D&D 5E Prepping for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight -- The Witchlight Carnival

[kigmatzomat]

So which supernatural abilities are cheats and which are win conditions?

Illusions of the illusory cyclops blinking? Illusion of your eyes not blinking? Alter/polymorph self to a fishy creature that cannot blink?

Ring the bell using telekinesis? Bull's Strength? Enlarge?

Catching the faerie dragon with blindsight /using familiar's eyes?

wrestling contest using charm/fear, etc to demoralize the goblin?

 

[RealAlHazred]

A quick scan gave me:

• "A boggle is born out of feelings of loneliness, materializing in a place where the Feywild touches the world in proximity to an intelligent being that feels isolated or abandoned. For example, a forsaken child might unintentionally conjure a boggle and see it as a sort of imaginary friend. A boggle might also appear in the attic of a lonely widower's house or in the caves of a hermit." (VGM)
• "Meenlocks are spawned by fear. Whenever fear overwhelms a creature in the Feywild, or in any other location where the Feywild's influence is strong, one or more meenlocks might spontaneously arise in the shadows or darkness nearby. If more than one meenlock is born, a lair also magically forms. The earth creaks and moans as narrow, twisting tunnels open up within it. One of these newly formed passageways serves as the lair's only entrance and exit." (VGM)
• "In the Feywild, or where that plane touches the world at a fey crossing, if a sentient creature acts on an intense desire for bloodshed, one or more redcaps might appear where the blood of a slain person soaks the ground. At first, new redcaps look like tiny bloodstained mushrooms just pushing their caps out of the soil. When moonlight shines on one of these caps, a creature that looks like a wizened and undersized gnome with a hunched back and a sinewy frame springs from the earth. The creature has a pointed leather cap, pants of similar material, heavy iron boots, and a heavy bladed weapon. From the moment it awakens, a redcap desires only murder and carnage, and it sets out to satisfy these cravings." (VGM)
• "A killmoulis arises spontaneously in the Feywild whenever someone commits an act of charity to help a tired or lost traveler. Emerging from the shadows near the site of the deed, the creature takes to the road, wandering to seek out travelers who might have food it can sneak away with in return for the benefits of its magic." (MFF)
• "Mites are natives of the Feywild that arise when a creature becomes so irritated with a situation or event that it lashes out in violence. That creature experiences strange dreams the next time it sleeps, then sleepwalks to the nearest tree or other large plant, digs a small hole, screams into the depression, and refills the hole. When it awakes the next morning, the creature feels strangely refreshed. Then on the night of the next new moon, the dug-up earth stirs and a pack of mites emerges. Born of frustration and anger, these creatures exist only to replicate in others the emotions that created them." (MFF)
• "A screaming devilkin sometimes arises when a creature in the Feywild is overcome with panic to the point that it screams, babbles, and otherwise loses control of its faculties. When such an event occurs, the creature’s scream echoes through the Feywild. If it echoes at just the right angle between a rocky outcropping in the dead of night, the scream gains intensity and volume until it reaches a piercing crescendo. At that moment, the stone of the outcropping shatters as a small flock of screaming devilkins erupts from the earth and take to the air." (MFF)

VGM = Volo's Guide to Monsters; MFF = Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio, an Extra Life product which I highly recommend if, like me, you enjoyed the 1st ed AD&D Fiend Folio and were missing some of the weirder critters.

I did a conversion of my own which I will add in to my Feywild. On my occasional gaming blog, I posted a number of conversions of April Fool's content from old issues of Dragon magazine, converted to 5E. One of the articles that inspired the blog posts was the old 2E AD&D "(Not Necessarily) The Monstrous Compendium" from Dragon #156 (April 1990). I haven't posted it yet, but one of the critters I was working on converting was the "Tickler" created by Erik Freske, which is basically a tiny animate ball of fluff with wings, that can fit through tiny holes in clothing and chinks in armor and tickle people, which it likes to do. My best conversion idea was that that sounded like a Fey to me, so that's what it is. My text for how they arise is: "Swarms of ticklers are generated in the Feywild, or areas close to a fey crossing, whenever someone expresses amusement by laughing; the peals of laughter change in-flight into balls of gray fluff, shifting from translucent to opaque and then spreading their wings and flying off, each “Ha!” spawning its own tickler. Particularly uproarious bardic per-formances have resulted in dozens of swarms forming at once. Such spontaneously-generated ticklers fly off to orient themselves and join together into swarms for protection, before going to search for sustenance."

