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A playthrough of The Shattered Obelisk (spoilers)
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 9252527" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p><strong>Session 13 - Monday, January 22, 2024.</strong></p><p>This was an interesting session. One of our players (Vel'rari) had lost his voice. So he communicated to us throughout the entire session with posts on Roll20 chat. While we talked on skype. Worked surprisingly well.</p><p></p><p>I'm just going to mention this here: I keep forgetting the goblins kidnapped townsfolk. The party had rescued a few in the last chapter, and it's mentioned at the top of Chapter 6, which we were now playing. Upon review of the adventure, I've discovered why: <em><strong>It is never mentioned in the investigation in Chapter 5. Only once the players reach Zorzula's Rest does the adventure start talking about kidnapped villagers and not in information presented to the players</strong></em><strong>.</strong></p><p></p><p>It's mentioned in the overview of the entire adventure that the goblins have kidnapped villagers, but somehow once we get to Chapter 5, all the villagers care about is the damage to the town the goblins caused. (One villager during the abuse of the townmaster mentions his missing wife, but that's it). </p><p></p><p>This is such incompetence in adventure writing and editing.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Back to the Wilderness, Briefly</em></strong></p><p>The players decided to travel to the first of the locations marked on the goblins' maps: Talhundereth. The adventure does not update the wilderness encounter tables despite the significant distances involved (and with the original tables now being obsolete). I considered using <em>Uncharted Journeys</em>, but eventually I just hand-waved away the travel and took the characters straight to the dwarven temple.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Entering Talhundereth</em></strong></p><p>Despite my problems with previous elements of the adventure and its structure, Talhundereth is pretty neat. My players were rather taken with a number of its encounters. Making their way into a wide passageway ending at pair of double doors, one of which was ajar, they discovered several branching passageways and a great staircase, twenty feet wide, leading down. Statues of long-forgotten dwarves flanked its landings, and of course the players thought they might be animate. For once, they weren't!</p><p></p><p>Heading to the first of the eastern doors, they reached an old sparring room. As they investigated the old weapons and armour, three of the suits of armour animated and attacked! (They were surprised by this - as opposed to the non-animating statues). It didn't take them that long to deal with them - 2 rounds, 13 minutes - but shortly after the suits lay in ruins, Syzoth the artificer realised what they were: Sparring partners!</p><p></p><p>This was nice.</p><p></p><p>Into the training master's quarters, and this time it was a special treasure: a greataxe whose shaft was actually an <em>immovable rod</em>. Once again, my players - especially the artificer - were charmed. Such a lovely touch.</p><p></p><p>The ancient armoury was looted, but a wight and six dust mephits still lurked here. Dust mephits might be in the Basic Rules, but they're not used that often, and the players were very happy to discover they were vulnerable to fire damage. (It makes sense!) The battle took slightly longer - 3 rounds, 21 minutes - and was a bit challenging with the mephits occasionally blinding party members. One or two had to check spell descriptions to see if it say "a creature you can see".</p><p></p><p>The final area in this branch of the dungeon was a locked vault. After removing the dust, the rogue (the artificer's henchman) was able to open it and discover quite a large hoard of unlooted treasure! This was a great surprise - we're quite used to poor rewards in WotC adventures.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Other Inhabitants</em></strong></p><p>The back of the vault had collapsed, revealing a very narrow passageway to another section of the temple. No-one was small enough to go through, that was, until the artificer <em>reduced</em> the rogue in size and allowed him to scout... an old bedroom. He could also hear conversation from a nearby room, but knowing the danger he was in, he quickly returned to the others, and they decided to continue exploring elsewhere.</p><p></p><p>Elsewhere meant west of the main staircase. They shortly came to a large area of which the main features were a blood-soaked chair and the bones of a goat. </p><p></p><p>Unusual, they thought.</p><p></p><p>Checking the other doors from this chamber, they discovered several bedrooms, one of which was inhabited, by a human horribly mutated. That mutate attacked the party, babbling about the Far Realm and about a stone that disgorged young. The mutate was accompanied by one of the small fleshy pyramids they'd fought earlier in Phandalin. It was a fairly simple battle (2 rounds, 8 minutes), and the mutate and his companion were dead by the end of it. There was nothing in his chamber that gave a clue to his identity.</p><p></p><p>Heading south, they came to a ruined chamber where once mind flayers and dwarves had fought. The image of a victorious dwarf beckoned them to the west, but it was a lure by a new creature known as an intellect snare. I like this creature, and the lure was nicely thought out. It tried to eat Syzoth, but the party objected. (3 rounds, 12 minutes).</p><p></p><p>Vel'rari's final <em>guiding bolt</em> with an attack roll of 22 for 22 damage was a nice touch!</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Other Explorers</em></strong></p><p>Investigation of a kitchen and pantry led to the discovery of a secret door, which slid up to reveal a pair of drow poring over old books.