Your pun-ishment shall be impalement!
…was what Malack should have said when he was turning Durkon.
It’s established that the sword can glow when attacking living foes. This has been discussed. My recollection (impossible to verify with the GITP archives currently offline) is the sword got glowy when Roy tried to kick Miko’s “fallen ass” after she offed Shojo, and there was at least one other time. IIRC it will also not glow sometimes when attacking undead. In other words, it’s a random effect.
Reading through my books a while back, I noticed that it seems to glow like that whenever Roy gets angry while he’s attacking (ETA: squeegee, yeah, it does glow when he attacks Miko). In fact, the only instance I can remember of it glowing while Roy wasn’t actively shouting in anger was the last few swings he took at Xykon on the zombie dragon, when the sword glowed green even though Roy wasn’t actually shouting. But I don’t have the books in front of me at the moment, and the site is still down. Anybody remember it NOT glowing when he was angrily shouting while attacking?
Oh, and I can’t wait to see what happens when/if Nale and Xykon meet up. Nale seems to think Xykon and he are still pals, but Xykon may be unhappy that “that worthless buffoon Nale” had ulterior motives for working for him and completely botched his mission as well.
<claps> 
I like the notion that the runes cause you to see an illusion that your worst enemy attacking you in that hallway. It’s an illusion/trap left by Girard to scare the crap out of someone who will then vacate the pyramid and leave the Girards gate be.
I could see it working this way: the OOTS figures out that it’s an illusion, then later in this sequence they’ll lead the LG or TE into that hallway where they’ll get freaked out (by whatever their scariest Big Bad could be), and in the middle of that OOTS attacks from behind.
Going along with the illusion idea - how about if it’s actually V and the raven coming through the door?
Ha! That’d be a nice twist.
Oh, I like that idea!
A while back I made a list of all the times Roy’s swung his starmetal sword at someone. I didn’t record Roy’s emotional state though:
349 Every Couple Has Their Quirks - Giant in the Playground Games Sabine 1/4
359 Roll Over - Giant in the Playground Games Kitty (the hawk) 0/1
408 Fallsville, Population: 1 - Giant in the Playground Games Miko 1/4
409 Intercession - Giant in the Playground Games Miko 0/1
429 Stay on Target... - Giant in the Playground Games zombie dragon 1/1
430 Rematch - Giant in the Playground Games zombie dragon 1/1
434 Heavy is the Head - Giant in the Playground Games Xykon 2/2
441 Getting Ahead and Staying Ahead - Giant in the Playground Games zombie dragon 0/1
442 We Can Do This the Easy Way... - Giant in the Playground Games Xykon 5/5
684 V Was Only Waiting for This Moment to Arise - Giant in the Playground Games beetle slaver 0/1
686 Also, At Lower Altitude - Giant in the Playground Games giant bug/netting 0/1
851 Passive Voice - Giant in the Playground Games not-Thog 0/2
852 Under the Helmet - Giant in the Playground Games not-Thog 0/1
861 You Should've Seen What They Did to His Pelvis - Giant in the Playground Games mummies 1/1
The numbers are (number of green glows)/(number of swings). The links won’t work until the OotS archive is back up, of course.
As you can see, the green energy manifested itself twice for non-undead (Sabine and Miko) and did not appear once for an undead (zombie dragon – it’s possible this one was an omission by Burlew and that he meant it to be there). So it usually shows up only for undead, but is not completely reliable.
I was wondering the same thing. Seems a bit complicated but on the other hand, how would TE have got to that point in the pyramid without passing Nale and/or Tarquin?
On the other point, ISTR the blacksmith giving the odds of the sword giving off radiation harmful to the undead. It’s been a while and I can’t check at the moment though.
IIRC, the blacksmith said that it would occasionally emit energy that was “particularly harmful to undead,” suggesting that it was generally harmful energy that was especially effective against undead targets.
The same way they went from Azure City to the Astral Plane (or whatever it was called)?
The blacksmith said something along the lines of “on occasion your sword will glow with a deadly green energy especially harmful to the undead.” Roy: “I’ll struggle along somehow.” ETA: ninja’d! 
The blacksmith said something like “To mitigate this, I suggest–”, to which Roy interrupted that it was OK.
If it does happen to be an illusion, Elan may have to expend a Greater Dispel Magic to get rid of it. That’s his highest level spell so he doesn’t have more than one or two of them. Not good.
And then when the real Team Evil shows up, they may think it’s another illusion. Again, not good.
But if it’s the real TE, we may get an Elan vs MitD “battle”. That has much comedic potential.
