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The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is an adventure module forDungeons & DragonsFifth Edition. Set in the Feywild, the adventure is designed for characters beginning at first level and taking them up to level eight by the end of the campaign.
The story revolves around the titular Witchlight Carnival, a traveling Feywild fair that appears in different worlds and planes. However, the story takes the party beyond the Witchlight, into the domain of Prismeer, which has been taken over by a trio of devious Hags known as the Hourglass Coven.
About the Adventure
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is an adventure in three acts.Beginning with the titular fair, your party will then travel to the Feywild domain of Prismeer, and end in the Palace of Heart’s Desire.
The major villains of the campaign are three hags who make up the Hourglass Coven. Using a magical artifact, the hags have taken over Prismeer, imprisoning the archfey Zybilna and divided it between them. The party will need to defeat the three hags and free the archfey to complete the campaign.
In order to enter Prismeer, parties must first visit the Witchlight Carnival. The carnival travels across the Material Plane, appearing every eight years. It is owned and operated by a pair of shadar-kai named Mister Witch and Mister Light.
Unlike many other D&D adventure modules, The Wild Beyond the Witchlight doesn’t rely on combat.Your party can accomplish its goals without resorting to violence and character advancement is based on achieving milestones rather than defeating monsters.
DMs thinking of running the Wild Beyond the Witchlight, should make sure your party know that they will be entering a low-combat adventure with a heavy emphasis on roleplay, and ensure their characters have good reasons of their own to drive the story forward.
What Else Do You Need?
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is a self-contained adventure, however, to play it, you’ll want a copy of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the Player’s Handbook, and the Monster Manual.
Among its many other benefits,the Dungeon Master’s Guide contains a section about running campaigns in the Feywild. The Feywild is a magical and unpredictable realm, also known as the Plane of Faerie. Understanding what the Feywild is and how it operates is key to successfully running The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.
The Player’s Handbook contains all the necessary player options for creating characters. The Wild Beyond the Witchlight also provides two new species options. As part of the Fey setting, your players can also choose to be a Fairy orthe rabbit-like Harengon.
The Monster Manual provides statblocks for all the creatures in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and the DM will want to be familiar with them to run the campaign.
While not official releases, there are a number of third-party supplements built specifically for the carnival chapter, which are meant to help the DM flesh out the fair and provide more opportunities for player engagement.
Appropriate Age and Content Warnings
Due to its whimsical Fey setting,The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is appropriate for most ages. The low combat also makes it one of the more family-friendly offerings from Wizards of the Coast. The story focuses more on collaborative storytelling and problem-solving, which can make it great for young players.
Hags and other creatures can be frightening for some kids, so DMs should judge the age-appropriateness for their table. However, as written, there’s very little in the adventure module that would be too scary or violent for most groups.
What Level Characters Is It For?
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is designed for characters starting at first level, making it a great starting adventure for new players.
Entering a splinter realm, encountering a Hag, freeing Zybilna, and destroying certain magical items each grant enough experience points for everyone in the party to advance 1 level. By the end of the adventure, player characters should reach level 8.
Tips for Running The Wild Beyond the Witchlight
While running the Wild Beyond The Witchlight is a relatively simple thing, thanks to its focus on roleplay and puzzles over combat, there are a few sticking points prospective DMs will want to keep in mind.
What to Play Next?
After finishing The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, groups may be looking for another fun follow-up adventure. DMs will want to see what their party liked about the Witchlight campaign and decide what elements they want their next adventure to have.
For a campaign that’s a little more light-hearted, you may want to considerWaterdeep: Dragon Heist. Set along the Sword Coast in the city of Waterdeep, Dragon Heist is a sandbox-style urban caper. Like Witchlight, it’s also lighter on combat, favoring political maneuvering and strategy to problem-solve.
Curse of Strahdis wildly different in tone, however, like The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, there are ample opportunitiesfor roleplay. Similarly, Barovia is set apart from other planesand although it’s much darker than the Feywild, has some fantastical qualities that parties might find equally interesting.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Curse of Strahd are both intended for lower-level characters, so you’ll either need to adjust the difficulty or players will need to create new characters.
Books suchJourneys Through the Radient Citadel, Candlekeep Mysteries, and Keys from the Golden Vaultall contain shorter adventures that are intended for higher-level characters. The shorter adventures in each of these books can be used as one-shots, or played in succession for a longer story.
