#and yes i know who zybilna is

[warlordfelwinter]

tiefling twednesday!!!!!

my friend is running the wild beyond the witchlight starting end of january and i'm SO EXCITED!!!!! i've wanted to play witchlight since it came out and i kept getting closer to just giving up and running it myself just so someone would get to play it but now!! i get to play!!

i'd been toying with a few ideas for various classes since the dm said she wanted to run it but the moment it became real i tossed them all out the window and went back to my warlock roots

meet Foxglove! i don't have all their details ironed out yet, but their vague backstory is that they were abandoned as a baby in the forest by their birth parents who didn't want a tiefling. they were found and brought into the feywild by a clan of pixies who raised them. they're fun loving and carefree and mischevious, as befits someone raised by pixies. their warlock patron is Zybilna the fairy godmother.

some fun facts are that they are 6.5 feet tall (with the antlers), they're a vegetarian (really more of a frugivore), they collect little things (lost objects, shiny rocks, etc), and they looked very different as a baby but being in the feywild for so long influenced their appearance as they grew up

[vampiric-succulent]

OUAW EP 46:

Spoilers y’all! Also this one is REALLY long. And. Uh. Yeah.

Oh shit the Jabberwock figure!!! Is this the sword that the Campestri were talking about?

Blue vs red roses…….

Given that this is possibly the Palace/Kingdom of Heart’s Desire, maybe the blue represents the allies of Zybilna and the red represents the hags (or maybe opposite bc the temple seems to be of the hags—-idk)

Is the Jabberwock hag-aligned? Or is it kinda doing it’s own thing

TORBEK AND THE HOSES

Gricko and Frost go trick or treating w hootsie!!!

FROST GLASSES MOMENT LETS GO

“Gideon chooses not to read. Torbek can’t read. We are not the same.”

Love that Gricko gaslit Gideon into pulling the sword out of the stone and he didn’t even have to try to get him to do it

Also love how Nikkie’s immediate idea is “let’s rip the page out of the expensive book”

“Gideon’s trying to vandalize private property” “That has NEVER been a problem for you before” “…We’ll talk about this afterwards.”

Oooh cool sword

Guys what do you think “galumphing” is—- there we go

“I don’t know if we count— we’re friends!” “They’ve seen you masturbate many times.” OH

At the jabberwock fighting arena. Straight up “galumphing” it. And by it. Well. Let’s juts say. My blade

Ohh wait maybe the roses thing is who can get to the Jabberwock first

JABBERWOCK DEEZ NUTS AND GRICKO IS CRYING

IT. ITS GALUMPHING. WOW

He can’t galumph 😭😭

“WELL GET UP HERE AND HELP ME GALUMPH!!!” I AM GOING TO CHOKE

How many nat20s can Mace get

Oh shit!!! I think the blue petals was right!! It was an accident but still right

Love Gricko’s parental moments w Hootsie. I live for that

Oh it’s just some kid’s room

SHE HAS THE KREMY KNIGHT ATOP GID’S STEED AND THE GID KNIGHT ATOP KREMY’S

What if this girl is like Fate? Like she’s controlling the story as she plays with her toys

If she is fate and those two steeds are switched then I will be very happy

Hey leave Derek alone yes the connection is laid out but it’s a lot of info chill

OHHHHH FUCK THE LITTLE PRINCE!!!!!!!!!!!! YEP OKAY SO SHES PLAYING THE STORY AS IT GOES—- so who’s Grandmother??? Can’t be Zybilna as she’s asleep and locked away, id be so shocked if it was something like Baba Yaga

BUHBUHBUH WHAT IF THE CHILD IS ZYBILNA OMGOMGOMGOMGOMFOMG

Grandmother brought her into the tower because she says it’s not safe. The child doesn’t know what’s outside the tower. The child says it’s not wise to say her name and that Grandmother says she is very powerful “even for her age.” Zybilna is stuck in time— I thought that meant she was trapped in slowed time but maybe she’s trapped in eternal childhood? That makes so much sense. Oh my god.

