anything.

1. A one-off joke, because a plane filled with salad dressing is funny.
2. To deplete Durkon's spells as he plane-shifts around looking for V.
3. To bring Yuk-Yuk with the Order for some reason.
4. To get Belkar off the Prime Material Plane (I assume to incite the "Belkar won't die!" crowd).
5. To temporarily ramp up the tension — at the time, Vaarsuvius had (nearly) defeated Zz'dtri, but the rest of the Order didn't know this yet. Roy hadn't beat Thog by that point; Haley hadn't been restored; Elan was on the run from Nale; nobody knew where Durkon was. Taking out Vaarsuvius could simply have been a narrative device to keep the sides even.
6. To show Qaar's complicity — he's helping Zz'dtri, but not really helping him.
7. Take your pick.

[Idhan]

I think the question isn't "why did Zz'dtri plane shift V into the ranch dressing plane?" but rather, "why didn't Durkon, Roy, Haley, Elan, and Belkar all go to the ranch dressing plane, so that they'd keep the party minus V together, and be a party of six again as soon as they found V?"

After all, plane shift can move up to eight consenting people at a time, and, all Elan, Roy, and Haley are doing by hanging out in a cave is waiting and being vulnerable if the three of them are caught by the Linear Guild. They aren't actually going to do anything on their own initiative until the rest of the party arrives anyway, so why not keep the party together as much as possible, and then make their way back to where they're sitting around now?

[eilandesq]

Would *you* want to ride for days on a magic carpet stained with spoiling ranch dressing? There are some things that a prestidigitation cantrip just isn't up to dealing with. ]:-)

[NerfTW]

They are back now, with no fuss. I am going to assume that it was a red herring unless someone has a better theory.

Well, they now have a mind controlled kobold ranger with them.

And V did restrain himself and then was subsequently humiliated. So, character development.

And it was simply a way of progressing the story since Durkon likely didn't have Plane Shift memorized, and staying in the castle for a day would have been foolish when most of the team can attempt to stop Nale.

[The Derider]

Perhaps the entire point was that the last book was called "Don't Split The Party" and as the OP said, this was done entirely as a little jab in good fun at the last book's main plot?

Also that little exchange with V, Durkon and Belkar about V's solo adventure was worth ANY diversion.

[Fish]

... but rather, "why didn't Durkon, Roy, Haley, Elan, and Belkar all go to the ranch dressing plane, so that they'd keep the party minus V together...?
To have two different conversations, presumably. Imagine the last two strips mashed into one; it would not have been an improvement.

[Tulya]

Would *you* want to ride for days on a magic carpet stained with spoiling ranch dressing? There are some things that a prestidigitation cantrip just isn't up to dealing with. ]:-)

I would assume a semi-elemental plane of ranch dressing would have certain properties to prevent its spoilage - at least while on that plane - or it would have become the semi-elemental plane of mold long ago. Or it might contain proven preservatives, deep penetration agents, and gas and odor control chemicals... shaped like fish.

[The Derider]

I would assume a semi-elemental plane of ranch dressing would have certain properties to prevent its spoilage - at least while on that plane - or it would have become the semi-elemental plane of mold long ago. Or it might contain proven preservatives, deep penetration agents, and gas and odor control chemicals... shaped like fish.

Not many people know this, but the actual reason that the Semi-Elemental Plane of Ranch Dressing is in fact, possible, is because of the kobold dust.

[Idhan]

To have two different conversations, presumably. Imagine the last two strips mashed into one; it would not have been an improvement.

That's a reason for Rich Burlew to separate the party. It's not really a reason for Roy Greenhilt to separate the party.

[Omergideon]

That's a reason for Rich Burlew to separate the party. It's not really a reason for Roy Greenhilt to separate the party.

Considering they are roughly in the place where Girard is it is important to have people on hand in case of incidents such as the LG showing up, or Xykon appearing. Of course you would need the whole order to win in any way, but knwoing they are there is essential.

But you also need to fetch V. So Roy send the bare minimum people he needs to get V, i.e. the magic user and a tracker. And he keeps himself, the best fighter, a great scout and Elan where he will do less damage.

This, to me, is a possible in story justification for the splitting of the party. They have 2 incompatible objectives needed to be done at the same time, so they have 2 groups selected to allow each one the best chance of achieving the goals.

[ThePhantasm]

Does there have to be a super huge reason? The party has been temporarily split a number of times without any profound consequence. That said,

1. Belkar being in the arena affected his character arc, because he watched Enor and Ganjii fight.

2. Roy was allowed to defeat Thog single-handedly, "proving" his belief that brains / strategy in a fighter are better than sheer brawn.

3. V was forced to fight Zz'dtri alone and, when struggling, was forced to actually be resourceful (using the kobold) rather than relying on her own sheer power.

4. Durkon, during the separation, forged a meaningful relationship with Malack that may still have profound meaning for the plot.

5. We got some fairly badass action sequences out of it.

I'm sure there are other reasons.

