Dragon Delves to Return to Godsbreath, a Journey Through the Radiant Citadel Setting

Dragon Delves is returning to Godsbreath, one of the campaign settings found in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. In our interview with James Wyatt about Dragon Delves, the upcoming dragon-themed adventure, the senior D&D designer revealed that one of the upcoming adventures would be set in Godsbreath, a world first seen in the 2023 anthology book Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. The adventure, written by Erin Roberts, is called Copper for a Song, and features players trying to find the lost verse of a song that can restore the region's farmlands. As the title of the adventure suggests, the adventure involves a copper dragon.

Godsbreath is a new campaign setting created by Roberts that draws heavily from Black communities in the southern US. The region was given a gazetteer in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. The setting involves five gods coming together to rescue a community by moving them across the sea to a new land. In recent years, the land has turned against its populace for unknown reasons.

Interestingly, the adventure is also one of three that is suitable for "solo play," i.e., between one player and a DM. Since the adventure involves finding lost verses to a song, the D&D design team recommends playing through the adventure as a bard if doing a solo adventure.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

So the implication is these adventures will be in several world settings and not one overarching campaign. Is that correct?

Correct, it is meant to be an anthology of separate standalone adventures that can be run as one-shots or dropped into other campaigns. Whenever they make these anthologies, nothing would stop a DM from stringing them together into an overarching campaign, but it definitely takes some work to do so

 

[dave2008]

Please point to where I said it was weird. All I said was that it surprised me because it was not the most obvious choice. That's a pretty bland statement and I don't get why you're acting like I'm being critical or controversial here.

To quote the actual author in her description of the Godsbreath, "People are going about their regular lives except with monsters all around them. Monsters in the water, monsters on the land... you know, I should've put some monsters in the sky". So yeah, it objectively was not an obvious choice for a location to have dragons. I bet it'll still be a good adventure though, as I said multiple times already

You said: "...and nothing to do with Godsbreath making sense as a dragon adventure." While you technically didn't call it weird, saying something doesn't make sense is pretty analogous to saying it is weird. That may not have been your intent, but it can very easily be read that way.

To clarify, I have no skin in this argument and I have not read the Radiant Citadel. I am just reading what you wrote and I interpreted it similarly to how @Parmandur has. Just thought you would want to know since you seem to be confused by this response.

 

[Parmandur]

Please point to where I said it was weird. All I said was that it surprised me because it was not the most obvious choice. That's a pretty bland statement and I don't get why you're acting like I'm being critical or controversial here.

To quote the actual author in her description of the Godsbreath, "People are going about their regular lives except with monsters all around them. Monsters in the water, monsters on the land... you know, I should've put some monsters in the sky". So yeah, it objectively was not an obvious choice for a location to have dragons. I bet it'll still be a good adventure though, as I said multiple times already

Hey, written communication is open to misinterpretation: I gor a much stronger vibe from what you wrote than I guess you had intended.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just ran Written in Blood this weekend as the third adventure in my group's Radiant Citadel campaign. There's definitely places for certain types of dragons in the setting. I could especially see a black dragon on the swampy islands of the bay.

Godsbreath is set in a river's flood plain and delta, with recent events causing farmers to leave the plain and go into still fertile but more dangerous border regions.

Written in Blood is a very simple adventure and is either a railroad or a pointcrawl, depending on how generous you feel, but an extremely effective one. My group liked the setting and were receptive to the idea of a possible return trip to Godsbreath via Copper for a Song. The Awakening Song is an important part of Written in Blood and the setting generally, and expanding on that aspect of the setting is a good hook.

Depending on what the black dragon adventure from Dragon Delves looks like, I could also see setting it in Godsbreath as well.

 

[Perky the Dragon]

South of Midnight would be a good source of inspiration for Godsbreath.

Same with Sinners.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The Godsbreath adventure was one of the best ones in the anthology because it had a great sense of place and a wonderful horror tone. I'm excited to see what the author does with it in this context!

Same with Sinners.

This is just a wonderful idea for a Godsbreath adventure. Song is already such a key component of the setting.

it objectively was not an obvious choice for a location to have dragons

Dragons don't inherently give a "southern gothic horror" vibe, yeah. But due to song being such a key element of the setting, a dragon that highlights bards and song like the Copper aligns well.

Makes me think of Song Dragons as well, and the old Dragonsong feat and PrC in the 3e Draconomicon....

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dragons don't inherently give a "southern gothic horror" vibe, yeah.

You could easily play up a black dragon as basically a super-smart, super-evil crocodile without too much effort. That would fit in well. And a green dragon living among the mangroves would also work, playing up their connection to their habitat.

Smaug sitting on a pile of gold doesn't make much sense for Godsbreath, but ideas around greed and manipulation definitely fit into the Southern Gothic milieu.

 

[Remathilis]

You could easily play up a black dragon as basically a super-smart, super-evil crocodile without too much effort. That would fit in well. And a green dragon living among the mangroves would also work, playing up their connection to their habitat.

Smaug sitting on a pile of gold doesn't make much sense for Godsbreath, but ideas around greed and manipulation definitely fit into the Southern Gothic milieu.

Are copper dragons shape changers? If so, I could easily see a copper as a wise old storyteller who watches over the community silently from evils the people dare not dream about...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are copper dragons shape changers? If so, I could easily see a copper as a wise old storyteller who watches over the community silently from evils the people dare not dream about...

Definitely, although -- spoiler alert -- that's already a core part of the Radiant Citadel, so it might be a bit repetitious to do the same thing again in Godsbreath.