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{
"data": [
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Adventure Primer",
"page": 1,
"id": "000",
"entries": [
"The legendary inventor Kwalish disappeared eons ago... as it turns out, finding a crashed planar ship and studying its technology to fuel his own experiments. Only now, Kwalish's lost research is desperately needed! Will you dare an alternate expedition into the Barrier Peaks to find him?",
"As a special offering in support of Extra Life 2018, we're pleased to present the following adventure scenario, built around a new expedition to the legendary Barrier Peaks. This adventure is suitable for characters of 5th to 10th level.",
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Background",
"page": 1,
"id": "001",
"entries": [
"In centuries long past, a common scholar named Kwalish took an unlikely path to becoming one of the most powerful arcane inventors of all time, after his discovery of strange magic in the Barrier Peaks. His studies of an ancient, crashed planar craft set him on a path that might have seen him rival Ioun and Heward\u2014until his experiments overtook him, and he became lost to the ages. All that's left of his legacy is a single example of his earliest work\u2014the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} that is the only way most folk now know his name.",
"It was Kwalish's foray into the Barrier Peaks that set his advanced studies into motion, when he joined an ill-fated expedition in search of Daoine Gloine, a legendary city said to be populated by creatures of glass. Though the rest of his party perished along the way, Kwalish stumbled upon a wrecked planar craft of unknown providence and spent years exploring its secrets. He even repurposed much of the craft's unique magical technology into his first laboratory, building planar gates of his own design.",
"Testing one such gate as it forged a connection to the Nine Hells attracted the attention of a bone devil. Trailing Kwalish back across the planes, the devil took over the inventor's laboratory for itself. Kwalish managed to escape but left much of his lore behind, while the bone devil spent the years that followed converting the place into a dark monastery\u2014and establishing its own cult.",
"After much wandering in the mountains, Kwalish relocated to an equally remote location\u2014Daoine Gloine, the mysterious city his expedition had originally sought. The site's isolation made it a suitable place for him to continue his research. However, its populace turned out not to be creatures of glass as the legends suggested, but clans of kenku that worshipped a medusa with the unique ability to transform her victims into glass.",
"Before Kwalish could be made to suffer the same fate at the hands of the chaotic kenku and their mad medusa, he once more opened a planar gate, this time to the 222nd layer of the Abyss\u2014Juiblex's Slime Pits, from which he summoned forth a horrific plague of ooze to clear out the city and help him defend his new lab.",
"Kwalish cut off all access to Daoine Gloine, and the city was lost to the ages. The legendary inventor has not been heard from since. Only now, the characters are in dire need of his aid...",
{
"type": "inset",
"name": "A Note from the D&D Team",
"page": 1,
"id": "002",
"entries": [
"In 2017, the D&D team added several projects to the DMs Guild in support of Extra Life (including One Grung Above, The Lost Kenku, and The Tortle Package). The funds raised from the sale of these packages went to this extremely worthy cause\u2014and for 2018, you'll find even more projects made available on the DMs Guild throughout the year. As part of these efforts, it's our privilege to contribute the following adventure to the cause. We wanted to provide as much value for your donation as we could, providing new maps, monsters, and magic items\u2014and of course, the scenario itself, accompanied by a range of notes and options to help cater to your preferred play style. We hope you enjoy Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. And you have our sincere thanks for your support of Extra Life and Children's Miracle Network Hospitals."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Adventure Summary",
"page": 2,
"id": "003",
"entries": [
"The characters are charged with locating Kwalish's long-lost laboratory and the magical technology that might be found there. As they start their search, they're first directed to an accomplished gnome map merchant named Anaxi Zephries, known as \"the Cartophile.\" Information collected by Anaxi over the years has traced Kwalish's route into the Barrier Peaks\u2014at least up to the point where his expedition was lost, despite its members' formidable knowledge and skill.",
"Working their own way into the Barrier Peaks, the characters eventually arrive at Kwalish's first laboratory\u2014the remains of a planar craft whose technology drove the inventor's early research. But they discover that Kwalish has long since been exiled, and his lab converted into a monastery now dedicated to the bone devil that is the site's Grand Master. The characters must negotiate their entrance into the monastery, and from there to its treasury. Hidden within the treasury are notes from Kwalish's original expedition that lead to Daoine Gloine, the legendary city deep within the Barrier Peaks\u2014and the site of Kwalish's current laboratory.",
"After reaching Daoine Gloine, the characters find the city buried beneath a flood of gelatinous ooze, with only its tallest stone structures left rising above the surface. The characters must find a safe means of descent into the ooze as they seek the entrance to Kwalish's hidden laboratory\u2014and avoid the empty city's deadly guardians. Once they reach the lab, the characters meet with the legendary inventor and can negotiate for the assistance necessary to complete their quest\u2014and they might even have the chance to help Kwalish deal with one of a number of problems of his own.",
{
"type": "inset",
"name": "Placing the Adventure",
"page": 2,
"id": "004",
"entries": [
"The original Expedition to the Barrier Peaks\u20141980's adventure module S3 for first edition AD&D\u2014placed its titular mountains in Greyhawk, north of the Grand Duchy of Geoff and the Valley of the Mage. Depending on your campaign, you can set this adventure in any similar location: a mysterious mountain range that even dedicated explorers have failed to fully map. In the Forgotten Realms, one possible location for the adventure is Chult, the land explored in Tomb of Annihilation. The mysterious and poorly mapped peninsula contains several suitable mountain ranges, including the Mistcliffs and the Kobold Mountains. Elsewhere in Faerûn, the peaks surrounding Halruaa, a land known for its magical technology, are a good choice. Alternatively, campaigns making use of the {@adventure Waterdeep: Dragon Heist|WDH} adventure might look for a location closer to the city, including the Greypeaks or the Nether Mountains."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Running the Adventure",
"page": 2,
"id": "005",
"entries": [
"To run this adventure, you need the D&D fifth edition core rulebooks ({@book Player's Handbook|PHB}, {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG}, and {@book Monster Manual|MM}).",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "006",
"entries": [
"Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud or paraphrased for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circumstance, as described in the text."
]
},
"Most of the monsters that appear in this adventure are from the {@book Monster Manual|MM}, along with new creatures and NPCs, and monsters from {@book Volo's Guide to Monsters|VGM} and {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}. For easy reference, all the stat blocks for the creatures in the adventure can be found in appendix C. When a creature's name appears in bold type, that's a visual cue pointing you to its stat block in that appendix. Full information on creatures from the {@book Monster Manual|MM}, {@book Volo's Guide to Monsters|VGM}, and {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF} can be found in those books.",
"Spells and equipment mentioned in the adventure are described in the {@book Player's Handbook|PHB}. Magic items are described in the {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG}, unless the adventure's text directs you to an item's description in appendix D.",
{
"type": "inset",
"name": "Adventure Length",
"page": 3,
"id": "007",
"entries": [
"This adventure features numerous encounters and challenges that should keep a group entertained for multiple sessions. However, you can easily run a shorter version of the adventure, or even an exciting one-shot, by making the following modifications:",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Full Version (Five to Six Sessions)",
"page": 3,
"id": "008",
"entries": [
"Run the adventure as written, making use of both the monastery and the ooze-flooded city locations."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Short Version (Two to Three Sessions)",
"page": 3,
"id": "009",
"entries": [
" Run the adventure as written, up to the monastery. Then forgo a second laboratory location, instead replacing the final brain in a jar in the treasury (area M10) with Kwalish, and conclude the adventure there"
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "One-Shot (One Four-Hour Session)",
"page": 3,
"id": "00a",
"entries": [
"Give your players an adventure hook, assign them a guide (see \"{@adventure Part 1: Mission to the Barrier Peaks|LLK|1}\"), and start them at {@area C1|032}, overlooking the bone devil's monastery. Then as above, replace the treasury's brain in a jar with Kwalish for an exciting conclusion."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Adventure Hooks",
"page": 2,
"id": "00b",
"entries": [
"In the course of previous adventures, the characters might have come up against a special magical-mechanical dilemma too challenging to overcome. Perhaps a secret door in a dungeon complex has been built around an iron golem, or an array of dangerous clockwork devices discovered within a city defy any attempts to turn them off. All research into the problem suggests that the inventor Kwalish might have the solution\u2014if only he hadn't gone missing years before.",
"Alternatively, you might consider any of the following hooks. Several involve a pending crisis, such that the players are seeking Kwalish not just on their own behalf, but to prevent hardship to friends, family, or the common folk. Just make sure that the peril doesn't come on too quickly, though, as an expedition into the Barrier Peaks will take some time.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Thwarting Annihilation",
"page": 2,
"id": "00c",
"entries": [
"If you're playing through or using events from {@adventure Tomb of Annihilation|ToA} in your campaign, the characters might hear rumors that Kwalish's laboratory holds lore that can help deactivate the Soulmonger. If the characters have any hope of surviving the tomb and ending the death curse, they must first make the dangerous journey to the inventor's lost lab.",
"Alternatively, in the aftermath of a {@adventure Tomb of Annihilation|ToA} campaign, a friend, family member, or mentor important to the characters might have been placed in stasis within a magical sarcophagus to protect them from the death curse. With the curse lifted, this NPC can now be saved\u2014except the sarcophagus cannot be opened by any magical or mundane means. After learning that the sarcophagus is one of Kwalish's designs, the characters must seek out his lost laboratory for the means to open it\u2014or their friend will sleep for eternity."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Waterdeep Dangers",
"page": 3,
"id": "00d",
"entries": [
"A number of hooks can connect to the exploits of characters engaged in a {@adventure Waterdeep: Dragon Heist|WDH} campaign. The famed walking statues of Waterdeep are showing signs of getting ready to power up once more, and not even the Blackstaff can shut them down. Old histories suggest that Kwalish's lore might hold the secrets of doing so, and the characters are sent to seek that lore out before the great magical statues can run amok.",
"Alternatively, the grand parade of the Day of Wonders turns to deadly chaos when one of its inventive mechanical floats goes berserk and unleashes destruction across the city. After stopping the threat, the characters learn that it was built based on a Kwalish design, and that other such designs might be used to build great engines of destruction. The secrets to overcoming such inventions can be found only in Kwalish's lab.",
"As a more integral part of a {@adventure Waterdeep: Dragon Heist|WDH} campaign, characters who successfully discover the location of the Vault of Dragons might discover that the keys needed to access it are lost. Rumors speak of another means of opening the vault\u2014a secret known only to the lost inventor."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Ravnica in Peril",
"page": 3,
"id": "00e",
"entries": [
"If your campaign is set in the city world of Ravnica, as outlined in {@book Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica|GGR}, Kwalish might be a chemister from the Izzet League who left the guild to pursue his own work away from Niv-Mizzetr's prying eyes. Centuries later, Izzet researchers have uncovered some of Kwalish's notes. Desperate to locate the chemister's laboratory, the Izzet League reaches out to the characters to accomplish the task."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "From One Mad Mage to Another",
"page": 3,
"id": "00f",
"entries": [
"If you're running a campaign making use of {@adventure Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage|WDMM}, Kwalish's laboratory might contain secrets useful in the exploration of Undermountain. Or you could have some of the dungeon's deadly features be strange mechanical-magical devices reminiscent of Kwalish's work. The secrets to controlling or disabling such devices might be instrumental to a successful foray into the legendary dungeon."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Unnatural Invasion",
"page": 3,
"id": "010",
"entries": [
"A massive magical-mechanical golem, an unknown planar vessel, or some other rare threat has appeared in civilized lands. Though local settlements are safe for the moment, the characters are charged with tracking down Kwalish and his laboratory in hopes that the secrets to disabling the imminent threat might be found there."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Planar Retribution",
"page": 3,
"id": "011",
"entries": [
"A powerful marut (detailed in {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}) hunts one or more of the characters for breaking some cosmic contract. Their only hope of survival is to find Kwalish's laboratory, whose planar magic holds the means of restoring the balance the marut seeks to enforce."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Journey of Discovery",
"page": 3,
"id": "012",
"entries": [
"The characters are hired by a gnome sage known as the Cartophile for a mission of exploration, as he seeks to complete a failed expedition to Daoine Gloine undertaken by his ancestors. The characters must find their way to the lost city hidden within the Barrier Peaks, then return with its location.",
"Alternatively, the characters might hear rumors of Kwalish's legendary {@item Powered Armor|LLK} (see {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7}), and embark on a mission to find it. Or you might have them discover a set of {@item Powered Armor|LLK} in a previous adventure, leaving them needing to find a way to access it\u2014or to free an NPC currently trapped inside it. Either way, finding Kwalish's lost laboratory is the key."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Part 1: Mission to the Barrier Peaks",
"page": 3,
"id": "013",
"entries": [
"No matter what hook brings the characters into the adventure, any research into Kwalish's lost laboratory\u2014or any NPC familiar with the inventor's failed expedition to the Barrier Peaks\u2014establishes that seeking out the gnome known as the Cartophile is a crucial first step for their mission.",
{
"type": "section",
"name": "The Cartophile",
"page": 3,
"id": "014",
"entries": [
"Anaxi Zephries is a wealthy gnome merchant and sage. He is well known for his vast collection of maps, which cover the known world, pocket dimensions, routes across the planes, and more. In this role, the Cartophile has served as patron for numerous expeditions of exploration, sending adventurers to all corners of the world\u2014both to draw new maps and to verify the authenticity of others already in his possession.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/001-cartophile.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 1679,
"credit": "Maxx Marshall"
},
"The gnome's collection contains notes and an initial map from the early stages of Kwalish's expedition into the Barrier Peaks. In exchange for allowing the characters to use that lore, he asks only that any further journals, notes, maps, and other documents from Kwalish's earlier expedition be returned to him.",
"The Cartophile has no interest in adventuring, talking of how he once stood too close to a {@item Bag of Holding} accidentally placed within a {@item Portable Hole} and never fully recovered from it. However, in the interest of ensuring a successful mission, he offers the characters the services of a number of hirelings in his employ\u2014and insists that at least one of those hirelings accompany the party, to serve as custodian of his maps and materials.",
"If the characters develop an especially close relationship to the Cartophile, the gnome might reveal that his professional career commissioning expeditions and maps has been background research for a personal obsession. One of his ancestors took part in Kwalish's lost expedition to find Daoine Gloine, the mythical city of the Barrier Peaks inhabited by \"people of glass.\" The gnome has long sought to learn the truth of the expedition's demise."
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Hirelings",
"page": 4,
"id": "015",
"entries": [
"Any of the following NPCs can join the party as custodians and translators of the materials loaned to the characters by the Cartophile. Each hireling is also charged with chronicling the party's progress along the way, in the hope of finally mapping the route to Daoine Gloine, and has specific value to the party in certain areas of expertise. However, each hireling also has one or more secret agendas that might work against the characters' interests.",
"You can let the party's size and the players' interest in bringing NPCs into their group determine whether more than one of the Cartophile's hirelings join the expedition. Or, instead of front-loading hirelings at the start, these NPCs can be set up as independent explorers not connected to the Cartophile. You can stagger their introduction throughout the course of the adventure (as suggested in each NPC's description below), with each one able to provide a useful next step to help the expedition along.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "016",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Ctenmiir the Vampire",
"page": 4,
"id": "017",
"entries": [
"{@i LE male vampire}",
"Once a dwarven warrior, Ctenmiir was transformed into a {@creature Vampire} and hidden away within White Plume Mountain (see {@adventure Tales from the Yawning Portal|TftYP-WPM}) until captured there by an Emerald Enclave ranger. The vampire has long been imprisoned within a magical iron coffin mounted atop animated golem legs (an early Kwalish design), forced to atone for his evil deeds by working for the Cartophile.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/002-ctinmiir_wmask.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 1236,
"credit": "Maxx Marshall"
},
"Ctenmiir's coffin has a speed of 30 feet and a climbing speed of 10 feet, and protects the vampire from sunlight even as it prevents him from escaping his servitude. Though Ctenmiir is able to speak from within the coffin and help guide the expedition, the coffin obeys only the commands of the party members. Cold, calculating, and manipulative, the vampire aids the party as long as he believes he can earn his release from the coffin along the way\u2014by any means possible.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Value to the Party",
"page": 5,
"id": "018",
"entries": [
"Originally native to an area near the Barrier Peaks, Ctenmiir has much experience with the initial route into the mountains, and can provide warnings of early encounters through the fey woods and foothills (see \"{@area Reaching the Peaks|028|x},\" below, and {@adventure appendix A|LLK|4}). The vampire's coffin can also serve as a makeshift {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} at your determination, making it easier for characters to explore Daoine Gloine\u2014though Ctenmiir will need to first be released. The coffin can also be used as protective shelter against adversaries, including a freed Ctenmiir."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Secret Agendas",
"page": 5,
"id": "019",
"entries": [
"Get out of the coffin. Feed on at least one character."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Alternative Entry",
"page": 5,
"id": "01a",
"entries": [
"If Ctenmiir does not start with the party, he might instead be found in the foothills, in the possession of outlaws seeking the monastery who use the vampire as their guide.",
"If he joins the expedition from the start, the vampire might lead the characters to the foothills, then claim to no longer recognize the route ahead. He asks to be released so that he can scout more easily. But if he is, any promise of obedience he makes to the characters is ignored as he attacks them."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Garret Levistusson",
"page": 5,
"id": "01b",
"entries": [
"{@i CN male tiefling bard/rogue}",
"The Cartophile's first choice to join the characters' expedition, Garret is an untrustworthy bon vivant and magpie. His mapmaking skills are first rate, though, and the Cartophile trusts him to accurately detail the route to Daoine Gloine and sketch images of things discovered along the way. Garret claims that his infernal lineage goes back to Levistus (see {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}), and he keeps his horns adorned with rings, coins and other charms, some of which he claims are powerful magic items ready to be called on. See {@adventure appendix C|LLK|6} for Garret's stat block.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/003-n-pc_garret.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 1639,
"credit": "Stan!"
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Value to the Party",
"page": 5,
"id": "01c",
"entries": [
"Garret can draw the maps requested by the Cartophile. He also knows several rumors (both true and false) regarding the Barrier Peaks, and provides advantage to any characters' ability checks made to interact with the monastery's Grand Master."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Secret Agendas",
"page": 5,
"id": "01d",
"entries": [
"Steal the highest-valued object from the party without getting caught; convince as many characters as possible to sit for a sketch; and relay a secret communication to the Grand Master. This message takes the form of a written note from Garret's infernal patron, ordering the Grand Master to return to Stygia in the Nine Hells to complete a service required by Levistus. A forged addendum adds that the bearer of the note should be rewarded handsomely."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Alternative Entry",
"page": 5,
"id": "01e",
"entries": [
"Garret can be found as a prisoner in {@area M6|061} of the monastery. If he does start out with the party, he might choose to leave them at the monastery, joining with the Grand Master."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Gearbox",
"page": 5,
"id": "01f",
"entries": [
"{@i LN monodrone}",
"A simple and kindly {@creature Monodrone} modron, {@creature Gearbox|LLK} has been sent as an agent of Mechanus to investigate Kwalish's works and experiments. Its mechanical body has been programmed with several unique utility powers (see below) that make the modron a perfect cartographer's assistant. If both Garret and {@creature Gearbox|LLK} join the expedition, {@creature Gearbox|LLK} assists the tiefling with his work, even as Garret delights in referring to the modron as \"Doohickey\", \"Contraption\", \"Thingamabob\", and so on.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/004-npc_gearbox.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 1000,
"credit": "Stan!"
