The origins of Radonn scenarios

The setup

Consider this document a pitch for the adventures (start) I’d like to run in the future. Imagine, you open neD&Dflix and it presents you with 3 or 4 recently published series, it gives you a high-over description of what the series is about, but once you sit down to binge season 1, you realise there’s merely one or two episodes out of 10.

What do I mean by that? It means that I will write up a scenario in which your PC will be at the start of our adventure, conveniently placed at a big dramatic breakingpoint for not just your PC, but for the future of my world/campaign setting! Ideally any of these scenarios will last us 4 to 8 hours playing D&D, during which your decisions and your PC’s actions can and will trigger, stop or change cascading chains of events that will determine what the face of this planet will look like.

And just like the invisible waves in the fabric of this universe you and your character create (you might call them waves of consequence), which now emanate out into the world, so is your PC now free to pursue their own path. Playing through one of the scenarios in this document should give the player enough context to now freely explore the world, driven by their own motivation or their character’s goals. Did I mention these scenarios are solo adventures?

If you have any questions, regarding anything in this document, do let me know and I’ll try to answer them as best as I can!

The archeologist of Balance

For centuries, our world was shielded from the influence of immortal beings, gods if you will. But when the Edicts of Balance were destroyed, so were the barriers of this planet. The tolling of bells, heard by everyone in every city, marked the beginning of the end of the age of humans. When the bells stopped their rhythmic alarm, the deafening silence announced the dawn of The New Divinity, and allegedly the rise of a

Most people living in this world probably never thought much about why the gods weren’t ‘here’, the gods were banished from the world, not the memories of gods, their worshippers remained, religious battles were still fought. Oblivious to the powers protecting their mortal realm, the populace remain oblivious to its destruction, at least until one of the gods make their grand rendezvous.

You, on the other hand, spend quite some time adventuring, making friend and foe along the way, and among them some prominent followers of gods. You are aware of the protection of the Edicts, or were. You’ve heard the rumours of what the ringing of bells heard everywhere for hours meant. In your head you still hear them, the bone chilling sound of a bell resonating in every direction when you trigger that alarm. To you, it is no longer a mystery what that alarm alluded to.

He knew! He knew it from the start but chose to do… nothing.

— Unknown

game type: dungeon crawl

strategy: high

roleplay: medium

player buy-in: read the boxed text above, this is a fundamental truth. It means you as a player need to be able to get behind the idea that your character inevitably must experience this choking point, it will be an interaction between two NPCs spanning less than a second. Up until that point and immediately after it you have full agency over your character. The second buy-in for the player is that your PC must be a direct descendant of the original mortal settlers of this planet, for that is the key that triggers a chain of events leading to the narrative choke mentioned before. (Dwars, Halfling, Human, Gnome, Satyr)(maybe a green knight (oath of ancients paladin, primeval guardian ranger) will add a few ancestries to the list)

Children of the Stillborn

Your kin, Um'Ashkari—dream of a soldier—is almost as old as the universe. Or at least, that’s what we think, our creator certainly is. For centuries we had to sacrifice our own people in order to survive, every 500 years we’d hold a ritual of rejuvenation. Recently something changed, our energy is drained faster than ever before. Now, the Empty Lord and the Lord of Chaos have appeared before you, putting you in front of a choice, between immortality and destroying our creator, potentially facing the wrath of the Queen of Harmony.

Mostly regarded as demi-gods, seemingly immortal, the Ashkari arrived on this planet long ago, led here by a god from the underworld. Mostly all of them aligned with the Empty Lord as his empire grew during the Forgotten Age, abandoning the god of the Underworld that brought them here. Then the betrayal happened, essentially starting The God Wars, lasting for four thousand years until the traitor caused the awakening of the God of Balance as the planet cried out in pain. The God of Balance, furious about what had become of his peaceful world, cast out all the other gods.

