Overview
Waterfall erosion has carved out a natural concavity here. The roaring waterfall creates a cloud of mist as it plunges into a shallow pool of water, within which rise two small islands covered with two-foot-tall red, green, and purple mushrooms. Several cave openings overlook the pool from rocky ledges twenty to thirty feet above. The mountain blocks any sunlight from reaching this place.
The caves of Gnomengarde are carved into the base of a mountain southeast of
Phandalin, around a narrow waterfall. The
rock gnome wizards who occupy these caves form strategic alliances with their
human and
dwarf neighbors as needs warrant. Reclusive and secretive, the gnomes craft minor magic items and useful, nonmagical inventions to pass the time. In these endeavors, their failures outnumber their successes. They seldom stray far from home, subsisting largely on the mushrooms that grow on misty islands outside their caves.
Gnomengarde has five cave entrances perched atop ledges with sheer, rocky slopes. Climbing to a cave requires a successful DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check. A narrow footpath ascends the northeast slope, making it an easy climb to that cave entrance without a check.
Gnomengarde has a king and queen who rule in tandem - Korboz and Gnerkli. Korboz recently lost his mind and is keeping Gnerkli as his prisoner. Their subjects don’t understand the nature of Korboz’s affliction, and are at a loss as to what to do. They wish no harm to befall either ruler, but they acknowledge that Korboz has become a danger to himself and others.
In addition to the danger posed by the mad king, two
gnomes have mysteriously vanished within the last tenday. No one except King Korboz knows that a shapechanging monster (a
mimic) has crept into Gnomengarde and is feeding on the gnomes, changing its appearance as it makes its way through the complex. Korboz was attacked and almost killed by the creature, with that event inspiring his madness. He has sequestered himself and his beloved Gnerkli in their quarters because he doesn’t want the monstrous shapechanger to devour them. Korboz hopes the creature will tire of eating gnomes and leave. Providing Korboz with evidence of the mimic’s demise restores his sanity.
Mystery Monster
There used to be twenty-two
gnomes living in the caves, but a
mimic devoured two gnomes - named Orryn and Warryn - in the past tenday. The creature is currently disguised as a
barrel in area G8, but it will devour more gnomes once its hunger returns unless it is dealt with. It can move around and adopt other disguises as needed, though its forms are limited to Medium objects such as chairs, large
chests, lecterns, and weird gnomish inventions of the mimic’s size and mass. The mimic can also disguise itself as a door, a false section of wall, or a rocky bulge on the floor.
The mimic completely devours and dissolves its victims, leaving no trace behind and relocating after each kill. It won’t leave Gnomengarde of its own accord, as it’s taken a liking to the taste of gnome flesh.
Wild Magic
Wild magic is a kind of magic that can’t be controlled, and Gnomengarde has long been a source of it. When a creature anywhere on the Gnomengarde map expends a spell slot to cast a spell of 1st level or higher, an additional effect might occur. Roll a d20 and consult the following table to determine the effect, if any. This wild magic effect lasts for 1 hour, or until ended with a
remove curse spell or similar magic.
| d20 | Wild Magic Effect |
| 1-6 | None |
| 7-10 | The caster’s skin turns a vibrant shade of blue. |
| 11-14 | Tiny, insubstantial motes of light circle the caster, shedding bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. |
| 15-17 | The caster sprouts wings like those of a butterfly. The wings give the caster a flying speed of 30 feet. |
| 18-19 | The caster teleports up to 60 feet to a random unoccupied space of the DM’s choice. |
| 20 | The caster regains the spell slot they just expended. |
Gnomengard Features
Gnomengarde’s caves are hewn from solid rock and share the following features.
Ceilings
Ceilings throughout are 7 feet high and flat.
Doors
Normal doors are made of wood fitted with rusty iron handles and hinges. A locked door can be opened with a successful DC 10 Dexterity (
Thieves' Tools) check. A locked door can be forced open as an action with a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Secret doors are made of stone and blend in with the surrounding stonework. Finding a secret door requires a search of the wall and a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check.
Light
All caves are illuminated by hanging
oil lanterns attached to rope-and-pulley mechanisms that make it easy for the
gnomes to lower the lanterns and refill them with oil.
Waterfall
The caves of Gnomengarde echo with the roar of the nearby waterfall. The sound is so loud that gnomes and visitors must shout to be heard unless there’s a closed door between them and the waterfall.