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Value to the Party",
"page": 6,
"id": "020",
"entries": [
"{@creature Gearbox|LLK}'s unique programming allows the modron to function as an {@item Orb of Direction|XGE} and an {@item Orb of Time|XGE} (see {@book Xanathar's Guide to Everything|XGE}), to cast the {@spell light} cantrip at will, and to grant other characters advantage on Dexterity checks made with thieves' tools and on ability checks made to identify or operate mechanical or laboratory equipment. It can also help override the security of the monastery's control room ({@area M8|06d}) and treasury ({@area area M10|079|x}), and can pilot the skiff first seen in {@area area C3|03b|x}."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Secret Agendas",
"page": 6,
"id": "021",
"entries": [
"None as such. {@creature Gearbox|LLK} genuinely wishes to help the characters, but he will be tempted to connect with the monastery control room."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Alternative Entry",
"page": 6,
"id": "022",
"entries": [
"{@creature Gearbox|LLK} can appear with Garret whenever the tiefling first appears, or he could be found in the monastery's control room. The modron might choose to remain at the monastery, integrating with its control room to become the site's new integrated mind."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Mary Greymalkin",
"page": 6,
"id": "023",
"entries": [
"{@i N female eladrin warlock}",
"Mary claims to be part of a legendary lineage as granddaughter of the vampire Drelzna\u2014herself a descendant of Iggwilv and Baba Yaga. Her warlock pact has been made with those ancestors' spirits, but she manages her relationship with them carefully, lest she fall too far under their dark influence.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/005-mary.webp"
},
"width": 998,
"height": 1616,
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"She also claims past tutelage by Thingizzard, a witch dwelling in the fens near White Plume Mountain. In addition to her work for the Cartophile, Mary is eager to accompany the expedition so that she might search the Barrier Peaks for rare ingredients for her potions.",
"Mary strikes an eerie, witch-like figure, surrounded always by swirling magical-mechanical trinkets of her own devising. She is often seen shuffling a {@item Deck of Several Things|LLK}, and will try to quietly tempt party members to draw a card. (See {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7} for more information on the deck, and its distinct connections to the adventure.) Mary is always accompanied by her familiar, a glowing-eyed cat. See {@adventure appendix C|LLK|6} for Mary's stat block.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Value to the Party",
"page": 6,
"id": "024",
"entries": [
"Mary's expertise as a diviner can grant advantage on any characters' checks to determine correct passage through the caverns leading to the monastery. Her magical knowledge also provides advantage on interactions with the enhanced sphinx guarding the monastery entrance (see {@area area C2|034|x}) and on any negotiations for ferry passage with the merrenoloth ({@area area C3|03b|x})."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Secret Agendas",
"page": 6,
"id": "025",
"entries": [
"Mary's biggest secret is that she is actually her cat familiar, polymorphed from human form, and using magic to create and direct the human simulacrum of \"Mary\" as a helpful decoy. (Readers of {@i Dragon+} might alternatively make Mary one of the intelligent cats of Adam Lee's \"Herding Tahra's Cats\" in issue 12). But of more potential peril to the party is Mary's long-term relationship with Ctenmiir, whom she first met when he would fly out of White Plume Mountain at night to meet with her near Thingizzard's hut. Her goals are to keep the knowledge of her true form and her relationship with Ctenmiir a secret; to free the vampire if she can, without incriminating herself; and to convince characters to draw from her {@i deck of several things}."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Alternative Entry",
"page": 6,
"id": "026",
"entries": [
"If Mary does not start the expedition with the party, she might instead be found in the company of the enhanced sphinx ({@area area C2|034|x}), where she offers to guide the characters to the monastery's Grand Master. If she does start with the party, she might choose to remain with the enhanced sphinx, discoursing the secrets of the multiverse with her."
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Rumors and Legends",
"page": 6,
"id": "027",
"entries": [
"Countless legends have arisen regarding the mysterious Barrier Peaks, and those tales circulate constantly among adventurers, explorers, and bards. Rumors specific to Kwalish and his lost expedition are more difficult to come by. But for each day spent talking to knowledgeable travelers, a character can attempt a DC 12 Charisma ({@skill Persuasion}) check. If the check succeeds, roll percentile dice and consult the table below to determine what the character learns. False rumors are in {@i italics}.",
"Also see {@adventure appendix F|LLK|8} for even more potential rumors of the Barrier Peaks.",
{
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[
"1\u201315",
"The Barrier Peaks have long been damned, ever since a craft of some kind crashed there ages ago. A ship that could navigate the very planes, it was. Things that should not exist escaped from its hold and now populate the mountains."
],
[
"16\u201325",
"Kwalish did not perish on his expedition. He alone survived, taking shelter in some complex he found in the peaks."
],
[
"26\u201330",
"Fey woods surround the foothills of the Barrier Peaks. A dryad queen once ruled there, and her grave is now hidden among the trees. Beware, for those trees remain guarded by sprites that still honor her."
],
[
"31\u201345",
"Aye, most folk know of Kwalish's most famous realized design, the apparatus that bears his name. But sages and arcanists know of other designs he drafted, including one for a mechanical container that could keep a brain alive long after a creature's death."
],
[
"46\u201350",
"{@i Kwalish never really existed. The inventor who went by that name was really a construct, created by Ioun to walk among mortals and study our ways. If you want to find the Kwalish construct, you need to first find a temple to Ioun}."
],
[
"51\u201365",
"A monastery is hidden somewhere in the Barrier Peaks, though its followers care little for piety. Criminals, they are, using the peaks as a secure hideout. It's said that markings carved into the mountains have been left by these criminals to help point the way to their lair."
],
[
"66\u201370",
"{@i The Barrier Peaks are unstable. The city of Daoine Gloine was destroyed in an {@spell earthquake}, and so was Kwalish's expedition. There's no path now to find the place, unless you fancy a trip to the Elemental Plane of Earth and sacrifice there to Ogrémoch.}"
],
[
"71\u201380",
"Daoine Gloine was found in the Barrier Peaks, all right, but it's long been deserted. Its last residents left ages ago, though a few of their descendants are said to scratch out a meager existence along the old mountain passes."
],
[
"81\u201386",
"{@i The way to reach Daoine Gloine isn't through any pass in the peaks. You'll need to access the right combination of controls on the} Machine of Lum the Mad, {@i and only then will a portal to the city open}."
],
[
"87\u201395",
"Daoine Gloine took its name from the monster kept there by the city's priests. They would sacrifice victims to the medusa {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK}, using the bodies of those poor victims as the city's statuary."
],
[
"96\u201300",
"Kwalish's grand experiment? I've heard tell of a suit of armor as powerful as it is cursed. Whoever dons the suit channels powerful magic, but must fuel its capabilities with their own body's vitality."
]
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Reaching the Peaks",
"page": 7,
"id": "028",
"entries": [
"The Cartophile's maps and notes guide the characters from their starting location into the Barrier Peaks, leading them as far as a series of caverns that Kwalish's original expedition believed would provide a shortcut to Daoine Gloine. From wherever the characters start, it takes a journey of several weeks to reach the foothills of the peaks. You might consider adding a few wilderness encounters along the way, especially within the thick band of woods that surrounds the pass leading up and into the mountains, and which is infused with elements of the Feywild. See {@adventure appendix A|LLK|4}, \"Random Encounters,\" for more information.",
"If you don't want to incorporate random encounters into the journey to the Barrier Peaks, read the following:",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "029",
"entries": [
"The mountains of the Barrier Peaks have grown steadily closer as you near the end of weeks of travel, making use of the old notes and maps of Kwalish's failed expedition. Traversing a thick band of woods over the past several days, you've dealt with troublesome sprites by day and swarms of blood-sucking stirges by night. But finally, the trees begin to thin out as you enter the rocky foothills of the range.",
"Exactly as indicated on the original expedition's map, you find a cleft in the rocks that leads to the start of a twisting tunnel complex. As you prepare to enter, you bid farewell to the world of life and light as you leave it behind you..."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Trinkets from the Barrier Peaks",
"page": 7,
"id": "02a",
"entries": [
"See the {@item Barrier Peaks Trinket|LLK|items page entry}."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Part 2: Monastery of the Distressed Body",
"page": 8,
"id": "02b",
"entries": [
"The known route of Kwalish's original expedition ends at the series of tunnels leading into the Barrier Peaks, with no sense of how that long-lost company proceeded. However, recent carvings have been etched into these tunnels in thieves' cant and Infernal, marking the route to the monastery for new recruits. The markings can be spotted with a successful DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check, and list the names of individual outlaws that have passed through. They also make reference to something called \"the Monastery of the Distressed Body\" and its \"Grand Master,\" who supposedly offers shelter and protection to all those who submit to their authority.",
"Additional symbols also mark out the correct route through the labyrinthine tunnels to area C1. If those markings are deciphered with a successful DC 12 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) check, the characters can traverse the tunnels in a few hours. Otherwise, it takes a day or more to reach the cliff edge, and the characters face a greater number of potential random encounters as a prelude to arriving at the monastery. See {@adventure appendix A|LLK|4} for more information.",
{
"type": "inset",
"name": "Scaling Options",
"page": 11,
"id": "02c",
"entries": [
"This adventure is designed for characters of 5th to 10th level. For lower-level parties, you can adjust the adventure as follows:",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Part 1: Mission to the Barrier Peaks",
"page": 11,
"id": "02d",
"entries": [
"Make sure the party has at least two of the NPCs with them. Then downplay those NPCs' secret agendas as needed to increase their party loyalty."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Part 2: Monastery of the Distressed Body",
"page": 11,
"id": "02e",
"entries": [
"For encounters built around five monks led by an elder monk, use three monks led by an elder monk instead. You can also limit those attending any audience in the central abbey to just the elder monks."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Part 3: The Ooze-Flooded City",
"page": 11,
"id": "02f",
"entries": [
"Adjust the ooze-folk so that {@dice 1d4} of those defenders activate only every 20 minutes, and within 50 to 100 feet of the characters."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Appendix D: Magic Items",
"page": 11,
"id": "030",
"entries": [
"As a reminder, many items listed in the appendix\u2014even though thematic to the adventure\u2014are not level appropriate. The appendix offers advice for limiting their use."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Cliff-Side Approach",
"page": 10,
"id": "031",
"entries": [
"Whether following the monks' symbols or finding their own route through the caverns, the characters eventually emerge on a narrow cliff ledge overlooking an impossibly deep bowl-shaped valley within the Barrier Peaks.",
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"type": "insetReadaloud",
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"entries": [
"Floating hundreds of feet in the air at the center of the valley is a large island of rock. Enormous chimney-engines extend from the bottom of this island, burning with fitful, deep-red fires that appear to keep the island aloft. A series of odd structures rise from the rock, appearing almost like metallic crystals.",
"Farther down the cliff-side ledge is a flat metal dock, on which reclines a feline monstrosity with a female humanoid head\u2014a regal gynosphinx. A matching dock is thrust out from the floating rock island across from this dock, but there is no obvious way to cross the hundreds of feet of open space between them."
]
},
"The floating island is all that remains of the planar craft that crashed into the mountains eons ago. The force of its impact created this valley and nearly destroyed the craft. But when it tried to escape the crash site, the planar craft tore away the massive chunk of rock it was embedded into. For centuries, its damaged engines have allowed it to maintain a fixed location in the air, but they aren't strong enough to ascend any higher.",
"Before the characters can attempt any crossing to the monastery, they must contend with the guardian waiting for them in area C2."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "C2. Enhanced Sphinx",
"page": 10,
"id": "034",
"entries": [
"Sitting regally on the metallic dock, this enhanced sphinx protects the approach to the monastery. It intervenes in any attempt to fly or otherwise cross to the floating island, but negotiates for passage if the characters speak to it.",
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"entries": [
"The gynosphinx appears to have suffered ancient injuries to its head, which have healed and been replaced by mechanical components. Both the creature's eyes are now glowing blue lenses, and its head is orbited by a number of spinning metallic devices. \"Entreat with me,\" the sphinx says, \"if you wish to cross to the monastery. You do not appear entirely ignorant, and I look forward to adding whatever small knowledge you might possess to my collection.\""
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "036",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creature",
"page": 11,
"id": "037",
"entries": [
"Originally wounded in an encounter that nearly destroyed Kwalish's expedition, the enhanced sphinx was subsequently repaired with magical-mechanical parts\u2014and (unknown to it) programmed by Kwalish to serve his needs and guard this location. The sphinx's head is also surrounded by a series of mechanical devices that function as {@item Ioun Stone|LLK|Ioun stones}, which add to its vast knowledge. The enhanced sphinx is a {@creature Gynosphinx}, with these changes:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"Its Intelligence score is 24 (+7).",
"It has a +1 bonus to Intelligence checks and Intelligence saving throws.",
"It can speak and understand all languages."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "The Sphinx's Riddle",
"page": 11,
"id": "038",
"entries": [
"Instead of asking a traditional riddle that the characters must solve, the enhanced sphinx demands that they ask a question that it cannot answer. This could be a riddle, a secret, a logical contradiction, or any other question\u2014but the sphinx warns the characters that with all the knowledge it has collected throughout the years, it knows the answer to every question. If it fails to answer, the characters are allowed to cross to the island without paying the toll.",
"With its enhanced knowledge, the sphinx can correctly answer almost any question. To simulate this around the table, you might challenge the players to stump you as the DM with a riddle or trivia question. This might be something inherent to their characters' own knowledge, or something completely outside the context of the game. If this is a question pertaining to the real world, you might tell the players in advance that you'll make use of the Internet with a 30-second time limit to mimic the sphinx's vast knowledge base. If this is a game-world question, you can instead let the sphinx attempt a DC 15 Intelligence check to answer the question, with advantage on the check (and look for further options in {@adventure appendix B|LLK|5}).",
"Each time the enhanced sphinx successfully answers a question, it demands that the characters pay the toll to cross: either one character's Intelligence score permanently decreases by 1, or two characters each have another ability score of their choice permanently decrease by 1. This toll is magically extracted immediately, and manifests as another of the sphinx's mechanical {@item Ioun stone|LLK}-like devices. This curse can be removed only by a {@spell remove curse} spell cast by an 18th-level spellcaster, by defeating the enhanced sphinx in combat, or through mechanisms found in Kwalish's lab in Daoine Gloine (see area O7)."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Dock",
"page": 11,
"id": "039",
"entries": [
"Created by Kwalish, this structure is built so that a ferry summoned from the monastery slots into it, allowing characters to easily board. An identical dock juts out from the edge of the flying island."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 11,
"id": "03a",
"entries": [
"If the sphinx is defeated in combat, most of its mechanical {@item Ioun Stone|LLK|Ioun stones} shatter, reversing the effects of the sphinx's tolls on all characters. Additionally, two {@item Ioun Stone|LLK|Ioun stones} survive and can be claimed. (If she is with the party, {@creature Mary Greymalkin|LLK} covets these magical-mechanical devices, and turns against the characters if doing so helps her claim them.) Choose these two unique stones from the new examples in {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7}."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "C3. Ferry Service",
"page": 11,
"id": "03b",
"entries": [
"The flying ferry is summoned from the monastery's dock at the sphinx's mental command, crossing over to the cliff ledge. The ferry also comes if the sphinx is killed, adhering to the Grand Master's orders that any powerful visitors are to be brought to the devil's attention. Alternatively, the Grand Master might send over a squad of five monks ({@creature Cultist||Cultists}) led by an elder monk ({@creature Cult Fanatic}) to investigate the sphinx's death and assess the characters' potential threat.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "03c",
"entries": [
"A pulse of fire marks something igniting at the edge of the floating island, alongside its distant dock. Something detaches and floats smoothly towards you\u2014a flying skiff piloted by a hooded figure."
]
},
"The ferry is operated by a {@creature Merrenoloth|MTF} (originally from {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}). It is crafted from laboratory debris attached to a small engine similar to the large engines holding the monastery aloft. The skiff can ferry up to ten Medium creatures at one time, and can be controlled automatically by the merrenoloth, {@creature Gearbox|LLK} the modron, or a rescued brain in a jar (see area M8). A character can decipher the controls of a skiff with a successful DC 15 Intelligence check, allowing that character to control it. A skiff also requires at least one fully charged energy cell from the treasury (area M10) for fuel.",
"The merrenoloth stays silent, but any character who succeeds on a DC 14 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check to glimpse beneath its hood sees a skeletal face. (The character can later note the resemblance between this visage and the monastery's flayed monks.)"
