Recap / The Order of the Stick: Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales

Warning! Recap page: Contains unmarked spoilers

A collection of cartoon strips from Dragon magazine, along with several original works created for the book.

• "Julio Scoundrél and the Curse of the Mummy Queen" relates an adventure from Julio's youth. Illustrated in a considerably different style from the rest of the book. Julio must recover the Sapphire of Purity from the Mummy Queen, but to do so he must first defeat her consort, then risk her Curse- one hundred years as her companion!

• "The Magazine Strips" are loosely interconnected comics set in a single dungeon. 22 strips were published in the magazine; 8 bonus strips were written for the book. The story concludes when the heroes encounter the original Dragon itself (representing Dragon Magazine) and help it escape extinction, if only symbolically. The final strip appeared on the last page of the last issue of the magazine's print run.

• "Edition Wars: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension" shows what happens when the Order encounters their D&D 4th Edition counterparts. The 4e version of the Order come to dimension 3.5 and deliver an ultimatum; due to the lack of Time for adventures to take place in, the 3.5e versions must merge with them or cease to exist. Battle ensues when the 3.5e heroes refuse to comply.

• "Stick Tales:" The members of the Order tell each other a series of Fractured Fairy Tales during the interlude between Don't Split the Party and Blood Runs in the Family. These tales happen to resemble classic fiction stories, but when they are subjected to the rules of The Order of the Stick's world, Hilarity Ensues.
  • "Elan and the Beanstalk"; a boy climbs the traditional beanstalk, but the castle at the top contains a non-standard goose.
  • "Little Red Riding Hoodlum"; a red-headed jewel thief (Haley) runs afoul of the big bad wolf.
  • "Goldenleaf"; spies invade the lair of an evil genius chef.
  • "Greenhilt: Prince of Denmark"; a retelling of Hamlet in Order of the Stick style. Spoiler: everybody dies.

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Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales provides examples of:

"Julio Scoundrél and the Curse of the Mummy Queen"

• The Adventure Continues: The last panel shows the Mechane flying off into the sunset.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: The only reason the Mummy Queen stole the sapphire in the first place was to lure a dashing hero to fall under the curse and become her new concubine. Though she's willing to wait a few decades for Julio to fall in love with her before consummating.
• Art Evolution: The comic is illustrated in a much more detailed style than the rest of the series. (In fact, characters look like they do in the most recent strips, with hands instead of mere sticks, etc.) Among the fan mail Julio replies to after the comic is a letter complaining about how the "weird little pools of darkness at the bottom of everyone's feet" are just so unrealistic and make the art feel less lifelike.
• As You Know: There are a couple of these speeches to set up the adventure.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: At the start of the comic, the Mechane is under attack from a giant albino sky octopus.
• Badass Longcoat: Julio wears one, as always.
• Brick Joke: In the letter column after the comic, one correspondence is a notice of a paternity settlement suit being filed, prompting Julio to remind his readers that "paternity, child support, property damage, and sexual harassment notifications" should be sent to P.O. box 491, not 492. A few letters later, a five-year-old fan asks if he can send him a picture he drew, to which Julio responds that the boy can have his mother mail it to the same address as he sent the letter... then adds, "Unless your mommy says she knows me personally, in which case have her send it to box 491."
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: "Let's just say it turns out there are two curses of the Mummy Queen — and I didn't escape the itchier one!"
  All: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
  Julio: But seriously, is there a cleric in your town? I really need one.
• Duel to the Death: Between Julio and the Queen's champion.
• Hurricane of Puns: Julio's combat style.
• In Medias Res: The tale begins during a giant flying octopus attack.
• Kneel Before Zod: The Queen demands this of Julio.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Mummy Queen's champion is a humanoid hippo, who combines speed with enormous strength.
• MacGuffin: Julio is out to retrieve the Sapphire of Purity from the Queen. Par for the course, he doesn't get to keep it at the end of the story.
• Mummy: She's in the title!
• Seductive Mummy: Played with; the Mummy Queen does lust after the main character, but doesn't quite subscribe to the physical standard of the trope.
  Julio: I don't suppose you're actually gorgeous beneath all of those bandages?
  Mummy Queen: It's literally like a graveyard threw up under here.
• This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!: Julio escapes the curse of being the Mummy Queen's consort for the next hundred years by voluntarily being her lover for one unforgettable night. For the record, she is not the kind of mummy who is secretly beautiful under all those bandages.
  Julio: Let's get as freaky as I hope I ever need to!
• A Year and a Day: The curse of the Mummy Queen puts the victim under her thrall for a hundred years and a day.

