← Part One – The World of Iridion

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Sky-Island Scramble is a starter adventure for JRPG-inspired 5E settings. Do you have a setting like this? Check out this adventure and use it as a springboard for your campaign!

This article is a followup to our previous article detailing the JRPG-inspired fantasy setting of Iridion, but as long as you’ve got weird people with airships, you can make it work for your own setting as well. This adventure is designed for 3-5 first-level characters, and intended for teenaged adventurers.

Character Generation

As covered in the setting article, Iridion has only two playable species: Humanity and the Aeluro, a cat-like species best represented by the Tabaxi from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, save for their Small size.

Class selection for this setting is also slightly limited, with the only arcane caster available being the Wizard. Obviously, if you want to allow the other arcane caster classes, I’m not going to yell at you for playing differently.

Velistra

Velistra is a small town with houses of white wood and red roofs. The tallest building is the steeple of the Church of St. Antaglia, which houses a bell that rings at sunrise, noon, and nightfall. The steeple is made of red bricks covered in white paint, and the youth of many generations have climbed up the brickwork to gaze over the town and the forest beyond. Halfway up the steeple, the paint has been scuffed off of one brick, where someone’s foot slipped.

A small garrison sits at the western end of the town, housing a dozen soldiers. The garrison is two stories tall, and has a small yard for practicing with weapons, and the troops stationed there are willing to teach the basics of swordsmanship and archery to the local children.

Fenric, village elder. Fenric is an old man with two red markings on his face, in the shape of a sans serif J on the left and a mirrored J on the right. He handles the mundane affairs of the town, where to build what, and so on.

Kael, hunter. Kael is a hunter and tanner, skilled with a bow and dedicated to using every part of any animal he kills. He has a necklace whose pendant is a bear’s claw. Two black lines encircle both of his biceps.

Father Miles, priest. Father Miles is the local representative of the Sky Worshippers. He has a very good memory, and preaches to the town at every major holiday. He is marked by a random series of small, black, rectangular patches on his left arm.

Samantha, baker. Samantha is a short, stocky woman with a blue hexagonal mark over her left eye. She is friendly and kind, and many of the village’s children help her during preparations for the summer festival.

Renaud, blacksmith. Renaud is a tall man with dark skin, black hair, and a yellow diamond-like mark on the left side of his face. He works as the village’s weaponsmith, armorsmith, blacksmith, farrier, and occasionally its carpenter as well.

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Feast Night

The story begins on a feast night. The feast is being held to mark the first hunt of spring, and as such, there is plenty of grilled deer served with bread and blueberry jam. A deer head with impressive antlers sits in the center of the table.

Elder Fenric, the town’s de facto leader, gathers you and the other youths around him and begins giving a speech you’ve heard many times before.

“Gather around, children. Spring has started, and as new plants take root, we must remember ours. In eons long past, we lived in the sky, serving the Skypeople with gratitude and humility. Their presence brought us warmth and contentment, but our ancestors grew greedy. They grew to envy the Skypeople, and to try to take their place as the divine protectors of this world. They failed, and for their hubris, we were cast into the dirt, sentenced to serve out our lives in the filth. Perhaps, if we conduct ourselves well enough, we may one day be permitted to soar the skies again…”

He looks sadly up at the sky for a moment before continuing.

“But for now, enjoy the feast, the bounty of the hard work this whole village has put in, and may the rest of the season’s hunts be just as fruitful. Praise the sky!”

This is a good time for a bit of roleplay amongst the party. Were any of the party involved in the hunt? What were their roles? Do they look forward to nights like this, or dread the unusually large crowd?

Rumors, if they ask around:

  • One of the local guardsmen mentions that the Darhaddin seem restless lately, and that their patrols have been coming closer and closer to Velistra.
  • A traveling aeluro complains that the Darhaddin warlord over the border has hiked taxes up drastically, and almost all his traveling provisions were confiscated.
  • An albino deer was sighted during the hunt, but no one managed to slay it. This is considered an ill omen.

As the feast starts to wind down, a flaming object passes overhead. It looks like a Sky Island, crashing to the ground. A few minutes after it passes out of view, you hear a loud boom from the east, and the townsfolk mutter among themselves about ill omens. The fun atmosphere of the feast night is gone, and the people shuffle off to bed, looking worried.

How does the party react?

If the party is uninterested in seeking out the crashed Sky Island, well, skip the next several sections. Or badger your players about their lack of adventuring spirit.

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The Sky Island

You can tell you’re getting close when you find trees with the tops shorn off. You follow the path of destruction, and reach the clearing where the sky island landed. The surface of the island sits a few feet off the ground, and on top of that there is a steel and wood building. Part of a building, anyway. This was once part of a large structure, but was shorn off when this island broke off.

Inside the building is six small vats and one much larger. One of the small vats is intact, but the rest are broken, with their contents spilled across the ground. Floating in the last vat is a short humanoid with large ears and three fingers on each hand, floating in green liquid.

The treasure chest near the entrance contains an odd assortment of supplies, including a shortsword made of metal with veins of orange crystal running through it. There is also a magic crystal sitting on a cushion.

What treasure is in this lab depends on your party’s composition. These items are meant to be “signature” items, tying the character to the setting and narratively justifying their increase in level.