[M.A.D]

It could be because that Haley refused to let herself be covered by sauce, and Elan wanted to stay with her, and Roy decided that he should stay and watch over the two of them in case of troubles.

Or maybe he wanted to stay as close to the Windy Canyon as possible, in case someone from Orrin's party came out and saw them. That way, he could make contact with them sooner.

And then there's the realistic reason as well. I don't know about D&D, but IRL, traveling in large party is always slower than going solo or in pair.

[Xapi]

I think the question isn't "why did Zz'dtri plane shift V into the ranch dressing plane?" but rather, "why didn't Durkon, Roy, Haley, Elan, and Belkar all go to the ranch dressing plane, so that they'd keep the party minus V together, and be a party of six again as soon as they found V?"

After all, plane shift can move up to eight consenting people at a time, and, all Elan, Roy, and Haley are doing by hanging out in a cave is waiting and being vulnerable if the three of them are caught by the Linear Guild. They aren't actually going to do anything on their own initiative until the rest of the party arrives anyway, so why not keep the party together as much as possible, and then make their way back to where they're sitting around now?

The answer to that is: It is too dangerous to let Nale get to Girard before the OotS do.

So, Roy, Haley and Elan are there to slow Nale down (or contac Girard themselves) if they see him coming.

If not, then they wait for the rest of the party and find Girard together.

[caldazar]

This stuck out as really weird to me too. It's not common for a plot point like that to not have an obvious consequence on the plot somehow. I posted this as speculation in the main comic speculation thread, but my prediction is that...

...the shoe has yet to drop on why the party was separated, that Elan's prediction in the last strip that they couldn't possibly reunite with the party that easily was correct, and that the V, Durkon, and Belkar we see here are Girard's men under illusions.

[B. Dandelion]

This stuck out as really weird to me too. It's not common for a plot point like that to not have an obvious consequence on the plot somehow. I posted this as speculation in the main comic speculation thread, but my prediction is that...

...the shoe has yet to drop on why the party was separated, that Elan's prediction in the last strip that they couldn't possibly reunite with the party that easily was correct, and that the V, Durkon, and Belkar we see here are Girard's men under illusions.

That is awesome. I had felt the same way about the party split -- the odd emphasis put on it, and how inconvenient it was, and how dead-set Roy was on making sure everyone would stay together, only for them to be reunited completely without incident. But that's exactly the kind of trick you should worry about when you're dealing with an illusionist, and what a perfect time to pull it.

[MyNameIsSecret]

V, Durkon, and Belkar we see here are Girard's men under illusions.

Eeeah... I don't know. It's a good idea, but Belkar, Durkon and V seem themselves - surely it wouldn't be a little suspicious if they were actually Girard's men? :smallconfused:

But the seperation of the party does seem suspicious, and I admit I can't come with anything better. And you never know...

[B. Dandelion]

Now I'm finding myself overthinking Vaarsuvius' use of the word "enslaved"... although I don't know that V herself would shy from such terminology, it seems to fit even better coming from someone who believes the Order to be villains.

And speaking of Yukyuk, it seemed kind of odd for them to bring him, but an impostor group would have a motive to keep him around -- that's one more concealed ally in place just in case something goes wrong.

[ThePhantasm]

As great a twist as that might be, I see no foreshadowing of it at all. Even the elf ambassador = Zzdtri was foreshadowed a little bit.

For me, Belkar's jokes about Roy's girlfriend seem pretty genuinely Belkarian.

[Belril Duskwalk]

Considering they are roughly in the place where Girard is it is important to have people on hand in case of incidents such as the LG showing up, or Xykon appearing. Of course you would need the whole order to win in any way, but knwoing they are there is essential.

Actually, given the information Roy has it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to assume the people who didn't Plane Shift could handle the Linear Guild by themselves. According to Roy's best information on the Guild their fighter is buried in rubble and presumed dead, their wizard is under arrest by a government that CAN hold him indefinitely, their ranger is with V and they don't even HAVE a cleric. So, according to what Roy knows, if Nale is making all haste to beat them to Girard and bumps into Roy and company it will be Nale and Sabine vs. Elan, Haley and Roy. Given what Roy knows, it's entirely reasonable for him to assume the Order could wipe out the last of the Linear Guild even with the Order at half strength, because the Guild was at a third strength just days ago.

So I would say the reason Roy chose to split the party was primarily so that he could have somebody watching the Canyon and ready to handle Nale if he caught up before the rest of the team gets there.

[Anarion]

Would *you* want to ride for days on a magic carpet stained with spoiling ranch dressing? There are some things that a prestidigitation cantrip just isn't up to dealing with. ]:-)

That's when you need two prestidigitation cantrips. :smallbiggrin:


Actually, given the information Roy has it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to assume the people who didn't Plane Shift could handle the Linear Guild by themselves. According to Roy's best information on the Guild their fighter is buried in rubble and presumed dead, their wizard is under arrest by a government that CAN hold him indefinitely, their ranger is with V and they don't even HAVE a cleric. So, according to what Roy knows, if Nale is making all haste to beat them to Girard and bumps into Roy and company it will be Nale and Sabine vs. Elan, Haley and Roy. Given what Roy knows, it's entirely reasonable for him to assume the Order could wipe out the last of the Linear Guild even with the Order at half strength, because the Guild was at a third strength just days ago.

