Oliver

	Shadowed Spirit of the Land
Oliver
	Stats
	Level 1
Race	Tiefling
Type	Humanoid
HP	24
AC	13
Size	Medium
Weight	0 kg / 0 lbs
Initiative	+3
	Passive features
	Darkvision Opportunity Attack Sunlight Weakness Perfect Sentry
	Resistances
Character information
Family	Mummy, Daddy, Doggy
Allies	Shadow Friend
Model

Oliver is a child NPC who can be encountered during Act Two, whose appearance resembles a Tiefling. He can typically be found in the House in Deep Shadows location, within the Shadow-Cursed Lands region.

Gameplay

Oliver can first be encountered during Act Two by walking within a certain distance of the House in Deep Shadows location.
He will pull the nearest player into a conversation where he asks them 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."
Oliver will initially be a neutral entity, but there are multiple different reasons that he can become a "hostile" entity, whether for temporary or permanent reasons. (In other words, tread with caution about playing with and/or upsetting this mysterious magic child.)

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 player from "finding" Oliver.
After "finding" Oliver for the first time, he will immediately start a conversation with the player who found him, and may ask to play again. If humored, he will oblige but with additional "rules to the game."
Characters with the Outlander background will receive inspiration for winning the second round without alerting the shadows.

"Round One"

He can be found inside a House in Deep Shadows. He will challenge the player to a game of hide and seek and vanishes past the player to hide behind the cart outside the house. Once found he will be upset but you can say you want to play again which he happily accepts saying 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 NPC entities will be spawned; Daddy, Mummy, and Doggy. Interested players should also be aware - before any actions are taken during this turn-based phase, it is possible to pickpocket Oliver and take the Ring of Shadows he wears; this ring can be useful while resolving this "second round" of Oliver's game, because this ring allows the wearer to cast Pass Without Trace.

Once the encounter is over you will find Oliver inside the home where he claims he won but because you played so well you deserve "second place" which is a reward he freely gives you.

If you're able to sneak past his family and talk to him again he will give you the ring as a prize, though he suspects you cheated but can't prove it. His family will then disappear.

Lift the Shadow Curse

Once you have advanced through the quest Lift the Shadow Curse with Halsin you will need to return to Oliver and convince him to recombine with Thaniel.

If the player is attempting to complete Lift the Shadow Curse, then in most observed cases players will need to "play along" with Oliver's game. Then, after resolving the "second round" described above, several events will be triggered that may lead up to an additional combat encounter that is exclusive to the quest. Completing this combat encounter will allow the player to fully complete Lift the Shadow Curse.

What appears to be meant to happen is that after the second round of his game completes, Oliver will summon a portal and disappear through it. Then players can interact with this portal to travel to his new location, where a combat encounter will happen.

What tends to happen is that the portal does not successfully appear or that players cannot interact with it, but if this happens -- players can still travel on foot to Olivers' "new" location (at roughly the "center" of Reithwin Town X: -152 Y: -26) to continue the quest and the fight.

"Nightdome" Combat Encounter

Oliver will be found inside a magic bubble, which the game treats as being an entity called a Nightdome. Players will need to destroy the Nightdome to resolve the combat encounter. Destroying Oliver's summoned Shadow allies will reduce the health of the 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 new (hostile) Shadow Friend entities into the fight. Killing the Shadow Friend entities will eventually cause Oliver to re-cast this ability and summon additional entities.

Interactions

When you first enter the ruined farm you will roll a perception check, if you fail the conversation begins:

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

Who are you?
Play? This is no place for a child - if that's even what you are.
Don't startle people like that - easy way to wind up killed by mistake.
In a moment maybe. Have you seen another little boy? His name is Thaniel.
[Bard] I can play you a little song - would you like that?
[Warlock] [Wizard] [Arcana] Another presence lingers near the boy. Study him, try to discern what it is.
I don't have time for this.

Related Quests

Lift the Shadow Curse

Related Items

Companion approval

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 and avoid the shadows +1 +1
- Find Oliver after fighting the shadows -1 -1 +1

Notes

Under rare conditions, when the player first meets Oliver his appearance will look like a mostly normal Tiefling child. In most situations, his initial appearance partially resembles other Shadow-Cursed Undead, with curse effects covering various parts of his body, including one of his eyes.
The corpse of the dead Githyanki Warrior inside the house can have Speak with Dead cast upon it.
If you manage to pickpocket the Ring of Shadows from Oliver while he runs away during the second round of hide and seek, you will receive only a mundane silver band (worth 18 gold) as a reward for finding him.
Oliver can be asked about Thaniel. The first time you ask he becomes angry and tells you not to ask again. If you ask if he has anyone else to play with he mentioned his Mummy, Daddy, and doggy allowing you to ask their names. He tells you they don't have names just that they play with him and does what he wants. You will then roll an insight check and if successful you can ask him about Thaniel again. If you ask again Oliver becomes very irate; "He's not special - he's nothing. You shouldn't say that name. Forget you ever heard it."

Gallery

Oliver's Stuffed Owlbear

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