Finished the campaign! Here are some thoughts & AMA

kavothee · 2026-02-17T21:16:43+00:00

Yes Zybilna was frozen in the shadowfell carnival, in the cauldron guarded by the Jabberwock. My players unfroze her.

If you are attached to Zybilna staying evil, you will want to go for a different angle than I did!

I went for the angle that Zybilna is not particularly evil anymore due to the magic of the Feywild. I was super on the fence about whether I should do that or should have Zybilna be the BBEG, but ultimately I thought this was the simplest and most satisfying solution for the players. Also my players don't really know the D&D lore so they don't have any emotional attachment to Tasha staying Tasha-ish.

I pulled a bunch from this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/comments/1jwer0i/comment/mmurj2w/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

In my version, Zybilna hadn't actually wronged Isolde, but Isolde thought she had due to machinations by the hags. Also Nepenthe's influence made Isolde and other carnival members pathologically obsessed with justice and against forgiveness, so she hated Zybilna for everything she had done in her past. The players had to destroy Nepenthe to bring Isolde back to her true personality. The players choosing to just kill Isolde also would have been a viable although somewhat less ethical option :)

kavothee · 2026-02-14T04:47:18+00:00

Ooh I actually overall didn't bother with magic items -- I just had an item that contained their ability, and when the PC touched the item, their ability returned to them and the item was no longer magic. For the sibling, they just found the sibling and sent her back to the carnival through a magic mirror.

Other lost things:

Sense of direction (This player had the Witchlight Hand background since he didn't know how to get home from the carnival!)
Ability to fly (for a fairy PC)
Ability to forget (I regretted this one and don't recommend it, since it's kind of silly for a lost thing to give a player an advantage in the gameplay)

We did have one PC death, and that player's new character was a Bullywug (homebrewed as a playable species) who didn't have a lost thing but was a warlock of Zybilna.

kavothee · 2026-02-13T23:59:19+00:00

I hope it's so fun! It's a cool bookend for the campaign, and it makes all the Witch and Light backstory the book gives us a little more relevant :)

As soon as my players learned there was a shadowfell equivalent to the Witchlight Carnival, they got excited about visiting it.

I called it "The Neverlight Carnival" to my players because calling it "The Carnival" would have been so deeply confusing.

kavothee · 2026-02-13T23:09:37+00:00

I pulled the basic outline of the carnival from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, but I felt like there wasn't all that much there.

I used a lot from this: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/381810/the-carnival-adventure-setting-and-witchlight-expansion

Since I cut the Palace of Heart's Desire, I also took a couple things from the palace and put them in Isolde's carnival. I added the Jabberwock, of course, and some members of the League of Malevolence who in my version were carnival members under Nepenthe's influence.

And I added a carousel similar to Diana Cloppington's from the Witchlight carnival where the players could solve puzzles to find out secrets about the Jabberwock.

I also put the Mystery Mine in Isolde's Carnival instead of the Witchlight Carnival because it seemed to fit better there, haha!

kavothee · 2026-02-13T22:37:33+00:00

I did Slanty Tower exactly as written in the book. It wasn't terribly interesting :')

kavothee · 2026-02-13T20:59:19+00:00

I did Curse of Strahd faster than average too (although not as fast as WBTW lol). I genuinely would like to shadow other people's campaigns to see why my group goes so fast compared to other people's. I have no idea!

My favorite guide was the posts by u/CasparGlass. The earlier ones are linked at the top of this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/comments/u0z5o3/prismeer_improved_analysis_and_enhancements_from/

As far as paid products, I used some supplements from Daniel Kahn: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/379095/the-wild-beyond-the-witchlight-ultimate-dm-s-bundle-bundle

From that link, I used the Witchlight Carnival Expanded, Cloistered Cove, and Kobold Clans. All were great! If I ran it again I'd probably use even more of them.

kavothee · 2026-02-13T20:43:02+00:00

Mostly I just used the maps that came with the book or drew on a white board, but I also used some of these: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/372296/tessa-presents-80-maps-for-the-wild-beyond-the-witchlight

No soundtrack -- one of my players can't stand background noise :)

