Party Members & Lost Things
Some players may choose to use this story hook in their background. The adventure begins shortly after the @Witchlight Carnival enters to the characters’ world for the first time in eight years. One or more characters might be @Witchlight Hands or troubadours who have spent years traveling with the carnival; the remaining party members are assumed to be visitors who remember the carnival from childhood. It’s possible for certain characters to know each other, either because they work together at the carnival or because they’re from the same settlement.
Retrieving their lost things will require the characters to explore the @The Feywild regions of @Hither, @Thither, and @Yon (described in chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Lore Folders) and contend with the hags of @Coven Minion. The characters might be tempted to visit the @Palace of Heart's Desire as well (see chapter 5), but they can avoid this location and still accomplish their goals. The adventure also assumes that the characters (even ones with the Witchlight Hand background) have no prior knowledge of Zybilna, the Feywild domain of Prismeer, or The Hourglass Coven. None of these names should be familiar to them at the outset.Adventure Summary
The main antagonists of this story are three hags who collectively form @The Hourglass Coven. These hags are the adoptive sisters of Iggwilv, a powerful figure from D&D’s past and a key player in the adventure’s unfolding drama. Using an artifact called Iggwilv’s Cauldron, the hags have trapped an archfey named @Zybilna in temporal stasis and carved up her fey domain among them. This domain is called @Prismeer. To enter it, the characters must first visit the @Witchlight Carnival, which travels across the Material Plane and appears on the characters’ world once every eight years. The carnival owners are a pair of shadar-kai (elves native to the Shadowfell) named @Mister Witch and @Lenara Blight, who can help or hinder the characters’ efforts to reach @Prismeer.
One of the many novelties of this adventure is that the characters can accomplish their goals without resorting to violence—but only if they’re clever. They can fight their way through the adventure as well, but the odds won’t always be in their favor.
Some Characters may have a lost item in their backstory
Lost Things | 1D8
1, Ability to keep secrets
2, Ability to smile
3, Artistic creativity
4, Cherished doll or stuffed animal
5, Handwriting
6, Sense of direction
7, Sense of fashion
8, Three inches of height
The hags of The Hourglass Coven
used each character’s lost thing to craft a magic item. By interacting with the magic item in a specific way (as described below), the character regains what they lost. The magic item otherwise functions normally.
Ability to Keep Secrets. The character is unable to keep a secret. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create a wand of secrets. The character regains the ability to keep secrets by holding this wand for the first time.
Ability to Smile. The character suffering from this loss is unable to smile. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create a wand of smiles. The character regains the ability to smile by holding this wand for the first time.
Artistic Creativity. The character suffering from this loss lacks the ability to be creative in one or more artistic pursuits. For example, they might be unable to draw, paint, or compose original music. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create a pipe of smoke monsters. The character regains their creativity by puffing on the pipe for the first time.
Cherished Doll or Stuffed Animal. The character lost a doll or stuffed animal (player’s choice). The hag who claimed this prize has since turned it into a talking doll or a stuffed animal with similar properties.
Handwriting. To all other creatures, the character’s handwriting is illegible and requires a comprehend languages spell or similar magic to decipher. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create an instrument of scribing. The DM chooses the kind of instrument. When the character plays this instrument for the first time, their handwriting becomes legible.
Sense of Direction. The character suffering from this loss has trouble figuring out which way is north and where they are geographically. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create an orb of direction. The character regains their sense of direction by holding this orb for the first time.
Sense of Fashion. The character suffering from this loss has no fashion sense. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create a cloak of many fashions. The character regains their lost sense of fashion by donning this cloak for the first time.
Three Inches of Height. The character suffering from this loss knows they are shorter than they ought to be. The hag who claimed this prize has since used it to create a pole of collapsing. The character grows three inches in height by holding this pole for the first time.
The characters are drawn into the adventure by one of two adventure hooks. You choose which hook to use. Both hooks are described in “Beginning the Adventure,”.
Chapter 1 describes the @Witchlight Carnival. Hidden somewhere in the carnival is a fey crossing to the domain of @Prismeer, but the trick to opening this portal is known only to the carnival’s shadar-kai owners, @Mister Witch and @Mister Light.
