"The Tale That Never Was"
Actual Play (Video)
In this Tale, the backstory IS the story. Or is it? After all, none of this ever happened...
The Tale That Never Was – Act 1: The Great Game is afoot
"In this tale, the backstory IS the story. Or is it? After all, none of this ever happened."
In this Tale, a band of adventurers from different parts of Existence have been pulled through Time and Space, becoming The Wildcards in a universe-spanning Game of Cosmic Chess between Voz (the God of Cosmic Balance) and the Many Faced One (a primordial on a mission to become everyone in Existence, erasing everyone but itself). As they team up with Voz, they must travel into their own dark pasts to solve the mysteries that tie them to The Great Game and learn the secrets that could undo Existence's greatest adversary.
In this actual play, you'll find vibes reminiscent of Treasure Planet, Groundhog Day, Doctor Who, Howl's Moving Castle, and Kingdom Hearts woven into a Universe and Time-spanning tale. True to ADHaDventures' mission to advocate for destigmatizing mental health, "The Tale That Never Was" takes a deep dive into themes of trauma, loss, acceptance, and healing as our sweet-but-capable crew travel back in time and relive the most pivotal (and frequently painful) parts of their past. They must understand, process, and accept what has happened to them if they have any hope of saving their future - and the future of all of Existence.
Our cast:
Anthony Clipton: Anthony is the sweet and somewhat naive, but absolutely brilliant "mini"taur armorer artificer. Previously a maintenance worker in the greatest library in the Universe, the Lark's Pride Collective, Anthony has found himself owing a debt after an experiment went awry. This led him to jump on a ship across the Universe, and take the job that brought him face-to-face with the rest of the party.
Ayodeji Nyota: Ayo (and, in his mind, his quori Sidra) is a kind and somewhat enigmatic ex-military kalashtar aberrant mind sorcerer. Having lost not one but three sets of parental figures, Ayo dedicated himself to helping casters who have been conscripted into the ever-more-corrupt Kestrian military. It was in search of help that he found the other party members.
Phynneus ("Phynn/Ryder"): Ryder is the happy-go-lucky but time-weary wanderer agent of Voz and devotion paladin. Searching for their long-lost love who was destroyed by The Many Faced One and shattered through Time, the human wizard-turned-paladin has been removed from Time in an effort to give them a chance to find her. Which they FINALLY, after hundreds of years of searching, finally did.
Ivestra Elyssian: Ivestra Elyssian is the sweet and wise Eternal whose entire world was destroyed - the first great victory of The Many Faced One - numerous millennia ago. However, that is not who she was when the party first met her.
First she was...
Lyss, a quiet bladedancer who was a mother, widow, and elite Palace Guard before being murdered and waking up 200 years in the future - immediately coming across the party who had also just time-travelled abruptly.
As the party have learned, she was also the war mage General Ivy Elyssian. Assassinated by a political rival bent on Kestri joining the Olgoth Empire, she is the beloved long-dead mentor and older "sister" of Ayo and Sidra - and the reason they were part of the military in the first place.
Not long after, they learned she was also Ellie - a gifted surgeon and trickster cleric with a particular hatred of their ally, the god Voz, and a reluctance to explain her backstory. Ellie was a close friend and confidante of Reina, a previous member of the Wildcards who was pulled back into her own dimension when The Many Faced One changed her past so she never met the party.
Then, upon arriving in the Lark's Pride Collective and being shown an old relic of a long-lost world and civilization, they found she is Ivestra Elyssian - a skilled diplomat and the long-lost love of Ryder. At this point, pieces of the puzzle surrounding "Lyssetera" started coming together.
Last and tiniest, but certainly not least, little Ves - an arctic fox from a world where primates never existed and all animals developed sapience together - made her appearance upon a return visit to the Collective. A good friend of Anthony's, the little lore bard and her sidekick the sentient guitar Fernando spent many days researching, exploring, trespassing into forbidden sections, and generally engaging in harmless shenanigans at the Collective.