If it is the real deal walking through that door, it’s probably just saved the Order’s bacon. They’re in no shape to take on the Linear Guild, and they’re in no shape to take on Team Evil, but if TE and the LG fight each other first, the Order has a decent chance against whoever is left standing.
Awesome! Looking in the books, I’ve added notes about his emotional state / words to the ones that are available right now; the notes are in bold, under what you had.
349 Every Couple Has Their Quirks - Giant in the Playground Games Sabine 1/4
Roy screams and shouts “WE WASTED 38 STRIPS ON THAT SIDEQUEST!” while it happens; does not scream the other 3 times
359 Roll Over - Giant in the Playground Games Kitty (the hawk) 0/1
Roy scowling, but saying nothing
408 Fallsville, Population: 1 - Giant in the Playground Games Miko 1/4
Roy shouting “I am kicking your fallen ass RIGHT NOW!” when it glows, scowling and not shouting the other three times (although on the second swing, he lands a “THUNK” and says “Who could have possibly seen THAT coming?”, but I don’t think the capitalized “THAT” is a shout/scream)
409 Intercession - Giant in the Playground Games Miko 0/1
“Oh, screw this!” in the panel before; scowling in the actual panel, but no words
429 Stay on Target... - Giant in the Playground Games zombie dragon 1/1
Roy shouts “DIE!! (AGAIN!)” with the swing
430 Rematch - Giant in the Playground Games zombie dragon 1/1
“What?? You stupid–!!” as he swings (in response to Xykon not remembering him)
434 Heavy is the Head - Giant in the Playground Games Xykon 2/2
Silence in first panel where it happens (Xykon hitting him with a black spell of some kind while Roy’s sword glow), but Roy is scowling. Oddly enough, the green glow doesn’t seem to indicate that the sword is moving at all, like it usually does. This is a weird one. Last panel, “Oh my GODS, I hate you so much!”, and the sword is glowing.
441 Getting Ahead and Staying Ahead - Giant in the Playground Games zombie dragon 0/1
Roy is visibly enraged (scowling AND baring his gritted teeth) by Xykon’s “Does little fighty-wighty wanna cry?” taunt, but not saying anything, while he swings and decapitates the dragon.
442 We Can Do This the Easy Way... - Giant in the Playground Games Xykon 5/5
After his “It’s a dirty job, but some PC has to do it, now let’s get down to brass tacks!” speech, Roy is scowling during each hit, but not saying anything.
The ones for book 5 will have to wait for the archives to come up, alas.
I dunno about that. The Order is missing it’s two primary spellcasters, and Elan is more or less a nincompoop when it comes to casting. Not to mention Tarquin has a ring of True Seeing and Redcloak has True Seeing the spell.
The LG’s spellcasters, on the other hand, have burned all their higher-level slots, and might as well be limited to cantrips. Their saving grace might be that they just summoned some higher level goons, but even then Xykon by himself is a match for them.
And Team Evil doesn’t need to worry about saving themselves here - They could blast everything they’ve got willy-nilly since they know nobody else is coming.
Remember, Xykon took down an entire order of paladins, and then their ghost legion, practically by himself (or would have, if he remembered what ghosts are weak against). Between him and Redcloak, even if the Order and the Guild teamed up, they’d barely break a sweat subduing them both.
And that’s not counting the MitD.
But it is a moot point for the most part. Xykon is not going to go down permanently yet, and it is doubtful that Nale or Tarquin will either. The rules of the genre require that the Order lasts until the very last gate, winning or losing at the last possible minute. That means their big bad, who is Xykon at this point in time has to be there also. I could actually see Nale buying it this time, leaving Tarquin for the secondary evil they need to face near the end, before the final Boss fight. Or it might go the other way around.
No matter what, the Order survives, Team Evil survives, and either Nale or Tarquin survives. (I think most likely Nale, with Malack and Tarquin biting the big one.) And of course, the gate is destroyed. Again.
I also think Nale will survive. He has the strongest protection you can have - an unresolved storyline. Burlew has been planting seeds about the relationship between Nale and Sabine. Sabine genuinely loves Nale but Nale doesn’t love anyone except himself. So I think the story will have Nale betraying Sabine at some point to further his own scheme: it’ll be his Moral Event Horizon.
Tarquin I’m not sure about. Burlew might have future plans for him. But maybe Burlew will kill off Tarquin in some random trivial manner to satirize the idea of characters thinking they’re due an epic storyline. (Although arguably he already made this point with Kubota.)