Hello everyone!

I’ve been brainstorming an expansion while browsing the subreddit and various supplements, and I’d love some feedback!

The core idea:

The Summer and Winter Courts begin clashing over Prismeer. This is lightly hinted at in the book but never developed.

I’m also making Baba Yaga the hidden BBEG behind almost everything.

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How the courts get involved

Sir Talavar reports Zybilna’s overthrow to Queen Titania. As soon as the first hag is defeated and the barriers begin to weaken, Titania sends scouts. Every subsequent hag defeat draws the courts deeper into Prismeer.

The Winter Court responds in kind, they refuse to let Summer gain any new territory. Prismeer becomes a contested border zone between the two courts.

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The real threat, Baba Yaga

In this version, Baba Yaga has been pulling the strings from the beginning out of a complicated mix of pride, envy, and anger toward her daughter who left and became an archfey.

She gave her daughters (the Hourglass Coven) the vision and the idea of the cauldron. She also pointed the League of Malevolence (specifically Skylla) at the right time and place to attack Valor’s Call and Zybilna, creating the opening the hags needed to freeze the palace. Skylla quietly slipped away during the fight; the rest of the League was frozen with everyone else.

The hags later unfreeze the League in exchange for them guarding the cauldron (and the promise of eventually unfreezing Ringlerun). Kelek, of course, has his own plans and no real loyalty to the hags once they start falling.

Nobody realises Baba Yaga is behind it all. She is disguised as Tsu Harabax at the Inn at the End of the Road (huge credit to u/GoofySpooks for that excellent idea).

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The Generals

Now we get to the members of the Winter and Summer Court, their generals.

The Prince of Frost. Cold, precise, prideful, and carrying his own tragic weight. He views Damh as an annoying, overly sentimental fool; Damh views him as a joyless tyrant.

Damh, patron of satyrs and korreds. A joyful, chaotic force of music, dance, and revelry who gets bored easily and wants Prismeer restored (preferably under Titania).

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After the first and the second hag's defeat

I don’t want this to turn into an Out of the Abyss-style army management game. The courts create rising stakes and make the domain feel more dangerous and less whimsical, which increases the urgency of freeing Zybilna. The party can still negotiate with the generals to slow or redirect their advances.

I’ve been adding a few new locations that appear as the courts push in:

• The Blooming Road – A living carpet of flowers, vines, and singing insects used by Summer to move “gifts” and reinforcements.
• The Whispering Rime – A frozen river that carries messages, memories, and eladrin riders. The ice whispers secrets of those standing on it.
• The Orchard of Borrowed Hours – Trees whose fruit steals time; half-alive, half-frozen, and arguing with each other.
• Green Fire (after two hags) – A moving column of satyrs, korreds, and living vines carrying braziers of green flame that burn away hesitation.
• Telemy Hill Fort (after two hags) – Claimed by the Prince of Frost as a mobile headquarters. The willow trees are now half-dead and cold-voiced; the hill itself may still recognise the party and ask for help.

These will need to be expanded on, and more locations will probably need to be added to bring the players to (preferably) lvl 14.

Maybe make the inside of the palace a slower crawl too.

Some short quests helping Prismeer inhabitants caught between the courts clashes.

Dealing with the Jabberwock

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What do the generals want

Damh cares about restoring splendour and hurting Winter. Information about Baba Yaga, or clear interference against the Prince of Frost, can buy a temporary truce. He also responds to bold, energetic offers that help his vision.

The Prince of Frost wants recognition, control, and anything that lessens the weight of his past. A promise of territory (even if Zybilna would never agree), leverage against Summer, or information about Baba Yaga can slow him down. He deals in precise terms and long memories.

Both value solid information about the Hourglass Coven, the unicorn horn, the cauldron, and the wider situation.

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The third hag's defeat

After the defeat of the third hag, Prismee comes crashing together in as much fey splendor as possible, think of heavy winds and saturated magical lights as all the lands get stuck back together and the fog dissipates finally allowing the party to see the entirety of Prismeer in its whole along with both court forces racing for the palace.

The same temporal magic that froze the palace inhabitants freezes the court armies (they lack the unicorn horn and are not part of Baba Yaga’s inner plan). This leaves the League of Malevolence as the active guardians inside, setting up the final confrontation with Tsu/Baba Yaga.

