My game of WbtW might accidentally become something entirely unrelated to the direction the module wants to take us... If so I will channel my inner homebrew.

My players said they wanted to lean into the horror aspects of the carnival and this was a questline i have put together for them. Not sure how its going to go just yet but I thought it'd be fun to share in case it inspires anyone.

This is the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17_9bIrTYCGn2jHaVAZDVppdhJmc-tPyhdlRpK3Zu2_E/edit?usp=sharing

I also just copy-pasted it below

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More Combat at the Carnival! The Witchlight Deck of Cards : r/wildbeyondwitchlight 

Quest: Stopping The Carnival Vendor

If the energy of the carnival is low for a prolonged period of time, a new stall appears at the carnival called The Carnival Vendor. This booth is run by Valkir Habrett, an ally of the hourglass coven who is more than happy to reign chaos over the carnival and support the carnival go-ers in increasing the chaos and misery (minimum 2.5 hours of sustained sadness OR 1 hour of continuous mood decreasing)

Booth Description: Wild Wares and Wards

• All maps suddenly include an indicator of this location that is magically added on
  • It appears directly in the middle of the main walkway between the Big Top and the Calliopee 
  • Indicated on the map by a yellow star
• When the map changes it also briefly acquires a different tactile quality or weight
• As the booth appears in the carnival read the following:

The sounds of the carnival dampen into a low murmur as the sound of a clocktower chimes out ominous around you. The noise appears to come from every direction and the air suddenly becomes thick. The carnival which was once filled with magically induced freshness (a feature that had been noticeably waning since you arrived) suddenly smells of the bodies of hundreds of different fair go-ers. As sour cheesy smell fills your nose a sudden cold wind cuts through below stifling humidity before returning to an uncomfortable heat. The ground beneath you becomes noticeably more uneven as the chiming stops, and the carnival -- after some hesitation -- returns to its regular activity 

Outside the Booth

• As players approach the booth:

As you return towards the entrance of the carnival you notice the crowd slow, and you need to push your way past many people to continue forward [Roll a DC10 STR (athletics) CHK]. Eventually over the heads // through the legs -- of the crowd you are able to see a new “attraction”. A black obelisk-like structure has appeared in the middle of the entry way blocking peoples paths two and from the different areas of the carnival. The structure appears to be swallowing the light around and the reflective surfaces show distorted visions of the crowd stretched and squeezed in unnatural ways. While looking at the reflections you swear you see the mirrored version of yourself smile at you.

• Getting through the crowd requires a check of some kind
• Looking at the obelisk for a prolonged period of time requires passing a DC10 CHA SVT or charmed by the shop keeper Valkir Hobrette
• A WIS (perception) CHK can determine that the reflection is in fact slightly off
• A INT (history) CHK will cause players to remember the carnivals history of being in the mists and hearing about how it used to travel to planes like Ravenloft --- we can provide extra info for players who don’t know CoS

Inside the Booth

• The booth only allows one group at a time and only unlocks for those who have a piece of it OR if the booth can sense that the player is likely to make a deal or buy a cursed item
• Mr. Witch and Mr. Light have a key that they got as part of a deal they made with Valkir Hobrette shortly after taking over the carnival 
• As players enter the booth:

A soft chiming of the door dissipates into the surprisingly spacious store room. Items are placed on 12 individual pedestals around the room away from the dark purple walls to allow for easy maneuvering within the space. In the back of the room perched behind a velvet covered table is a hooded figure following your every movement with sharp jerks of their head.

Items in the Shop

Deals 

In addition to adding curses later to the carnival, the PCs can make deals for these items that will give themselves a unique curse that will impact them until they can find a way to remove them. For magic items that have mechanical effects (not just aesthetic ones) See “Random” Events in the Carnival:

Outside the Shop

• As the players explore the carnival:

After the distribution of the tolling bell you’ve noticed periodically on the outskirts of the carnival crowds of fair go-ers. Upon further inspection you notice a dark reflective stone adorned by a single gleaming [item]

The patrons around it appear to be unaware of the tables true contents but are walking away with a variety of magical cosmetic enhancements and sweet treats 

• The other NPCs and fair-goers cannot see Lockland from the stands that he operates. Instead they see stands that offer free refreshments and the occasional aesthetic gift like those in Items in the Shop
  • Players who have only contributed positively to the mood of the carnival also experience this
  • They can have an aesthetic magic item but are cursed with one of the ticket pact type things

Items Outside

• Once players leave the carnival the shotty construction of the items causes them to fall apart in 1d4 days