The Magazine Strips

• Affably Evil: Sure, the Temple of the Shrouded Overlord want to bring about a thousand year reign of darkness, but they offer the Order refreshments when the Order realizes they're not committing acts of blood sacrifice or any sort of violent acts.
• Alternate Continuity: The Order is all there and mostly using their Dungeon Crawlin' Fools-era characterization, but none of the other characters of the comic are ever referenced (unless one counts Belkar swearing by the name of Frudu Biggins), the dungeon they're in doesn't appear to be the Dungeon of Dorukan, and it doesn't fit anywhere in the comic's timeline. It has seen the occasional Mythology Gag since then, though, most notably being the introduction to Belkar's chef skills.
• Call-Back: Elan is invisible again after being hit with the Wand of Dispel Clothing.
• Casual Danger Dialogue / Talking Is a Free Action: Most pronounced when the strip stops in mid-combat for a discussion of the grappling rules.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Temple of the Shrouded Overlord. All they do is go around extinguishing streetlamps. Please do not confuse them with the Temple of the Bloodsoaked Overlord.
• Grammar Nazi: Vaarsuvius simply cannot stand it when some monsters end sentences with prepositions, to the point that they break their invisibility to undead spell to correct them.
  Durkon: So in tha end, our doom will come from ye tryin' to qualify for tha Uptight English Teacher prestige class.
  Vaarsuvius: ...What is this English of which you speak?
• Guest-Star Party Member: Psteve the Psion is introduced, fights exactly one monster, and... says farewell.
• Harmless Villain: The Temple of the Shrouded Overlord. They try to bring about a thousand year reign of darkness, but mostly do so by extinguishing street lamps. Inconvenient and maybe a little bit dangerous, but it's not like they're sacrificing innocents.
• Hand Wave: Haley explains that the reason so many Underdark races share so many similarities with their surface kin is because they were surface dwellers that got forced down there.
• Jerkass: Belkar, as usual. He meets his match in the half-orc assassin who comes to discuss his overdue bill from the healers.
  Belkar: What are you going to do, repossess my health? Ha!
  Half-Orc: [draws sword] Actually... yes. [draws another sword] With interest.
• Medium Awareness: Not only do the characters know they're in a comic strip, Elan knows (in a bonus strip) that Dragon Magazine was cancelled years ago; so their Recurring Character nemesis is making his last appearance.
• Mind Screw: When Durkon has to make his Will save, but nobody else does. At least... nobody else remembers having to make a Will save... are they now in the thrall of an evil subterranean overlord? Bwahahaha!!!
• Mooks: One strip features some goblins suddenly and horribly realizing that this is their role in life. They suffer the usual fate for nameless mooks a few moments later.
• Poke the Poodle: The Temple of the Shrouded Overlord believe that the Ancient Overlord will bring about a thousand year reign of darkness. To inaugurate this despicable plan, they forcibly extinguish all street lamps.
  Goblin Priest: The eternal night begins NOW!
• Recurring Character: The snail. Oh my head, the snail.
• Riding into the Sunset: The Order helps the Ancient Dragon escape the dungeon (but not cancellation) and they fly off into the sunset.
  Haley: We should be thanking you.
  Dragon: For what?
  Haley: Everything.
• Space "X": Vaarsuvius is fed up with everything in the Underdark being the same as the surface world, with "Dark-" or "Deep-" tacked on in front of the name.
  Vaarsuvius: It is exactly the same as the upper world, only dimmer! JUST STAY AT HOME AND PUT ON SUNGLASSES!
• Take That!: A duo of comics mock some of the alternate magic systems that 3.5 introduced.
  • Psteve the Psion is introduced with great fanfare, and manages to defeat a monster the Order was struggling with... and is left so burnt-out in the process of expending all his power points that the next monster proceeds to easily kill him.
  • The Order hires a pair of interns: a spellthief, who wastes his Sneak Attack damage trying to steal a spell from an enemy with no magic, and an incarnum-user, who spends so long trying to allocate her essentia that the enemy gets bored and leaves.

