Dice Shame - 2-139 | 'Trade Secret'

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Within the Thousand Maws a tense negotiation gives the party a route to the purchase of some elixirs...________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Imagine your best game of D&D. The shocks, the twists and turns, the moments that can’t be caught because you just had to be there. That’s Dice Shame.Join our DM Jo, her husband Harlan, their brother Alex & their friend Nic as they experience those unmissable, gut-wrenching, heart-aching, joy-filled moments.This legendary AP releases a brand new episode every Thursday morning at 1:20 am!Content Warning: animal death, swearing, violence, claustrophobiaPart of the Rusty Quill Network Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I might want to keep an eye on those two over there. I'll keep an eye on him. It's entirely possible. What are we going to do with them, Gragalax? What are we going to do? That's what you need to do with your daughter? What's the nature of your interest in it? Why would we just look at it right now?

Uh-huh. Anyway. I never even considered magic in that way. I doubt we'll run into something so incredible. I appreciate your effort, though. Inside the cave, eh? Gotta watch out for the magic. Classic blade sphincter shield. We love it. Hell yes.

Uh, there's a change of plan slightly. But Red, if we're going to travel together, at some point we're all going to have to learn to trust and communicate with each other we are not just things to be managed Welcome back to

Dishame, this is season two Episode 139, Trade Secret MVP this week goes to Longtime Fan Merlin Merlin is a talented DM, whipsmart, and genuinely a super nice guy. We are so lucky to have him along for the journey. Thanks for hanging out with us for the past five plus years, Merlin. You are this week's MVP.

Thanks, Marlon. We literally wouldn't want to do this without you. All right. Should we play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it. Woo! The War Chief leads you through another series of winding dark tunnels and then out into an even more complex cave. There seem to be quite a few more living spaces here, a lot of tents, a lot more cook fires.

And just at the opening of the cavern as you are heading out in. into the grander space, you see this hulking, blue-skinned orc with a massive battle axe, and he is standing guard, it seems like, in front of a gigantic pile of orc skulls that is partly blocking an entrance to a strange corridor. this corridor that you are just barely getting a glimpse of as you are being led past is cut from the rock of the mountain it appears in very geometrical angles like a very straight hallway conversely to this cavern which is like just bare like normal cave walls Look at that.

And he points at this hallway that this orc is blocking. That doesn't look like orc work. It looks artificial. It looks constructed. And it's entirely possible that this might be sides of, well, nethery's influence at the very least. And he's kind of looking around, obviously very excited. Keep a lid on it, buddy. Come on.

If Temeel starts to kind of take a curious step towards. the entrance and towards this other orc. How does the blue-skinned orc react? He just kind of gives you a shake of the head. As soon as he does, Tamil puts her hands up and she starts to back away, she nods, acknowledging. He shakes his head yes? He shakes his head, no.

I know, but there's an audio media. Well, shaking your head, I think, is always allowed. Notting versus a thing. Yeah, nodding versus a thing. So true. I agree. He shakes his head, no. Tamil, as you clearly understand that correctly

and take a step back with your hands up. Witted puts a hand on your shoulder in his armor and clearly misinterpreting this takes a step forward trying to look around the orc down the hallway, oblivious to the fact that we very much are not welcome here. Oh, Widdid, I think he doesn't like that, so we should probably move on. It's clearly about natural construction.

Excuse me, excuse me. He's kind of like get the orchids. Oh, big. We did, yeah. He aggressively walks up to you, Witted. and then takes the shaft of this axe and presses it up against your chest, Witted, and he goes,

Not if you want to live another day. Well, what I would like to do is see that hallway beyond you. I'm not, by good orc, I'm not sure if you fully understand the potential technology, the potential magic that is in a place such as this, have you at least explored the cave? While Widd is talking, Tamil is going to put her hand on the axe, put her other hand on Witted's armor, and bodily shift things around

so that she is in between this blue-skinned dork and widded. He lets you do that. Apology, sir. He is a curious fellow, and sometimes that overrides his better sense. I'll keep an eye on him. We mean no offense. Curiosity killed the...

He's a gnome. Yeah, whatever you are. Red, like, shifts next to Grakalaxes. This is all happening. Yeah, Giacalax finally turned and taken notice of you guys getting into some shenanigans. He's just watching. Yeah, and Red's, like, beepside him, like, all these guys, look at these, gosh.

You know, like, trying to realize, okay, we're already starting to create division here. Red's going to start siling up to this guy, you know, and, like, sort of casting off everyone else just to give us dynamics to play with. So he's like, oh, you know, sometimes these people are so curious, you know, they have to push past everything. It's ridiculous, I tell you. It's like that, oh, sorry, I don't mean to speak ill about your daughter, but, you know, the insolence of these youth nowadays, it's frustrating, I tell you.

