Today Wizards of the Coast have announced the next Adventure Book for Dungeons & Dragons. While we're already so close off the heels of Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep it seems the party must adventure on. Today's announced book is called Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, following in the path of Candlekeep Adventures, the Radiant Citadel will be filled with anthological adventures centered around the titular Radiant Citadel. We had a chance to sit in with Ajit George, one of the leaders of this project, as well as some of the writers of adventures within to learn what the Radiant Citadel was all about.
What is Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel?
After writing for Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and creating the Indian-themed Domain of Dread, Kalakeri, Ajit George was inspired by the idea to create a book whose content was inspired by PoC writers and their own experiences and cultures. After meeting with Jeremy Crawford the idea was greenlit resulting in this book that he was also asked to co-lead the production of this book. From the covers of the books, regular cover by Evyn Fong (Pictured above) and alternate art cover by Sija Hong, to the content within there were 50 PoC working on and supporting this book in one way or another. George, who is also a Director of Operations of the Shanti Bhavan Children's Project had the following to say on the book's announcement:
This book is stunning in its scope and ambition. It blows open the D&D multiverse with a fresh set of exciting adventures that serve as gateways to new lands, monsters, characters, and more, talented writers from around the globe came together to make something truly special. There’s never been anything like this in D&D before.
Within the book there are 14 different adventures ranging in levels from Level-1 through Level-14. The adventures will take you through not only the Radiant Citadel to places across the material plane. The Citadel itself is situated within the Etherial plane allowing for it to be accessed from any realm or any story you might already be telling. If it looks like there's an adventure that you'd want your players to experience you can drop it right into your world.
The Radiant Citadel itself is a place where wanderers from all across the multiverse collect together. Being made originally by 27 different civilizations it was lost to the ages before being rediscovered by 15 of them, the remaining 12 have intentionally been left blank to allow for DMs to expand upon the mythology of the Radiant Citadel.
The Adventures Within and Around the Radiant Citadel
To talk about the Level 1-2 Adventure "Salted Legacy" writer Surena Marie was able to explain how players will become entwined in a generational war between two vendor families. As vandalism continues and tensions rise the party will try to work out who the true culprit is. They'll need to earn the trust of the market by competing in a spice contest, or a prawn patty making competition that includes fighting giant prawns. When writing this story Marie wanted to make it accessible to new players, but also something that would be entertaining to watch for liveplay creators and audiences. There was also importance placed on the party helping the community, and getting involved in the legacy of the two warring families and how those can be resolved. Pulling on her own experiences Marie explained that this adventure is rooted in Thai culture and family systems.
The Level 3 Adventure is written by Erin Roberts, taking a hard swing away from fighting prawns to cook up dinner, Roberts' adventure "Written in Blood" roots itself in the American South. Taking place in Godsbreath, which is based on the black experience in the Southern United States, it was Roberts' chance to root around in her own history in Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia.
The first thing that I did when I got the chance to write this is run to my great-uncle's book "Growing Up Black In Rural Mississippi" and look through it [...] and really getting a chance to ground myself in what the experience in the black rural south and how we can make that magical and amazing in D&D Content
Godsbreath is made up of Bayou-like regions with trading posts and monsters in the water, farming lands where the fields are becoming barren, and a port city that gets its inspiration from New Orleans. As the players are enjoying festivities the friendly people of Godsbreath begin turning on each other, it's up to them to discover what has taken over the land. This adventure will have a lot more horror and mystery to it.
The Level 11 adventure titled "Shadow of the Sun" is written by Justice Arman. Set in a holy city state run by an angel there's tension between those in power and the rules that they continue to add to, and those in the city who wish to unseat him. Players will encounter a variety of resistance groups that are each building up their own forces. Players will be torn between helping the different factions, weakening one while empowering the other. It's these decisions that will shift what allies and enemies they'll face and form throughout their adventure. This adventure is steeped in Iranian legends and mythology.
What are the other Radiant Cital adventures?
While only three were discussed in the talk with had with Wizards of the Coast we also got the full list of named adventures. They are as follows:
- Salted Legacy
- Written In Blood
- The Fiend of Hollow Mine
- Wages of Vice
- Sins of Our Elders
- Gold for Fools and Princes
- Trail of Destruction
- In the Mists of Manivarsha
- Between Tangled Roots
- Shadow of the Sun
- The Nightsea's Succor
- Buried Dynasty
- Orchids of the Invisible Mountain
Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel will total 224 pages across all of these adventures and introduce new monsters, as well as reintroduce first and second edition monsters with brand new stat-blocks. Announced today, Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel will be available for purchase releasing on June 21st, 2022. Also available through game stores, you'll be able to pick up the Alternate Artwork for the book for a limited time.
TechRaptor would like to thank Wizards of the Coast for inviting us to hear about Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel and for a chance to hear these authors talk about their adventures.
