Dice Shame - 2-180 | 'On Shaky Ground'

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

The battle continues before the Vonindod as trouble approaches...______________________________________________________________________________________________________________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 friends Nic & Timm 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, claustrophobia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, are you guys ready for this? Sure, why the hell not? Let's do it. I forgot you could just do that. That's a really good counterbishop. No. Pish, I say. Let's go. You are inspired. That's going to depend on which one is a free action. Diary.

Doren, hell yes, keep going. Trying to look real cool. Yes, well done. It acts fantastic. You do it well and you do it fancy. After all, your spinning of the rod and stuff. Thank you, Doren. You do it well and you do it fancy.

What the fuck? Welcome back to Dice Shame. This is Season 2, Episode 180 on Shaky Ground. MVP this week goes to Zen's sister, who says, Thank you for giving her cat familiar sounds while going back and forth from the vet. They go on to say they're already hooked and taking notes. Thank you so much for joining us, Zen, sister. You are this week's MVP.

Love you, kitty. All right, should we play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it. Woo-hoo! Woo! The Von and Dodd is finally in sight, but there are some fire giants in your way. Shall we get down to it?

Oh, yeah. Let's see what we got. Witted. I'm going to be rolling with advantage as my helm of awareness. protocols kick in. 14 still. I mean, yeah, that's fair. I already knew what I knew.

All right, you tied with Chaos Hammer. Would you like to go before Chaos Hammer or after? I'll go after Chaos Hammer. Cool. Tamia, what did you get? A 12. Okay. Red?

A natural 20. Which brings me into 24. Nice. Better nice. Nice. Wim got a 20. And Doran. Got a nice.

All right, Doren. Fabulous. Top of the order. Screaming dwarf. Red, as you are observing from your perch atop this ruined stump, you look down into the valley and you see Widdid's hypnotic pattern, droid go berserk. And the giant just kind of slaps it out of the air with his sword. And it like falls to the ground, sparking.

inert. Fuck. The hypnotic pattern didn't work. I forgot you could just do that. That's a really good counterbissure. How far do you have to be to charm, Wimy? Um, Wim holds up a three and a zero. 30 feet.

She's got to do some running. All right. And Red starts climbing a tree. Red, as you are getting into position on the tree, Wim below you, tugs the bottom of your cloak, and she signs haste? Sure.

Why the hell not? Let's do it. So you're going to drop an initiative to just below. whim. Perfect. And with a handful of licorice bark, she casts haste on you, Red. And she moves around to the back of the tree.

I think she's just going to sort of, like, gain some cover. Cool. All right, Red, it's your turn. All right. I am going to try to banish the guy that is farthest from me on the west side. Mm-hmm. And I have to make a save? Yes.

Charisma, right? Yeah. 17? 17 succeeds. Okay. So your arrow flies by. No.

Okay. Well, you know what? Fuck it. I'm going to try to banish again. Do it. If at first you don't succeed. And he fires again. Same guy.

Same guy. That's a six. Nice. Okay. It was meant to be. He is okay. And banished for one round. And then for my last attack, because I get three, because I'm hasten,

hasten, I'm going to attack the giant closest with a 19 to hit. Yep. Oh, thank goodness. Let's go. 23 damage. Okay, good. Nice. Nice, nice, nice.

Redd, your arrow flies through the air and lands in the giant. Giant's flesh dealing 23 damage. Nice. Doran, it's your turn. Okay, are you guys ready for this? Oh, I'm so ready. Doren is going to take the dash action and move into striking range of this giant that is closest to them. Okay.

Get up in his shit. So now that he is in range, Doran's going to use his. action serves. Yes. Let's go. And he's going to attack using his superiority die, his improved combat superiority, and his great weapons master feat for a disarming attack.

And I'm also going to be using my advantage, my inspiration. Good call. Get it, Doren. Inspiration. Hell yeah. Command, uh, it was disarming attack. Yes. Okay. Listen to that sticky pawful.

Yeah. Yeah, I might actually re-roll this because I don't think an eight is going to hit. No, use lucky. Use lucky. I'm going to use my lucky. I rolled a 19. Does a 19 hit?

Yes, a 19 hits. Yes. So 19. I did the math correctly the first time. Okay. So when I hit a creature with a weapon attack, with the disarming attack, all I have to do is hit. It forces you to drop an item of my choice. So that's going to be his main combat item, whatever he's holding in his, so he drops it. Yeah, he drops it. He's also going to take 15 slashing, no, 15.

