I N THE HEART OF THE ETHEREAL PLANE LIES AN

ancient and mysterious city called the Radiant

Citadel. Through tradition, cooperation, and

ancestral magic, fifteen civilizations are bound

to this wondrous site.journeys through the Radiant

Citadel is an anthology of exciting adventures that

explore the cultures and myths of these realms.

The adventures injourneys through the Radiant

Citadel were created by members of the DUNGEONS

& DRAGONS community with connections to various

real-world cultures and mythologies. Embarking on

the adventures of the Radiant Citadel will expand

your gaming horizons, can give your characters new

perspectives, and might change the way you look at

fantasy tropes and traditions. As adventures are the

lens through which we explore fantastic worlds, they

shape who our characters are and what they believe

in. The greater the variety adventures offer, the

richer our characters and, by extension, our gaming

experiences.

From glittering night markets to undersea cities, from curse-afflicted villages to angel-ruled

city-states, these adventures provide a pathway to

never-before-seen lands and stories. The gates of

the Radiant Citadel stand open, and a rich tapestry

of stories is yours to explore.

USING THE ADVENTURES

The Journeys through the Radiant Citadel table

summarizes the adventures in this anthology. Each

adventure is designed for four to six characters of

a particular level, but you can adjust it for larger or

smaller groups as well as for characters of higher

or lower level by making a few changes, like swapping one monster or trap for another, changing the

number of foes in an encounter, or adjusting DCs to

make important tasks easier or harder for the characters to accomplish.

Each adventure in this anthology is versatile, and

characters might become involved in any of the following ways:

• The characters have ties to the plot as detailed in

the "Character Hooks" section in each adventure.

• The characters have journeyed to the Radiant Citadel, and their connections to individuals or
organizations there lead them to investigate the plot.

• A character hails from the land where the adventure takes place and has a connection to the plot.

WELCOME TO THE RADIANT CITADEL

---..

These short adventures work best with players who

like exploring new lands and finding clever solutions

to complex challenges. That said, each adventure

contains opportunities for exploration, roleplaying,

and combat to appeal to players of all persuasions.

RUNNING THE ADVENTURES

To run these adventures, you need the fifth edition

core rulebooks: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual.
Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be

read aloud or paraphrased for the players when their

characters first arrive at a location or under a specific

circumstance, as described in the text.

The Monster Manual contains stat blocks for most

of the creatures encountered in these adventures.

When a creature's name appears in bold type, that's

a visual cue pointing you to its stat block as a way

of saying, "Hey, DM, get this creature's stat block

ready. You'll need it." If a stat block is new, the adventure's text tells you where to find it.

Spells and equipment mentioned in the adventures are described in the Player's Handbook. Magic

items are described in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

EXPLORING NEW REACHES

Each adventure in this book introduces a new location-be it a city, a nation, a region, or otherwise.

Before running an adventure, review the gazetteer

presented at the adventure's end. Aside from providing an overview of the people and plots in that land,

each gazetteer provides cultural details useful in describing the setting and making it feel vibrant.

SETTING THE ADVENTURES

The locations in this book can be incorporated into

any D&D setting or a world of your own design.

Each adventure includes a "Setting the Adventure"

section that suggests where you might place the

adventure. Weave these locations into your version

of your favorite world, adding them where you likeeven replacing other lands on your world map.
Alternatively, use the Radiant Citadel (see the following

pages) or planes-spanning magic to place these locations in entirely new worlds, and use them as the
thresholds of realms defined how you please.

JOURNEYS THROUGH THE RADIANT CITADEL

Level Adventure Description

1-2 "Salted Legacy" A conflict between rival night market vendors draws characters into a

hunt for a mysterious saboteur and a series of whimsical contests.

"Written in Blood"

"The Fiend of Hollow Mine"

A community is terrorized by a horror lurking in a distant farmhouse .

The cure for a spreading curse leads from an abandoned mine to a city

celebrating the departed .

5 "Wages of Vice" A murderer sta lks the streets during a raucous festival.

6 "Sins of the Elders" A slighted spirit takes vengeance on the community that forgot her by

stealing their memories.

7 "Gold for Fools and Princes " Mysterious creatures cause a gold mine to collapse, precipitating a race

between rival princes to save those trapped .

8 "Trail of Destruction" A legendary creature reawakens and begins a chain reaction of volcanic

eruptions that threaten the land.

9 "In the Mists ofManivarsha" A local champion goes missing after a deadly flood, leading to a search

for her along the rivers of a vast swamp.

10 "Between Tangled Roots" Rageful spirits provoke a dragon to go on a deadly rampage.

11

12

"Shadow of the Sun"

"The Nightsea's Succor"

Rival factions clash in an angel-ruled city on the brink of rebellion .

A quest for ancient lore reveals threats from the past and leads to a

mysterious nation beneath the waves.

13 "Buried Dynasty" Agents of a long-lived emperor seek a timeless secret to keep their ruler

in power at any cost.

14 "Orchids of the Invisible Mountain" Adventurers must travel to the Feywild and the Far Realm to
prevent

otherworldly forces from tearing a land apart.

NEW HOMES

At your discretion, players can create characters

who are from the locations presented in this book.