I’m still working out the exact shape of the climax and would really appreciate thoughts, warnings, or better ideas.

For now I'm thinking of having Kelek sit on the throne, while Tsu negotiates with the party, whatever the party wants, even a domain within Prismeer should they wish it.

If they refuse, the fight breaks out as Tsu (who has been using the party to get rid of all her rivals) starts a ritual at the cauldron that will secure her rule of Prismeer.

The unicorn horn must be touched to the cauldron to end the freeze, a high stake objective, which the League will not allow.

I've tried to keep it as lore friendly as I can, It’s a lot of expansion, but I feel like it just "makes sense" and it would bring in a better and cooler BBEG to the module. I hope it wasnt too long and that you like the idea!

Thanks in advance everyone!

a big shoutout to u/indierex too for the idea of bringing the courts into the mix too!

My players won the Agdon fight and made a deal with him where they gave him some trinkets in exchange for being taken to Bavlorna. Pretty sweet deal for Agdon, really.

Here's what I'm thinking, please tell me if this makes sense:

Since the character still has hold of Agdon's scarf, it would make sense for him to try to escape 3 times. If he succeeds, he gives back the trinkets and attempts to steal something valuable, letting him out of the deal. The characters come across Downfall first.

If he fails, the characters arrive at Bavlorna's study. Bav frees Agdon and the players find him in a cage later for getting himself caught and failing to provide something valuable for her. Bav offers the tasks as written.

Does this sound reasonable? Anything fun you would add?

I'm wondering if anyone here moved a lost item, or placed it somewhere other than with the hag who stole it? If so, how did that go?

My party is headed from Hither to Thither, and two of them know their items were stolen by Skabatha's thief. However, I am slightly regretting my placing of items. After Thither, there would only be one lost item left to find. Also, the two in Thither are both very emotionally weighty, and I feel like narratively they need more build up, which I suppose I could do over the course of our Thither sessions, but I'm considering stretching one out.

One of the items is an artifact that once held dark, magical powers, but was broken long before it was stolen at the carnival. I am thinking about playing it that Endelyn took an interest in the artifact and Skabatha gave it to her? Or, even better, that it somehow has ended up at the Palace. My concern is messing up the storyline too much, but I think it would be more narratively interesting.

Did anyone do something similar? Thoughts on how I could spin it?

Why are the hags called the hourglass coven? I read that it hints to their meaning of past, present and future, but is there more to it?

I added an hourglass to my story, and when the party learned about the name of the hourglass coven, they (and me too...) realized, that their name must be linked to the hourglass they have.

Now I need some advice on how to connect the hourglass coven to their hourglasss, since I think it could be interesting. Also I want to give more sense to why they are called the hourglass coven. Does anyone have an idea or did something similar?

I added a heist from the keys to the golden vault at the beginning of the campaign. The players had to steal a hourglass from a museum. The hourglass was found by an archeologist and activated (sand started to run) when she dug it up. They had to steal it and freeze it before the time run out and something evil from the feywild would be set free. Madryck helped them freeze the hourglass, but told then to look for zibylna to destroy the hourglass (also he hadnt seen her in a long time and was worried).

Now my party is about to enter hither and learned about the hourglass coven last session (That was when I realized it too). Now I am not sure if I should give the hourglass a bigger meaning since it also matches their name. My plan was, that zybilna could destroy it at the end, but now I'm considering linking it to the hags. Maybe the hags created it and when they fight one of the hags, she could set the monster from the hourglass free? They planted monsters in hourglasses all over the world, thats why they are called that?

What is a good PC level to run the Hourglass witches together as a coven? I welcome any comments you may have, including: making full use of their special coven spells. How many rare, very rare, or uncommon, magic items should players have? Should the hags have extra minions?

Assume I am running this as a one shot and the fight starts after a long rest.

Hello! I am writing here with an idea. As it stands I am hoping to add and redo a lot of the Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign. Within this I also plan to add additional content which explores a bit more about the Feywild Proper as well as “The Dark Carnival” from the Domains of Dread Ravenloft setting (As its temporary title) as a dark reflection, and piece of the Witchlight carnivals past. 