No, it should be more than that. More like 28. Yeah. Nice. Hell yeah. Yes. Does that make sense? Doren strikes and the giant drops his sword. Absolutely, yeah, Doren, he drops his great sword in the mud. Are you going to attack again or? So, is 16 to hit? No, that doesn't hit.

All right, so Doren's second swing misses. All right, it's Captain Chaoshammer's turn. He is going to move. I think he's just going to move once. He can't quite get up to where you are, Doren, with his movement. But as an action, he will utter a special command or warning. He goes, great job, Doren, do it again. He's going to give you his leadership.

Oh, nice. Yeah, you get to attack again as your reaction and add a D4 to your attack. Yes, yes. Sir, yes, sir. Okay, that's going to be, wow, a. I think a 19 is a crit for me, right? Yep. Nice.

Because that's going to be a 19-20. Yes. Well, actually, like 29 with whatever, but it's a crit. So now it's going to do. So that's going to be. If any superiority dice or anything fancy is getting added on, that gets doubled two, by the way. So if you're able to tack on like a maneuver or something after the fact, I don't know.

That's going to be 30. 30 points of damage. Whoa. Nice. Yeah, there's 30 points. Hell yes. Thanks, Nergirl. Thank you, Chaos Hammer.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. All right, Witted, you're up. Okay, so this changes things up a little bit for me. Doran's doing a great job right now. I want to do some crowd control, but you know what? No, I'll just get the one right next to Doran. Yeah, let's do it. Absolutely.

We're going to tag team this one. I launch into the air, Iron Man style, point a gun down at the giant that Doran is fighting, and shout, Doran, hell, yes, keep going. And I just start to fire these, like, boom, boom, boom, little bitty orbs, kind of. And as these gray orbs splat down onto the giant, they're, like, webbing orbs, kind of, like get fired at Mr. Incredible, kind of. They're, like, sticking this giant to the ground. This is the web spell.

This giant's going to need to make a dexterity saving throw Or else he's going to be restrained to the ground I'm making sure to aim it so Doran doesn't get caught in this spell Yeah, dexterity saving throw 19 Ooh a 19 on a dexterity save dang That is not going to-night guys I'm sorry 100% The webbing is ineffective

It's probably I like put in enough ammunition to take down a human and like a giant. It's just like trying to take down an elephant with this stuff. Like I'm just slamming the gun. Sorry, sorry. Best of luck. Great visuals of you though, Tim, your character. I have a very like Marvel comic visual in my mind of your...

But I did it in the name of trying to provide support rather than damage. Because I get very impressed with how our fighter is holding up. And I don't have any bonus action. moves unfortunately that I'm seeing here, I'm not sending Reggie into battle. So, yeah, I think I'm going to call my turn there. Yeah. Tamil, you're up.

Question for you, Joe. Has the giant that is kind of the most easterly giant, has that giant clocked red? Yeah, because there's like an arrow sticking out of them. Yeah, because he shot him. Okay, then Tamil will look up at red and say, are you going to try to banish that one again? Now, let's just take him out.

All right. She's going to jump up and tap red, like tap his foot, whatever part of him is lowest that she can, like, make contact with him. And she'll cast greater invisibility. Oh, thank you. And gives him a bardic inspiration. And then runs towards the position herself in between the giants. You are inspired. Get them red.

I'm so buff right now. You're so fucking buffed. And it's greater invisibility. So as you fire, the only thing that'll drop it is if I lose concentration. All right, so it's the fire giant's turn. Okay, the one that is, well, we'll go with the one that's closest to Tamil. It's going to move through this difficult terrain, this sludgy mud. Half its movement, picks up a giant boulder and throws it out.

Take this. Which will miss you with the 16. Thank God. Oh, yes. my heart. The fire giant in front of you, Doran, he was disarmed. So he's going to pick up his sword.

He's going to try. Let me make a roll actually to see if he can manage that. Yeah, he gets a, he picks it up. He manages to pick it up. And he's going to attack you twice with this muddy great sword. The first attack is a 25 to hit. Oh, that's going to hit. What a jerk.

