Earlier this week, Chris Perkins, D&D’s Principal Story Designer, digitally sat down with three authors of their upcoming adventure anthology, Candlekeep Mysteries. First he talked with Jen Kretchmer about her adventure, “The Canopic Being.” Then, we learned about Taymoor Rehman’s wish-fulfilling mystery, “Zikran’s Zephyrean Tome.” Finally, we got to learn about an adventure that takes the cake for Candlekeep’s weirdest romp—and it’s one that may lead the players on a SPELLJAMMING adventure.
For more information on Candlekeep Mysteries, see Candlekeep Mysteries Unveiled! Everything We Know About the New D&D Book.
It’s a Zany Twist Right in the Middle of the Book
Chris Perkins described this adventure as an incredibly silly, huge tonal shift smack-dab in the middle of Candlekeep Mysteries. This means we can take a guess that Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion (about whose title Vorpahl exuberantly claimed everything is funnier when you replace its Cs with Ks) is a mid-level adventure. If you play several of the adventures in this book in sequence, you’ll suddenly be jolted from a world of dead-serious mysteries into a zany caper involving creatures called Skitterwidgets and Kiddywidgets, and a mysterious figure called Dog Nuts.
This adventure’s reception will vary by taste. Thousands of people play D&D for exactly the sort of zany fantasy hijinx that Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion promises, rather in the vein of early The Adventure Zone stories like “Murder on the Rockport Limited,” in which a deadly serious murder on a train winds up involving: a giant enemy crab, boy wizards, a “pleasure car,” a wizard with the word “JUICY” printed on the butt of his robes, and a town populated exclusively by clones of radio personality Tom Bodett.
On the other hand, there will inevitably be people who find Vorpahl’s wacky tales not to their taste. Fortunately, this book contains sixteen other adventures that may appeal instead.
Spelljammer…Confirmed?
Vorpahl mysteriously asserted that there would be some involvement of the renowned and oft-memetically requested Spelljammer campaign setting in her adventure. She didn’t have any further details to give, but since this adventure is a 10 to 12 page one-shot affair, it seems unlikely that it’s anything more than a cameo appearance. Still, not unlike the Spelljamming Helm that appeared in Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, it could give enterprising Dungeon Masters ammunition to create their own spacefaring, Spelljamming adventures with official fifth edition rules!
You can preorder Candlekeep Mysteries on the D&D Beyond Marketplace today! You’ll get special goodies for preording, and instantly get access to the book when it releases on March 16th, 2021.
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James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
this will be sure to lighten the book up.
haha... clones of tom bodett.
It feels like the articles are all ads...
Imagine an adventure that tried to include every single Homebrew there is.
They kind of are.
the best of ads
I'm glad that this article addresses how the forums here will go crazy now that Spelljammer is to some extent canon. I think anyone who has read through the posts speculating about future content can confirm that Spelljammer 5e is one of the most hoped-for items. And now, even in such a limited form, it exists.
True, this was so much better when it was informative content but now it is a lot of self advertising.
I know the pandemic changes things but I was used to a higher standard.
I'm excited for Candlekeep, but I miss more of the better posts. I know it's mildly controversial but Dan Telfer was pretty funny. I miss those posts
I dont miss them. But, expect some Preview content that is split up instead of one bulk preview. It allows for more specific conversations. I also take this as editorial previews and not an AD. An ad wouldnt say this adventure might not be one you will like and be controversial. There is an oped to these. They are previews and take them for that. giving you information on what the book contains. It the latest hot news so it's what they are going to make content for right now.
That would be longer than the range of a longbow user with Sharpshooter.
Articles, videos, Twitter posts... Yeah they're all ads. I miss content.
Running a planescape campaign.. I love the whimsical feel about the setting-
Guess I'll have to take my players to Toril sometime
“Everything is funnier when you replace its C’s with K’s.”
“Clash of Clans” would beg to differ.
(In all seriousness, though, I expected this to involve evil elf supremacists in white hoods. I’m not sure whether I’m relieved or disappointed.)
Wait a minute.......... the way they wrote KANDLEKEEP with a K instead of a C, and the way they wrote DEKONSTRUKTION with a K instead of a C, uhmmm, it makes me think about if D&D Beyond is trying to tell everyone ( in a subtile way ) soon gonna be released all the manuals in German idiom and/or Dutch.
All D should be replaced with T so we could play T&T. all G should also convert to K, so actually there should be no C or G, as they both are the same. Lets just have Tunkeons & Trakons
Sounts kreat
Lmao.....
My thoughts exactly. It's actually funnier if you replace c's with s's. Then it's sandalkeep mysteries.
True. One minute it would go from fighting living fear machines and blood-thirsty demons, the next a swath of banana-folk.