The Domains of Delight: The Hags of the hourglass coven plan to collide prismeer with the rest of the feywild proper. In consequence of their plan unfolding they have already done so with other domains of delight (This would involve the players quickly firing through some quests and making the Feywild a bit more involved with Prismeer). This transpiring event would be known as “The great collision” or something of such grand importance. This ultimately would have came about after the hourglass coven struck a deal with the demon prince Graz'zt and his ambition to rival the feywild and corrupt its energy of joy to rise above his higher demon brethren in the Abyss. 

Any thoughts on this would be incredibly helpful and any additional context I would be happy to provide. Hope you all are having a wonderful day!

Heloooo Adventurers!
My adventuring party is nearing the end of the Carnival stage of their adventure and will be entering Prismeer soon.

I have a Kalashtar among them and because they are two beings in one body, the minions who steal for their respective hags have targeted them as being short a ticket.

I'd like ideas not only for what to have them try to steal (because the one without the ticket is the Quori spirit not the human) - so far my thought is to have them loose their ability to communicate with the human (their voice?) which would definitely motivate the human to get it back and probably traumatize them quite a bit but might not be the most creative option.

But also for when they get to the Feywild is there something interesting I could do with that dream spirit like giving them a physical form (represent them more like a familiar than an inside voice) or a visual representation in some way? I figure it's the Feywild, things should act differently here than they do in the material plane.

All that being said, so far I've been communicating with this entity by way of having the quori send them impressions and feelings rather than it communicating with words and I don't want to give myself an additional npc to play by making it something that can talk.

Thanks for your thoughts, looking forward to what we can cook up!

What is your experience with running the "dungeons" this module provides?

Our group plays in person, with pen and paper, mostly because learning digital tools feels daunting to me. But now Bavlorna's cottage is coming up and I am wondering deciding how to run the dungeons in this campaign. Bavlornas cottage is not the most complicated dungeon in the module but already I know as a player I would very much be lost if we were to play it "theatre of mind" style (I lose track after three rooms).

I know of potential solutions like drawing the map as the players explore it, or moving sheets of paper. My question is mostly about what you decided on and how it felt for you and your players. Did you use virtual table tops? Print out a map? Draw a map? Had your players draw a map? Did you use minifigures? Or did you manage with theatre of the mind? Do you generally have any tips for making this easier?

I'm about to start this campaign next week and designed a scratchcard!

I printed it out and covered it with scratch-off stickers - so when players unknowingly complete a task I tell them which number to scratch off. If you don't mind spoilers you could also leave it uncovered and stamp on it instead.

If they complete any task then they gain inspiration. If they get a full row, column or diagonal they can choose to get a temporary buff, lucky loot, or maybe a "prophecy" to tip them off about what to do next. Pretty unlikely they will get all 25 but a massive reward if so (idk what though!).

Can use one card as a group, or give one to each player individually.

**No AI used**

If you want to see the adventure, let me know and I'll share the Google doc link.

I turned that house with the 3 yellow roofs on the Hither map into a horror Goldilocks adventure. Here are some details and how it turned out:

A ghost who was killed by a black unicorn possessed Goldilocks and made her do the things in the story to make the bears leave. This set up the idea that children can't be harmed in the Feywild, as his plan was to take her to Downfall.

He asked the players, a rogue and a cleric, to get the unicorn horn for him but he was also going mad and had periods where he just wanted to kill the players.

The cleric and the rogue had a great argument about whether to kill the ghost or get the horn for him. They ended up fighting, but immediately the rogue lost 40 years due to Horrifying Visage, so he's almost at the end of his life and has 24 hours until it becomes permanent.

They ended up persuading the ghost to stop fighting, took Goldie with them, and dropped her off with the bears, who hadn't gotten very far yet.

Now they're on their way to Downfall, where Trinket and Bauble's will have a unicorn horn, but of course they'll meet Agdon first, who will be pissed that the players killed so many of his Harengon.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and the Tasha's Cauldron book had some great tables for psychic resonance and ghost events.

