Earlier, Tarquin and his army were between the Order and the Gate so they’re now heading away from it.
So Tarquin could just gate what’s left of the army to intercept the OOTS. But I think Laurin would tell him to jam it if he asked.
A quick query about Belkar: could the prophecy be resolved by him being Reincarnated as something else? Or, could it refer to him drawing Mr Scruffy’s last breath?
I very much doubt Mr Burlew is going to kill him off permanently before near the very end.
Those possibilities don’t really jive with the birthday cake or IRA comments.
Except showing up unannounced with an army in the middle of the Dwarven Homeland is probably not going to go down to well.
Anyone notice that Burlew made a continuity error in the strip? He forgot to include Mr Scruffy in the fourth panel of the second page.
I forget the IRA comments but the birthday cake would be squared away by being reincarnated because he would have a new birthday.
How so? “should savor his next birthday cake” implies that he’s not getting anymore, not that he’ll get them on a different day.
Why? What could go wrong? 
Actually, I meant he could gate the army to intercept the OOTS now, in the desert, or at least as soon as his troops have regrouped.
He’ll be reincarnated as someone with a severe gluten intolerance.
Oh, yes, good point. But I don’t think he’d go for it. His army was getting its ass kicked when they had surrounded the Order and occupied the high ground. They’re not likely to have those tactical advantages again any time soon, which means that another fight is probably going to go even worse for Tarquin’s forces. Tarquin was already second guessing his orders before Belkar hijacked the allosaurus, I don’t think he’s going to pursue directly at this point.
Why pursue?
I thought Tarquin’s goal was to make his son Elan look good (in the role of a hero), in melodramatic fashion. Fighting his out from the middle of an army while riding an Allosaurus seems to fit that bill.
What I expect now is that Tarquin will want to somehow set things up so that his so that Elan will want to come back (eventually) and confront him (Tarq, that is), giving him the legendary ending to his story that will last down through the ages, retold by bards everywhere (kinda like how the story of King Arthur/Mordred, with the alignments reversed).
He wanted Elan to be the Leader of the party, not just the bardic support, which meant killing off the current leader, Roy.
He must have been on the other side of the dino.
No, he showed both sides of the dinosaur in other panels and Mr Scruffy was up on top and visible from both sides. And we also saw that Mr Scruffy never lost his seat, even when the dinosaur fell over and got back up. So I think we’ve got to mark this one down as a continuity error.
You can’t believe anything Tarquin says at face value. Keep in mind Roy, Durkon, and Belkar weren’t actually killed. Tarquin may have just wanted to threaten them as a move in some scheme without actually wanting them dead. And being Tarquin, he probably has an entire regiment of ineffective and expendable fighters on hand for just such a contingency.
The reins also disappeared in panel 4. My take is that Scruffy shifted positions and the missing reins are a mere trick of the light. 
More seriously, Burlew may have drawn what he intended to draw - it’s legitimate in my book to cut out extraneous details to focus on the action, in this case chomping action. Or it could be a mistake. Not sure it matters, except for the purpose of this thread of course. Admittedly my disbelief is easily suspended provided the characters act credibly.
Status:
Tarquin has a gate to observe, study and test. Xykon is at the other gate. It will take a while for Oots to reach the new gate. Can Haley resolve her father’s problem with a Send spell? He’s a tough guy after all. Or maybe they’ll pick him up on the way North?
Maybe he briefly hid behind Belkar when the Allosaurus went in for the kill. Work with me here! 
It wasn’t that they were ineffective. It is that in D&D, high level characters can wipe the floor with a 0 level army. The only reason they were really in danger was the damage they had already taken in the earlier fights and the explosion. And Tarquin’s statements in this strip are completely consistent with what he says in this one.
Belkar had to let go of the reins briefly to untangle them, after his heavy metal album cover pose.