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "C4. Valley Floor",
"page": 12,
"id": "03d",
"entries": [
"If any character is unfortunate enough to fall from the cliff, the other characters quickly lose sight of them in a light mist that covers the valley floor. Any subsequent search for a body comes up empty\u2014because a floating teleportation-field device (see the sidebar) zooms around the bottom of the valley, and automatically teleports the falling character into the prison cells at area M6."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "The Monastery",
"page": 12,
"id": "03e",
"entries": [
"The crashed planar craft still makes up most of the monastery's general structure, having been long ago converted into Kwalish's first laboratory, then converted again into this present sinister site. The overall sense of the place\u2014as evidenced in the alien geometries of its buildings and its exposed technology\u2014should be one of a brooding, otherworldly environ where nothing feels quite right.",
"Over long years, the monastery has drawn hundreds of dark recruits to its hidden location, through both whispered rumor and dark outreach to criminals seeking refuge from the law. Though the vast majority of those recruits have perished or been imprisoned at the hands of the Grand Master, twenty-five monks\u2014all a motley assemblage of evil humanoids\u2014currently occupy various areas of the monastery. All wear cowled robes to conceal their features, which can be seen only if a monk is forced to unmask, or if a watchful character gets close to a monk and succeeds on a DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check. Any monk whose face is seen shows an identical grim countenance\u2014a face flayed nearly to the bone, the result of a brutal initiation to better match the appearance of the Grand Master.",
"Wherever they are initially stationed, the monks all gather together if a general alarm is sounded, or to witness an audience in the central abbey (area M3). Each monk is a {@creature Cultist} that carries a smaller version of a bone devil's hooked polearm (see the sidebar in the \"Bone Devil\" section in the {@book Monster Manual|MM}), typically disguised as a staff or tool:",
{
"type": "entries",
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{
"type": "entries",
"id": "040",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Hooked Polearm",
"page": 12,
"id": "041",
"entries": [
"{@i Melee Weapon Attack}: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. {@i Hit}: 4 ({@dice 1d6 + 1}) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is {@condition grappled} (escape DC 10). Until this grapple ends, the monk cannot use its polearm on another target.",
"In addition, each group of five monks is led by an elder monk. These are {@creature Cult Fanatic||Cult Fanatics} that have outfitted their polearms with laser weapons secured from the monastery's stores of technology. These weapons are notoriously ineffective against polished metal armor and shields, which reflect their laser bolts:"
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Force Pike",
"page": 12,
"id": "042",
"entries": [
"{@i Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack}: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 40/100 ft., one creature. {@i Hit}: 7 ({@dice 1d10 + 2}) force damage. The attack has disadvantage against any target with polished metal armor or shield, and has its ranged halved when firing through smoke or fog.",
"A force pike uses an energy cell (see area M10), expending one charge for each successful attack. If claimed as treasure, a pike's cell holds {@dice 2d10} remaining charges. If you prefer not to have such weapons fall into the hands of the characters, then whenever an elder monk is defeated, its force pike automatically overheats and explodes.",
{
"type": "inset",
"name": "Teleportation-Field Devices",
"page": 12,
"id": "043",
"entries": [
"One of the more impressive bits of technology from the crashed planar craft, teleportation-field devices consist of two matched magical-mechanical rings. Both rings channel the power of teleportation and flight, and were originally used to undertake repairs on the outside of the craft, handle dangerous substances at a distance, and so forth.",
"When a creature passes an arm or other appendage into one ring, that appendage appears to emerge from the other ring, no matter how far apart the devices are. The second device has a flying speed of 40 feet, and can be flown remotely under the creature's control as part of its own movement. The remote device also grants the creature a sensory awareness of the area around it. This allows the appendage to be used normally, so that the creature can undertake any activity remotely that it could accomplish close up, including making physical ability checks and attacks.",
"Because they are linked to the planar craft, teleportation-field devices function only in the monastery and in Daoine Gloine (where Kwalish has used the magical-mechanical technology of the craft to set up his new lab). If the characters manage to secure a pair of such devices, you can let the players come up with novel ways to make use of them in those locations (assigning appropriate Intelligence checks if you want to make the process difficult). However, they can't be claimed as treasure."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Roleplaying the Monks",
"page": 12,
"id": "044",
"entries": [
"The Monastery of the Distressed Body has been secretly drawing in outlaws for decades. As such, you might add to the ranks of the monks with any number of villainous NPCs the players have heard about, or even foes that slipped through their clutches in years past. Sir Bluto Sans Pite from White Plume Mountain in {@adventure Tales from the Yawning Portal|TftYP-WPM} is a good candidate, as are Faroul and Gondolo from Port Nyanzaru in {@i Tomb of Annihilation}.",
"The monks do not interfere as the characters initially explore the monastery, and they keep their cowls down if they are approached. They say little about the workings of the place, but vaguely hint at how newcomers will be welcome to either join their \"immured brothers\" (the prisoners in area M6) or the \"enlightened ones\" (the brains in jars in the control room of area M8). They readily direct characters toward the Grand Master in the central abbey (area M3). If the monks are harassed, or if the characters spend too much time exploring on their own, Lean Meimbaol from area M1 arrives to personally escort them to the abbey.",
"If combat breaks out, the monks all reveal their true natures, and attempt to overwhelm and capture the characters."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Prisoners of the Monastery",
"page": 12,
"id": "045",
"entries": [
"Some thirty humanoid prisoners ({@creature Commoner||Commoners}) are held in the monastery. All have had their faces flayed to make them barely distinguishable from the monks. Most work in the engine room (area M5) during the day, and are penned together at night in the cells of area M6. A smaller group of more dangerous humanoids has been permanently imprisoned in that same area.",
"Several of the prisoners are survivors from previous expeditions sent into the Barrier Peaks by the Cartophile. They recognize any of the hirelings with the characters, or any other signs of the Cartophile's patronage (maps, notebooks, and so forth). Once contact has been made, they look to help the characters\u2014especially if this also leads to their own escape. However, most of the other prisoners are former monks that tried to leave or otherwise got into trouble, and they look to curry favor with their captors by reporting subversive activity."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Locations in the Monastery",
"page": 13,
"id": "046",
"entries": [
"The following locations are identified on the map on page 9.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M1. Monastery Dock",
"page": 13,
"id": "047",
"entries": [
"The merrenoloth's ferry departs from and arrives at this metallic dock. As the characters arrive, an elder monk named Lean Meimbaol greets them.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "048",
"entries": [
"A figure dressed as a hooded monk stands beside the dock, awaiting your arrival. Though he does not lower his cowl, he greets you warmly.",
"\"Congratulations on your finding us! The Monastery of the Distressed Body remains ever open to new prospects. I am sure the Grand Master will find suitable use for your bodies... or your minds. May I take you to him now?\""
]
},
"If the characters agree, they are brought to the central abbey (area M3). If they demure or refuse, Lean Meimbaol does not interfere with their exploration of the monastery. However, he does issue a subtle warning.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "049",
"entries": [
"\"It makes no difference, really. All who come here find their way to the Grand Master... eventually.\""
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M2. Monastery Grounds",
"page": 13,
"id": "04a",
"entries": [
"At the surface level of the floating rock island, the monastery is laid out as a large campus composed of sharp-angled buildings. These jut out of the ground like massive metallic crystals, with scraggly gardens set between them and paths winding throughout. Five monks led by an elder can be found here, silently going about the business of gardening, observing prayers, scrubbing flagstones, and other mundane activities.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "04b",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Dark Tidings",
"page": 13,
"id": "04c",
"entries": [
"With a successful DC 12 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) or Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check made to quietly search or inspect the area, a character learns a number of things regarding the monastery's darker nature. Graffiti scratched into the walls in thieves' cant and Infernal reveals dire sentiments regarding how the doubtful are punished, and how only service to the monastery can keep it aloft. In addition, the original metal of the structures here has been melted and reworked in many places into a preponderance of leering skulls.",
"With a successful check result of 16 or higher, characters note that strange wiring runs throughout the grounds, seeming to connect all the buildings together, and originating in area M8 (the control room)."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 13,
"id": "04d",
"entries": [
"If the check result is 14 or higher, a character catches sight or warning of magically animated leather faces (from area M7, the leather works) lurking around the most shadowy corners of the grounds. These unnatural creatures flutter away if any characters approach them, but they attack if pressed. Treat any group of leather faces as a {@creature Swarm of Bats}, and see the leather works (area M7) for more information."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M3. Central Abbey",
"page": 13,
"id": "04e",
"entries": [
"Visible from across the monastery grounds, the planar craft's former main conning tower rises several hundred feet into the air. It now serves as the monastery's central abbey.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "04f",
"entries": [
"A massive pair of cathedral doors open onto a long nave. Rows of balconies line the walls, occupied by a couple of dozen hooded monks seemingly come to watch the audience about to take place.",
"At the far end of the nave, a throne resembling a twisted metal captain's chair rises from a metallic dais backed by an ornate arch. There sits the Grand Master of the Distressed Body\u2014a bone devil flanked by two massive bodyguards. The Grand Master wears a patchwork leather robe and a gleaming crown, and it carries a scepter set with odd crystal bumps and metal flanges. With its other hand, the devil taps the arm of the throne, showing off nails set with gleaming metallic shards.",
"\"Welcome,\" the Grand Master says. \"We get few supplicants here of your obvious experience and skill. You shall do well in service here at the monastery. But will that service be with the strength of your bodies or the strength of your minds?\""
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "050",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "The Grand Master",
"page": 13,
"id": "051",
"entries": [
"As the characters draw closer to the Grand Master, anyone can see that the devil's horrid leather cloak is crafted from the faces of flayed monks and prisoners, the flesh cured to leather and roughly stitched together. The scepter and crown it bears appear almost mechanical in nature, and are crafted from repurposed magical-mechanical parts from the planar craft. Large rings seemingly crafted in the same way encircle the devil's arms and tail.",
"If a monk escorted the characters here, the Grand Master makes an example of that servitor for allowing weapons to be brought into its holy presence. Otherwise, the Grand Master is making an example of a random monk when the characters enter this area. In either event, the devil's elder monk bodyguards (see below) are ordered to strike with their exotic weapons, executing the errant monk while the Grand Master welcomes the characters.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/009-extraalife_bonedevil.webp"
},
"width": 3324,
"height": 2980,
"credit": "Shawn Wood"
},
"The bone devil is an arrogant bully, and assumes that the characters have come to join its cult. However, it also comes across as whiny and petulant, reliant on the protection of its bodyguards rather than making any physical threats. If asked about Kwalish, the Grand Master gladly recounts how it took over the floating island and drove Kwalish to a second location\u2014some lost city farther into the Barrier Peaks.",
"The devil has seen Kwalish's notes (found in the treasury, area M10), which confirm that the inventor was intent on seeking the legendary city of Daoine Gloine. It offers to let the characters see them as well\u2014in exchange for the \"modest fee\" of all the characters' magic items, and one year of service from either the strongest or most intelligent character. (The devil is always in need of fresh servants to shovel fuel in the engine room, and fresh minds to replace the brains in the control room.) If the characters reject this offer, the Grand Master demands a year of service simply for the honor of the characters having visited the monastery, after which they are free to leave.",
"Any characters foolish enough to volunteer their service are taken to the leather works (area M7) to have their faces flayed. As soon as those characters are out of the abbey, the Grand Master orders the other adventurers to be murdered and looted. If it is attacked or its orders are openly defied, the bone devil orders the characters attacked at once. The Grand Master fights only if directly threatened, or if its bodyguards and monks appear to be losing the fight."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 14,
"id": "052",
"entries": [
"The Grand Master is a {@creature Bone Devil} with these changes:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"Shards of a {@item Vorpal Sword} once broken against the devil replace its claws. A successful DC 12 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) or Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check identifies them as such. When the devil rolls a 20 on an attack roll with a claw, the target is decapitated. (At your option, the attack can instead deal an extra {@dice 6d8} slashing damage.) A target is immune to this effect if it is immune to slashing damage, has legendary actions, doesn't have or need a head, or if you decide that the target is too large for its head to be cut off by the devil's claws. If removed, the shards lose their magical powers.",
"Local teleportation-field bracelets encircle the devil's arms and tail. These devices allow the Grand Master to make its claw and sting attacks remotely, though still on the devil's turn and using its actions."
]
},
"Two half-orc monks named {@creature East Wind|LLK} and {@creature West Wind|LLK} protect the Grand Master at all times. Each is a {@creature Martial Arts Adept|VGM} with these changes:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "{@item Polymorph Blade|LLK}",
"page": 14,
"id": "053",
"entries": [
"{@i Melee Weapon Attack}: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. {@i Hit}: 7 ({@dice 1d8 + 3}) piercing damage. If {@creature East Wind|LLK} rolls a 20 on the attack roll, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the effects of a {@i polymorph} spell."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "{@item Blade of the Medusa|LLK}",
"page": 14,
"id": "054",
"entries": [
"{@i Melee Weapon Attack}: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. {@i Hit}: 7 ({@dice 1d8 + 3}) piercing damage. If {@creature West Wind|LLK} rolls a 20 on the attack roll, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer the effects of a {@i flesh to stone} spell."
]
}
]
},
"The Grand Master makes for a difficult fight on its own, and the addition of bodyguards and monks targeting characters from the balconies could quickly overwhelm a party. You might opt to have the Grand Master reveal some of the workings of the monastery through its boasting\u2014specifically, the existence of the treasury and the brains in jars guarding its access. Doing so might encourage characters to escape in that direction during the commotion of a fight.",
"If the characters are overwhelmed, the Grand Master looks to have them captured rather than killed, as the devil is ever in need of fresh servants. Captured characters are taken to the cells in area M6, where you can create escape scenarios for them of your own devising."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Death of the Grand Master",
"page": 15,
"id": "055",
"entries": [
"If the Grand Master is slain, the bone devil is revealed to be an advanced ruse\u2014a war machine of Kwalish's design, piloted by a particularly ingenious {@creature Quasit} named Whazzit. The original bone devil met its demise after Kwalish's exile, when it was drawn into the laboratory's machinery while trying to convert the planar craft into the monastery. This rendered the devil into the treasury's brain in a jar. In the aftermath, the Grand Master's servant Whazzit discovered Kwalish's war machine designs and managed to construct it using the bone devil's exoskeleton. The tiny fiend has kept up this pretense for years, piloting this exoskeleton in the guise of the Grand Master. If the Grand Master's true nature is discovered, the quasit immediately surrenders and any remaining monks quickly and chaotically revolt. They'll begin looting, abandon work in the engine room, and eventually attempt to flee."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Throne Gate",
"page": 15,
"id": "056",
"entries": [
"The throne is an assemblage of magical-mechanical parts backed by a standing metallic arch set with complex filigree. The armrests of the throne are set with a complicated array of instruments, though many of the controls have been stripped away. (The throne was once the control center of the archway\u2014the gate Kwalish opened to the Nine Hells, crafted from the technology of the crashed planar craft.)",
"A character who sits on the throne notes that many of its instruments are still operational, allowing them to track the comings and goings of the merrenoloth's ferry. If a creature seated in the throne wears the bone devil's crown and holds its scepter, that creature can attempt a DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check to reopen the archway. Treat a successful check as if the character had cast the {@spell gate} spell to open a gate to the Nine Hells."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 15,
"id": "057",
"entries": [
"The crown and scepter are crafted of rare metal alloys and set with jeweled crystalline buttons plundered from the planar craft's instrument panels. They have no magical power outside the monastery and the city of Daoine Gloine (see area O4), but if sold as art objects, the crown is worth 500 gp and the scepter is worth 750 gp."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M4. Dormitories",
"page": 15,
"id": "058",
"entries": [
"When not on duty, the monks reside in this series of ill-kept rooms.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "059",
"entries": [
"Each of these dormitory cells contains only a bed, a trunk for personal effects, and a table. All are crafted of scrap parts from the complex mechanical detritus of the monastery, and feature residual buttons, dials, and meters that have no discernible purpose. The walls here are covered in graffiti, suggesting a steady series of new residents over long years."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "05a",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 15,
"id": "05b",
"entries": [
"A group of five monks led by an elder monk can be found here at any time, sleeping, eating, and taking part in decidedly non-monastic activities (gambling, flinging chamber pots at one another, comparing dueling scars, plotting a way to rob the treasury, and so forth)."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 15,
"id": "05c",
"entries": [
"Though anything of value brought to or found in the monastery is meant for the treasury, the monks have managed to hide away some personal treasure. A successful DC 13 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) check discerns how the buttons and dials of the furnishings can be worked to access hidden compartments, revealing {@dice 10d10} gp worth of loose coins, three uncut sapphires (50 gp each), and a map showing the route to a cache of stolen goods hidden near a thieves guild in a city of your choice.",
"One cache also holds a Three-Dragon Ante deck with one card enchanted to appear as whatever specific card its owner commands. This magic works only 25 percent of the time, but the deck is worth 500 gp to any serious gambler who doesn't mind the risk\u2014or who isn't told about it."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M5. Engine Room",
"page": 15,
"id": "05d",
"entries": [
"This area contains the magical workings of the monastery's engines.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "05e",
"entries": [
"This massive chamber is filled with the deafening hum and roar of machinery. Piles of rough rock ore are spread throughout the area, around which a prisoner work gang toils in the sweltering heat. Smooth metallic columns rise to the ceiling, with open hatches set into their sides at ground level. Haggard prisoners frantically shovel ore into these hatches, which pulse with a deep-red glow. As you watch, a prisoner collapses from {@condition exhaustion}. Under orders from the overseeing monks, other workers toss his body out of the way into a corner for a quick and callous disposal."
]
},
"The fuel originally carried by the planar craft has long been exhausted, and prisoners now shovel low-grade ore mined from the surrounding mountains into the furnaces beneath this area. The powerful fires of those furnaces keep the monastery in the air, and instantly destroy anything thrown into their open vents.",
"If ore ceases to be fed to the furnaces (most likely due to the characters freeing the prisoners here and breaking the Grand Master's power) the engines begin to fail over a 24-hour period. When the furnaces stop burning after that point, the monastery plunges into the valley to be destroyed, along with any creatures still inside it.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "05f",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 15,
"id": "060",
"entries": [
"Five monks led by an elder oversee a group of twenty prisoners toiling to keep the engines burning and the monastery aloft. If the monks are dealt with and the prisoners are freed, they can fill the characters in on the layout of the monastery. All the prisoners are desperate to escape the monastery before its engines fail. They can steal a skiff and follow the marked trails out of the Barrier Peaks if left to their own devices."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M6. Prison Cells",
"page": 16,
"id": "061",
"entries": [
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "062",
"entries": [
"This area is lined with boxlike metal cells, all built of the same strange materials seen elsewhere in the monastery. Most of the cells are empty, but shouts and a sound of creatures hammering on locked doors are heard from a few."
]
},
"Any prisoners not working in the engine room or mining the ore fed to the engines (see \"{@area Cavern Encounters|0b9|x}\" in {@adventure appendix A|LLK|4}) are kept here, as are any prisoners that are sick or injured but still able to move under their own power. As well, a group of prisoners deemed too dangerous to work but too valuable to kill have been designated \"immured ones\" and incarcerated here, where the monks attempt to break their wills and return them to servitude.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "063",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Cells",
"page": 16,
"id": "064",
"entries": [
"The cells are all repurposed metal containers from the planar craft, and are all locked. A character can pick a cell's lock with a successful DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves' tools. The metal of the cells is especially susceptible to the planar craft's technology, allowing a lock to be automatically sliced open with an attack from an elder monk's force pike.",
"Characters who fall to the valley floor (area C4) from area C1 or area M9 are picked up by a floating teleportation-field device (see the sidebar) and teleported into one of these locked cells."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 16,
"id": "065",
"entries": [
"Five monks led by an elder monk guard the prisoners here. The elder monk carries keys to all the cells. The ten prisoners are humanoid {@creature Commoner||Commoners}, most of which require healing in order to speak coherently or walk on their own. If the monks are dealt with, freed prisoners can fill the characters in on the layout of the monastery. If the engines are set to fail, all the prisoners will be desperate to escape the monastery before its fall. If freed in any event, they can steal a skiff and follow the marked trails out of the Barrier Peaks if left to their own devices."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Immured Ones",
"page": 16,
"id": "066",
"entries": [
"These three unfortunate prisoners have been driven mad by their incarceration and abuse. If freed, each attacks the nearest target unless a character succeeds on a DC 12 Charisma ({@skill Persuasion}) check. A successful check causes the immured ones to run off and attempt to escape.",
"Treat each immured one as a {@creature Berserker} with these changes:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"Its greataxe attack is replaced with a shackling chains attack, using the same modifiers but dealing bludgeoning damage.",
"While in sunlight, an immured one has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) checks that rely on sight."
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M7. Leather Works",
"page": 16,
"id": "067",
"entries": [
"The planar craft's medical station has been repurposed into a torture chamber by the Grand Master. Here, new arrivals are flayed to take on the bone devil's own ghastly image.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "068",
"entries": [
"This chamber resembles some horrid combination of a tanner's, an alchemist's, and a butcher's. Knives and other implements lie scattered about, razor sharp and streaked with blood and gore. Bottles and canisters of preserving chemicals are heaped up on tables and shelves, many of them leaking or spilled. Barrels identifiable by their sharp smell as powerful tanning acids stand open against the walls, beneath rows of hanging chains.",
"A limp, leather-clad figure is curled against the wall beneath the chains. Another figure lies strapped to a table, showing no sign of injury but surrounded by a group of monks that appear to be preparing for some horrid ceremony. Hanging on the walls around the table are a number of grotesque leather masks."
]
},
"The leather masks that hang around the room are the flayed faces of monks and prisoners, recognizable as such with a successful DC 13 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check or by any character who has seen the horrid leather robe worn by the Grand Master.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "069",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 16,
"id": "06a",
"entries": [
"Five monks led by an elder are all sharpening tools and preparing to flay the flesh from the face of a new recruit to the monastery. They attack at the first sign of intruders, with the magically animated leather faces detaching from the walls to attack alongside them. Treat all the faces as a {@creature Swarm of Bats}."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 16,
"id": "06b",
"entries": [
"Any inspection or a successful DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check reveals that the leather-clad figure on the floor is actually a suit of {@item Leather Golem Armor|LLK}. See {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7} for more information."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Development",
"page": 16,
"id": "06c",
"entries": [
"If any leather mask is placed on the face of a flayed prisoner while that prisoner is targeted by healing magic, the magic of the mask is undone and the prisoner's original face is restored."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M8. Control Room",
"page": 16,
"id": "06d",
"entries": [
"This central area once served as the bridge of the planar craft.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "06e",
"entries": [
"This area is a maze of damaged controls and broken machinery. Countless wires twist their way across the walls, erupting from control panels that have been pulled apart to lay bare their internal components. Five clear canisters connected by metal tubing and wires line the walls, each one filled with viscous fluid\u2014and what appears to be a humanoid brain."
