Roy Greenhilt
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Roy Greenhilt is a major character in the webcomic, The Order of the Stick, written by Rich Burlew. A 28-year-old veteran fighter, Roy assembled the Order and acts as party leader. He is dark-skinned and keeps his head shaven because baldness appears to run in the family and he decided to beat it to the punch, as it were. Roy is a counterstereotype of the traditional dumb fighter cliché.
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[edit] Character History
[edit] Early Life and College
Roy is the son and oldest child of Eugene Greenhilt, a highly accomplished illusionist, who wished for his son to follow in his footsteps and enroll in Mage College. Roy, however, had other ideas. Inspired by tales of his great-grandfather and the greatsword that he wielded, he enrolled in Bash University, a college for those intending to become fighters. Roy, being highly studious, found himself to be something of a social outcast. After three years of study, he was surprised to receive a visit from his father, who had disowned him when he chose the fighter's path. Eugene explained to his son that he was dying of old age and that Roy and his younger sister Julia would inherit a blood oath of vengeance that he had sworn against the sorceror Xykon, who had slain Eugene's mentor many years earlier. Despite his father's firm belief that Roy, as a lowly fighter, would be incapable of facing Xykon (now having become a lich) successfully, Roy swore to continue his father's quest to destroy the sorceror. Shortly after his father's death some years later, Roy graduated from college with an MBA (Master of Battle Administration).
[edit] Pre-Order Adventuring
After college, Roy decided that he needed to gain some levels before starting his quest to destroy Xykon and so signed up with an adventuring party that were on a quest to eliminate a group of orcs who had been causing problems in a nearby town. One of the other members of the party was a surly dwarven cleric by the name of Durkon Thundershield whose attitude made him generally disliked by the other members of the group. Sent on a mission with Durkon by the other members of the party, who made it quite clear that they'd be more than happy if Durkon failed to return, Roy saved his compatriot's life by throwing himself into the path of an attack meant for Durkon. Fending off the attack, Roy realised that the orcs were not there to cause trouble, but were waiting for a forthcoming rock concert and it was the natural distrust of orcs by the townspeople that was causing the problems. Roy came to an agreement with the orcs, allowing them to stay for the concert on the proviso that they moved on afterwards. Facing the disagreement of the rest of the party, who failed to understand why Roy wasted time negotiating with the orcs rather than simply killing them, as adventurers, in their opinion, were supposed to do, Roy left in disgust, telling them that he would never kill somebody simply because it was more convenient than talking to them.
Durkon went after him, telling Roy that he was the first human he'd ever met who chose to use his head when faced with a choice between thinking and violence and that in saving his life, Roy was also the first non-dwarf who had ever cared about him. Durkon then told him that, if Roy ever formed his own party, that he would be part of it. Realising that the time had come, Roy, with Durkon's assistance, then spent the next couple of years seeking out information about Xykon, ultimately gaining the location of the lich's lair from an oracle. After hearing details of the likely opposition, Roy and Durkon came to the conclusion that they would need more assistance.
[edit] Forming The Order
Roy and Durkon separated to look for willing allies. Roy initially tried approaching adventurers in the street, only to be immediately rebuffed. A chance encounter with a passing bard named Elan, who was familiar with genre conventions, put him straight. Elan assisted Roy in disguising himself as a stereotypical 'mysterious stranger' and told him to sit in the corner of a tavern and stare into his drink. Despite feeling utterly ridiculous, Roy complied and was shocked to discover a number of adventurers waiting to talk to him when he finally looked up. Explaining the task ahead of him, Roy was turned down almost immediately by the vast majority of the applicants, but three showed interest: A rogue named Haley Starshine, a high elven wizard by the name of Vaarsuvius and a highly confrontational halfling ranger named Belkar Bitterleaf. He gave the final position in the party to Elan, as thanks for his assistance. After some debate among the party as to what name they should adopt, Roy finally made the irritated and entirely frivolous suggestion that they should be called "The Order of the Stick", purely because they happened to be passing a stick lying on the ground at the time. To his distinct aggravation, this met with considerable approval.
After their initial encounter with a small group of kobolds went badly, Roy gave serious thought to disbanding the party immediately, but was talked out of it by Durkon, who pointed out that he and Roy hadn't got on when they first met either. He suggested that Roy might be exactly the sort of strong leader that they needed to get them to work as a team. Despite great misgivings, Roy agreed to give it a chance.
[edit] Xykon, Round One
Arriving at Xykon's lair, the Dungeon of Dorukan in the Redmountain Hills, the Order made their way through level by level, fighting their way past goblins, ninjas and various other creatures. Roy was also visited en route by the ghost of his father, who provided him with a prophesy that, in traditional fashion, was almost completely impenetrable until the right moment. They also encountered the Linear Guild for the first time, an evil group made up of opposites of their own team, led by Elan's highly intelligent and evil brother, Nale. The two groups ultimately fought, with the Order coming out on top, at least in part due to Roy's abrupt realisation about his father's prophecy. Some of the Guild escaped, one was slain and the two captives, Nale and his half-orc fighter companion, Thog, were taken to prison by Celia, a sylph who had fallen foul of the Guild.
