The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: The Swamps of Hither

General Summary

This game followed The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Into the Feywild and was played on Sunday, June 4th, 2023. The events of this game picked up immediately from where the last game ended. Joining as players were:

• Heather Thompson as Gabilan
• Nicole Thompson as Tinga
• Katy Asher as Willamina
• Mack McFarland as Zabbas Shackleton Fluffenstuff
• Jess Jennings as Buster Unit 37

Each character received 2,000XP for the game.

Sir Tolivar, 1,096st Knight-Errant of the Summer Queen

The adventure opened with the party having just taken a large birdcage from the wreckage of a balloon hanging off the side of a slanted tower. Inside the birdcage was a violet-colored fairie dragon - a creature about the size of a weasel - named Sir Tolivar.
Sir Tolivar explains that he is the 1,096st Knight-Errant of Queen Titania of the Summer Court. He was sent to Prismeer to try to convince Zybilna, the ruler of Prismeer, to align with the Summer Court, but found that all of the inhabitants of the Palace of Heart's Desire, Zybilna's abode, was frozen in time. As Sir Tolivar was returning to the Summer Court, he was struck by an ill-wind and captured by the hag Bavlorna Blightstraw.
Bavlorna, a member of the Hourglass Coven, along with her sisters Granny Nightshade and the Bitter End, had taken over Prismeer and split it into three subdomains: Hither, Thither, and Yon.
After Sir Tolivar was captured by Bavlorna, he was placed in the birdcage that he was currently imprisoned in and left in what seemed like a junk room. After some time, he was rescued by the person called Wigglewog, who smuggled him to a nearby hot air balloon. Wigglewog explained that the key to Sir Tolivar's prison had been stolen by a creature named JingleJangle, and the duo fled in the balloon to head to seek out JingleJangle's in their abode at a place called Telemy Hill.
Although the group had originally arrived at the slanted tower to rescue and repair the hot air balloon, they decided instead to bring the caged Sir Tolivar to JingleJangle's location in order to unlock the cage. Buster and Zabbas both investigated the magical nature of the cage and determined that magic enchanting the cage was too powerful to allow them to dismiss the cage's lock.
Willamina took some time to draw power from the nature around her and empowered the group to walk on water. They began heading in the direction that Sir Talavar thought that JingleJangle's lair was located at.