It's at this moment too that Doran sort of does a head count of our party and looks back to see to see Whim approaching. Yeah, I think Wim got a little bit lost. Maybe canonically she's got a bad sense of direction, which is totally a totally fine and normal thing to have as a person, as a human girl. Yeah. So Doran like kind of like does a, sees her coming through the hallway and gives her a little bit of a gnaw and then watching Red kind of sidle up next to Grakalak. and Tamil and Witted, you know, talking to this other orc and sort of doing, sort of doing like an assessment of the situation. Doren, I mean, I don't think you need an insight role to know that

Witt is making this a challenge for your party dynamic. I love it. What are we going to do with them, Gragalax? What are we going to do? Tamil catches your eye and just very subtly kind of, waves her hand in front of her own mouth, and then you hear in your head as she casts message to you,

I think I understand what you're trying to do. I'll keep an eye on Witted, and if you can keep an eye on Doren, I think we'll be okay. Bingo, bingo. Right, Doren, and, like, Red sort of calls Dorn over to Grakalax. I might want to keep an eye on those two over there. Meanwhile, this blue-skinned orc who is aggressively guarding this corridor,

against Widdid's curiosity, gestures to the pile of skulls on the floor and says, How do you think he's got here? I'm assuming they tried to take you on in a fight. Wrong. I feel like you know the answer, and you're just building it up right now.

Just like, Tamil is kind of like gently tapping on, like, the armor in front of. That's right, Witton. He's clearly asking rhetorical. Question. But for effect, it's all part of storytelling. I can appreciate that. How did they die? All I'm saying is, I'm doing you a favor by keeping you out.

Oh, interesting. A favor, you say. Now, on your way. Thank you for the warning. We're taking up too much of your time. Let's get out of your hair. Let's go. Listen, I respect a line of questioning, okay, but I'm not your man here.

Oh, fair enough. Now, will you please follow me? this isn't a sightseeing tour. Come on, guys. It's not a sightseeing tour. As that conversation is happening, Witted keeps looking at them and then looking at the tunnel. Not at the orca guarding the tunnel. He's looking past him at the tunnel.

Look at them, looking at the tunnel. And then hoping no one will notice, a small panel on his leg opens up, unseeding right from where it meets the boot. and it just sort of opens and like slides out and something drops out of it about the size of like a big mouse or a really tiny baby rabbit maybe

hits the ground and it has little tiny it just kind of clunks to the ground hopefully quietly it sprouts legs real quick and tries to very quickly scuttle into the tent that's right beside that orc you mean about the size of a rat A rat, absolutely. Big newborn puppy.

It's a tiny, tiny elephant. The smallest elephant you can imagine. It's like a six-week-old house hippopotamus. Okay, I'm locking in big pigeon. I actually love that idea. There you go. Big pigeon. But it grows these four or five little tinkling spider legs

and starts to scuttle under the tent. So amazing. I'm trying to. do this in a way that no one would notice it. This is, I will just say, my homunculus. I have not introduced yet. Yes, yes, yes. It's like a familiar.

You're going to have to roll, would we say, a slight of hand check? A stealth check for the homunculus? It does have its own stat block and it has a stealth check. Yes, 100%. Fantastic. So your homunculus will have to make a stealth check for me. Absolutely. So as Temeel sees this thing kind of drop out of,

out of widens. First of all, she loses her shit. She loses her fucking shit. What is that? No. What are those? Timil's work with artificers before, she understands, like, their gadgetry.

And so she'll very quickly kind of, like, move over it, kind of into its space. She'll give it a little bit of a nudge with her foot as she gives it some cover, and she will give Bardic inspiration to this homunculus. Whoa. Oh, my God. It looks like it fell out, like, roughly,

like an oval kind of like egg-like and then grew the legs and as you give it inspiration and nudge it with your leg just a hatch opens up on top of it and a little sort of bird-shaped head pokes out and does this little like flicker of its eyes and then retreats back in

it's keeping its head retracted turtle style what? Yeah, would it lay an egg? Timmu needs to do a wisdom saving throw not to just completely squeal with delight at this movie. Yeah, yeah really. It's very um the owl from Clash of the Titans vibes,

the bird-like head, 100%. Yeah. Wow. Amazing. It's scuttles under the tent. I'm going to roll, and I assume I don't have advantage, but I do have bardic inspiration if I need it.

So I got that going for me. Is this 17 enough? As your homunculus, spider walks with a pigeon head kind of past and over the orc skulls, you don't seem to have attracted did anyone else's attention? Yes.