Gnomengarde Locations
G1. Misty Pool and Mushroom Islands
The
gnomes subsist on 2-foot-tall mushrooms that grow atop two small islands in the middle of this 3-foot-deep pool. The islands are perpetually shrouded in mist from the waterfall. Magic bestowed upon the islands by Gnomengarde’s first settlers causes the mushrooms to grow to abnormally large size. This same magic is the source of Gnomengarde’s wild magic.
G2. Waterfall and Rope Bridge
The waterfall plunges 60 feet, its mist lightly obscuring a 35-foot-long rope bridge firmly anchored to 20-foot-high ledges. The bridge is difficult terrain, and sags so that its midpoint is only 15 feet above the water. A creature that falls or jumps from the bridge takes no damage if it lands in the water, which is 5 feet deep in the area below the bridge. The bridge has AC 11, 30 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage.
G3. Dining Room
This room contains several dining tables and chairs sized for Small folk. A stout wooden cabinet against the east wall holds tin dishware and utensils.
G4. Kitchen
This kitchen is furnished with
gnomes in mind, so everything is either close to the floor or readily reachable by tugging on an overly complicated rope-and-pulley mechanism. Five
rock gnomes busy themselves here, making
Kublatz Spiced Bread. There names are Joybell (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage), Dimble (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage), Panana (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage), Uppendown (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage), and Tervaround (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage).
Anyone who questions the gnomes are urged to speak to Fibblestib or Dabbledob in the workshop (area G11), as they know more about what’s going on than any other gnomes in the complex. These gnomes won’t leave the kitchen, and they avoid talking about the missing gnomes or Mad King Korboz.
G5. Pantry
This room is piled high with thirty small wooden
crates. Each contains ten loaves of
Kublatz Spiced Bread and ten pounds worth of other foodstuffs.
G6. Unfinished Barrel Crabs
Parked in alcoves in this otherwise empty room are two unfinished gnomish contraptions. Each resembles a crab with a barrel for a shell, six articulated metal legs, and a pair of forward-facing pincer claws. A hatch on the top of each barrel opens to reveal an interior compartment equipped with a small, leather-padded seat surrounded by levers, pedals, and gears. The gnomes are building these crablike contraptions to grip and move other objects, rather like crude forklifts.
G7. Autoloading Crossbow Platform
Bolted to the floor of this room is a rotating platform equipped with four
heavy crossbows that reload automatically. Each crossbow comes with twenty
crossbow bolts. Mounted above the crossbows at a height of 6 feet is a chair equipped with pedals that causes the entire contraption to spin counterclockwise, and with levers that reload and fire the crossbows. This clanking, clattering contraption is a Large object with AC 13, 45 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage. Every time it loses 10 hit points, one of its crossbows breaks.
A creature sitting in the chair can use an action to rotate the device up to 360 degrees counterclockwise and fire up to two of its crossbows in any direction (+5 to hit, range 50/200 feet, 1d10 piercing damage).
Usually sitting in the chair and guarding the hallway is the device’s inventor, Facktoré (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage). When she sees strangers, Facktoré decides to test out the contraption on them. She stands down only when she or her contraption cease to function, or when she can no longer see any targets. Being deranged and utterly consumed by her work, she can barely string together a cohesive sentence, let alone advise visitors on where to go or whom to talk to.
G8. Mimic and Blackbottem Port
This room contains twelve forty-gallon
barrels set into wide alcoves. Each barrel is secured by a wooden brace. The barrels in the south alcove have been tapped with wooden spigots. Two of those barrels are half full, and two are nearly empty.
Seven of the eight barrels in the north and east alcoves are untapped and full of
Blackbottem Port brandy. The eighth southeasternmost barrel is the
mimic.
G9. Gnome Guard Post
Mist from the waterfall dampens this empty cave, which has a 10-foot-high ledge overlooking it to the south. The ledge can be reached by following the curved tunnel to the east, or by scaling the slick rock wall with a successful DC 12 Strength (Athletics) check.
Two
gnomes stand on the ledge - Ulla (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage) and Pog (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage). When anyone enters the cave, Ulla calls out, “Who goes there?” in Gnomish, then Pog repeats the question in Common. Their orders are to “attack shapechangers on sight.” Since anyone might be a shapechanger, they attack anyone who can’t prove they are who they claim to be. Anyone who doesn’t want to be attacked must succeed on one of the following checks:
- A DC 10 Charisma (Deception) check to trick the gnomes into thinking the intruders have an audience with the king and queen of Gnomengarde.