]
},
"Any wires spotted by the characters in area M2 all eventually end up here. An inspection of the room and its control panels show that most of the magical-mechanical components once here have been stripped out. These were worked into Kwalish's original experiments or otherwise repurposed.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "06f",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 16,
"id": "070",
"entries": [
"These horrid undead are the monastery's so-called \"enlightened ones.\" Through the technology of the planar craft and Kwalish's experimentation, each {@b brain in a jar} has been chained to the others to form a hive-mind consciousness, even as each retains its individual voice. Working together, the brains maintain the monastery's technical operations. Each brain is also responsible for two of the floating disks that lead out to the treasury (see area M9, \"Floating Bridge\"), each of which is kept active by default.",
"Each brain speaks Common and another language of your choice, and is able to communicate from within its canister. Some identify themselves as members of Kwalish's original expedition, while others are wizards and other spellcasters enslaved by the monks."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Lore and Information",
"page": 17,
"id": "071",
"entries": [
"With respectful discussion and a successful DC 12 Charisma ({@skill Persuasion}) check, a brain can be enticed to reveal its knowledge of Kwalish and his initial expedition. All of Kwalish's companions died at the hands of the sphinx, but the inventor managed to harvest their brains in order to return them to a semblance of life. Kwalish promised to research a means of finding new bodies for his fallen companions, but was driven away by the Grand Master before he could complete this task. The brains suspect that Kwalish traveled onward to Daoine Gloine, and though they don't know the route, they do know that Kwalish's journal from their original expedition can be found in the treasury (area M10).",
"If the check result is 14 or higher, the characters also learn that the brains have control over the floating disks leading to the treasury, and that they are ordered to deactivate the disks if anyone other than the Grand Master attempts to cross them. They also reveal the existence of the {@spell antimagic field} surrounding the treasury (see area M10 for more information).",
"If the check result is 16 or higher, the characters learn of a final, more powerful brain sequestered within the treasury. However, the brains in this area can only speculate on who that brain once belonged to, its state of mind, and what it controls."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Negotiating with the Brains",
"page": 17,
"id": "072",
"entries": [
"The brains in their jars are currently engaged in running the monastery, and each deactivates the floating disks it controls in response to any attempt by the characters to enter the treasury. However, the brains can be {@condition charmed}, intimidated, cajoled, or negotiated with to keep their floating disks active. If the characters negotiate poorly, or if any brains are destroyed, certain disks deactivate\u2014and reaching the treasury becomes a greater challenge.",
"In order to persuade the brains to keep all the floating disks active, the characters must succeed on five DC 15 Charisma ({@skill Deception}, {@skill Intimidation}, or {@skill Persuasion}) checks. Any character proficient in these skills can attempt a check or use the {@action Help} action to provide advantage on another character's check. For each failure, one brain deactivates both its disks.",
"If the players enjoy extended dialog and more social encounters, you can have them interact with each brain separately. With a successful DC 12 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) or Wisdom ({@skill Insight}) check, a character talking to a brain discovers its specific knowledge (see the table below), including which skill has the best chance to convince a brain to keep its disks active. If that check is subsequently failed, both of that specific brain's disks are deactivated.",
"If brain number 2 or any three other brains are destroyed or disconnected, the monastery's systems begin to fail over a 24-hour period. When those systems fail completely after that point, the monastery plunges into the valley to be destroyed, along with any creatures still inside it."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Gearbox to the Rescue",
"page": 17,
"id": "073",
"entries": [
"If {@creature Gearbox|LLK} the modron is with the party, one character can attempt a DC 12 Dexterity check to connect the construct to the controls in this area. Successfully doing so overrides all the brains in jars and keeps all the floating disks active. However, doing so instills {@creature Gearbox|LLK} with a greater sense of purpose, after which it refuses to disconnect. The modron thereafter integrates its consciousness into the monastery's, running its systems as its new integrated mind."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Brains in Jars",
"page": 17,
"id": "074",
"entries": [
{
"type": "table",
"colLabels": [
"Brain (Name)",
"Disks",
"Knowledge",
"Area of Control",
"Ability Check to Deal With"
],
"rows": [
[
"1 (Alton)",
"3 and 9",
"The true, evil nature of the monks and the Grand Master; the story of how the Grand Master first came to power",
"Dormitories; can lock and unlock the doors there",
"Charisma ({@skill Persuasion}); the brain is eager to please"
],
[
"2 (Broderick)",
"2 and 7",
"The story of Kwalish's escape from the monastery; the existence of a second lab",
"Engine room; can overcharge the engines over a period of 1 hour to cause an explosion and crash the monastery",
"Charisma ({@skill Intimidation}); the brain responds to shows of authority"
],
[
"3 (Corliss)",
"4 and 5",
"How the treasury is protected by an antimagic field",
"Control room; can activate a force field to seal off that area from the rest of the monastery",
"Charisma ({@skill Deception}); the brain is openly antagonistic but easy to fool"
],
[
"4 (Dunstan)",
"8 and 10",
"The true nature of the monastery as a crashed planar craft",
"Central abbey; can activate/deactivate the Grand Master's teleportation field bracelets",
"Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}); the brain seeks knowledgeable discussion of magical matters"
],
[
"5 (Editha)",
"1 and 6",
"The existence of a map to Kwalish's second lab, and its location in the treasury",
"Prison and leather works; can lock and unlock the doors there",
"Charisma ({@skill Performance}); the brain demands entertainment to alleviate its tedium"
]
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M9. Floating Bridge",
"page": 18,
"id": "075",
"entries": [
"The route to the treasury takes characters out across a series of ten magical floating disks\u2014all of which are suspended hundreds of feet in the open air above the valley floor. All the disks are kept active by default, unless they are specifically deactivated by one of the brains in jars in area M8. Each disk is identical to the effect created by a {@spell Tenser's floating disk} spell\u2014a circular, horizontal plane of force 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch thick. The disks are set in a line and spaced 5 feet apart. If any disks are deactivated, a not-insignificant leap is required to cross the empty space between them.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "076",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Antimagic Field",
"page": 18,
"id": "077",
"entries": [
"As a defense against intruders simply flying or teleporting across the gap, the exterior of the treasury is surrounded by a massive antimagic field, identical to the effect of the spell of the same name. Its radius extends to between the ninth and tenth disks, which are immune to the field's effect."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Valley Floor",
"page": 18,
"id": "078",
"entries": [
"If any character is unfortunate enough to fall while crossing the disks, they are teleported into the prison cells at area M6. See area C4 for more information.",
{
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{
"type": "entries",
"name": "M10. Treasury",
"page": 18,
"id": "079",
"entries": [
"This solitary building is set atop a small floating islet within an area of open space punched down through the main body of the monastery's island. It is held aloft on its own sputtering engine, and is largely filled with a heaping, tangled mass of wreckage. This consists of old machine parts from other areas of the monastery, broken relics of Kwalish's earliest experiments, dead energy cells, and the like.",
"The controls that operate the antimagic field are set into a wall and completely hidden behind a pile of junk. More piles of junk hide the monastery's treasure, including the journal from Kwalish's original expedition\u2014and a final brain in a jar.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "07a",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creature",
"page": 18,
"id": "07b",
"entries": [
"The brain in a jar in this area belongs to the bone devil that founded the monastery. It is in charge of the treasury engine, with its canister housed atop the actual engine mounting, rendering it immobile. While investigating the laboratory workings in this area, the devil inadvertently found its brain magically drawn into the jar, where it remains desperate to be reunited with its body.",
"As with the other brains in jars, this brain can be negotiated with. If a character succeeds on a DC 15 Charisma ({@skill Deception}, {@skill Intimidation}, or {@skill Persuasion}) check, the brain warns them of the risks of tampering with the journal (see below). It then negotiates for the characters' aid, claiming that only it can safely release the journal\u2014but offering to do so only in exchange for a body. Specifically, it demands that the body of the defeated Grand Master be brought to this area. If this is done, the brain can use the laboratory's equipment to return to its original body. Instead of being thankful, however, the devil turns against the characters at the first opportunity."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Kwalish's Journal",
"page": 18,
"id": "07c",
"entries": [
"The cover of Kwalish's journal is set with all manner of gears. A successful DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check confirms that these are not just decorative, but appear to be set in some sort of working order. The same check reveals that wires lead from the journal into another pile of junk, behind which stands the canister of the final brain in a jar.",
"If the journal is removed from this area, has its wires cut, or is opened, the gears on the cover deactivate the treasury engine, which begins to sputter. The characters have 3 rounds to flee this area before the treasury plunges down into the valley to be destroyed, along with any creatures still inside it.",
"The journal can be safely opened by the brain in a jar, or with a successful DC 18 Dexterity check using thieves' tools. Its pages detail how Kwalish continued his research into finding Daoine Gloine even after setting up his initial laboratory on the floating island. Using the notes and maps contained in the journal, the characters can find a route through the Barrier Peaks to Daoine Gloine. In addition, the journal provides plentiful evidence of Kwalish's fascination with extradimensional spaces, and talks about his hope of one day establishing a secure sanctum \"beyond the bounds of the world.\""
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Antimagic Controls",
"page": 18,
"id": "07d",
"entries": [
"It takes a successful DC 12 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) or Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check to find the controls, which appear to have been constructed from an augmented beholder's or astral dreadnought's eye set within a mechanical socket. A successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check or Dexterity check made with thieves' tools or tinker's tools allows a character to deactivate the antimagic field."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Gearbox to the Rescue",
"page": 18,
"id": "07e",
"entries": [
"As in the control room, if {@creature Gearbox|LLK} the modron is with the party, a character can attempt a DC 12 Dexterity check to help the construct override the brain's control of the treasury engine. Successfully doing so keeps the engine running, but {@creature Gearbox|LLK} is unable to disconnect as a result."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 19,
"id": "07f",
"entries": [
"All manner of goods and magic items collected by the monastery over long years can be found scattered throughout the junk in this area, including the following:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"Kwalish's journal, which has been promised to the Cartophile (but which is worth 750 gp if the characters decide to shop it elsewhere)",
"515 cp, 11,215 sp, 1,925 gp, and 85 pp stored in various containers and coffers",
"425 tiny gemstones worth 1 gp each, 44 small gemstones worth 10 gp each, 15 small gemstones worth 50 gp each, and a black pearl worth 500 gp",
"Three {@item Potion of Healing||potions of healing}, one {@item elixir of health}, and a {@item Manual of Flesh Golems||manual of golems (flesh)}.",
"An ornate wooden case carved with images of air and water elementals locked in furious battle, within which is a {@item Galder's Bubble Pipe|LLK|Galder's Bubble Pipe} (see {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7}).",
"A suit of {@item Heward's Hireling Armor|LLK|Heward's Hireling Armor} (see {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7}).",
"Components of value to tinkers, inventors, or artificers, worth 1,500 gp",
"Kwalish's lab notes, worth 2,000 gp from the Cartophile or any other sage"
]
},
"The components and notes left behind by Kwalish are also of potential value to the characters. These include instructions and raw materials for crafting artificial bodies for the brains in jars, constructing a flying craft useful for escaping the monastery and further exploration of the mountains, building an ambulatory craft capable of crawling up and down mountainous slopes to travel farther into the Barrier Peaks, and other tasks of your devising. Completing any such project requires a successful DC 18 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check or Dexterity check using thieves' tools or tinker's tools.",
"Alongside countless dead energy cells spread across this area, the characters find {@dice 1d6 + 4} charged cells, each holding 20 charges. These are useful for powering the elder monks' force pikes, or for temporarily powering a brain in a jar's canister so it can be detached from the monastery's power and moved elsewhere. Energy cells might also be used in devices the characters create (see above) or in the {@i powered armor} found in area O7. Energy cells cannot be recharged."
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Onward Journey",
"page": 19,
"id": "080",
"entries": [
"Kwalish's recovered journal and its notes on finding Daoine Gloine can be used to locate a series of mountain passes on the other side of the monastery's valley. These passes and trails lead to the legendary lost city after a journey of several weeks. Alternatively, the characters might want to use the technology found in the monastery to expedite the journey. A bit of bargaining\u2014or theft\u2014might gain the party the use of the merrenoloth's skiff. Or the characters could make use of Kwalish's notes to shape the components and energy cells of the treasury into a walking or flying vehicle. The use of a skiff or constructed vehicle cuts down the time it takes to reach Daoine Gloine, as you determine.",
"To reduce the travel time to the lost city to nothing, you might have Kwalish's notes provide instructions for reopening the planar archway in area M3. Instead of leading to the Nine Hells, the inventor's instructions open a gate directly to area O1 of Daoine Gloine.",
{
"type": "inset",
"name": "First Things Last",
"page": 19,
"id": "081",
"entries": [
"As the characters enter the Barrier Peaks, the adventure has the Cartophile's notes and maps directing them initially to the monastery that was once Kwalish's first laboratory. Hidden in the treasury of the monastery are further notes and lore that let the characters push on to Daoine Gloine. But you can easily reverse that setup by having the Cartophile's lore lead the characters straight to Daoine Gloine\u2014with the lost city set up as the site of Kwalish's first lab. Kwalish isn't there, but old lore and notes talk of how he was driven from the area by the ooze, and allow the characters to reach the monastery. There, Kwalish can be found as the final brain in a jar in the treasury (area M10). Alternatively, the Cartophile's material might lead the characters to the monastery, but also reveal caverns that continue past and provide a route straight to Daoine Gloine. Taking that route to find Kwalish in the city, the characters are asked by the inventor to help purge the monastery of the Grand Master and finally reunite the brains in jars with new bodies."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Part 3: The Ooze-Flooded City",
"page": 19,
"id": "082",
"entries": [
"When Kwalish found it, the legendary lost city of Daoine Gloine was already an isolated mountain settlement. After he took over, the inventor set about closing off any and all routes to the site. As such, as the characters follow the notes found in Kwalish's journal, they find that the narrow mountain passes begin to tighten around them the closer they come to the location where the city is said to be. Many of the passes, tunnels, and trails the characters follow are deliberately blocked off with rockslides and other unexplained disasters. The need to circumnavigate such areas accounts for much of the travel time to the city, unless the characters have arranged an alternative method of travel.",
"No matter how the characters are traveling, you might consider a few encounters within the mountain passes of the Barrier Peaks as a prelude to arriving at Daoine Gloine. See {@adventure appendix A|LLK|4} for more information.",
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Daoine Gloine",
"page": 19,
"id": "083",
"entries": [
"The city of Daoine Gloine has long been thought of as mere legend\u2014just another strange tale from the already-strange Barrier Peaks. Occasionally, travelers would return from the mountains with wild claims of having been lost in the peaks and visiting the city by accident. And though none of them could produce a full map showing the route they took, their stories all shared a common element\u2014that Daoine Gloine was populated by creatures made of living glass, tended to by kenku in love with those creatures' shining beauty. These occasional tales drove more explorers\u2014including Kwalish's own expedition\u2014to seek out the route to Daoine Gloine and learn the truth of who dwelled there.",
"As is often the case, the common tales had more sinister origins. In ages past, the kenku that inhabited the city captured a unique medusa\u2014{@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK}, whose gaze could transform victims into glass instead of stone. A cult of the medusa arose to worship the creature, which was effectively incarcerated within a central temple. Kenku priests brought regular sacrificial victims\u2014both willing and unwilling\u2014to stand before the medusa's gaze. And when {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} died, the kenku raised her in undeath to prolong their cult, continuing to fill their city with glass statues.",
"After Kwalish fled his first laboratory, he used the initial research of his expedition to eventually make his way to Daoine Gloine. But instead of being welcomed and allowed to work in peace, Kwalish found the city's evil high priest threatening to transform him into Daoine Gloine's latest art installation. Desperate, Kwalish constructed another planar gateway while imprisoned in the temple, then opened a portal to the 222nd layer of the Abyss\u2014Juiblex's Slime Pits. A flood of ooze issued forth, driving the kenku from Daoine Gloine and effectively sealing the city away from the rest of the world.",
"The entire site\u2014including the entrance to Kwalish's second lab\u2014now spreads beneath a deadly layer of clear gelatinous ooze\u2014perfectly preserved, eerily staged, and utterly devoid of anything organic. The kenku that once occupied Daoine Gloine have all long been turned to glass or driven out. The city's only resident is Kwalish, but the inventor has developed potent defenses to defend the entrance to his lab.",
"The following locations are identified on the map below.",
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"type": "entries",
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"page": 21,
"id": "085",
"entries": [
"The mountain passes the characters follow eventually open onto the top edge of a deep valley. Characters who arrive at this overlook can gaze down on the city below.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "086",
"entries": [
"The legendary lost city of Daoine Gloine spreads out within a narrow mountain vale. Ancient and intricate stone towers rise up from the valley floor, though many of those have toppled against one another to form dangerous-looking walkways extending between the ruins. The rooftops and upper levels of the towers are strewn with vines and foliage. But a strange gleam extends across the lower reaches of the city, resembling an almost-transparent barrier some thirty feet above the ground, visible only where it catches the light.",
"Below that strange barrier, the buildings of the city are unnaturally clean, showing no signs of vegetation or other life, and highlighting the glimmering glass statuary that stands everywhere. Even at a distance, many of the statues appear to be humanoids of different races."
]
},
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"type": "entries",
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"page": 21,
"id": "087",
"entries": [
"The gleaming barrier marks the upper edge of the ooze. Above the creature, the flora of the mountains grows in abundance. But from about the third-story level down to the streets, the city appears immaculately clean, with all organic matter consumed by the ooze. A number of the towers that have toppled from age are above the ooze, providing a means for characters to explore and take shelter safely above the city.",
"A successful DC 13 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check made as the characters get closer to the city provides further clues as to the ooze's nature. The bones of animals that have recently wandered into the city hang suspended within the ooze, appearing to be floating in midair. Likewise, bits of crumbling walls and broken statuary that have fallen hang suspended above the streets."
]
}
]
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"type": "entries",
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"page": 21,
"id": "088",
"entries": [
"As the characters draw closer to the city, they get a better view of the stone towers rising above the ooze.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "089",
"entries": [
"Many of the glass statues set along the exteriors of the towers are, in fact, humanoids. They stand in alcoves or recesses along the towers' upper reaches\u2014and are crafted in disturbingly lifelike fashion. Gargoyles and caryatid columns also abound, anchored to rooftops or extending outward to form massive arches supporting the stonework above."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Horrid Statues",
"page": 21,
"id": "08a",
"entries": [
"The glass statues that fill Daoine Gloine are the city's sacrificial victims, forced into intricate poses and {@condition petrified} (or, rather, vitrified) by the cult of the medusa. Many of the statues above the ooze show chips and cracks from long years of weathering. But below the ooze, most of the well-protected statues are perfectly intact and appear uncannily lifelike. Many are kenku (the last inhabitants of the city before Kwalish and the ooze arrived), but explorers and mountain folk of many other races have also been trapped forever in glass."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creature",
"page": 21,
"id": "08b",
"entries": [
"When any intruder climbs the upper towers or moves along the bridges created where towers have fallen, the vibration of their movement alerts the {@creature Clockwork Kraken|LLK} at the apparatus garage ({@area area O5|097|x}). The construct's tentacles are outfitted with local teleportation-field devices (see the earlier sidebar), allowing them to move throughout the city with a flying speed of 40 feet. When the tentacles reach intruders, they attack in an attempt to shove those creatures into the gelatinous ooze. See \"{@book Shoving a Creature|PHB|9|Shoving a Creature}\" under \"{@book Melee Attacks|PHB|9|Melee Attacks}\" in chapter 9 of the {@book Player's Handbook|PHB}."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "O3. Street Level",
"page": 21,
"id": "08c",
"entries": [
"Several trails lead down into the city, granting a better view of the tableau beneath the ooze.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "08d",
"entries": [
"Unlike the figures seen standing staidly along the edges of the towers above, the hundreds of glass statues that fill Daoine Gloine have been arranged on the streets and in open courtyards as if staging scenes of city life\u2014a market square, a royal personage holding court, and so forth. In addition to the statues, huge numbers of glassy baubles are spread throughout these scenes, serving as stand-ins for fruit in a market, as huge jewels worn at a ball, as a scepter and orb held by a statue noble, and so forth. Looking around, the legends appear almost true: here is a city inhabited entirely by folk of glass, and whose every possession is glass as well."
]
},
"When the last of the kenku fled Daoine Gloine and the ooze had consumed all organic material within the abandoned city, Kwalish decided to redecorate. Traveling safely through the ooze in one of the apparatuses that bear his name, he arranged the statues throughout the city streets, creating a bizarre tableau of life within the city's dead zone.",
"Unless they brought a fully sealed vehicle with them from the monastery, there are no obvious ways for the characters to enter the ooze safely. However, the tower of the apparatus garage ({@area area O5|097|x}) holds an option for doing so. See that area for more information.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 22,
"id": "08e",
"entries": [
"The gelatinous ooze that protects the city is a single creature of incomprehensible size. It fills the valley to a depth of 30 feet, and cannot move beyond the valley or the city. Even though it has no ability to move, the ooze is aware of all activity around it, and has extensive experience with drawing prey into itself. Treat the ooze as a massive, immobile {@creature Gelatinous Cube} with these changes:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"It is immune to all damage and conditions.",
"Its reach is 10 feet.",
"Each round, the ooze can make one attack against each creature within its reach: a pseudopod attack against any creature within 10 feet of its surface, or an Engulf attack against any creature in contact with its surface."
