Kwalish

Kwalish was a wizard skilled in architecture and arcane engineering. He built the original "Apparatus of Kwalish" to explore the ocean and make contact with aquatic races. Kwalish, a scholar, joined an ill-fated expedition into the Barrier Peaks trying to find Daoine Gloine, a legendary city of glass creatures. The rest of the party perished, but Kwalish found a wrecked planar craft of unknown origin. He spent years exploring it, and used much of the craft’s unique magical technology as a laboratory building planar gates of his own design. One gate resulted in a bone devil driving him out of the laboratory, and turning it into a monastery for its own cult. Kwalish then relocated to Daoine Gloine, inhabited by kenku worshiping a medusa than turned victims to glass. Kwalish opened a gate to Jubilex's Slime Pits to clear the city to use for his new laboratory, which he then cut off access to allow him to research further.
Kwalish is best known as the creator of the Apparatus of Kwalish. Later in his life, he created a superior Greater Apparatus of Kwalish, an iron barrel which transforms into the shape of a small dragon capable of flight, and capable of firing a small cannonball from its mouth. However, the risk of accidental backfire is significant. Other items of his creation include Heward's Hireling Armor, part of his research into the archmage Heward.
The Ark of Kwalish, a grand flying machine, was once used by the giant demon lord Kostchtchie, in a raid against the City of Brass. Whether Kwalish created this vehicle is unknown. Others have followed in Kwalish's footsteps in seeking out magical inventions.
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 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.
He is romantically involved with Pointer and helped create Acereraks prison.