Can’t V cast Protection from Daylight? Assuming the fiends ever let V go, that is.
Protection from Daylight was a spell Malack researched himself. I think he’s the only one that knew it, anywhere.
I suppose Durkon could shelter under the MITD’s Hello Kitty umbrella. 
It may be written down somewhere in Malack’s library where he helped research the Mass Death Ward. Not that Durkon has free entry to there but the spell itself is perhaps not lost forever.
Order of the Stick is genius
In an emergency, could Durkon cast Darkness on himself to block out the sun? He’d be blind and useless of course (right?), but that would work in a pinch?
That was my thought for Malack. Even if it was dispelled the next round, it would have bought him a round and Durkon would have reached him with the staff. I’m not sure rules-wise if it would have “reset” the sun timer and bought him an extra round upon dispelling.
But, hey, hindsight and all that. I’m sure Malack will have all sorts of time to think of the perfect solution while he’s hanging out with Mr. Nergal in the afterlife.
Recent strips, while fine, have been a bit drawn out to me. I really like 906. Nale was a bit of a butt, I resented Malack for what he did, but even better, there was the interplay of game rules and actions that I like. Really good strip.
And yellowjacketcoder, your post last page was great. I stopped reading it because it felt like a spoiler. Sorry to say I only learned your handle a week ago, after a memorable post where you said something like “ah the Dope, answering the wrong question 100% of the time.” Awkward derpy high five, bro!
So it seems like Nale’s next goals will include gaining information about where the next gate is. I assume that because he had to go undercover in Tarquin’s kingdom to find Girard’s gate, he may also not know that the next gate is in Kraagor’s Tomb. Could he try to get that info from Durkon or the OOTS? They’re the only ones nearby who might know.
Can’t say I’m all that happy with how that went down, and a punch of posters on the OOTS forum amuse me.
A whole bunch are “respect to Nale” or “well done his plan actually worked”. Trouble is it seems his entire plan relied on a single die roll which I suspect was a ~50:50 proposition. I imagine Zz’drti is only around Malack’s level, which means dispel magic only has a 50% chance of working. Big call.
I also think Malack copped a little bit of plot dumbness. There are a range of other actions a smart high level caster (which Malack always presented as) could have taken, knowing he had one round to do something before dying, and aiming for Slay Living isn’t one of them.
Oh well. Still keeps me coming back.
There was something deeply satisfying about watching Malack get killed-- and so quickly-- after he vamped Durkon. Serves him right.
Another poster asked the question “how do you suppose Belkar will react to having someone on the team who drank his blood?” Assuming Durkon rejoins the Order (and if this comic has proved anything, it’s that you can’t assume anything), I think it will be a non-issue. Durkon got killed and vamped trying to save Belkar’s life. I think he’s earn his everlasting respect and even friendship.
Knowing you have one round to do something, and finding out you have one round before you die one round before you die are two completely different scenarios.
I just love the expressions in frame 6.
Two points:
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Note that Malack’s speech balloons change to normal right before the end.
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What’s the amulet that Malack is seen to be wearing at the end?
Most likely his holy symbol. Note that both Durkon and Redcloak (the other main character clerics) also have one.
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Which is interesting - did Malack revert to the person he was before being vamped in the last instant before his death? I could see a barbarian shaman worshipping Nergal as well. (Could just be an art error though).
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His holy symbol. Clerics need one to focus their skills. Redcloak’s is also Xykon’s phylactery.
The Belkster, I think, is getting ready for an alignment shift. You don’t act like a good character for a long time without your alignment eventually changing, even if he doesn’t intend for that to happen. I expect it will occur without his knowledge until a stray casting of Detect Evil fails to ping him.
I would be pissed if that is the solution to the Oracle’s response. Far too Obi-wan: “what I said was true; from a certain point of view”
Aw shucks 
Neither. It’s not a reversion, and it’s a deliberate art choice, not a mistake.
The author speaks, Februaruy 2013
*You guys are overthinking the black speech bubble thing. Remember that the speech bubbles are an artifact of the comic strip process, which means they are subservient to the story. Obviously, it was narratively important to hide that Malack was undead, so therefore I decided he only speaks in black speech bubbles when he “vamps out.” After all, vampires in fiction have a long history of having traits that only pop out when they feed: their fangs elongate, their eyes turn read, maybe their face gets all demony-looking if you want to go the Buffy the Vampire Slayer route. Changing voice is not outside of that realm.
Also, I already pointed out that Tarquin was able to change his speech balloons just by adopting a different way of speaking. It’s not my fault no one extrapolated that to mean that characters—like the one floating next to him—can disguise/change the visual appearance of their balloons.*
Why did Malack order Durkulla to go fetch the staff? (Clearly, there wasn’t time to use the staff anyway. Durkulla was never impeded… yet Malack was a pile of ashes before Durkulla returned.)
Why didn’t Malack order Durkulla to attack Nale in panel 8? (Right after Nale goes “Oh. That’s right. I watched you cast that…”) It’s clear at that point Nale was up to no good.
Edit: I think the “archaic rules” Nale was referring to was the top rule, “buisness before pleasure”, mentioned in the previous panel.
Not rally. I also don’t think he was seriously trying to rebut anything. It read to me as a semi-humorous way to conclude an anecdote, not a genuine attempt to defend his artistic choices.
Yeah, but Durkon was just a little too late (and I suppose, dramatically if not rules-wise, the effects were hastened by Nale tearing open Malack’s robe). Had he hustled a little faster, perhaps Malack could have gotten the spell off. Sending Durkon made sense, it’s how Malack spent the time between sending Durkon and turning to dust that could have been done wiser.
What it boils down to is that Malack underestimated Nale and was caught flat-footed (tailed?) and reacted poorly as a result.
This. It’s like the yappy little fluff-dog you thought was just a really annoying pest suddenly turned into the Tasmanian Devil and completely destroyed you Taznado style.