Dice Shame - 2-184 | 'Control Freak'

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Within the Vonindod, the party finds themselves in trouble...______________________________________________________________________________________________________________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.

Well, at least now we can interact with the stupid thing Well, I think we should stop them all I think that sounds reasonable I don't know Let's all cooling Don't open the bag of holding gear, maybe I mean, it makes sense to me Let's talk it out, let's talk it out

Well then let's stop worrying about fucking bugs Surely burning smells or things we should address quickly Alright, let's go Look, he's not gonna blow up his toy anyway Let's just try it, shall we? She's gonna raw dog it, yeah There's a lot of space in here That's all I know for sure

It's like the alien with the inner mouth Yes, yeah, absolutely That's good Welcome back to Dice Shame. This is Season 2, Episode 184. Is that right? 184? Yep.

That's a lot. I know. Control freak. MVP, this week, goes to Minty, who's been live blogging their listen on the Discord server. They're up to episode 149 of season. Season one, so they are catching up. Thanks so much, Minty.

You are this week's MVP. Congrats. All right. Should we play some D&D? Yeah, let's do it. Woo! Woo! There is a familiar looking now,

kind of black singe mark on the ground and the pipes around where the beetle exploded. Very cool. Bomb beetles. Let's all cool it. Red helps Doran up. Come on, buddy. Red, I don't want to make it.

assumptions, but I've known Rangers in the past who could communicate with animals. Is that something that you're able to do? Yeah, of course I could do it. Of course. Just give me a second. All right, everybody just calm down, calm down, everyone. Red walks around the corner.

He's like the singed outline, and he bends down. Here, be itle, beetle, beetle, here, beetle. Okay. Gonna talk to the beetle and make sure everything's okay. And he just like looks at the beetle. Ah, okay. Oh, yeah?

Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay, yes. Yeah, they say they don't mean us harm. They just want to eat. And they tell us to leave them alone, they're saying, I just realized I have a bomb-sniffing rat. Who must be going wild right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like freaking out. He's in your bag. He's like dancing. Yeah, Stevie. Yeah, we haven't seen Stevie in a while. Yeah, yeah, I'm speaking to them all right. Can you ask them not to eat the...

Yes, yes, I will. Yes, good call, good call. Okay, and he bends down again and fully bullshitting. He sort of like waves his hand, he's like, don't, don't eat it anymore. Don't go over there. I feel like Doran catches Tamil's eye, and he kind of gives like the crazy symbol about red. He's like, he's like spinning his finger around his ear going. I don't know how his magic works.

Yeah, okay, they're not going to. Let's keep moving. It's good. Let's keep moving. well I think we should stop them all. All I'm worried about is that actually what's happening is the Beatles have been consuming a protective, objurative magic around the pipes. And that's what the debris is.

Is there a way that we could tell? If they're just eating things that don't matter, then who cares right now? Right. But if this is potentially something that we need to take care of. Maybe, Witted, do you have a role for that? That's a good thought. Hey, Timmyl, come over here for a... Red light grabs Timmyel, like, walk.

Okay. Out of your shot. Hello. We want to dismantle this thing, remember? We do, but not what we... Maybe, leaving the Beatles. We... Yes, we do, but not what we are inside it.

We don't know what that would... We don't know, first of all, how high we are now. We have no idea how to control this thing yet. And if we are suddenly dealing with something... So we should get a move on. Look... All I'm saying is, if this ends up being the thing that does our job for us, and all we have to do is let nature take a...

its course, then maybe that's our golden ticket in our hand. Right. I just don't want to poke it too much. Now, come on, Widdard, we can't just let Nature take its course. Nature's take its course just means these bugs keep multiplying. There shouldn't be any bugs on the voted dot. We need to get to the control. Yes, or at least, if you want to hedge the controls and then perhaps a few of us could

stay behind and work on the bugs. and divide and conquer that way. You see he is torn. He wants these bugs gone, but he wants to go to the controls more. And this is more mundane maintenance than it is like what he's really excited about. So you see him looking anxiously

at these bugs with disgust, and he goes, just, all right, I think that sounds reasonable. Just clear the bat as quickly as you can. I don't want, and he sees one nibbling. I don't want them eating any more of this thing. It's much more valuable than they are. Ah, the rare bomb beetle species.

