Murder Dice - A 5e Dungeons & Dragons Podcast · Dungeons and Dragons

Murder Dice - The Gates Ep.50

·1 hr 29 min·5 clips

Calcifer appears from ashes and leaves, then says, 'You hurt me, Freakness.'

The episode opens sideways. The first stretch is a construction-rant digression about a wealthy outdoor mall area, a government contract job that seems to crawl forever, and a suspicious fire that forced half the new development to start over. Nobody is in a rush. That fits the table, because the group likes to wander through a setup before snapping back to the danger, and the recap energy here feels more like friends catching each other up than a polished briefing. Then the fight starts. Calcifer comes into view with a small ash-and-leafy sword, the room lights up with initiative calls, and the players immediately start sorting out who is slowed, who is stuck, and who can still get a clean action off. The trees are rude. Branches and roots keep batting at the party and trying to drag them in, so every move turns into another strength save, another number read aloud, and another burst of table laughter when someone rolls high enough to stay upright. The combat stays messy. That mess is the point, because the episode lets rules talk, correction talk, and actual tactical thinking all sit next to each other without pretending the room is tidy. The narration lands. A player pauses to praise the ashy descriptive beat, and the compliment matters because it shows how the show treats a good line: the table hears it, acknowledges it, and then immediately drags the scene back into chaos. Bonuses become a puzzle. The cast haggles over ability modifiers, checks, and the detail that one attack can swap strength for charisma, which keeps the fight sounding like a real home game where everyone half-remembers the rules and still makes it work. The numbers get loud. One person is trying to verify bonuses, another is claiming absurd initiative results, and the conversation keeps hopping between what the dice said and what the characters can actually do before the trees squeeze the space shut again. It also becomes a milestone check-in. The closing stretch turns reflective, with the crew joking that this is somehow their third 50th episode, remembering the May 4 start date, and talking like people who have spent a long time living inside the same campaign. The goodbye is warm and ragged. Thanks get thrown around, the hope is to come back and finish things hard next time, and the last stretch keeps that scrappy, affectionate, half-chaotic energy intact instead of trying to tidy it into a clean bow.

As heard by us

Messy, funny tabletop chaos with a fight scene that still lands its best beat.

Murder Dice takes this stretch from tense approach to full tabletop chaos. The party closes on Calcifer, bumps into tree magic, and then has to sort initiative, saves, and tactics while everyone keeps talking over one another.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the Calcifer showdown and the table noise around it.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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