Whether or not the party encountered the Duthelm advance scouting party, they still find themselves heading deep into the far northern regions of the Desolation of Shidar. They are now in the northern half of the peninsula, many miles north of the Old Wall.
Encounters with groups of horde creatures will become much more frequent in the second half of the journey. Feel free to play out about 2-3 days where
At some point, the players come across a massive cluster of lesser hordelings which pour over the hill top and descend upon the players. This group contains about 50 lessers hordelings and 10 greater hordelings. It's a large enough group that the players have no choice... they must flee. If they DON'T flee, more horde creatures pour over the hill. Another 200 lesser, 20 greater and 5 reapers. If they engage in battle, quickly wear them down and chew up their hit points. The idea here is to make them afraid, very afraid, and get them to RUN.
The characters are in hilly terrain. It's logical that they will stay in the valleys between hills. The characters are being channeled along a series of valleys. The players don't have much choice as to direction. They just have to run in the only direction that doesn't have horde creatures. Pretty soon, the horde group following them swells in size. Before too long, the characters are at a dead run fleeing a group of at least 2000 horde
The characters are pursued relentlessly by the horde down a series of long narrow valleys. The sides are steep and there are no side valleys or roads. The characters are funneled in one direction at a dead run. It soon becomes apparent that they are running along the cobblestones of some ancient road.
[What follows is a description of how this battle SHOULD go. Or could go. The players may make different choices that what is described below, but feel free to manipulate things so that you can "guide" them along this course of events. Not only because its fun, but because these events lead into the next set of events. Read on and hopefully it'll all be clear...]
The characters soon see a side road ahead that branches off and winds up the side of a large hill. Almost at the same time, they see a group of phanglir heading toward them at a dead run and beyond them, another horde group. The phanglir warriors are being chased by this other horde group and they are all going to meet in the middle, right around where the side road branches off.
The players and phanglir group have no choice... go up the side road together. There is no time for any discussion. There is only time to turn and run up the road. The road continues winding up the hill for about 2 miles. Behind them, the valley fills with horde creatures. The horde begins traveling up the side road, following the players and the phanglir. Hot on their heels, the horde is only about 2 minutes behind them.
At the top of the hill, the road comes to a dead end. At the top, there is the ruins of an old fort. It is two stories high. It's shutters are rotting on the second story windows, but the main door looks intact. The players and phanglir must seek shelter in this crumbling ruin. The place is empty except for perhaps an old table, an old tapestry, an old iron shield, some scrap wood, etc. The players and phanglir have a few minutes... if they want, they can try to strengthen their defenses by barricading the door and windows. A few magic spells here might help. But that's about all they have time for.
Minutes later, the horde arrives. Hundreds of horde creatures quickly surround the small fort and begin scrambling over each other to try to get at the door and windows. The phanglir are all armed with bows and fire repeatedly into the horde. Before too long, the door gives way and the first floor is flooded. The players and phanglir retreat to the second story, barricading the stairs.
Feel free to have the phanglir fall to the horde and die horribly, screaming. This helps demonstrate the seriousness of the situation... by killing off the phanglir.
Eventually, the phanglir and the players will be forced up onto the roof. The first two floors of the ruin are flooded with horde creatures. The building is surrounded by hundreds of horde creatures. Hordelings are scrambling over themselves to get up on the roof to get at their prey. It's a blood frenzy. The barricade on the last door is starting to fail and the horde creatures are starting to break through. The situation looks absolutely hopeless. At this point, the characters should be pulling out everything they've got. This is the last stand.
When things seem darkest, that's when a shadow swoops over the players. They look up and see a startling site... they see an omarin (a blonde human-like being) in a primitively constructed winged contraption. The contraption looks like a large, low tech hang glider. The man is strapped into a harness and he is steering the flying contraption.
The party sees four of these aerial hang gliders. Each of the pilots is an omarin. Two male and two female. The four pilots begin dropping objects into the horde below. These things, which look like wineskins, explode splattering a yellow green liquid causing the horde creatures to react in pain and retreat.
While the players are taking all of this in, they also see another impressive sight. They see several huge air ships... large floating hulls with complex rig and harness systems, being kept in the air by a number of huge balloons. These ships are more than 50 feet long and dozens of omarin are aboard, peering over the railings, yelling at the players. A rope ladder is dropped from one of them and the players (and the three remaining phanglir) quickly climb aboard.
The party scrambles aboard the main ship. They are welcomed aboard and brought food and water as the ships all begin to travel up, leaving the small fort behind. As the players look back, they can see horde creatures flood over the roof of the building where they had been standing only moments before.