NPC Description 

Valkir Hobrette

• Valkir Hobrette is Lawful Evil (but loves creating chaos) 
• He will regularly offer deals to anyone that will often contain a catch
• He enjoys his job as a punisher and used to work for the previous owner of the Carnival before it was taken over by Witch and Light
  • He really does not want them to crown a witchlight monarch since that will open the portal to the feywild and send in a possible saviour to the kingdoms

Valkir Hobrette is an erratic half-faerie half-goblin. This mixed breeding has left his body as a patchwork of different features. Portions of his skin are the soft silken flesh of the faerie, and has a light purple colouring, the other half appears tough and scarred in comparison and is the green hide of a goblin. Normally mixed-race individuals do not appear this way. Talking to Valkir about it will reveal that his mother’s pregnancy was cursed after she broke the hospitality rules of the feywild. 

While talking to the players he movements appear studded and disjointed. Moments of stillness are interrupted by short rigid movements as Valkir Hobrette’s entire body twitches at each word. The odd individual wears a large cloak over his head that falls off revealing that one of his ears is the large floppy ear of a goblin and the other the small pointed ear of a fey. 

When players speak to him, If it is on the right side he has a hard time hearing since his goblin ear is internally malformed making in deaf in the one ear. His speech is similarly offkilter with emphasis on random words and inconsistent volume. 

• Other NPCs that work at the carnival immediately know when he is around and try to stay out of his way
• Most NPCs have a horror story of something they bought from Valkir or something that happened to them because of Valkir’s antics
• They know the cards let the players controls them via Suggestion and want to keep that secret DC 15 WIS (insite) can discern that they are not providing all the information on the happenings  

Lockland Leaflicker

• Lawful Neutral
• Has been trapped by Valkir Hobrette and is suck helping him sell his wares
  • Secretly hates his boss
• Very smooth and musical sounding 
• Is able to be in multiple locations as once because spirit 
• He is dead

Lockland Leaflicker is an excitable pixie who is always happy to see a friendly (or not so friendly) face. He is about the size of most PCs hands and flits about in smooth circles around the outside items. Although he has been dead for thousands of years Lockland still appears to be full of life, using his impermanent nature to be able to phase through people and objects alike. 

Since nothing he wears seems to keep its colour -- there were shops with specially ghosts' clothes when he used to live in the mists -- he sports an angular suit that creates a sharp triangular silhouette by his right shoulders. It appears his legs have a pair of tight straight pants so as to not distract from his audacious hairstyle gelled into several spikes.  

• Will warn the player that stealing is bad 
• Still kinda feels like they should take the item though (egging them on) 

Changes to the Carnival

The various “wares” sold and won at this booth are actually all cursed items. For every 1d12 interval 5 min the mood of the carnival moves down 1 as carnival go-ers become unwittingly cursed, or curse others. 

As soon as the Carnival Vendor appears, any time the mood decreases a random outcome occurs. Some of the effects of the carnival are seen in the table below (roll 1d4) for the order. Only if the players interact with the obelisk and make selfish decisions:

“Random” Events in the Carnival:

I did not realize how bad the NPC fatigue would get in my game. Coupled with the hiatuses we've had to take I need to completely rework my plans for The League and Valor's Call.

Originally, I was using the subreddit's suggestion of Seelie and Unseelie adventurers. But I think I now need to bring back NPCs the party has already met instead of adding new ones to the already long roster.

The group killed Agdon (well Prismeer's magic turned him to stone). They let the rest of the brigands live. This includes Jebbek, who was out on patrol when they fought Agdon at the stump.

My thought is the book only mentions Agdon making a deal with Bavlorna. With Agdon dead, his loyal troupe has no reason to continue their petty thefts in Hither. They want to leave Prismeer, and maybe along the way figure out how to free Agdon from his petrification.

I'm thinking that maybe to allow passage between Hither and Thither, Jebbek is tasked with stealing Skab's portrait.

Sir Talavar already mentioned the Seelie allied adventurers, and I think I can rectify that by Titania having Agdon on a hit list (although I'm open to other suggestions on the business they had in Prismeer before being frozen). The biggest issue is how I can fully replace and recontextualize the original League encounters with this new cast of characters?

Fore example, the party is traveling to see Lamorna right now, with Zarak trying to steal the horn so they could get Ringlerun's staff. Do I just remove that encounter entirely?

Hi yall,

Next week would be my first time DMingWBTW after being a player for a couple of years. My question is not specificly tied to WBTW but for as DM help in general. One of my players want to play a "pacifist" Paladin for roleplay purposes. So he will mostly be buffing. Normally i can figure out what it too strong and can find an alternative for it but with his proposed new variation on divine smite ive trouble coming up with something to balance it out since it seems too strong for me as a lvl 1 spell. Below is what he proposed, i would like your guys opinion and if you think it needs some change i would be open for ideas, thanks in advance :):

Channel the divine power of your sacred vows to strengthen the bonds between people and protect those in need.