I’m convinced this child is Zybilna

THERES A SNAKE IN TORBEK’S BOOT. Very sad that Andy isn’t going the Toy Story route tho.

GRICKO IS A CLOWN. GRICKO IS A CLOWN. MIKEY IS BACK IN HIS ELEMENT. CHUCKLES RETURNS.

Why does Zybilna like the Jabberwock? Or whatever it was before? What was it before?? WHO IS THE PRINCE ACTUALLY??? And why can they not work without each other if the party is here now???

I am also scared rn. What if they never turn back.

DEREK BEING A MIME IS SO PERFECT

Loving Derek’s mimings

YES RICH IS GOING THE TOY STORY ROUTE

BRETT IS BACK

“Do you have your Mojo Dojo Casa House?” “Well let’s find out— can you open your ass?”

Ohh is the Prince the King of Hearts??? That would make sense

HER TWIG PUPPET??? And the roses are bad????

NOT THE ELABORATION ON THE POTATO TOY ASS STORAGE

“There ain’t no eyeballs in this ass!”

“You cannot see that boy anymore, T— I mean, Morgana” WHAT IS THE NAME YOU WERE GOING TO SAY??? If it’s Titania then I’m so wrong about everything

WHAT IF THIS CHILD IS THE BABY SISTER OF THE HAGS?????? Didn’t they say that the baby’s name is Tasha or something?? So why is she aligned with the Prince and, presumably, Zybilna??? DOES THIS MEAN THE GRANDMOTHER IS THE ENTITY IN THE HUT?????????????????????

Yup. Yup yup yup. So she’s not necessarily with Zybilna, just anti-Jabberwock for some reason. Why????

Well this is giving me some ideas

“Twig belongs to herself. Get rekt.”

“If anything happens to Twig, you will all pay the price.” Uh oh. Something’s gonna happen to Twig again.

OH THEYRE IN AN HOURGLASS. HOLY FUCK

also what if Zybilna and the fourth sister are the same? I think that might be not possible given timelines but still

HOLY FUCK IS THIS BABA YAGA????? (I’m very latched into this Baba Yaga thing but I think it’s right unless there’s someone else who fits the Time narrative better)

THE JABBERWOCK IS HERE

Mace save your 20s!!!!!

Shit man I gotta go to sleep

OH FUCK FROST DOWN

This is gonna be a TPK unless y’all run NOW

Gideon please use your fancy dagger

YUP CALLED IT IT WANTS THE KING OF HEARTS’ CHESS PIECES

GUYS PLEASE CONSIDER MULTICLASSING INTO CLERICS AND OR PALADINS AND OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT CAN HEAL

Frost is being iconic rn

ARENT JABBERWOCKS A DRAGON LIKE FEY CREATURE???!??!!???!

Okay so Gideon is dead! Great!! Nikkie what’s your rule on taking damage beyond your death points??

THIS THING DOES SO MUCH HOLY FUCK

You guys are not defeating this thing I’m so sorry

FUCK. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

Oh my god. Gideon is dead. Like actually dead. Kremy is down. And Gricko told Hootsie to run. I’m sure he’ll catch up soon. Surely.

Nikkie what the fuck??!?!?! Why would you dread that???? Genuinely this thing is too much for these guys what the fuck is your plan

Oh my god Kremy is going to die

What possibly could they have done to get out of this????? The thing has tracking abilities they were fucked either way—- the only possible way to get out of this thing would be to get rid of the chess pieces quickly but NIKKIE KEPT DREADING THE GODDAMN INT AND PERCEPTION CHECKS

FUCK KREMY IS DEAD. KREMY AND GIDEON ARE DEAD.

They’re not. They’re not getting out of this. They’re all dead.

There’s gotta be a reason Nikkie is going so viciously at this. There’s gotta be some sort of catch or save. Please let there be some sort of save. Please. Please. This has gotta be some sort of nightmare. Please let this just be a nightmare. Please. Please. Please.

