Redcloak

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caption=Redcloak, drawn by Rich Burlew
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=Redcloak
real_name= (unknown)
publisher=Giant In The Playground
debut="The Order of the Stick" #23
creators=Rich Burlew
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
status=Active
alliances="Team Evil", The Dark One and the Goblin Race
previous_alliances=
aliases=Bearer of the Crimson Mantle, High Priest of The Dark One
relatives= Right-Eye (brother)
powers=Powerful cleric, Crimson Mantle that grants connection to The Dark One as well as slowed aging and resistance to diseases, considerable tactical ability, current leader of an army of hobgoblins and undead.|

Redcloak is a major villain of the webcomic "The Order of the Stick", created and written by Rich Burlew. He is the goblin high priest of a Goblin deity known as "The Dark One" and chief minion of Xykon.

Biography

tart of Darkness

The goblin who would later take the name of Redcloak had only just started out as an acolyte of the previous bearer of the Crimson Mantle when his home was destroyed by the Sapphire Guard of Azure City, who believe the Crimson Mantle is a threat to "the very foundation of creation itself". Redcloak's mother and most of his family were killed; only he and his younger brother escaped. Redcloak was visited by the spirit of his mentor, who told him to take up the Mantle; when he put it on, Redcloak was able to communicate with the Dark One, and understood his Plan to improve the lot of the goblins by unleashing the Snarl and blackmailing the other gods. The mantle also extended his lifespan and seemingly protects him from diseases.

Redcloak needed the cooperation of an arcane caster, and recruited Xykon; the lizardfolk were also interested in the sorcerer, but Xykon slew their chief because his name was too long to remember. Seeing this, Redcloak named himself Redcloak, and his brother Right-Eye, rather than use their real names, which have not yet been revealed.

Redcloak was imprisoned along with Xykon when the latter was defeated by Lirian in his attack on her gate, one of five that could be opened to unleash the Snarl. It was Redcloak's decision to effect their escape by turning Xykon into a lich, vastly increasing his powers. From that point on, it was Redcloak working for Xykon and not the other way round, because he knew he did not have the strength to work "against" Xykon. A second fight against Lirian ensued, and Redcloak accidentally destroyed her gate when he used a fire spell against her treants.

Six years later, Right-Eye ran away from Xykon's horde, after trying to persuade Redcloak to join him; but Redcloak felt he could not abandon the "divinely inspired" Plan. Eighteen years later still, Xykon disappeared for a while, and Redcloak sought out his brother again. After cooperating with him to kidnap the Monster in the Darkness from a circus, Redcloak began to realise what he was missing out on, and decided to stay with his brother; but Xykon reappeared. Threatening to kill Right-Eye's family, he forced both brothers to rejoin him, and he told Redcloak that he had discovered the location of one of the other gates – Dorukan's. This ultimately led to the death of most of Right-Eye's family.

While Xykon battled Dorukan, Redcloak was ordered to storm his castle, but Right-Eye saw this as a chance to get rid of Xykon once and for all. Redcloak tried to dissuade his brother, and finally, when Right-Eye went ahead in spite of his protests, Redcloak killed him, believing Xykon's survival was necessary for the Plan, which was necessary for the good of the goblin people. Xykon then told Redcloak he knew he could trust him now, because if Redcloak subsequently betrayed Xykon, he would have killed his brother for nothing as well as mocking Redcloak's evil for the "greater good" and general spinelessness compared to Xykon's own true evil and complete lack of scruples. Saddened, Redcloak obeyed Xykon's final order to zombify his brother.

The online strips

At the start of the webcomic's run, Redcloak and his goblin followers were in Dorukan's dungeon, working with Xykon to open the Gate located therein. During the Order's incursion into the dungeon, practically all Redcloak's followers were killed, either by the Order themselves, or through Xykon's notoriously lax attitude towards the survival of his minions. With all his followers wiped out by the end of that adventure, and Xykon himself temporarily disembodied, Redcloak [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0117.html escaped] the Dungeon accompanied by the Monster.

Heading to the Southern Mountains and Xykon's back-up fortress, Redcloak encountered a large force of hobgoblins. Despite his own personal feelings about hobgoblins, he agreed to undergo a series of rituals to make him an official hobgoblin so that he could become one of their leaders. Faced with these rituals, Redcloak managed to take the fast track to promotion when hobgoblin who was initiating him told him he could just kill the current supreme leader in order to take over. He immediately [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0149.html killed] said hobgoblin (using a single 'slay living' spell) and asked if that put him in charge. The real supreme leader, who had seen Redcloak's effortless disposal of the initiator, chose to put self-preservation ahead of power and answered in the affirmative. After their first legion of 300 ran out of soldier, they then [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0197.html found] out the scope of his command was significantly larger than he first thought, as it include 87 legions of the same approximate size, to which Xykon has an "evil-gasm"

With their power-base restored and Xykon regenerated, Redcloak investigated the remaining Gates, recommending to Xykon that the Azure City Gate be assaulted next. Leading their massive army to the borders, Xykon, Redcloak and the Monster took a small force to take out the watchtowers. Sapphire Guard member Miko Miyazaki was present and, seeing the "Crimson Mantle", [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0369.html attacked] Redcloak on sight. Despite Miko's acknowledged combat prowess, Redcloak proved to be surprisingly effective against her, although she finally got the better of him. Xykon saved him at the last minute (though he was spending the time gambling with the Demon Cockroaches on the round Redcloak was about to be knocked out), enclosing Miko in a forcecage.

