Double, Double, Toil and.... Clowns? The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Review (D&D5e)
Have you and your D&D players just finished up a very in depth campaign? One of those big stories with lots of heavy-handed moments and plotlines that keep your characters involved? Are they now needing a break from that? The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure might be just what you need! Released back in August 2021, this adventure takes players from level 1 to 8 in a more whimsical adventure - great for some funny roleplaying moments but still serious enough when it needs to be.
<Insert Carnival Music Here>
In this adventure, players start off attending a Carnival that only appears once every 8 years. The last time that they visited the carnival, they were children and snuck in without paying. Bad news is that the carnival has some evil people behind the scenes that prey on unpaying visitors, stealing from them. Nothing material like gold or weapons, but surreal things like "the ability to keep secrets" or "sense of fashion". The characters feel as if something is missing, but they don't understand what it is or when exactly they lost it, but they know the carnival is when they started to notice.
After exploring the carnival, the players meet the organizers of the carnival and start to learn that the carnival's original patron has been imprisoned in her feywild realm. Three hags have taken over the realm and split it up amongst themselves. To get back what what stolen from them, the players will have to journey to the feywild and defeat the three hags.
We Aren't in Kansas Anymore
If your group is more "hardcore gamer" types that are very serious about their D&D, the types that love exploring dungeons and killing dragons (heh), then this book is probably not for you. This adventure takes the whimsical nature of the feywild and runs with it. There are numerous references to fairy tales/children's stories/etc. The beginning of the book acknowledges that it is even possible to progress through the adventure with very minimal amount of combat. In some encounters, it's fairly transparent on how to do this - others you might have to work at it. Regardless, those groups that favor more roleplaying elements than the combat portions of D&D should enjoy this adventure.
Starting with the premise: I LOVE the idea of the "lost things" that the players are trying to get back. The book presents this as an option to give the players reason for going to the carnival, but I see this as a must use option. It gives fun challenges to the players, quirks that they have to deal with through the rest of the campaign without being a severe hinderance. There's also tiny little bits & jokes about D&D lore if players keep their eyes open. My favorite is that there's a clown in the beginning Carnival named "Thaco".
Another bit that got me excited was the Carnival itself. Reading the background about the carnival, I had this weird feeling of déjà vu. It sounded awkwardly familiar - until the book references a darker parallel carnival with more details in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. One of the realms of Ravenloft was the darker carnival, and it had referenced this feywild carnival in that book. Once I read that, I loved the connection - it made the reason for the adventure make much more sense than when it was originally announced.
Conclusion
I really like this book! There is a nice "free-form" nature to about 70% of the adventure, but still providing various "beats" that the players need to hit before they progress to the next phase of the campaign.
In the right group, you and your players can have a lot of fun with this adventure. I've mentioned "whimsical" several times in this post, but there are moments that can still be heavy-handed depending on the actions of the players.
I'm all caught up on D&D reviews…although by the time this review gets posted on the website, 3 more books have probably come out….maybe "jamming" me up for a "spell", if you know what I mean…
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