We played our fourth session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, October 2, 2023. (Yes, I’m behind. I know, I know. Less behind than with Shadow of the Dragon Queen!).

The heroes began the session talking with Sildar and Sister Garaele. Remember, in the last session, Sildar and Garaele had helped rescue most of the party from the Redbrands! It was time for me to drop a few rumours and missions, and this whs where I introduced Garaele’s quest: She was researching ancient magic and was seeking a lost spellbook. The party agreed to visit the spirit of a local elf – now a banshee – and see what she knew. Meanwhile, Sister Garaele would research Cragmaw Castle and see if she could find it.

Sildar was eager to have the party find his dwarven friend, Gundren, and went looking for more information himself; anything that would provide a clue as to where Cragmaw Castle was. He also informed them that the Townmaster, Harbin, was offering a reward to any who defeated the bandits in Wyvern Tor. It was time to do some wilderness adventuring.

They set off towards Conybery, bearing a gift for the banshee, hoping she’d be able to help Sister Garaele. Dice were rolled several times for the journey, and a random encounter was indicated: Hobgoblins!

Here’s an image of the early stages of the battle. I was using icons to indicate which hobgoblins had sword & shield out, and which ones had their bow out. A grenade was bow, a fist was sword & shield. There are probably more appropriate token icons in Roll20, but I haven’t gone and investigated yet. You can see that the encounter took place on a fairly clear part of terrain. Nymia (Satyr Tempest Cleric) is in front, Simeon (Fighter) is in the middle already in melee, and Syzoth (Alchemist) brings up the rear. (The tiefling? Even further behind).

During the battle, one hobgoblin critically hit the Satyr for 17 damage! “I’m down!” she cried. This puzzled the Alchemist: “Already? That was the first time you were hit!” The Satyr: “Oh sorry – forgot I was level 3!” It’s the little things that bring so much enjoyment to our sessions!

Upon defeating the hobgoblins, the party discovered they had a bounty notice for Simeon – with a bounty of 25 gold pieces. Syzoth, our Yuan-Ti, was interested in handing Simeon in. Alas, if they only knew where Cragmaw Castle was so they could collect the bounty! (5 rounds, 24 minutes)

“Why did the artist only picture Simeon?” “Obviously the sketch artist only knew how to draw human – rather than people with scales or horns!”

The party reached Conybery and then went to the lair of Agatha the Banshee. Negotiating with her went smoothly (incredibly, the group just flattered her and didn’t insult her – in stark contrast to how they deal with most other groups!) Sister Garaele would be pleased: they learnt something about the spellbook. Not everything, but enough to give her further clues on where to look.

Because they were in the area, they decided to check out Wyvern Tor, which the Townmaster had been so worried about.

Now, they went south to Wyvern Tor, where they found a cave hideout! There, they tried sneaking up on a bugbear guard. This is not a naturally sneaky party! (totals of 3, 9, 6, 0). So, we were into a battle, but the bugbear didn’t last that long. (3 rounds, 5 minutes.)

They went to enter the cave. Oh, look! It’s an ogre!

Bugbears, an ogre, and an orc against a 3rd level party! Sounds a bit challenging! Simeon and Nymia took the lead.

I was expecting this to be very, very challenging. It was at this time, that the alchemist introduced me to his construct. It sat there and helped bolster the characters – giving each 1d6+4 temporary hit points at the beginning of each turn. Although this is incredibly powerful, it’s balanced by it being his only really great ability. (So far, I’ve not noticed him do anything nearly as effective). And he kept rolling well during this combat; it never gave fewer than nine temporary hit points.

Which was just as well for Simeon, as he was critically hit by the Ogre. The yuan-ti’s construct kept him alive. The ogre and orc soon fell. Ogres are great fun to fight – they hit hard, but have a horrible AC, so you can inflict a lot of damage back.

The remaining bugbears surrendered. Alas, they did not know where Cragmaw Castle was, but a strange goblin had visited and drawn a picture of a goblin with a crystal in its head! (This is foreshadowing for later in the adventure. Not particularly great foreshadowing, mind you). (4 rounds, 20 minutes).

They let the bugbears go. Just as long as they went far away and didn’t prey on people here. Somewhere far to the north, like around Luskan. (Because causing trouble for the Hosttower is always fun).

Back to Phandalin, but on the way, a goblin ambush!

As you can see, I’ve been happily acquiring a nice selection of battlemaps on Roll20, which I use in addition to those provided in the official Roll20 conversion of The Shattered Obelisk. Yes, I’ve paid for them. The slightly blurred goblins are on the GM layer and are still hidden from the party.

Nymia won initiative and threw a shatter spell at the goblins she could see in the bush. And picked up the other two goblins in the blast. You’ve got to love it!

When the goblin boss was the only one left (he’d run and successfully hidden), he surrendered. The party would only accept his surrender if he told them where Cragmaw Castle was. Amazingly, he knew! (2 rounds, 9 minutes).

The party returned to Phandalin to report their successes to Sildar, Garaele and the townmaster. They got their rewards (100 gp and 3 potions of healing).

Next session: Cragmaw Castle!

This is one of my favourite sections of the adventure – it can go in so many ways. As it turned out, they got the random encounter with the Cragmaw goblins and were able to negotiate with the one survivor for the location. In other playthroughs, the parties I’ve run have used other means. I’ve never had the hobgoblin bounty hunter encounter before – that was a lot of fun.