Fuck this is literally Frost’s nightmare. This is exactly the situation he saw in the Tunnel of Terror. All his friends are dying and there’s nothing he can do about it. Also that is my nightmare specifically

NOT HOOTISE. COME ON NIKKIE. NOT HOOTSIE.

This has to be a nightmare! Or some sort of dread vision!!!! They’re all gonna wake up at the end of the session and be fine!!!!!!!!

There’s no way that the Jabberwock just comes out and ends then. I know it’s totally powerful enough to do that but there’s so much story left.

Okay. Okay no. No one woke up. There was no dream. No nightmare. No thankful awakening. They’re dead.

I’m still going to hold out hope.

[wearykatie]

Journey Into the Wild Beyond Chapter 5: The Palace of Heart's Desire (Part 3)

This is it. The culmination of everything. Five chapters of adventure and loss have led to this. The final moments. The grand finale. 

But first, the fuck is up with that name? 

Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke of War

Okay okay okay, permit me another weird tangent for just a moment because The Wild Beyond the Witchlight has some kind of cool references to older D&D things. The League of Malevolence and Valor’s Call are two opposing factions who were caught up in the whole fight between the hags and Zybilna. They’re also all characters featured in either D&D campaigns or the 1983 toyline, or the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. Warduke? Actually in the cartoon and the toyline. So my players who mocked his name were mocking history! 

Nah, the name still sucks. Hey, tiny bit of credit to D&D writers of old, they didn't have access to the internet to come up with names. GMs of yesteryear didn't have resources like Fantasy Name Generators or Wikipedia or mispronounced words from Google Translate.

Seriously, check out Fantasy Name Generators. It's a fantastic resource if you're stuck on a name for characters, towns, taverns, ships, or whatever. The site has helped inspire or outright just named dozens of characters for me because I am notoriously bad at coming up with names.

Not "Warduke" bad, but pretty bad.

Anyway, back to the poorly named dorks from 1983. The party found members of Valor’s Call frozen in the palace and freed them. They feel like cameos more than anything because they aren’t really given much to do in the story. I was keeping them around as backup in case they were needed in the final battle. 

LOL

LOL, I say.

Yeah, Yeah, I Suck At Encounters

The party found the incantation in a book titled The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. It was a children’s storybook that seemed to tell the tale of their own exploits through Prismeer. Also, the voice they heard speaking to them when they held the gems was sounding familiar to them. But they took their gem collection to the cauldron next to the frozen Zybilna…and found the League of Malevolence waiting for them. 

Big team battle, right? Nope, speech checks to talk the League into leaving before they got their butts whipped by the party and then Zybilna. Hey, they like the nonviolence route, so I’m going to let them take it. They started the ritual but OH NO, HERE COMES THE JABBERWOCK! Can’t talk your way out of this one, can y–

Oh, Tom banished it. ‘Kay. Well, at least Artie made his triumphant return to you know, not fight the Jabberwock with his friends.

Alright, yes, the Jabberwock was supposed to have legendary resistances, but I overlooked them in the moment and also, it was just better for pacing because we didn’t have much time for a fight. 

The incantation was read, the cauldron began to change its state, and they knew that changing a component of the original spell could cancel it out. There was a blinding flash of light to end the penultimate session.

Fairy Godmother

As the final session began, I did a different kind of recap. I told a story about how when the player characters were young, just after they lost their items, they had a nightmare about three scary shadows in their bedroom, but a kind woman appeared and banished the shadows, then read them a story until they fell asleep. The story was about a group of children who lost part of themselves and went on a magic journey to find the missing pieces. 

When the recap finished, I described Zybilna being unfrozen and looking very confused at first, but soon catching up on what happened. She teleported away to fix the arcane anchors and returned just in time to send the Jabberwock to its room. Oh, did I mention it was her pet? Yeah, Zybilna has some messed up stuff in that castle. 