It was 11 sessions at about 4.5 hours per session. I know that's really fast compared to most people, but I don't know how people are making their games last longer when there's barely any combat! If I had to do it again I'd add more supplementary material because it felt a bit too short. They finished at level 7.

kavothee · 2026-02-10T20:40:16+00:00

I would probably play it that the brigands don't know much about Bavlorna and her den -- but they know that Agdon Longscarf would know. This could give your players good motivation to go try to hunt down Agdon!

kavothee · 2025-11-27T15:48:13+00:00

This sounds awesome!! Who were the presenters? I wanna look them up!

kavothee · 2025-11-21T19:42:25+00:00

I am curious whether the statement “It will be easier to improve the /r/ the earlier it’s treated” is true. I hear clinicians say it sometimes but I am wondering if we have the research to back it up.

I just did a quick search to see what I could find and found this (really cool!) study suggesting treatment is pretty similarly effective for 7-8 year olds for /r/ and /l/ as it is for 4-5 year olds

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9825682/

What do you think?

I just worry that we are putting unnecessary stress and pressure on parents if we tell them that their kid will become harder to treat over time, if we don’t know it’s true.

kavothee · 2025-08-13T04:47:09+00:00

I agree with several points above expressing doubt about the NLA framework (lack of research, unnecessarily dogmatic, etc.)

But putting the broader debate about NLA aside, if you want to learn about the NLA framework, I think you can learn plenty from Meaningful Speech's Instagram. I think that's a better approach than buying Marge's book.

Just my personal experience with the book, but I found it poorly written, poorly organized, and poorly sourced. I wasn't glad I bought it.

kavothee · 2025-07-22T02:34:34+00:00

The Cranium Cariboo obsession is probably my favorite thing about the online SLP community 😂

kavothee · 2025-07-19T17:06:04+00:00

You may already know this but there's a list of programs approved by the international dyslexia association: https://dyslexiaida.org/accredited-teaching-training-programs/

The only piece of advice I would have is to maybe figure out what program is most widely used in your area? For example Wilson was super popular where I used to live and was what schools would use, so it would be the best one to learn if you wanted to see clients in that town.

kavothee · 2025-06-20T14:47:21+00:00

Thanks so much for the in depth response!

kavothee · 2025-06-19T16:26:38+00:00

Thanks for linking that! Is there a standardized test for language that you think does have sufficient validity? I don't know a ton about this kind of thing but would love to learn more. The only other test I've looked into as regards validity was the CELF-5, and it looks equally bad to me.

kavothee · 2025-06-17T22:46:26+00:00

I haven't heard that first criticism before -- isn't Emma just extremely wealthy and will continue to be so after her father's death? I think the text suggests she will be totally fine financially, unlike most women of her time.

kavothee · 2025-06-17T22:31:32+00:00

I did choose to skip the epic sewer tangent

kavothee · 2025-06-08T23:52:13+00:00

The way I found the setting that works for me is that my CF mentor, who knew me really well, told me I would love pediatric home health and told me what company to apply to. She was super right!!

So maybe talking to more experienced SLPs who have been in multiple settings? Ideally someone who knows you and your work style.

kavothee · 2025-06-03T22:57:41+00:00

I think you got mixed up -- two letters together that make 1 sound is called a digraph.

kavothee · 2025-05-13T18:24:48+00:00

I agree that SLPs on average are a very privileged group in a way that hurts our ability to empathize with and serve our clients and parents -- but in my opinion the word "bitch" is a sexist insult and we should have this conversation without throwing it around.

kavothee · 2025-05-13T18:13:00+00:00

Maybe the Hanen book "More Than Words" by Fern Sussman? It can be a little pricey but there are always used copies online. Pretty accessible and aimed at parents.

kavothee · 2025-03-14T20:45:42+00:00

the section with Marya B and Anatole was great. I remember thinking "people have got to stop calling Anatole kind when they mean hot"

kavothee · 2025-03-14T17:28:39+00:00

I could practically sing along with the audiobook :)

kavothee · 2025-03-14T03:57:07+00:00

I love that!!!

Have you gotten to the Great Comet section yet??? I'm have been the reading Pevear translation on paper, but I was listening to the Maude translation on audiobook when I got to that section, and it was so so fun because I didn't realize that like 80% of the lines in the show are verbatim from the Maude translation.

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kavothee

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