</p><p></p><p>In the resulting battle... no wait, they actually talked to each other. (I really would have liked to know if the drow had a patron deity at this point, since the party did make a point of asking them if they worshipped Lolth). They were neutral guards of the Henlifel family, whose father had joined some of the crazed cultists that were living there. They would very much appreciate help getting him away from the cultists.</p><p></p><p>Just on an information presentation note: there are two rooms here, T14 and T15. Half of the information you need to run the encounter is in each room. Except my players entered T15, so I wasn't referring back to T14 during the negotiation. While you may write your adventure in a linear form, <em>it won't be run that way, </em>and DMs are concentrating on running the session and not trying to look for other places information might be stored, even if they've read it before.</p><p></p><p>The drow have an inferiority complex, believing the cultists too strong, so they didn't want to rescue their father themselves or accompany the party. (The adventure didn't say they have an inferiority complex, but I've seen their statblocks. They're not weak!)</p><p></p><p>I happily ignored this, and the drow ordered their retainers to stay behind while they accompanied the party and led them to the cultists.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Cult of the Obelisk</em></strong></p><p>Another mutate and four of the gemmules - the fleshy pyramids - were defacing a statue and barring the party's way onwards. The battle didn't take too long (2 rounds, 12 minutes) after Vel'rari started by <em>fireballing</em> the foes.</p><p></p><p>The next chamber held the main body of cultists. And, guess what, the drow elves' father was their leader! He lured them in, and the cultists attacked as the party looked on. It wasn't great for the drow, and Vel'rari was forced to step in and heal the one who took the most damage.</p><p></p><p>But with this ambush, the cultists had shown their hand and were soon slain - except for the drow elves' father, who Simeon carefully rendered unconscious. (3 rounds, 16 minutes). The drow rewarded the party with a <em>periapt of health</em>, and took their leave of the group, taking their father to a place where he could be cured of his dangerous obsessions. Probably.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>An Obelisk Shard</em></strong></p><p>The party discovered a puzzle door they couldn't unlock on their way to the point of their expedition: another obsidian shard. </p><p></p><p>They finally got to see what all the gemmules would become if allowed to mature: an encephalon cluster, which was guarding the shard. Looking a lot like a giant brain or lots of eggs stuck together - I'd really like a text description rather than relying on images - this was a CR 10 foe. It started the battle by spawning a lone gemmule near them. Three rounds later (11 minutes), it was dead. It has some nice attacks and effects, but the party were too much for it.</p><p></p><p>They retrieved the shard with some care. It was quite heavy, and the artificer took possession of it.</p><p></p><p>With that, it was quite late in the evening, and we finished for the night. Most of the temple was explored, but the locked puzzle door deserved further investigation!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 9252527, member: 3586"] [B]Session 13 - Monday, January 22, 2024.[/B] This was an interesting session. One of our players (Vel'rari) had lost his voice. So he communicated to us throughout the entire session with posts on Roll20 chat. While we talked on skype. Worked surprisingly well. I'm just going to mention this here: I keep forgetting the goblins kidnapped townsfolk. The party had rescued a few in the last chapter, and it's mentioned at the top of Chapter 6, which we were now playing. Upon review of the adventure, I've discovered why: [I][B]It is never mentioned in the investigation in Chapter 5. Only once the players reach Zorzula's Rest does the adventure start talking about kidnapped villagers and not in information presented to the players[/B][/I][B].[/B] It's mentioned in the overview of the entire adventure that the goblins have kidnapped villagers, but somehow once we get to Chapter 5, all the villagers care about is the damage to the town the goblins caused. (One villager during the abuse of the townmaster mentions his missing wife, but that's it). This is such incompetence in adventure writing and editing. [B][I]Back to the Wilderness, Briefly[/I][/B] The players decided to travel to the first of the locations marked on the goblins' maps: Talhundereth. The adventure does not update the wilderness encounter tables despite the significant distances involved (and with the original tables now being obsolete). I considered using [I]Uncharted Journeys[/I], but eventually I just hand-waved away the travel and took the characters straight to the dwarven temple. [B][I]Entering Talhundereth[/I][/B] Despite my problems with previous elements of the adventure and its structure, Talhundereth is pretty neat. My players were rather taken with a number of its encounters. Making their way into a wide passageway ending at pair of double doors, one of which was ajar, they discovered several branching passageways and a great staircase, twenty feet wide, leading down. Statues of long-forgotten dwarves flanked its landings, and of course the players thought they might be animate. For once, they weren't! Heading to the first of the eastern doors, they reached an old sparring room. As they investigated the old weapons and armour, three of the suits of armour animated and attacked! (They were surprised by this - as opposed to the non-animating statues). It didn't take them that long to deal with them - 2 rounds, 13 minutes - but shortly after the suits lay in ruins, Syzoth the artificer realised what they were: Sparring partners! This was nice. Into the training master's quarters, and this time it was a special treasure: a greataxe whose shaft was actually an [I]immovable rod[/I]. Once again, my players - especially the artificer - were charmed. Such a lovely touch. The ancient armoury was looted, but a wight and six dust mephits still lurked here. Dust mephits might be in the Basic Rules, but they're not used that often, and the players were very happy to discover they were vulnerable to fire damage. (It makes sense!) The battle took slightly longer - 3 rounds, 21 minutes - and was a bit challenging with the mephits occasionally blinding party members. One or two had to check spell descriptions to see if it say "a creature you can see". The final area in this branch of the dungeon was a locked vault. After removing the dust, the rogue (the artificer's henchman) was able to open it and discover quite a large hoard of unlooted treasure! This was a great surprise - we're quite used to poor rewards in WotC adventures. [B][I]Other Inhabitants[/I][/B] The back of the vault had collapsed, revealing a very narrow passageway to another section of the temple. No-one was small enough to go through, that was, until the artificer [I]reduced[/I] the rogue in size and allowed him to scout... an old bedroom. He could also hear conversation from a nearby room, but knowing the danger he was in, he quickly returned to the others, and they decided to continue exploring elsewhere. Elsewhere meant west of the main staircase. They shortly came to a large area of which the main features were a blood-soaked chair and the bones of a goat. Unusual, they thought. Checking the other doors from this chamber, they discovered several bedrooms, one of which was inhabited, by a human horribly mutated. That mutate attacked the party, babbling about the Far Realm and about a stone that disgorged young. The mutate was accompanied by one of the small fleshy pyramids they'd fought earlier in Phandalin. It was a fairly simple battle (2 rounds, 8 minutes), and the mutate and his companion were dead by the end of it. There was nothing in his chamber that gave a clue to his identity. Heading south, they came to a ruined chamber where once mind flayers and dwarves had fought. The image of a victorious dwarf beckoned them to the west, but it was a lure by a new creature known as an intellect snare. I like this creature, and the lure was nicely thought out. It tried to eat Syzoth, but the party objected. (3 rounds, 12 minutes). Vel'rari's final [I]guiding bolt[/I] with an attack roll of 22 for 22 damage was a nice touch! [B][I]Other Explorers[/I][/B] Investigation of a kitchen and pantry led to the discovery of a secret door, which slid up to reveal a pair of drow poring over old books. In the resulting battle... no wait, they actually talked to each other. (I really would have liked to know if the drow had a patron deity at this point, since the party did make a point of asking them if they worshipped Lolth). They were neutral guards of the Henlifel family, whose father had joined some of the crazed cultists that were living there. They would very much appreciate help getting him away from the cultists. Just on an information presentation note: there are two rooms here, T14 and T15. Half of the information you need to run the encounter is in each room. Except my players entered T15, so I wasn't referring back to T14 during the negotiation. While you may write your adventure in a linear form, [I]it won't be run that way, [/I]and DMs are concentrating on running the session and not trying to look for other places information might be stored, even if they've read it before. The drow have an inferiority complex, believing the cultists too strong, so they didn't want to rescue their father themselves or accompany the party. (The adventure didn't say they have an inferiority complex, but I've seen their statblocks. They're not weak!) I happily ignored this, and the drow ordered their retainers to stay behind while they accompanied the party and led them to the cultists. [B][I]Cult of the Obelisk[/I][/B] Another mutate and four of the gemmules - the fleshy pyramids - were defacing a statue and barring the party's way onwards. The battle didn't take too long (2 rounds, 12 minutes) after Vel'rari started by [I]fireballing[/I] the foes. The next chamber held the main body of cultists. And, guess what, the drow elves' father was their leader! He lured them in, and the cultists attacked as the party looked on. It wasn't great for the drow, and Vel'rari was forced to step in and heal the one who took the most damage. But with this ambush, the cultists had shown their hand and were soon slain - except for the drow elves' father, who Simeon carefully rendered unconscious. (3 rounds, 16 minutes). The drow rewarded the party with a [I]periapt of health[/I], and took their leave of the group, taking their father to a place where he could be cured of his dangerous obsessions. Probably. [B][I]An Obelisk Shard[/I][/B] The party discovered a puzzle door they couldn't unlock on their way to the point of their expedition: another obsidian shard. They finally got to see what all the gemmules would become if allowed to mature: an encephalon cluster, which was guarding the shard. Looking a lot like a giant brain or lots of eggs stuck together - I'd really like a text description rather than relying on images - this was a CR 10 foe. It started the battle by spawning a lone gemmule near them. Three rounds later (11 minutes), it was dead. It has some nice attacks and effects, but the party were too much for it. They retrieved the shard with some care. It was quite heavy, and the artificer took possession of it. With that, it was quite late in the evening, and we finished for the night. Most of the temple was explored, but the locked puzzle door deserved further investigation! [/QUOTE]
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