Dang. 32 damage. Oh. Yeah, he feels the sword run its way across my chest. Run its way across my belly and chest. And I literally feel the heat as it's, you know, from the friction. And I feel it actually burn right through my armor. And the second one is.

an 18? No, that misses me. All right. Okay. The final fire giant comes back into existence at the end of his turn from whatever realm he was banished to he's covered in like an opalescent slick of oil. Wow. Oily boy.

Oily boiling. The oil plane. The plain of elemental oil. Oil dimension. It's oil of oil A. Currently under invasion from the United States. Now he's a five. fire giant.

Everybody's skin is so tight and youthful. All right. Top of the round. It's Wim's turn. Wimmy. She is going to, well, okay, so she's got red hasted, and she wants to maintain concentration. Be safe, Wimmy. Don't hide.

Get out of the line of fire. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. I guess then as an action, she will hide. Go behind that tree. That's only an 11. But pass without trace. Yeah, so 21 stealth, pretty good.

So she just sort of like gets real small behind the tree trunk. Perfect. And Red, it's your turn. All right, I am going to attack. Great. I am going to attack this one in front of me closest to. And the first is a 16 to hit. That's with your advantage?

Yeah. No. Okay. No. That's dangerously close, Red. I'm not a tree. That's okay. Next is a 19 hit.

Yes, you hit. Perfect. And I'm going to use my Colossus Slayer. Colossus Slayer. 33 damage. Nice. And I'm going to hit again with an 18. That exactly hit.

Amazing. 26 damage. Great job. Your arrows fly through the air peppering this fire giant. Fuck you, Pepper. Oh, Red's got his sights on this one. Let's keep at it. And Doren, like, winds up like he's taking down a tree.

Mm-hmm. Aye, aye. Doren, it's your turn. Dorn is going to attack this giant right in front of them. Fabulous. With using a goading attack. Ooh. Not to be confusing the goating attack or goatee attack.

We just spoke about it. That's going to be, oh, now I'm using my great weapon master feat. So that's going to be a 21 minus 5. That's a 16. To hit. Oh. You're going to leave it at 16? Yeah.

16 does not hit. Okay. That's going to be a, again, the great weapon master. That's going to be a 25. That one hit. Wow. All right. Now, with this goading attack, it's going to do 24 damage, though.

And you must make a wisdom saving throw. Okay. 12. You do not pass. It's an 18. All right. So I fail. So you have actually disadvantaged on all attack rolls

against other targets other than myself until the end of my next turn. Nice. Yeah. So if you attack anybody other than me, disadvantage. That's the end of my turn. The giant's ire is directed at you. Is fire or is ire? Both.

Actually. Because he's a fire giant. Or is he an ire giant. His fiery ire is directed at you. His fire ire. Okay. His ire fire fire. We have fun here, right?

We have a good time. It is curious how hurt that giant is looking. Does he look like he's on his last legs kind of? Yeah, a little bit. Especially now that Chaos Hammer runs up alongside Doran. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah.

Chaos Hammer, he's got this long. handled golden warhammer. I think it has an eagle's head on the top of it. Whoa. Yeah. Falcon's head or something. And he like cackles in war lust as he begins to bring this warhammer to task. Oh, 22 Chaos Hammer.

Fuck yeah. Nice. 22 to hit him. And that is, oh. Oh, no, never mind. So, never mind. I wrote the wrong die guys. I thought it was max damage, but it's actually

a, not max damage. I thought it was max damage, but okay. It's not. You know what? Min. D&D's hard. I agree. 15 bludgeoning damage.

That's good. Yeah, that's really good. Attack again, Chaos Hammer. He does, in fact. Do that again. Do it again, buddy. All right. That's the NERGEL I know.

An 18 to hit. Nice. Exactly hit. Ooh. 13 damage. He takes the fire giant down. Nice. That's the way we do it.

A heavy blow just knocks into him and he takes a knee and with that chaos hammer just like hops up and polishes him off. Just a heavy blow right to the rib cage and with a crack, the fire giant goes down. Fuck that guy. Yes. That's how it's done, Chaos Hammer. Well, that. We got this. We got this, me.

Next up, Mr. Whittid Wigwilmer. So Witted was definitely lining up more like targeting upon that giant, but seeing Chaos Hammer moving in and seeing him like leaping in and taking this giant down. Just nods his armored head perfectly like, yes, well done. X fantastic. And looking around and looking at the low power in his suit, what spells he has left, there's not a whole lot he can sling in the direction of these other giants. Oh, no.