Likely the very last of her people, Ivestra Elyssian is an Aurelian - a race of Eternals from the Heart of Creation. Aurelians were the Historians and Protectors of the Universe before their world fell to The Many Faced One thousands of years ago. Ivestra had been regenerating onto different worlds, attempting to find a new purpose and come to terms with what had happened, before she met Ryder.Still hunting down any survivors that might exist, their enemy found Ivestra on Ryder's world. Though Voz showed up to fight the primordial, Ivestra pushed them out of the way of a "non-existence" beam, preventing catastrophe for the God and thus Creation, but ending up shattered across Time and Space and losing her previously perfect memory. No longer remembering who or what she is, nor understanding why she remembered her previous lives, she has been hundreds of people in the time since she was Ryder's love. However, only a select few have resurfaced so far; each someone pivotal in the lives of the other Wildcards.
And so Act 1 continues as the party time travels in an effort to find answers to seemingly countless questions. In this cut, you will get a glimpse into the party's return to Sidra's homeworld at the time of its destruction as they find what happened to their world and why (and by whom) it was destroyed. The repercussions are felt by all as they experience the connections to their own losses, but as Voz fights a Star God above using tools stolen from the Many Faced One, Ivestra is involuntarily pulled into memories of her own world's loss and experience of being torn through Existence by those same tools. This leaves it up to Ryder's support and, most importantly, the incredible psionic abilities of Ayo/Sidra to dive into her mind and help her pull herself away from the memories and trauma that threaten to never let her go.
This Tale is a team endeavour, engaging in a "Writer's Room" storytelling style blended with the traditional tabletop improv medium in an effort to bring the incredible narrative capabilities of all 4 members (all talented GMs and players) of the cast together. Though The Teller of Tales may wield the quill and know all the twists and secrets, the cast have built their own worlds, cultures, themes, peoples, and villains as they've developed the Universe that houses "The Tale That Never Was". They rotate through playing NPCs, describing scenes, asking for rolls and playing their own villains with the Storyteller, as the person dictating the narrative occasionally changes places.
Welcome, friends, to our poignant and heartwarming "Tale That Never Was".
"In this tale, the backstory IS the story. Or is it? After all, none of this ever happened."
In this Tale, a band of adventurers from different parts of Existence have been pulled through Time and Space, becoming The Wildcards in a universe-spanning Game of Cosmic Chess between Voz (the God of Cosmic Balance) and the Many Faced One (a primordial on a mission to become everyone in Existence, erasing everyone but itself). As they team up with Voz, they must travel into their own dark pasts to solve the mysteries that tie them to The Great Game and learn the secrets that could undo Existence's greatest adversary.
In this actual play, you'll find vibes reminiscent of Treasure Planet, Groundhog Day, Doctor Who, Howl's Moving Castle, and Kingdom Hearts woven into a Universe and Time-spanning tale. True to ADHaDventures' mission to advocate for destigmatizing mental health, "The Tale That Never Was" takes a deep dive into themes of trauma, loss, acceptance, and healing as our sweet-but-capable crew travel back in time and relive the most pivotal (and frequently painful) parts of their past. They must understand, process, and accept what has happened to them if they have any hope of saving their future - and the future of all of Existence.
Our cast:
Anthony Clipton: Anthony is the sweet and somewhat naive, but absolutely brilliant "mini"taur armorer artificer. Previously a maintenance worker in the greatest library in the Universe, the Lark's Pride Collective, Anthony has found himself owing a debt after an experiment went awry. This led him to jump on a ship across the Universe, and take the job that brought him face-to-face with the rest of the party.
Ayodeji Nyota: Ayo (and, in his mind, his quori Sidra) is a kind and somewhat enigmatic ex-military kalashtar aberrant mind sorcerer. Having lost not one but three sets of parental figures, Ayo dedicated himself to helping casters who have been conscripted into the ever-more-corrupt Kestrian military. It was in search of help that he found the other party members.