]
},
"Alternatively, it can replace any of its pseudopod attacks with attempts to shove a creature within 5 feet of its surface into contact with its surface. See \"{@book Shoving a Creature|PHB|9|Shoving a Creature}\" under \"{@book Melee Attacks|PHB|9|Melee Attacks}\" in chapter 9 of the {@book Player's Handbook|PHB}.",
"To guard the entrance to Kwalish's lab, a number of the glass statues have been imbued with mechanical-magical power\u2014armatures of the inventor's own design that animate into {@b ooze-folk}. Once the characters enter the ooze to explore the streets of Daoine Gloine, the ooze-folk are on guard. For every 10 minutes the characters spend exploring, or if any significant violence disturbs the gelatinous ooze, {@dice 1d4} armatures activate within 30 feet of the characters. Individual blobs of ooze congeal around these statue armatures as they erupt out of their staged scenes and attack. If a serious fight breaks out with ooze-folk, that fight attracts more ooze-folk in turn.",
"A total of twenty-five ooze-folk can activate in this way before their numbers are depleted."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "O4. Tomb of the Medusa",
"page": 22,
"id": "08f",
"entries": [
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/013-extraalife_medusa.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 797,
"credit": "Shawn Wood"
},
"The tallest tower in the city, this former temple once housed the cult of the medusa.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "090",
"entries": [
"The top level of the city's tallest standing tower is ringed and covered by a dome of glass statues\u2014all facing inward, and pressed so tightly together as to leave no space between them."
]
},
"The statues that surround the top of the tower were sacrifices vitrified here to create a wall around the medusa. A successful DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check reveals areas where the statues are in agitated defensive poses. (When the ooze began to flood the city, the high priests quickly forced these final sacrifices forward to seal the medusa away.) A successful DC 13 Dexterity ({@skill Sleight of Hand}) check allows the statues to be carefully shifted apart to allow access inside. The statues can also be smashed through (AC 10, 15 hit points, immunity to poison and psychic damage).",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Temple",
"page": 23,
"id": "091",
"entries": [
"If enough statues are moved or broken open, they reveal a pit beyond, where a sheer drop of 25 feet leads down into this former temple.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "092",
"entries": [
"The space below the statues is a huge temple gone to ruin. A main hall lined with painted murals is abutted by many smaller side chambers once filled with fine furnishings and decorations. All of that has rotted away to nothing now, but a series of shackles bolted to the wall across from some sort of large glass device hints at the horrid rites that must once have taken place here."
]
},
"The wall murals can be deciphered with a successful DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check. These tell the story of the cult of the medusa, starting with the capture of {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK}, long years of sacrificial victims brought before her, and the vitrified statues now found throughout the city.",
"Old shackles set along one wall show where victims were held. A space opposite that shows where other shackles have been removed from heavy bolts sunk into the stone. (The medusa's shackles were once set here, but were removed and used in the clockwork kraken's engine at {@area area O5|097|x}.)"
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Monitor",
"page": 23,
"id": "093",
"entries": [
"The window-like device hangs against the wall where the medusa's shackles were once set, and is framed by a complex mechanical filigree. This device is a two-way monitor that can be activated by a successful DC 16 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check. Doing so shows a silent view through the similar monitor in Kwalish's lab ({@area area O7|0a0|x})."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creature",
"page": 23,
"id": "094",
"entries": [
"Once worshipped as a living goddess for her unique trait of transforming victims into glass instead of stone, {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} was kept a prisoner in the temple ever since the creature was captured by the long-gone kenku. The medusa still occupies the tower, but is now undead and in skeletal form, unfettered and thoroughly insane. It can be heard hissing about the priests and their inane babble (the kenku's mimicry), and ranting about how it can still sense the hated high priest's presence in the city. If the characters descend the pit, it attacks at once.",
"The medusa fights until destroyed unless distracted by any information regarding the high priest (see {@area area O5|097|x}) or any offer to help leave the temple. If the characters confirm the presence of the high priest in {@area area O5|097|x} (truthfully or otherwise), the medusa ignores them, scales the pit to escape using the entrance they created, and hunts the priest down.",
"{@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} is a {@creature Medusa} with the following changes:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"It is undead.",
"It is immune to necrotic and poison damage.",
"It is immune to {@condition exhaustion} and the {@condition poisoned} condition.",
"Its Petrifying Gaze feature turns {@condition petrified} creatures to glass instead of stone."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Temple Gate",
"page": 23,
"id": "095",
"entries": [
"On the ground floor of the temple tower, beneath the ooze where it fills the lower levels of the building, is a standing arch that is a match to the arch in the central abbey of the monastery ({@area area M3|04e|x}), but without the throne. If the crown and scepter from that area are worn and held by a creature within 5 feet of the arch (including a creature within an {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} or similar device), that creature can attempt a DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check to open the archway. Treat this as if the character had cast the {@spell gate} spell to open a gate to the 222nd layer of the Abyss."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 23,
"id": "096",
"entries": [
"If {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} is defeated, the medusa wears a gold necklace (1,200 gp), a pair of gold bracers (375 gp each), and ten gem-studded gold rings (50 gp each).",
"A thorough search of the levels of the temple above the ooze also turns up the following:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"{@item Spell Scroll||Spell scrolls} of {@spell animate dead}, {@i flock of familiars} (see {@adventure appendix E|LLK|7}), and {@spell greater restoration}.",
"One of Kwalish's completed experiments\u2014a set of clockwork-enhanced footwear that act as {@item Boots of Striding and Springing}",
"A collection of tiny glass statues of creatures, including a pseudodragon, an imp, and several will-o'-wisps, as well as several glass statues of hearts and brains\u2014all vitrified creatures and once-living organs. The collection is worth 2,000 gp, but is very fragile."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "O5. Apparatus Garage",
"page": 23,
"id": "097",
"entries": [
"This tower once served Kwalish as a temporary workshop, and still contains crucial remnants of his experiments.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "098",
"entries": [
"A large, squat tower dominates the surrounding buildings. Heaped around its base is a jumbled tangle of old machinery, clockwork parts, piles of broken glass shards, and numerous oddly shaped glass statues. Some of these statues appear stretched, as if still viscous when fashioned, and almost as though they elongated themselves trying to escape their fate."
]
},
"The space within the tower is likewise cluttered with broken relics from Kwalish's earlier experiments, partial armatures, and the like. The remains of numerous alchemical furnaces can be seen, once used for shaping glass. Ancient notes and diagrams are also scattered about.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 23,
"id": "099",
"entries": [
"A {@creature Clockwork Kraken|LLK} has been installed in this area by Kwalish to protect the city. The main component of the construct's clockwork engine is a coffin-like structure that bears a strong resemblance to Ctenmiir's coffin. The engine housing can be opened with a successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check or Dexterity check made with thieves' tools or tinker's tools. If {@creature Gearbox|LLK} is with the party, a character can attempt a DC 12 Dexterity check to help the modron open and override the engine.",
"Within the coffin is the jellified remains of a former kenku high priest of Daoine Gloine. Her undead body now powers the kraken, though she does not control it. If still active, the kraken's tentacles work to defend its engine.",
"Kwalish developed a process of using living and undead creatures as a control module for powerful constructs, and placed the evil high priest here as punishment for her role in the countless sacrifices made to {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK}. If the priest is attacked, treat her as a {@creature Vampire Spawn} that cannot leave the coffin. But after endless years of undead incarceration, she sees the characters as potential servants, not foes."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Priestly Bargaining",
"page": 24,
"id": "09a",
"entries": [
"The high priest attempts to engage the characters as soon as they enter the tower\u2014but being a kenku, she communicates only through mimicry. Her pleas to be freed from the coffin might thus take the form of the last words of victims she brought before the medusa, or the rantings of {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} while the medusa lived and railed against her captivity.",
"In whatever way she can, the undead high priest begs the characters to open the coffin and free her. Her jellified undead body is slopped around an ornamental helmet and shackles. (These devices were once used to safely contain the medusa. See {@area area O4|08f|x}.) A thin silver wire connects the helmet and shackles to the coffin, and can be recognized as a form of astral silver cord with a successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check.",
"If the high priest is disconnected (most easily by extracting the helmet and shackles from what's left of her), the clockwork kraken and all ooze-folk in the city deactivate. The priest knows that after Kwalish flooded the city, he eventually escaped into an extradimensional space hidden beneath the ooze. She can also inform the characters about the garage's {@item Apparatus of Kwalish}, and its ability to connect with the glass baubles. She suspects that one of the baubles leads to Kwalish's lab, though she does not know which one. If questioned about the city's countless sacrifices or the cult of the medusa, the evil priest falsely denies any knowledge of such things.",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/014-apparatus1.webp"
},
"width": 806,
"height": 551,
"credit": "Aaron Hübrich"
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Development",
"page": 24,
"id": "09b",
"entries": [
"A successful DC 12 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) or Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check made while searching the garage reveals the remains of a massive prototype {@item Apparatus of Kwalish}, able to transport up to ten Medium or smaller creatures.",
"The scattered notes and diagrams in this area can be used to repair and operate the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish}, but must first be deciphered with a successful DC 13 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check. They also describe Kwalish's desire to construct a final laboratory hidden within an extradimensional space, and how he experimented with the city's materials to construct such spaces within baubles of glass and crystal. These notes explain how the apparatus's biomechanical umbilicus (an atropal's augmented umbilical cord) can be used to connect with the baubles within the ooze. Doing so opens a magical portal within the apparatus that allows characters to enter the extradimensional space contained within a bauble.",
"If made operational, the apparatus can be used to safely dive into the gelatinous ooze in search of Kwalish's hidden lab. However, if the clockwork kraken and the ooze-folk are still active, they attempt to grab and puncture the apparatus while the characters use it. Use the statistics for the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} from chapter 7 of the {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG}:",
{
"type": "list",
"style": "list-hang-notitle",
"items": [
"{@b Armor Class}: 20",
"{@b Hit Points}: 200",
"{@b Speed}: 30 ft., swim 30 ft. (or 0 ft. for both if the legs and tail aren't extended)",
"{@b Damage Immunities}: poison, psychic"
]
},
"If the apparatus suffers fatal damage, materials and notes from the garage can be used to construct a new one. Completing such a project requires sufficient time and a successful DC 18 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check or Dexterity check using thieves' tools or tinker's tools."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 25,
"id": "09c",
"entries": [
"A thorough search of the garage turns up a number of valuable components used in Kwalish's experiments, worth 1,500 gp to any tinker, inventor, or artificer."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "O6. Baubles",
"page": 25,
"id": "09d",
"entries": [
"Hundreds of baubles have been set throughout the tableau of the city streets. If any ooze-folk (see {@area area O3|08c|x}) or the clockwork kraken (see {@area area O2|088|x}) become active in response to the characters' intrusion, those defenders do not touch or intentionally damage any of the baubles, instead actively protecting them from harm.",
"Most of the baubles are mere glass, and any inspection of them notes that light shines through them cleanly. A select few baubles are made of crystal, as noted by any light shining through them creating a rainbow pattern. A successful DC 15 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check also spots this difference.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Dimensional Gateways",
"page": 25,
"id": "09e",
"entries": [
"Touching a crystal bauble, or connecting with one by way of the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} from {@area area O5|097|x}, opens a magical connection to an extradimensional space within the bauble. Entering the correct bauble brings the characters into Kwalish's laboratory. But entering one of the many decoy crystal baubles scattered throughout the city leads to a pocket dimension where the characters face a number of fanciful and challenging encounters. Use the \"{@area Sample Bauble Encounters|0a9|x}\" table to randomly determine extradimensional encounters within decoy crystals, or as inspiration for making up your own.",
"You determine how many decoy crystal baubles the characters come across before finding the bauble that leads to Kwalish. If playing a shorter version of the adventure, you might have only one crystal bauble (see below) found among the city's glass baubles, with that crystal bauble leading directly to Kwalish's lab."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Kwalish's Bauble Gate",
"page": 25,
"id": "09f",
"entries": [
"A glass workshop can be found by characters exploring the city. Its kiln remains magically lit even beneath the ooze, filling the immediate area with an eerie light. A glass statue of an artisan near the kiln's fire holds a crystal bauble as if shaping it. Accessing the extradimensional space within this bauble grants entrance to Kwalish's lab at {@area area O7|0a0|x}."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "O7. Kwalish's Lab",
"page": 25,
"id": "0a0",
"entries": [
"The crystal bauble found in the city's glass workshop opens a portal to the extradimensional space in which Kwalish maintains his personal laboratory.",
{
"type": "insetReadaloud",
"id": "0a1",
"entries": [
"The extradimensional space beyond the portal is filled with working laboratory equipment, similar to the ruined gear seen in the monastery and the city, but even more advanced.",
"At the center of the lab, an elaborate system of glass piping and alchemical equipment flows and bubbles. Banks of instrument panels are set against the walls, including a framed glass device resembling a window. In another area, five clear canisters hold what appear to be still-beating hearts. Across the room, a mind flayer appears trapped inside a glass tank.",
"All of the active equipment in the lab appears to connect to a suit of plate armor standing at the far end of room."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Glass Piping",
"page": 25,
"id": "0a2",
"entries": [
"Clear glass tubes connect flasks, funnels, columns, and other alchemical gear filled with strange components undergoing constant transformation. Some are boiling, others are condensing or solidifying into crumbling powder, and all this work is fueled by burners emitting strange-colored flames and powered by ten steam mephits trapped in retort flasks. A successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Investigation}) check grants a character enough insight into the instruments to gain basic control over the lab, such that the experiments here can be safely examined. However, if the check is failed by 5 or more, the {@creature Steam Mephit||Steam Mephits} are released.",
"Any character who succeeds on a DC 12 Wisdom ({@skill Medicine}) check gets the disturbing impression that this glass piping is not manufactured, but rather resembles intestines. (The piping derives from the bodies of glass statues\u2014former high priests partially revived by Kwalish so their glass intestines could be drawn out for his use. With a search of the lab, the rest of the priests' vivisected glass bodies can be found crumpled in terrible poses in a storage closet.)"
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Instrument Panels",
"page": 25,
"id": "0a3",
"entries": [
"These control panels are covered with buttons, dials, and gauges, as well as delicate machinery containing tiny clockwork devices reminiscent of ants performing intricate functions. A character who succeeds on a DC 14 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check determines that the workings of the panels derive from strange sources\u2014some taken from the planar craft that became the monastery, but also from the bodies of modrons and inevitables (see {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}). Also set among the panels is a skull that has gems for its eyes and teeth (a magically modified demilich skull; see the \"{@area Meeting Kwalish|0aa|x}\" section below)."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Monitor",
"page": 25,
"id": "0a4",
"entries": [
"The window-like device hanging against the wall is a two-way monitor that can be activated with a successful DC 16 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check. Doing so shows a silent view through the similar monitor in the tomb of the medusa ({@area area O4|08f|x}). If {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} is still at that location, turning on this monitor brings her into view and allows her to use her Petrifying Gaze on any creature in the laboratory that she can see through the monitor."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Canisters",
"page": 25,
"id": "0a5",
"entries": [
"Five clear canisters line the walls, each one filled with fluid and the living, beating heart of some type of creature. With a successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Nature}) check, a character recognizes the hearts of three humanoids, a troll, and a dragon. Each canister is connected by a thin silver wire to multiple pieces of the laboratory's equipment. The wire can be recognized as a form of astral silver cord with a successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check.",
"Notes scattered about the area detail how the hearts in jars are fueling something called \"{@item Powered Armor|LLK},\" and of Kwalish's attempts to fuel the advanced technologies of the crashed planar craft with sources other than energy cells."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Creatures",
"page": 26,
"id": "0a6",
"entries": [
"Kwalish's presence in the lab is left to your determination, and might depend on how much more adventuring you want the characters to do. See the \"{@area Meeting Kwalish|0aa|x}\" section below for more information.",
"If the steam mephits are released, they might try to immediately escape (a {@chance 50|50 percent} chance), but they otherwise attack everyone in the lab.",
"A {@creature Mind Flayer Arcanist} (a variant creature in the {@book Monster Manual|MM}) is trapped within a glass-walled stasis chamber, kept on hand by Kwalish to be consulted for its magical knowledge. A successful DC 14 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana} or {@skill Investigation}) check can activate the stasis controls and awaken the mind flayer.",
"The mind flayer has no effective attacks while within the stasis chamber, as no spells or other effects can pass through the cylinder in either direction. However, if the check to activate the controls fails by 5 or more, the cylinder accidentally opens to free the mind flayer. The creature attempts to bargain for its safety with a large number of well-armed characters, but it betrays and attempts to slay them at the first opportunity."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "{@item Powered Armor|LLK}",
"page": 27,
"id": "0a7",
"entries": [
"The suit of armor at the end of the room is clearly the focus of the lab's current experimentation, connected to various pieces of equipment by more silver wire recognizable as a form of astral cord. If the characters end the adventure on friendly terms with Kwalish, he indicates that although the {@i powered armor} is still being researched, it requires a test subject. He is thus willing to loan the armor to any character, provided they use it as their sole suit of armor and report back to him periodically so as to gauge its efficacy.",
"A character who accepts this offer automatically falls under the effect of a high-level {@spell geas} spell, with instructions to report back to Kwalish at least once every three levels, and to return the {@i powered armor} to the inventor if they ever desire to wear some other armor instead.",
"If Kwalish is missing (see the \"{@area Meeting Kwalish|0aa|x}\" section below), a character can simply don the armor themselves. However, this might lead to its own complications. See {@adventure appendix B|LLK|5} and {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7} for more information."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Treasure",
"page": 27,
"id": "0a8",
"entries": [
"If Kwalish is defeated, or if the gnome is missing when the characters come to the lab, a thorough search of the area turns up the following:",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"A collection of exotic materials especially valuable as spell components, worth 3,750 gp",
"A pouch of diamond dust worth 1,750 gp",
"Numerous rare books worth a total of 500 gp",
"A {@item Manual of Iron Golems||manual of golems (iron)}",
"A {@item Spell Scroll} of {@spell Galder's Speedy Courier|LLK|Galder's speedy courier} (see {@adventure appendix E|LLK|7})",
"Several of Kwalish's completed experiments whose mechanical effects reproduce the magic of certain magic items: a {@item Folding Boat}, {@item Wings of Flying}, and a {@item Bag of Tricks||bag of tricks (tan)}",
"Kwalish's {@item Powered Armor|LLK} (see {@adventure appendix B|LLK|5} and {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7})"
]
},
"The \"{@book Alien Technology|DMG|9|Alien Technology}\" section in chapter 9 of the {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG} talks about how futuristic devices are often powered by energy cells. The force pikes found in the monastery, as well as the {@i powered armor} to be found in Kwalish's lab in part 3 of the adventure, are two such devices. Alongside countless dead energy cells spread across this area, the characters also find {@dice 1d6} charged cells, each holding 20 charges and useful for the {@i powered armor}.",
"If the characters loot Kwalish's lab, then rescue the gnome from stasis or a disembodied state (see below), their ability to blame the thefts on other creatures is left to your determination."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Sample Bauble Encounters",
"page": 26,
"id": "0a9",
"entries": [
{
"type": "table",
"colLabels": [
"d12",
"Bauble Appearance",
"Extradimensional Space"
],
"colStyles": [
"text-center col-1",
"col-3",
"col-8"
],
"rows": [
[
"1",
"A royal orb held by a seated king-like figure",
"A shadowy, royal pavilion is filled with phantom images of courtiers and revelers. The king who holds court here is a {@creature Wraith}."
],
[
"2",
"Delicious-looking fruit being sold in a market",
"The characters enter an enclosed marketplace in some fantastic extradimensional city (perhaps Sigil). They cannot move beyond the marketplace, but they can buy, sell, and trade goods with a wide variety of races. (Kwalish might sometimes use this crystal to travel here and trade for needed materials, and creatures in the market might know or remember him.)"