Yeah, they were. We thought they were extinct. So endangered. We're going to have to pay so many fines. Well, they're about to be. Really didn't hurt that much. Yeah, what's, don't tell the inspectors that we have a bomb beetle nest because then you have to move it.

It's under protected status and then suddenly you can't make any renovations. Wim is like crouching beside one. She's like almost petting it. And then she looks up and signs at Dory. in like really excitedly, like, can we throw one? Heddaard just like nods, like gleefully. Yes, we can. And then he points at where the other one exploded.

Throw it there. All right, let's move. Do we want to do anything about this hot spinning wheel? At least look at it a little more, right? Do you want to investigate it more? Yeah, Red walks into the hot valve room. Great. And stands next to Tameel.

and puts an eye on it. What the hell is this? Sure, yeah. They pour a bottle of water on it? You can definitely empty your canteen. Just before Red does that, when it is mainly curious, does this like it's about to blow

or something like that with a 27? It doesn't seem to be, although notably this pipe has been entirely stripped of this magical sheath, and it seems like it is extremely, extremely hot. There's a lot of pressure here, a lot of heat happening. All right, all right. Red pulls out his water skin and he says, let's cool this bad boy off. And he pours water

all over the wheel, which would do very, very little. But as he's pouring it, he touches the water stream. With my frigid touch using the shard of the ice rune, I can touch a body of water and freeze the water in a 10-foot radius sphere around the spot I touched. So I feel like as I pour this water before it's like, you know what I mean, like fully evaporating, it freezes. You are like quenching the metal with the sheer force of magic and the immense heat and pressure of this pipe is fighting against your magical energy in trying to keep the ice from sublimation. into steam. And after a minute or two of this combat of forces,

the pipe cools and turns back to a normal bronze color. Nice. Well, at least now we can interact with the stupid thing. Does it look like it was like broken somehow? I mean, it is a valve kind of, like a wheel on the top of a pipe. Basically, it looks like it was functioning as intended. Yes.

Just not in the great circumstances. Oh, except it was missing this outer shell. So maybe... Yes. Which it still is. It gets hot. The bugs! It's the bugs did this.

Yeah. So maybe they're just removing this protective shell of these very hot pipes so that it doesn't get too hot. Maybe they're not destroying it necessarily. Maybe. Can I take the rope out of my bag and start basically, I guess in the southeasterly room and then taking each room in turn, just start using the rope to try to sweep the debris, the white debris out into the hall and then back into the room that we came from. So just trying to concentrate this food source for these beetles away from the remaining sheathed pipes. Yeah, totally. I think if you get too close to a beetle that's munching, it gives you like kind of aggressive postures. But if you're careful to sort of keep mind of the angry animals, you manage to sort of create a trail of breadcrumbs that leads down into the southern room. Do you want me to do like a sleight of hand to see like take damage? You can sort of dodge out of the way, sort of anticipating what is going to make them mad. Having seen their, they're, reaction to what red did.

Yeah, you can manage to do that for sure. So just trying to get as much concentration of, like, you know, this beetle seed away from where we are and away from the still protected pipe. Beetle seed, beetle seed. Yeah. As you do that, Tamil, it's weird. This flaked off material, it doesn't really look like any substance you've ever seen before. almost analogous to like a shedded, like reptile skin, maybe of some kind.

More organic than anything. Weird. As you successfully create a trail of this debris down into the southern airlock room, you notice that the majority of the Beatles do follow suit, although there is one that's like more tenaciously ripping shreds off of a, pipe than the other ones are John always have to do his own thing The other ones are more content

To just Move on on their way However there's another beetle Shrieking right next to the first beetle Obviously directing it to do something Oh no And that one wasn't really part of the Beatles

But as we watch This one's Pete Best Another beetle emerges from this chewed hole in the wall and sort of makes its way out into one of the main rooms. All right, I feel like we're working against, let's keep moving. Right. Just as of curiosity, that wheel shouldn't be turned, right?

That's not the puzzle. Like, we're not getting the impression that that wheel that I cooled off should be turned, right? I don't know. You haven't figured out how to get through the door that's the north just yet. I didn't realize that, okay. Let's see if this valve opens the door and Red will turn the now cooled valve. And having turned the cooled valve,

the door to the north slides open. Of course. You've succeeded in completing my valve puzzle. Congratulations. As this door slides aside, you look north and you see that there is a corridor a head that bends sharply to the right at a 90 degree angle. And as the door opens, you are met by a slightly unpleasant smell.

