We looked around the first room a bit more, hoping to find something useful.  Eventually, we had enough players and opened a door to the north.  The room had 3 more doors plus a trap door in the floor.  We opened that one and it was a very tight spiral staircase down.  Loki went down and met Mr. Fitzbottoms who was a talking dog.  He was one of the head toy designers.  Evidently, when Blitzsky’s pet money Piccolo went nuts and took over the factory, he hid down in his office.  Kharn came down as well and tried to extract something useful out of this dog but we got very little.  We did re-examine two more costumes upstairs.  Kaladin put on the Fireball one which sort of turned him into a low-power Flaming Sphere.  It did come with 60 feet of True Sight which might be useful.  Patrina just shoved the Owlbear one into her portable hole.  We moved on.  The next door led to the employee lounge.  It had two snake-stuffed animals which attacked, of course.  That fight bogged down as Brian created costumed characters to Kharn and Kaladin.  The snakes weren’t too tough although Brian was playing a little loose with the rules to make a ridiculous fight into something annoying as well.    

In a broom closet were two gnome employees that were taking a nap.  That led to a more annoying conversation that amused the DM but led to nothing useful.  They did say that Piccolo was likely in the tower with Blitzsky.  We did pick up a magical microwave although we should probably return it.  The next door led to a store room in which were two boxing marionettes, looking for a fight.  Ezra won initiative for a change and simply closed the door.  With boxing gloves for hands, they could not open it.  The next room north had a bunch of workbenches.  In the far corner, a barricade had been built.  An old man and his grandson were making a stand using toy pop guns.  Loki tried to convince them that we were not crazed toys but was a tough sell from a talking raccoon.  He rolled bad on his Persuasion roll.  Dead-looking Patrina fared no better.  But other than a couple pot shots, we just ignored them.

The next room had a big fancy door with two imposing wooden guards and letters on the titles on the floor.  “Jon puzzle”!  Unfortunately, the letters meant nothing to Loki who can’t read.  When Patrina came up, they were attacked by two stuffed spiders from the ceiling.  They were dispatched quick enough.  Rather than lose his rage, Kharn charged into the puzzle room.  The first tile was okay but the next triggered a tickle trap and the guards.  The trap did minimal damage on a failed save but more importantly allowed a free attack by the guards.  It was mostly chaos with extra attacks and infinite traps and such.  Kharn grabbed one of them and tried to pull it out of the room but it would not come out.  Around turn 2-3, Paul figured out the puzzle.  It was “is no fun” as in the company motto, “if it no Blitzsky, it no fun”.  However, the guards were in the way now.  Ezra managed to shield bash one aside and Patrina finished the pattern.  At that point, the guards reset and the door opened. 

This led to a circular room (tower?) with more toy stuff.  Nothing attacked for a change.  We did note that one of the cabinets had a jewelry box that was open and empty.  In the back was a small chamber with a lever labeled Up and Down.  We went up in two shifts and found Blintzsky lying on his bed.  When addressed, he whispered about the giant snake Piccolo had put on his chest.  We could not see it.  With some rolls, we decided it was in his head.  Eventually, Patrina cast Dispel Magic and he recovered.  He said that Piccolo had put on a magic tiara and gone crazy.  Casting major spells.  He was likely one level up.  We tried to get more information out of him but we didn’t get much.  Maybe we should have taken a short rest before the boss battle although hit points would not be the problem.  This first problem was that we all couldn’t fit in the elevator.  However, if Patrina got in her Portable Hole, Kharn got into his Flumph costume we could all fit, barely.  Duke Q and Ambrus were not in attendance.  We went up.