Celia also showed the Order a way down into the lower levels of the dungeon, saving them considerable time and effort. Roy finally came face-to-face with Xykon, who almost immediately shattered his greatsword. Enraged, Roy lifted Xykon and threw the lich into a mysterious gate located in the bottom level of the dungeon. Xykon's body was destroyed by the gate's energies. The castle and underlying dungeon was destroyed shortly afterwards when Elan set off a self-destruct system that had been built in by their constructor, Dorukan. All the Order escaped unharmed, despite Elan's insistence on the theatrics required by the event putting both himself and Roy a little bit closer to the blast than Roy felt entirely safe with. Believing Xykon destroyed, Roy considered it a victory, taking a crown from the lich's head and wearing it as a necklace.
[edit] Restocking and resupplying
The Order returned to town, where they addressed such matters as the division of the treasure, level-rises due to experience for completing their quest and so forth. To his slight disgust, Roy ended up with a bag of tricks, which he regarded as an utterly useless magic item, although he was later to find the occasional use for it. Roy also looked into the matter of getting his sword reforged, only to be told by the dwarven blacksmith (unknown to Roy, Sabine of the Linear Guild in disguise) that his sword was made of star-metal and a new supply would be needed to reforge it. The smith told him of a place where a meteorite had fallen a century earlier, which would contain the metal that he needed. Cursing the necessity of side-quests, Roy assembled the rest of the party, convinced them to help out (their original contracts with him had expired with the fall of Xykon) and set out. After various misadventures, including tangling with bandits, a hag, who turned Vaarsuvius into a lizard, and a dragon, they recovered a substantial hoard of loot, plus the starmetal meteorite, which turned out to be tiny.
[edit] Azure City
En route back to town, Roy and his party were accosted by Miko Miyazaki, a paladin of the Sapphire Guard of Azure City, who had come to arrest them for crimes against existence, namely Elan's destruction of the gate in Dorukan's Dungeon. Prompted at least in part by his general weakness for attractive women, Roy agreed to comply and persuaded his teammates to do likewise. Despite several setbacks en route, most notably a series of misadventures at an inn along the route, which included Roy being temporarily hailed as a king, the total destruction of said inn, the loss of practically all of their loot, Roy spending an amount of time as an attractive (if still bald) woman courtesy of a Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity that Elan had taken from an ogre slain by the Order, and Haley losing her speach as the result of losing the treasure. As a result of his actions, he apologised to Miko for seeing her as a sex object, an apology which Miko accepted, feeling that it showed off a new maturity and telling him that she would be more considerate of the possibility of a romantic relationship. Roy, on the other hand, had seen a different side to Miko and rejected her outright telling her that, despite her Lawful Good alignment, she was far from any definition of good that he recognised and that he refused to accompany her to Azure City. Unfortunately, all this resulted in was the Order being dragged there in chains.
Reaching Azure City, the Order were put on trial for their actions, with Celia the Sylph acting as their legal representative. During the course of the trial, they learned about the nature of the gate that Elan destroyed, that there were others, including one in Azure City itself, about the individuals who set them up and about the Snarl which was kept at bay by the gates. Found not guilty in a trial that turned out to have largely been a sham orchestrated by Lord Shojo of Azure City and the ghost of Roy's father, who revealed that Xykon had not been destroyed, the Order was then asked to investigate the other remaining gates.
Spending New Year in Azure City, the Order got some much needed downtime. Roy arranged to have his greatsword reforged - although it turned out not to be made of starmetal, the meteorite that Roy had recovered could be incorporated into the reforged sword, giving it a +5 enchantment. It would also occasionally glow with green energy that would be particularly harmful to the undead, a side-effect that Roy steadfastly refused to learn how to counteract. He also went on a date with Celia, which ended with them sleeping together.
Revisiting the Oracle of Sunken Valley to redetermine where Xykon would be found, Roy's intelligence got the better of him, as his question specifically eliminated the Azure City gate as being Xykon's next target, despite it being where the lich is heading next. Shortly afterwards, however, before they could move to investigate what the Oracle had told them, Roy was contacted by Nale, telling him that the Linear Guild had kidnapped Roy's sister Julia and were holding her hostage. Roy led the Order to rescue her from her captors. This done, Roy returned to Azure City to resume their quest. After a night of rest for him (during which his party not only defeated the Linear Guild, but Haley regained her speech and resolved her love for Elan) he went to Lord Shojo's throneroom with Belkar to discuss the current situation. Unfortunately, their conversation was overheard by Miko Miyazaki and Hinjo, Shojo's nephew, who confronted their leader (Roy sensibly chose to remain quiet). Appalled to learn that Shojo had been manipulating the paladins, Hinjo advocated Shojo's arrest, however Miko, having leapt to the somewhat unlikely conclusion that Shojo and Roy were actually in league with Xykon (based on a previous presumption that the Order were minions of the Lich), immediately pronounced Shojo guilty of treason and executed him on the spot. The gods, however, did not agree with her, and due to her attack on a helpless being, revoked her Paladin status.
