Our eighth session of The Shattered Obelisk took place on Monday, November 20, 2023. We’d had another week break as a player was moving. At the time I thought we were back for an extended run. Little did I know!
A reminder of the party members at this point:
- Simeon, human fighter
- Nymia, satyr tempest cleric
- Syzoth, yuan-ti artificer
- Vel’rari, tiefling sorcerer
With the Lost Mine and the Spider dealt with, the party returned to Phandalin to deal with loose ends. This was a good opportunity to deepen the player’s links to the NPCs. More than the adventure-as-written, which immediately gets you into the new adventure with a goblin raid. Plus, there was still content from Lost Mine to play!
So, various NPCs offered congratulations on reopening Wave Echo Cave – especially Halia Thornton and Harbin Wester, who saw the business opportunities. Sister Garaele was interested in what they could tell her about the Forge of Spells. They visited Elmina Barthen to buy supplies, gaining a few spell scrolls she’d picked up from a travelling cleric, and learned that her brother (a miner) was looking for work and would ask the Rockseeker brothers.
Nymia, the satyr of the group, decided she wanted horseshoes (goat shoes?) I idly wondered if a satyr with disadvantage for wearing medium armour would then get double disadvantage on stealth for metal horseshoes attached to their hooves. (Not seriously, but it provoked a few rather annoyed people on twitter. My sense of humour does that at times).
Then we had the funeral of Tharden, the Rockseeker brother murdered by the Spider. It was not that well-attended – Harbin, Sister Garaele, and Sildar were all there, helping Gundren and Nundro (who was using a cane) say farewell to their brother.
All of these interactions flowed naturally from material in the adventure. They’re not suggested by the adventure, but they made sense to me. I’m typically weak at including such encounters when running published adventures. I concentrate on the plot, not on side interactions – which is why my campaigns typically run a lot shorter than others. But this session, which was wrapping up loose ends, felt like a great time to include them.
To Owl Tree Well!
With everything in town now dealt with, the party headed out to Owl Tree Well, to find out what the reports of undead activity (related by Daran Edermath) were about.
One random encounter on the journey was with a group of Cragmaw Goblins. According to the adventure text, I should reroll this as the Cragmaw Goblins had been dealt with. Instead, I changed it to a group of Cragmaw goblins trying to start a new life… as marauders on the road. New life, the same as the old! The party spotted them in advance and instead of immediately fighting, they deceived them into thinking they were selling subscriptions to knives. Alas for the party (or the goblins, depending on your point of view), the goblins were poorer than the party expected and couldn’t afford even the basic subscription, though the goblins thought a knife subscription offer was awesome. And with the goblins now even more fired up to go marauding and gather some sweet, sweet coin, the party felt there was no choice but to kill them – a battle that left only a few goblins alive and fleeing.
They then arrived at the town of Owl Tree Well, where the stench of unwashed zombies was soon apparent. Stealth was attempted and was not achieved (both Simeon and Nymia are terrible at stealth). The resulting battle lasted a single round, mainly because Nymia turned undead successfully. But also because a Red Wizard of Thay arrived, demanding to know what was going on and why his zombies were fleeing!
Incredibly, the situation didn’t turn hostile! He was reasonable, the party was reasonable, and some glorious interactions ensued. (“Are you using these zombies for evil?” “I’m using them for commerce!”) He realised they’d dealt with the marauders at Wyvern Tor, which had made his life easier, and quizzed them about Agatha the Banshee, learning what sort of gift she wanted. For this, he rewarded them with a spell scroll – darkness.
The party agreed that he needed his zombies for defense, and the best way for travellers not to be hurt is to not go off the beaten path to his tower and engage the zombies!
With this, the party had enough information to end the quest, and the next time they saw Daran, they’d tell him what they found.
Another Visit to Thundertree
That night, a random wolf attack almost slew the tiefling, but good spell use and sword play managed to save him. (Simeon rolled poorly for initiative and didn’t wake up until it was over).
They encountered another random encounter as they travelled to Thundertree: an ogre standing in a stream, looking puzzled. He’d been given instructions, but he couldn’t remember what they were. (In fact, he’d been hired by the Cragmaw goblin survivors to deal with the party). This led to a brilliant interaction that ended with Nymia persuading him to make money by transporting people over the water, with the party being his first customers.
In Thundertree, the party gained a better idea of the lie of the land from the druid, including where the dragon was and the cultists. (Syzoth wanted to get some of the dragon’s poison glands to brew something unspeakable). Twig blights ambushed them as they moved towards the east side of town, but they were easily dispatched.
But as they opened the door to the barracks, grey-faced zombies began to rise from the floor!
At this point, we had internet connection issues and left it on a cliff-hanger until our next session. It’d been a very enjoyable session, and I hated seeing it cut short. But, in our next session, we’d finish off the last of the Lost Mine of Phandelver material and be able to start the new plotline of The Shattered Obelisk thereafter.