We played this session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, January 15, 2024, the first session after a long break.

Vel’rali was back, and Nymia’s player had chosen to create a new character – Killin, a NG earth genasi paladin (Oath of Ancients) following Mielikki. Syzoth and Jake the rogue henchman made up the rest of the group to rescue Simeon, Nymia, and the others.

So, they proceeded back to the goblin lair. They were able to completely bypass the main goblin room (where a few returning goblins were on watch) and make their way using the lift to the lower level. Hjoldak, the duergar spirit, met them there, still wanting Ruxithid gone. He advised them that most of the tunnels were still dangerous and took them through the safe path to the lair.

And there they fought Ruxithid and his shield guardian. Prepared they might be, but Ve’lrali foolishly used misty step to cross the chamber and expose his poorly-armoured self to the goblin. Who tried to stun him (unsuccessfully) and hit him (successfully) for significant damage. Killin engaged the shield guardian in melee, Syzoth threw cantrips at the goblin, and Jake looked for a place to hide – and found the prisoners as well!

Vel’rali sacrificed a turn getting to safety, while Syzoth used a magical gem to summon a fire elemental. Syzoth was surprised when the goblin leader took an Attack of Opportunity from the elemental to move into melee range with him! Meanwhile, Jake unlocked Simeon’s bonds and handed him his rapier. Simeon leapt into combat, running quickly to engage Ruxithid in melee.

Killin couldn’t get away from the shield guardian, but casting blade ward as a bonus action and having extra temporary hit points from the artificer’s construct, meant that she wasn’t taking significant real damage. Finally, the party took down Ruxithid, and the shield guardian deactivated.

Strange words echoed from the crystals in Ruxithid’s cranium – a strange set of orders. (In one of the weirdest religion checks ever, the success meant “You realise that the commands are from creatures pretending to be gods (paraphrased)”. Very odd.)

Nymia was dead, her skull cracked open by Ruxithid in his quest for “enhancement”. (This was agreed upon by her player, who thought – probably correctly – she’d do a better job as a paladin). The party helped three farmers from Phandalin who had been captured by the goblins back home.

But, before I forget, they also discovered notes showing the locations of three more shards the goblins sought!

Phandalin Tales

Back in Phandalin, they shared their information with Gwyn, (I still don’t know why Sister Garaele couldn’t have this knowledge. I’d prefer an existing character rather than introducing a brand new one while ignoring the rest!) She was quite interested in this lore and was able to give them pointers on what they might find. But overall, there she didn’t have much to impart.

As the sun set, the innkeeper’s wife came up to them, worried. Her son, Pip, had been playing in the eastern field and hadn’t returned. Could they find him?

Yes, they could – after two miles of trekking across the hills, where they found him observing some really odd creatures – small pyramids with pseudopods – that had fallen into a ruin. The party lowered themselves into the ruin and found it the old home of a famous dwarven paladin of Dumathoin. And while the small creatures seemed harmless, just bouncing about, when eventually Vel’rali got too close, they psychically attacked her and grabbed her, the pseudopods digging into her flesh!

This was quite a challenging fight. Didn’t seem that way, but these fleshy d4s had quite a few hit points and hit hard. Eventually the group was successful, and recovered the old paladin’s journal, which had some interesting notes about the first place the goblins were looking for a shard.

They returned Pip, much to the delight of the innkeeper’s wife and her husband. Pip was scolded for putting himself in danger.

The next morning, they encountered The Cow of Doom. (a.k.a. Daisy).

Tentacle, vomiting up psychic oozes, what’s not to love?

After the oozes were vanquished and the tentacles disappeared, Killin used speak with animals to learn that Daisy had eaten some clover that made her feel funny. Going to the spot, they found it was near where some goblins had rested – with one of the shards.

(I’d like to point out that at this point, Killin’s player has finished Baldur’s Gate 3 five times, with over 550 hours of play. Speak with animals will likely be in our campaigns a lot at this point!)

The party discussed the matter, and though their start was later than they wanted, started heading off to the first of the locations the goblins were interested in!

And that was it for this session. Pretty happy with how this one went – good role-playing and combat.