When you take the Attack action, you can expend one spell slot to replace one attack with a blessing. Choose one creature other than yourself within 30 feet that can see or hear you. The creature gains temporary hit points equal to 2d8, plus 1d8 for each spell slot level above 1st.

Alternatively, the creature can immediately repeat a saving throw against being charmed or frightened, adding your Charisma modifier to the roll.

At higher levels, the blessing's temporary hit points increase by 1d8 when you reach 5th, 11th, and 17th Paladin levels.

Here are three original NPCs I added to Hither.

1. Captain Hareonymus Huff

Appearance: A harengon with dashes of silver in his fur, dressed in the uniform of a Buckingham Palace guard (with holes cut out of his hat for his ears), wearing a monocle and saber

Suggested Location: The Inn at the End of the Road

Suggested Voice: A stuffy British accent

Statistics: A knight with harengon racial features

In my campaign, Zybilna has a group of loyal harengons that serve as her royal guards (feel free to decorate the Palace of Heart's Desire with harengon soldiers frozen at attention). I called them Hare Force One, because I can't resist making my players groan out loud, but you might instead call them something slightly less silly (but still pompous) like the Brotherhood of Bounders or the Order of the White Hare. Captain Hareonymus Huff is their commanding officer. He was in Hither on official business (perhaps rounding up the remnants of Agdon's brigands) when the Hourglass Coven launched their palace coup, trapping him in Hither.

He wants nothing more than to bring Agdon and his troupe to justice (calling them "bad bunnies" and "a stain upon the honour of my noble race"), gain access to the Palace of Heart's Desire, and restore Queen Zybilna to the throne. If the party meets him at the inn, he is in a foul mood, low in his spirits and deep in his cups, but can be motivated to assist them if they seem intent on fighting Agdon or restoring Zybilna to power. He is likely to get on PC's nerves however, given his fussbudget attitude and air of self-importance. He is a stickler for decorum who insists on being addressed by the title "captain" and doles out orders to the PCs in the manner of an officer addressing his subordinates. Nevertheless, he is courageous, honorable, and unflinchingly loyal to his queen.

My players had fun riling him up. Due to some unfortunate wording on his part (including the phrase "had I recourse to do it, I would nail that brigand back to the trunk where he belongs"), they convinced themselves that he had complicated romantic feelings for Agdon. This tiff led to him challenging the party's paladin to a formal duel of honor, which was resolved as an arm wrestling contest. After conceding defeat, he and the paladin made up, agreeing to tackle Agdon together. Unfortunately, the paladin had lost some of her time to the hags (eight minutes a day, to be precise), during which time she was under Bavlorna's control. This led to her decapitating Hareonymus in his sleep (Bav taking the opportunity to eliminate a Zybilna loyalist), which was a nice little horrifying twist for my players after the cosiness and good vibes of the inn.

1. Myrtle the Tortle

Appearance: An elderly tortle wearing a straw hat, often seen strumming a banjo and singing an old country song

Suggested Location: A mud hut built next to an o'well

Suggested Voice: A slow Southern drawl

Statistics: A commoner with tortle racial features and proficiency in the banjo

Myrtle is an old tortle minstrel who loves to sing. He's a friend of Elmer the hobgoblin plumber (if you run the "Inside Slanty Tower" expansion) and wonders what has happened to his old friend. He went to check on him at his tower, but no one would let him in. Nowadays, Myrtle only sings sad songs. His hut routinely floods whenever the water level rises in Hither, forcing him to retreat into his shell. To make matters worse, Agdon's troupe has repeatedly robbed him, stealing all his happy memories, except one ("and that I'll never give 'em" Myrtle says, his voice quavering, "not if they beat me black and blue!"). A PC who succeeds on a DC 15 Persuasion check can convince Myrtle to share his last happy memory, which is of the day he met Zybilna.

Myrtle was once an ordinary turtle who fell into an o'well. He would have drowned had Queen Zybilna not happened upon him and come to his rescue. To ensure that he would never suffer such misfortune again, she polymorphed him into a tortle and gave him the gift of song (Myrtle repaid her by singing her praises for decades afterwards). Myrtle still honors the rule of hospitality, welcoming the party into his hut should they treat him with respect and kindness. He apologizes for having nothing but swamp flies and raw fish to serve them, since the rising water level drenches any firewood he painstakingly gathers from the mangrove trees. He nonetheless offers to regale his guests with a sad song, begging their pardon for having no happy ones to share with them, since his memories of those were taken. He thanks the party profusely if they restore his happy memories (contained in Jebbek's gourd), offering to lend them his raft.

