[CLOSED] The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight



A wickedly whimsical adventure for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
Once every eight years, the fantastic Witchlight Carnival touches down on your world, bringing joy to one settlement after the next. Its owners, Mister Witch and Mister Light, know how to put on a good show. But there’s more to this magical extravaganza than meets the eye!

The carnival is a gateway to a fantastic Feywild domain unlike anything found on the Material Plane. Time has not been kind to this realm, however, and dark days lie ahead unless someone can thwart the dastardly schemes of the Hourglass Coven.



A Fairy Tale Adventure
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight might be D&D 5e’s silliest adventure. Singing mushrooms, anthropomorphic frogs, and all manner of carnival capers fill this fairytale-inspired romp. Wild characters lead your party down the nooks of a whimsical world, and new delights are thrown up at every turn. This is an adventure that isn’t afraid to lean into the theatrical, or embrace the vaudeville of tabletop RPGs.

But, like the stories of the Brothers Grimm from which it draws inspiration, there’s a macabre underbelly to The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Between all the silly encounters are workshops of kidnapped children, toxic marshes that slowly devour their ailing inhabitants, and wicked curses of malevolent hags.



Characters
Characters will begin as first level characters from the Sword Coast and you can expect to reach 8th level by the end of the adventure. All published character options are on the table except for those from the Eberron, Ravnica, and Theros sourcebooks. All Tasha's optional features are available. You may also use the new character options in this book, such as the the Harengon and Fairy races, as well as the new backgrounds: Feylost and Witchlight Hand.

When planning your character, keep in mind that this adventure emphasizes roleplay over combat, although there can be plenty of both.

Players will also choose something personal that they lost from their childhood – all fittingly surreal, of course, such as their ability to smile, their fashion sense, or their sense of direction. This will be their hook to draw them into the Feywild.



Post Frequency & Commitment
Players in this game should try to post daily. I expect the entire adventure to take about 1-1.5 years to complete if we can keep to this schedule. Expect some amount of slow-down during major holidays.

Who can Apply?
Anyone is welcome to apply if they can keep up with the post schedule and are in it for the long haul. A positive experience for all players is my number one priority, and I will strive to be sensitive to the needs of players from marginalized groups. Safety tools will be discussed from day one, and we will have a session zero to make sure we start on the same page in terms of playstyle and tone.

How to Apply
To apply, leave a comment in this post to tell me about a character concept you'd like to play in this adventure. You can talk about mechanics if you like, but I'm most interested in their mood, energy, and personality. Of paramount importance, every character should have lost something, and that should be core to your character.

Keep it fairly loose so that we can fit them into the party and story. I'll take my favorites and use a die roll for a tie breaker. This post will be open until Monday, Sept 27, so take your time. You can submit multiple concepts if you like.

Questions?
Ask away in this thread, or feel free to private message me.

Here is the table from the game to inspire what precious thing your character has lost. You can choose one of these or pick your own whimsical and precious lost thing.

I have a druid idea rumbling around. A firbog who have been cursed by day to look like a kobold/goblin. It's only by the shadow one can see his true form.
I don't know why this has been done to him yet, but sometimes the high fay just does such things

Personalities, this is something that will solidify during character creation, but central is a strong sense of doing the right thing. Not revenge or justice or following a law

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Another idea is a changeling, not the Eberron form shifter, but then a child a fey had exchanged for a human baby. A Hexblood I think that linage belongs in Van Richten's guide to Ravenloft. There is a strong Hag and fairytale component to this "race".
This one would have a strong desire to "belong" as it was abandoned in its early years. I see her to be a very young druid. Not as much druid trained but a manifestation of nature magic.

As for what she has lost: her reflection

I am thinking of playing a bard with severe writers block. He just can't come up with a new story or song and so has sought out the carnival since just seeing it should be a story in itself.

I am thinking of running with a gnomish wizard who has the worst chicken scratch handwriting ever, and all he wants to do is collaborate on spells with mages from university, but cannot share his thoughts with his peers because his handwriting is utterly illegible.

I had the idea of a Satyr warlock, but the race unfortunately comes from Theros :p
In any case, my main concept is a fae-pact warlock who, thinking it a fun game as a child, entered into the pact thinking it was a game. The price? Losing their attention span! (Essentially, they have ADHD). I'm thinking I might use tiefling for the race.