Alchemist: A book of concoctions, many of which are explosive. It is written in the language of the Skypeople, but some of the pages near the beginning seem simple enough…

Barbarian: A battle-axe made of crystal-infused metal. The handle has a grip made of a soft but grippy material, making it easier to keep hold of. You and I know this material as synthetic rubber.

Craftsman: A compact multi-tool, allowing for quick on-the-go repairs. It also works as a knife, if needed.

Druid: A necklace in the form of a bat, which allows the wearer to wildshape into a bat once per day. This does not count against their normal maximum uses of wildshape. Once used, it cannot be used until the next dusk.

Fighter: A shield bearing the crest of The Fifth King, a Skypeople monarch that has been dead for decades. It is durable and easy to repaint.

Monk: A necklace of silver beads, which glow in the dark. Their brightness waxes and wanes with the cycle of the moon.

Paladin: A glove with an orange gem embedded in it. Striking an opponent with the glove, or with a weapon the gem has been attached to, lets the Paladin use their Smite feature. It also glows when used.

Ranger: A strange bow made of pulleys and gears instead of good old yew wood. It’s fiddly to maintain, but very consistent once you get the hang of shooting it.

Rogue: A knife made of crystal-infused metal, perfectly balanced for throwing.

Wizard: The sort of spell-channeling crystal used for magic in this world. Decoding its knowledge and mounting it on a staff or necklace or other flamboyant object will take time, of course, but the basics can be grasped by a talented amateur.

In addition to the class-based loot, there is a glowing cylinder with a handle on it sticking out of one of the machines. The cylinder is roughly the same dimensions as an energy drink can (7 inches tall, 2.8 inches in diameter). This is the Energy Core, used for powering many Skypeople devices. this is also the MacGuffin of the campaign, the thing everyone wants and will hunt down the party for.

Before they leave the lab, they reach level two.

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Goblin Fight

As you leave the lab, you see (Party-1) short, green creatures with wide, pointy ears. They are holding sticks, pipes and rocks, and staring straight at you with their yellow eyes. What do you do?

The goblins are more confused than hostile. As far as they’re concerned, the party are in what appears to be the goblins’ territory. These goblins are incapable of true speech, but can grunt, point and gesture. If the party tries to run, the goblins won’t follow past the edge of the crashed sky island.

Statistically, these are standard 5E goblins, page 166 of the Monster Manual. You know them, you love them.

Whether the goblins are killed or left alive, nothing particularly notable happens on the way back to the village. The party may want to reflect on the events that have transpired, but they don’t get attacked by deadly slimes or anything.

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Home Again

As they approach the village, however, they notice something concerning.

As you return to familiar scenery, you notice something new on the horizon: A pillar of smoke, black and heavy, coming from the direction of your hometown.

Velistra is under attack from the forces of the Empire of Darhaddin. Soldiers roam the streets, looting and burning things, and most of the townsfolk have been rounded up in the center of town, where the feast happened. The party reaches the square just in time to see a Darhaddin soldier Elder Fenric, or, if the party is fond of another NPC, change it to be that NPC instead.

A black-haired man with a red pauldron on his right shoulder presses a sword against Fenric’s neck. “Tell me where that Sky Island came down, you worm! I know it passed over here! Tell me or I’ll run you through!” he says, loud enough for everyone to hear.

You see Fenric’s eyes flick over to where you’re hiding for just a moment, and he takes a deep breath.

“It crashed to the north.” he says. “A few leagues north. Now leave us alone, you pillager.”

The black-haired man pulls his sword away from Fenric’s neck, examines the blade for a moment, and looks at Fenric. “Thank you. Was that so hard?” He then turns to one of his subordinates, a man with a blue pauldron. “Take these people and anything else of value back across the border. The rest of us will go retrieve the Energy Core. The fire will take care of whatever remains of this little hamlet.”

The black-haired man is Nathan Silvestre, a Darhaddin warlord. He is 20 years old and has been clawing his way up the command structure of the Darhaddin military. He believes that the Sky Island that recently crashed contains an Energy Core, which it does, as mentioned above. He intends to use it to power a refurbished airship to wage war on the Sky People.

The soldiers disperse to follow their orders, leaving the prisoners unattended for a few minutes. The Darhaddin soldiers are nearby, and the party only has time to free, at most, one person. After that, fleeing the area is highly recommended.

From here, they have options: Flee into the woods, try to make their way to Keddoria, swear bloody vengeance against the Darhaddin Empire. Personally, I suggest having one of the party remember the location of an old Sky island, which conveniently fits the description of an old dungeon you have laying around.

Afterword

I hope you’ve enjoyed this starter adventure! Let me know if you’re interested in more modules from the world of Iridion, and I’ll see what I can do! In the meantime, check out Shining Force, Ar Tonelico or the Tales series, and make this setting your own!

One last thing: The big monster in the largest vat. It’s a big scaly beastie with wings. Just use the stat block of a bear if the party wants to hunt it down. Otherwise, we’ll revisit it later.

-Garm

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About the author

Garmbreak1

Former esports wannabe, current TTRPG streamer and TTRPG creator interviewer. I like science fiction and I have a soft spot for licensed tabletop RPGs. You can find all the campaigns I'm in and interviews I've done over on YouTube.

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