My players sought out Myrtle after talking to Elmer, whose transformation into an ettercap led to him hiding away in his tower, convinced his friends would recoil from him in horror. Myrtle pretended not to be home at first, terrified that the party were more harengons coming for his last happy memory ("p-p-please," he begged, "I-I t-told Prince Agdon I've got no more happy memories to give!"). My players instantly took pity on the kindly old tortle and were intensely motivated to recover his memories, since Jebbek had escaped their previous encounter with her.

3. King Gullop III

Appearance: A wrinkled old bullywug dressed in tattered and mud-splattered royal finery, wearing a "crown" that is actually a six-pronged mudrake bent into shape, armed with a rusty harpoon tied to a ball of yarn and sporting a peg-leg made out of a big spoon

Suggested Location: The lake with the antlered serpent depicted on the map of Hither

Suggested Voice: Your most stereotypical pirate voice

Statistics: A bullywug royal with a harpoon (javelin) and proficiency in water vehicles

King Gullop III ascended to the throne after pushing his predecessor into a patch of stinging nettles. Craftier than his fellow monarchs (if only just), he fled into exile after sensing the tide of public opinion turning against him, thus escaping with his life. His fellow bullywugs swiftly declared him to have abdicated the throne, and the Soggy Court has long since forgotten about him.

For the past twenty years, Gullop has been hunting an oracular serpent dwelling in the loch to the northeast of Hither, convinced that by slaying the serpent and devouring its third eye, he can steal its powers of foresight, reclaim his throne, and foresee all future conspiracies against him before they have the chance to threaten his reign. Whether he's right is anyone's guess, but the hunt has become a burning obsession that consumes his every waking thought.

He has carried the same harpoon (named Serpent's Bane) for two decades, determined to plunge it into the beast's heart. Gullop lost his leg to the serpent's jaws years ago while trying to bait it with a fishing rod aboard a flimsy raft plying the middle of the loch. His quarry easily capsized the vessel, bit off his leg, but left the rest of him intact for some inscrutable reason (for his part, Gullop dubiously claims to have "fought the devil off with me bare hands"). Alternatively, he may have chopped off his own leg and traded it to Bavlorna in exchange for her divulging the location of the serpent, and only claims it was lost to the serpent to save face. In that case, his leg is either in a pickled jar in Bav's hut, or was long ago made into frog leg soup.

As part of his latest stratagem, he has constructed a ramshackle lighthouse (also depicted on the map of Hither), using a jar containing a captured will-o'-wisp to try to lure the serpent into the range of his harpoon. This plot has failed to yield any results thus far, but he's far from ready to give up. He can be found fishing on the loch by day, though he's careful to hug the shore of the lake to avoid repeating his previous misfortune. He will eagerly rope the party into his schemes, offering to ennoble them for their services (titles range from First High Admiral of the Soggy Fleet to Grand Duke of the Lilypad Shallows). At all times, he expects to be addressed as "Your Majesty" (even a whiff of disrespect sends him flying into a blubbering rage). He's not above using his subjects as bait and might well regard a PC as "the perfect lure."

Gullop's knowledge of the Soggy Court is hopelessly out of date. If informed of the current political landscape, he dismisses King Gullop XIX as "a pretender unworthy of the name" and immediately begins plotting how to murder him. If you are running "The Watcher's Pool" expansion, you can replace Ufgunk with Gullop III. My players have yet to meet him, but I look forward to them doing so. Here's some dialogue I've brainstormed for when they do:

"Avast ye land-lubbers! Tread lightly upon the deck of King Gullop's Revenge, for ye stand in the presence of royalty! I am King Gullop the Third, the Once and Future Sovereign of the Soggy Court, Moistest and Most Magnificent of Monarchs! For twenty years, the demon of the deeps has eluded my spear. But the tide is turning! The Hour of Reckoning is nigh at hand, when all the traitors of the Soggy Court shall tremble before me! Rejoice, for he who serves me truly shall be richly rewarded even as the false receive their just desserts! Climb aboard, if ye be valiant! Hoist the lily-sails! Today we hunt.

And, of course, if he ever does finally do battle with the serpent:

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering serpent; to the last, I grapple with thee...from the swamp’s heart I stab at thee...for hate’s sake, I spit my last croak at thee!"

Sven's friends and fans, please look the other way.

I'm at the end of yon. My party hasn't fought bavlorna and skabatha when they were in hither and thither. Right now they're planning a siege on motherhorn with a small army of NPC's.

