If you want to throw another obstacle at the party, here's one... the party already knows that at least one part of the Duthelm group went into the Desolation ahead of them. Sort of an advance scouting party.
This entire encounter is optional. If you want to give your players a serious challenge, have them run into the Duthelm team. But you can easily skip this encounter if you want. It's entirely possible that the player group could get to Shidar without ever seeing the Duthelm advance group. It's a big desolation after all. Even two groups on parallel courses could be kilometers apart.
If you DO want to use this encounter, read on...
Torg, third in command, bids you farewell. Anything else you need?
You notice that the phanglir are busy preparing for battle.
The Duthelm scouting party lies due north. It’s on the way to Shidar.
The players, especially any ranger, comes across a number of tracks. Several days old. Very worn and faint.
You come across a battlefield. Lots of lots of dead wights and dead Horde creatures. The party has a chance to study all 3 up close. Lesser and Greater hordelings. Footprints of armored men all over the place. However, one set of foot prints are very large and very, very deep. An enormous heavy humanoid walked by here, apparently wearing armored boots. Large holes and gouges in the ground. Burn marks. Shed blood. Also, green slime of some type.
If the players decide not to waste time with the Duthelm scouting party, they see smoke/fire in a different location. Lure them in that way.
Or, they run smack into a Horde group. 3000 creatures. They evade around by heading west or east and then run into the Duthelm group up on a hill. In other words, the horde drives them toward the Duthelm group.
The exact size and strength of the Duthelm advance scouting group can be adjusted to fit your players and give them the level of challenge that you feel is appropriate. However, below is a suggested group and you can tailor it from there.
 | 8 Blood Guards - Standard city militia guards from the Citadel. |
| 2 Queen's Guards - Elite guards who serve as bodyguards to the Queen. Culled from the highest tier of the military. |
| 1 Knight Commander - High ranking military officer who commands the other soldiers. |
| 1 Abyss Knight - High ranking, high level "anti-paladin" Death Knight type. He commands this group. |
| 1 Black Sorcerer - One of the elite spell casters of the Citadel. |
| 3 Dragon hounds |
| 1 Large wagon and one beast of burden pulling it. |
| 4-8 "Sword Reaped" - Advanced undead type animated with a spell. Looks like a charred skeleton. Tougher than a normal skeleton. |
The Duthelm advance scouting group travels fast during the day with horses and a wagon (being pulled by a large, native beast of burden which they captured). At night, they build a small camp built around a crude cabin. The description below assumes that the players encounter them during the evening or night when they are camped.
| Cabin - A crude earth wall shelter with a grassy roof. Clay door. Door is open and a light is coming from inside. One window. Clay shutter. Also open. This cabin is actually a magical construct. The doorknob on this place is the only part that's "real". The doorknob magically creates a cabin out of whatever natural raw material is available (i.e. dir t and rock underfoot). If the doorknob is removed, the cabin melts back into raw dirt. |
| Campfire - There’s a central camp fire and there is a soldier cooking something over it. Meat of some kind – a large animal on a spit. It smells delicious. You can smell it from where you are. |
| Wagon - A large wagon loaded with supplies. Wagon is currently unhitched. No beast of burden is visible. A few crates and barrels. Six barrels of fresh water. Two barrels of ale. A couple of bedrolls. Lantern, oil, a red omarin cloak. Thieves tools kit. A map of the Desolation. Iron spikes. Four 100’ lengths of silk rope. A length of 20 feet of chain. A shovel. A pick. An axe. A crowbar. |
| Card Game - Two soldiers are playing a card game. |
| Sleeping Soldier – One bloodguard soldier is asleep. It is important to note that he is wearing armor and has his sword in his hand. Unusual, except in the Desolation. |
| Queen’s Guards - One queen’s guard is sharpening his weapon. The other is repairing his armor. They are talking quietly. |
| A Desolation Wight – A captured Desolation wight on a chain. It’s wounded with several different types of wounds. Burn, blade, puncture. Looks as if they were studying it. It’s eating something. On close inspection, you see it’s eating the severed arm of a wight. |
| The Dragon Hounds – Three dragon hounds. Describe them. They are eating the flesh of some humanoid creatures. Can’t tell what it was. Raw meat. If a player uses his True Sight vision, he sees that one of them is a morphian. |
| The Skeletons – Six undead creatures, which look like charred skeletons, are standing guard. They are standing at the perimeter. Armed with sword and shield. They will make a racket if they see any living creature approach. These are not normal skeletons, but an advanced variety, a little tougher and faster than regular skeletons. |
| The Perimeter
– Around the camp in a 60 yard radius, there is a thin line burned into the
grass in a large circle. Spellcraft can tell them it’s a version of the
alarm spell. Offer this to the player. Would you like to try spellcraft on
it? If some one tries to cross it, the line in that area lights up with
ghostly fire. Also, the person or thing crossing it is lit up like faerie
fire.
