Every Dungeons & Dragons adventure has a Villain that must be dealt with. Sometimes, it's as simple as "the adventure book told us this is the bad guy, let's go get em'!" However, does that get them committed to the cause? Are your players entranced in their desire to dismantle this enemy because of what they have done because they want to or because the "adventure book told them too?"
Let me introduce you to one method of creating a villain so frustrating, so evil that my players, a year later and a new campaign later still have PTSD about. Introducing my version of Jingle Jangle.
How did Jingle Jangle become a thing?
I had a few of my regular players that play in my homebrew worlds come to me and ask me to run The Wild Beyond the Witchlight from Wizards of the Coast for them. I said "heck yeah" that will be fun and we put it together. However, I wanted to modify it a bit for them and turn it into a level 1 to 20 adventure instead of to level 8 like the adventure normally runs.
What is the Wild Beyond the Witchlight?
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is an adventure book from Wizards of the Coast for their popular Tabletop Roleplaying Game, Dungeons & Dragons. You can purchase this adventure book is retailers across North America, as well as online at DND Beyonds website. We are not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or DND Beyond in any way shape or form but want to share this information for purposes of knowledge is all.
This adventure book is written to start at either level 1 or level 3, and go to level 8. This short story takes characters to a magical and mystical festival called the Witchlight Carnival run by Mister Witch and Mister Light.
The party is able to partake in games and rides across the carnival but eventually stumble
their way through a magical mirror in the realm of the Fae Wild specifically landing in the lands of Hither, Thither and Yon.
In the first land they land in, Hither, they will possibly have a brief interaction with a small human looking goblin called Jingle Jangle. Her name comes from her unique clothing, which is a chain mail vest made of keys, hence the jingles and jangles she makes to get her name.
This is where I began to spin the web of treachery that would eventually allow me to make my party hate this character and provide a backdrop to begin writing the adventure to go beyond level eight.
How To Make A Throw Away NPC More?
Jingle Jangle was meant to serve only a minor purpose in this adventure book. My goal was to turn her into the main antagonist by the time the main story was over. At first, when the party met her, she seemed docile. However, she spoke in a manner that was unnerving. I worked very hard to find a voice that and mannerism of speaking, that made it questionable if she was really what she seemed.
Most of the party welcomed them into their midst, however, right away one character had bad feelings about her and this is where I began to my storytelling skills in. When your party becomes split about an NPC, that is the perfect place to attempt to integrate them into the story more, should you want.
In this circumstance, the things that the player was disturbed by, I began to amplify. She became very friendly to one of the trusting members and this bothered the untrusting player even more. Now the seed was placed that this NPC was attaching to someone in the party, which made it easier to make them ever more present.
Now Take This NPC And Make Them A Staple Character
Once the party begin to show emotions to Jingle Jangle, she offered to join them traveling from Telemy Hill to Brigands Tollyway as she told them about a rude Harengon that stole some gold from her while she was trying to come home from gathering some metal to make some more keys.
The majority of the party instantly saw this as a chance to help their new friend but the untrusting member thought something fishy was up. Regardless, the party welcomed Jingle Jangle into their ranks and they set off to get Jingle Jangles gold back, or so they thought.
Help The NPC Become Loved
The characters found the Harengon and with Jingle Jangles help, killed them and got back her gold and then some. This didn't sit well with one party member but Jingle Jangle assured them it was a good deed. Then Jingle Jangle asked if the party was going to do anything with the Harengons body?
This caused some eyebrows to raise but Jingle Jangle sweet talked her way through the party with a mixture of successful checks and a few failed saves against calm emotions for the party. The party heard her say she likes to take the bodies sometimes and see if she can offer them as sacrifices to the hags that control land so they leave her alone in her hole in the cliff at Telemy Hill.
The party believed this because they had learned already that 3 hags had taken over this land and it seemed logical a resident of the land would do whatever they could to stay off the hags bad side.
This allowed the party to feel sympathy for her and she took the body and suddenly vanished through a red and black portal and that left the party unsure of how to feel. She wouldn't show up again until the first hag was defeated.
Setting Up The Villain Switch
the party defeated a Hag, Jingle Jangle would show up and want something from the hag. She would show up in time to help the party in the fight and asked for just a small thing from each hag. The party agreed and let her take what she wanted.
Over the course the campaign, each time she took something from the hags, she was becoming more and more deranged and unhinged. It wasn't until the party had defeated all three hags that they learned it was really the mother of the 3 hags wanting payback for her children trapping her.
She used the items to siphon their leftover powers since they didn't need them anymore and she became drunk off power. When the party ultimately freed the person they thought they were supposed to rescue, that was them releasing Jingle Jangles true form and let her new found power loose to rule the land.
Setting up the stage into our homebrew portion of the story.
Making Her Hated By The People Who Loved Her
This was the easy part. You never hate the person you disliked from day 1. However, the person who you trusted and were betrayed by is often the one who you distain the most, even borderline hate. That is what I was aiming for now.
Every person the party helped along the way was now in the crosshairs of Jingle Jangle. She was drunk on power and anyone or anything that didn't bow to her was an enemy now. She began to consume, literally, anyone and everyone in her path that didn't just beg for mercy right away.
The rest of the adventure became the party trying to reseal away the powerful evil they unleashed on the world and try to restore order to Hither, Tither and Yon. This twist in how a simple NPC that the characters fell in love with, for the most part, became a betrayal that the party couldn't let go.
Players began to text me days in advance "Hey we are playing this week right? I can't wait till he get payback on this freak!" as an example. My players, veterans for the most part, were excited for sessions again. They were truly bought into the villain they were against and ensuring that the damage that was caused was going to be fixed and it brought this adventure to life in a very powerful way.
Trying It Yourself
Remember, this is an artform in its on self. You will mess this up. Sometimes you will be to obvious and players will catch on. It happens, don't stress. Find a way to pull the NPC out, or lean into even more and see where it takes the story.
That is the beauty of a Dungeons and Dragons adventure. While we as capable Dungeon Masters may plan a great story, it's ultimately how our players at the table help bring it to life that can change it in profound ways.
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