So, we faced a relatively small room.  The monkey was on the far side wearing the tiara.  On one side was an animated wooden baboon and on the other, an animated wooden knight.  Kaladin went first but had to use his action to open the portable hole.  He then moved up and used a Ki point to Dodge.  Loki went next and decided to roll the dice.  He used a bonus action to invoke Nature’s Veil and then invisibly move across the room and snatch the tiara.  Unfortunately, by avoiding the minions, he stepped on the carpet which animated as well.  It had surprise, which negated the disadvantage for Loki being invisible.  But it missed.  It did hit with a tail attack.  Luckily, this power did not have a concentration roll.  He was poised to make a grab for the tiara when the DM took a retroactive play action.  The monkey had portent dice so that missed grapple was actually a hit.  The rug wrapped around Loki’s head, blinding him and doing 20+ damage.  Since he couldn’t see where he was going, he spent his action trying to get the rug off.  It was a DC 16 strength roll.  Not a save or athletics, which he had both, but straight-up STR.  With a +2, it was a tough roll.  He rolled a 3+2=5, spent an inspiration and rerolled another 3.

Kharn spent his action getting out of the costume.  The monkey used one of its 3 legendary actions to cast a Mord’s Sword which carved him up.  (He’s not resistant to force damage.)  Patrina went and cast Force Wall around the monkey, figuring if we could isolate it, maybe we could take out the minions.  However, the monkey Counterspelled it with the exact roll it needed.  It then cast an 8^th level Maze on Patrina.  That put her in a pocket dimension (no save) that required a 20 INT check to exit.  At least he lost his Mord Sword to do it.  The rug did a fear scream that affected Kharn and then did more damage to Loki.  Lastly, Ezra finally got to go.  He hit the knight, bashed it back and then moved up to get more friends into his protective aura.  So, at the end of round one, Loki and Patrina were neutralized and the group was down half our hit points.  Meanwhile, we had done almost nothing to them.  Sound familiar? Those legendary actions are tough to take because we feel so helpless as the villain went over and over.

Kaladin went first in round two.  He ran up and hit and then stunned the monkey.  Its portent would not save him this time.  We argued about whether stun broke concentration (Dan: He didn't realize that FG said that the concentration was broken.  It was only afterward when Patrina was still stuck in a maze that this came up.  After ruling the first blow didn't break concentration he rolled again on the second and THAT also broke concentration... which he negated through his portent.  At least he was out of portents at that point.)  and Brian ruled that it didn’t.  However, the next attack did drop it but he used a portent die to make that save.  Brian said it would take a full attack action and not an extra attack to pull off the tiara.  (It had tendrils into its head so it wasn’t easy.)  Loki got the chance to roll another 3 and then Kaladin used an inspiration to give him another roll.  An 11 this time.  Next was the baboon who critted Kaladin and dropped him.  Luckily, the stun was not concentration.  It then hit Kharn but he still stood.  Next was Kharn, who was standing next to the monkey.  But he was feared so his options were limited.  However, Ezra had moved up and his allies were immune to fear in his aura.  With a free hand, he made a STR roll and pulled the tiara off.  And like that, it was over.  One missed stunning fist save between victory and TPK.  It’s a crazy razor’s edge world at 10^th level. 

The tiara offered fabulous power if Kharn would only put it on but fortunately, he was still next to Ezra.  He put it into the jewelry box that Loki was carrying and we gave it to Ezra.  We returned the monkey.  Blintzsky was grateful and offered to reward us.  When we asked for useful items such as see invisible or water breathing, he said he only made novelty items.  He did agree to make some disguise costumes so that we could walk around Valaki.  It would take several days to make one.  Not sure how long for many since most of us were wanted.  We (mostly Paul) picked and picked at trying to find anything useful in this place.  Eventually, we managed to get a couple things.  We got a gun that did decent damage.  Its range was 5/100 but it would give Ezra a ranged attack.  There was a jack in the box that Mord gave him for safekeeping.  We thought it was probably a magic jar but didn’t have to courage to open it.  Deferred.  What we did find was the spell book of the wizard who was in the tiara.  It had a few spells of each level all the way up to Maze at 8^th.  And See Invisible, I think.  We decided to take a long rest before leaving on the ship.  So, we’ll probably spend the first few hours next time, asking more questions that will go unanswered and looking for more useless treasure.