The Scamp, JingleJangle

Along the way through the swamps of Hither to Telemy Hill, the team passed through another drowned village. At the center of this village was a large well, about 20' in diameter. Sir Talavar identified this as an "Oh Well". As the team began to pass by, water started shooting from the well in a geyser at fifteen-to-twenty feet of height.
Bobbing at the top of the geyser were some different objects. As the team observed the phenomenon, orbs of light floated through the air and landed around the Oh Well. The orbs of light formed into the shape of three spirits: a bear wearing an apron, a raccoon wearing the accoutrements of an accountant (a visor and braced sleeves), and an otter, wearing nothing. The spirits beseeched the group to obtain the items that they were missing: a rolling pin for the bear, an abacus for the raccoon, and a pair of shears for the otter.
While the spirits weren't aggressive, they were insistent that they needed to be reunited with their lost items. The group used their powers to retrieve the articles and return them to the spirits, which disappeared after being reunited with their respective objects. Upon departing, the group was given blessings by the now restful spirits. [Each character received a boon that would allow them to add a 1d4 to a single d20 roll.]
The gang left the drowned village and continued on their path to Telemy Hill. Eventually, the ground began to rise and the party was walking on solid, though muddy, ground again instead of bobbing across water. After a short while of travel, it became clear that a small hill was rising through the mist ahead of them. This was Telemy Hill.
Once the group reached Telemy Hill and started up a clear path on the feature, half a dozen willow trees began the slow process of snaking their roots through the ground and approaching the team. As the trees closed in, a rumbling voice welcomed them to Telemy Hill and asked what their intentions were. The voice wasn't coming from the trees specifically, but the voice also wasn't coming from the trees. Sir Tolivar announced that they were coming for JingleJangle. The trees/hill responded that they were coming for JingleJangle. The hill announced that JingleJangle was a friend of theirs, and that no harm should come to them. Zabbas interjected that as long as JingleJangle wasn't a threat to the group, they wouldn't be a threat to JingleJangle. The hill allowed the group to proceed, but cautioned that they would intervene if any harm came to JingleJangle. Sir Tolivar was clearly opposed to Zabbas' pronouncement, but kept his opposition to himself.
Reaching toward the top of Telemy Hill, the group found a cave entrance shaped like a keyhole. Cautiously entering, they found that the interior walls were lined with cords that beared the load of thousands of keys. As the cave descended into a central chamber, the team slowed their approach and moved carefully, waiting for signs of trouble. As the group entered the chamber, they saw that it was a rudimentary living space where the walls were covered with keys. The light inside the chamber indicated that a creature was moving around within.
As the team readied their defenses, a small goblin approached them timidly, with an uncertain smile. It asked, "Hello, how can JingleJangle brighten your day?"
JingleJangle actually proved to be quite friendly and was able to quickly locate the key that freed Sir Tolivar. After being freed, Sir Tolivar immediately departed but promised that he would be an advocate for the group and would ask the Summer Court to free Prismeer once he had obtained an audience with them.
With Sir Talavar gone, JingleJangle was very talkative with the team and told them a story about how Bavlorna Blightstraw had helped JingleJangle to overcome her fears: JingleJangle had previously been a goblin with a different name, now forgotten to her, but had been incarcerated for a crime. Due to her incarceration, she had become afraid of being behind locked doors. After her release from incarceration, she'd gone to Bavlorna to ask for a cure for her phobia, and Bavlorna had granted her the ability to locate and pilfer keys. JingleJangle views this as a success story, but the group understands that this has been a curse: JingleJangle has lost her identity in her constant pursuit of keys.
While conversing with JingleJangle, the topic of Bavlorna was brought up and JingleJangle took them outside of the cave to point the direction to Downfall, where Bavlorna resides at. As part of these directions, JingleJangle pointed out a massive stump in the distance that was able to be seen rising above the thick fog of the swamp. JingleJangle noted that the stump was where the bandits that had recently stolen her truffles lived.
JingleJangle offered to let the team spend the night in their cave, but they instead decided to sleep out at the mouth of the cave, somewhat worried about what might become of them if they stayed in JingleJangle's abode.
In what functions as the morning in the Feywild, the team left to trek towards Downfall. JingleJangle wished them a fond farewell, and Telemy Hill did the same thing. Telemy Hill also provided them with a key that they said that JingleJangle had dropped and may be useful in the future.

Brigand's Tollway

Willamina again cast Water Walk on the team, allowing them to easily avoid most of the dangers of the swamp.
After traveling through drowned forests with clear paths, the forests started to recede and navigation became more difficult. Thankfully Willamina had a good sense of direction in mind and kept the team in the intended direction. After traveling for an undetermined amount of time, the team eventually ran into an area where floating walkways seemed to lead to a specific destination. After following these walkways for some time, they were able to see the massive stump ahead of them through the fog. The stump was about 40' in diameter and rose to a height of 80'. This indicated that they were on the right path to Downfall.
As the walkways climbed toward the stump and split or converged to multiple paths, a few members of the group realized that there was another person among them. With a "What's up folks?" announcement, Agdon Longscarf revealed that he had infiltrated the group and leaped ahead of them. At about the same time, two boats of hostile rabbitfolk entered the area.
A fight broke out and many of the rabbitfolk were quickly killed or fled. The team took relatively little damage from the rabbitfolk. A significant reason for this was because Gabilan transformed into a powerful water entity and damaged many of the platforms leading up to the stump. The sight of her shooting through the water in her form instilled terror.
Agdon was eventually cornered by Zabbas and Gabilan, who demanded that he remove his magically infused lightning scarf. Against his pleas to not have it removed, they pulled it off of him and he was immediately turned to stone.

Report Date

11 Jun 2023