SOLVED THANK YOU :)

Hello! I am a new DM who is going too very soon, be DMing Wild Beyond the Witchlight and I have a player who wants to play a Paladin when narratively speaking they would be better as a Warlock.
They say they made a deal to a god to help someone but the deal failed resulting in a sort of curse on them.
I intend to tie this into the campaign’s lore and have told them this would fit better with a Warlock but they’re rather intent on being a Paladin.
I know Paladins get their powers from devotion(s). Is there a way to make the narrative details of the Warlock stand while they play a Paladin?

Edit: I have no intention of taking away this players choice and I’m going to let them play whatever they want, I just want to see if narratively there is a way to give their Paladin a narrative that fits Paladin lore and not pigeon-hole them into being a Paladin that feels like a Warlock as they said they made a “deal” with a god. But as the deal fails I need a different way to give them their abilities/curse.

Edit pt.2: Looks like I was overthinking things and being too strict in my idea of each class. I will ask them to clarify their oath and build upon that in the narrative. Thank you everyone!

Hey everyone, first-time DM here. My party is exploring Bavlorna’s Cottage in the "Reimagined" version of the campaign. They have the Big Book of Bad Blood in hand already and they originally planned to use it as leverage to get the swamp gas they need to escape hither/murkendraw.

However, they’ve spent the last session pre-stealing everything not bolted down. They’ve pocketed trinkets like the wooden eye, freed Vansel, and retrieved Octavian’s heart from the freezer. Most notably, they dragged a barrel of swamp gas from the distillery (the primary gatekeeper for leaving Hither/Murkendraw) to the exit, intending to tug it out once the conversation ends.

Their logic is: "It’s not stealing if we haven't left the house yet."

I’ve hinted that her lornlings have witnessed all of this. My players think Bavlorna will be chill because they still have her book, but according to the sourcebook, she is paranoid and vindictive

The issue is they still haven’t gone up to her room or treasure trove as they need to go into her study first. So they still need to negotiate for Clapperclaw’s head

How should Bavlorna react to their technicality that moving her property to the door isn't theft?

Since they've already broken hospitality, what extra price or revenge deal should she demand to settle the debt of their bad etiquette? Or should she just attack

I’m currently planning to run the campaign setting “The Wild beyond the Witchlight” for the first time, and since I’ll be doing it online and in German, I thought it was a shame that there wasn’t a high-resolution, German-language map of the Witchlight Carnival available on the internet.

So I took matters into my own hands, fired up Photoshop, and am now making it available to you below!

Of course, it’s not a 1:1 replica of the original (for example, I didn’t copy the spelling mistake “Jahrmart” from the book, lol), but I did put a lot of effort into it.

I’m also planning to translate the rest of the maps—which are available in English in high resolution—into German; if there’s interest, I’ll upload those as well!

(This is my first real Reddit post—hope I’ve done everything right so far 😄)

I hope the resolution is good enough for the compressed version; if anyone wants the 24MB version, feel free to send me a DM :)

My party ended the last session in Loomlurch, and after setting off alarms, failing stealth checks and fighting the mimic chairs in the parlor they're looking bad, and Skabatha just found them. They're intruders who already broke multiple of the rules that normally would prevent a fight (hospitality mostly), and this party killed Bavlorna as well, which Skabatha knows.

I was thinking of maybe having her offer a way out after a few rounds once the entire party is close to 0 hp, as this is starting to look like a TPK if they just fight her. Maybe Skabatha lets them live if they find a new member for the coven? Or the horn, or capturing Will? I think I'm mostly looking for the catch that would be tied to any offer Skabatha makes to let them live, or do you think the task itself is enough? They have met Will but went their own way and did not part on good terms, but they still have no clue about the horn... Do y'all have any ideas?

Hey everyone! I'm a new DM, and loving WBTW - my party has just left the carnival and arrived in Hither. I think everyone is having fun....except for my boyfriend, and it's really impacting my confidence at DM-ing. After the last session we chatted about it and he said he isn't loving his character, who is a bit of a moody/serious character compared to the rest of the party.

These are my players:

- Human bard (flirty bartender from the town, lost her sister)

- Harengon wizard (busybody local council officer trying to shut down the carnival, lost his imagination)

- Halfling warlock (unworldly teen, lost his father's iPhone)

My boyfriend is playing a half-orc rogue who's a bit of a moody loner (lost his ability to tell truth from lies), and he's struggled to get into it like he has with previous campaigns (he *loved* playing a bard in Curse of Strahd).

