We played our eleventh session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, December 18, 2023.

During our last session, the group had fared very poorly in their first expedition into Zorzula’s Rest (part of Chapter 5). Simeon, the fighter of the group, had been captured. And for this session, one of our players couldn’t make it. I typically play Simeon as an NPC, so that just left us with Nymia (satyr tempest cleric) and Syzoth (yuan-ti alchemist).

Going back into the dungeon with only two characters? Madness! So, we didn’t do that. We created a couple of henchmen and had each player control two characters. Welcome a new rogue (Jake) and a fighter (Aria). In story, they went back to Phandalin and found the two adventurers in the tavern, before trekking back to Zorzula’s Rest.

This time, they entered the stronghold through a vent above it which allowed steam to escape from a hot spring below. Dwarves being somewhat good at building, had constructed Zorzula’s Rest so the hot spring would warm their bathing chamber. Of the three options, this proved to be the safest one, allowing entry without alerting any of the goblins. (In what may become a recurring theme, I had difficulty understanding how the entry through the vent worked, initially assuming it was swimming underwater and emerging in the baths.)

Choosing not to initially re-enter the main chamber, they discovered a broken lift in the bunkroom and a few sleeping goblins. The approach to surprise the goblins was straight out of a comedy movie – the rogue moves up very quietly towards the sleeping goblins, then knocks something over, which knocks something else over, and stands there in a panic as the goblins all awake!

I was using the adventure as written. To surprise the sleeping goblins, the rogue needed to roll a 17. Sleeping goblins with a passive Perception score of 12. I’m guessing the passive Perception was given advantage (thus, a +5) because there were multiple goblins. I actually like that. I’ll have to remember the technique, although I really wish the DC was explained in the text.

Two rounds (13 minutes) later, the party were victorious. The lift was definitely broken, and the artificer determined he’d need time to fix it, and he wanted to deal with the other monsters on the level first. (This is one adventure where having an artificer has been very advantageous!)

It was now time to return to the main hall, where they faced the remaining psi-goblins. They were much better prepared for the incapacitating blasts of the leaders, and due to the previous session’s battle, there weren’t as many to deal with – in fact, just a lone Goblin Psi Commander, the others being on patrol or otherwise occupied. (Or dead). Two rounds later they were victorious, although they’d taken some damage in the process.

The Old Duergar

That allowed them to finally reach the bedroom (the one the pantry led to). There was a jar there that murmured. It held the soul of one of the duergar that once inhabited the outpost before it was overrun by mind-flayers. The curious Nymia was more than happy to free the soul, which manifested a body in spirit form.

It’s role-playing! Look! The players are getting to talk! In a dungeon!

I’ll note at this point that several of the goblins are written so they can be negotiated with. That just requires a party who want to talk to them, rather than punish them for all the chaos and grief they’ve caused. That does not include this party.

The duergar spirit introduced himself as Hjoldak, and told the party about the mind flayer invasion and the recent actions of the goblin leader, who had been visiting Hjoldak’s chambers and poring over his pages. (Not pouring). The leader was definitely odd – and rude. Why, he hadn’t greeted the trapped duergar even once! But the leader was certainly obsessed with something, and what it was lay deeper in the mine.

Returning to the bunkroom, another door, barricaded closed by the goblins, led to an old duergar forge staffed by undead duergar who didn’t like them much. And a lot of buckets hanging from a rail, that could potentially take them into the mine. After dealing with the undead duergar, who, unlike Hjoldak, were not friendly, the artificer decided that repairing the lift would be better than the bucket route down. So that’s what the party did.

Aside: How do the goblins get down?

This dungeon has two levels. There are two ways of getting down – a broken elevator and the buckets. The goblins have blocked the way to the bucket route, so the only way they can descend is in the broken elevator. Except the text doesn’t give any notes about climbing up and down the shaft; it’s all based on repairing the elevator. Which, obviously, is broken. So how do the goblins move around the mine?

The Lower Level

Now that the lift was repaired, they descended to the mine proper. Impressively, they chose a path through the mine that avoided most of the monsters. Hooray! Still a few undead to deal with. And a fiendish auger – an animated mining tool that doesn’t make that much sense but looks good. It got one good hit in before it perished.

Finally, they arrived at the pathway to the Big Boss’s lair. A few undead guarded it, but half of them would listen to reason – or at least to the reason of Hjoldak. And the good undead pushed the bad undead into the lava, allowing the party a way forward.

People who have read the module might wonder why this fight was so easy – the players, in fact, did not roll dice at all! It was a pacing issue; we were getting towards time with only the big Boss Fight to come, so it was easier to omit it. It also allowed me to demonstrate a reward for being kind to Hjoldak; having positive reinforcement of good play is something that often doesn’t happen enough.

A walkway over blue lava (which the players kept mistaking for water on the VTT map) led to a pyramid and a lift down to the Big Boss’s sanctuary. It was time to brave the lair of Ruxithid, psionic goblin extraordinare!

They began to negotiate with the goblin leader, but it soon became clear that he was completely unbalanced, and only interested in experimenting on the party and making them into his minions. The party attacked, but the combat did not go well. He had a shield guardian, and the party were ill-prepared for it. They couldn’t reach Ruxithid, and the shield guardian hit harder than they did. Soon, both Nymia and Aria were unconscious. Syzoth cast a fog cloud spell to cover his retreat and scurried back to the lift with Jake, both ascending out of danger.

It had been very close to a TPK. If Syzoth had not escaped, the only survivor of the party would have been Vel’rali, simply by virtue of not turning up for the session!

But for now, Syzoth and Jake limped back to town to reconnect with Vel’rali and recruit new party members.

I guess now they have to rescue THREE characters on their next expedition!