The party caught her up on everything that happened, and she seemed sad that the hags, her sisters, were dead, but she understood. She had let her guard down, thinking they might legitimately want to reconnect with her, but they betrayed her. For their part, most of the party was understanding about that, but Elora was more than a little miffed. The lives of her and her friends had been drastically altered because of Zybilna’s mistake, and Ana’leth had died. 

Early actually asked if there was a way Zybilna could bring back Ana. Zybilna said she couldn’t, but asked to see the letter and the Alice plush anyway. After an arcane examination, she called on another fey, a woman named Jessamine, and sent her to find her “mortal hunter” and send her to a certain place on a certain date. 

Zybilna spoke to the gathered Army of Prismeer and the castle staff, coming clean about everything. The hags, her relationship to them, her past, everything. Then I turned it over to the players and asked them, knowing everything they had learned and been told about Natasha/Iggwilv/Zybilna, how they thought the people of Prismeer would react to learning the truth. Unanimously, they thought she was genuine in trying to be a better person, so the people of Prismeer accepted Zybilna for who she was, faults and all.

So, Good Night Unto You All

The party stayed the night in the Palace of Heart’s Desire, Zybilna promising to return them home in the morning. She spoke briefly with Elora, telling her to “have faith”. 

This requires some explanation…see, the mission Ana’leth supposedly died on was one she survived in the continuity of our main campaign. She had been captured, sure, but thanks to the timely arrival of her old teacher, Faith, she was rescued before she could be killed. Leaving the Feywild can be tricky, time doesn’t move the same there. A fey who knows what they’re doing can actually send someone back to before they left the Material Plane…or send another fey back in time. Jessamine, who is one of Faith’s lovers, was sent to the past, gave instructions to Faith to be at the town where Ana died two days before it happened. Faith prevented the death from ever happening, Zybilna didn’t have to mess around with resurrection magic and potentially pissing off the goddess of death, and Elora got her sister back. 

When the party returned to the Material Plane, I read off a closing narration that I had practiced for weeks, trying to get through it without crying. I failed, but at least my sobs weren’t audible.

Reena’s player, another longtime best friend, sent me a package weeks before the game ended and made me promise not to open it until the end of our final session. I opened it after the game while still on call and it made me cry more. I’ll share a picture at the end of this post, along with the final words of my closing narration. 

Final Thoughts, but Far From the End

For my first long term DMing experience, I think the game went well. Could it have been better? Sure. Did my players enjoy it? They did. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely. Like every time I run a game, I learned a lot from this one, and I will use those going forward. I want to do something like this again soon. Maybe not on the same scale, maybe not a weekly game, but I want to do this again. I’ve already talked to the group about doing a short reunion campaign down the road, revisiting the characters, but I also want to try something new. 

I feel like I accomplished more than I set out to do with this campaign. I tested my ability to run a longform campaign, I did a little creative writing with my edits and original content, I learned more about 5th Edition, I improved as a roleplayer, and I got really good at pacing things out into three hour sessions. I also gave K the break they needed and the chance to play in a campaign again, which was one of my primary goals.

But there were some unexpected things to come out of the campaign too. I had a couple of players tell me the campaign inspired them to make other characters or approach existing ones in a new way. I was told I lit a fire under the group. A player who doesn’t really care for 5e said I showed them new things that could be done with the system. And overall, it seems like the players got as much from this as I did.

As for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight itself, I recommend it. Obviously it’s good for someone running their first full campaign, but I think experienced DMs and players will get a lot out of it too. My problems with Chapter 5 aside, it’s solidly written and has some gorgeous art that inspired me every step of the way. 

Before I end this, I want to say thanks to my players (some of you are reading this), and thanks to anyone and everyone who read this series. Writing about this was a good way to organize my thoughts in maybe the most disorganized writing project I’ve ever worked on. I swear, when I do this again, I will have a set schedule for posting. I’ll also get better at closing these posts out. A lot of these just sort of

~end~