Consider allowing players to review the gazetteers

of the lands that appeal to them. Each gazetteer

provides questions you can ask players during

character creation to help them create characters

immersed in their homeland.

THOUGHTFUL INTRODUCTIONS

While exploring the locations introduced through

these adventures, be thoughtful about how you roleplay and describe groups of people. Consider the

guidance here when running adventures.

Broad Descriptions. Describe everyone's features, not just those whose features are different

from your own.

Detail, Not Stereotypes. When describing a character's appearance, strive to detail more than just

one thing and avoid descriptions based on stereotypes. The more you can say about body type, hair

style and texture, skin tone, clothes, accessories,

and the like, the more dimension a character has.

As some societies strongly associate ethnicity with

skin color, take extra care when describing characters' skin colors. Consider a range of literal descriptions,
such as copper, umber, onyx, or ebony, with

modifiers such as rich, lustrous, warm, or cool.

Gradual Explorations. You don't have to reveal

a setting's entire culture at once. Skip details that

aren't immediately relevant to characters, and reveal

details as they arise. A scene in a tavern presents

opportunities to introduce distinct foods, while a

market trip is a great time to note varieties of dress.

Highlight What's Familiar. Highlight what's familiar in a culture and how it's like other locations.

This can help characters ground their experiences

and better understand where they're visiting.

Online and Streamed Games. Just as you don't

have to breathe fire in real life to play a dragonborn

in D&D, you don't need to be from the cultures that

inspired the adventures in this book to play characters from them. However, take care to portray
characters as three-dimensional people with relatable

desires and fears.

One person's culture isn't another's costume. If

you dress up, simple outfits are best. Avoid leaning

into stereotypes or clothing with real-world religious

significance. Instead, focus on "everyday wear" from

the cultures you're exploring. Don't change your

skin color, alter your features, or emulate hair styles

you wouldn't normally have to appear like a different real-world ethnicity. Similarly, avoid mocking

real-world accents in your roleplay.

WELCOME TO THE RADIANT CITADEL 5

-.... .....

THE RADIANT

CITADEL

GATHERING PLACE OF STRANGERS AND STORIES

A GAINSTTHE UNENDING MIST AND UNSEEN

terrors of the Ethereal Plane, the Radiant

Citadel stands bright as a bastion of hope.

It's a living relic of the ingenuity and collaboration of twenty-seven great civilizations. Abandoned and
lost for ages, the Citadel was resurrected

from its slumber and reclaimed by descendants

of those societies, though some peoples remain

missing. The city serves as a nexus of diplomacy

and trade, a repository of histories and secrets, and

a thriving sanctuary for those seeking safety or a

better life.

The Radiant Citadel is a miracle of architecture,

a floating city carved out of a single, massive fossil that snakes around a colossal gemstone shard

known as the Auroral Diamond. The luminescence

of the Auroral Diamond is mirrored in the constellation of fifteen structure-sized gemstones, the

Concord Jewels, which orbit the city and provide

transportation to the far-flung homes of the Citadel's

founding civilizations. In the haze of the Ethereal

Plane, the Auroral Diamond is a scintillating beacon

visible from leagues away. The diamond itself seems

to have moods, changing colors unpredictably, but it

is always visible for wanderers lost and in need. Just

beyond the city whirls a massive, ever-threatening,

ethereal cyclone known as the Keening Gloom- a

looming threat that's a grim reminder of the Citadel's precarious position.

Heroes and paupers meet on equal footing in the

Radiant Citadel. By common agreement, power and

resources are equitably shared. Dignity is afforded

to all, and great need is met with great aid.

THE RADIANT CITADEL

FEATURES

Those familiar with the Radiant Citadel know the

following details:

Hallmarks. The Radiant Citadel is an extraplanar

refuge known for its collaborative society and ecological beauty. Local traditions of oral storytelling

preserve ancestral wisdom from many worlds.

People of the Radiant Citadel. The majority of the

Radiant Citadel's populace comes from the civilizations that govern the city. This makes the population
an ethnically diverse mix of humans, dragon born, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings,

along with a variety of other races.

Languages. Common is widely known, along with

dozens of other languages.

NOTEWORTHY SITES

The Radiant Citadel is a testament to a lost age of

extraordinary magic and mythical beasts. The city

rises from a gargantuan fossil, and every road and

building has been carved from it. The Citadel is a

place of beauty and wonder, with a vast array of vegetation and a multitude of sites and inhabitants.

AURORAL DIAMOND

The Auroral Diamond is the heart of the Radiant

Citadel. A massive gemstone of unfathomable

power, its life-giving magic runs through the entire

city; the city's vegetation, water, light, and unique

artifices depend on the Diamond.

The Auroral Diamond changes color for unknown

reasons. Sometimes it holds a color for an entire

year, while other times it shifts twice in a single

week. Rarely does it ever repeat a color. Some scholars believe each color represents the birth of a new

civilization somewhere in the multiverse, and repetition of a color means the death of that civilization.

Other scholars hypothesize the changing colors are

a countdown to some unknown event.

The Auroral Diamond is indestructible. Whatever

magic hollowed out the gemstone's center and created the Preserve of the Ancestors (described later)

is unknown.