Wild Beyond the Witchlight (Inactive)

Game Master Evriani

Can I PM a replacement friend, or did you have someone in mind already?

I figured we could just roll with five =) I only went with six initially to give a little wiggle room if we did lose someone. If there is someone you're super keen on who's dying to join us we might be able to work something out!

Unfortunate if we did. Hopefully they'll get back in contact with us.

Let me tell you though, I've been putting RhymeZone through its paces lol.

Let me tell you though, I've been putting RhymeZone through its paces lol.

And doing a fantastic job with that I may add.

I'll send him a note, he's an amazing writer/DM and a game we were players in together just dissolved so he might be hungry for one.

Let me tell you though, I've been putting RhymeZone through its paces lol.

You're KILLING it. I love Nuruk.

Thank you folks, you've all been exquisite. I count myself very fortunate to be roleplaying with you all :D

Agreed, this is a wonderful group/game!

I am certainly having fun, glad you guys are, too!

I love this whole game, all the characters, and the setting in general. I'm kind of obsessed with Feywild stuff, lol

Hi all. Ms. Rumblemuffin passed me an invite and I am in the process of working up a character for DM Fern. I just wanted to drop in quickly and say I'm excited to join such a great group of characters and players.

Welcome! Looking forward to playing with you :)

Tareth, long time since we played in a game together. Last time you were playing Vorik in a Kingmaker game I think.

Tareth, long time since we played in a game together. Last time you were playing Vorik in a Kingmaker game I think.

Wow! Vorik. That was definitely a while back. Good to see you again. :)

Thanks Willow. Looking forward to jumping in as well.

Welcome! Glad to have you with us!

"But rest assured, we will remember."

You are amazing. So so good.

-is trying to Paladin so hard-

Holding off till morning to post so Sammy gets a word in... Well, you know what I mean ;)

*shakes fist at Fern's joke*

Well you guys certainly did a good posting job yesterday, and work didn't allow me to keep pace as much as I wanted to. But it was all worthwhile due to this:

...pointing to herself again and again "Going with! Going with! Take!" hopping up into the clown's arms.

Yeah, I love that we're fast posters but I don't want to leave anyone out either -- I'll take care not to advance the plot too quickly when people aren't able to post as much as some of us manage to. Likewise, you're all welcome to post asynchronously, and chime in on things people moved past, it's working pretty well in my other game.

Let's talk about how the transition to grownups is gonna go down, and about rolling up our characters!

Like I said in gameplay, RP to your little hearts' content. I know Willow has plans to join the circus, so to speak (there are two special backgrounds for this campaign: Witchlight Hand and Feylost You are welcome to accompany her and use one of those as your background, leaving your family behind. I think our new friend is toying with going that route, too. (Tareth, I'll let you elaborate on your lost thing idea if you want to, and that's what you're going with).

As for character creation, you'll be level 1 to start, and let's go 30-point buy. You keep whatever skill you chose to be proficient in as a child as a bonus skill in addition to what you'd normally get. (Tareth can pick any one extra skill.) We already kinda picked classes tentatively but you can change if you want, just talk to each other so no one becomes the clone of someone else inadvertently. Any question feel free to ask! Feel free to start putting these together!

After I post about the twins' terrible evening (later tonight or maybe tomorrow, depending on how RP goes?), and before we dive into adulthood, I'd love a post from each of you giving us the gist of what you do for the next 8 years of your life! Kinda like the way some movies end with an epilogue on what happened to the characters. In 8 years, the carnival will return -- it's difficult but not impossible to divine where, and each of you at some point consults with folks adept at such magics in order to learn it's coming to the city of Waterdeep. So, exactly 8 years from this night, you reunite or travel together to the Witchlight Carnival, older, wiser(?) and hoping desperately to reclaim that which was taken from you. Mr. Witch and Mr. Light were intimidating when you were little. Now they'll have a lot to answer for.

Willow will end up being a trickster cleric and she will have the Witchlight Hand background as a result of trying to stay and keep Junie company overnight. :)

If anyone else is going the cleric route, that shouldn't be a huge issue unless we're both tricksters, haha.

Sounds good. Thanks for the bonus skill and the generous 30 point build. :)

Definitely will be going Bard. Still undecided on the archetype, but I've got sometime to worry about that as bards don't gain an archetype until 3rd level.

As far as a background, I'm still deciding between two or three that would fit how I see the next 8 years going for Vash.

Nuruk is solidly becoming a Paladin, specifically an Oath of the Ancients. I think, in his search for answers about that night, would have led him into a knightly order's reach. Maybe they're the ones who cure his affliction in return for him becoming a squire.