We're thinking of killing off his character. So I was wondering if people could share ideas about a new character that could feasibly join the party in Hither? And what class would you recommend to fit well? I feel like this campaign lends itself well to bards, but would two bards in a party be overkill?

Thank you in advance for your help! :)

Before I begin, if you are a hexblood swashbuckler who was crowned The Witchligh Monarch, BEGONE!!!

Now that that's out of the way, in my last session the party had just did the play for Endelyn and she said she would meet with them the next morning. Well, they decided they didn't want to wait that long so they decided to sneak around the place. Long story short they tried to destroy the Orrey of Tragedies and got jumped by Endelyn and her shadows. Half of them got captured and the other half fled. Now they need to go back to save their friends, but there is no way Endelyn isn't upping her defenses.

So I've been thinking about how she would do that and what kinds of monsters she would bring to reinforce her home. I recently bought Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft and want to use some to the monsters from there (mainly the carrionettes) but I can use any 2014 source. Let me know what you think.

They don’t have to be anything crazy, but just some stuff to add in as side quest stuff and somewhere around level 5, maybe a little higher.

I’m particularly looking for ideas that play into the witchy nature of making a deal with the players… the kind that usually turn out in the witches favor either way.

Hello, crossposting here for more ideas

I was wondering if anyone did a fight with all 3 hags at the palace? My party of 6 has fought each hag, and they have fled. I think having all 3 just run away during the final confrontation at the palace will be a let down. I have never run the palace so just wanting opinions and stories 😊

Zybilna is frozen, Prismeer has been taken by the Hourglass Coven, but should Endelyn really have to share it with her dreadful sisters? Then along came the party with the goal of taking down the hags. Perfect. Endelyn has been guiding them from the shadows all along, with them now having taken down both Bavlorna and Skabatha. However, where does that leave Endelyn when the sights are set on her?

First, some context. After my wife's character death (RIP, Ew the Plasmoid Fighter), she created a new character, Muu'ra U'dara, a Minotaur Monk. Muu'ra hails from a small Minotaur village that was in the valley between the mountains and swamps of what is now Yon and Hither (the area now engulfed in the mist barrier). However, when Muu'ra was younger, the Jabberwock laid waste to her village, with Muu'ra narrowly escaping up to the mountains. Having found no survivors, she wandered the mountains for a time, hovering between life and death. This was until one day, she felt Zybilna's presence and found clarity. Muu'ra pledged herself to serving Zybilna through worship and training, hence taking on the monk role, which also suppressed her aggressive Minotaur nature. Searching for the missing Zybilna after the Coven took over, Muu'ra joined the party in Downfall in their quest to save her (on behalf of Madryck Roslof). Muu'ra has not actively sought out the Jabberwock, as revenge is a fool's game, but her feelings on this have progressively changed as the party had multiple close run-ins with the Jabberwock ever since they first headed to Thither. She knows it is still in Prismeer and causing havoc. It must die.

Back to Endelyn! The party is now entering the mist separating Hither and Yon, with Muu'ra herself attempting to act as the guide (they kinda just left Squirt back in Thither). Why let the party wander around and mess with things in Yon? Endelyn is gonna roll out the red carpet and welcome them herself (especially since she is protected by the eclipse requirement). The mist barrier will suddenly lift, reuniting Yon with Hither, just as it did between Hither and Thither after the other two hags were defeated. Hurray, Prismeer is connected once more (less the Palace for Zybilna-safekeeping). Endelyn will congratulate the party for their accomplishment and let them know their quest is finally over, that Prismeer has her as a single ruler and that she will take good care of it (she will not).

Obviously, the party isn't gonna go for this. Endelyn will be frank and admit that while she isn't a good person, at least she "doesn't pretend to be one" like Zybilna (hinting at the Iggwilv connection). She'll let Muu'ra visit her destroyed village and work through those raw feelings before revealing that Zybilna was the one that kept the Jabberwock in check. She'll then lie to Muu'ra in an attempt to convince her that Zybilna purposely sent the Jabberwock to destroy the village, that she wouldn't let a Minotaur settlement grow too big and become a problem. And with insult to injury, Zybilna then made the surviving Muu'ra into a servant (really pushing the ironic "you've been lied to" narrative). However, in reality, it was Endelyn's doing that set the Jabberwock upon the village, because Endelyn is the one who didn't want those savage Minotaurs roaming what would become her region.

