It has been eight years since the last time the splendor of the Witchlight Carnival swept into town. Most of the town is drawn to see the great wonders, ride the rides, and possibly win a prize. A few are looking for something lost while a few others are looking for the answer to a mysterious disappearance.

I really enjoyed running this adventure, but I can’t help but think that it is not for everyone. If you and your players are into combat, then this is not for you. If dungeon crawls are your favorite type of adventures, then this is not for you. If you love role-playing, solving puzzles, competing in competitions, and possibly planning a heist, then this adventure is definitely for you.

Not to say that there is no chance for rolling dice, quite the opposite. There are plenty of opportunities for the characters to test their mettle against what the carnival has to offer. The test usually does not come with a damage type (except for possibly custard damage).

There are plenty of chances to show your chops as a DM. You get to do mime, turn fears into illusions, introduce NPCs (so many NPCs), but you won’t be pulling out the battle map. Instead, there is a poster map of the carnival that you can lay out on the table for your players to plan their way around to see the sites and ride the rides. Have the players use their miniatures to show where they are on the map. The carnival is the definition of a sandbox and you will never be quite sure which way the players will go. I was quite happy with my players’ choices which progressed the story nicely although I would have liked to have Kettlesteam show up a bit earlier.

There is a fine line between knowing what to tell the characters and what not to tell them. There are plenty of opportunities to learn about what is happening in Prismeer and how it affects the Witchlight Carnival. The players will have to meet the denizens of the Witchlight Carnival and find out what they know. There is a dark secret that has affected more than one of the Witchlight Hands that operate the rides and games of the carnival. The characters will have to suss out the carnival’s secrets to find answers to what is happening.

Read the whole book before starting the adventure. Take the time to understand how the players’ actions affect what happens later in the campaign. Know who the key players are and how their backgrounds can affect the characters.

It is very important that the players understand that Mr. Witch and Mr. Light are Shadar-kai elves from the Shadowfell. This will raise the suspicions of the players and put them on edge about what is happening at this carnival. What are Mr. Witch and Mr. Light hiding? Why are two elves from the Shadowfell running a carnival that is based out of the Feywild? These should be questions that haunt the characters as they meet the various NPCs. As the players meet each NPC they will see that there is a darkness that infests the lives of those that work at the Witchlight Carnival.

The Lost Things hook can be used to have the characters that were robbed come face-to-face with the thief that took from them. They could see Sowpig in the bleachers as the character is in the giant snail race. They might see the Lornling hiding in a tree while they are small and enjoying the Pixie Kingdom. I wanted to play up the dread of what happened to the characters when they were only children.

I would not recommend this adventure for new DMs to run, but it is a good place to start for new players. There are chances to roll dice and to get to understand how role-playing works. My group has a nice mix of new and veteran players and after playing this adventure they had a good idea of their characters’ skills and how they could work together as a team.

Keep notes of what the players do because it could come back later on in the adventure. You can do this either by using the Story Tracker sheet provided at the back of the book or by keeping copious notes.

 There are some nice puzzles and a good mystery to give the players plenty to do, but without a lot of stress or tension. This is a nice place for this campaign to start with plenty of whimsey and just the right amount of trepidation to keep the players on their toes. So, grab some friends and head to the Witchlight Carnival for some good gaming, but just make sure everyone pays for their ticket.

How it Played

There are a lot of NPCs, so many NPCs. You might have to scale back some of their quirks to make it more manageable. I did not do Treacelwise’s rhyming slang because I did not feel it the night we played. Be prepared to flip back and forth through the book as the players have their characters run through the carnival and stop at random at what catches their eye. I had one of the small stalls operators shout as the players went by to open them up to play the games there. The prizes are great and it was a fun couple of minutes as the players tested their characters’ abilities.

It is hard to plan where the players will go, but there are certain attractions that will draw their eyes. For instance, if you are playing the Lost Things story hook, you are pretty much guaranteed to have their first stop be at Lost Property. There is a great NPC at Lost Property, plus an opportunity to acquire a side quest.

I did use the Bubble-Top Teapot to land the characters in a certain area. I picked their landing location at random, but you can choose a location that furthers the story. That is, of course, unless the characters learn to take over the bubble, then they will direct it where they want to go.

I had planned on making Kettlesteam into as much of a nuisance to the party as possible, but based on the choices the party made they did not run into her immediately. I added her to the Bubble-Pop Teapot (Salamancer loves bubbles) and had Kettlesteam pop bubbles as they came out of the teapot. The party was sharing one bubble as they all entered Tuth’s genie’s vessel (an oil lamp). They avoided getting their bubble popped by taking over control of the bubble and dodging the attack. Kettlesteam tried throwing the giant pin she was using to pop the bubbles, but she rolled a one. The pin ended up stabbing her in her head. The characters noticed something strange about the way she looked because the Disguise Self spell was hiding her true appearance. There was only one brief combat when the party finally caught Kettlesteam, but it ended quickly with a whip attack followed by some leg biting.

I had to coax the characters to try and do something at the Big Top Extravaganza, besides a few characters working together to play a practical joke on Mr. Light. No one was hurt, but Mr. Light did suffer a little embarrassment. Eventually, Salamancer started singing and dancing to involve the entire audience. After a very successful performance check by Salamancer and persuasion check by his cohorts, the audience ended up doing a conga line with the little sorcerer all around the big top.

Early on my players knew there was something strange about the carnival. One of my players noted that it seemed like many of the carnival workers were not here by their choice. This was said right after the party met Diana Cloppington. The two players with Witchlight Hands backgrounds played into this narrative as well as each had a sort of sad story.

One of my players rather quickly realized that there had to be some sort of portal from the carnival to Prismeer. It came down to finding actually where it was. Once they went to the Hall of Illusions after the Big Top Extravaganza event, they were quite sure that the portal lay in there. The encounter with Rubin and Ween strongly indicated this was true.

The heist to steal Mr. Witch’s watch is a nice touch to the adventure. The players took about half an hour to put together a plan. They ended up using some of the minor magic that they won during their time at the carnival along with allies that they met along the way. Such plans are fun as the DM, because you get to sit back and watch as the players hatch their scheme. It is one of the few times you get to sit back and relax instead of being the center of attention all the time.

I have a couple of minor recommendations, if you do not finish the chapter in one session, make sure to write in your notes the current time and mood of the carnival. As an insurance policy make sure you introduce Ellywick Tumblestrum, so she does not come out of nowhere if you need to use her at the end of the adventure.

Remember that your players do not know what wonders and fun the carnival awaits them. As long as you remember that it is a carnival and carnies are not shy about letting guests know what fun can be had. Want your players to play some games at the small stalls, then just have a hawker shouting, “Out stare the cyclops and win a prize!”

My group tackled this first adventure in two sessions of about six hours of total playing time. They entered the portal at the very end of our second session. We spent the last bit of time leveling them up to second level where the next step in the adventure starts.

Aftermath.

The players leveled up as they entered Prismeer with a couple of minor magic items in their pockets and a decided purpose of discovering what happened to the fey realm’s leader.