We played our 14^th session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, January 29, 2024. This continued their play through Chapter 6, as they moved into the Crypt of the Talrund.

We resumed play with the characters examining the puzzle door that led to the crypt underneath Talhundereth. It’s a nice puzzle, completely derailed by three features: One, it’s unclear. Two: It needs art. Three: The text says that a DC 13 Intelligence (Arcana or Investigation) solves the puzzle.

Sigh.

Incredibly, my players worked out the correct solution (without rolling) despite the fact I couldn’t visualise it properly and gave them incredibly imprecise descriptions – it was only after they solved it that I realised how it was meant to work. Which is why ACTUAL ARTWORK OF THE PUZZLE would have been great. (If you can afford poor artwork for the damaged buildings in Phandalin, you can afford artwork for the puzzle).

Into the Crypt

The Crypt was desecrated (by the old mind flayer invasion) and was full of “hauntings” that felt like mind flayer attacks. Not quite sure what to make of this; I ended up explicitly telling the players what they were, and that if they could cleanse the place, the hauntings would stop. I think the DM needs to make some intervention of that sort, or it’s just a bunch of unexplained phenomena.

The first chamber they entered had four crypt guardians (use revenant stat blocks) with the special abilities that they treated every living intruder in the tomb as being their vengeance target. Every single one. Revenants do a lot of damage normally – to do it to EVERY character?

Simeon the fighter, who has toughness and heavy armour mastery (near 90 hp), and temporary hit points from the artificer, was taken down in a SINGLE ROUND.

Sigh.

That we managed to win this combat shows how much the temporary hit points from the construct helped, and that Vel’rali was able to keep healing word or otherwise heal the downed party members. The artificer used entangle successfully as well. Both Simeon and Jake (the rogue) were knocked unconscious, and Killin (the paladin) was under 20 hp by the end of the fight. (Vel’rali won initiative and immediately scarpered! Smart!)

This was one of the longest combats we’d had: 6 rounds and 40 minutes. We took a short rest after.

Preparation Rooms and Water Hydrant

Going down a corridor that gave them the eerie feeling that mind flayers were at that very moment attacking Phandalin, they investigated side doors to find rooms where the dwarven priests once prepared the corpses of the faithful for burial. Of most note were the complete pieces for a suit of plate armour, which Simeon snaffled.

They then found a hydra and water weird in a pool where the floor had collapsed. It’s a nice little set-up for the encounter, with the water weird and hydra playing with each other. Vel’rali tried to use infernal to talk to the two creatures, but the hydra only saw him as dinner, so we got another combat.

The water weird was completely ineffective. The hydra less so, but the party were very effective against it! (2 rounds, 12 minutes).

Remnants of Old Battles

The group found the skull of a mind flayer, then a decapitated skeleton. By clearing both away and repairing a damaged door (it helps having an artificer in the group), they were able to dispel two more of the haunts. (Unbeknownst to them, killing the water creatures had cleared the initial haunt they’d experienced).

They also found a clay golem which gave Syzoth – whose player is very experienced – pause. However, he recognised that there was only a five-foot-wide gap in the wall, and that if the party could trap it there, it would have disadvantage on its attack rolls.

Even so, it was a risk – but one that paid off, with the party killing the clay golem in 2 rounds before it could land a successful blow. Syzoth was very relieved.

The golem guarded nothing but more crypts of little value. They returned and tried a more central passageway.

The Follower of Dumathoin

There’s a friendly NPC in the dungeon! An elderly svirfneblin, who was young when he entered the tomb (but before he encountered some angry ghosts). He was very happy to find people to talk to, and he let them know about the great emerald he suspected was hidden here. If the party found it, he would appreciate a chip of it, so he could show proof of its existence to other followers of Dumathoin, the dwarven god of secrets.

He gave warnings and advice about the other areas of the crypt, as well as where the ghosts were. He also revealed that they needed to pull two levers simultaneously to reveal the hidden areas of the tomb. One of the levers was in the room he was investigating, the other somewhere else!

They wished him well and promised to return.

Revenge of the Dwarves

More crypts led to dwarven skeletons – lots of them. They weren’t much of a threat, dying swiftly to spells and swords.

The ghosts? The party found their lair, cast protection from evil and good on the paladin and fighter, and charged in.

One of the ghosts got an opportunity to use frightful presence, of which only the sorcerer was afraid (failing the save by 1). No other ghost got an action before all were cut down in the second round.

In the ghosts’ chamber, they found the second lever. And there was a suspicious blank wall where all the other walls were carved with reliefs!

It was time to pull the levers! But as it was getting late, we’d handle that next week.

Merric’s Notes

It was an okay session, but I’m not as much in love with it as with the exploration of the temple above. It felt very combat-heavy – though it was nice to have some role-playing as well – and the “puzzles” of purifying the tomb weren’t all that great, especially as the benefits for the purifications generally required you to defeat the threats first before the purification came into benefit!

A few nice ideas, but not that enthralling.