Their plan is that the NPC's will approach motherhorn from three directions, while they go through the tunnel.

I am now trying to prep for this plan and I wonder if I should have Endelyn call her sisters for back-up. And if I do, will I let the party know? They have a sending stone that communicates with pixie journalists, which is how they might receive a message while in the tunnel.

They have previously discussed the morality of sending untrained NPC's into combat, so upping the stakes might be fun (for me).

But if I do summon them, I'm not sure how to have them fight all three bags at the same time while also RP'ing the NPC army.

Does anyone have some advice for me on how to run this siege?

And I just found out five days from the first session.

He's running a homebrew adventure for other people and today he just told me that his game is going great and something about hags because "apparently Tasha was at some point kidnapped by her three sisters".

I must say, he's not an experienced DM or the most meticulous planner, so I don't think he even knows that information is from Witchlight, and probably is just running out of whatever he read on the wiki.

I did plan for another player knowing Zybilna is Tasha because he's a DM and I expected him to find out, and both he and his character know because they have some shared history.

BUT this player's character is an archfey warlock who has Zybilna as a patron after she helped the character overcome a curse, and because the player LOVES Tasha as a character, he wasn't supposed to know.

Some changes I made were avoiding calling her Zybilna, she's the Queen or the Queen of Delight. The sisters did kidnap her, but Graz'zt is ultimately responsible for this whole plot. Zybilna used to grant wishes through Witchlight (to earn power through the people's faith and belief in her,) until the hags took over and closed the path to Prismalia. The game is of a higher level so even the hag statblocks wouldn't be the same.

Soooo how would you deal with this situation? I think what I'm most worried about is spoiling things by questioning him about things if he hasn't made the connection already (I don't think he has??), and him making the connection the moment he learns about the three hags.

I could use some advice. I feel I am kind of stuck. The group is on the last of the hags. The other two got beat and due to some certain things the group have managed to get all their lost stuff back. They snuck in though they still have the admissions from the traveling wagon but I am having problems trying to figure how to push them to the end. There is no reason for them to do the play and since they don't have anything to get back from any of the hags they don't seem to motivated to save Zybilna. I don't want to make them do something they don't want to but I want to finish this because we are so close.

Hiya!

My campaign is starting WbtW soon and I'm hyped :D. I'm currently making a notebook for all the information and prep. I currently have quick refference tabs for all 5 chapters, Players, Important NPC's and the Storytracker. Are there any other things in this campaign that are really useful to have a quick referemce tab for instead of sorting them under the chapter tabs? I habe 4 empty tabs I can use. I do also have a seperate page for the backstory of Prismeer. Thanks!

As the title says, I’ll be DMing this game in a little less than a week, and I would love to have any:
- Playlists
- Side Quests
- Revisions
- Suggestions
- Links to useful items
- Anything else you found useful for your game

A few pieces of context for this game:
- we’re using a revised version of the “Lost Things” hook
- We have a Wild Magic Sorcerer, a Soulknife Rogue, a Cirle of Stars Druid, a Fey Wanderer Ranger, and a Battle Smith Artificer, and we’re starting at lvl 2
- I’m replacing the League of Malevolence and Valor’s Call with the Seelie and Unseelie Court (it’ll tie into the backstories of a few characters)

Thanks everyone!!

As my players venture through Yon, I'm getting the Palace ready for their final showdown. Long story short, Endelyn has my players so manipulated, they're no longer sure if they want to unfreeze Zybilna since they are now uncertain of who she really is. My players have also become heavily invested in Zarak (and the League of Malevolence by extension).

In our campaign, the hags sent the League to the Palace to serve as a distraction for some sort of plot (Temporal Stasis) with the promise of being able to defeat Valor's Call and for Kelek to claim Ringlerun's staff. They didn't know that they themselves would be frozen too (Zarak and Skylla were somehow ejected from the Palace, still working on how that happened). This is also why Zarak went to the Wayward Pool for Lamorna's horn, to unfreeze his comrades. If the League were to be unfrozen and reunited, they'd want to settle the score with the hags.

Very fittingly, I have the final standoff setting up as both the League and Valor's Call being unfrozen. And with the three hags and the party showing up as well, everything is culminating to a final confrontation with Zybilna in the center of it all. All four groups have different overlapping priorities, making alliances here very unclear.

The League of Malevolence: Valor's Call must die, the Hags must pay for their betrayal, and they'll take over Prismeer instead when this is over, so Zybilna must remain frozen. The party has stood with Zarak, so an alliance is doable if they do not intend to unfreeze Zybilna. Opinion does not change if Zybilna has been identified as Iggwilv.

