D&D 5E A playthrough of The Shattered Obelisk (spoilers)

[MerricB]

My group is playing through Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk on every Monday evening. Although I will hopefully going into more detail on my blog, I wanted to give a few short notes here for any interested in how each session went.

We are playing on Roll20 using D&D Beyond (Beyond20 integration). Skype for voice.

Two players are quite experienced, the third, playing a sorcerer, not so much. A NPC fighter accompanies the party, choosing well.

Party:

• Human Noble Fighter
• Yuan-Ti Artificer
• Satyr Tempest Cleric
• Tiefling Divine Soul Sorcerer

From this point forward, there lie spoilers! I will not be using spoiler text - you should already be aware from the title of the thread!

 

[MerricB]

Session 1 (Monday 11 September 2023).

* Party encountered the remnants of the goblin ambush. First major change of the adventure: the horses are ALIVE!!!!!

* The fighter spots the four goblins hiding in the bushes and calls out their positions to the party.

* Three goblins slain for minor wounds on the party's side. The remaining goblin flees.

* The tiefling leads the way along the goblin trail, enraged by their actions. He only has a +1 Perception, but he STILL notices both traps along the way. Success. (The Snare Perception DC has changed from 10 to 15).

* They encounter the goblins "keeping a lookout" outside the goblin cave - no surprise either side. Win battle with minor wounds. 1 hp? (A goblin boss has been added to the encounter).

* Inside the cave, they notice the wolves, and successfully tame them with food.

* To the west across the stream, they notice a corridor slanting upwards. The tiefling jumps over to investigate, and begins making her way up, only to be bitten and reduced to 0 hit points by a giant poisonous snake. The yuan ti revives her, and tries to make friends with the snake, but it saves and resists her blandishments. The party decide to keep moving up the stream. (The giant poisonous snake is a new addition).

* The fighter spots the skulking goblin on the walkway above, and the tiefling shoots it dead with a critical hit firebolt after winning initiative.

* No flood! (No alarm).

* The party come to the first bigger goblin fight, in the "dam" room. Three goblins and two wolves make for a tough battle, with the satyr being knocked unconscious and revived. (Two wolves have been added to the battle).

* The party came to the big boss battle against the bugbear, two goblin guards, and a tough wolf. Bugbears are really tough. The fighter has 18 AC, and Heavy Armour Mastery, but still goes down in a single hit from the bugbear. The rest of the party's healing is used in this fight, which is only narrowly won. (There is new text here indicating when Klarg runs from the fight - no-one else left - but he'll likely get stuck in the chimney!)

* The party came to the last room, where Sildar was held. The fighter went down (again) from a critical hit, but a few goblins are down and the goblin boss negotiates - and is pleased to find that Klarg is dead. The party get Sildar, and off they go to Phandalin. (An additional goblin boss is in this area).

Notes and Comments:
Running this adventure using a VTT rather than with theatre of the mind makes it very clear how cramped and unfun to play in the goblin caves are. For a group of four characters, the additional foes make the goblin caves far, far too tough. With six characters, lots of characters can't participate in battles!

Both the divine sorcerer and tempest cleric had thunderwave. Neither could get in a position to use it in any of the caves (save the last fight, and then they were out of spells!)

Funnily enough, I forgot about the fleeing goblin. Oh well - he was probably arguing with the goblins on guard as to whether he was a coward or not.

There is some nice new art. Sildar has art! So does Klarg!

Interaction of the Session:
Yuan-Ti player: "So, if I see live humanoids as food..."
DM: "Yes..."
Yuan-Ti player: "Can I cast purify food and drink on my fellow PCs to remove poison?"
DM: "..."

More next week, if I remember.

Longer Blog Post: Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, session 1 - Merric's Musings

Cheers,
Merric

 

[Parmandur]

Sounds like a good time.

 

[Clint_L]

Ummm…RAW, the character probably could use purify food and drink in that way: "All nonmagical food and drink within a 5-foot-radius sphere centered on a point of your choice within range is purified and rendered free of poison and disease."

Edit: I would definitely probably house rule against it, but given that the spell doesn't specify that the food (or drink - blood) has to be dead, you could make a case for it, and I can even imagine some scenarios where it comes into play. Like, if you try to poison a vampire by offering them a victim with drugged blood, could they use this spell to foil you? Edit: okay, vampires are immune to poison - I'll have to try harder.

Kudos to your player for a clever suggestion!

Where are the other rules lawyers? I expect this discussion to be the best kinds of dumb and I am here for it!

 

[pukunui]

Running this adventure using a VTT rather than with theatre of the mind makes it very clear how cramped and unfun to play in the goblin caves are. For a group of four characters, the additional foes make the goblin caves far, far too tough. With six characters, lots of characters can't participate in battles!

I don't recall the caves being too cramped, but then I haven't run LMoP since it was new. Would you recommend doubling the size (so each square is 10 feet instead of 5 feet)? I kind of like the idea that the goblins live in a cramped cave, but I can see how it would be an issue in actual play (like how D&D boats often end up being too large in order to make them less cramped for grid-based play).

 

[MerricB]

I don't recall the caves being too cramped, but then I haven't run LMoP since it was new. Would you recommend doubling the size (so each square is 10 feet instead of 5 feet)? I kind of like the idea that the goblins live in a cramped cave, but I can see how it would be an issue in actual play (like how D&D boats often end up being too large in order to make them less cramped for grid-based play).

Did you run with miniatures or with Theatre of the Mind? I did the latter when I first played it, and it was great.

This time... very noticeable. Imagine this with six PCs!

