Nodwick

Nodwick is a comic strip created by Aaron Williams, based around the conventions of fantasy role-playing games. It debuted on March 29, 2001. The titular character, Nodwick, is a hireling in the employ of a typical Dungeons & Dragons-style adventuring party. Nodwick is serialized in Dragon Magazine, on nodwick.com (http://www.nodwick.com), and is available in various print collections; a Nodwick card game is also available.

Main Characters

• Nodwick: A short henchman, Nodwick has served the adventurers for many years. As the artist's style evolved, Nodwick grew shorter and his nose grew larger; according to Artax, Nodwick's nose grew to create balance for the oft-ridiculous weights he is forced to carry (generally orders of magnitude greater than his own). Artax and Yeagar frequently use Nodwick to set off traps. Nodwick has died numerous times, but each time Piffany manages to revive him with her skills as a healer, so Yeagar and Artax don't usually worry about tossing him into pits of lava, feeding him to dragons, etc., if it will advance their quests. Nodwick isn't as smart as Artax or as wise as Piffany, but he possesses the most common sense in the group, and is the most likely to protest their hare-brained schemes. Over the course of his travails, Nodwick has developed a dry sense of humor and a jaded wit.
• Yeagar: Buff fighter with muscles between his ears. It is often Yeagar who drags the party off on life-threatening looting runs. Yeagar's exploits frequently involve consuming large quantities of fermented beverages and making a fool of himself and his companions. Yeager is portrayed as a proficient warrior who is nevertheless overly eager and impetuous, lacking in brainpower, and all too willing to use Nodwick as monster-bait.
• Artax: Tall, skinny wizard with a pointy green hat and an extremely long moustache. Long on intelligence, short on wisdom, and Yeagar's best friend. Artax is ostensibly the leader of the outfit, directing their efforts, but just as often Yeagar and Piffany just do as they please. Artax is not as impetuous as Yeagar and more inclined to question the advisability of his friend's scheme, but usually caves in and goes along with whatever Yeagar has in mind. Like Yeagar, he frequently uses Nodwick to set off traps, lure monsters out of their lairs, etcetera.
• Piffany: Small, bespectacled cleric of good. Unfailingly honest, Piffany is also unwilling to harm any living thing. She spends a lot of time putting Nodwick back together with her duct tape of healing. Although she possesses a great deal of wisdom, Piffany isn't quite the brightest bulb in the box and is commonly manipulated by her companions. Piffany is the only member of the party who treats Nodwick with any kind of dignity, but Artax and Yeagar often take advantage of her natural gullibility to use Nodwick to trigger traps "for the greater good." When she isn't patching Nodwick together or scolding Yeagar and Artax for their general naughtiness, Piffany spends her time proselytizing in the name of niceness and baking cookies. Despite their differences with the young cleric, Artax and Yeagar are actually quite protective of Piffany and would never let any harm come to her.

Other Characters

• Count Repugsive: A recurring villain, similar in stature to Yeagar, wearing a skull-faced helmet. Described as an "anti-paladin." Repugsive is not a very effective villain; his schemes are often incomplete or downright silly, such as creating zombie hordes to move into cities, thus lowering property values so he can take over by buying at cheap prices. Should Repugsive die, he has the power to re-form in about a week, as was discovered after he exploded upon fighting a paladin (they canceled each other out).
• Claret Copin: A bard Nodwick's run into a few times. She writes epic ballads about the group's heroic exploits, such as feeding Nodwick to hydras, sundering ancient seals with his head, etc.
• Bezzler: A half-elf thief who worked with the group before they hired Nodwick; they disposed of him when it came out that he was stealing from them. Bezzler came back seeking re-employment, but Nodwick managed to catch him stealing again, and so he parted ways with them once more (after stealing the clothes off Nodwick's back).
• Frigg: A kobold encountered by the group on a couple of occasions. Nodwick met Frigg while scouting ahead in a dungeon and struck up a conversation, but when he returned to the party with Frigg in tow, Nodwick's companions attacked the kobold. However, when they learned that Frigg was an economics major who could increase the value of their loot, they welcomed him with open arms. They ran into Frigg once more after that, when the kobold came to complain about Yeagar trashing his accounting firm.
• The Brotherhood of Evil Henchmen: A cabal of unsavory hirelings who desire to recruit Nodwick so they can learn from his "skills in the art of object transportation" (ie, schlepping vast quantities of loot). The Brotherhood is "a band of humans, humanoids, and other mostly ill-spirited races, bound to serve those who strive to bring chaos and wickedness into the world." They are led by Theobor, a mysterious robed figure with glowing yellow eyes. Theobor's chief lackey is Beobor, a dim-witted hunchback.

The group has also run into various characters from classic D&D adventures and novels, such as Raistlin Majere from Dragonlance, Elminster from the Forgotten Realms, and Count Strahd von Zarovich from Ravenloft, as well as the game's creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.