Valor's Call: The League and Hags are both evil, they must be brought to justice. They came to Prismeer in pursuit of Iggwilv, seeking Zyblina's help, as she may have ties to her (lol). If Iggwilv hasn't been outed, they intend to unfreeze and rescue her. If she has been outed, she must be unfrozen anyway and face justice. If the party intends to unfreeze her and rejects the League, they will stand with the party (hard sell since the party loves Zarak).

Hags: Zybilna must remain frozen at all costs, and everyone here needs to die or be disposed of, one way or another. Any deal is on the table as long as they get their way.

The Party: Probably will have made up their mind by now on which direction they are going with Zybilna and if they will stand with the League beyond just Zarak when an alliance is needed.

Leading up to it, I'll get a temperature check on if this needs to be full-blown free-for-all combat or not. It could also start that way, but then the party could be reminded that "We don't have to win the fight, we just need to unfreeze Zybilna", turning it into a chaotic scrambling for the horn and a mad dash to Zybilna. Or I could be overthinking this and putting too many ingredients in the pot. What are your thoughts?

So I plan on running The Wild Beyond the Witchlight soon for my party and just wanted to come on here and ask for any advice or tips. I’ve done some researching online and have seen a lot of positive reviews but also some criticism about the ending and the lightheartedness. Does anyone have anything I should know before I start?

We’re doing the Lost Things hook and most of my players are still creating their characters but the one that’s ready is a Changeling Bard who is a Witchlight hand and lost their identity. Essentially they shapeshift into different performers and perform different shows. However, each form thinks they are their own, individual person.

One of my players was helping with some spoiler free Witchlight Carnival arts and crafts prep, but they went all out on a snail racing track so now i'm wanting to make it more important.

Ideas I had -

Two goblins run the track, but are really very shady bookmakers. They offer information that the characters dont have in return for either beating them at some back room gambling, throwing a snail race, or sabotaging a snail/jockey theyve bet against.

Kettlesteam has taken them up on the offer to sabotage a snail/jockey, so players could run into Kettlesteam there.

Players could take them up on the offer, threaten to expose them to witch and light (if theyve met them yet or know theyre not in on it), or just meet kettlesteam.

Open to any other ideas or variations on what ive got though, still just brainstorming!

As the title says, after three years of playing this campaign, we finally finished it after 52 sessions.

It was a long journey—sometimes painful, sometimes discouraging—but it was so much fun; I’ll remember this campaign for the rest of my life.

The campaign was interrupted several times for one or two months due to vacations, personal issues, heat waves… but we made it through. We had to speed up the conclusion because two of my players told us they were moving to the other side of the country, and we all agreed to finish the campaign in person, just as we’ve always done.

I used most of the module—I’d say 80% of it—but I also added quite a bit of extra content: Dan Kahn supplements, the 11th Hour for more Zyb content, the presence of Baba Yaga as Tsu, adding a final boss) and, most importantly, a lot of homebrew integrate to the story as my players backstories were fully integrated into it, even though their resolutions were their own and took place in the future, much beyond the Witchlight actually. The “lost things” hook was the one we went with; they were as follows:

Bard: his shadow

Artificer: his memory

Warlock: her ability to dream

Fighter: her clan’s amulet

Paladin: his rune stone

Each of these “lost things” concealed deeper stories tied to their pasts.

I was able to say everything I needed to say—the lore I’d prepared, the final revelations about Zybilna and Isolde (I included that content, which ties into the Paladin’s story)—a final boss was introduced smoothly, and I sincerely believe the conclusion was satisfying for everyone. What a relief! After all these years of work, I would have been disappointed if it had gone badly.

We spent the entire day on Saturday finishing up. From 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. … the finale included the battle against the League of Malevolence (which wasn’t called that in our campaign and was tied to the Fighter story) and the final boss, Graz’zt, who had been introduced in the background since Hither as a mysterious Patron who wanted to recruit the Warlock to his cause even though she was the protégée of… Zybilna. Seduction and temptation were the order of the day, but she resisted. The final boss’s monologue shed light on many aspects of her unhappy childhood, for which Iggwilv and Graz’zt were responsible. I loved playing this villain and delivering my monologue, which I think had my players glued to their seats. What a moment!

It was a pretty massive undertaking for me. This was my first “real” campaign that went well, with engaged and interested players, and I gave it my all. Props, lots of writing and rewriting, painting miniatures, exclusive maps… and oh, choosing the musics took me forever ! I really wanted to give them a great -the best- experience and make everyone feel special. I think I succeeded. For me, it’s a huge accomplishment as a DM, but now I feel a big void in my heart… especially because it also means I won’t see some of my friends for a long time, and I don’t know if we’ll play together again in the future—maybe online, who knows...
I put a lot of pressure on myself—I'm a perfectionist, and it's really hard for me to be satisfied with pretty much anything I do—so I'm so happy with how I feel about this conclusion...