Do you see through its eye? Like, what does it do for you? I know it can relay information back to me. I'm pretty sure, and I can channel magic through it, but I don't believe that it can, to be honest, I'm not even sure that it can telepathically relay stuff back to me. I know that it, I cannot see through its eyes, like a familiar, no. But, yeah, and I think it has to come back to report anything

that it sees. So I'm hoping it'll make it back to whisper in my ear, whatever it sees. I guess Whittied's a pigeon or a bird person, I guess, Doran. I don't really know. It looks about the size of a small pigeon, large pigeon. This stonework that you can just now sort of see behind this blue-skinned orc, it's gray-blue marble, maybe, and it seems to somehow be emanating its own dim light. I feel like if it sees that, I would have told it to come back as soon as you, as you you see anything that could even be possibly netheries? Definitely. I mean, it takes four steps into the room and then, like, hops back up on a skull and does, like, a little spider shrug

with its, like, legs? Like, I think so. Okay, then I almost just try to recall it without anyone noticing again. Do I need to make another check for that? No, no, no, we'll carry it over. Absolutely, 100%. It scuttles back again through the tent, and I specifically walk right by the front of the tent, and you see it, like, climb right up onto the boot and go right in. inside the little hatch and the hatch shuts behind it. That's cool. And then like plugs in and there's like an uploading sound.

Yeah. Yeah. You see me lower down into the suit and you hear this. And you hear like as I'm coming up like, good, good job, Reggie. Tabil continues to engage with this blue-skinned orc. So what are your macros? I mean, you're carrying so much bulk. I mean, what's your routine?

It's really, important that you get at least one gram per kilogram of protein every day okay that's a bare minimum that's not even on a bulk and then just like as suit is once it seems the humunculus has been reintegrated into widd's armor and he's starting

to disengage she'll just like well thank you very much for your time and then just starts walking off towards where everyone else is meanwhile the war chief is like mid conversation with red and that's what I'm trying to tell you about daughters which I totally understand this no one understands that more than me I gotta tell

I'm the only one with a daughter in this entire home. But you're saying, like, just let her go and do what she wants to do in the world? What I'm saying is she's going to do that regardless. And you can either be in support of it, or you can be the reason she hates what she's become. But how am I going to be in her life if I just let her go wherever she wants to in the world? Like, what if I've never seen her again? Red puts a hand on your shoulder. This is touching his shit.

You see this ring on my finger? It tells me where my daughter is everywhere. In this world, I can feel her heartbeat at any moment in any time, and she has the same for me. That is the kind of connection that you want with her. No? Can I see that for a minute? He holds out his hand. He wants to hold the ring.

If Tamil's walking up and sees this interaction, it seems like it's important to him. Why would you... What's the nature of your interest in it? Why is it that the five of you are the only ones allowed to ask questions? No, no, no, stop. Listen. Here. And he takes it off, and he gives us to the guy. It's like, look, you're right. We came in here with trust.

We laid our cards on the table with our plans for Duke Zolto. That takes a lot of trust. Here's another gesture of our trust. What color of metal is this ring? Is it gold or silver? It's black, black metal with a red band. So we see like a close-up. I'm imagining this in a movie form now for some reason,

of this huge, orcish palm with the black ring in the middle of it. And he just sort of like touches it with his finger, sort of examining it for a minute. He just holds it in his palm. And you can see Red is genuinely scared for the first time possibly ever in this specific way, not death, but like a fear of loss of losing something important to him. He's never really had to confront that. He's been so flippant with gold, with items, most of them come and go, including companions as of late, but this was a promise that he gave to his daughter.

This was something he picked out as a way to show her that he could be in her life in a meaningful way. This ring represents an effort for Red to grow to become what she wants of him. And that fear that's on his face is so apparent. And then he opens his palm and offers it back to you. Throughout this entire interaction, Timul has been.

laser focused on you, Red, not Chief Grakluck. Just watching your face and seeing that, like taking in that fear. Oh, thank you. Thank you. And Red puts it back on. Uh-huh. Anyway. So, shall we?

Buddy? Yeah, I'm just over there. Cool. Come on. And he leads you farther into this, like, living chamber. Yeah, and Red sort of pauses and turns to everybody at once. Now that we're like just apart from him for a second,

be like, keep it together. I don't know what's going on, but we are deep in this belly. We need to play it smart. As you say that, we're in a huddle kind of, like as we're about to follow Graglack.

At some point, we're going in that hallway. And then he just turns to keep walking. Oh, boy. Oh, fuck. Well, Red, I think you should just keep making friends, I think. Yeah. Thanks, Temeel.

You're doing good, too. Dorn, I guess, turns to Graklack. Reds sort of rallying the troops, you could say. And Doran offers his two sense of advice, of course. He says, listen, Grakalak, I was told by a wise dwarf very long ago that if you love someone, let them go. And if they love you back, they will return. I believe that that's what you need to do with your daughter, let her go.