I'm going to give them a name like the Knights of the Green or something fey-esque; it is a whole group built around the Oath of the Ancients. All about protecting the Light from the Darkness, they're pretty affable and fun to play until someone is bad. Then they're...you know...a paladin.

Sounds good. Thanks for the bonus skill and the generous 30 point build. :)

Ya know, we'll be in the Feywild for a large chunk of the campaign so I figured high fantasy was suitable, not to mention I've kneecapped some of your characters kinda hard from an RP perspective ;) So have some goodies for your troubles, lol.

Also, if you guys want to cure your minor curses during those 8 years because it's not fun to RP (or RhymeZone is threatening you with a cease and desist order), as long as you make it a really good part of your story I'm okay with it. If you want to keep it and RP getting the curse lifted, that is great, too. Just keep in mind you'd likely live with it for a few years, at least, because folks that can cast remove curse are few and far between (and pricy), so it lasted long enough to impact who you grew to be and possibly your relationships with friends and family. You cannot retrieve your lost items yet, that's the whole point of the campaign =D

So I haven't totally landed on a class yet. I keep bouncing between Druid (Circle of Stars), Ranger(Swarmkeeper or Fey Wanderer) or possibly Monk (Way of Mercy).

GM: One question, are you allowing the alternative class options for Rangers that are in Tasha's?

As for what was lost. He was actually a member of the Defenders of Dawning Bastion but all of his memories of that time, his friends, and what happened at the carnival were what was lost. I think he would have ended up going back with Willow and ultimately ends up becoming a lost with no recollection of what brought him to the carnival. He now works as a beekeeper supplying honey (raw, sweets and mead) to the carnival. Not sure if I'll go with Feylost or Witchlight Hand background, but definitely one of the two.

Still thinking wild magic sorcerer. I was going to use parallel universes to explain her wild magic 'bloodline'. Not other dimensions/planes like usual DnD, but places that are nearly identical to this reality save some certain quirk. (I like doing bullet points for backstory because they become useful later in game)

★ There is a powerful nemesis in a parallel universe trying to get this Karley because of a millennia old rivalry.
★ This Karley escaped by hiding within one of all the infinite Karleys of all the parallel universes.
★ Karley is unaware of this true Karley inside, but has a parallel-stepping ally trying to warn/wake her.
★ The nemesis has a powerful ship and has hunted and killed many other false Karleys...but is now certain to have found the true Karley.
★ Karley's spellcasting is like a fog beacon for this nemesis.

Basically its the nemesis trying to overlap one parallel universe with Karley's in such a way to form a path that they can be reunited which causes negative wild magic surges. Sometimes the ally or true Karley can intervene in time, and these make the good surges.

Also just as a side note, as a physics guy I hate the actual idea of parallel universes (there's no experimental evidence of them whatsoever, but it gets propagated in 'popular' science news all the freaking time). The nemesis, ally, Karleys, and other universes would be 'played' by me and just be an excuse for some wacky creative writing.

Yeah, Tasha's is fine!

Reads Karley's post...

Re-reads it to understand it...

Makes this thing.

Yes that's an adequate summary. (and lol xD)

Nearly finished with the 'adult' crunch. The 8 year RP writeup I'm very much looking forward to doing later this week.

A few of the usual questions:

1. Can I do the standard PHB custom background instead of choosing one of the premades?

You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.

2. Can I roll gold instead of taking the starter package? If so...: 3d4 ⇒ (3, 4, 4) = 11*10=110

3. Any languages that might be helpful/interesting for the campaign?

edit: 4. More specific to wild mage, and more related to general gameplay moving forward, I think its common where the d20 to determine if the surge happens is simply rolled every time a 1st level spell is cast. The default is that its DM choice to roll for surge. Doing it every time speeds it up for PbP.

1. Absolutely!

2. Yes, I'm fine with rolling gold and using it to buy what you wanna start with.

3. Feywild means lots of folks speaking Sylvan. Otherwise, the usual mix of things.

4. I'm 100% into you rolling it every time, the more nonsense Karley starts the happier I think we all will be. ;)

I can PM either of you, Karley and Tareth, but if y'all want to coordinate any background stuff during that 8 years at the carnival, I'd love to chat. I'm on Discord if that's easier: tabii#3103

Alright, the crunch for Nuruk is done. He has grown from a pudgy dragonborn into an absolute brickhouse, which pleases me greatly. I'll have up a narrated tale in a bit later today.

@GM Fern - Do you think there stands a good reason that others that had sworn an Oath of the Ancients would perhaps be in pursuit of the carnival? I'm sure that there are times where its visit isn't as troublesome but I'm also sure we're not the first to screw things up?