],
[
"3",
"An ornate diadem worn by a great lady of court",
"A grand ball is attended by numerous glass armatures engaged in a never-ending dance. The armatures are not aggressive, but they defend themselves if attacked (use {@creature Skeleton} statistics). (Kwalish uses this space to stress test his armatures' operation and movement.)"
],
[
"4",
"An egg held in the talons of a statue of a large bird",
"The characters become bodiless entities inhabiting the mind of a roc soaring high above a world of your choice. A successful DC 12 Charisma check allows any character to mentally adjust the roc's course and observe the terrain below, but the great bird does not land or cease flying."
],
[
"5",
"The head of a mace held by a gladiator in an arena",
"A fog-filled arena is populated by a group of shadowy warriors\u2014all of them phantom duplicates mirroring the characters. Roll for initiative as the shadows attack, using the same weapons, spells, gear, and modifiers as the characters. If the shadows are identified as doubles with a successful DC 15 Wisdom ({@skill Insight}) check, the characters can cease fighting to force their duplicates to do the same."
],
[
"6",
"A ball in a children's playground",
"The characters enter an illusory version of the treasury seen in the Monastery of the Distressed Body, but filled with countless magic items. A group of twenty-five monks ({@creature Cultist||Cultists}) are in the process of raiding the treasury, which the characters can defend using any magic item found in the {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG}, making for a fun one-off fight. However, none of the items found in this version of the treasury can leave the extradimensional space."
],
[
"7",
"One of the eyes in a statue of a devil",
"The characters find themselves inside a variant version of the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} abandoned within the Nine Hells. Characters cannot leave the apparatus, but they can pilot it and explore their surroundings. Every 10 minutes of exploration, there is a {@chance 20|20 percent} chance that one or more randomly determined devils happens upon the apparatus and attacks it."
],
[
"8",
"The lens of a telescope being looked through by an astronomer",
"The characters step into an illusory version of a city oddly familiar to them, and feel a compulsion to find the city's \"heart.\" Use a map of the actual city or town where your game is played (or where you are based if you play your game online). The characters must reach your location to leave this extradimensional space."
],
[
"9",
"A jewel spilling from a sack carried by a fleeing thief",
"A series of storerooms are connected together in what seems an endless arrangement. Use any set of dungeon maps or geomorphs to create this labyrinth. If Kwalish's body is scattered (see the \"{@area Meeting Kwalish|0aa|x}\" section), part of it can be found somewhere within."
],
[
"10",
"The centerpiece in a complex mechanical clock in a central square",
"The characters find themselves inside a variant version of the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish}, wandering the plane of Mechanus. Characters cannot leave the apparatus, but they can pilot it and explore their surroundings. Every 10 minutes of exploration, there is a {@chance 20|20 percent} chance that one or more randomly determined modrons happens upon the apparatus and attacks it."
],
[
"11",
"The eye of a squid set within an extensive aquarium",
"The characters find themselves inside a variant version of the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} at the bottom of a deep ocean. Characters cannot leave the apparatus, but they can pilot it and explore their surroundings. Every 10 minutes of exploration, there is a {@chance 20|20 percent} chance that one or more randomly determined aquatic creatures happens upon the apparatus and attacks it."
],
[
"12",
"A crystal ball held by a statue of a medusa",
"The characters appear in a version of the tomb of the medusa ({@area area O4|08f|x}), in which {@creature Gloine Nathair-Nathair|LLK} is still alive. (The {@creature Medusa} uses normal statistics, but its Petrifying Gaze feature transforms {@condition petrified} victims to glass.) A ceremony is underway as the characters arrive, with phantom victims being led before the medusa. If the creature is allowed to vitrify those victims, the extradimensional gateway is breached and the illusory surroundings are flooded by ooze, with effects as you determine."
]
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Meeting Kwalish",
"page": 27,
"id": "0aa",
"entries": [
"You have several options for having Kwalish appear to the characters, depending on how much time you wish to dedicate to the party's exploration of the city of Daoine Gloine.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0ab",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Quick Contact",
"page": 27,
"id": "0ac",
"entries": [
"The easiest approach is to have Kwalish in {@area area O7|0a0|x} when the characters arrive\u2014an elderly gnome arcane inventor (use the {@creature Evoker|VGM} stat block from {@book Volo's Guide to Monsters|VGM}) working on his latest experiments. Though surprised by visitors, Kwalish listens to the characters and might even be willing to bargain for whatever help they need to complete their quest. In exchange, he requires only a bit of special material to fuel his experiments and continue his work\u2014a piece of the characters' souls, extracted by his machinery.",
"With a successful DC 15 Charisma ({@skill Persuasion}) check made to negotiate with Kwalish, the gnome asks only for a single bit of soul energy from any one character. If unsuccessful, he demands one bit of soul from each character in exchange for his aid or information. The magically enhanced demilich skull built into the lab's instrumentation panels is used to channel a character's soul energy once the bargain is struck. A character who has a portion of their soul removed in this way falls under a curse. While so cursed, whenever the character drops to 0 hit points, they are treated as if they had already failed one death saving throw. This curse can be removed only by a {@spell remove curse} spell cast by an 18th-level spellcaster, by defeating Kwalish and reversing the process using his machines, or by completing a separate task for the inventor."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Just a Bit of Trouble",
"page": 27,
"id": "0ad",
"entries": [
"Kwalish is missing, trapped in stasis inside his own {@i powered armor}. The characters must first discover him there by making a close-up investigation of the armor, then find a way to access its controls. This can be accomplished with a successful DC 16 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check or Dexterity check made with thieves' tools or tinker's tools. Alternatively, characters who experiment with tools found throughout the lab can access the armor's controls given enough time. Even after accessing the controls, though, no one can approach the armor without setting off its automatic defenses. See the \"{@adventure Powered Armor Options|LLK|7}\" sidebar in {@adventure appendix D|LLK|7}.",
"Once he is freed, Kwalish is as grateful as he is able to express, and willing to listen to the characters' requests. This has the same outcome as above, but assume that negotiations are automatically successful and only one character needs to offer up a piece of their soul."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Kwalish Who?",
"page": 27,
"id": "0ae",
"entries": [
"Kwalish is missing, his physical body having been caught up within his laboratory equipment and rendered into various bodily components that now make their way through the glass piping in perpetuity. His mind, however, can still communicate through various means\u2014clockwork ants forming signals and signs, messages drawn by mechanical hands, consultation with the trapped mind flayer, and so on. As best he can, Kwalish tries to instruct characters in the methods that might reconstitute his body (with those methods determined by you). Unfortunately, some of his body parts have been installed elsewhere in the city (within other baubles, forming part of the kraken's engine, and so forth) and must be tracked down.",
"If the characters are successful, the regenerated Kwalish is grateful enough to help them with their quest even without payment. He then offers an additional boon to any interested character, granting the use of his laboratory to craft or summon any item or creature they desire (within any limits you set). However, the price for this service is one piece of the character's soul, as above."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Roleplaying Kwalish",
"page": 28,
"id": "0af",
"entries": [
"However he is met, Kwalish presents himself as a detached, single-minded researcher. In his mind, his work is more important than any other concerns, and he believes that the secrets of the technology found in the Barrier Peaks hold a vast potential to advance knowledge. If questioned, he proudly details his experiments (including with the {@i powered armor}), as well as the complete history of his time in the Barrier Peaks. If pressed, he talks of how he salvaged the minds of the members of his first expedition only after they were slain by the sphinx, and of how he buried Daoine Gloine in ooze only after discovering its inhabitants to be depraved cultists. In both cases, the inventor deemed his desperate actions as necessary measures to advance his research."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Sphinx's Curse",
"page": 28,
"id": "0b0",
"entries": [
"If the characters engage Kwalish successfully, or as an added reward if they rescue him, the inventor can use his skill to remove the curse imposed by the enhanced sphinx (whose machinery he created). This restores to normal any ability scores decreased by the sphinx (see {@area area C2|034|x})."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Laboratory Fight",
"page": 28,
"id": "0b1",
"entries": [
"If negotiations break down, or if the characters take unkindly to Kwalish's cavalier attitude toward life, they might decide to confront and attack him. Kwalish first creates a distraction by releasing the mephits and the mind flayer in his lab as an action. He then turns on the monitor and ducks down to stay out of the medusa's field of view. During the subsequent chaos, the gnome attempts to don the {@i powered armor}, then wreak havoc."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Concluding the Adventure",
"page": 28,
"id": "0b2",
"entries": [
"Depending on your specific adventure hook and how this adventure fits into your overall campaign, completing the adventure might have multiple ramifications.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Loose Ends",
"page": 28,
"id": "0b3",
"entries": [
"If Kwalish's knowledge was needed to oppose threats in other lands, those threats might have been permanently quelled\u2014or they might only have been temporarily driven back. Moreover, Kwalish's aid could inadvertently create new threats, as might happen if opening the coffin-prison of the vampire, Ctenmiir, opens similar Kwalish-designed prisons across the world.",
"The power in the Barrier Peaks likely shifts dramatically if the Grand Master is defeated, and a new power struggle soon ensues for control of the monastery. If Ctenmiir escapes or is freed, he might return to the monastery to occupy it as his new lair. {@creature Mary Greymalkin|LLK} joins him there, creating a sanctum of evil magic. If {@creature Gearbox|LLK} has connected with the monastery, he might remain there as the pair's unwitting servant\u2014or the modron might seek to overthrow this new set of evil lords in the name of establishing the monastery as a place of pure knowledge and balance."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Kwalish's Plans",
"page": 28,
"id": "0b4",
"entries": [
"Kwalish has long yearned to help the members of his former expedition trapped as brains in jars in the Monastery of the Distressed Body. Knowing that they still survive, he might provide instructions and materials for the characters to return to the monastery and provide the brains with new bodies. And in Daoine Gloine, the characters might entreat the inventor to discover a way to return the vitrified statues of the city to flesh. (If the characters haven't destroyed the undead medusa yet, such means might involve a side quest where they bring Kwalish her severed head.)",
"Ultimately, Kwalish might become a patron of sorts to the party, especially if the {@i powered armor} is loaned out. If any character has bestowed a bit of their soul to the inventor, he promises to return it in exchange for the completion of certain tasks he sets before them (including helping restore his friends). The place of such a valuable and powerful contact in the campaign is yours to determine."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "New Discoveries",
"page": 28,
"id": "0b5",
"entries": [
"The Cartophile possesses a good number of treasure maps in his extensive collections\u2014some of which are even accurate. As an added reward for returning with maps and news of Kwalish's original expedition, he might gift one such map to the characters. He might also look to hire the characters for future mapping expeditions, or to undertake specific dangerous missions in exchange for a share of the knowledge or treasure to be found there.",
{
"type": "inset",
"id": "0b6",
"name": "KWALISH LIVES?",
"entries": [
"Since his expedition vanished ages ago, it's prudent to think about how it's possible for Kwalish to be found alive and well in his lab. If the gnome is found trapped inside the powered armor in stasis or scattered throughout his laboratory, the answer is easy. You might also consider that Kwalish's research into the planar craft's magical technology, astral cords, and similar topics might have allowed him to prolong his life indefinitely by magical means. Alternatively, given the inventor's ability to craft lifelike constructs, this version of Kwalish might not be the original gnome at all."
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Acknowledgments and Final Thanks",
"page": 29,
"entries": [
"To E. Gary Gygax, as author of the original Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (may chocolate and peanut butter forever collide into one another). To Kennedy O'Day, for playing one of her first games of D&D next to Bart at the 2017 Extra Life livestream in the Wizards of the Coast offices (it was awesome!).",
"We would also like to extend special acknowledgment of a designer for certain spells and magic items appearing within this adventure. To Laurence Withey\u2014we hope this presentation of your material does justice to Galder, and we humbly thank you for allowing us to include it.",
"Final thanks to everyone who purchased this adventure\u2014your donation is going to a truly great cause. On behalf of the entire Dungeons & Dragons team, we sincerely thank you for your contribution to Extra Life and the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.",
{
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"width": 1500,
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"id": "0d8"
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},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Appendix A: Random Encounters",
"page": 32,
"id": "0b7",
"entries": [
"Characters undertaking this adventure will spend a significant amount of game time on the journey to the Monastery of the Distressed Body and the lost city of Daoine Gloine. You can help bring those weeks of exploration to life with random encounters\u2014some of which might increase or decrease the length of the characters' journey, as you decide.",
"{@book Chapter 2|XGE|2} of {@book Xanathar's Guide to Everything|XGE} includes random forest encounters, Underdark encounters, and mountain encounters. Or you can roll for or select more detailed encounters using the following tables.",
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Wilderness Encounters",
"page": 32,
"id": "0b8",
"entries": [
"Reaching the foothills of the Barrier Peaks takes the characters through a broad range of wild lands\u2014including woods infused with the power of the Feywild.",
{
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"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/016-144578_wmask.webp"
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"width": 1000,
"height": 2418,
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},
{
"type": "table",
"caption": "Wilderness Encounters",
"colLabels": [
"d10",
"Encounter"
],
"colStyles": [
"text-center col-2",
"col-10"
],
"rows": [
[
"1",
"A pack of {@creature Sprite||Sprites} pester the party, playing tricks and attempting to steal small items until the characters leave their territory. If they are treated with deference, the sprites might help the characters find the correct path and hurry them along. If assaulted in any way, fifteen {@creature Sprite||Sprites} riding {@creature Stirge||Stirges} attack. (The sprites' invisibility extends to the stirges as well while they are mounted.)"
],
[
"2",
"The path leads into a lonely grove that serves as the grave of a former dryad queen. If appropriate respects are paid, the characters have a {@chance 50|50 percent} chance to receive a supernatural gift (see {@book chapter 7|DMG|7|Supernatural Gifts} of the {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG})\u2014a charm that allows a character to cast the {@spell Galder's Tower|LLK|Galder's tower} spell (see {@adventure appendix E|LLK|7}) once as an action."
],
[
"3",
"A {@creature Treant} and a {@creature Stone Golem} were magically locked together during an ancient battle. Over the centuries since, fey gardeners have turned the two into a temple. Characters who explore the temple might inadvertently help the treant or the golem finally overcome its foe."
],
[
"4",
"A leprechaun (use {@creature Quickling|VGM} statistics from {@book Volo's Guide to Monsters|VGM}) crosses the characters' path. If successfully caught without being killed, the creature negotiates its release with the location of its hidden treasure: 1,000 gp in brightly polished coins."
],
[
"5",
"Gathering firewood results in a visit from an angered undead {@creature Treant}. (Use normal statistics, but the creature has the undead type and cannot use its Animate Trees feature). The treant collects all such fallen branches to take to a hidden graveyard of treant remains, and it angrily attacks any characters who get in its way."
],
[
"6\u20137",
"Some strange creature has wandered down from the Monastery of the Distressed Body. Such creatures might include an ancient security construct gone mad (use {@creature Oaken Bolter|MTF} statistics from {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}) or a {@creature Gibbering Mouther} with a mechanical skull housing its central brain."
],
[
"8\u201310",
"The characters come across a group of roving outlaws (five to ten {@creature Thug||Thugs} led by a {@creature Bandit Captain}), who are heading to the monastery to join its ranks. They possess rumors and fragments of a map, and are keen to steal the characters' resources\u2014especially if {@creature Gearbox|LLK} the modron is present."
]
],
"data": {
"tableInclude": true
}
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Cavern Encounters",
"page": 33,
"id": "0b9",
"entries": [
"The caverns and tunnels of the Barrier Peaks are a treacherous maze that has claimed more than one adventurer. This challenging route might involve cavern encounters that can help flesh out the characters' journey to the Monastery of the Distressed Body.",
{
"type": "table",
"caption": "Cavern Encounters",
"colLabels": [
"d10",
"Encounter"
],
"colStyles": [
"text-center col-2",
"col-10"
],
"rows": [
[
"1",
"A {@creature Xorn} and an {@creature Umber Hulk} hunt as a team, with the umber hulk working to herd characters toward its partner. Alternatively, the xorn and the umber hulk are rivals, with the characters caught in the middle."
],
[
"2",
"A small war machine built at the monastery has been claimed by three kobolds, which use it to attack any potential threats. Use the statistics for the {@creature Oaken Bolter|MTF} (from {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF}) and the {@creature Kobold Inventor|VGM} (from {@book Volo's Guide to Monsters|VGM})."
],
[
"3",
"The characters' tunnel route leads through the lair of a {@creature Froghemoth|VGM} or some other exotic monstrosity escaped from another planar craft that crashed into the Barrier Peaks long ago."
],
[
"4",
"A {@creature Galeb Duhr} serves as a kind of door between passageways. Negotiating with it successfully allows access to a secret tunnel that cuts days off the characters' journey."
],
[
"5",
"Roving outlaws (five to ten {@creature Thug||Thugs} led by a {@creature Bandit Captain}) heading to the monastery to join its ranks are hopelessly lost in the tunnels. In gratitude for being rescued, they offer to help the characters in their quest, but betray them at the first opportunity."
],
[
"6\u20137",
"Six prisoners ({@creature Commoner||Commoners}) escaping from the monastery look to the characters for aid. They are pursued by monks (five {@creature Cultist||Cultists} led by a {@creature Cult Fanatic}). If the prisoners are aided, they can supply some knowledge of the monastery before making their own way safely out of the mountains."
],
[
"8\u201310",
"A monastery work party\u2014six humanoid prisoners ({@creature Commoner||Commoners}) watched by five {@creature Cultist||Cultists} and a {@creature Cult Fanatic}\u2014is seen collecting ore to fuel the monastery's engines. If the prisoners are rescued, they can supply some knowledge of the monastery before fleeing the mountains."
]
],
"data": {
"tableInclude": true
}
}
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Mountain Encounters",
"page": 33,
"id": "0ba",
"entries": [
"The rocky trails and forbidding passes of the Barrier Peaks hold endless mysteries, and are ripe for random encounters as the characters make their way to Daoine Gloine.",
{
"type": "table",
"caption": "Mountain Encounters",
"colLabels": [
"d10",
"Encounter"
],
"colStyles": [
"text-center col-2",
"col-10"
],
"rows": [
[
"1\u20132",
"A party of monks (five {@creature Cultist||Cultists} led by a {@creature Cult Fanatic}) either survived the characters' assault on the Monastery of the Distressed Body or were away from the monastery and returned to find it routed. They pursue the characters\u2014to try to convince them to take on leadership of the monastery."
],
[
"3",
"A party of surviving monks (five {@creature Cultist||Cultists}) pursues the characters in revenge, led by an escaped {@creature Brain in a jar|LLK} using cobbled-together mechanical gear for mobility. (If the Grand Master was defeated and its brain survived any encounter in the treasury (area M10), that brain now leads this group.)"
],
[
"4",
"The characters discover signs of past expeditions to the Barrier Peaks\u2014the remains of travelers crushed by fallen rocks. If searched, the bodies might still possess useful gear or fragmentary maps showing the layout of Daoine Gloine. But a close inspection shows that some bodies have had part of their flesh melted away (from encounters with wandering ooze-folk)."
],
[
"5",
"A {@creature Galeb Duhr} (sibling to the one in the monastery tunnels) blocks a key route into the lost city of Daoine Gloine. A character must succeed on a DC 14 Charisma ({@skill Persuasion}) check for the party to pass. But these galeb duhr have an instinctive knowledge of each other, granting advantage or disadvantage on the check depending on how the other galeb duhr was treated. If the other galeb duhr was killed, this one attacks as soon as the characters are recognized."
],
[
"6\u20137",
"A wandering {@creature Ooze-Folk|LLK} appears, having accidentally trekked out of the city."
],
[
"8\u201310",
"An isolated village clings to the mountainside, populated by {@creature Kenku} descended from Daoine Gloine refugees who fled the city when it was flooded with ooze. The kenku still remember ancient legends their forebears told about a cult of the medusa, as well as Kwalish's arrival and the \"plague of ooze.\" However, their ability to speak only in mimicry might make it challenging for the characters to communicate with them. In the course of the conversation, the kenku might mimic the sounds of destruction and screaming heard as the city was overwhelmed, relay the mad ranting of the medusa, and so forth. They might even repeat the words of Kwalish himself as he talks of his extradimensional experiments with glass baubles, and his efforts to hide his lab inside of one."