So I would say the reason Roy chose to split the party was primarily so that he could have somebody watching the Canyon and ready to handle Nale if he caught up before the rest of the team gets there.

This is probably the most reasonable explanation. Remember that we, as the audience, know how the gates work, but Roy does not know most of the details. So, he could be legitimately worried that the only way things could get messed up is if Nale reaches a gate first and either fast-talks Draketooth+cohorts or simply accesses the gate with whatever nefarious plan Nale might have.

[Fish]

It's also possible that Rich's purpose was solely to bring the kobold Yuk-Yuk along as a decoy. He's acting as (involuntary) party retainer...
...carrying the magically tracked carpet. Tarquin thinks he knows where the Order of the Stick is, based on Yuk Yuk's location. He doesn't know anything about the kobold. And if Yuk Yuk ever gets freed from his Domination, he might just as easily take the carpet and do a runner. So much for tracking!

Also, if Tarquin ever gets it into his head to have Malack target a spell on the carpet's location — or, for that matter, Girard, who obviously is suppressing flight — then the Order may not be in the line of fire.
As to why Roy might split the party, it seems obvious, even apart from the value of watching the entrance for the two enemies they know are coming (Xykon and Nale). When coming back from another plane, the casters could be miles away from the Valley. Durkon or V could easily get a fix on the location by magically seeking their other party members. (It's apparent, at least to us, that they could not have used divination to find the valley itself.)

[AutomatedTeller]

Or, perhaps, it was because he couldn't think of a realistic reason to have Roy and Belkar join the party if V was around. I mean, if Elan has a wizard around, does he need a couple of fighters to be his bodyguard?

Or maybe it's so that they had to take the flying carpet. Between them, Durokan and V could fly get everyone there with flight/windwalk.

Or maybe the whole thing was to get Kilkil into the LG.

Or maybe Prince Oozalot really needed to be restored to the Hidden Valley throne....

[rbetieh]

To seperate Roy from Elan. With Roys interference, the big Tarquin rooftop reveal would not have happened. All you have to do is look at the comic where Elan imagines Tarquin declaring Elan and Roy brothers. Elan just assumes that Roy would agree with him on his then judgement of Tarquin, but odds are he would have agreed with Haley from the start.

[Morgan Wick]

Or maybe it's so that they had to take the flying carpet. Between them, Durokan and V could fly get everyone there with flight/windwalk.

That might actually be the best explanation. It may even also explain the in-story reason why Qarr had V plane-shifted instead of simply letting him live (remember, V had Zz'dtri beat anyway).

[Soylent Dave]

my prediction is that...

...the shoe has yet to drop on why the party was separated, that Elan's prediction in the last strip that they couldn't possibly reunite with the party that easily was correct, and that the V, Durkon, and Belkar we see here are Girard's men under illusions.

That would be cool, but

All the characters have been behaving very much in-character. With the possible exception of Haley, who hasn't said very much at all since we've been in the Windy Canyon (I know that means replacing one of the characters who didn't plane shift, but it's still the same basic idea) - also might tie into her saying "I say... Trap" if she's about to spring one


I'm still leaning towards 'this would be a cool idea but I don't think it's what is happening', mind - I think the party split was just to get rid of V so that they were forced to rely on Tarquin for transportation.

(also had the side benefit of confirming for him that they were all working together - something he only suspected beforehand)

[B. Dandelion]

I thought it was a neat, plausible idea, but in #838 all of the party members who could have potentially been 'swapped' seemed to know too much about everything that had been said, and were so in-character, and by #839 I think it's pretty staggeringly unlikely.

It was a clever idea though! I'm a little sad it didn't happen.

[Ninja Dragon]

I thought it was a neat, plausible idea, but in #838 all of the party members who could have potentially been 'swapped' seemed to know too much about everything that had been said, and were so in-character, and by #839 I think it's pretty staggeringly unlikely.

It was a clever idea though! I'm a little sad it didn't happen.

I don't discard it yet. Girard is supposed to be a top-level illusionist, so he might as well be able to make his illusions act in character. I don't think a little thing like "character" would stop someone like Girard. I also don't think he needs his men to be there, he could just create mirages, like Elan does.

I think the OOTS might be already under lots of different illusions. The temple is just a distraction. It's far too obvious of a trap.

Seriously, it would be awesome if in the next strip we saw V's team arrive at the canyon entrance, and not to find anybody. Or even better, find more illusions.

[Psyren]

It served the purpose of getting Yuk-Yuk out of the empire together with the OotS, which wouldn't likely have happened otherwise.

This right here. Otherwise the drooling kobold would have been left in prison with Z, and possibly even tried to kill each other after that phantasmal killer attempt.