Oooo... Having just looked at the Feylost background, I think that'd be a much more fun idea. Having thinking I was a game, along with the pact, they found themselves in the feywild one day after playing with other children in the woods.

I would like to play a Barbarian with the Feylost background (unless someone else chooses that one). His experiences during his time in the Feywild changed him and thus he would go down the Path of Wild Magic. He just wants to live a calm life and marry his childhood sweetheart, but the fey took his ability to control his temper (this could be changed if it was thought it might be too disruptive), which is why he has the rage class feature in the first place.

Before his time in the feywild, he was a barrister of middling talent.

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As an alternative, a Fighter, who would be an Echo Knight. His shadow became detached from him and gained a life of its own in a manner of speaking. He seems to be able to speak to his shadow even though no one else can hear it. He lost his sense of social norms and frequently says and does things that aren't socially acceptable (farting and belching loudly, commenting loudly about that dude's HUGE mole, etc). Oddly, he will still apologize for how rude his shadow is behaving, though no one else can notice just how dang rude it really is.

I also have a warlock concept similar to LegionChimera7's, though mine takes a bit more of a serious tone. Human that became fey-lost from chasing their sibling into the Feywild. They struck a deal to get their sibling back. Their archfey patron has become their sibling, or imbues the spirit of their sibling in that connection. The cost of the pact was the loss of the warlock's hearing, such that they can only hear their patron. Finding the carnival might prove a means to return to the Feywild and attempt to alter the deal.

Second concept is a fey knight. Elf paladin that will eventually take the Oath of the Ancients, they are on a pilgrimage to enhance their connection to the Feywild and believe the carnival will assist in their quest for enlightenment. The pursuit of this oath has cost their creative and graceful artistry, such that their movements are almost un-elf-like, and they cannot express themselves in the poetic beauty that elves are renowned for.

A human child, when asked he says he is lost and looking for his parents. He is drawn to music and let’s that determine his path. Perhaps his parents were musicians? His dark hair is a little too long and gets in his eyes but he never brushes it away. He carries a small backpack over his shoulder, a strange rag doll dangles from one hand.

I thought of the Echo Knight in the same way. I have always found the Echo Knight a bit too strange, but with fay shenanigans, it could be doable. But I am not poaching your concept (at this moment) :)

My idea is a wood gnome named Jules Honeyfriend. He was adopted and raised by halflings when he was very little.

I am thinking of a character a lot more laid back than mischievous, by ways of fate and bad decisions he’s always in the
thick of it. He would become an arcane trickster along the path to help him come out on top.

And Mr. Honeyfriend will need this advantage, like a lot, because somewhere in his infancy he tragically lost his sense of direction. He couldn’t find his way from his home to the pub if his life depended on it. And getting back home is a completely different story. Don`t get me started. ;)

Even if he tries to work around it (bread crumbs, strings, being accompanied by friends or mysterious strangers), he is profoundly aware of this shortcoming and suffers from it from time to time. This is definitely something he’d like to change in his life.

Originally I was thinking about the urchin background, but the Witchlight Hand sounded pretty fun, when I read it today and I think I will take this one. Jules would have been more a roadie than a performer himself.

Maybe someone else chooses the same, and we can have a joined background story? I am open for many things in this regard and would love to have a friend at my side, who is less orientation limited than myself. :)


I myself would love joining a fast-paced game, which is not a one shot and has potential for a lot of character development and might even scratch my rpg itch for a year or two.

Count me in!

This human witchlight hand has lost his facial expressions so he uses an array of masks.


This rabbitfolk chronurgy mage has lost his favorite timepiece and it's driving him crazy!


This dwarf has lost all his teeth and the tooth fairy didn't pay so he's looking to collect.

The warforged lost his heart. The tabaxi lost his courage.

(Slow clap) 👏

This goblin lost his laundry, and he keeps inexplicably losing them, so now he steals other people's clothes.

Someone stole the trophy from when I won that race against the hare when we were kids. I would like it back please.

Sorry for all the brain-farts. I've been awake for 30 hours and a little loopy. Feel free to steal these ideas. I might play the chronurgy wizard unless someone else wants to do that I can play something else....

When I was a child a fairy played his pipe and took all my friends away. I was sad when I found out they had all drowned in the river. Afterwards the piper came again and took all the children. That made me glad, because they'd been really mean to me and my friends.

The white rabbit idea is actually kinda tantalizing...