That's, uh, as dwarish wisdom, is it? Well, I think it can be, you know, conveyed across. different, yes, it was Dwarf. Yes, it was. And who is this dwarf to you, who told you this thing? I love when Redd, like, builds a relationship, and it's just, like, actively tries to keep it alive.

Undermining. You know, someone that meant anything to me, but more of a saying that gets passed over time, you know, through tradition, right? Which I'm sure Yorks do. You have traditions, don't you? You know, like,

I'm sure you have traditions and stuff. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't have traditions. Maybe you'll just kill and eat whatever you kill him. Laying your filth. His eyes get wide. I'm just, listen. And Red, who is like a part for a second comes back up.

All right. Why is everyone so angry all of a sudden? It's through here. Yeah. He gestures through a tent flap, the largest of the tents. God damn it, Doran. Do I need to put that fork-splitter muzzle on you? Timil put an arm around Doran as she's like, as they're going into this,

this guy's tent. Sometimes it's hard to connect with people of different cultures. Look, I appreciate your effort, though. I can see you trying. Thank you. It's sometimes it's hard to bury those deep-seated beliefs. I'm trying. I'm trying.

Right. Well, into his house we go. Just going to show us into the tent. Tamil, just keep both of them back for just a moment. What if the two of us could do that? Graglack holds aside the tent flap and sort of shows you the interior of the tent where he expects you to go. There are some furnishings.

There are some furnishings within. There's like some furs piled high over bedding. Actually looks very soft and luxurious. There's like some lanterns hanging from the ceiling. And off to one side, there is a skeleton of a human. sun-bleached bones, bound to a cross of wooden stakes, and Graglack's impressive set of war armor clothes is hanging from it. He's got this metal helmet decorated with snow leopard fangs hanging down from the front. There are puldrons with thick sprays of red hair sewn along the seams, and most curiously, a sleek-looking chrome amulet that houses.

a piece of turquoise stone at its center. This amulet gleams appealingly and is netherese in origin. I just wanted to make it known that Doren, before he didn't step into the tent, the tent opened, he saw the skeleton, and he thought, nah, and he's going to hang around outside. Oh, too spooky. Oh, okay. Cool. I like that. Standing outside of the tent. Yeah. Doran, as you stand watch outside in this conversation,

is happening within. You see that there are several orcs toasting meat at a campfire just to the north of you. But also, there's another tent to the north, outside of which an orc seems to be doing some blacksmithing work. It's very strange anvil that he's working on, though, because part of the anvil seems to be glowing red hot, although there is no source of heat.

It's very strange to you specifically. Doran's eyes graze over these people that are cooking the meat and he's like making these faces like, yeah, that's normal. And then the thought goes through his mind that that could be human meat. And then he's like, ugh. And then he continues his gaze over to this blacksmith. Yeah. So he takes a stroll over.

Okay, cool. Very, very sort of cautiously. So Doran, you make your way up to this orcish blacksmith. And there's no fire. going? There's no fire going. It seems like he's hammering something that's relatively small. Not a weapon, that's for sure. If it were to be a weapon, maybe it's like the size of a throwing star. Yeah, he's got like kind of a smallish hammer and he's working hard at it and he's wearing this big leather apron. There are these white hot sparks coming off in showers with every

pound of this small hammer on this small piece of metal. Duren's doing that thing that you know, neighborhood macho guys do and he's sort of walking up. He's not directly asking. He's just sort of like eyeing it

and pretending like he's not there to watch, but he actually is there to watch. Got the 228 there. It's like how a construction set somehow just aggregates like 50 to 60 year old men holding up of copies for no. The orcs like, go grab a cold one over there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nod and make recommendations. Just stand around nodding. Where's your quenching barrel? What you need is one of these. Oh, yeah, you've got 632nd2s there and a 228. Okay, nice what you're doing. Got a 455 myself at home.

How often you got to service that thing, huh? The orcs kind of lifts his head sideways and catches your eye for a second and then turns back to his work. Yeah, and I guess it's, it's, it's, it's, perplexed Doran enough that now he's actually come out to say it. He's like, all right, all right, you got me. How are you heating that thing? What, what's going on over there? Where's the heat coming from?

I don't see a flame. Oh, ho. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Too balanced. Oh, well, this anvil is anvil of perpetual flames, so I don't have to worry about that at all. Don't even, don't even stress. Don't have to worry about the bellows or nothing. I never even considered, Matt,

in that way. Wow. Wow. Just every single day, I'm being even more amazed by magic. And now he's like, you know, you see this joy entered Doren's eyes. And this is all done. I'm coming back and killing you for that. I'm going to steal this for sure.