(It's also true that with the extra foes, the map becomes even more cramped. Those wolves weren't there in the original adventure).

 

[pukunui]

Did you run with miniatures or with Theatre of the Mind? I did the latter when I first played it, and it was great.

This time... very noticeable. Imagine this with six PCs!

It was nearly a decade ago, so I can't remember. I may have used minis. I seem to recall a similar bottleneck occurring in that spot, and I believe one of the players resolved the issue by climbing up onto the bridge so they could come at the goblins from that side passage.

 

[beta-ray]

Ummm…RAW, the character probably could use purify food and drink in that way: "All nonmagical food and drink within a 5-foot-radius sphere centered on a point of your choice within range is purified and rendered free of poison and disease."

Edit: I would definitely probably house rule against it, but given that the spell doesn't specify that the food (or drink - blood) has to be dead, you could make a case for it, and I can even imagine some scenarios where it comes into play. Like, if you try to poison a vampire by offering them a victim with drugged blood, could they use this spell to foil you? Edit: okay, vampires are immune to poison - I'll have to try harder.

Kudos to your player for a clever suggestion!

Where are the other rules lawyers? I expect this discussion to be the best kinds of dumb and I am here for it!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Given that goblins are small, It's reasonable that they would want their tunnels to be cramped, to restrict the mobility of medium foes.

 

[MerricB]

Session 2: September 18, 2023.

Talk to Sildar and learnt about what happened to Gundren. Also talked about a strange goblin with a distended head who wasn't part of the tribe. (First bit of foreshadowing of later events in The Shattered Obelisk).

Party arrive in Phandalin! Hooray!

First stop they deliver provisions to Elmina Barthen, paid 10 gp each, tells about mine, and dwarves camping. Tells about where to buy supplies. She didn't know about Cragmaw Castle. (Change here: Barthen is a young woman rather than a balding, middle-aged man).

Go to the Lionshield Coster with the rest of the goblin's loot; Linene Graywind was very happy to get her missing shipment and rewarded them. She also told them about trouble in town with the Redbrands. She advised avoiding the Sleeping Giant. She didn't know about Cragmaw Castle, but promised to inquire.

As it was getting dark, they headed to the Stonehill Inn.

Discussion of Yuan-Ti eating habits: "Alcohol makes the flesh a bit… spicy. I get… indigestion." "At least the room will be rat free." "Rats are little… gamey. Mice are… sweet."

The innkeeper was happy to put them up. His son, Pip, wondered if the Yuan Ti was a dragonborn.

Syzoth spoke to a couple of the patrons who were ignoring Nymia's singing - and found they were worried about the Redbrands and the bandit activity on the road. They alerted the party to how the Redbrands weren't bothering Halia Thornton at the Mining Exchange.

Some of the customers suggested an old adventurer in town might know where Cragmaw Castle was.

The next day, they went to meet the old adventurer Daran Edermath. Old Owl Well - Netheril tower, undead and strange diggings - reward; Boots of Striding and Springing. (Another change: Edermath is now a drow adventurer rather than human).

Go to Halia Thornton at the Mining Exchange. She tells the leader of the Redbrands is known as the Glasstaff and offers a reward for capturing him. She doesn't know of Cragmaw Castle, but will research it and add it to their reward.

The party decide to visit the manor at night. Creep up there once evening falls.

They enter the cellars. Syzoth investigates the barrels, Nymia listens to the door to the north and west, and discovers sounds to the west.

They attack resting Redbrands (change: Bandits (CR 1/8) instead of Redbrands (CR 1/2). Only Nymia took one hit.

Going through the door to the north, Nymia found the pit trap by falling into it (9 damage). She was still conscious - just. Time for some healing.

Syzoth rolled a 22 for Acrobatics and crossed the narrow ledge at the side of the pit, and put down a rope for Nymia to climb out.. Simeon rolled a barrel from the storeroom and tied another rope to it to climb into the pit, then used the other rope to climb out. Velrari considered leaping (8 Strength), then thought better of it.

Nymia tried removing the arms and armour from the skeletons in the next chamber (a Baldur's Gate 3 strategy!) but just triggered the attacks. And yes, she got hit for 8 damage by the first attack, then 3 by another attack. She had fun using a warhammer, though. (Originally 3 skeletons, now 6).

Simeon rolled a critical success while listening at the doors, and detected the Redbrands trying to hide in the chamber. He kicked open the door and we got several rounds of combat. He took minor wounds; the Redbrands failed to win. (Change: 3 Redbrands rather than 2. Which means the note about them hiding is nonsensical, since there isn't room!)

The group spoke to the prisoners - the Dendrar family - and learnt a little more about the Redbrands. Suggested they stay with Edermath who would be able to protect them, and escorted them out, intending to return in a couple of hours to continue the exploration of the area.

And that was all we had time for this evening! (170 XP each - I might have given more for role-playing, but there'll be enough XP from combat coming up, and I don't want to level characters too quickly).

DM's Decision of the Day
The NPCs are now mistaking Syzoth as a Dragonborn rather than a Yuan Ti. (He has scales!)

Changes?
I'm not really a fan of a retired drow adventurer who is a member of the Order of the Gauntlet and has adventured much in the Sword Coast. Cause, you know, sunlight. Sigh. Oh well. (A comment from a player on how the newly female Barthen is from a JRPG...)

For the first time, we get an encounter where the monsters got easier! But the other two fights this session were harder - though not that hard for the party. Even if the room size now doesn't allow the Redbrands to all hide against the walls!

I'll put up an extended post on my blog tomorrow.

Cheers,
Merric