Random Desert Encounter Ideas

[PhoenixDM]

Greetings and Salutations all. I have come seeking advice ... ok that sound a little weird... um starting again.


:smallsmile: Hello, I'm a new-ish DM, been running a game since last summer (June/July) and have been having a lot of fun with it.

I've gotten a little... idk if writer's block is the right term for it... but in the story I am having the party travel south through a desert region. My plan is to have them escorting a trade caravan... but knowing my players they may just decide to go on their own (because yes they are like that...)

I'm trying to think of different random events I can put into the travel area, I'm hoping to devote a session to it so I don't want it to feel like they are rushed through to the end... but I don't want it to drag too much. But it's trying to think what would be fun, and what would be idk... too outlandish?

The party is lvl 7 - College of Valor Dwarf Bard, Totem Barbarian Human, Wild Mage Sorcerer Tiefling.

Some of the things I was thinking of using -

Sand Storm
Bandits
Have a really high powered monster show up, but it's a mirage
find an oasis ... may or may not be a mirage

I don't necessarily want to do a blue dragon, but when I was reading through that section it said they had dust devils that guarded their lairs, so I was thinking of trying to adapt something like that, a sand elemental type creature.

I'm not really sure what other types of creatures would live in a desert area... so any suggestions of advice would be appreciated. The game is on Sunday, so I have two days to prep my random encounters ... if I can figure out what they are going to be.

[Degwerks]

Giant Scorpions with Kobold riders. Maybe a Wyvern? Efreeti, Azers, Djinn, air elementals & mephits, swarms of spiders/scorpions, bandits on camels/ponies, snakes & nagas & yuan-ti.

Sarlacc Pit type crittet, sinkholes & sandstorms.

Beneficial encounters: Djinn & Dao, Azer, desert druids, sphinxes, sunsoul monks, dervish like nomads.

[Axorfett12]

I am actually running a desert campaign right now. Little bit lower level though. In line with the Blue Dragon idea, I agree that you should not have them face one. Yet. The dust Devils could easily be the spell Dust Devil.

At level 7, you would need a lot of bandits to offer a challenge or some other evening factor. Keep in mind that any creature can be a bandit (profession), but not necessarily be a bandit (monster) Perhaps the bandits are yuan-ti, or they attack in a sandstorm. Perhaps they utilize illusions in a clever manner to infiltrate the camp and attack from inside.

Perhaps they encounter a strange tower in the desert, sealed tight with magic. Releasing the seal also releases dozens of zombies and a couple mummies.

[Brendanicus]

Bullettes, thri-kreen withdeath dogs or mounted on wyverns or giant vultures, purple worms, and air elementals all come to mind as random mob-style encounters.

For something more nuanced, tge players could come across a circle of desert druids performing a ritual on a mysterious, twisting stone pillar. The pillar marks the location as the site of a hidden shrine to Primordial Air (or Yan-C-Bin, prince of elemental evil air, if you like being wordy) the druids want to eliminate the site, as it attracts dust devils, invisible stalkers, giant vultures, and ither unsavory airborne creatures. They want to use a ritual on the stone to uncover the hidden tomb beneath, but will need help defending themselves while they are doung magic.

If the party helps, they get the treasure in the tomb. Party must hold off an invasion of air elementals and harpies u til the druids complete their ceremony. If you want there to be more material, the uncovered tomb could be a full dungeon, or it could be a small, unguarded site, with expensive offerings inside.

However, if you want a nice twist, the burial site could nor even be for a humanoid at all, but for a skeletal roc, who will rise from the sand and attack when the ritual nears completion. (Use roc stats, but it cant fly for obvious reasons)

[mgshamster]

I like the bandit idea, but to keep it interesting and challenging, have the bandits avoid direct confrontation. They don't want to risk their life in open combat, instead they want to steal equipment and/or capture slaves. If combat happens, they use tactics to get away rather than fight. Throw a net on a PC to tangle them up, then run for it, going to a pre-set trap in the ground to hide in the sands. This could especially work if those pre-set traps were actually hidden entrances to an old abandoned fallen tower that the bandits now use as a base.

The PC's could explore it to get their stuff back and/or hunt down the bandits, and while they're there they uncover some ancient magic that sets up for an entirely new challenge. (Maybe the bandits even team up with the PC's just to survive).

[WarrentheHero]

It's important to keep in mind that any encounters, random or otherwise, need to make sense. Not just in a mechanical way, or in a 'desert-feeling encounters,' way. Even nameless bandits should have motivations. They wouldn't just be randomly in the middle of the desert. They'd target a popular trade road.

If you use Axorfett12's idea of a tower, for example, think of a reason why the tower is there. What happened to the people inside to make them undead? Why are the mummies different from the zombies?