Hmm. Oh, that's, that's, that's not totally offensive. It's just sort of slightly unpleasant that smell. All right, what the hell's going on? This doesn't make sense. And Red snaps his head to Witted. Witted, look, I'm no schlub, but I climbed the outside of this Von and Dodd. And I am telling you that right about now we should be halfway up its waist.

thing was what, 80 feet tall? What the hell's going on? That transmutation must have done something. I think reds onto something where we can re-logic out that if we've headed in one direction, we should be hitting the wall of the Vonidot or something by now. Would we be able to make an arcana check on this? You can just make a straight up intelligence check, if you like. Nothing terribly arcane about sorting out the dimensions of the room that you're What did you roll?

I did roll a 23. Nice. And Witted is getting this chilling feeling of like, did we get shrunk down or something? Like, I'm not sure what's going on. Yeah. I love this possibility because that would answer so many questions. Yes. Like how do these giants get in here and drive it?

This had not occurred to me. Yeah. Neither did it occur to me. It does seem Witted that the, the corridor now, as far as you can tell, from the airlock door that you entered to the end of the corridor with a 90 degree angle, it's like almost 100 feet long. And if you are traveling along the length of a foot in the Vonendod, it would definitely not be that large. As far as you can guess. Yeah, this is a tardis situation. Yeah. The magic that was activated

changed your size or maybe altered the shape of the rooms. You're not quite sure, but something has happened where the dimensions that you are traveling in right now are not the same on the outside as they are on the inside. What the hell's going on? Whitted, come on. This doesn't make sense. I see. What of two possibilities here, and he turns to everyone.

I'm not sure which is better and which is worse. What possibility is that the voted dot is big. on the inside. The other possibility is that we are smaller on the inside of the voted dot. But there's a lot of space in here. That's all I know for sure. Well, shit, maybe it's both. Hell, I carry on me a bag of holding all the time,

and the bag of holding has a much bigger space than it looks like on the outside. Well, speaking of which, don't open the bag of holding here, maybe. Wim points happily at the giant beetles and snaps her fingers. Oh, these aren't giant beetles, they're regular beaters, and we'll just... Oh, shit. Oh, dang. That actually might work in our favor. Timil's going to go back to that hole in the wall, and she'll cast Mending, which has a limitation

of a breaker tear that's no longer than one foot in any dimension, but that would be like a real-world foot, wouldn't it? It wouldn't scale that way class. Wow, that's a good question. You're breaking my brain Yeah It wouldn't skate This is a way to test If we've shrunked

Other than the Beatles And the transportation magic And all the other evidence that we have Yeah Yeah Would then like all of the spell Effects and ranges For all of our spells

Like increased convention Like that's a tricky I can't I can't allow that Because I don't want to deal with it Okay Yeah fair enough Good idea though

That's a fun idea for a separate adventure though that I want to run which is like you're tiny but all your spells are big. If you're in a regular, if you're in a regular size room and you get small, your magical effect would be less effectual on a tear in the wall. 100% correct. Oh yeah. Your mending spell does not work because even though the the hole looks like it's a foot, it's actually, wait, even though yeah. The way, it's actually the way. The way that's actually the way that. I was thinking about it. The thing that I would argue is that the power of the magic doesn't change at all. Like that doesn't change. But it's just the actual objective size of the tear.

So it's like the range and everything is still fundamentally the same. I guess if the range is the same, then the effect would be the same. And if it scales down for one, then it would scale down for all. I think so. But Nick, you get inspiration for breaking my brain. Nice. You could pose the question like this. Does the effect of the spell change based on the size of the person casting it?

I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're the size of a mouse. If you are reduced in size per D&D rules, your spells effects don't also reduce. True. It's only like physical stuff. Yeah.

So if we were the normal size. So crunchy. If we were the normal size. normal size in this room. Tim has gone to beard, to beard brushing mode. He's sitting back. He's deep in like DM brain.

I'm thinking of so many possibilities here. I mean, it makes sense to me. He's in his DM mind palace just rifling through papers. It's got to be something in here. It looks like it's a foot wide. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gand off the wise. If you're asking my rule, Joe is correct.