Roy then attacked Miko in retaliation for killing the Order's main ally. Roy, now in possession of his family's powerful ancestral sword instead of his non-magical greatclub, proved to be more than a match for Miko. She finally surprised him with a kick to the face and attempted to escape. She was stopped by Hinjo, who placed her under arrest. Miko attempted to explain herself, demanding Roy's arrest. Hinjo calmly asked Miko to surrender, but she attacked him, swiftly gaining the upper hand before Roy stepped in and knocked Miko unconscious. When the Clerics were unable to resurrect Shojo, Roy offered his assistance to Hinjo to help with Xykon's impending attack. Hinjo accepted and asked Roy to serve his bodyguard to fend off the assassins that would definitely come for him as the new ruler of Azure City. He also revealed the location of the Azure City Gate - a sapphire embedded in the ruler's throne.
In the face of Xykon and his hordes attack, Roy and the rest of The Order were charged by Hinjo to make their way to Xykon during the battle and eliminate him to shift the battle in their favor. When the attack came, Roy and the rest of the Order quickly dealt with several elementals summoned by Redcloak and launched at the battlements, and then saved Elan's life from a hail of arrows. Shortly afterward, a new complication arose when it was pointed out that there were three Xykons on the battlefield, rather than the one they had anticipated. Faced with deciding which one was the real one, Roy began formulating a plan to deal with the nearest two Xykons, but was quickly stopped when Haley pointed out something- the three Xykons were a con game and none of them the genuine article, all set to act as decoys. This was confirmed moments later by an errant gust of wind along the battlements; Hinjo's seer Sangwaan (who was subsequently killed)quickly used a True Seeing spell and promptly discovered the real Xykon on an undead dragon steed, under an Invisibility spell, heading straight for the city's central tower and the Gate.
Due to his enchanted sword, Roy is the only one able to fend off Xykon, who flew off after being attacked. On a bet, Belkar loaned Roy his Ring of Jumping +20 to pursue Xykon. Roy used the ring to jump upon the dragon and attack Xykon directly. He also learned shortly thereafter that the reason Xykon killed his father's master was solely for his crown (the one that Roy used as a necklace and now back in Xykon's possession) for purely decorative reasons. Roy had always been told that his father's master had been killed over a magical item; the revelation that the crown isn't magical at all ratcheted Roy's anger beyond boiling point, more so because Xykon still couldn't remember who Roy is.
[edit] Personality, Abilities and Traits
Roy is, without doubt, the most level-headed and sane member of the Order and frequently finds himself to be highly frustrated at the various character flaws displayed by his teammates. Roy is highly intelligent, second only in the party to Vaarsuvius, but balances it by possessing a considerable degree of wisdom and charisma, to the extent that an encountered illithid regarded Roy as the most appetising individual present(to the illithid's eyes, Roy's brain was the equivalent of roast turkey and all the trimmings, while Vaarsuvius' brain was viewed on par with a steakhouse cheeseburger). Roy's also shown to fit the physical role of a fighter, being strong enough to carry Durkon (as shown several times when they're fleeing), and big enough that, should he be incapacitated, none of the other party members can carry him, forcing a rest stop until he can get back on his feet. He is apparently a fairly high level or fairly skilled as a fighter, almost having beaten Miko in a duel, before she stunned him. He appears to have matured socially considerably since his father's death. He does, however, have a tendency towards over-complexity; when, on his second visit to the Oracle of Sunken Valley, he posed his question about Xykon's forthcoming whereabouts so precisely that he managed to eliminate Xykon's next target as a possibility. Roy did realise his error shortly after, but the magic of the Valley caused him to forget this subsequent realisation. He also has the minor personal quirk of referring to his private parts as "the Trouser Titan", to the amusement of any teammates in earshot at the time. In addition, he has a tendency to become attracted to beautiful women to the point where his judgement can become somewhat clouded, though female antagonists such as Sabine or those whose personality he finds repulsive, like Miko, are exceptions.
Generally speaking Roy gets on reasonably well with his teammates. He is undoubtedly closest to Durkon, due to their shared history, and respects Vaarsuvius intellectually. Initially, he found the others to be an occasional liability, giving serious consideration to simply leaving Elan behind when the bard was kidnapped by a group of bandits. He realised, however, that these thoughts were unworthy of him and ultimately went to Elan's rescue. Since that time, Roy has shown great loyalty to all his teammates, standing up for even the near-psychotic Belkar when the halfling was in trouble and even protecting Elan from arrows by taking the arrows in his place. He does, however, have certain concerns - for example, he tends to regard Elan, Haley and Belkar as unsuitable for standing guard while the party sleep, being too stupid, too greedy and too psychotic respectively. As Durkon and Vaarsuvius are both spellcasters and thus need sleep in order to regain their spells, Roy often finds himself remaining awake all night, which can lead to a distinct degree of irritation.
| The Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew | |
|---|---|
| Characters: | Roy Greenhilt | Durkon Thundershield | Haley Starshine | Elan | Vaarsuvius | Belkar Bitterleaf | Xykon | Miko Miyazaki |
| Character lists: | General list | Linear Guild |
| Locations: | General list |