 

[Quickleaf]

• Almiraj Ring Toss: Dexterity check. I'm not sure how to give this more interactivity without actually having somebody try to toss a ring onto a Coke bottle, which I don't want to do. I can't be sure how much space I'll have in the hobby shop, with other players at other tables.

covered this one above!

• Guess the Number of Feathers on the Cockatrice: Intelligence check. This is another one I'm not sure how to punch up in play. Obviously, the cockatrices will be very happy to peck/petrify anybody who gets to close. Perhaps the players could use treats to try to make them more cooperative.

You could run this as dice poker (you can google examples), where "busting" indicates getting pecked/temporarily petrified. Closest to 21 guesses the closest to actual number of feathers.

...oooor you can reveal the whole thing is a scam, because no one has had the courage/ability to actually count all the feathers.

• Outstare the Cyclops: Constitution check. This is another one where the psychology of the opponent should come into play. Distracting the cyclops shouldn't be impossible. Maybe they see the cyclops earlier on the fairgrounds, getting startled by a high-pitched whistle from some tchotchke from one of the stalls; they can buy one and another PC can use it during the contest.

This is a great place for non-linear problem solving. Make the cyclops undefeated/undefeatable because it never blinks unless it chooses to or falls asleep. But then have a couple (humorous) weaknesses the PCs can exploit going into the challenge to automatically win. Think the Monkey Island games or similar adventure games. For ex: The cyclops is a fan of tragedies and/or violin music, which always brings a tear to his eye. Or PCs could create an illusion of themself or use tricky magic in another way.

Also, this is a good place to add additional minor attractions. I'm thinking of adding a fortune-teller of some kind. Madame Eva would probably be a good one, if any of the players had played Curse of Strahd previously. If not, then I'm wondering if I can come up with a D&Desque mechanical fortune teller, like "Zoltan the Genie" or something. I wouldn't put a real genie in any case; if I were, it would actually be a Witchlight Hand in costume and magical disguise.

A fun risk of the fortune-teller's tent may be changing your age, like Tom Hanks in Big.

The ring-the-bell strength challenge seems like it's impossible to punch up from a straight "Strength check" roll.

One way to frame this is that there could be hidden consequences to ringing the bell: disenchanting magic items, releasing shadowhunter bats, letting the "3 crones" scry on you, or cursing anyone touching the bell. So, yes, there's a Strength check. But even more, there's figuring out how to negate the bad effect of the bell ringing (or perhaps cunningly transferring that bad effect to a rival contestant).

 

[RealAlHazred]

So which supernatural abilities are cheats and which are win conditions?

That's a great question. In general, I think each attraction will have a Witchlight Hand who tells the markscustomers, "Don't cheat," gives an example or two, and then leaves it at that. Some of the attractions have ordinary (chaotic neutral) goblins as attendants/referees, and those have a passive Perception of 9 -- I plan to have other customers cheating be noticed by the PCs to make sure they're aware they can try, too!

I think obvious cheating is definitely bad and, even if the PCs get away with it, the mood of the Carnival will alter down. However, ingenious, entertaining, subtle cheating, even if noticed by attendees, would not. The whole point of the Carnival is to entertain the carnival-goers, after all, and if the PCs are entertaining passers-by, then, by faerie tale logic*, they should be allowed to win. They are giving the crowd entertainment, after all -- it's only "fair" they get something in return.

*Faerie Tale Logic: There are three rules:
-- The rule of reciprocity states that when a friend, an enemy, or stranger offers you a gift, you are obliged to accept it and offer something of comparable value (be it a gift or a service) in return. Such reciprocation need not happen immediately.
-- The rule of hospitality states that when a friend, an enemy, or stranger enters your home, you are expected to be gracious and accommodating to them until such time as they prove, by their words or actions, as undeserving of such hospitality.
-- The rule of ownership states that you must not steal from a friend, an enemy, or a stranger. To take something that does not belong to you without the rightful owner's permission is an unforgivable breach of etiquette.

Obviously, there's caveats. If a pixie steals something from you, but leaves you with a gift in return (a thing they crafted, or what they consider to be a marvellous joke or story), then it's "not really stealing." The Feywild itself (in my game) enforces these rules to an extent -- inveterate thieves will find their "luck" turning sour relatively quickly, until "equilibrium" has been restored (i.e., they have "suffered enough," by the estimation of the Fey Powers.)