Technically, you can be a pixie who's tiny size and all your spells work the same as a medium size character. That is how D&D rules work. But, but obviously, yeah. But see, my, and I agree where Nick was coming from because my logic is, okay, if we zoom out and if this is the foot, from the outside, that gash is tiny. Therefore, that's where the problem comes. Because logically, the foot is only in the real world, like 10 feet wide. You know what I mean?

But anyway, whatever. It's a fun question. Yes. Hold on. So you're saying, Jesus, so this is just the foot. Well, hold on. That is good in some ways. Doesn't that mean that if the control room is in the fucking head, we got to get a move on?

I think so. I hadn't thought of that, yeah. Well, then let's stop worrying about fucking bugs. Let's go. Nobody wanted to fuck a bug. Right, let's get to the controls. We got a hike ahead of us. Let's do it.

There's like a bon and dod mechanic. Well, there's your problem. You got bugs. Yeah. You got bugs in the Goli works. As you follow the course of the hallway, you ascend some stairs. before coming to a semi-circular niche on the northern wall, where a curious metal podium is placed.

The podium was skillfully cast in adamantine, gleaming dully, pleasingly geometric in form, and atop the podium, a teal orb glows with internal light. Abu, don't touch that. We are definitely looking at a magical object, Tim, and that is fantastic news my arcana check will receive an extra bonus of plus four to identify magic and technology so i'm going to do it oh yeah roll with a plus 13 a 26 in all nice way to go and i'm hoping i find out what this orb is because i'm almost definitely going to touch it regardless so if i find out as dangerous maybe maybe at least

then i won't yeah there's a mixture of magics that are emanating from this or some conjuration magic, some evocation, and some transmutation as well. That looks very magic. This Witted, you know, is one of the keys to controlling the Von and Dodd. Oh, yes. It's just like I anticipated. They use orbs, he turns back. They use orbs, everyone. My theory was right.

And clearly, on a personal level, this mattered a lot to Witted, that it was like orbs as opposed to a button panel or a screener. He's like, I knew they would use orbs. Yes, all my theories, they laughed at me. He runs over. And unless someone stops him, he's going to get both gauntlets on this orb and try to act. Timil will 100% kind of like hold him back as lightly as possible.

But what do the old stew, Witted? Witted, this is the rare occasion where as he is going to be answering Temeil, he is at the same time trying to not fight but resist Tamil's attempt to stop him physically. He is still trying to reach for the orb even as it controls the vote, Dodd, you know. Are we going to do a contested check here? Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah, let's roll. I do.

I love the idea that while this is happening, like red and whim are hanging back and Wim just taps red on the shoulders. And she mouths the word like, is he saying orb? Redge is like, yeah, orb, I guess. Timil, we're grappling, right? Tamil, well, you roll a strength check for me. Athletics? Yeah, and then, you can roll athletics or acrobatics, whichever you would prefer.

I love the energy of a toddler in a shopping cart trying to get at something sugary. Those are my marshmallows and I want them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did, if you used acrobatics, actually dinged a full 17 there. Fabulous. Ooh, that's great.

I got a 29. Oh, 29. Dang, I'm not beating that. It's a gentle, it's a gentle restraint. It's dynamic. It's like you're moving. You're getting an arm out. She's kind of like raining you in again.

You know what I mean? But she's like, it's a stage grab. She's not forcing you. Yeah, she's like, it's so good. Tell me more about the old. What does it do? Whitton doesn't even know he's being restrained. You see Witted keep reaching.

And for some reason like, man, I can't. can't quite can't get to me let me explain and he's like trying to reach around you and you just keep like a keto like turning him in other directions amazing and this is the key that we're looking for is he in bessie right now i was debating will he just pop out of bessie like an escape pod and like leap for oh that's funny um it's like the alien with the inner mouth yeah absolutely um you know what I'm just going to roll a D20 to see if he's dumb enough. Oh my God. I rolled a D20 to see if Witted would do something dumb,

and I just rolled a natural one. Oh, no. So, yep. Yes, Witted doesn't understand on a fundamental level that you are trying to keep him from touching this orb because it has not occurred to him that anyone would get between him in this orb. He literally just goes, let me show you. What it's going to do is this,

and he climbs out of the seat, gets like one foot on the edge of the like gorget, I guess, of Bessie and just tries to spring nimbly onto the like spot right next to the orb so he can like demonstrate to Temeel what he was trying to show her. Temeel is horrified.