Phynneus ("Phynn/Ryder"): Ryder is the happy-go-lucky but time-weary wanderer agent of Voz and devotion paladin. Searching for their long-lost love who was destroyed by The Many Faced One and shattered through Time, the human wizard-turned-paladin has been removed from Time in an effort to give them a chance to find her. Which they FINALLY, after hundreds of years of searching, finally did.
Ivestra Elyssian: Ivestra Elyssian is the sweet and wise Eternal whose entire world was destroyed - the first great victory of The Many Faced One - numerous millennia ago. However, that is not who she was when the party first met her.
First she was...
Lyss, a quiet bladedancer who was a mother, widow, and elite Palace Guard before being murdered and waking up 200 years in the future - immediately coming across the party who had also just time-travelled abruptly.
As the party have learned, she was also the war mage General Ivy Elyssian. Assassinated by a political rival bent on Kestri joining the Olgoth Empire, she is the beloved long-dead mentor and older "sister" of Ayo and Sidra - and the reason they were part of the military in the first place.
Not long after, they learned she was also Ellie - a gifted surgeon and trickster cleric with a particular hatred of their ally, the god Voz, and a reluctance to explain her backstory. Ellie was a close friend and confidante of Reina, a previous member of the Wildcards who was pulled back into her own dimension when The Many Faced One changed her past so she never met the party.
Then, upon arriving in the Lark's Pride Collective and being shown an old relic of a long-lost world and civilization, they found she is Ivestra Elyssian - a skilled diplomat and the long-lost love of Ryder. At this point, pieces of the puzzle surrounding "Lyssetera" started coming together.
Last and tiniest, but certainly not least, little Ves - an arctic fox from a world where primates never existed and all animals developed sapience together - made her appearance upon a return visit to the Collective. A good friend of Anthony's, the little lore bard and her sidekick the sentient guitar Fernando spent many days researching, exploring, trespassing into forbidden sections, and generally engaging in harmless shenanigans at the Collective.
Likely the very last of her people, Ivestra Elyssian is an Aurelian - a race of Eternals from the Heart of Creation. Aurelians were the Historians and Protectors of the Universe before their world fell to The Many Faced One thousands of years ago. Ivestra had been regenerating onto different worlds, attempting to find a new purpose and come to terms with what had happened, before she met Ryder.Still hunting down any survivors that might exist, their enemy found Ivestra on Ryder's world. Though Voz showed up to fight the primordial, Ivestra pushed them out of the way of a "non-existence" beam, preventing catastrophe for the God and thus Creation, but ending up shattered across Time and Space and losing her previously perfect memory. No longer remembering who or what she is, nor understanding why she remembered her previous lives, she has been hundreds of people in the time since she was Ryder's love. However, only a select few have resurfaced so far; each someone pivotal in the lives of the other Wildcards.
And so Act 1 continues as the party time travels in an effort to find answers to seemingly countless questions. In this cut, you will get a glimpse into the party's return to Sidra's homeworld at the time of its destruction as they find what happened to their world and why (and by whom) it was destroyed. The repercussions are felt by all as they experience the connections to their own losses, but as Voz fights a Star God above using tools stolen from the Many Faced One, Ivestra is involuntarily pulled into memories of her own world's loss and experience of being torn through Existence by those same tools. This leaves it up to Ryder's support and, most importantly, the incredible psionic abilities of Ayo/Sidra to dive into her mind and help her pull herself away from the memories and trauma that threaten to never let her go.
This Tale is a team endeavour, engaging in a "Writer's Room" storytelling style blended with the traditional tabletop improv medium in an effort to bring the incredible narrative capabilities of all 4 members (all talented GMs and players) of the cast together. Though The Teller of Tales may wield the quill and know all the twists and secrets, the cast have built their own worlds, cultures, themes, peoples, and villains as they've developed the Universe that houses "The Tale That Never Was". They rotate through playing NPCs, describing scenes, asking for rolls and playing their own villains with the Storyteller, as the person dictating the narrative occasionally changes places.
Welcome, friends, to our poignant and heartwarming "Tale That Never Was".