"Edition Wars: Invaders from the Fourth Dimension"

• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Nobody in the 4e Order really minds Belkar's death, to the point that instead of raising him, they decide to try out that one Avenger they know.
• Cheese Strategy: In-universe, the 3.5e Order ultimately defeat their counterparts by refusing to engage with 4e's tactics-heavy combat. Haley and Vaarsuvius lay down blasts and arrows from far outside the relatively short range of most 4e attacks, Durkon uses Planar Ally to call in a gang of celestials to impede them, and Belkar engages his counterpart while under the effects of multiple potion buffs and a Greater Invisibility. The 4e Order has no counter to this but to slog their way up a hill while taking constant fire. 4e Roy grumbles about them being "an adventuring party, not a damn artillery squad."
• Evil Counterpart: All the heroes see their opposite number as this, once the conflict begins.
• First Kiss: 3.5e Haley and Elan share theirs, under the influence of 4e Elan's magical bard song. They weren't dating yet in this continuity.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: A running joke throughout is the more simulation-heavy 3.5 Order clashing against the more game-y 4e Order. Things like 4e Roy being able to heal himself by shouting and then retroactively realizing he was fine, or 4e Haley being able to temporarily knock someone unconscious Tap on the Head-style by stabbing them on the foot, both get specific acknowledgement as something that really only make sense if you're willing to roll with it.
• Here We Go Again!: At the end of the comic, after the two Orders finally manage to make peace, 4e Roy delivers a veiled insult at 3.5e, which then turns into an argument between him and his counterpart, with the two of them dueling each other in the last panel.
• Join or Die: The 4th Edition characters insist the 3.5e Order must merge with them or... well, you know, you just read the trope name.
• Killed Off for Real: 4e Belkar gets decapitated by his 3.5e counterpart, who uses the head to do an ettin impression. His teammates initially try to bring him back, but since Raise Dead in 4e takes eight hours to cast, that gave them a lot of time to reconsider the idea.
• Mythology Gag: At the end of the comic, 4e Haley muses that they've been thinking about letting an Avenger named Miko join them in place of Belkar—one of the only references to a non-Order character in the Dragon Magazine continuity.
• Negative Space Wedgie: The 4e heroes arrive in dimension 3.5 via a Teleport effect that looks suspiciously like one of these.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: From 3.5e Belkar, of course.
  Roy: What my colleagues mean to say is...
  Belkar: UP YOURS, NOOB!
  Roy: I was going to say "No thanks", but that works, too.
• We Can Rule Together: 3.5e Roy realizes that both groups can team up and battle against all the non-D&D hobbies, to create more Time for both of their groups to adventure in.
• Wrong Context Magic: The two Orders have a lot of difficulty adapting to the magic used by their counterparts. In particular, the 4e Order has never heard of Vancian Magic, or if they have, their knowledge of it is deeply incomplete.

"Stick Tales": General Tropes

• The Cameo: Although the heroes are portrayed as the main characters in the Tales, bit parts are played by various minor characters from the online strips.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: "Elan and the Beanstalk"; "Little Red Riding Hoodlum".
• Shout-Out: Everywhere. See the page for specifics.
• Twice-Told Tale: Greenhilt especially, but they all qualify.

