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.
Background
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—until 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—the
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—and establishing its own cult.
After much wandering in the mountains, Kwalish relocated to an equally remote location—Daoine 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—Juiblex’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…
A Note from the D&D Team
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—and 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—and 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.
Adventure Summary
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—at 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—the 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—and 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—and 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—and they might even have the chance to help Kwalish deal with one of a number of problems of his own.
Placing the Adventure
The original Expedition to the Barrier Peaks—1980’s adventure module S3 for first edition AD&D—placed 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 Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure might look for a location closer to the city, including the Greypeaks or the Nether Mountains.
Running the Adventure
To run this adventure, you need the D&D fifth edition core rulebooks (Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual).
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 Monster Manual, along with new creatures and NPCs, and monsters from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 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 Monster Manual, Volo’s Guide to Monsters, and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes can be found in those books.
Spells and equipment mentioned in the adventure are described in the Player’s Handbook. Magic items are described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, unless the adventure’s text directs you to an item’s description in appendix D.
Adventure Length
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:
Full Version (Five to Six Sessions): Run the adventure as written, making use of both the monastery and the ooze-flooded city locations.
Short Version (Two to Three Sessions): 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
One-Shot (One Four-Hour Session): Give your players an adventure hook, assign them a guide (see “Part 1: Mission to the Barrier Peaks”), and start them at area C1, overlooking the bone devil’s monastery. Then as above, replace the treasury’s brain in a jar with Kwalish for an exciting conclusion.
Adventure Hooks
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—if 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.
Thwarting Annihilation
If you’re playing through or using events from Tomb of Annihilation 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 Tomb of Annihilation 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—except 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—or their friend will sleep for eternity.
Waterdeep Dangers
A number of hooks can connect to the exploits of characters engaged in a Waterdeep: Dragon Heist 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 Waterdeep: Dragon Heist 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—a secret known only to the lost inventor.
Ravnica in Peril
If your campaign is set in the city world of Ravnica, as outlined in Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica, 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.
From One Mad Mage to Another
If you’re running a campaign making use of Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, 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.
Unnatural Invasion
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.
Planar Retribution
A powerful marut (detailed in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes) 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.
Journey of Discovery
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