So I want to say that I've earnestly looked, and it might be that the best move is for him to just sort of head as far as he can north, maybe in the direction of the Vonen Dodd? Like, I don't want to see that the only thing he could do, but I think it makes sense to wit it at least. Sometimes just getting in position is like, yeah, that's the best thing you can get to. Yeah. And obviously anyone can make an insight check on Widdid's motivations here, but it does seem like Wittittitt is making an attempt at looking around strategically for other options. But, you know, to get within range for spells next turn, he's going to move 50 feet and a double move. And as he's flying through the air, he's also going to activate as a bonus action.

his defensive shields, these blue light flickers in an oval around his armor as it's kind of moving through the air. But I just head towards the Vonen Dodd flying over Chaos Hammer and Doran. Amazing. You know, maybe it's at this point where Doran sees this and gets a little excited. And then as he glances away from Witted, I almost feel like maybe he catches Red's eye. And you see this like... What? Red's invisible.

Red's super invisible. Right. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, no. Okay. So Doran looks at and watches Witted very excitedly as he races towards the Vonnegut. Nice.

Tamil. Joe, would you let me do some sort of perception-y type? Oh, I love these questions. Check. No, this is normal. This one's normal. Would you let me do some sort of check? You mentioned that there were footsteps.

I did. Yeah. Yeah, I thought so. Can I do some sort of perception check or something to try to determine the direction from which they are coming? Yeah. Talk to me about how invested you are in this perception check. Are you just like, perking up your ears? Or are you like stopping, looking around, maybe like hopping on top of a rock to get a little bit more of a vantage point? That's going to depend on which one is a free action. I'm going to give it to you regardless, put it this way.

Typically in combat will allow for any one check just as a freebie. I more so want to know. And I love that about you, Joe. I do. I more so want to know like how invested is Tamil in this as opposed to keeping her eyes on the giants. I think that Tamil has been concerned about. the Shadowfell corrupted versions of these giants. I think that she will be pretty invested in trying to figure out at least where these things are coming from.

Yeah. Yeah. Roll perception with advantage for this like extra level of attentiveness. Cheatingly. Cheatingly. I'm just kidding. 17 for the first one. Oh, not 20 for the second one for 27.

Yeah. That's good. I feel like... That's what I liked I hear. Like there's almost like a Jurassic Park type moment where you see there's like a pool of water on the ground beside you that's like moving. And you can like, you're like assessing based on the vibrations in the water like the possibilities sort of like triangulating where these heavy footsteps could be coming from. Maybe you even hear the sound of some voice. coming from the distance and getting closer at like kind of an alarming rate.

You could be expecting company definitely of the giant subtype based on the language that you're hearing from the south. They do move and hurt. Goody from the south, you say. Furthermore, with your natural 20, you assess that there's probably going to be at least two of them. Yikes, yikes, yikes. Based on the voices that you hear. Yeah.

Yeah, Tabil. It's like pumping the brakes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was going to shout out to everyone. Incoming from the South. And then she's going to move on up. She's going to move her full movement to move to the north to get a little bit closer to this giant, but also kind of skirting a little bit so that she can keep an eye on where Wim is,

hoping that she can provide cover as well, assuming that women is going to start moving north as well and wants to keep herself between the giant and women red. And then she is going to huck static at this motherfucker. Hell yeah. Do it. All right. 16 will not hit.

Let's see. So one more time. Let's hit this time. What do you say? Yeah, let's do it. That's more like it. That is a 27 to hit. All right.

Beautiful. Yes. Okay. So I'm going to do my normal damage with static, and then because we're fighting giants, I get to do an extra 2D8 of lightning damage. So that is 14th piercing, and then... That's actually a little surprising. Some might even say shocking.

Would they say that? Some might say. 10 additional lightning damage. The dad's in the crowd. Fabulous. Nice. And I'm going to use that one also to spend. one of my bardic inspiration to do a defensive flourish.

Oh. So that's going to be another. Oh. Job. Uh, okay. Sports are really cool. Dang. Go on.

Go on. Okay. So that is an extra five damage and I get a five to my AC. So we'll tell you. Fabulous. That brings my AC to 26. And that is my turn. Baby.