To mark the last session, I gave them a piece of artwork I’d commissioned from an artist. It was a moving moment, but right after that, my brain was so exhausted from the day that I don’t remember what happened next… compliments and thanks, according to what my boyfriend told me, but all I could think about was sleeping >.< It wasn’t until the next day that it really hit me, and that’s when I shed a little tear.
Anyway, I'm here if you have questions or want to talk ! I have so SO many notes about that campaign oh my. Here is the sessions by chapter;
CH1 Witchlight Carnaval: Sessions 1 to 4
CH2 Hither: Sessions 5 à 19
CH3 Thither: Sessions 20 à 29
Interlud in Tsu's Inn and go back to Hither to deal with Bav: Sessions 30 to 33
CH4 Yon: Sessions 34 to 47
CH5 Palace: Sessions 48 to the final 52

If you’d like more information about my players, their backstories, or how things played out in the campaign, I’d be happy to share it. I just wanted to put it out there that we’ve finished and that we’re all happy with how it ended! And sad, of course. I have so much to say, but my emotions are still all over the place, and it’s even hard to make sense of them! In any case, I’d love to chat about this campaign if you’re interested.

edit: add some details and spelling

Edit2: Here's some pictures of the Graz'zt miniature I painted for the final fight
Base: https://ibb.co/q3wQZjgy
Final result:
https://ibb.co/s92NTbT8
https://ibb.co/qYQP5JDF
https://ibb.co/WvpHLrw6

Spoilers ahead for any players, do not read. Also why I left out the entire name of the League.

My party has hit Thither, and worked their way to the wayward pool where zerrak attacks them.

I played him as a kind of dumb rogue villain so he obviously yells out the criminal organization he works for right?

I shouted out with full confidence, in his orc voice that I was doing for him, " The League of Male-Violence sends their regards!"

🙃🙃🙃

I realized that my dumb ass had only ever read the word "malevolence" (muh-leh-vuh-luhns) in my head. Never practiced saying their title out loud, so my brain and mouth just turned it into Male-Violence when I was reading and in the moment.

Anyways, my party is now fighting for the freedom of Prismeer and to end Male-Violence 😅🤣

Hello fellow DMs. I need your help. It's been 3 years that my party and I are doing WbtWc and last session, one of my player has lost his character (not dead but possessed -> gonna explain). We're having a ton of blast, I did a lot of tweaking because it's Feywild but now I genuinely don't know what to do....next

My party :
-Tortle Barbarian, path of the Giant
- Eladrin Druid, circle of the Moon (with the tweak to shapeshift into Displacer Beast because the translation in french (which we are) would be "Eclipse Beast" for Endelyn Moongrave
- Dhampir Lineage Bard, college of Tragedy (the, now, possessed character).

The tweak for context ; We're at YON :
- I've made a small city with a Tavern, near the lake with pillars (fey Beacons). We had a session where the party sneak through Stagefright's House. They succeed and the bard took the scepter and some random keys from Motherhorn.
-I've put the Astonomer's Throne inside the Brigganock Mine as a legendary, relic place where people can try to obtain power. After the hags have frozen Zybilna in her palace. Endelyne has seen a potentiel threat to the throne. She decided to gain this power but didn't manage to pull this up (because to sit on a throne, you need to be a king, a monarch (wink wink), or wear a crown or something on your head). Instead, she decided to corrupt the place where she has placed her own Shadow and various shadows inside it as well. Which changes the place into a raid. 4 different wave which the possible win to obtain a level. All the shadows are only focused on the seater. And after the 3rd wave, some shadows have reached the throne and have corrupted the bard. I told the party that if he manage to flee the room, they're gonna lost the (possessed) bard definitely. My party gave everything they have got (with korred strings, charms, abilities, spell Enlarge/Reduce to block the door). The fight lasts 3 turns (3 hours), and it ends with the spell suggestion to let him escape and he ran away with a curtsy.

Soooo now I have a possessed bard. If I put myself in the shoes of Endelyn, I have No clue of what to develop.
- He could be the new Stagefright after returning the scepter but he is not fully evil. Just possessed.
- He could be the new stage's star. Substitute Skylla and give Endelyn a good reason to kick her out from Motherhorn... but he's gonna try to run away.
- He could be just be on a cell, waiting for his comrades to rescue him. And be some sort of Hostage/lever use to Endelyn. (but this doesn't add much hype to the story).

I would love to hear what would you do with this situation.

