Part 1: Mission to the Barrier Peaks - Lost Laboratory of Kwalish

Part 1: Mission to the Barrier Peaks. No matter what hook brings the characters into the adventure, any research into Kwalish's lost laboratory-or any NPC familiar with the inventor's failed expedition to the Barrier Peaks-establishes that seeking out the gnome known as the Cartophile is a crucial first step for their mission. The Cartophile 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-both to draw new maps and to verify the authenticity of others already in his possession. 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 Bag of Holding accidentally placed within a 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-and 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. Hirelings Any of the following NPCs can...