Hefty. Good turn. All right. We got fire giant turns. Two fire giants, no. The leap. Pass. I cast.

I cast a character's spell turn. This spell actually cast on the DM. It's charmed. It's called diarrhea. It's called sleep. Wow, rude. It's called go to work early. There are two fire giants left on the field.

The one that Tamil just lately pierced with static, and then you recall the javelin back to your hand, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, honestly, I think at this point, it's kind of almost like she's whipping it around her. Yeah. Yeah, as opposed to just holding it still. Or like Captain America's Shield than Thor's Hammer, where it like bounces off stuff, kind of. I like that.

Is that what you mean? That's not what I meant, but I like that. Oh, okay. I feel like Doran, Doran watches this happen. He's like, Tamil, you do it well and you do it fancy. After all, your spinning of the rod and stuff. Thank you, Doran. You do it well and you do it.

You would fancy. What the fuck? You know what? Temeel strikes a pose. She like does the like a... Oh, the Atlas? Bodybuilders pose. The Atlas pose.

Yes. It's so epic. I love that. The javelin throw. So the fire giant, being that he is slowed by this difficult terrain, is only able to make it partway across the field towards you. And unfortunately, despite holding this heavy great sword in his,

his hand. He like takes a swing at you and you are just out of reach. You feel like he's like pulling a back foot that's still like stuck in the mud and he's like off balance a little bit. So instead he reaches down and grabs a hefty boulder and chucks it at you from this short range. You're only 15 feet away from him. Suck it, stinky. And it's a 14 to hit. Nice. So I believe you are sitting pretty. Meanwhile, the... Are you? I'm sitting on the edge of my seat. Oh, yeah.

Oh, we're good. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, your AC is what? 24 or something, right? 26 right now. Yeah, you're fine. Because she did the defensive flourish.

Meteor lands next to you. Oh, this is true. Yeah, yeah. Fancy flourish. Temeel is so bolstered by Doren's, his compliment, that she, like, is terrified of this incoming boulder, but just at the last minute she's like, okay, I think it's going to miss. And so she tries to steal herself so she doesn't flinch at all.

She just stands there trying to look real cool. Yeah, and he's just like off balance a little bit from being stuck in this mud. And the boulder actually whips right past you, Temeel, like whizzes past your long braid and almost crashes right into red who is standing almost directly behind you in the path of this projectile. Of course, red is invisible. So it's like entirely incident. but like it crashes past him as it misses. Or no one would know that red died.

The battle's over. It's like, where's red? We never found him. Why is there a pool of invisible blood leaking out of that? You become visible, but you're like covered in mud and like sinking in. Oh, that'd be so sad. Well, they'll find you in the fossil record later, right? Oh, that's fun.

Perfect climate and situation to create. A fox was buried here many years ago. Dorn's like so cool in the background. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you step to the side of this boulder. Meanwhile, the fire giant across the battlefield to the northwest picks up a boulder similarly and throws it at this hovering target, the tantalizing form of Witted as he moves toward the Von and Dodd.

What, God. I'm clear whether he is, like, defending the Von and Dodd from your approach or maybe just you're the simplest target for him. Well, maybe he should be clear about his intentions. Another 14 to hit. 14. Yeah, another 14. Column A, little column B.

I want to hit Witted, too. 14? Pish-posh. All good. Pish-posh. Pish-posh, I say. Pish-posh, I say. Sorry, we did it said the Pish-Pash,

as he just zooms and gains altitude to, zoom over the and doesn't quite, he's not that loony-tune showy, but he almost does this kicking movement like he is leaping over the boulder a little bit. Doesn't run across the surface of it.

The reindeer, Santa's reindeer, is that hoop kicking? Yeah. Yeah. We're at the top of the round, the distant sound of heavy footballs grows.

And suddenly, oh no. Three more fire giants appear over the ridge looking over into the valley from the south. Oh no. They're running at a full tilt, a fearsome sight, their legs eating the distance between them and you. The tallest has his huge sword in his hand. His companion to his right is nearly covered in mud.

It appears she's fallen during the fight and recovered herself. And just behind them, another giant with the side of his breastplate broken and flapping as he runs, chances a look behind him, with his expression painted in terror. Ooh. Damn it! Okay, now I'd just like to thank our dear Patreon supporters. Screw all their names down here. Just bear with me.

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