Nick's gonna just let this happen. I'm not gonna try to do it. She's like, she's tied up with Bessie, you know, like she's got like, and she's just trying to hold it. There's nothing she can do. Yes. He's still fighting.

Does he still operating trying to reach the orb? Just let's talk it out. Let's talk it out. It's easier for me to show you. It's much easier for me to show you. I try to leap and land next to the orb. Should I make a check for that? No, you just fucking do it.

Red shoots a banishing era. Yeah. It's natural 20. Unbelievable. It's almost like the Palantier in the Lord of the Rings. Absolutely. Where you touch it and like you can't pull your hands away. At first, not that what it's trying, your mind pulses with this increased awareness and you are like transported away inside your mind and you sense the presence of three sister orbs very close by,

Witted within the body of the Von and Dodd. There are other orbs to touch and to control, but there is one very very, very, very distant orb clutched securely in a powerful giant's hand, and you touch Duke Zalto's mind just for an instant. Duke Zalta, what are you doing here? By the way, we did his touch this orb in a very, like, confident way where he's like, don't worry, Tibio, let me show you. And as soon as his hands were on it, and he's doing the whole pippin with the pallet, you're like, It's clear. Even if he's having an okay time, it looks horrific. And right now he is like, oh, shit, Duke Zalto, and he tries to let go as best he can.

Yeah. Roll a constitution saving. Oh, boy. At least you got that net one out of the way. Hey, as an artificer, I am trained in this. I have a plus seven. Oh, you can roll with advantage. Oh, yeah.

With advantage, you artificer. Oh, yeah. Well, sorry, I just meant I get training in the con saves. So with a regular role, I got a 13. With advantage, I got a 20 total. Okay. Nice. You are able to shake it off and disengage your hand from one of the control panels of this terminal.

As soon as I break free of the orb, I turn and try to brush off my, anyway, Tibio, so that's what it does. Everybody, it's, I do just want to say that it is possible, as slight as it may be, that I may have just made a mistake and that Duke Zolto may or may not be in possession of one of these other orbs, and Duke Zalto may or may not be aware of our presence here at this particular orb. Just something I would want everyone to know. What? I appreciate you letting us know.

That's very nice of you. Wait, what? I'm not saying this was a mistake. I'm just saying that we should be... You literally just said that you may have made a mistake. Maybe you should touch it one more time, just to be sure. Don't touch it again, you knucklehead. Just full tackle.

Full form tackle, winning. Yeah, Red moves up as well and helps to be a restrained with it. Maybe I can turn his orb against him. I'm like reaching. And at this time I let people just like, get away from the orb, get away. Yeah. Fool of a gnome! My theory is maybe there's one for each limb if I could just get another look

Oh hold on look yes I probably you should but not right now Jesus Duke's alto he was what he was controlling one of the other limbs Unclear I know he's in possession of one of the other orbs but I'm not clear whether he's on board or whether he has an orb Somewhere outside the voted dot it was not entirely clear you almost like gained kind of like an awareness, not quite of the layout, but just of like of the space that you're in. This was, this was the sort of sensation. I have been looking for all of my life, the power that, listen, I'm not going to touch the orb again, but we are in a good position. I truly believe that this was the right move because, because there's an orb. This is most fortuitous.

He starts to stroke his beard and look, not just at the Vonenda, but for really, it almost seems like the first time. The companions around him and he looks at Temeel and he looks at Doreen and he looks at Red. It's almost like there's potentially an orb for each of us to utilize within this giant and what for you, Dored, maybe, and what for you Tad, what for you, Redd. Well, there might be and he looks up an orb for me at the very top. I think we should keep moving upward. Just like the Power Ranger Megasord. And I'll form the head. What now?

It's a, at Mazdikin play. Don't worry about it. All right, all right. Well, look, let's leave this here for now and come back. We don't have to go that far. It looks like the hallway up ahead turns right again. Let's see where that leads. And hell, geez.