He pulls out his journal and makes a small note. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kill this guy. We can't just enjoy the childlike wonder. It always has to come back to murder somehow. Naturally, naturally. A thing, we must have it. Yeah, you just watch in Wanderment as he does his work.

Where did you get that? Is there a possibility to get another one? No, this has been passed down for generations. So don't think there's any chance of that happening. All right. And then there's some more conversation. How hot does it burn? Does it work just like other fire?

And, you know, there's other conversation that goes on. You find out that this orc is a skilled metal smith and jeweler. All right. and that he's working on a set of necklaces right now. We come back out, and Doran's ghosting him from behind. Like, Yeah. Never thought I could feel this way again.

Meanwhile, back in the chief's tent. Wonderful place you got here, Grakalax. Thank you so much for letting us in. Tent's inside the cave, eh? Sometimes it drips. Right, right, right. And you wouldn't want to just. warm that up and get rid

of the drips. And also if you're like changing or you're having sex. The orcs are very um, you want all privacy. Orcs are very modest. I am. I can tell. The modesty is a virtue. My father used to say.

Probably I didn't know him. He turns his back to the five of you and starts rummaging in a chest. Tamil is holding witted. He's holding him back. Just hang on, hang on. I know you see it just one moment.

It's not even that subtle in a kind of dangerous way. He just keeps looking at the amlet. What's going on? Like the mentality is like, oh, but this orc should want to give it to me because I can use it better. So he's not even, he's being rather obvious about his interest in it. It's like in Aladdin, the cartoon. Yes. The monkey.

Yes. The monkey sees the gem. Yes. The cave of wonders. Ouga, Ouga. Yes. What's going on? What are you doing? What are you freaking out about? He wants the ambulance. He seems fixated on the amulet. I can only assume it's netheries.

We will not be able to see what it is or what he does if we are all dead. Certainly, yes, certainly. I barely was admiring it. He sort of sinks into the armor a little bit. Clearly, warning it. Graglack, finishes rifling around in this trunk, pulls out an armful of potions, five identical bottles, sloshing full of this burgundy liquid that has like these kind of gold flex floating throughout. And he says, um, so this is what you come here for. That's it. 25 apiece. He is 125 gold. Red reaches into the bag and hands it to him. Believe we settled on 50. Oh, my apologies, 50 each. And red doubles it and hands it to him.

Mm-hmm. It's an old saying, if the seller can't remember the cost, make it up. The seller? Yeah, because he's selling it to me. If you can't remember it, I can lowball them. Oh, that's fair. That's fair. I take them greedily before anyone talks. And then I put them in the back.

Okay, we're good. I drink them all. Why don't see that? Witted puts like an elbow on like the shoulder of the arm and starts to lean out towards Temeel to try to whisper to her. You and Red seem like you're pretty good at talking to people. We should really ask about that amulet. We should find out more information about that amulet. And if the talking doesn't go so well, I could talk to Doran.

His acts seems like it would be another way to solve this problem. Maybe I'm just saying we need to get the amulet, that's all. We did remember. Now we have two targets, yes? We want to know what the Simonage is about, and we also want to know it's in that hallway. Certainly. We're going to have to be smart about how we play this. There may be even more interesting things than those two targets, possibly.

If there are no orcs in the cave, then we can access all of them. That's all I'm thinking. This is whispered, right? Obviously, very whispered on that front. Very super whispered. If I need to even roll a check, I will. But, yeah. Nah, you can talk quietly without rolling.

So, you know, I mean, appreciate that. Red takes the vials, puts them away. and sort of tries to bring Grakalax to maybe a farther area in the tent. Just maybe over against the wall. He'll sit on his bed together? Come over here, pat's down. Take his shoes off.

Take his shoes off first. Look, we passed that hallway, the Netherese hallway. It seemed like there was a bunch of skulls and I overheard your guard out there saying that those were orcs that ventured in. What the hell happened? It's not permitted to go there unless you are under special orders to retrieve material.

I guess what I mean to say is the orcs skulls there. I guess my interpretation was that guard was keeping other orcs out, but it seemed like maybe he was there making sure no one wandered in if it's that deadly. What materials are you gathering in there that's so dangerous? There are many special materials that we use in our day-to-day. It's not important to you what they are, but I can tell you that it is cursed. Well, here's maybe a bit of an opportunity for all of us. My friend who's salivating, currently, is a gnomish artificeer of some repute.

He's well versed at the netheries, which are obviously this mountain range. Clearly, you have in there some materials that are valuable to you, and my friend here would very much enjoy poking around, and we, myself, my friend Tamil here and my friend out there Doran, are seasoned adventurers. I'm thinking that maybe we could help each other out. The four of us could go in, retrieve said materials for you. We could do some of the dirty work, take the fear of curse off of the shoulders of your fellow orcs out there, earn you a little bit of respect with them.