You are the youngest Ashkari—meaning ‘soldier’ in their native tongue—born sometime during the final years of The God Wars, childbirth is rare among the Ashkari. ‘youngest’ is rather relative, as The God Wars ended over two thousand years ago. The origin of your kin are unknown to you, being born on Radonyvn unlike the oldest Ashkari. You’ve heard stories of the Elder Choir, of the Planet A Creator God, and soon you might find out for yourself what this all means.

game type: traveling places

strategy: medium

roleplay: high

player buy-in: read the boxed text above, this is a fundamental truth. It means you as a player need to be able to get behind the idea that your character inevitably must experience this choking point. You will be visiting events leading up to this point, but you will also be visiting ‘memories’ of events that happened over the past 4000 years. The idea of visiting many places and making world-changing decisions have to appeal to you. I realise this scenario is very vague, but it’s going to solidify 4000 years of historical context, I can’t make it any more clear right now.

Let’s not beat around the bush, you’ll be playing as my favourite fantasy ancestry. You know this is what you want, just look at them! Also it’s not unlikely that this is one of few, if not the only, opportunities to use this ancestry as a PC as these will mainly serve as reoccurring protagonists (and you’ll see why once we establish their lore and future). You pick the ancestry (a true ‘Ashkari’ (left) or for example half human (right)).

— Joey

Frozen in crystal & time

The capital city of the elves has been in a seed state for many years, but times are changing and a group of elves is planning to regrow their city, but they face resistance. It is the first step to regenerating their Queen of Harmony, Siyam. But are they able to get to the old grand library?

The elves, unlike most humanoid species, weren’t brought to Radonn by Galtix, the God of Balance but rather by the Siyam, Queen of Harmony, a dear friend of Galtix. When the God of Balance cast out all the gods to end The God Wars, he personally brought this message to Siyam, but refusing to leave her dear elves behind because it would kill them, instead of leaving, the Queen of Harmony shattered her crystalline form, trying to circumvent the Edicts of Balance being put in place. Many years passed and civil war among the elven clans led to a rather extreme decision by the clan elders, they got together in the grand library of the large crystalline elven city and sang the song of Reversion, returning the city back to it’s crystal seed form.

You are probably a descendant of elves, gnome who lived under the mountains to the east or an adventurer who has found their way into the hidden land of the elves, Elf continent. A rebellion left over from one of the eight elven clans, went rogue and will prevent anyone trying to regrow the ancient crystal city. But in order to restore the elves to their full power, Crystal City must rise once more. Will you take on the task?

game type: Sandbox?

strategy: medium

roleplay: medium

player buy-in: This adventure will run longer than the first two, it doesn’t directly relate to the ending of the Age of Anima, this adventure can mostly take place in either the Age of Anima or The New Divinity, depending on player decisions.

Betrayal at the City of Knights

During a heavy winter storm, a statue came tumbling down the city castle, and as knights of the city are carrying the heavy marble figure inside to keep it safe, a young girl, with fatal injuries, is teleported onto the courtyard of the castle. IMPOSSIBLE! The courtyard has been warded from teleportation years ago.

This story begins several weeks before the end of the Mortal Age. The girl that got teleported onto the courtyard of Order of Stars' castle was carrying a white flower, one none of the knights recognise. She’s been unconscious since she appeared, so she can’t be questioned while the girl fights for her life. Meanwhile, outside the city, terror ensues as a creature begins to feed on travellers traversing Asgarnia's roads.

You are maybe a citizen of the city of knights, maybe you are one of these holy knights or maybe just a traveller passing by during these events. Something dark is brewing, can you pick up on it? Activity of Qentorak's knights from The North is another concern. Will you fight it and join the knights in their quest?

game type: sandbox

strategy: low

roleplay: high

player buy-in: This adventure will run longer than the first two, it doesn’t directly relate to the ending of the Age of Anima, this adventure can mostly take place in either the Age of Anima or The New Divinity, depending on player decisions.