Chapters 2, 3, and 4 describe the carved-up domain of @Prismeer, which the hags of @The Hourglass Coven have usurped and split into thirds. The characters can move between these splinter-realms only if they have the right fey guides to help them.
Chapter 5 describes the @Palace of Heart's Desire, where the archfey @Zybilna and her court are frozen in time by the magic of Iggwilv’s Cauldron. The palace is where the characters need to go if they hope to thwart @The Hourglass Coven by freeing @Zybilna or destroying the cauldron.
The book concludes with several appendices wherein you’ll find rules for new magic items, stat blocks for new creatures, and other goodies.
In this adventure, the characters receive experience points for achieving milestones as well as combat.
Entering a Hag’s Realm. Whenever the characters enter a hag’s realm ( @Hither, @Thither, or @Yon) for the first time, everyone in the party receives enough XP to advance 1 level. For example, when the characters leave the @Witchlight Carnival and arrive in @Hither for the first time, they gain a level.
Encountering a @Hag. After the characters encounter a hag of @The Hourglass Coven for the first time, everyone in the party who survives the encounter receives enough XP to advance 1 level.
Freeing @Zybilna. If the characters free @Zybilna from temporal stasis or destroy Iggwilv’s Cauldron, everyone in the party receives enough XP to advance 1 level.
If you follow this method of character advancement, characters who start the adventure at 1st level might reach 8th level by the adventure’s conclusion.
When hags must work together, they form covens, such as The Hourglass Coven, in spite of their selfish natures. A coven is made up of hags of any type, all of whom are equals within the group. However, each of the hags continues to desire more personal power.
A coven consists of three hags so that any arguments between two hags can be settled by the third. If more than three hags ever come together, as might happen if two covens come into conflict, the result is usually chaos.
Shared Spellcasting. While all three members of a hag coven are within 30 feet of one another, they can each cast the following spells from the wizard’s spell list but must share the spell slots among themselves:
1st level (4 slots): identify, ray of sickness
2nd level (3 slots): hold person, locate object
3rd level (3 slots): bestow curse, counterspell, lightning bolt
4th level (3 slots): phantasmal killer, polymorph
5th level (2 slots): contact other plane, scrying
6th level (1 slot): eyebite
For casting these spells, each hag is a 12th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as her spellcasting ability. The spell save DC is 12 + the hag’s Intelligence modifier, and the spell attack bonus is 4 + the hag’s Intelligence modifier.
Hag Eye. A hag coven can craft a magic item called a hag eye, which is made from a real eye coated in varnish and often fitted to a pendant or other wearable item. The hag eye is usually entrusted to a minion for safekeeping and transport. A hag in the coven can take an action to see what the hag eye sees if the hag eye is on the same plane of existence. A hag eye has AC 10, 1 hit point, and darkvision with a radius of 60 feet. If it is destroyed, each coven member takes 3d10 psychic damage and is blinded for 24 hours.
A Hag coven can have only one hag eye at a time, and creating a new one requires all three members of the coven to perform a ritual. The ritual takes 1 hour, and the hags can’t perform it while blinded. During the ritual, if the hags take any action other than performing the ritual, they must start over.
Eight and Three
As you run The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, look for ways to bring the numbers eight and three to the fore. For example, characters who take a long rest in the fey domain of Prismeer might, without fail, be awakened by three songbirds at the end of the eighth hour.
The number eight is symbolically important, as this adventure plays with the themes of time and nostalgia. The numeral 8 resembles an hourglass, which measures the passage of time, and looks like the symbol for infinity (∞) turned on its side.
Hidden within the numeral 8 itself is the numeral 3. In the D&D multiverse, there exists the Rule of Three, which states that events of cosmic consequence often manifest in threes. Time, for instance, has a past, present, and future. The Hourglass Coven
has three members. The fey domain of Prismeer
is divided into three splinter-realms, which adventurers explore with the help of three guides.
Hidden within the adventure are numerous other mentions of the numbers eight and three.