I was thinking of having the curse removed as a cost of Nuruk being taken under an aging paladin's wing and brought into the Order of Brambles, knights who serve the Light as best they can and keep back the Darkness.

That all sounds 100% good to me.

I would have sworn Nuruk would take the Oath of Vengeance, savoring to his words when leaving the carnival.

Life is full of surprises, and that's wonderful!

I had considered it but I felt that it would've shoehorned him into being more...aggressive in the campaign. I want us to try some of the social skills and diplomacy before whooping fey ass. The Oath of the Ancients is a nice balance between that; don't let the Light inside of you die but do not let the Darkness win.

I wanna give everyone time to stat out characters and write their interludes, but I'm also having fun posting all the time, so, if possible, let's try to get that done and those posted by the end of the weekend? If that won't work, no worries, and if it gets done faster, all the better, but I work better with a deadline, even a vague one =)

The official beginning of the adult portion of the game will be the group of you meeting up at the ticket booth to enter the carnival, pitched outside Waterdeep. The carnies who went Witchlight Hand or Feylost for backgrounds can either be waiting to see if any of you show up, or we can delay you for a while and bump into you once folks enter the carnival grounds. If you need any other info setting-wise to brainstorm up your tale of eight years, let me know!

People going with the festival, it visits all sorts of other worlds -- Eberron, Exandria, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Golarion, Azeroth, Eorzea, the Cosmere, Earth, whatever settings you'd like it to visit -- but Witchlight Hands stay with the carnival and don't get out much, and Feylost hop off the bus into the Feywild and stop world hopping.

So a small thing that I don't think will come up a lot but I am wondering if I could get "sign language" as an extra language? It seems, so far, that Sammy and Nuruk are the only remaining Defenders here in the town and trauma brings closeness. It was also going to be six months or so until Nuruk gets taken away by the knight and he basically stopped talking all that time. Rhyming all the time tends to bother folks and I think Nuruk would want to learn how to best talk with his remaining friend.

That timing works for me. My intention is to have Vashrin mechanically updated by the end of the day and my "What have you done the past 8 years" post up sometime Friday.

It seems, so far, that Sammy and Nuruk are the only remaining Defenders here in the town...

Good call. Vashrin, while still in this world having missed getting back to the carnival, will be spending his eight years bouncing around Faerun.

I should have my character sheet more or less done tonight, and my 8 years post ready by at least Friday/Saturday. Fern and I do an IRL d&d thing Friday nights, so I won't have a ton of time tomorrow, haha.

I'm working on balancing the edgelord stuff that I sometimes (often) stray into with traumatized characters hahaha

It'll be interesting. Willow will be both terrified and beyond excited to see people.

Sign language is fine!

I'm working on balancing the edgelord stuff that I sometimes (often) stray into with traumatized characters hahaha

Edgelord and trauma? You play a lot of World of Darkness games too?

it visits all sorts of other worlds

...too...much...stimuli...

Going to be super fun writing this up! Hope to have time tonight to get a good chunk done.

Willow Breakbough wrote:

I'm working on balancing the edgelord stuff that I sometimes (often) stray into with traumatized characters hahaha

Edgelord and trauma? You play a lot of World of Darkness games too?

Ha, I wish. I would love to! My only experiences with ttrpg stuff are Pathfinder 1e, 5e, and Monster Hearts (apocalypse system based). Hard to keep groups together, sadly.

Hi all, here is my sheet and profile. I still need to fill in equipment and drop in some background bullets, but I should have that all by tomorrow. Working on an initial background post.

GM: For what was stolen, I've expanded it a bit to be all memories of his childhood. So kind of a 'lost youth/stolen by the fae' situation. Basically ending up lost and alone at the carnival to be taken in by 'someone' whose motives may or may not be good. Question is, whether the other Defenders remember me or not?

Woah, just read Vash's spoiler...that curse! Certainly makes the Barfy Slumbermittens situation seem a spring day's walk.

Also, I noticed Remove Curse is one of the wild surge results. 2% chance. ;D

Yeah, Vash is gonna be in a pretty dark place next time you see him...unless he happens to be on stage and faking it of course.

Nuruk, after finishing his training, may or may not be the lynchpin for those who are still in Faerun, at the very least. He would share his and his master's research into the carnival and likely be the one to have helped pin-point where it'd be when it returns.

@Khalil - So you're going to be another member of the Defenders that disappeared? Did you join us on our misadventure into the carnival or did your parents pay for it and something "went wrong"?