Chapter 6: The Shattered Obelisk - Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk

Chapter 6: The Shattered Obelisk. The characters have defeated Ruxithid, the Sawplee goblin leader who collected fragments of a Netherese obelisk. However, an unsettling truth has emerged: Ruxithid acted at the behest of much more powerful overlords who want the obelisk pieces to impose some terrible fate upon the town. The characters discovered Ruxithid's map, which shows the locations of the remaining obelisk pieces. (This map is shown on this page; you should feel free to distribute it to your players as a handout.) Further, some townspeople are still missing and could be captives at one of these locations. To save Phandalin and its missing inhabitants, the characters must collect the remaining obelisk shards before the overlords do. Along the way, the heroes learn more about the shadowy threat looming over Phandalin. The secrets that await the heroes underground are even more terrifying than they might imagine The Sinister Truth The Sawplee goblins indirectly served three mind flayers that draw power from a malevolent Far Realm godlet named Ilvaash. Using their godlet as a warped sort of elder brain, these mind flayers are even more alien than others of their kind. (For more information, see chapter 7.) Mind flayer activity in the area around Phandalin isn't new; centuries ago, as evidenced in Zorzula's Rest, mind flayers swept through the Underdark beneath and around Phandalin, consuming or destroying all in their path. That illithid empire eventually fell, but the mind flayer threat never entirely subsided. Now, mind flayers pose more of a threat to Phandalin than ever before. The Ritual The mind flayers seek to enact a dreadful ritual that will transform the entire population of Phandalin into mind flayers. As if that brutal process weren't terrifying enough, the ritual would work from a significant distance-even from the Far Realm itself, as described in chapter 8-and would affect individuals on a large scale. However, the fanatics learned from Ilvaash th...