We ran this session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, February 12, 2024.
The party began the session at the great crossroads at the heart of Gibbet Crossing, after killing the lone alpha grick that was there. Listening carefully, they heard rustling sounds to the west. My party is very much of the mind that you shouldn’t leave monsters to creep up on them, so they investigated, and thus discovered all the regular gricks that would have come to aid the alpha grick if it had lived long enough to summon them.
It’s a well-described chamber, with slimy mucus glinting in various pockets. I appreciate that. I’m not so sure the players did.
The gricks were outmatched, and perished swiftly (3 rounds), especially after Simeon decided to roll back-to-back critical hits.
The Other Entrance
The far side of this chamber, once a mine, held a door that led into a north-south corridor. I’m not entirely sure the geometry of this outpost makes sense. Generally, you don’t enclose a mine in corridors. Especially when it isn’t a vertical mine.
The players headed north, towards the other entrance – the one to the surface. This group of rooms was also the duergar workshop where once upon a time, they crafted metal cages that they sold to other races of the Underdark. A lot of it was now empty, with only remnants of the lives that were lived here.
The party discovered another form of remnant in the workshop, however: More feral ashenwights (which I kept calling ashenwrights), ghostly spectres still hammering on imaginary bars of metal. They did not appreciate being disturbed, and moved to attack. Simeon and Killin took the lead, with Killin engaging the first group and Simeon moving to stop the last ashenwights from getting to the casters.
The encounter didn’t take long: 3 rounds (17 minutes).
They examined a folding cage – Syzoth, as an artificer, was fascinated by its construction. In another chamber, they discovered a lantern of revealing and an illustrated book about ropers. Killin remarked that it would have been useful earlier. One nice thing is that the book can be discovered before the roper attack: this dungeon has multiple entrances and loops.
Opening the southern door brought them back to the main crossroads.
Chains and Chuuls
Going back to the north-south passageway in the west, the party now headed south and came to a prison still holding its jailer – a chain devil. The devil was chatty, attempting to lure the party into a false sense of security, but the party were having none of it. Especially after they noticed all the cages with spikes pointing inwards in the room.
The combat was short – the chain devil did try to capture the party and throw them into the cages, but the party objected strenuously. With force. Two rounds later, it was all over. (12 minutes).
The party now came to the flooded section of the complex, where they had to wade through up to two feet of murky water. For once, no short characters (halflings or gnomes) were in the party, so it wasn’t too much of a burden.
More of a burden were the room of chuuls the party found. Vel’rali made the combat a lot easier with a pair of fireball spells. (3 rounds, 13 minutes).
Throughout this part of the dungeon, they were finding clues to its old purpose as a set of negotiating chambers and quarters for several races of the underdark: duergar, svirfneblin, and drow. I very much appreciate these touches.
Also of note: this adventure has some information that is given out not based on a roll, but on whether a character is proficient in a skill. This is great!
Lapsed Servant of Lolth
Heading south, they ascended from the water into a chamber where a lone yochlol lived, having been summoned and then forgotten about. It rather liked the solitude, doing its rituals with no interference. It did not appreciate the party’s entrance, and attacked them.
A mistake. It was swiftly cornered and dispatched.
Syzoth didn’t like that both a demon and a devil were in the same dungeon and hadn’t dealt with each other. This does make sense within the ecology of the dungeon, though I guess both don’t need food?
Exploring the various drow rooms, they found various notes, including a word in Terran that they couldn’t understand. They wondered if they could pronounce it anyway, but I pointed out how there are several languages that use the Roman alphabet that have completely different sounds. Being familiar with the alphabet doesn’t really allow you to pronounce words correctly. Especially if they’re magical.
Eastwards!
The party had now explored most of the north, south, and west of Gibbet Crossing. What lay east?
Well, north east was the tunnel they entered from, and the xorn and earth elemental investigating what Syzoth believed was a Daern’s Instant Fortress. But southeast? More flooded corridors, and a room where a few grimlocks were accompanied by two basilisks.
The grimlocks were not appreciative of the party’s intrusion, and combat swiftly followed, although movement was slowed by the water. Simeon used his action surge, understanding that leaving basilisks alive was a poor idea. Jake critted one with a bow shot, and Vel’rali threw in a shatter spell for good measure – something the blind grimlocks did not enjoy!
It was over quickly: two rounds (10 minutes).
At this point, the party had reached the final part of the dungeon – and the chapter – but we were out of time. I’m enjoying this dungeon a lot more than the crypt. Good environmental touches, and an interesting set of creatures to fight or negotiate with. I’d expected to finish it this session, but I guess we’ll finish Chapter 6 and move on to Chapter 7 next time.