- A DC 10 Charisma (Intimidation) check to scare the gnomes into thinking that any harm visited upon the intruders will result in Gnomengarde’s destruction.
- A DC 10 Charisma (Persuasion) check to convince the gnomes that the intruders can’t be shapechangers, as shapechangers would surely take less conspicuous forms.
G10. Spinning Blades
This area is lightly obscured by mist from the waterfall. The larger eastern part of the room contains two rapidly spinning devices that look like turnstiles fitted with stacks of long, sharp blades spaced 1 foot apart. The northern turnstile spins counterclockwise, while the southern one spins clockwise. Any creature that is Medium or larger that enters or starts its turn in the eastern part of the room while the blades are spinning must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d8 slashing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
Set into the south wall of the smaller western part of the room is a brass lever in the down position. Pulling the lever up causes the turnstiles to stop spinning, allowing safe passage through the chamber. The
rock gnomes are short enough to run underneath the trap and pull the lever.
G11. Inventors' Workshop
As creatures approach this area, they overhear an argument in Gnomish between Fibblestib (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage) and Dabbledob (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage). As Gnomengarde’s foremost inventors, they are trying to dream up an invention that will cure King Korboz’s madness. Fibblestib’s proposal is a “sanity ray.” Dabbledob thinks that’s dumb, and wants to build something called a “straitjacket” instead. If creatures interrupt them, the gnomes realize that the new arrivals might have another solution, so they fill in what’s been happening and ask for any advice on how they might help cure Korboz and rescue Queen Gnerkli.
Fibblestib and Dabbledob consider the mystery of the vanishing
gnomes of secondary importance to their mission of aiding their king and queen. They focus on Korboz and Gnerkli to the exclusion of all else, promising magical rewards in exchange for aid. Each gnome carries a key to area G13.
The workshop is cluttered with half-completed gnomish inventions that serve no purpose, as well as worktables strewn with tinker’s tools. A 10-foot-high ledge overlooks the room, set with a wooden pedestal on which sits a leather-bound book.
The book on the pedestal is a spellbook that the
rock gnomes of Gnomengarde share. Its cover describes its title as
Magick of Gnomengarde (in Common and Gnomish), and it contains the wizard spells
burning hands,
detect magic,
disguise self,
identify,
mage armor,
magic missile,
shield, and
sleep.
G12. Gnome Domiciles
The floor of this cave is strewn with the remnants of old campfires. Four side caves serve as sleeping areas, with five small wooden cots crammed into each one. Caramip (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage), Jabby (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage), Nyx (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage), and Quippy (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage), and Anverth (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage), Delebean (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage), Pallabar (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage), and Zook (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage) usually sleep or relax in here. Creatures can move through the area without waking the sleeping
gnomes, who defend themselves if attacked but pose no danger otherwise. They avoid talking about the recent troubles, but advise visitors to speak with Fibblestib and Dabbledob (see area G11), Gnomengarde’s two most gifted rock gnome inventors.
G13. Treasury
The door to this room is locked, and Fibblestib and Dabbledob (see area G11) carry the keys. The room contains a jumble of nonfunctional
gnomish gizmos, as well as loose gears, twisted bits of metal, and other scraps that the gnomes use to cobble together new inventions.
Amid the clutter, the characters can find a
clockwork amulet and a
pole of collapsing, most easily by scanning the room with a
detect magic spell. It otherwise takes 1 hour to find each item.
G14. Throne Room
Situated atop a stone dais are two squat thrones made of scrap metal and sized for
gnomes. A secret door in the north wall conceals a short tunnel leading to area G15. Only the gnome rulers know of this secret passage.
G15. Gnome Rulers' Bedroom
King Korboz (CN male
rock gnome apprentice mage) has locked himself and Queen Gnerkli (CN female
rock gnome apprentice mage) in their bedroom, forgetting that there’s a secret door that others could find and use to gain entry. Only Korboz and Gnerkli have keys to the locked main door. If creatures knock on the door or otherwise announce their arrival, Korboz speaks to them from inside the room and warns of a “shapechanger” in their midst. Korboz doesn’t regain his senses until adventurers assure him that the monster has been found and killed. Whether the
mimic is truly killed or not, convincing Korboz that it’s dead requires a successful DC 12 Charisma (Persuasion) check.
Korboz and Gnerkli each wearing a jagged metal crown and tiara, respectively, and a patchwork cloak. Their room contains all the trappings of a nicely appointed
gnome bedroom. A small unlocked
chest under the gnomes’ bed contains a
hat of wizardry and 50 gp.
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