On Monday, September 25, 2023, we played our third session of Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk. We were missing one of our players but continued with three characters. I didn’t tone down the encounters, thinking it would be interesting to see how it went.

Interesting is certainly one word for it!

The session began with the characters with Halia Thornton, having realised she was a better option to protect the family they’d rescued last session. They discussed what they’d discovered so far, and Halia was supportive as well as urging them to return and deal with the Glassstaff. She would care for the Dendrars until the Redbrands were dealt with. (We’re the Zhentarim! We’re here to help… and you now owe us! – not that she said that to the PCs).

Returning to the Hideout

As the area the party had explored was distinct from the main lair of the Redbrands, I ruled that – given it was only a couple of hours later – that the Redbrands hadn’t determined that they’d been attacked. And so, the party had to discover where to go next – there was only one door remaining. It was locked, and no-one could pick the lock or bash it down!

Searching for secret doors was what they needed to do. They missed one but found the one down south. In they went and discovered a very large cavern split by a chasm with two bridges spanning it. Nymia, the tempest cleric, then discovered one of the bridges was trapped, by the simple method of using it and having it collapse under her!

As she tried to work out how to climb out of the pit, the other characters realised that a Nothic was watching from the shadows. I decided to have some fun by role-playing the Nothic as Kiefer Sutherland in Dark City.

Here’s a note: The nothic in this adventure communicates via telepathy (it did in Lost Mine as well). However, the Monster Manual version of Nothics aren’t telepathic! I think it’s something that got removed from their playtest version to the printed version; this little feature wasn’t caught for this adventure, but it fits so perfectly I’m very glad they left it in (and, with any luck, nothics will be telepathic in 5E-2024).

In previous playthroughs, I’ve often used the nothic purely as an adversary. This time around, it was more willing to talk – and accept bribes. You know how in our first session we had the question about whether you could cast purify food and drink on a PC to heal poison? Well, that yuan-ti PC, who still saw humanoids as food, was more than happy to bargain the bodies of the Redbrands they’d kill for safe passage. The nothic happily accepted and told them that the rest of the Redbrands were to the west.

Fighting the Redbrands

Cue a couple of fights. The first against some gambling Redbrands.

This is an encounter that changed from the original version in Lost Mine of Phandelver. 4 Redbrands became 2 Redbrands + 2 Bandits. It’s easier! I found this a good change. The Redbrands are described as intoxicated (another rule that didn’t make it out of the D&D Next playtest). In LMoP, they’re considered poisoned. No condition on them in The Shattered Obelisk. This battle easily went in the player’s favour.

The fight against the bugbears? Much less well. Especially after both the cleric and the fighter were subject to critical hits. (25 damage on the fighter in the first round!)

Yes, this was really a fight they shouldn’t have been in. Being only at three characters? Nah. The artificer created a fog cloud to allow the cleric to drag away the unconscious fighter, but another incredible roll from the bugbears knocked the cleric unconscious as well. The artificer fled – the bugbears never saw him, due to the fog and where he was placed in the combat.

Okay. Not a TPK, but close. What now?

Recovering from a Near TPK

I quickly determined that the bugbears would capture and interrogate the PCs. Which gave the yuan-ti artificer a chance to rescue them – assuming he got some support. For now, he needed sleep.

The next morning, he awoke to a couple of Redbrands being very angry with the innkeeper, and basically saying that he should allow guests from out of town. (Slightly unreasonable, I thought!) The innkeeper was very worried for his family, but the artificer calmed him down; explaining he had already rescued one family from the Redbrands, and that they’d soon be dealt with. Assuming that they could rescue his… associates.

That’s the point when Sildren arrived from his room in the inn. He volunteered to help – as one rescue deserves another – and soon enough the party of two tried recruiting Daran, the retired adventurer. He was too old but suggested that Sister Garaele might help. She did. (Hooray! We’d managed to include a bit more role-playing!). And so, the three returned to the hideout, the artificer leading them to the Redbrand prison from which they’d rescued the Dendrars, just in case.

Indeed, that’s where they were, with two bugbears interrogating them. This combat went a lot better. (The party having spell slots left made a difference!) After the first bugbear was dropped, the second surrendered. (I use Morale checks, based on Tom Moldvay’s 1981 edition of Basic D&D to help determine monster actions).

The bugbear went into the cage, the PCs came out. They learned a few details about the Spider from the bugbear, but naught of immediate use – it did not tell them where Cragmaw Castle was, for instance. It did tell them where the weakling Glassstaff was, though!

Facing the Glassstaff

The party went to confront the leader of the Redbrands, but the Glasstaff was alerted to their coming, and fled through a secret door. The party followed, with the satyr cleric in the lead. And when she came to a second secret door, a Perception roll of 20 meant it hardly slowed her down. They caught the Glasstaff in the room, as he fished something out of the cistern. (The yuan-ti was very disappointed – they’d searched everywhere else!)

The human fighter ran up and grabbed the Glassstaff, and the others began to try to knock him out. Unfortunately for the party, the Glasstaff has the ability to teleport twice as a bonus action (this is a revision to the stat block; the original was an evil mage with the misty step spell). And he used it to teleport to the top of the stairs and run for it, drinking a potion of invisibility as he did.

They found the empty vial, but not the Glassstaff. He had escaped – I wonder if he’ll return?

We ended the session with them looting the Glassstaff’s chambers, gaining a few clues in the process (but not the magic). The nothic was well fed, the bugbears decided to abandon the Redbrands to their fate, and we might find out next session what happens to the Redbrands.

A good split between combat and role-playing this session, and we also recovered from the near TPK (enhancing the story in the process). I look forward to our next session.