"Elan and the Beanstalk"

• Babies Ever After: Elan and the serving girl get this ending. Haley calls this "a bit domestic", but she accepts it.
• Call-Back: Once again Roy (as the Giant) is falling to his death... however, he survives this time, as average falling damage in D&D terms will not kill even the weakest Giant variety.
  Roy: I've become very familiar with the falling rules in my spare time.
• The Cameo: Instead of a magic bean, the payment for the family cow was going to be "exactly one Sean Bean." But he dies immediately after saying "hullo".
• Curse Cut Short:
  Giant Roy: Well, fee, fie, foe, fectum, I'm gonna bury my foot in your...
• Gender Flip: The Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs is played by Belkar. And that's not an egg.
  Goose: Nnnnnnnnnn! *ssssssSPLACKT* ... Well, I'm sure it can be shaped into an egg.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Roy the Giant, falling from the beanstalk.
  Giant Roy: [sigh] Not THIS again.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Giant Roy is not at all hard to get along with, even when you're stealing from him or growing beanstalks through his lawn.
• Slipping a Mickey: The Giant's fruit salad is stuffed full of horse tranquilizers, allowing his serving girl (Haley) to steal the Goose. Naturally, Elan messes up her getaway.

"Little Red Riding Hoodlum"

• Call-Back:
  • Lead apparently blocks locate object spells as well as detect evil.
  • And Elan as the Woodcutter enters the cottage by crashing through the window, "Dashing Swordsman"-style.
    Elan: It really ends up being worth it once out of every ten or twelve times.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: Red bribes the city guard with delicious baked goods.
• Perspective Flip: Since this is Haley's story, Red is a brilliant international jewel thief, not an innocent little girl.
• Schizo Tech: The Big Bad Wolf (Belkar again) has a cell phone in his intro scene, and is apparently trying to call his agent.
  Big Bad Wolf: Listen, you get him on the phone and you find out why I keep ending up as the animal in these things, got it?

"Goldenleaf"

• Action Girl: Lien plays one who was on her own mission to take out Goldenleaf.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Belkar is telling the story, with himself in the starring role. Of course the villain is still sitting and stroking his cat at the end of the tale.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Defied by Goldenleaf, who makes sure the spies stay put in his death trap.
  Goldenleaf: What, did you think I was just going to leave and not watch this part? Try to escape again and I'll throw a dagger in your face.
• For the Evulz: As one would expect from Belkar's character.
  Roy: He threatened to destroy Cliffport if they didn't... actually, I don't think he gave an ultimatum.
  Lien: He made the same threat to Azure City, but specified that he was attempting to gain something called, "lulz."
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Almost invoked by name. Goldenleaf tricks agents into his secret lair so he can try out new recipes on them, before killing them.

"Greenhilt, Prince of Denmark"

• Alas, Poor Yorick: Alas, poor Yikyik. It's a riff on Hamlet, someone had to have their skull dug up.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Discussed in-universe after Roy finishes the story.

  Vaarsuvius: I must also confess that I found the names of the locations distracting. Denmark? England? France?? I realize it's a work of fiction, but one cannot simply string some letters together and call it a name.

• Expy:
  • Even more than most "Stick Tales" characters, "Laerta Liyazaki" is Miko Miyazaki transplanted to another story.
  • Xlaudius is Xykon by another name, then there's Chancellor Shojonius... hell, we might as well call Denmark "Azure City" and be done with it.
• Hypocrite: Laerta. Oh, holy crap, Laerta.
  Xlaudius: OK, here's the poison for your blade.
  Laerta: [Greenhilt] will die for his evil acts and for consorting with the undead!
  Xlaudius: Self-awareness really isn't your thing, is it?
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Chancellor Shojonius fakes insanity in public, but when he talks to Greenhilt from behind the curtain he reveals that he is completely sane. Alas, Greenhilt thinks it's Xlaudius back there and stabs him to death.
• Off with His Head!: Greenhilt is more decisive than Hamlet, and beheads the usurper. Since the usurper is the lich Xlaudius, beheading just inconveniences him for the rest of the scene.
• Show Within a Show: Since Elan stages it, it goes completely out of control.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Ocelia came straight to her father to report Greenhilt's odd behavior, of course they didn't do anything else first...
  Ocelia: We certainly didn't do anything twice...

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