]
],
"data": {
"tableInclude": true
}
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Appendix B: Further Options",
"page": 34,
"id": "0bb",
"entries": [
"The wide-open nature of this adventure, the optional setups provided in the \"Adventure Length\" and \"First Things Last\" sidebars, and the options in the \"Meeting Kwalish\" section give you the opportunity to run {@i Lost Laboratory of Kwalish} in a number of different ways. But if you'd like to customize this scenario even further, consider any of the following options.",
{
"type": "section",
"name": "The Cartophile",
"page": 34,
"id": "0bc",
"entries": [
"The starting point for the adventure has a big impact on establishing the full identity of the Cartophile. In Waterdeep, Anaxi Zephries might be a member of that city's Surveyors', Map-, and Chart-makers' Guild. But if the adventure is tied to Chult and {@adventure Tomb of Annihilation|ToA}, he might instead work as a merchant prince in Port Nyanzaru. And either way, no matter how genuinely you portray him, the Cartophile might fall under suspicion by the characters in the manner of so many too-helpful NPCs. You can opt to run with such suspicions by giving the Cartophile a secret agenda.",
"He might be a criminal agent working for the Monastery of the Distressed Body, sending party after adventuring party to become new prisoners of the Grand Master. He might even be a construct sent from the monastery for that purpose\u2014or his body might be such a construct, and the brain in a jar from the monastery's treasury is actually his. As such, the Cartophile wishes to have it returned at all costs, and any hirelings accompanying the party attempt to complete this secret agenda over any others.",
"Even if his goals are legitimate, the Cartophile's desire to trace the original expedition of his ancestors might offer further connections to be developed. If one of the brains in jars belongs to one of those relatives and is provided with a new body (see below), it might return to civilization with the characters. The Cartophile will be keen to meet this ancestor, perhaps leading to a new family business. Or considering that they're both gnomes, perhaps Kwalish is the ancestor the Cartophile sought all along!"
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Mary Greymalkin",
"page": 34,
"id": "0bd",
"entries": [
"A number of options present themselves for using the {@i deck of several things} within the adventure. As written, Mary already carries the deck, and no matter how many cards are drawn from it, the complete deck reappears magically in her possession at the conclusion of the adventure. But if she remains as an NPC in your campaign, or is first placed in an earlier adventure, consider modifying the cards' effects to more broadly fit the campaign.",
"You might also decide that the cards' effects are as closely tied to the adventure as they are because they are really a set of clockwork-controlling punch cards from the crashed planar craft. Whether {@creature Gearbox|LLK} is with the party or not, the cards might be used to connect to any of the technology in the adventure that the modron can interface with. You might also add additional possible effects, such as inserting the correct card into the sphinx's enhanced brain in order to issue it commands. Even if used in these ways, though, a card must first be formally drawn so that its primary effect can play out.",
"Additionally (and especially if the characters don't choose to take Mary as a hireling), the {@i deck of several things} might not be in her possession. Instead, characters can find the cards scattered in various locations throughout the adventure, allowing them to be collected, then used."
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "The Enhanced Sphinx",
"page": 34,
"id": "0be",
"entries": [
"Plenty of additional options can be used during the process of resolving the sphinx's riddle, including working with the idea that because the enhanced sphinx gains much new knowledge from outlaws crossing into the monastery, asking about good-aligned topics might negate its advantage on the Intelligence check it makes to answer. Alternatively, you might decide that the dock the sphinx sits on magically fuels its enhanced abilities, and that by tricking or forcing the creature off the dock, it has disadvantage on its Intelligence checks to answer.",
"Another obvious option is to allow the characters to trick the sphinx with a logical conundrum, perhaps along the lines of asking: {@i How can we cross to the monastery without paying the toll}? The answer to the question is to ask the question, pressing the sphinx into a strange loop of logic that forces her to let the characters pass. It's also possible that the characters might wish to use the enhanced sphinx to ask a question they truly need to know the answer to, perhaps from some other mystery in your campaign. The sphinx always answers truly, and so can be used to provide rare knowledge or lore if the characters are willing to pay the price.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0bf",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0c0",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Seeker of Knowledge",
"page": 34,
"id": "0c1",
"entries": [
"As a custodian of rare knowledge, the sphinx might have long coveted the knowledge of the monastery's brains in jars\u2014all of them creatures with advanced intellect and a unique perspective on the world. She might strike a deal with the characters if they agree to find the brains and bring her one, allowing them to summon the ferry without paying her toll."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Restoring Old Debts",
"page": 34,
"id": "0c2",
"entries": [
"If the sphinx is slain, the mechanical items that circle around her (functioning as {@item Ioun Stone|LLK|Ioun stones}) might all be released. The life force they contain (in the form of decreases to ability scores) might then be usable by their original owners to reverse the decrease. If any of those owners are still alive, the stones might help guide the characters to them, allowing the party to gain favor by returning the sphinx's toll to some of those who have paid it. If Mary is with the party, she might seek to keep all the mechanical {@item Ioun Stone|LLK|Ioun stones} for herself\u2014and might stop at nothing to get them back if the other characters seize them."
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "The Grand Master",
"page": 35,
"id": "0c3",
"entries": [
"As the leader of the monastery, the Grand Master is meant to present a difficult but not impossible challenge. You might wish to modify his capabilities depending on the relative power of the characters.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0c4",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0c5",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Vorpal Shards",
"page": 35,
"id": "0c6",
"entries": [
"Even while keeping the idea that the grand master's claw shards are from a {@item Vorpal Sword}, you might wish to mitigate their threat of an instant kill by having them deal an extra {@dice 6d8} slashing damage instead. You might also have the shards be from a {@item Polymorph Blade|LLK}, a {@item Blade of the Medusa|LLK}, or some other type of weapon.",
"Another option is to allow decapitated characters to have their heads magically reattached and their life restored at the leather works, through the advice of the control room brains or Kwalish's notes. Similarly, you might have notes and technology found throughout the adventure that allow the characters to recreate the {@item Vorpal Sword} successfully if the shards are recovered."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Cloak of Faces",
"page": 35,
"id": "0c7",
"entries": [
"If an added threat is needed, you might have the Grand Master's cloak fly apart into its various faces during battle, attacking as a {@creature swarm of bats}."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Throne Gate",
"page": 35,
"id": "0c8",
"entries": [
"The Grand Master might have long ago figured out how to activate this gate. If things go bad for it in combat, it might choose to do so in order to escape (if you wish to preserve the Grand Master as a future villain), or to summon an ally (if the fight against it proves too easy)."
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Brains in Jars",
"page": 35,
"id": "0c9",
"entries": [
"Depending on your campaign, you might wish to identify some or all of the monastery's brains with other figures from D&D lore. Perhaps the monastery has long been home to obscure or lesser-known figures such as Quaal, Queen Ehlissa, Keoghtom, Nolzur, and Tuerny the Merciless\u2014all of them known mostly for the magic items that bear their names. If you use Nolzur, the creator of {@item Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments} would be of special interest to Garret, while Tuerny (creator of the lost artifact {@i The {@item Iron Flask} of Tuerny the Merciless}) would be of special interest to {@creature Mary Greymalkin|LLK}.",
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0ca",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"id": "0cb",
"entries": [
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "The New Body Problem",
"page": 35,
"id": "0cc",
"entries": [
"Every brain in a jar is desperate for a new body, and a brain immediately agrees to aid the characters any way it can if they promise to restore it to life. Any number of possible options might be available to characters wanting to achieve this end. Most easily, the brains can guide characters through the process of transferring their intellect into a host such as a slain monk, or a mechanical entity such as Ctenmiir's coffin or {@creature Gearbox|LLK}. This process requires a successful DC 14 Wisdom ({@skill Medicine}) check or Dexterity check with thieves' tools or tinker's tools. However, on a failed check, the brain is destroyed and any floating disks it controls in the treasury (area M10) are permanently deactivated.",
"The characters might also attempt to craft an entirely new mechanical body as a brain host\u2014either individual bodies for each brain, or a single body that houses all the brains at once. Doing so requires a suitable amount of time, access to materials, and a successful DC 16 Intelligence ({@skill Arcana}) check or Dexterity check with thieves' tools or tinker's tools. Furthermore, each such body also requires a new energy cell from the treasury.",
"You could also establish that the process of returning a brain to a new body might require knowledge available only from Kwalish. In this scenario, one or more brains will secure a promise from the characters to return with this knowledge\u2014or they might seek to accompany them onward. The brains can go mobile by attaching their canisters to {@creature Gearbox|LLK}, Ctenmiir's coffin, the merrenoloth's skiff, one of the treasury floating disks made mobile\u2014or even to the characters themselves."
]
},
{
"type": "entries",
"name": "Conflict with the Sphinx",
"page": 35,
"id": "0cd",
"entries": [
"If you work with the idea that the sphinx seeks the knowledge held by the brains in jars, the brains know this\u2014and greatly fear that outcome. They might strike a deal with the characters to use their control over the monastery to aid the party\u2014but only if they agree to first go back and slay the sphinx. Once the sphinx is slain\u2014or if the characters killed it before coming to the monastery\u2014any ability checks made to deal with the brains are made with advantage."
]
}
]
}
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "More Monastery",
"page": 35,
"id": "0ce",
"entries": [
"The original {@i Expedition to the Barrier Peaks} mapped out six levels of the adventure's crashed ship: \"a large exploration-colonization expedition of human origin.\" This adventure focuses on only a cursory exploration of a similarly crashed planar craft, but you can easily expand the adventure by allowing characters to discover portals in the monastery that lead to lower levels of the vessel.",
"A secret entrance might be concealed behind the Grand Master's throne in area M3, opening to reveal a spidery contraption resembling an iron golem, and operating as a climbing elevator down into the lower decks. Another entrance might be concealed within one of the immured ones' cells at area M6. Opening the cell could reveal the entrance standing open, with the prisoner gone and residing somewhere below.",
"Any such entrance might need to be accessed with one of the {@i deck of several things}' clockwork control cards (see \"{@area Mary Greymalkin|0bd|x},\" above). But however they are reached, these lower levels might contain any number of threats and mysteries: escaped biological specimens, advanced technologies, or even the planar craft's original pilots trapped in stasis. The means to reignite the craft's engines might also be found there if the monastery is in imminent danger of dropping from the sky.",
"As an added challenge to the task of rescuing characters captured by the monks (including those who fall to the valley floor below the monastery), such prisoners might be outfitted with teleportation-field devices around their necks, so that their bodies and heads are separated and imprisoned in two different locations. Characters are fully conscious and ambulatory while in such a state, their heads operating independently of their bodies until both are reunited. See the \"Teleportation-Field Devices\" sidebar for more information."
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "High Priest",
"page": 36,
"id": "0cf",
"entries": [
"In the ooze-flooded city of Daoine Gloine, the high priest in area O5 might negotiate with the characters for a new physical body. She readily agrees to deactivate the clockwork kraken if the characters open her coffin and help her, suggesting that they drop her into the gelatinous ooze covering the city so that she can sink down and use one of Kwalish's armatures for a new body. However, you might decide that if this is done, the priest's still-potent magical power allows her to merge with the great ooze and control it\u2014effectively using that titanic creature as the new body she seeks."
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Baubles",
"page": 36,
"id": "0d0",
"entries": [
"As the characters search through the endless baubles of Daoine Gloine, you might want to distinguish the single bauble leading to Kwalish's lab from the other crystal baubles by having it composed of diamond. A successful DC 18 Wisdom ({@skill Perception}) check spots the difference between the diamond bauble and the other crystal specimens.",
"In addition to crafting new options for the encounters inside the baubles, you can set up each bauble so that leaving its extradimensional space requires some sort of victory condition. Such conditions might include killing the wraith in bauble 1, finding a special item in the market in bauble 2, and so forth. You can also increase or decrease the number of decoy baubles throughout the city\u2014or even have baubles taken from the city and hidden throughout the world!"
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Abyssal Throne Gate",
"page": 36,
"id": "0d1",
"entries": [
"Opening either of these devices (in the central abbey or the tomb of the medusa) creates the effect of casting a {@spell gate} spell. As per that spell, the characters might wish to name a specific creature from the plane the gate leads to, hoping to interact with it. Or you might have a creature Kwalish previously met through the gate arrive in response to it being opened. That creature might have knowledge to impart, a debt to repay, or a grudge to have righted. You could even have creatures from the two gates know of each another\u2014and, as with the monastery's sphinx and brains in jars\u2014attempt to work with the characters against one another.",
"Additionally, the extradimensional portal Kwalish used to open a gate to the Abyss from Daoine Gloine might be reversible. If the characters meet descendants of the city's original inhabitants, they might be asked to free the city of the ooze, perhaps in exchange for valuable lost lore. Kwalish might also ask for their aid in restoring the city to its former state.",
"If the undead medusa guarding area O4 is overcome, the crown and scepter recovered from the monastery can be used to open the temple gate, as noted in the adventure. A follow-up successful DC 15 Intelligence ({@skill Religion}) check can then trigger ritual magic that reverses the flood of ooze and sends it back to the Slime Pits. However, if this check is failed by 5 or more, the botched ritual summons forth a new plague of acidic slime\u2014so potent that it quickly melts the stone of the city away, destroying Daoine Gloine for all time.",
"To raise the stakes for characters attempting to activate or reverse the abyssal gate, you can also require that the character wearing the crown and holding the scepter must be in physical contact with the standing arch\u2014making it impossible to activate the gate from inside the {@item Apparatus of Kwalish} or any similar protective device."
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Kwalish",
"page": 36,
"id": "0d2",
"entries": [
"The legendary arcane inventor is presented as an obsessed, distracted, but basically benign figure in the adventure. However, you might choose to present him as a much more sinister villain. Instead of preserving the brains of his fallen comrades in the hope of one day reviving them, Kwalish might have worked with the sphinx to arrange their deaths in order to harvest their brains for his research. Any of the brains in jars in the Monastery of the Distressed Body can detail those events.",
"Likewise, instead of flooding Daoine Gloine with ooze in order to save himself from the city's evil cultists, Kwalish might simply have wished to drive away the population and seal off the city for his own use. Descendants of Daoine Gloine's original inhabitants met on the way to the city (see {@adventure appendix A|LLK|4}) can detail these events, as can any revived statues, or even the medusa if the characters use {@spell speak with dead} after ending her threat for good.",
"If used as a villain, Kwalish should be presented as a final opponent to overcome in his laboratory. Any knowledge required to complete the party's quest can then be found within his journals and personal notes."
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Appendix C: Monsters and NPCs",
"page": 37,
"id": "0d3",
"entries": [
"This section includes new monsters and nonplayer characters introduced in {@i Lost Laboratory of Kwalish}, as well as stat blocks from the {@book Monster Manual|MM}, {@book Volo's Guide to Monsters|VGM}, and {@book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes|MTF} that are referenced in the adventure.",
{
"type": "list",
"style": "list-no-bullets",
"items": [
"{@creature Bandit Captain}",
"{@creature Berserker}",
"{@creature Bone Devil}",
"{@creature Brain in a Jar|LLK}",
"{@creature Clockwork Kraken|LLK}",
"{@creature Commoner}",
"{@creature Cultist}",
"{@creature Cult Fanatic}",
"{@creature Evoker|VGM}",
"{@creature Froghemoth|VGM}",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/022-dndxl-froghemoth.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 835
},
"{@creature Galeb Duhr}",
"{@creature Garret Levistusson|LLK}",
"{@creature Gelatinous Cube}",
"{@creature Gibbering Mouther}",
"{@creature Gynosphinx}",
"{@creature Kenku}",
"{@creature Martial Arts Adept|VGM}",
"{@creature Mary Greymalkin|LLK}",
"{@creature Medusa}",
"{@creature Merrenoloth|MTF}",
"{@creature Monodrone}",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/031-gearbox.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 1072,
"credit": "Matt Warren"
},
"{@creature Mind Flayer Arcanist}",
"{@creature Ooze-Folk|LLK}",
"{@creature Quasit}",
"{@creature Quickling|VGM}",
"{@creature Skeleton}",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/035-dndxl-skeleton.webp"
},
"width": 1296,
"height": 866
},
"{@creature Sprite}",
"{@creature Steam Mephit}",
"{@creature Stone Golem}",
"{@creature Stirge}",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/040-dndxl-stirge.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 834
},
"{@creature Swarm of Bats}",
"{@creature Thug}",
"{@creature Treant}",
"{@creature Umber Hulk}",
"{@creature Vampire}",
"{@creature Vampire Spawn}",
"{@creature Wraith}",
"{@creature The Wretched|MTF}",
{
"type": "image",
"href": {
"type": "internal",
"path": "adventure/LLK/046-dndxl-wretched.webp"
},
"width": 1000,
"height": 425
},
"{@creature Xorn}"
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Appendix D: Magic Items",
"page": 53,
"id": "0d4",
"entries": [
"The unique magical-mechanical crafting techniques seen in the Monastery of the Distressed Body and the lost city of Daoine Gloine are the basis of a number of unique magic items found in the adventure. Because of their power and rarity, the items in this section (or at least those that aren't cursed) are best suited for characters in a high-magic campaign. Alternatively, treat each item as the equivalent of two or more magic items appropriate for characters of 5th to 10th level.",
"You can also treat this section as potential treasure for future play at higher levels. Some of these items might be experiments that Kwalish is working on, which can be made available to the characters if they return to the Barrier Peaks. Alternatively, if you'd like to make full use of these items during the adventure but don't want to make them part of your long-term campaign, some of them might function only in the monastery or Daoine Gloine, while others might be charge-dependent. When an item's charges run dry, its magic drains away\u2014or the item might malfunction or explode, with effects determined by you.",
"The \"{@book Alien Technology|DMG|9|Alien Technology}\" section in chapter 9 of the {@book Dungeon Master's Guide|DMG} offers useful general guidelines for dealing with strange devices of the sort found in this adventure. If Kwalish's notes can't be deciphered (or if the inventor doesn't show up when the characters need him), you might ask for successful Intelligence checks on the Figuring Out Alien Technology table from anyone trying to operate magical technology. It might take one success to operate a trinket, two successes to operate a force pike or a teleportation-field device, and four successes to operate Kwalish's {@i powered armor}.",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"{@item Blade of the Medusa|LLK}",
"{@item Deck of Several Things|LLK}",
"{@item Galder's Bubble Pipe|LLK}",
"{@item Gambler's Blade|LLK}",
"{@item Heward's Hireling Armor|LLK}",
"{@item Ioun Stone|LLK}",
"{@item Leather Golem Armor|LLK}",
"{@item Polymorph Blade|LLK}",
"{@item Powered Armor|LLK}"
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Appendix E: New Spells",
"page": 57,
"id": "0d5",
"entries": [
"The following new spells can be found as {@item Spell Scroll||spell scrolls} and supernatural charms in this adventure.",
{
"type": "list",
"items": [
"{@spell Flock of Familiars|LLK}",
"{@spell Galder's Speedy Courier|LLK}",
"{@spell Galder's Tower|LLK}"
]
}
]
},
{
"type": "section",
"name": "Appendix F: Additional Rumors",
"page": 58,
"id": "0d6",
"entries": [
"Tales of the legendary Barrier Peaks have circulated for centuries, passing from person to person and town to town across the length and breadth of the land\u2014and the only one who knows the full truth of those tales is you. None of the following rumors connect directly to this adventure. But you can use them as alternative false rumors for the \"Rumors and Legends\" section, or as true inspiration for side treks and new adventures.",
{
"type": "table",
"caption": "Additional Barrier Peaks Rumors",
"colLabels": [
"d100",
"Rumor"
],
"colStyles": [
"text-center col-2",
"col-10"
],
"rows": [
[
"1",
"An ancient castle lies buried in the foothills of the Barrier Peaks. Hidden somewhere in its vaults are a {@i suit of invisibility} and a {@i ring of teleportation}!"
],
[
"2",
"A group of charitable drow who worship Bahamut have taken refuge in the Barrier Peaks. They are said to help travelers in need."