In my experience, if you can get a reason as to WHY any given thing is as it is, then the entire thing feels a lot more natural, it's easier to logically plan them out, and if the players learn the underlying reasons (usually they don't), then gives them a full appreciation not just for the encounter, but for the fact that every encounter has a reason, and it ultimately breathes more life into your campaign.

[PhoenixDM]

@WarrentheHero Exactly why I was having an issue... trying to figure how things fit into the story.

The main plot is that the party is hunting the four "generals" working for the BBG. Each bad guy is going after a magical object in the basic cardinal directions (North and East have been dealt with). In game the setting is Winter so the West is currently blocked with storms in the mountains, making the target they want to follow next going south across the desert. Trying to get them to go south with out making it feel like it's too much of a "railroad" in that direction...

When they had been in town before it was mentioned that there was a caravan heading south across the deserts soon, so the set up is when they return to town saying that Mini Bad #2 is dead, the Noble who is heading the search to save the magic objects from the BBG will mention that the caravan will be leaving in ( say a day or so... that way they can rest, get supplies, and settled for the trip)


I really do like the Bandit idea. Where I'm hoping they are going to either be escorts for the caravan or at least passengers having some one / some thing raid the camp would be interesting and fit in with the story.

@Axorfett12 I've actually adapted a few other encounters to use different races (Bugbear Druid who's preserved head is in the Barbarian's bag of holding for some reason still...) so tweaking the bandits to a higher difficulty race won't be an issue. I've been playing a lot with the rules in the DMG about making npcs and bad guys... my last Mini-Bad Guy general was a hybrid Necromancer-Bard ... he was as fun to role play as he was to create.

@mgshamster the idea of a hit and run... trying to steal weapons or food or water with out getting caught could be a lot of fun... and could open up a chance to role play the encounter rather than just another hack and slash fight.

And if they choose not to go with the caravan... they could come across it being attacked by bandits during their journey so it's still a usable encounter that's already set up in the events in the world so far.


Thanks for all the input. I've got a couple ideas now of where I want to take this ... (I always try to have a back up plan because we all know that players don't always do what you expect them to do... )

[MrStabby]

Maybe a desert version of Brigadoon. Once every hundred years in a sandstorm a small town emerges from the haze.

Within the town there could be whatever you want - a cult to a mummy lord, a devil as a ruler, a smithing guild using long lost techniques, a bardic college of unique culture.

[Douche]

The last time I was travelling in the desert, we encountered a pair of warriors wearing fashionable yet loose and breezy clothings. They were dyed a shade of ochre which was a good sign that they hailed from the port city to the east which is known for its clay deposits. They were armed, but did not have the look of warriors about them. I said to Faldrin, "These men, they look like they have not held a sword before." to which Faldrin said "Kerghan, do not do what I think you will do" for that was to take advantage of their weakness and leave their body for the sands.

I knew they would be carrying some riches, this was the tale that their clothing told me, and they had not yet spotted us, for they did not know their way about the sands. Indeed, they had probably never left the verdant oases of the port city of Himmelort before. We approached under the cover of darkness to cut their throats as they slept but as I came closer it was revealed to me that the two men shared a sleeping bag. Baghard, our orcish henchman, was outraged to see two men laying together as lovers, and was prepared to smash their kneecaps for amusement, but I stayed his hand.

In the ruckus, the two men awoke and presumed that we were bounty hunters from Himmelort. As it turned out, they were the sons of two of their noble houses - named Zon & Chimley - who absconded from the city to find love elsewhere, for they were forbidden to do so at home. It was at this point that Baghard heard enough of their blasphemy and broke the arm of Zon. He cried out in anguish as Chimley drew a scimitar to defend his injured love, but I once again buffeted Baghard to abstain from his intolerant wrongdoing. "Karghah!" He bellowed "Man no man no man! Man man wo-man!"

In his fear, Chimley struck Baghard with the scimitar, ineffectively, but managing to surprise us with his aptitude of a sword he obviously had no experience with. What ensued was a facetious melee as Baghard and the boy wrestled on the dune, with Chimley temporarily gaining the upper hand by cramming a handful of sand into the eyes of the dimwitted orc. After having our fill of laughter, Faldrin and I asked the two that they would politely end their conflict, for we had business to attend to. We distracted Baghard with a handful of ball bearings, which he gleefully tossed up and down - perhaps mesmerized by their clacking as they fell back into his hands.