Okay. So Duke's Alto knows we're coming. That puts a clock on this thing again. If he can reach us. Just out of mild curiosity, a possibility that there is a remote detonation switch to be all stare is at the silent risk. Certainly, certainly not one that he could operate without the key, which we now have. That's right. Clearly not sure about that, but hopeful.

All right. Let's keep moving. Look, he's not going to blow up his toy anyway. Agreed, agreed. That would be a foolish thing to do. And now he's getting nervous. Well, you know, hey, he never actually saw you anyway, right? Witted.

What I mean to say is, you know, he would have recognized Tamil and Doren and myself, but, you know, he never actually got to lay eyes on you. And you weren't even in Bessie, so maybe he just thinks you're another gnome that snuck in. If I were Duke Zalto, I wouldn't care who I was. I would walk me out of the voted dot as soon as possible. I think we should move quickly. Agreed. Right.

As we kind of moved through the hallway, I think Doren takes a moment to try and maybe pull Wittitt off to the side with Chaos Hammer. I'll say Tamele kind of like pushes ahead. Yeah, I'm with you, Tammel. Wham comes along. Yeah, and I think Doren looks at Chaos Hammer and then takes a moment and turns to Wittit and sort of grabs him by the shoulder and he says, yeah, I'm half in the suit and you grab my like gnome shoulder, yeah.

So. Let me help you're in. Here. What else did you see there in that orb? How did that feel? Could you control anything? I didn't stick around long enough to find out for sure. My guess is, at best case,

scenario I would have control of a leg, which I don't know if that's a terribly useful amount of power to have right now. I suggest if we get to these other orbs, we might have a better chance of gaining control over the construct. Well, uh, maybe I should say, stay behind here and, uh, keep an eye on it. Hmm. You know.

Chaos Haber, on the off chance that we need to have, like, control over each of the orbs at the same time, I think that's actually a highly noble and heroic, uh, move for you to suggest. Yeah, but, uh, thanks. Yeah. How would we communicate that you're, you're either supposed to touch it or supposed to not touch it? You, you have, uh, you have ways of doing that stuff, don't you?

Yeah, yeah, of course. I, I think, I think, uh, I think Dimele might be able to whisper something through your year. You're going to hang back? Strategically, it might make sense. I can make sure that these beetles don't come anywhere near it, if you like. That's not a bad idea. By the way, wait, did you see where Duke Salta was?

Did you get any idea of his surroundings? Was he a silvery moon? I just know he was holding the orb. I could find out, Dorn. Huh. And I think Doren's sort of. of looks ahead where red and timiel and wind just kind of went he thinks otherwise he says no no uh i think that might be a little bit reckless getting ahead of ourselves let let's keep keep going on

and nergirl are you going to stay here i'll uh i'll stay here for now and if i don't hear back anything i'll give you half an hour and then i'll come looking for you how does that sound well that sounds pretty good i mean we'll clear the way for you so You shouldn't find any problems up ahead. Be safe. He claps you on the shoulder. Yeah, you too. And he claps,

chaos hammer on the shoulder as well. He nods at you, Doren, and Widd, and he says, I think this is going to work out what we were talking about back at the tower. I think this is going to be good for all of us. Yeah, think of how much control we can have this thing, you know.

Mm-hmm. All right, Witton, let's go. Let's catch up before the others get too far. our head. Continuing around another 90 degree bend and moving south now, ascending more stairs. You come to a small chamber inside which a tower of gears is merrily whirring, seemingly without safeguards of any kind. The unpleasant smell grows in strength. You know, I always wish sometimes that I could get really small and slip inside of someone's sleeping body and poke around all their insides and see their heart beat and their lungs breathe.

It kind of feels a bit like that, Aetemiel? Um, uh, I have never had that impulse, I suppose. Uh, I bet this room's the gallbladder. Okay. Uh, do you smell that? Uh, yeah, let me roll perception. Sure, sure, sure. Because I forgot about that, too, the rotting.

That's 18. Yeah, it's kind of like a burning smell. Yeah, it's kind of like a burning smell. just moving her head outside around the door. Does it seem like it's coming from in the gear room? No, the smell is not noticeably stronger inside of the gear room. Listen, you smell that? Listen.

I have no idea how any of this works. Bugs and orbs and things, but surely... Gullblattice. Exactly. What does that even do? I mean, like, is it vestigial? I had mine removed. But surely burning smells are things we should address quickly, right?

