D&D might finally redeem my favorite 'bad' Forgotten Realms adventure

[ad_1] As a giant Forgotten Realms fan, I’m fairly excited in regards to the November launch of the Heroes of Faerûn and Adventures in Faerûn books. I don’t anticipate both to eclipse my gold commonplace, 3e’s Forgotten Realms Marketing campaign Setting, nevertheless, one of many Forgotten Realms Final Bundle’s digital expansions, Netheril’s Fall, has my full consideration.

Teased as “a time-traveling journey to a fallen empire,” this digital-exclusive product guarantees to carry gamers again in time to the age of Netheril, a mighty magocratic empire that dominated the lands of Faerûn just a few millennia earlier than the current time of the setting. This received’t be the primary time that Dungeons & Dragons brings us again to that age of wonders: 1996’s How the Mighty Are Fallen was a 2e Superior Dungeons & Dragons journey that takes place over the past days of the Netheril empire. It... wasn’t excellent. However it had super promise, and Heroes of Faerûn and Adventures in Faerûn have an opportunity to make good on that historical past.

<div class="responsive-img image-expandable img-article-item-portrait" style="padding-bottom:127.08498808578%" data-img-url="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/bookcover-how_the_mighty_are_fallen.jpg" data-img-desc=""Tarrasque not to scale. Proportions may vary in real adventuring - a lot."" data-modal-id="single-image-modal" data-modal-container-id="single-image-modal-container" data-img-caption=""Image: Wizards of the Coast/Nick Jainschigg""> <img width="750" height="953" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="The cover for the AD&D 2e adventure How the Mighty Are Fallen depicting the heroes fighting a Tarrasque" data-img-url="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/bookcover-how_the_mighty_are_fallen.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=750&dpr=1" src="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/bookcover-how_the_mighty_are_fallen.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=750&dpr=1" class="img-brightness-opt-out"/> Tarrasque to not scale. Proportions might differ in actual adventuring - so much. Picture: Wizards of the Coast/Nick Jainschigg

Designed for use with the Netheril: Empire of Magic boxed marketing campaign setting, How the Mighty Are Fallen had the ambition of dropping a gaggle of participant characters within the center (or not less than, very near) some of the cataclysmic, history-altering occasions within the existence of Toril: Karsus’s Folly.

Baldur’s Gate 3 gamers might have heard of this occasion, which happened in -339 of the Dalereckoning calendar. Karsus, the best wizard who ever lived (in response to Karsus), determined to heal his shattered homeland. Devastated by a long time of struggle in opposition to the monstrous phaerimm, the perfect resolution was to wrest management of the Weave away from Mystryl and change into the brand new God of Magic. To take action, he devised the primary (and final) Twelfth-level spell ever, Karsus’s Avatar, which killed Mystryl and quickly shut down all magic, together with that which saved Netheril’s floating cities floating. And so, the mightiest empire in Toril’s historical past led to someday.

In How the Mighty Are Fallen, the gamers (who will be both time-traveling adventurers or native Netherese) are given maybe one of many coolest quests within the historical past of D&D: fetch Karsus the elements needed for his mighty spell. These occur to be a Tarrasque’s pituitary gland and the gizzard of a gold dragon, so you already know that the stakes are excessive. Sadly, the journey itself is a little bit of a multitude.

Doing Karsus’s procuring isn’t the one quest accessible, because the e book warns that “This journey will not be terribly linear in nature.” That’s a misdirection if I’ve ever seen one. The story begins with a jeweler who duties the social gathering with recovering his lifeless spouse Amanda’s physique, and that easy process results in assembly a military of orcs on the run, a brush with the phaerimm, and a lich amassing the largest military of undead ever. The weirdest factor, in my view, is that the entire plot of serving to Karsus together with his spell is handled as a distraction within the e book. It’s actually a aspect quest:

“In fact, speaking a gold dragon out of its gizzard and asking the Tarrasque for its pituitary gland are usually not straightforward duties. It’ll take greater than a robust sword arm earlier than the characters can get again on process to find Amanda.”

Guys, don’t let the spell that just about ends the world distract you from the true process, discovering Amanda’s physique! Which, by the way in which, is solely a option to get the characters from their preliminary location to the citadel of the lich, the massive villain of the story. Railroading at its worst.

There’s a lot wasted potential on this journey. I’m conscious this was meant to be a companion to the Netheril: Empire of Magic marketing campaign setting, and there may be solely a lot content material that you would be able to match inside 61 pages, nevertheless it nonetheless suffers from questionable design decisions. It’s attempting to do an excessive amount of and too little on the identical time. It desires to current an instance of adventuring within the mighty age of Netheril, nevertheless it’s slowed down by uninteresting quests, the blandest villain ever, and a deus ex machina closing twist (which additionally weirdly contrasts with the official historical past of Karsus’s Folly).

<div class="responsive-img image-expandable img-article-item" style="padding-bottom:61.751662971175%" data-img-url="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/karsus-folly-d-d.jpg" data-img-desc=""Pretty sure that's not what Karsus expected from divinity"" data-modal-id="single-image-modal" data-modal-container-id="single-image-modal-container" data-img-caption=""Image: Wizards of the Coast/Sam Wood""> <img width="825" height="509" loading="lazy" decoding="async" alt="Karsus Folly depicted in a D&D illustration from Magic of Faerun" data-img-url="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/karsus-folly-d-d.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" src="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/karsus-folly-d-d.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=1" class="img-brightness-opt-out"/> Fairly positive that is not what Karsus anticipated from divinity Picture: Wizards of the Coast/Sam Wooden You probably have performed 5e’s Rime of the Frostmaiden, you already know that, on the finish of that marketing campaign, there’s an opportunity for the characters to be blasted again in time and land in historic Netheril. It’s a captivating journey hook, however one which requires adapting 2e’s Netheril materials in case you don’t need to craft your personal, which is what led me to accumulate How the Mighty Are Fallen (moreover my unhealthy obsession with classic D&D materials). Sadly, this journey is such a multitude that the one factor I'd salvage from it's the maps.

However why would you need to have an journey in Netheril within the first place? Basically, it’s fairly cool to play highly effective characters in a high-level setting that’s overflowing with energy, marvel, and all of the issues {that a} “common” D&D marketing campaign often makes you're employed more durable for, particularly contemplating that almost all of 5e’s campaigns don’t get to the upper tiers of play (ranges 11-16, “masters of the realms,” and 17-20, “masters of the world”). Typically, I need my fetch quest to contain a Tarrasque’s hormonal organ.

Youthful gamers might get the attraction from Exandria Limitless: Calamity, the quick Essential Function marketing campaign set within the Age of Arcanum, a time in Exandria’s previous when mortals stretched the ability of arcane magic to its limits and challenged the gods

In line with the abstract of Netheril’s Fall, the upcoming 5e e book will describe each the flying cities of Excessive Netheril and the bottom settlements of Low Netheril, with metropolis maps, gazetteers, and new monsters and magic objects. It is going to permit gamers and DMs to set adventures “throughout iconic Netherese occasions,” which I suppose will embrace Karsus’s Folly. Whereas I don’t purchase digital merchandise, I'll make an exception for this one. I hope that the e book will dedicate sufficient house to correctly flesh out the world of historic Netheril and supply a great useful resource for high-tier play, and never find yourself being disappointing like How the Mighty Are Fallen.