1 Alvissa: Poor Lambert. I wonder what happened.
1 Mordekai: It looks like he's been hit by a sword. See the wound there?
2 Alvissa: Let me see. Wait! He's still breathing! He's not dead! He's just mortally wounded!
3 Kyros: And this is a useful distinction how?
4 Mordekai: He's still worth experience points if we put him out of his misery, right?

It's been quite a while since we've had an explicit reminder that these are characters in a fantasy roleplaying game. They seem to slowly melt into their own self-contained fantasy setting as the strips go by. So I hope the out-of-character comment by Mordekai isn't too jolting to readers who might have slipped into thinking of them as purely fantasy characters in a fantasy setting.

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2018-07-08 Rerun commentary: Over the years they've slipped more and more into simply being fantasy characters in a fantasy setting. This may be the last strip where I ever made use of the "characters in a fantasy roleplaying game" conceit.

A bit of searching reveals that #1662 is the last Fantasy strip in which the GM appears as a character. So yes, this is probably true.

Oh, and in case you didn't get the subtlety of the gag in panel 2, "mortally wounded" is wounded to the extent that you will die from your wounds. So in many ways there is no useful distinction - particularly in settings without good medical care. Or fantasy parties who don't have a cleric.