I’be been playing with my group for a little over a year but our DM recently asked me to take over since his work load has increased at his job. This is my first full campaign (I did a homebrew once shot a while back) and I’m having trouble going through the story while trying to make my players happy.
Now, my players are very combat happy. They will fight anything and everything. I told them before the campaign started that this book that it wasn’t combat heavy and all interactions can be resolved without combat.
I recently had an interaction with one of my players where he is trying to fight the bugbear. We did a bit of combat but both he and I missed each other. We ended up finishing the session up in the middle of the fight and were picking it back up tonight.
A couple of other players are irritated about this interaction and I’m not really sure what to do.
1. I know they need to interact with the bugbear and he can’t be killed so I’m not sure how to end the combat
2. I’m not sure how to keep the other players engaged while I’m finishing this combat.

Any help or advice would be great!

First time DM here planning to run a bit of a home brew off of IndieRex’s reimagined - I really didnt vibe with the idea of Tasha having become this damsel in distress so I love what IndieRex did there. I’m playing with changing the ending slightly - I’d like to balance the summer and winter court more (drawing from Terry Pratchett’s summer/winter elementals from the Aching series as inspo), and still toying with a few other ideas such as a trip to Planescape rather than back to their home world, and a bigger/longer drawn out lean into Tasha trying to strip the Feywild of its power to drive her attempt to take over the material plane. I’m looking to those who ran it - I’d love to hear how you did, anything you changed, anything you loved or wish you had done differently? Basically just would like to chat about it!

So...I let the players shove the unicorn horn up the ass of a corpse. I shouldn't have, but it was funny at the time. But now they're in Thither and about to realize the importance of it.

Do I make them go back and get it or just change the location of the horn?

Edit: Thank you everyone for the ideas! I decided that the cemetery will be corrupted, taking inspiration from Evil Dead. The plants will be alive, the spiders and animals will be mutated. And at the end of the cemetery, where the horn was buried, a revenant.

I like the suggestion of the horn not being there, but I think I'll corrupt it. It will have magic but it will twist anything the players try to do with it and make it come about in the worst way, like a monkey's paw.

Hello Witchlighters. 👋🏻

We had a Session Zero yesterday and I as a forever DM will actually be able to be a player.

I'm just interested in hearing what character concepts you or your players came up with.

I know the campaign can be run without a fight so I plan on not running a battle centered character.

My Idea so far is a hexblood inquisitive rouge. Probably taking the warlock hook where he's asked to search someone in the feywild. And he got approached because he's running a detective agency in one of the big sword coast cities.

Being able to use disguise self through the hexblood is cool because he could have like a human persona speaking with clients. And also the thing where he can pull out a tooth, a nail or some hair to have this little item to give to someone knowing or not to spy on it speak with them seems fitting for a detective.

Also I know the other hook is losing something so a character who's good at finding stuff seems quite helpful for the party.

What do you think of that idea? And of course let me know what you or your players play. 😊

Hi everyone! :)

One of my players chose Yarnspinner as their archfey patron. Dust has just settled on the party's first interaction with Skabatha and I think it's time to pay a visit to spider daddy soon. This is my first time DM-ing for a warlock and I really feel lacking on this warlock-patron relationship. I like Forgetting Fablerise, but we already have party members missing their true name through Lost Things.

I would love to hear how you made use of Yarnspinner and Fablerise. PLEASE help inspire me 😥

I'm gonna mail my players the flyers. They get the tickets during session 1. I have wings for them to wear too.

Art lovingly stolen. Found it in a post here on reddit somewhere. I printed it at staples and covered the using some holographic laminate self-adhesive sheets.

I have one remote player so I'm gonna send his stuff with him when I see him next but it'll be wrapped and numbered so I tell him when to open which one.

Running the session 0 lost things one shot.

My party at lvl 2 as they are about to enter the cottage, when should I level them
Up? Just before entering? After talking with Bavlorna or after leaving the cottage

My party is talking with the Getaway Gang next session, and I'm not really sure how to feel about the "be/look like a unicorn" requirement. Especially since the Getaway Gang gives you a costume, meaning there's nothing the players actually need to do in order to gain entry. Even if I remove the costume, as written the book says something as simple as putting a piece of wood on your forehead works.

How did you handle this in your game? Did you remove it? Did you change the requirement to something else?

I feel like there should be some sort of puzzle to approach the pool, but this seems very lackluster. Either a way to outwit the magic that veers you off course, or perhaps a test of character?

There is also the matter of it needing to be something that someone like Zarak (I'm swapping him with someone else but still villainous) can replicate. Though maybe whatever pathway opens up they can swiftly enter right behind the party.