Round Table Episode 37-38

December 12, 2025·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

Kiri reveals her streamlined process for consuming 97 cans of Coke during recording days, while Michael hoards spider scream sound effects.

1. Red Dirt D&D's Round Table for episodes 37 and 38 of Curse of the Clockwork City features the full cast: Michael Kross (Dr. Elias Stone), Connor Chenault (Sable), Johnny Payne (August E. Graymoor), Kiri Hester (Moxie), and DM Brett Bullock. 2. The episode was recorded in late October 2025 during what the cast describes as unseasonably warm weather in Oklahoma — around 80 degrees — contrasted with typical late October ice storm risk. 3. The roundtable opens with a segment on Kiri's famous Coke-opening ritual and Michael's sound effect hoarding habit, including a spider scream from his insect sound library used in a recent episode. 4. Brett reveals that Sable's solo spider fight in episode 37 had layered DM safety nets: a secondary NPC target for the spider, and August waiting on a rooftop ready to dive with a glaive; none were needed. 5. Sable rolled a critical hit that triggered a quadruple damage result from the new crit table, requiring the spider to make a strength save; the DM rolled approximately a four, instantly killing a 33-hit-point creature in a single action. 6. The new critical hit and miss table from a recently acquired binder is discussed positively by the cast, with the DM noting it adds flavor without slowing play — prior uses have included Sable being stunned and Sable dealing quadruple damage. 7. DM Brett Bullock discloses that Kobe the kobold was not in any campaign outline or concept; kobolds were intended to be threatening villains, and the original plan had Kobe as a minor antagonist. 8. After the party killed Kobe's companions and kept him, August renamed him 'Kobe' because the kobold's actual name sounds like the word for 'lies' in the kobold language. 9. Brett describes the resulting arc as 'The Redemption of Kobe' and notes the party's dynamic of bullying Kobe affectionately while he refuses offers of freedom: 'Nah, I'm cool.' 10. Kobe's natural 20 on an omelet attempt — described as 'best eggs you've ever had in your life' despite being scrambled eggs with eggshells — is cited as a defining moment of dice-telling-story in the campaign. 11. The discussion of spiders in fantasy spawns a tangent on spider biology: Kiri's father (with a master's degree in entomology) explains that insects with exoskeletons lack circulatory systems, their blood 'whooshes around inside their bodies,' and Kiri had a large golden orb weaver named Bianca living on her porch until recently. 12. The cast reflects on why spiders are a universal fear archetype in fiction, concluding it's their alien physiology — not mammalian, not warm-blooded, not friend-shaped — that makes them effective monsters. 13. The August-Sable conversation at the closed Siren Song in episode 38 is analyzed as the emotional core of the set: August subtly accuses Sable's guild of bringing danger to the group; Sable deflects by pointing to August's guard history. 14. Connor explains Sable's internal read: August's heart belongs to the city guard before its corruption, and Sable believes August would rejoin if the guard were cleaned up, which is why the Sapphire Society needs to serve as the city's protector in the meantime. 15. Brett notes that children's welfare is August's strongest moral motivator — the reason he is most personally committed to stopping Zalen Pierce — and places August 'right on the paladin line' without taking a paladin dip. 16. A discussion of D&D subclass design praises 5E's system for making two characters of the same class dramatically different, contrasted with first edition where a fighter was always a fighter until high-level branching. 17. The cast brainstorms 'oops all' single-class party concepts: rogues as raccoons at Camp Glimmerwood doing a heist, bards in a Scott Pilgrim battle of the bands, clerics with conflicting deities arguing theology, and warlocks from the same patron disagreeing about which spells they received. 18. Brett mentions that living Greyhawk inspired his thinking about regional D&D organized play and how WOTC's recent openness to third-party publishers is reshaping the ecosystem. 19. The cast clarifies this is a two-episode roundtable covering only episodes 37 and 38, despite going significantly off-track on spiders, D&D theory, and Harry Potter ethics. 20. D&D actual play fans who enjoy DM transparency about planning, character relationship analysis, and tabletop game theory discussions will find this roundtable episode engaging.

As heard by us

A loose tabletop session where steampunk bits and kobold talk carry the story forward.

The session keeps its feet under it by treating the weird stuff like part of the room, not a flourish added on top. The clockwork jukebox, Otto as DJ, and Kobe's arrival all land as quick bits that fit the table.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want table banter that keeps circling back to the campaign's next weird little turn.

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