Guess who gets to go out and say, don't worry about dying this week? And we come back with said materials, and we get to learn a little bit about the thing my friend so dearly craves to know about the netheries. This seems like a pretty cherry deal. Well, it wouldn't come at no cost. Who knows, Red's eyes slide over the armor. Oh, I mean, that could be something of value that balances it all out. What the heck is that? And very ignorantly points to the amulet on the chest of the...

As you draw Gragalach's attention to the amulet, how close is Witted to this armor stand? Witted, visibly inches close. He was already kind of close to it, and as the camera pans to it, you just see him, like, inching. Like, it seems like he's going to leave the frame, and then he keeps inching over, so he just keeps staying in frame as we zoom in on the amulet. And he leans in. His seat, like, moves forward a little bit to lean in. I mean, look, we could take a look at that amulet for you, too.

My friend here is an expert. I know a great deal about theetheries. I'm sure I could shed some light on exactly what is going on in that. region of your cave, in fact, a cursed location bodes very well. I am actually very excited to hear about a curse. That just indicates the level of magic that is at play. This is fantastic news, frankly. This amulet is held by the chieftain of the thousand-fist orcs. And how did you get that job? You misunderstand. Red puts his hand on with its face. We in no way want to take this amulet from you whatsoever. I think you get to go out there and say no one

dies today. Pretty big win. He puts his hand on your shoulder red and gestures to the ring on your finger. And he says, I will extend the same courtesy as you gave me. And then gestures at the amulet. Witted, you are allowed to investigate this magic item. There is a moment when Witted looks at red with this

look of pure gratitude and thanks. There is this beaming smile. He cannot believe that talking can accomplish such feats of this is incredible and he was literally just like and I think there was a moment of horror talking to Tamil when you realize like we've just we met these people we've learned their names we've learned about their family relationships that has not changed the calculus one wit for Witted he was ready to murder all these people to get a look at this amulet he leans and thank you very much puts these lenses hold hold on hold on Witted as you're reaching sort of stops you you you know what let's look

at it after we go through the netherese tunnels. Witted had already had all these extra lenses popping out of his goggles that were clicking into place one by one. And as he turns to you with these comically like extended little visors like telescoping out of his goggles, he goes, why wouldn't why would we just look at it right now? They're giving us the opportunity. Because, because

perhaps some of the things we can learn in the netherese tunnels will inform some of the things that you learn about the amulet, and as you know, looking at the amulet first would be less intelligent than exploring where it came from first, you know? You want to plunder the depths and then look at the rewards rather than the spoils before the depths. Classic archaeology, you know this. I would like to approach this line of research from any angle that I have the opportunity for, but I suppose if we want to check out the hallway first, we could look at that as log, and I'm kind of like looking at the orc chieftain, not like I'm asking

him, but more like I'm just like, oh, he's still here. As long as he allows us to, and we returned, I understand it might be very dangerous in that hallway, but I'm sure it's nothing that we can't handle, or I can't. And he kind of stomps away, turning his back on you, Red, for just a moment, and starts, like, walking out of the tent. Timil will follow him out of the tent. And Red just lingers for a minute and sort of shrugs out of the kids. Look, if you can let the Blue Ork know, the plan, we'll meet you there and a few. Red exits and sees Witted walking away angrily, and he just turns to Timil and says,

look, if we do want to take this thing, if Widdid is going to make it impossible not to leave this place without that amulet, which it looks like based on his goggle eyes, then we might as well wait till we're ready to leave this place to have him look at it, you know? Timur takes a beat. She kind of nods slowly. She says, that's very smart, very strategic. But Red, if we're going to travel together, at some point, we're all going to have to learn to trust and communicate with each other.

We are not just things to be managed. That's what I'm doing now, though. Oh, you mean with him? Yes. Oh, definitely. But I need to know first. off that widd can stay his hand when need be. I mean, you saw the way he approached that tunnel.

He would have walked right into the blade of that blue ork. If you hadn't have stepped in, no? Yes, you're probably right. And I think that you were wise also to stay him in the tent. But let's try to limit the amount of time that we're lying to each other, shall we? Agreed. Agreed. All right. So, into the tunnel then?

Yeah, once we get Doren, and Redlux over at Doren. Dorn's like, he's like leaning over. He's got his elbows on the table in front of the other orc, and he's like batting his eyes, just watching. Big cheesy eyes with the, like, the blushing, kicking his feet. But then like a quick shake it off as soon as you guys come out. Oh, yeah. So what's the plan?