|
The Black Sorcerers are the elite spellcasters of Duthelm. The Duthelm group brought several of these spellcasters with them into Aggradar. This advance scouting group has one or more black sorcerers, at your discretion. Here are some new spells that the black sorcerer(s) could unleash that would surprise the party.
| Magic Disruption Beam - Beam of black crackling energy that temporarily shuts down all magic items and active spells on the target for 1 hour. This spell does not, however, eliminate spells in the memory of a spellcaster which haven't been cast yet. |
| Improved Magic Missile – Can hurl four of them. 2d10+20 damage each. Ranged touch attack. +20/+15/+10/+5 to hit. Can target multiple targets. |
| Telekinesis – Lift one character into the air and catapult them several dozen yards. |
| Mind Shatter – Causes victim to hallucinate badly for 1d10 rounds. |
| Summon Blade Golem – Blade Golem appears and obeys commands. This is a seven foot tall golem composed of knive and sword blades. Roughly a humanoid figure. Very good armor class. High number of attacks per round. |
| Summon Elemental Golem – Summons a golem composed out of whatever is at hand. In this case, dirt. |
| Dark Fog – A thick fog that obscures vision and grapples opponents. Tendrils of the semi-substantial fog will wrap around the characters arms and legs and attempt to physically impede them. Causes a -10 to hit each round, -2 damage and also a Strength contest each round. You must beat it on a d20 or you are successful grabbled. Fists of fog strike each round for 1d6 points of damage. |
| Earth Grasp – Summons hand of dirt that grasps leg. Creates four of them. Each has a +10 to hit against flat-footed unarmored AC. Touch only. Once grasped, it requires a Strength check to break free (DC25) each round or do 50 hit points of damage to it. |
| Dominate Undead – Takes control of undead the players are controlling and uses them against the players. |
| Plasma Bolt
– Fires a huge ball of lightning which does not dissipate. The ball of
lightning becomes a roving combat opponent. It tries to envelope a character
each round doing 3d10 points of damage each time it successfully envelopes a
person. It is controlled mentally by the Black Sorcerer. Requires
concentration only. If not mentally commanded, it continues to attack the
last person. This one will be sent after Rothgar.
|
If you REALLY want to spice things up, throw some skull claws into the mix. Skull claws are strange five legged, crab-like creatures that can fly. They are native to the Desolation. They feed on magic and can sense magical energy at a range of kilometers. They have a special ability of clamping down on the skull of an spell caster and draining the spells from his memory. Nasty!
| After a while, the intense vapors of mystical energy being thrown about during this fight attract the attention of a trio of skull crabs. |
| Perhaps one of the players sees something fly by. It’s small and moving fast. He loses sight of it. |
| Then he sees it again. This time there are two of them. They look like flat shaped with legs splayed out. |
| Suddenly the party's spell caster feels the impact of one of the creatures on his head and the crab like legs grip his head firmly. |
| Then, the spell caster suddenly feels his power start to drain away. |
| Each round, they absorb a spell from memory. |
| Any spell he attempts to cast while the skull claw is attached is cast as if he were half level. |
| Any attacks by the others against the skull claw might accidentally injure the spellcaster. |
It is entirely possible that the party wipes out this small Duthelm advance team. If this is the case, they can get quite a bit of armor, weapons, magic items and treasure from this group.
Keep in mind that they are traveling light. No extra treasure without a reason. Most of what they have is armor, weapons and useful magic items.
They also have map of the Desolation with a series of carved marble figures on it. These carved marble figures represent various key figures - the individual players, the leaders of the Duthelm forces and Lord Caramus. The map and figures show the current locations of everyone involved. It accurately shows the current location of the players unless they have some sort of protection from scrying. This magic item can help the players get an idea of where the Duthelm forces are and how close they are approaching.
At this time, the entire Duthelm force is united into one group and that group is in the southern half of the Desolation, just slightly north of the Great Wall. It seems, according to this map and figurines, that the main Duthelm group only just recently entered into the Desolation. They are, however, traveling fast.
This website was last updated March 31, 2026. Copyright 1990-2026 David M. Roomes.