Setting
This adventure takes place in the high fantasy world of Exandria, on the continent of Wildemount. Wildemount, as we know it today, has been shaped during the past few centuries. Its people rebuilding from the destruction caused by conflict between gods, demons, and worse. The diverse continent has many different pockets, its people scraped together means for survival, warred, treatied, and rebuilt their societies stone by stone since this “Calamity”. War persists, but so does travel, commerce, and freedom, in places, depending on where in the world and who in the world you are.
This oneshot adventure takes place in Zadash, a large city in the Dwendalian Empire. Zadash is a central location along the agricultural belt of the Empire, and a place where the grip of the Empire’s military might and law enforcement can be felt by civilians.
Adventure Hook
As the city of Zadash prepares for the Highsummer festival, the noble houses of the city are on high alert for assassins. While most Zadashians prepare to spend the week’s long celebration feasting, gift giving, and celebrating the Dawnfather, an agent of Archmage Oremid Hass holds a meeting in secret.
Each of you has received an invitation to the Archmage’s office. You are to meet this agent the first night of the festival beneath the Hall of Erudition, the Solstryce Academy campus in Zadash. There, you will receive your mission which will require discretion, investigation, and maybe a little bit of force.
Character Creation
An adventure for level 5 characters, this oneshot is adapted from Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel ‘Wages of Vice’. Please create your characters with the following sources:
- Fifth Edition Player’s Handbook
- Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
- Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
- Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
- Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn
If you’d like to utilize material from other 5e sources, unearthed arcana, or homebrew, please ask me first.
Starting gear
- Your class starting gear
- An additional 500 gp, and/or mundane items up to this value and within your carrying capacity
- One uncommon magic item
Party dynamics
Bring with you some ideas to answer the following, or similar, questions.
- How do you know each other?
- What were you doing before getting to Zadash?
- What is your current disposition towards the struggle between the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty?
- What is a hobby or interest that you share with another party member?
- What is a secret that only one other player character knows?
- How did you help another player character escape from a magical mishap or trap?
Content warnings
Content warnings include violence, possibly death, swearing, and mild gore. Please let me know if there are subject matters that you are not comfortable with or wish to omit from our adventure together.