Lost Laboratory of Kwalish

Creature

Originally wounded in an encounter that nearly destroyed Kwalish's expedition, the enhanced sphinx was subsequently repaired with magical-mechanical parts—and (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 Ioun stones, which add to its vast knowledge. The enhanced sphinx is a Gynosphinx, with these changes:

• 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.

The Sphinx's Riddle

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—but 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 appendix B).

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 Ioun stone-like devices. This curse can be removed only by a 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).

Dock

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.

Treasure

If the sphinx is defeated in combat, most of its mechanical Ioun stones shatter, reversing the effects of the sphinx's tolls on all characters. Additionally, two Ioun stones survive and can be claimed. (If she is with the party, Mary Greymalkin 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 appendix D.

Hooked Polearm

Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is 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 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:

Force Pike

Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 40/100 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (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 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.

Dark Tidings

With a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (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).

Creatures

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 Swarm of Bats, and see the leather works (area M7) for more information.

The Grand Master

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.

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—some 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—in 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.

Creatures

The Grand Master is a Bone Devil with these changes:

• Shards of a Vorpal Sword once broken against the devil replace its claws. A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) or Wisdom (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 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 East Wind and West Wind protect the Grand Master at all times. Each is a Martial Arts Adept with these changes:

• Polymorph Blade

  Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. If East Wind rolls a 20 on the attack roll, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the effects of a polymorph spell.

• Blade of the Medusa

  Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. If West Wind rolls a 20 on the attack roll, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer the effects of a 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—specifically, 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.

Death of the Grand Master

If the Grand Master is slain, the bone devil is revealed to be an advanced ruse—a war machine of Kwalish's design, piloted by a particularly ingenious 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.

Throne Gate

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—the 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 (Arcana) check to reopen the archway. Treat a successful check as if the character had cast the gate spell to open a gate to the Nine Hells.

Treasure

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.

Creatures

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).

Treasure

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 (Investigation) check discerns how the buttons and dials of the furnishings can be worked to access hidden compartments, revealing 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—or who isn't told about it.

Creatures

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.

Cells

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.

Creatures

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 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.

Immured Ones

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 (Persuasion) check. A successful check causes the immured ones to run off and attempt to escape.

Treat each immured one as a Berserker with these changes:

• 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 (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Creatures

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 Swarm of Bats.

Treasure

Any inspection or a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that the leather-clad figure on the floor is actually a suit of Leather Golem Armor. See appendix D for more information.

Development

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.

Creatures

These horrid undead are the monastery's so-called "enlightened ones." Through the technology of the planar craft and Kwalish's experimentation, each 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.

Lore and Information

With respectful discussion and a successful DC 12 Charisma (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 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.

Negotiating with the Brains

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 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—and 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 (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) checks. Any character proficient in these skills can attempt a check or use the 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 (Investigation) or Wisdom (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.

Gearbox to the Rescue

If Gearbox 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 Gearbox 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.

Antimagic Field

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.

Valley Floor

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.

Creature

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 (Deception, Intimidation, or 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—but 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.

Kwalish's Journal

The cover of Kwalish's journal is set with all manner of gears. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (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."

Antimagic Controls

It takes a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (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 (Arcana) check or Dexterity check made with thieves' tools or tinker's tools allows a character to deactivate the antimagic field.

Gearbox to the Rescue

As in the control room, if Gearbox 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 Gearbox is unable to disconnect as a result.

Treasure

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:

• 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 potions of healing, one elixir of health, and a manual of golems (flesh).
• An ornate wooden case carved with images of air and water elementals locked in furious battle, within which is a Galder's Bubble Pipe (see appendix D).
• A suit of Heward's Hireling Armor (see appendix D).
• 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 (Arcana) check or Dexterity check using thieves' tools or tinker's tools.

Alongside countless dead energy cells spread across this area, the characters find 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 powered armor found in area O7. Energy cells cannot be recharged.