Olman Tavish recalls little of his life. His time as a child growing up in Irhurma and his adventures with the other members of the Founders have dwindled to distant but pleasant memories. His fear of the devastation Dretha plans to unleash upon Irhurma is what keeps him shackled to this world as a ghost.
When the Founders fought Dretha in Fen Watchtower, she unleashed a powerful magical explosion that collapsed the room where the fight took place. Dretha and three heroes avoided the collapse and fought on— to Dretha’s ultimate defeat—but the rogue Olman was caught beneath the collapse. His companions assumed he was pulverized, but Olman had fallen into a level beneath Watchtower that none of the Founders knew existed. Tavish desperately wanted to escape to the surface and share his discovery, but Dretha’s
minions forced him to flee ever deeper into the vaults, until finally he was cornered in a dead-end cave by an immense otyugh that left him trapped and suffering from filth fever. Olman died in that deep cave, but his ghost lingers on.
When the Founders fought Dretha in Fen Watchtower, she unleashed a powerful magical explosion that collapsed the room where the fight took place. Dretha and three heroes avoided the collapse and fought on— to Dretha’s ultimate defeat—but the rogue Olman was caught beneath the collapse. His companions assumed he was pulverized, but Olman had fallen into a level beneath Watchtower that none of the Founders knew existed. Tavish desperately wanted to escape to the surface and share his discovery, but Dretha’s
minions forced him to flee ever deeper into the vaults, until finally he was cornered in a dead-end cave by an immense otyugh that left him trapped and suffering from filth fever. Olman died in that deep cave, but his ghost lingers on.
Appearance
Mentality
Personal history
Olman’s role is to present the tasks necessary to reach the lower levels of the Undercitadel of Szitrag. Once the heroes encounter Olman's ghost and drive off the wisps that torment him, he relates his tale of woe. He has difficulty remembering much of his life but becomes very emotional if he learns that the founders survived and named their town after him.
While Otari’s information about the dungeon is centuries out of date, his supernatural link to the Inverted Tower affords him glimpses into the inner workings of the dungeon and its key players.
- Dretha harbored a grudge against Irhurma and intended to use her sinister spotlight, Gauntlight, as a weapon against the city. The Founders never discovered its actual use, other than that it had something to do with the ability to transport creatures across significant distances and could animate the dead with its light. None of the other Founders knew about Szitrag beneath Watchtower. Tavish learned about them only in his last few days alive.
- Some properties of the Undercitadel increase the manifestation of ghosts, spectral undead, and haunts within their domain. Tavish initially believed this was a side effect from Gauntlight but has now come to suspect a link to a much more ancient and ominous source deep below this level. He knows nothing of Empty Death , but if the heroes tell him of the Outer God, he suspects her influence is the source.
- Dretha herself is now a ghost, although she cannot move far from the site to which she is anchored. Otari can sense her somewhere deep underground and is also aware that the range of her movements is slowly expanding.
- Tavish suspects Dretha intends to fully reactivate Gauntlight and use it to begin her long-delayed attack on Irhurma. She must be put to rest before she can finish this task. Tavish isn’t sure how to stop her, but believes that clues await discovery in the deeper levels of the Inverted Tower.
- Finally, Otari feels the barrier in the Ghostwalk blocking progress deeper into the Undercitadel. He understands that it is powered by the souls of Dretha’s defeated enemies. Fortunately, he also understands how to take the barrier down. The Founders were the adventurers who finally killed her, and their psychic resonance can drop the barrier. The heroes must find and place four icons the Founders once held dear onto the altar in Upper Temple to do this. Tavish’s thieves’ tools are here with his bones and serve as his icon. The other icons are the brooch belonging to the cleric Phenaes Ludwig (which bears the religious symbol of her god, The Stag Lord), the spellbook belonging to the wizard Diaz Marva, and the trusty longsword of the fighter Vol Feldspar.
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