Yes. Yeah, let's, uh, Let's see if we can't suss it out and Red will cautiously move forward. Great. Yeah, you move farther down to the end of the corridor. There is a door that leads west that does not appear to have any kind of lever. And just to cross the hall from that, there is a small room that. that is filled with hazy smoke.

I think I found the burning room. This is clearly where the strange smell is coming from. I think as Doran passes, this gear room, he steps in to look up. Okay, yeah. And how far does he see? Gear monster. Just in the doorway, you know.

That's a great question, Doren. Okay, yeah. You look up and you. You are greeted by a choreography of moving gears and belts and pistons. You are looking straight up into the humorous area of the Vondod. This is like an upper leg portion. And it is a buzz of activity above you. And just above that, you can see through the flashing cogs of whirring gears.

A room up above. Huh. You know, if we can't find our way up, there might be a way up there. Although it looks a little coggy. There's got to be a pun. I'm more than willing to fly up and just take. Take a look around. Well, hold on, I got a room down here that's got some Bernie stuff.

Let's check this out first. And Red sort of waves his hand, and he will cast remove fog. Ooh. You don't have that. No, I'm just joking. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I got all excited.

I was like, he's got a stuff for it. I didn't think anybody was going to buy it. I thought it would be clearly that it was a thing. Let's see if there's stairs. But yes, how do you clear out this? Oh, they're smoking. Seeing if I got anything. Yeah, same.

The room of fumes. It's a fume room. The room of fume. Yeah. All right. The sharp burning smell is making your eyes water from even just standing outside of the room. You can barely make out through the haze. There is kind of a wide pump system on the far wall, some other kind of pipe on the north wall.

But that's all you can really make out. And smoke is just billowing in the room. I wonder is this poisonous? That's a great question Doran is resistant to Red reaches into his bag And he pulls out Stevie The bomb-sniffing rat

Yeah Stevie see if you can't poke around in that He puts him down on the floor Yeah Stevie takes like a couple of hesitant Little rat steps into the room And sneezes and then scurries back out And sits in protest Bombie? He shakes his little rat nose at you

Is that a yes or no He shakes it Shaking is not an answer. I don't think he talked. Does he talk to you? Don't shake. Shake a yes or no? No.

You nod. He says he shakes no and then he sneezes and he tries to crawl back in your back. All right. And I put her back in. Tammel's going to take a little bit of fabric from like her tunic or something. She's going to rip it off. Nice. She's going to soak the fabric with some water from her water skin.

And then she says, listen, I've got decent. sight in darkness. So let me go see if I can take any kind of look. If it gets too hard to breathe, I might just come back out. But if anyone has a better idea, I'm open to it. Be careful. Yeah, of course.

Doran would like to try and help you. How are you going to help to meal, Doran? Not so much to help action per se, but like I wouldn't mind trying to come along. You want to do the same? Are you going to create a kind of respirator? No. makeshift respirator? No.

No. You're just going to go. I was thinking I would step in. Just a raw dog it. Yeah. If you're down with that, for you? I don't, I don't mind, though. I think that Tamil would, Doran, are you sure you don't want to, um, this could be fairly

accurately. Well, protect yourself. Us, us, uh, dwarves, you know, he kind of paths his chest. We've got a natural sort of immunity to, you know, poisons and these heavy sorts of gases. I mean, let's just try it, shall we? All right. Here we go.

And yeah, Timil will press the. the rag against her face and move in. Good, all right. Towards the things that she can make out already and then go from there. I think Doran kind of puts a hand on your shoulder and follows you behind just so he doesn't lose sight of you. Sure. Tamil, you lead Doran into this room that is full of this acrid haze. Both of you need to make a constitution saving throw against being poisoned.

Oh. And, Tamil, you can do so with advantage because of your makeshift respirator. That is so generous of you. And I think I do too because... You do because you are a dwarf. Would you roll? I got 12. 21 for me.

Look at you. Sturdy. Doren, you are fine, although you cannot really see very well. Tamil, you become poison. Oh, shit. Just like starting to cough. It's a disadvantage on your attack rolls and your ability checks. Damage is done. Let's keep moving.