The party is introduced to the omarin leader who welcomes them and the phanglir. The omarin leaders name is Woedan. He is a thin, old man with a weathered face, long grey hair, dark eyes. The subchieftain is Darlang. The shaman is Mythras. The chief warrior is Skarj.
This ship is the Cloud Sabre. The ship slowly rises. The ship heads toward a group of similar ships which are at a higher altitude.
As your ship gets closer to the others, you get a better look at the other ships. The ships all share the same general design, but vary in size. The smaller ones have only a single balloon and carry only about 8 people. The larger ones have as many as 6 balloons and carry as many as four dozen.
The air ships are a blend of building and ship. There are nine air ships in this group. Hot air and bellows keep the balloons inflated. The ships are fashioned from a remarkably strong and light wood. The balloons themselves seem to be huge strips of skin stitched together. Everything is stitched or lashed together with a light weight silk string.
The ships have a sophisticated system of rudders and sails for navigating the wind and a huge propeller which is turned by omarin men turning a large crank.
The players quickly learn that these flying ships carry an entire tribe of omarin. This is a flying village of sorts. Rope walkways connect the ships. The ships are able to all connect via ropes and walkways and form one massive flying village.
The omarin copied the design of their flying ships from the “balloon insect”. It’s a huge insect, the size of a horse, which has a special organ in its abdomen. When danger threatens it, it can inflate the organ to absurd proportions with a special organic gas and fly away. Often, a balloon insect will spend huge amounts of time in the air, spending days or weeks flying about during Horde season.
Being able to fly lets them avoid more than 99% of the horde. Only about 1 in 1000 horde creatures can fly. But still, this improves their odds dramatically. They fight off flying horde creatures in the air.
The single person hang gliders that the players saw first land on the larger ships and are secured.
The players tell the omarin where they want to go - to the ruins of the city of Shidar. The omarin are familiar with those northern ruins and agree to take them there. Although they will not go all the way to the ruins (the omarin are very superstitious and fearful of that place), they will land about 5 miles outside of the ruins and drop the players off.
The journey will take at least a full day (maybe two) at full power (omarin warriors taking turns at the propeller crankshaft). If the players have any ability to summon or control wind, this would help.
During the flight, the ships come across a swarm of the flying balloon creatures. The omarin “hunt” them… shooting them with tethered arrows and reel them in. They dine on balloon creature that night. This could be a fun side thing with any archer players in the group.
If you want to give the players a side advantage... have the ships attacked by a group of flying horde creatures.
Not only are flyers a threat, but the flyers could carry other types of horde creatures up and drop them on board the ship. A single reaper or flamer on board a ship could cause a huge amount of damage and even cause the ship to come plummeting down. This could be a nail-biting adventure as the players struggle to repair a damaged balloon as the ship plummets down toward a waiting hungry horde WHILE they are also battling creatures on board. Great fun!
Of course, this is an optional encounter. You could just as easily have the flight be uneventful.
If the players have any means of magical scrying, it's possible that they have been trying to keep tabs on the main Duthelm group that they left back in Chaddamar. The truth is that that group waited until Lord Caramus arrived from Duthelm (through some highly magical means). Caramus decided to assume command of the mission because he was not pleased with their progress and reports.
Now that Caramus has arrived, he is using his considerable magical power to levitate an entire ship. It's a massive galleon. The entire Duthelm force is on this one ship and they are now flying over the Desolation at a good speed.
If the players have some kind of magical scrying or divination ability, you might be able to let them know that Caramus is coming and that he is bringing the whole Duthelm force with a great flying ship.
If the players do NOT have any such divination ability, you might be able to help them out. Here's an alternative idea:
The largest ship in this omarin tribal fleet has a magically enchanted spy glass on the back. They didn't build it. They recovered it from ancient ruins here in the Desolation. It is mounted on the aft section of the largest airship. Through this device, they see the flying ship bearing the colors of Duthelm... perhaps the ship is some 100 miles to the south, but gaining rapidly.
Another idea - an omarin shaman woman is able to cast divination magic and causes visions to appear in the fire. Everyone can see these images. Perhaps she chants before the fire and uses her spells for the players and they see the flying ship in the fire.
Eventually the omarin airships come to the ruins. The ships find a safe place and land about 5 miles from the ruins and let the players off. Under no circumstances will the omarin come near the ruins and they also make one last attempt to talk the players out of it, telling them that only death and evil live in the ruins.
This website was last updated March 31, 2026. Copyright 1990-2026 David M. Roomes.