],
[
"3",
"Legend tells of a cave inhabited by minotaur shamans that have fled the command of Baphomet, and that seek to free all their people from the demon lord's control. Those that bring them the knowledge and supplies they require are rewarded with gold and gemstones."
],
[
"4",
"They say shadar-kai appear from time to time in those mountains, kidnapping aloof adventurers for the Raven Queen."
],
[
"5",
"The Tharguard dwarves of the Barrier Peaks were powerful smiths. Channeling magic within their forges, they crafted the finest weapons in the land\u2014until they vanished centuries ago. Recently, though, the clamor of hammer on anvil has been heard in remote chasms in the peaks once again. The Tharguard have returned, but no one knows why."
],
[
"6",
"A dead god was buried beneath the Barrier Peaks eons ago. The blood of this god permeates the stone of the mountains, and its magic is channeled by the flora and fauna of the peaks."
],
[
"7",
"Hunters have found wildlife in the Barrier Peaks slain by the precise burn marks of magic. Whatever creature is killing these beasts, it has no need for food or trophies, as the carcasses are simply left to rot."
],
[
"8",
"On nights of the full moon, airships piloted by lycanthropes roam the mountain passes of the peaks, looking for travelers to infect and add to their savage crews."
],
[
"9",
"Folk foraging for truffles near the base of the Barrier Peaks swear they saw three metal golems marching abreast, set with glowing red eyes that shot fire, and levitating over any obstacle in their path."
],
[
"10",
"There ain't nothing good in them mountains, I can tell you that much. I've heard that magic works wrong up there, and every few weeks, some unseen cave belches out a new monstrosity hungering for flesh."
],
[
"11",
"Lightning struck one of the Barrier Peaks, bringing it to life. Though it's still rooted in the soil, a maw-like cave entrance now howls in frustration in the Primordial tongue."
],
[
"12",
"It's claimed that one of the Barrier Peaks rises so high, it tore a hole in the sky, allowing elemental creatures of air to enter this world."
],
[
"13",
"The Barrier Peaks are said to house a vile laboratory, capable of reanimating undead that are immune to a cleric's holy power."
],
[
"14",
"A family of space hamsters is looking for their long-lost child up in those mountains. Those otherworldly creatures won't rest until they're reunited."
],
[
"15",
"I've heard tell of a terrible warrior who roams the Barrier Peaks\u2014a beast of a man trapped in a suit of armor with gleaming golden eyes, and which spits fire and lightning from strange metallic wands. The only way to escape him is to put a body of water between the two of you, as he won't cross it."
],
[
"16",
"Children speak of a ten-fingered raven that flies down from the peaks to open doors and whisper nightmares into the dark."
],
[
"17",
"The owlbears that prowl the slopes of the Barrier Peaks are not what they seem."
],
[
"18",
"A glowing dragon has crawled out from the roots of the Barrier Peaks. It searches now for an artifact that might save the creatures that live off its light."
],
[
"19",
"Deep within the valleys of the Barrier Peaks grows an ancient fungus sought by a sect of mad druids. If they find it, they believe it will help them destroy the cities of the civilized races."
],
[
"20",
"The tarrasque slumbers beneath the Barrier Peaks, and none know when the great beast might stir."
],
[
"21",
"I've heard tell of an order of knights running a way station up in the Barrier Peaks. They promise rest and respite to anyone trying to cross the mountains. But most folks never make it to the other side."
],
[
"22",
"There's a town of civilized mice somewhere in the peaks, where you can get a magic sword in trade for a cup of milk. Of course, the sword is the size of a needle, but any tailor will pay you good coin for it."
],
[
"23",
"An old kenku who can interpret dreams and has knowledge of the future hides out in a cavern in the foothills of the peaks."
],
[
"24",
"On some nights, a burst of yellow-white light flashes up above the peaks, visible for miles. Once in a while, a beam of emerald green descends from the heavens to the same spot."
],
[
"25",
"There's something peculiar about a pool a few days' trek into the mountains. Magical trinkets and treasures have their effects amplified if submerged in it even a little while, but nothing good seems to come to anyone who wields that magic."
],
[
"26",
"A large, finely crafted metal elk roams the Barrier Peaks. It's a phylactery gone rogue, and the souls consumed by the lich that crafted it can converse with those that stumble across it."
],
[
"27",
"Beneath the Barrier Peaks lies a vast maze patrolled by undead minotaurs."
],
[
"28",
"They say there's a cave in one of the high passes that even the gods can't see inside. But if you leave a silver piece at the entrance every sunset for a year and a day, you'll be granted a wish."
],
[
"29",
"There's a strange curse or hex up in those peaks, and people who wander there should be wary. First, they get real tired and can't keep food down to save them. After a fortnight at the most, any cuts or scrapes don't mend right. It's not long after that they fall into a sleep and never wake up."
],
[
"30",
"There's an ancient book hidden in a library in the peaks. Anything you write in that book, no matter how big or small, comes true in this world in the end."
],
[
"31",
"One adventurer I heard of came back safe from an expedition to the Barrier Peaks\u2014then promptly grew extra arms, turned purple, and lost his ability to speak. Folks say that the monsters in the peaks are all made that way. Adventurers transformed into beasts from the other realms by a curse that not even the most devoted clerics can heal."
],
[
"32",
"In ages past, a star fell from the heavens and crashed within the Barrier Peaks. The first expedition to reach the site of this fallen star died inside a strange maze made of metal and light, guarded by golems with unnatural cunning."
],
[
"33",
"A bizarre combination of beholder and flumph is said to float through the caves of the mountains, its eye rays inducing laughter and generosity... or turning one into a squirrel. What mad wizard would create such a thing?"
],
[
"34",
"Silent metal spheres lurk in the subterranean depths of the mountains, following adventurers who explore those depths."
],
[
"35",
"Within a cave in a secluded valley, time twists and distorts. Travelers have returned from that place with stories of their companions frozen motionless for long minutes, or of repeating the same actions many times over before managing to escape."
],
[
"36",
"In a mysterious village in the Barrier Peaks foothills, the inhabitants slaughter one another to the last each night. Yet the next day dawns with all the villagers alive, as if nothing had happened."
],
[
"37",
"A beholder is trapped within a cavern of the mountains, as the result of some strange draw from a {@item Deck of Many Things}. To pass the time, the creature stages plays with the monsters and prisoners it keeps."
],
[
"38",
"The strangest noises come rumbling down from the Barrier Peaks at times. Screeches and howls, and enormous echoing thumps. It's enough to give a person the shudders."
],
[
"39",
"Some say those peaks are so sharp that the gods cut their feet on them. That's why the rivers of the mountains run red every few years."
],
[
"40",
"Some fool claimed that goblins kidnapped him and his cattle from the foothills of the Barrier Peaks, dragged them high up into the mountains\u2014and then let them all go back home again like nothing had happened."
],
[
"41",
"Strange metallic constructs haunt the Barrier Peaks, and only one wizard is said to have discovered the secret of controlling them."
],
[
"42",
"A metal-walled cave in the mountains is sealed behind a magic door that opens and closes whenever a worthy traveler draws near. But who judges those travelers' worthiness, none can say."
],
[
"43",
"A horrible whispering can be heard up in the mountains. Folks claim it's the ghosts of ancient explorers, trying to entice others into joining them in death."
],
[
"44",
"The Barrier Peaks are home to an ancient league of aboleths, whose members conspire to punch a hole to the Far Realm in the fabric of reality."
],
[
"45",
"A mysterious armored beholder roams the caverns of the Barrier Peaks, silent in its execution of all who intrude into its realm. Its eyestalks send forth rays of light that shine out suddenly in the darkness\u2014and turn creatures they catch into dust!"
],
[
"46",
"A mysterious order of monks guards a lone keep high in the Barrier Peaks, said to imprison an immortal knight."
],
[
"47",
"Old Otus came through town the other day, needing fresh supplies. He said huge frogs with tentacles ate his camp! Can ye believe that?"
],
[
"48",
"Beneath the Barrier Peaks is an ancient iron god once worshiped by the gnomes. Inside its metal form reside nightmarish creatures without souls."
],
[
"49",
"Adventurers that have returned recently from the Barrier Peaks have lost the ability to talk about their emotions. Whenever they attempt to, they are simply struck dumb."
],
[
"50",
"A group of rats that once belonged to a demented wizard have formed a tiny village within one of the lower crags of the Barrier Peaks. If you hear singing and the clinking of tiny mugs on a windless night, you'll know you're close."
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"51",
"Folk dwelling in the foothills of the peaks have been caught wandering as if in a trance into the mountains. When rescued, all reported the same thing: a long, bony finger beckoned them into the darkness, where writhing tendrils waited to snatch them up."
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"52",
"In more than one spot within the peaks, a strange hum emits from the earth without warning, and anything smaller than a fist begins to float a few inches off the ground."
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"53",
"My brother's best friend's uncle got lost up in the high trails of the peaks, swearing up and down that he'd fallen through a wall of wind and found a garden behind it full of strange plants. We all thought he was half mad, but he had the weirdest blue vine growing through the soles of his boots. We had to burn it off, and I tell you, that plant screamed."
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"54",
"A rare type of creature escaped a wizard's tower in the Barrier Peaks, resembling tiny plant people. Their bodies have begun washing up in the foothill rivers, still clutching little spears."
],
[
"55",
"Somewhere deep within the peaks lies the lost tower of Mundar, named after a gnome wizard who loved children and created many magnificent magical toys. Those who claim to have found the tower tell tales of giant teddy bears and toy soldiers that guard against those who would ransack its workshop."
],
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"56",
"Even the best trackers are afraid of those mountains. They'll tell you that if you count the number of peaks before dark and make the same count the next morning, you'll never get the same number."
],
[
"57",
"The Barrier Peaks house a guild of cunning gnomes, who love to test their creations on the settlements in the foothills below."
],
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"58",
"A sage dwelling in the foothills of the peaks was found dead, the top of her head cut off and her brain cleanly removed. Then a hunter returned from the high mountains says he saw a scuttling, crab-like monster there, with a brain floating in a transparent blister atop its head."
],
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"59",
"A farmer says he saw a metal humanoid wandering through the foothills while he was tending his sheep. The thing was screaming at the top of its lungs, babbling in some language he couldn't make out. It threw fire from its fingertips when it spotted him, and he says he was lucky to get away alive."
],
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"60",
"Folks say that when the spring warmth melts the snow on the Barrier Peaks, strange metal objects are washed downriver and eaten by fish. The halflings call this season \"Fisher's Fortune\" in their small river villages in the foothills."
],
[
"61",
"It's said that the spirits of twin children haunt the Barrier Peaks\u2014poor tykes who froze to death looking to pick flowers for their mother. Each seeks the other now, lost forever and begging strangers for aid. Tales talk of how one spirit will lead explorers to safety, while the other guarantees malicious calamity."
],
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"62",
"A few folks have reported seeing strange lights just above the peaks. Some claim they're the work of occultists performing diabolical rituals, while others say they're lost souls trying to lure folks to their doom."
],
[
"63",
"The tarrasque dwells within the deepest caverns of the Barrier Peaks\u2014but the creature is undead, held in a perpetual state of decay."
],
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"64",
"Rumors tell of an iron fortress nestled deep within the Barrier Peaks. No one knows how it got there, but some histories tell of how it appeared about the same time that a comet crashed into the mountains. The gods delivered this fortress, some say, and no mortal can enter without their permission."
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"65",
"A small group of humans and dwarves went into the Barrier Peaks seeking archeological finds. News was promising at first, including reports of a cave that held artifacts from ages long past, and the remains of creatures unlike anything ever discovered before. Then all word from the expedition suddenly ceased..."
],
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"66",
"Symbols appear in the Barrier Peaks, scribed into the deepest caves and on the highest mountains alike. These glyphs glow and pulse, and come from no language ever spoken by mortals."
],
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"67",
"An old roc's nest clings to one of the higher slopes of the Barrier Peaks, with an old iron footlocker hidden within it. A reclusive mystic is said to have stored secretive writings in that chest, behind powerful magic wards."
],
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"68",
"Some sort of frog-god fell from the skies an aeon ago, and it waits now for one worthy enough to carry its religion to the world. Whoever finds this being and bows before it will become a demigod, leading the world into a new age of prosperity and order."
],
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"69",
"One of the highest of the Barrier Peaks has mysteriously lost its snowpack. No snow clings to its crags now, even in the middle of winter."
],
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"70",
"A trading caravan traveling through the Barrier Peaks returned without any of its merchants. All the pack animals and supplies were accounted for, none the worse for wear\u2014except the caravan had lost every trace it carried of silk or cloth."
],
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"71",
"I've heard tales of a haunted monastery up in the peaks. Something about vengeful dead coming down to steal corpses, and taking them back to their forsaken abode."
],
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"72",
"No, it's not all woe and misery in the Barrier Peaks. There's a lost tavern up there, filled with perfectly preserved dwarven ale from the past millennia."
],
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"73",
"I've heard an old woman sometimes appears on the trails of the peaks, staring at you with huge black eyes. She might offer you some berries to eat, but those who take one are never heard from again!"
],
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"74",
"A swarm of rust monsters wanders up in those mountains. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. What kind of metal they're finding up there to let them sustain those numbers, no one knows."
],
[
"75",
"All this talk about yetis in the Barrier Peaks is just a rumor. I say there's a pack of wizards pretending to be yetis, trying to scare folks away from the peaks' real secret!"
],
[
"76",
"In ages past, the gods cast a flaming star down upon the Barrier Peaks. And all the time since, the peaks have been infected with horrors too shocking to fathom."
],
[
"77",
"A mummy lord resides in an ancient tomb of the Barrier Peaks, guarding a huge treasure that once belonged to a family of vampire slayers."
],
[
"78",
"Most kobolds are mere nuisances. But the members of the Brightclaw Clan of the Barrier Peaks wield strange metal crossbows that hum and glow with esoteric symbols. I saw my dwarf guide disintegrated by a red beam emitted from one of those unnatural magical things!"
],
[
"79",
"An ancient deity dwells within the Barrier Peaks, and speaks to its followers only in dreams. Those who meet this deity become blessed with eyes that glow in different colors, depending on who they speak to and what they say."
],
[
"80",
"Somewhere within the Barrier Peaks, a massive city built into the cliffs is populated by a society of aarakocra and genasi. These creatures guard a passage into the Elemental Plane of Air, aided by tamed elementals."
],
[
"81",
"A vault full of strange flying devices is hidden within the Barrier Peaks\u2014and rumors say that a dragon has recently claimed the place."
],
[
"82",
"A lost temple of the storm god is said to be hidden in the Barrier Peaks, and is home to a magical gem that can control the weather. Countless of the god's faithful have made expeditions to seek the site\u2014and none have ever returned."
],
[
"83",
"A sheer wall of ice at the height of the Barrier Peaks has a surface that is marred by peculiar shapes. Tales tell that those shapes are magical molds through which creatures of elemental cold are spawned."
],
[
"84",
"The top of one of the Barrier Peaks is fake. An illusion! Tales tell of a village up there, populated by halflings who love the cold."
],
[
"85",
"I heard there be rabbit-men in the peaks, with spears that throw fire."
],
[
"86",
"Caverns abound in the Barrier Peaks that are filled with rubies\u2014all of them crystallized out of the blood of innocents and cursed to bring an early death to those that carry them."
],
[
"87",
"The entire range of the Barrier Peaks is actually the ribs of some great, sleeping skeletal beast. Those quakes that tremble through the mountains from time to time? That's it starting to wake up. It's coming."
],
[
"88",
"People know the Barrier Peaks but often forget what it is they were named for. Those mountains make a protective wall guarding civilized lands from the nightmares and dark magic that spawn on their far side. And every time some explorer cuts a new trail across the peaks, that barrier weakens."
],
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"89",
"Folk talk about the Barrier Peaks as home to wraiths and other apparitions, but I say those mountains are a laboratory for the mind flyers. I've walked those trails. I've have heard the blood-curdling screams that come from deep within those mountains. And I've seen the empty look in those that survive the journey to the peaks and back."
],
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"90",
"On a stormy day, elemental power surges in the Barrier Peaks, and the clouds between the mountains become thick enough to walk on."
],
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"91",
"A cabal of gnome mages built an arcane engine in the Barrier Peaks meant to open up a gate to another world."
],
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"92",
"Metal creatures up in the higher passes of the peaks make strange musical sounds. But most of those who investigate that music never return to talk of it."
],
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"93",
"The higher reaches of the Barrier Peaks stay frozen even into summer. Digging in these spots can turn up the corpses of explorers who died there, along with all their gear\u2014and the spirits of those angry dead."
],
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"94",
"I once heard a loudmouth explorer show off what they called a \"power coin\" in an adventurer's tavern. It looked like blue glass to me, but they swore it could charge up magical devices."
],
[
"95",
"Somewhere deep in a cave in the Barrier Peaks flows a waterfall of molten gold."
],
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"96",
"A deranged transmuter had a secret lab somewhere in the Barrier Peaks, folk say. No one's found it yet\u2014but adventurers have spotted a creature in the mountains partway between a sloth and a porcupine, attacking with razor sharp claws and {@condition poisoned} quills."
],
[
"97",
"Many of the stones in the Barrier Peaks are hollow, and those stones sing their secret knowledge during storms. Those songs can lead discerning listeners to hidden treasures... or unseen dangers."
],
[
"98",
"A hidden glade of {@condition petrified} trees in the Barrier Peaks is tended by a stone giant dreamwalker."
],
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"99",
"Some say the paths and tunnels of the Barrier Peaks take weeks or months to traverse, while others claim to navigate the same routes in mere days. Stranger still, charting your route in the peaks is most unreliable. Many's the explorer that's used stars and compass to plot a course, only to find themselves back at the beginning edge of the place where the trip began."
],
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"100",
"The Soul Catcher, they call it. Its victims stagger out of the Barrier Peaks with nary a scratch on their bodies, but their hearts aren't right anymore. The lucky ones are caught by the healers and confined to places where they can't hurt anyone. The ones who aren't so lucky... Well, you tell me. What would you call an adventurer who can't feel the slightest tinge of remorse or guilt or fear?"
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"name": "Other D&D Team Members",
"entries": [
"David Gershman, Pelham Greene, Adam Lee, Chris Lindsay, Shelly Mazzanoble, Mike Mearls, Shauna Narciso, Christopher Perkins, Ben Petrisor, Hilary Ross, Liz Schuh, Nathan Stewart, Emi Tanji, Greg Tito, Dan Tovar, Anna Vo, Kate Welch, Richard Whitters, Trish Yochum"
]
},
{
"type": "item",
"name": "Playtesters",
"entries": [
"Christine Abram, C.J. Alger, Russell Alleen-Willems, Kyle Andrew, Frank Bailey, Mike Balles, Michael Born, Derek Cash, Mick Chambers, Diego Correal, Hunter Craig, Izzy Curran, Sam Delaney, Matt Dewar, Matthew Dillon-Mayne, Scott Dolbee, James East, The Erisian Defense Force, Oscar Fong, Jesse Fox, Scott Gibeault, Charles Goren, Annette Graham, Joe Graham, Peter Grieshaber, Tommy Grissom, Jeremie Harnois, Travis Hayes, Lynn Hogan, Doug Hopkins, Jeffrey Kamberger, Kristine Krozow Richter, Eric LaPlatney, Rick Laprade, Shiaw-Ling Lia, James McKiernan, Cody McLean, Jarret Mcphee, Gil Nerio, Chris Neveu, Jay Neveu, Mario Ortegón, Steve Paiano, Drew Peacock, Bryce, Polkinghorn, Melanie Polkinghorn, Michael Polkinghorn, Owen Polkinghorn, Yania Portillo, Diego Salmón, Claudia Sánchez, Kevin Scully, Simon Sharber, Ted Simon, Benjamin Szymanski, Jay Tatum, David Tompkins, Nick Tourville, Emily Walter, David West, Melissa Wiener, Paige Willis, Steven Wonser"
]
}
]
}
],
"id": "0dc"
}
]
}
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