Oliver

For the owner of Beehive General Goods See Oliver Tefoco.

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.

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

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."

Playing with Oliver

While "playing" with Oliver, simply 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 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 the Ring of Shadows as a prize, though he suspects the party cheated but can't prove it. 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. 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 encounter

Oliver will be found inside a magic bubble, which the game treats as being an entity called a Nightdome.

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 party need to destroy the Nightdome to resolve the combat encounter. Destroying Oliver's summoned Shadow allies will reduce the health of the Nightdome. It is not needed to attack the Nightdome itself because it is possible to destroy it by killing enough of Oliver's summons.

Interactions

When the party first enter the ruined farm there will be a perception check, failing it let the conversation start:

Oliver:"Boo! I scared you - I saw it. Nobody beats me at hide and seek." - "Will you play with me?"

1. Who are you?
2. Play? This is no place for a child - if that's even what you are.
3. Don't startle people like that - easy way to wind up killed by mistake.
4. In a moment maybe. Have you seen another little boy? His name is Thaniel.
5. [Bard] I can play you a little song - would you like that?
6. [Warlock] [Wizard] [Arcana] Another presence lingers near the boy. Study him, try to discern what it is.
7. I don't have time for this.
8. [Sorcerer] [Arcana] I sense you arent just an ordinary boy
9. [Druid] [Wisdom] A familiar magic exudes from the boy. Try to commune with it.

Related Quests

• Lift the Shadow Curse

Related items

• Ring of Shadows
• Oliver's Diary

Companion approval

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

Gallery

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  Oliver's Stuffed Owlbear

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  Oliver's face without shadow.

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  Oliver's model.