EDIT: Also note, the definition of "a return gift" varies tremendously based on the alignment and the power level of the faerie gifter...

 

[RealAlHazred]

A fun risk of the fortune-teller's tent may be changing your age, like Tom Hanks in Big.

I definitely want the fortunes to have extremely minor consequences. For instance, I'm wondering if I can come up with a list of "fortunes/benefits" for this. Like so:

01.	“The breath of the forest whispers your name, leading you to a path unseen.”	The next time the character is trying to find where they need to go in a forest (follow a trail, find a hidden cave, etc.), they gain advantage to whatever roll they make as they hear their name whispered on the wind.
02.	“Success can be yours if you can endure beyond the starkest fear.”	The next time the character is Frightened, their next roll after the condition wears off is made at advantage.

 

[RealAlHazred]

So, a fast review, but it's a really short supplement.

The Witchlight Carnival DM Supplement
I picked this one up because the author did a post on Reddit where he made many criticisms I agreed with, and I wanted to see his further thoughts on the adventure.

He's got a number of sections in here:

• Additional Lost Things, bringing the total to 20.
• Slight revisions and fixes to attractions:
  • Ticket Booth
  • Big Top (extensive expansion)
  • Bubble-Pop Teapot
  • Carousel
  • Dragonfly Rides
  • Feasting Orchard (just removing Ellywick Tumblestrum)
  • Gondola Swans
  • Mystery Mine (new scares table)
  • Pixie Kingdom (map to help with hide-and-seek event)
  • Silversong Lake (list of three Kettlesteam heckles)
  • Small Stalls (slight additions to all minor attractions, including three Gnome Poetry rhymes)
  • Snail Races (more detail on the race)
• Two tables of flavor text to indicate when Carnival Mood rises or falls.
• Interactive shows for the Big Top Extravaganza
• Expansion of the section for chasing Kettlesteam

These are good tweaks and minor fixes; many of the new Lost Things items are common items, while I'd prefer them to be Uncommon, since they are major plot elements for these characters. The whole supplement is just 8 pages of content, so it doesn't take long to go through. However, the normal price is $10 for 8 pages, which feels high for what you get (disclaimer, I got it for $7 on sale). I think for a lower price this would be a no-brainer.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I've got a few more expansions and supplements that I need to look at, which I picked up when I bought the Complete DM's Bundle a few years ago, including the Witchlight Carnival Expanded (22 pages of content), Witchlight Carnival: Erdan's Homebrew (6 pages of content) and the Witchlight Beer Festival (6 pages of content).

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I asked my players' characters to leave their weapons and armor at the entrance booth because, you know, it's a carnival. If they don't want to part with their precious weapons (they didn't), I asked them to at least peace bind them with a flimsy piece of ribbon. I didn't inform them of this, but any weapons that stayed peace bound through the carnival gained a minor enchantment when they entered the the Feywild.

My players actually tried to not draw their weapons and only one failed to receive an enchantment.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I asked my players' characters to leave their weapons and armor at the entrance booth because, you know, it's a carnival. If they don't want to part with their precious weapons (they didn't), I asked them to at least peace bind them with a flimsy piece of ribbon. I didn't inform them of this, but any weapons that stayed peace bound through the carnival gained a minor enchantment when they entered the the Feywild.

My players actually tried to not draw their weapons and only one failed to receive an enchantment.

I love this. And, unbeknownst to the players, it shouldn't matter at all. However, many players will be suspicious of the DM, and expect an ambush at every turn. So, when I implement this, I'll make sure to have "jump scares" of prankish carnival-goers running into the PCs, or otherwise seeming vaguely threatening when they're just being boorish.

 

[Umbran]

So which supernatural abilities are cheats and which are win conditions?

That's a great question.

Note: The individual awards for the games are not particularly potent, for the most part. There's a big question as to whether using resources to cheat on the games is really a win for the PCs.

Also note: the carnival is mood-dependent, and some of the shenanigans near the end of the chapter can depend on whether the PCs have been adding to, or taking away from, the mood of the carnival. Being caught cheating should have a significant negative impact on the mood.

Cheating might also leave some of the NPCs wondering if they should trust the PCs - which may mean they enter the next chapter lacking some bits of information, which can make their lives more difficult in the following chapters.