Did you get the elixirs? Are we heading back to see? And then you can see him kind of do the whole. Are we heading back to deliver these to Duke Zolto? No, we're killing Duke Zolto. It doesn't matter. Look, no, there's a change of plan slightly. I do have the Elixis, Red Pats' bag.

But we managed to negotiate exploring the Netherese tunnels that Witted was so eager to see. Oh. Oh, over there. And you kind of points back to where they were. Netheries, hey? Okay. Well, let's go. Yeah, should we dive right in, or do we need anything?

Is everyone ready to go? I'm always ready. Doran sort of pads himself down. Yeah, I think I got everything on me. Grak-lach exits the tent with Wim. She is inexplicably holding a little bag of snacks that he's given her, and she's just chowing down. Yeah, Wim. Good job, Wimmy.

He sort of pats her on. the back and she goes to join you guys and he says the amount of valuables that you retrieve from the tunnels will be commensurate with your payment and if i never see you again uh sorry oh i was unexpected wow we really connected i think is there anything you can tell us about what we might face in there only a third of the orcs that we send in ever come back and the ones that do speak of a terrible being who lives in the tunnels

a monstrous orc that's been magically changed a creature of unfathomable cruelty well we're used to killing orcs don't worry our friend has a axe that

He just got cut off, I'm sure. Well, I think we've got a look on our side. Having been given Graklack's blessing at entering the tunnels, this large guardian moves aside and kicks some of the skulls off to the side to let you guys get through into these tunnels. Are these up for grabs, Red says, and points at the skulls. Can I take one? That's really ghoulish of you.

Yes? He wants to make a log sled. I already have a giant skull and a dwarf skull and a human skull. I'll just take one. Red takes a borg skull. Awesome. Very good. You never know. As you move past these skulls, Doran and Red,

you are reminded of a previous place that you've been. In Ice Wind Dale, you recall a tower that was driven into the snow, inverted, such that you were walking on the ceilings. This is very similar architecture to that spire. Although he is reminded of the upside down tower in Ice Wind Dale, he's also reminded of the situation that they found themselves in when they forgot who they were. and he in a rush and very rushedly way he pulls out his journal and he in the very first page you see him scribbling down

you know he's writing down who he is what he does how he got here sort of like that funny side of that you're worried about another tabula raso situation yeah it's so good red like watches you do this and is at first confusing he's like oh write down me too

right below it and he nods and he Rates down everybody, actually. He's being a furious notes. Witted, you're just like, a little guy inside of a big guy. I feel like Witted leans over. What are you doing? What are you writing about? Oh, well, I'm just, I'm just making real brief notes of who we are.

You see, we've gotten a caught in a situation. Listen, I'll explain another time. But Dorn turns back to Red. See, this reminds me of another place. Do you, do you remember being in that, in that upside down tower and all the snow? What was that place called? The, uh, oh, uh, ice wouldn't dail. Right, the veil, the dail, that's right, yeah.

I remember. Oh, we fought a pretty ugly creature there. Yeah. Hey, if we have to fight a creature that's all black with a big hammer, let me think, don't be a wizard. What do they call it? That dark figure? I call a mouthy-tummy hammer boy.

Yeah, that thing. Wait, you all fought a tomb tapper? Oh, goodness, that's incredible. You really have experience with Netherie's technology. I'm so sorry, clearly you're writing down information about us for a reason. Was this something to do with what happened to you dealing with Netherie's artifacts or something? No, no, no. It was an entirely different situation, but now that I'm recalling a little bit of

more about the situation that we were in it has nothing to do with what I just wrote down about us it's more to do with being very careful sticking together as a team we got to watch out for the magic users and he kind of points at you to meal and at whim

did you say that this is this tomb tapos netherese technology it was created by the ancient netherese at some point in their history I'm just, it's incredible to me that people have seen one in the modern age. I doubt we'll run into something so incredible here, but still. You're saying that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, gaping ma in its stomach, that was, that was a construct.

A construct, but not mechanical. It couldn't have been mechanical. No, certainly not. The netheries did not rely on actual mechanisms, such a, as physics can allow, it is magical technology. Much like my armor. Very, very scary, I will say that.

Very grotesque. Wooded, I don't suppose you happen to know any of its weaknesses or vulnerabilities? Arrows. Ah. Those who fought the tube tapper would probably know even more about it than me. You can tell he's jealous. Fair point, Doran. Red?

Other than protecting the magic users, anything that we could be focusing on? No, I think, I think Whitty, it's probably right, I don't think there's any in here, we came across one, cracked it, as it were, sort of an untouched one by time. I think if we're finding anything in here, it's going to

be that big tall or whatever that curse is. Fair enough. Look, we only dipped a little bit in the netheries spire. It was a short little visit. I did touch something that gave me a spell, which was really helpful, so I guess

touch things if you don't know what they do. Let's go! And Red pushes past every one in the enters. Fabulous. To Neil follows. Yeah. If no one stops and Witted, we'll go first. He's in a big armor suit.