All right. You make your way into the room towards these pipes. Now that you've gotten up close to them, you see that there is an air intake pipe on the north wall. That's like obscured by some rags. It's like all clogged. What do you see, Tumil? It seems like there's something blocking this, um, an intake valve.

Oh, well, why don't you try moving it? Let's see if we can clear this out. Maybe that's all it needs. It's just an exhaust port. All right. Timil will reach out and she'll start to try to dislodge some of their shift some of the material that's blocking it. Yeah. Yeah, you pull out handfuls of this, like, gross detritus.

What is this nice? Pulling it aside, like, you can almost see, like, wisps of these fumes being dragged into the pipe in the north wall. And as you do that, the air becomes appreciably more breathable and you are able to gain some more visibility in the room as you do so. Much better. Directly in front of you now, you can see that there is a pipe with a big painted red button as big as a dinner plate. And it's got some writing on it, scratched in the paint. Can anyone read this? Tamil says as she steps out into the hallway

and casts lesser restoration on herself. Fabulous. Nice. Well done. Who reads Nomish writing? I wonder. I don't know if anybody here does. I'll check my sheet.

But I got a good feeling about that. Tim, Witted is able to read some sneaky little nomish script that has been scratched into the paint on this red button. It reads pressure release and then an even smaller, smaller script below that. It says, don't look down.

You know, I can't help but feel like reading the names of the Patreon supporters is becoming longer than the episodes themselves. So I'm going to try something a little different here and use some magic. We would like to thank our Patreon supporters. Lita J. Christopher. Colin Burkhard. Merlin. Adam Frey. Liz. Merrick's Moon. Rithan-Read-Feldman.

Scotty. Haley. H.E. Kass. Nicky. Brooke. Bendan-D. Nerd fairy. Luna Demaria. Sray 96. Mood. Manor-Mor-Mor-Borffin. Vole. Vole. Vinyl. Valian. H.R.'s.

Al-C. Trash Panda. Luke. Oakland. H.D. H. Amai. Shadow O Haven. Zill Street. Axel. Izzy. Rep you the Nazchease Danny Ciro Time

Fisher roses of Envy Nick D Ayrine April Lightning April Felly Starlight Karen Dule Amanna Nicole Clockwork Phoenix Lickrot

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Dead Petals Hydrus Stab Sunny Ceeley Hill Caspian Heather Newman Rinn Bart Oon

Conzo Como Art Jekek Lissanne Clack Lissan Kite Immortal Irica Mirace Marzby

RAN Rennity M Tritas Kalae Jailia Telye Telye's Infer Buzing Star O3

Snick-Snack Chiqui'Ome Dead Baguettes Jagar Man Jensen Lapsen Frisca Frisketo Danyany D. Rona

This guy could Wings Heart Rose Black Fox is tired Alattis Dusted Beast Dark Cry 101 One and only Namke Labette Rade

Mademoiselle Saratone Ao Amanda Brayden Keeraven Lincoln Stinson Marsall

Natsx Jill Farrington Sweenie Shana Stichler Cat Runee Harry Leaf Rack Burried in the Archives

Carrett Codewew Codews Waccureure Deco Lows hair Jane Rachel Isaacs Nate Nelson Pantileaman

Gen Ananas Lin, Red Wing Rising Helena Oliver Corbus That Drumbot person Briar von Rose Bumblebee Kampii

Tiny Olive Catcher of Stars Cameron Bean Boy Gav Dead Pixel Fish Sugar Pogar Milo Sons Chooon Don't Patrick Luce

Mitz Zongue Mildo Maldly Cauton Maudly Parenthood Reding Worme

Wormeepest Ravichael Lina Lina Jonathan Lippinski Sunflower Libran Libran

Tyler DeVille Taylor Ceperer Beni Berger Valentines Dan Melchimer Anna Lunaa possibly Eden.

Oh my goodness. I don't know if I could have done it much faster than that, so I'm going to go lie down. We'll see you next episode. Bye-bye. And I think we'll leave it there. Wait. Oh, perfect. Now I've got to ask, does this look like it is part of the Vonenda this writing, or is the

implication a gnome was here and added this message? A gnome was here and they scratched a little message. This is blue. Blowing Widdid's mind. Wittid is like, who is this? He is so brazzled. Love it. And then he pulls out a little knife

and carves Widdid was huge. Witted, but he scratches it out.