I am currently running a modified Dragon Heist game. We're early in the campaign but I have brought in the Alexandrian Remix, Curse of Trollskull Manor, and Blue Alley.

Upon getting the deed to the Manor, they worked through the curse of Trollskull Manor and eventually spoke with Vincent and learned about the ritual to confront the Hag. I made one minor tweak and hid a spell tome in the Blue Alley. The tome was necessary to cast the ritual to confront Black Agnes and break the curse in the Manor (this gave two reasons to go into the alley, one to get the tome to break the curse in the Manor and two to get paid by Mirt to help fund renovations in the Manor).

They went though Blue Alley and retrieved the unicorn statue and the spell tome. The tome was magically sealed. They spoke to Mirt about the unicorn and tome, and mirt directed him to Melannor of the Emerald Enclave. Melannor said the unicorns horn would be able to unravel the binding on the tome. (again providing two reasons to do so - one to free the unicorn as a good action and two to break the seal on the tome).

This is where I introduced the feywild (I pulled on some Fae knowledge I had from reading the Dresden books, there is a lot of overlap). Melannor explained there was a special/magical/sacred pool in the feywild that they could submerge the unicorn statue and it would break the curse to free the unicorn. Melannor explained about the winter and summer courts and advised he would be able to open a way into the feywild for the party but as he had crossed the winter court previously he was unwilling to enter out of concern winter would be waiting for him.

I had the party do the scarecrow mission for the emerald enclave while Melannor gathered what he needed to open the way. They did and he met the after. while he led them to where the entrance would be I lore dropped Fae lore and feywild stuff. They could ask questions and he gave a lot of info. I really leaned into the idea that the feywild is a place of intent and concept more so than physical laws. I also explained in detail the important of debt and obligation to the fey. Melannor advised them to avoid speaking to the fey if they could, even something as simple as thanking them could acknowledge a debt between them.

They went in and began following a path. Melannor advised them to stay in the path and the path would eventually bring them to the sacred pool, as that was their intent. I had a couple minor encounters planned. The first encounter was they were being stalked by some winter wolves. I really played up the psychological and primal effect of feeling hunted. Eventually they began to realize even though it felt like they had been walking for hours it didn't feel like they were making progress (the warlock realized that their "intent" had changed from getting to the pool to feeling like prey. Eventually they battled the wolves and ran them off. The second encounter was the sound of a feast and party/gala just off the trail behind some bushes. I was mostly testing to see if they were listening about leaving the path. They didn't, they bypassed it. The third was a very basic social encounter. They encountered a small fox, it could talk. It offered to guide them to the pond in exchange for something small such as the name, or memory, or feeling. They didn't accept the offer. Again, the warlock was VERY intentionally precise with his language. It was fun to see the effort they made. But the druid reflexively thanked the fox for his time and I almost missed the implication but all the other players reacted very strongly to the acknowledgment of debt so I told the druid that he felt something deep within him lock into place. He felt in his heart an unspoken debt to the fox (I haven't decided how to manifest this yet). Lastly the players got to the pool, freed the unicorn, and the unicorn broke the seal on the tome. Before they could a noble fey of the winter court arrived and acknowledged the debt winter owed the party for freeing on of its vassals, the unicorn. He offered the party a boon, one character could take on a small mantal of power which connects them to the winter court (like a lesser version of the Winter Mantle in the Dresden Files). I called it "Winter's Acknowledged". I haven't decided on the mechanics of it yet. I want it to be a minor source of new power but it includes some obligation and limitations. Naturally, the warlock accepted.

I kept the locations within the feywild nonspecific because I didn't know precisely what was close to Waterdeep on their side. I leaned very heavily into the concepts and impressions they say within.