I'm fine with it. What's your AC? Good. Actually, sorry. Really good. I thought it was only decent. It was actually quite good. Yeah.

What is it? It is 22 with the shield. Fabulous. You should be going first. For the first time, you're seeing what you thought might have been a big round plate on with it's back. He reaches for it. It detaches. He's got a shield in front of him now.

Oh, cool. And before your eyes, uh, sorry, he, he reaches back with his gnome hand, picks it up and pulls it off, and flips it onto his arm, and it's a shield. And then the mechanical armor reaches up, takes the shield. He hands it off to the shield, to the armor, and suddenly the, like, a, um, uh, spiral, uh, or, like, sphinger door kind of style, uh, all these little blades, come out the edges and extend the size of the shield. So it's a little bit more armor, medium-sized,

as opposed to small size for a gnome. Classic blade sphincter shield. We love it. Classic blade sphincter shield. Absolutely. That's on page 190 of the players of handbook. Blade sphincter shield. Hell yes.

As it was a reverse sphincter is what I'm looking at. The reverse. So, Witted first. Then Doran. I think Wim's going to go next. Okay, be careful, Wimmy. Red sort of squeezes your hand. Red, do you want to bring up the rear,

or would you prefer a little cover from the back? I don't know. I'm so used to hanging back, but if it makes sense, you can be behind me. Whatever you're more comfortable with. I think tactically, Doren sort of looks back, catches eyes with Tameel,

and then kind of gives a head, like a come up here head nod. All right. Yeah, and Timmel will go third. Cool. And as the five of us move into these netheries tunnels, the blues-skinned orc sort of kicks the orc skulls back

to block the entrance some more behind you, sealing you in to these ruins. We were, of course, joking about returning the technology to them in exchange for mere potions, correct? Oh, we did. We're going to loot the shit out of this place. I think I love you guys. All right, I just want to say thanks again to all of our wonderful Patreon supporters.

And usually it takes me so long to read this, so I'm going to take a stab at going a little bit quicker here. Thank you to Abby Mae Birkin, absolute ocelli behavior. Adam Frye, Abriel, Aizu Yuckei, aka Trash Panda, Alicia Andrus, Alicia Duh, Amanda Nicole, Anna Lena, Etholagoth, Autumn, Axel, Beanfein, Bird, Blacklight Riot Riot Riot, Rae, Caitlin Hengeveld, Caspian, Celeste Jedlick, Charles, Christopher, Clockwork Phoenix, Colin Burckhart, Crowe, David Shaw, DeLureum, Eldridge Unicorn, Eli Davis, Emerson Forsberg, Aaron Lightning, Gabby, Tao, Gareth Bradshaw, Haley, H.D., Hyde, Icy, Ivy Covered Stones, Izzy, Jack, J.D., Jellybean, Josh Kalusha, Joshua Nance, Joy Robinson, Kara, Karen Duley, Cass, Kelly Foltz, Key Raven, Lambda J, Latterjah, Lichrat, Lysan Cluckner, Liz, Lorelai Feldman, Luke, Luna DiMaria, Manderpants, Marina Bennett, Merrick's Moon, Martina, Melinda Curley, Merlin, Minty, Misrah, Moon, Nabea Gwiga, Nick D, Nicky, Knox the Nightshark, Oakland, O.B., Pan, Queen, Quinn, Rabita Naz Cheese, Ren, Ruthanne Reed, Trent, Scotty, Seer of Time, Shannon Waldner, Schonk, Slate Blue Flowers, Snicksnack, Sray 96, Stab, Sunny, Tea Kettle, Thea Bell, Victor, Vul control, Waffle 427, Wanderer Fen, Wren Gillespie, and Zill Street, Liz. for watching and see you around the table. Big mouth in the middle of its body.

Tomb Tapper! You guys voted Tomb Tapper. Holy snap! What? I've never seen them in the new edition. I've only seen them in the old ones. Oh my God. So cool. They were really fun. It's a good fight. I'm sorry. Was that Red or Harlan talking? Both. He does this. I haven't decided which of your lines I'm going to keep the show yet. So I'm covering more. Great, great. Were you going to say something else? No, just that. He flips back and forth.

He'll be like talking meta in the British accent. That's amazing. Whoa, my forge, my fire, I've hungered for your flame. lonely time and time and time goes by so slowly

a fire can do so much are you I need your fork. I'm going to need that anvil. I'm going to need that anvil from you. So probably I'm just going to come back and steal it while you guys are sleeping.