Oliver

For the owner of Beehive General Goods See Oliver Tefoco. For the Gur hunter, see Oliver Quarlic.

Oliver can be encountered during Act Two. He can typically be found in the House in Deep Shadows location, within the Shadow-Cursed Lands region.

Overview

Appearance

Oliver appears to be a small olive-skinned tiefling child with a grotesque shadowed gashes infecting his right eye and torso.

If the party can pass an Arcana check to sense his true nature, the aesthetics of the Shadow Curse will be wiped from his body. Subsequently, he resembles more of a typical tiefling child, still with heterochromia intact. Certain classes gain bonuses to this check, while Monks can choose an alternative Insight check.

Involvement

Act two

Oliver can first be encountered during Act Two by walking within a certain distance of the House in Deep Shadows location.

He will ask the party to 'play with' him. If humored, Oliver will reveal that the game he wants to play is hide and seek, and turn himself invisible to go "hide."

When first entering the ruined house there will be a perception check, failing it lets the conversation start. The party can study the boy if they don't already know that he is Thaniel:

• [ARCANA] Study the boy. Try to understand his true nature. (DC 14)
• [DRUID] [WISDOM] A familiar magic exudes from the boy. Try to commune with it. (DC 14 )
• [MONK] [INSIGHT] The child's ki feels... uneven. At odds. Why? (DC 14)

Oliver will insist on playing hide and seek, unless he is called out in which case he will open a portal and flee to town early.

Playing with Oliver

While "playing" with Oliver, walking up to his invisible model will usually cause him to become "found." Automatic perception checks may be rolled, but for unknown reasons, these checks (on failure) don't always seem to disqualify the party from "finding" Oliver.

"Round One"

After "finding" Oliver for the first time, he will immediately start a conversation with the party member who found him. He will be upset but can be invited to play again which he happily accepts but with but with additional rules to the game. He says that you are better than the others presumably referencing the Githyanki corpses littered around the house.

"Round Two"

When Oliver goes to vanish to start the "second round" of his game, turn-based mode will trigger for all nearby characters, and three new hostile ghost-like entities will be spawned; Daddy, Mummy, and Doggy. A smart idea here is to use a Potion of Invisibility and run to the house.

If the party is able to sneak past his family and talk to him again he will give them the Ring of Shadows as a prize, even though he suspects the party cheated. If the party members are spotted by his family and defeat them in combat, Oliver will claim that he won and award the party with a 'second prize' - the same ring. If the party managed to pickpocket the Ring of Shadows from Oliver while he ran away during the second round of hide and seek, the party will receive only a mundane silver band (worth 18 gold) as a reward for finding him.

His family will then disappear.

Playing both games of hide and seek with Oliver will grant "Child at Heart" inspiration for Urchin characters. Characters with the Outlander background will receive inspiration for winning the second round without alerting the shadows.

Lifting the shadow curse

When advancing through the quest  Lift the Shadow Curse with Halsin the party will need to return to Oliver and convince him to recombine with Thaniel.

Regardless of whether Oliver's game was played, the party can confront him with their new information about Thaniel and his identity. Oliver will become upset, summon a portal, and disappear through it. The party can interact with this portal to travel to his new location, where a combat encounter will happen. Should the portal fail to work properly or the party want to travel on foot, Oliver's new location is at roughly the center of Reithwin Town at X: -152 Y: -26.

Combat

Allies

• Nightdome
• Daddy
• Mummy
• Shadow Plush
• 5x Shadow Friend (5 additional Shadow Friends are summoned each round)

Encounter Details

Oliver will be found inside a magic bubble, called the Nightdome which reflects double damage back at the player when it is attacked.

During this fight, Oliver will regularly use an ability called  Friends Until The End, which he can cast up to once per round, and summons up to five Shadow Friend entities into the fight. Killing the Shadow Friend entities will eventually cause Oliver to re-cast this ability and summon additional entities.

The Nightdome must be destroyed to resolve this combat encounter. Defeating Oliver's summoned Shadow allies will reduce the health of the Nightdome without it retaliating against the party. Defeating Daddy, Mummy, or Shadow Plush will deal 60Force to the dome, while defeating the Shadow Friends will deal 10Force. Thus it is not necessary to attack the Nightdome itself because it is possible to destroy it by killing enough of Oliver's shadow summons.

Related Quests

•  Lift the Shadow Curse

Related items

• Oliver's Diary
• Ring of Shadows

Companion approval

• Confronting Oliver regarding his identity as Thaniel (I know who you really are, and where you really belong.):  +1
• Agreeing to play with Oliver  -1  +1  +1  +1  +1
  • After agreeing to play with Oliver, change your mind  -1  +1
• Agreeing to play a second round with Oliver  -1  +1  +1  +1  +1
  • Finding Oliver without alerting the shadows  +1  +1
  • Finding Oliver after fighting the shadows  -1  -1  +1

Gallery

• 

  Oliver's Stuffed Owlbear

• 

  Oliver's face without shadow.

• 

  Oliver's model.