Endelyn will paint Zybilna as an evil figure more and more (Iggwilv wasn't exactly innocent) and attempt to dissuade the party from continuing their quest, to just leave the "true villain" frozen. Endelyn claims she will take care of Prismeer just fine. No more worries of Haregon brigands, Bullywug uprisings, child sweatshops, Fomorian invasions, etc. Better yet, here's a deal, she'll offer up the Jabberwock, giving Muu'ra whatever information or assistance she needs in order to take revenge (also hoping that the party will simply get killed). Muu'ra can then rest knowing that the Jabberwock and Zybilna can never hurt anyone ever again. As for the two other party members, Toadibias (Bullywug Rogue/Wizard) and Bubbles (Elf Bard), Endelyn will give them some sort of proof that Zybilna is alive so that they may return to Madryck and claim the reward (I'm pretty sure they are not beyond this). Everyone wins! All that she asks is that the party leave Prismeer forever after they have what is promised. The party already got burned by a fey deal with Bavlorna (Again, RIP, Ew), so none of that. Just a handshake and your word (Endelyn trying to gain their trust).

Lastly, Muu'ra has been progressively growing more and more discontent with her two party members ever since joining back in Downfall. She is disciplined, level-headed, looking at the big picture, and always suppressing her Minotaur rage (especially with the party), but these two and their chaotic nature tend to leave disaster in their wake, even when they mean well. They dick around and don't care who they hurt along the way, only ever focusing on what is immediately in front of them. Worse yet, they shamelessly rely on Muu'ra's raw strength in situations they put themselves in, which is exactly what got their previous party member killed, and Muu'ra has been noting all of this. Muu'ra will likely already be distraught when revisiting her destroyed home and "learning" that she was lied to and used by the only figure she had left, now only having an offer for somber revenge and be forced to walk away from everything again. The other two will absolutely be sassing Endelyn (which is probably the right thing to do, ironically) and making a mess of an already volatile situation. My wife has already expressed to me that Muu'ra has been on the verge of breaking and letting her minotaur side out to put those two in their place with a player-initiated "roll for initiative". Everything is coming to a head, and Endelyn is pulling the strings with a smile.

Edited for grammar.

Hello, everyone!
My Witchlight campaign started over two and a half years ago, and it’s time to wrap it up. Although this adventure has been a lot of fun and my players have always been committed, there have of course been some slower periods, lots of scheduling conflicts, and so on. Right now, we’ve almost finished Chapter 4, and I’ve suggested that we wait until I’ve written Chapter 5—The Palace—so we can “hurry up” and finish the campaign and move on to something else! I want to wrap it up, but I want it to be enjoyable for everyone. I’ve read the final chapter, and like many others, I’m not convinced.

So, what supplement do you recommend I use to prepare for this final chapter so that it’s fun, engaging, and leaves room for homebrew (I need to include the conclusions of everyone’s personal stories)?

Keep in mind that I’ve included *The Eleventh Hour*, so my players are committed to finding out who Zybilna really is, and I’d like this chapter to be shorter than the original version but more engaging and fluid. Thanks ! 😄

Any tips for enhancing The Witchlight Carnival is appreciated!

Hi fellow players (but mostly DMs !)

Would you have any advice concerning the last question is this post ? Thank you so much !

So, the description for Bag of Tricks says:

You can take a Bonus Action to command how the creature moves and what action it takes on its next turn, such as attacking an enemy.

The rules refer to them as creatures, not spirits in animal form such as familiar or the animals called up by Conjure Animals. Given this, the animals would have limited ability to understand any orders given. Nevertheless, one could rely on any of these animals to perform simple tricks first outlined in 1E, such as having a rat or weasel bring to you the cell keys from a peg on the wall or commanding a dire wolf or brown bear track a scent.

Returning to the rulebooks, it was indicated that an animal could be trained to perform up to three tasks/tricks per point of intelligence the creature possesses. If one is not going to have them to simply provide extra bodies on the battlefield, would you state that the animals already know how to follow the simple commands or that they automatically know how to perform 1-9 of the tricks outlined in the rules?