Proceeding on to Azure City, taking into consideration Xykon's general disregard for tactics, Redcloak assumed complete control over the whole force, orchestrating the siege and an elaborate shell game-like deception to hide Xykon's stealthy approach to the Gate itself.

While initially possessing a casual disregard for the deaths of the hobgoblins under his command, Redcloak experienced an [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0451.html epiphany] , after his life was saved by a hobgoblin soldier who died in his place. He realised to his horror and disgust that he had allowed a petty grudge to let him act in a racist and uncaring manner which reminded him of Xykon's behaviour. This fact, coupled with the fact that his duty as high priest of the Dark One is to 'shepherd "all" Goblins', caused him to alter his strategy. He immediately summoned a fiendish mammoth and gave the order that all remaining troops be grouped together and charge the breach in the wall as one, intending to take the city to give meaning to the deaths of his troops. Entering the city, he approached the castle gates, which swung open, to the horror of the defenders, as Redcloak had arranged for the guard on the gate mechanism to be stealthily taken out. Despite a last-ditch attempt by Haley Starshine to distract him, Redcloak entered the castle at the head of his troops. He then [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0456.html dueled] the Azurite high priest to prevent more hobgoblin losses, afterwards summoning a chlorine elemental to clear the courtyard of the remaining humans. Redcloak had ordered the elemental to "kill all humans", but was unaware of Tsukiko's existence at the time; however, the elemental proved unsuccessful in killing Tsukiko while the latter was trapped outside with it and Tsukiko gained a resentment towards Redcloak while staying loyal to Xykon.

Redcloak then [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0459.html made his way] to the throne room where Xykon was battling the "Ghost-Martyrs" led by the spirit of Soon Kim. Realizing that they were some form of positive spirit energy, he was able to use "Rebuke Undead" upon the spirits, using negative energy to destroy them. Redcloak was then attacked by Soon Kim but was only able to stun him. With Xykon holding off Soon, Redcloak eliminated the other spirits, but Soon proved too strong for the pair. [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0462.html Defeated] , it was only when Soon was distracted that Xykon was able to fly them to safety. Despite losing the gate, Xykon and Redcloak did succeed in destroying the Sapphire Guard and conquering Azure City. Redcloak later lead an attack on Hinjo's junk with a large amount of hobgoblins and summoned a fiendish octopus to attack the ship. After the octopus was killed, Hinjo attempted to attack Redcloak directly, only to be hit with a Disintegrate spell from Redcloak, who shouts back to him that Azure City is now his city. Redcloak then spends the four months torturing O-Chul, a paladin found by the Monster in the Dark for information on Girard's Gate with their most recent meeting having Redcloak attempting to convince O-Chul that giving him information is a lesser evil than the destruction of the universe by showing him the rift created from Miko's destruction of Soon Kim's gate. Redcloak later attempts to convince O-Chul by threatening to have his hobgoblins throw a group of Azurites into the rift. O-Chul, apparently not knowing any information whatsoever related to the other gates is unable to tell Redcloak anything and submits to having the prisoners killed. Redcloak, now finally sure that O-Chul knows nothing finds ultimately has the prisoners released and sent back to their cells. He later tells a hobgoblin named Jirix that while he has known that O-Chul knows nothing, all he really needs is the idea that he does to convince Xykon to stay in the city and hoping to create a well-functioning goblin state. He also states that although Xykon is an ally, he is not one to be trusted, knowing full well of the lich's depravity.

Personality, Traits and Abilities

Intelligent, with a dry and somewhat sarcastic sense of humour, Redcloak usually plays the straight man to the rest of his team's antics. He appears to have a decent grasp of tactics and certainly considers them more important than his master does. He has a decent level of education, being familiar with chemistry to the extent that he can [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0423.html summon] elementals based on specific chemical elements (to date, titanium and chlorine during the siege of Azure City and magnesium during a bonus comic featured in the second compilation, "No Cure for the Paladin Blues") rather than the classical elements of Earth, Air, Water and Fire. Unlike Xykon, Redcloak seems to remember the names of Roy and his party and is also familiar with Soon Kim. Because Redcloak cast an Extended Summon Monster VII spell at the siege of Azure City, he is almost certainly at least a level 15 cleric, also, he is seen casting Blade Barrier, remarking that it would deliver 15d6 damage. Blade Barrier deals 1d6 per caster level. Based on his use of a Disintegrate spell in Comic #480, Destruction is one of his chosen domains. He also likely has a Wisdom score of at least 20 (or 17 and the Spell Focus feat), since the high priest of the Twelve Gods failed his saving throw against Redcloak's "destruction" spell (by rolling a "21" against a 7th level spell (the priest's spirit seemingly noticed that he "had a 22" later in the line to the afterlife, though). Belkar also mentioned that he believed Redcloak to be 17th level.

Redcloak's unholy symbol is Xykon's phylactery, indicating considerable trust of Redcloak on the lich's side and also that Redcloak must assign considerable value to the lich's prolonged existence. He is loyal to Xykon out of guilt for his actions and devotion to The Dark One's plan, enduring a lot of the lich's insults, but resents him for ordering goblins to their death indiscriminately, (although his attitude temporarily changed due to his mastery over the hobgoblins, whom he despised). However, loyalty notwithstanding, Redcloak was quite happy to [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0147.html criticize] his master after the latter was temporarily bodiless and confined to his phylactery, calling him on his hypocrisy when Xykon insisted on good teamwork only because he was weak at the time as well as stating that he does not trust Xykon as an ally of the Goblin race.