D&D Beyond Releases Free Forgotten Realms Adventure

D&D Beyond has a new Forgotten Realms-focused adventure that focuses on battling the forces of Orcus. Today, D&D Beyond released The Tenebrous Stone, a new adventure that will appear in the upcoming Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun book. The adventure is a Level 3 "Deity Adventure" set in Helmsdale and sends players into a basalt quarry to track down an evil artifact. Players will battle several undead creatures before a final encounter at the hidden location of the artifact.

The adventure is one of many in the book and is similarly structured as the quick adventures found in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. There's a map, three encounters, and a brief overview of the adventure, but otherwise The Tenebrous Stone is relatively light. D&D Beyond has also loaded up the adventure on its Maps VTT, complete with both maps and monsters pre-loaded for the DM.

Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun will be released on November 11th.

 

[Parmandur]

I don’t think I’ve ever had the thought “what I need right now is a mini-adventure”.

Makes for a quick and dirty night of gaming, since each is enough to run a full one-shot on zero prep work.

And again, the DMG has step by step guides on how to do prep work with the mini-Advebture as a seed to make something bespoke.

 

[Reef]

I don’t think I’ve ever had the thought “what I need right now is a mini-adventure”.

I find I tend to reach for them more if I’m looking to break up a multi-day travel segment, instead of just glossing over the whole trip. A step up from a just a random encounter. A palate cleanser between major plot points.

And that way, if they don’t bite at the proffered hook, there wasn’t a whole lot of wasted prep time.

 

[mamba]

Yet arguing over that math takes up a lot of online discussion.

not about how it works, but about how accurate it is. Also, it is pretty much the norm that people have to tweak encounters in premade adventures based on their party, or so I am led to believe on this forum, so if I need to do that anyway, WotC offering me what amounts to a random encounter is not saving me much at all

 

[Reef]

not about how it works, but about how accurate it is. Also, it is pretty much the norm that people have to tweak encounters in premade adventures based on their party, or so I am led to believe on this forum, so if I need to do that anyway, WotC offering me what amounts to a random encounter is not saving me much at all

I believe you when you say that they are not be useful to you, but can you not accept that they are useful to other people?

 

[Yaarel]

I mean,by my count it is 3 Encounters...and 3 pretty gnarly ones for Level 3, plus a map and a basic setup. It is a mini-Adventure, a oneshot even, but it is there.

Terms include Side Quest, maybe Excursion, and very useful. The DM can drop them in anywhere.

 

[Yaarel]

What I like about this size is that when someone calls it a one-shot I know they don't mean "an adventure that takes a dozen or so sessions"

For me, a "one shot" means the characters are abandoned afterwards, rather than part of an ongoing campaign.

I think I like the term "Excursion" for a mission that lasts a session.

 

[mamba]

I believe you when you say that they are not be useful to you, but can you not accept that they are useful to other people?

anything is possible I grant you that there are people who find them useful. Do you grant me that I am not the only one to not find them all that useful?

My point is more that I do not think that they make the best use of the limited space they have to give us an interesting scenario. They waste a lot of it on the uninteresting encounter part and neglect to give us an interesting scenario. As I wrote somewhere else in relation to these scenarios, if they do not offer something beyond what an average DM can come up with on the fly, why bother with them. To me they do not, and what they offer could be more concise without losing anything, so if WotC insists on this format for some reason, make them half pages, and put the saved space to better use.

 

[Reef]

anything is possible I grant you that there are people who find them useful. Do you grant me that I am not the only one to not find them all that useful?

My point is more that I do not think that they make the best use of the limited space they have to give us an interesting scenario. They waste a lot of it on the uninteresting encounter part and neglect to give us an interesting scenario. As I wrote somewhere else in relation to these scenarios, if they do not offer something beyond what an average DM can come up with on the fly, why bother with them. To me they do not, and what they offer could be more concise without losing anything, so if WotC insists on this format for some reason, make them half pages, and put the saved space to better use.

No, I'm sure there's lots of people who agree with you. Just as there are lots that go the other way. My point was, not every bit of the book needs to be equally useful to everyone. And just because you personally don't find it useful, doesn't mean it's wasted space. I'm sure there's bits in there that you find incredibly useful that I gloss over.

It's a little off-putting, though, that you're dismissing those of us who do find them useful, with comments like "an average DM can come up with this on the fly", as if those of us who prefer not to (for whatever reason) "come up with them on the fly" are somehow subpar.

 

[mamba]

It's a little off-putting, though, that you're dismissing those of us who do find them useful, with comments like "an average DM can come up with this on the fly", as if those of us who prefer not to (for whatever reason) "come up with them on the fly" are somehow subpar.

that was not my intention, that was not about other DMs at all, it was about the product. You can prefer to not have to come up with something, even if you agree that it would be easy to. That says nothing about you as a DM. The point was that there still is a lot left that you do need to come up with, and WotC went with detailing out the low hanging fruits instead of ones that I consider more valuable.

 

[Reef]

Actually, I don’t agree it’s easy to. That’s why I find it useful. And I’m glad they leave low-hanging fruit somewhere for people like me to reach .

Anyway, we’re obviously talking past each other here, so I’m bowing out. Hope you are at least enjoying some of the book, and maybe the next will be more complete for your use cases.