As Faldrin repaired Zons broken arm, we interviewed them as to the nature and status of their familial position in the port city of Himmelort. Zons father was the chairman of the banking guild. Meanwhile, Chimleys father was a purveyor of exotic animals from faraway lands. Faldrin and I came to the conclusion that we would do well to ransom them, rather than take their meager possessions and leave them for the vultures. In our consultations, the two boys overheard us and attempted to flee, until we took away Barghards toys and he chased them like a hound after rabbits. Begging for mercy, they consented to being shackled and slung to the backs of our horses as we made way toward Himmelort.

Leaving them tied to a sewer grate on the outskirts of the city, with the small comfort of each others company despite being gagged, we left to make a deal with the parents of our two captives. As it turned out, the banker and the glorified sheep herder had already disowned their sons. They were uninterested in brokering any deal for the safety of those two, who had defiled their family names. Faldrin and I found this quite distasteful, not least for the reason that our bounty yielded no fruit. We returned to the two boys with another deal in mind, we'd arrange for them to inherit the family business. "Do not linger on the details of which this would occur" Faldrin said, in response to the boys asking for an elucidation on our plans. They agreed under the duress of Baghard growling behind them, which I took as enough a threat for them to not want to be thrashed again by the simpleton.

In the end, we assassinated the fathers and ensured that any brothers of theirs would not step up to challenge their inheritance. The two had enjoyed a long secret love from then on. Quite romantic, really, if not for the fact that we established our continual payment through the blackmail of revealing the circumstances of their fathers' deaths, as well as the true extent of their friendship to the city at large. Baghard went on to become a porter, while Faldrin and I chose to continue our journey to travel the world, making sure to visit Himmelort every now and then to exact our extortions.

[MBControl]

I might try to use this as an opportunity to really put their resources to the test. Heat Stroke, Dehydration, Starvation. And don't forget that a desert gets extremely cold at night. Can they make a fire with limited wood?

Also, by definition, a desert is simply a place with limited amounts of rainfall. You can have more than sand as an environment. You can present gorges, canyons and sparse vegetation. A good way to stave off starvation and dehydration is by harvesting cacti.

Snakes! Snakes! Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes? Sounds like a nice buried temple Indiana Jones opportunity too.

[WarrentheHero]

One idea could be that of a cursed Prince of Thieves.
He would have been Robin Hood-esque, stealing from the sultan and giving to the poor subjects. Until one day he sees the sultan's daughter and immediately falls in love. The thief sneaks into her room in the palace, and the two spend many nights together. Eventually, the princess decides to leave with the thief that they may spend their lives together. They depart, leaving only a note behind them to explain. The sultan, grief-stricken, demands his guards scour the kingdom looking for her. Her brother, who is in fact behind her in the line of succession, thinks this is wondrous opportunity. Pretending to be heartbroken, he locks himself away, and makes a pact with dark powers to have her killed. The guards eventually find her and the thief in a small village, but before they can get to them, a sandstorm of unprecedented ferocity sets in, eroding everyone in the village away.

Now, the thief, the princess, and some remnants of the thief's band (who were also in the village at the time) all live on as undead sand-wraiths, wrathfully striking out against any that come near.

So you'll want to have some high-level skeletons or undead on your roster, and add in some environmental sand effects 'controlled' by the thief. You could also make it that during sandstorms, the whipping sands re-form the village in the eye of the storm for the duration. So the players would be caught up in a sandstorm, and flee to what they see as houses and buildings. In the eye they're safe from the cutting winds, but then must contend with the wraiths. When they kill the wraiths, the storm ceases, and the buildings crumble to dust.

The best part is, despite the explanatory background, the PCs might never even learn of it.

[Axorfett12]

Another idea is to implement a random encounter chart. My players are soon embarking on a 3 week journey through the desert, and I decided to handle it with tables. Just make a 2 by 6, 10, 12, chart. Then each day roll on the chart to see what happens. I'd make about half of the results an uneventful day, and treat a result you already rolled as uneventful.

Not all things in the desert are dangerous. Perhaps they encounter a friendly copper/brass dragon who is just looking to help out caravans or travelers. Of course they have to listen to his stories and/or laugh at his jokes but that's ok they were gonna do that anyway, right? He might offer them safe haven at his lair, information about the area, additional food or supplies, or, in the case of a copper, just prank them. A brass dragon would be amusing if it followed them for a while, just idly talking to everyone.


One of my personal favorite encounters was with a strange desert phenomenon. A blue dragon lived in the area, and had turned all the sand near his lair into glass. This caused the "sand" to have a beautiful prismatic color, but also be extremely bright and extremely sharp. Travelling over it during the day provoked a con save to avoid blindness unless they had seen sort of protection. Any creature who fell down in the glass took a small amount of damage. It made for interesting traveling. It didn't come up, but if they went through it at night, there would have been dust devils. Made of glass.

You seem like you got lots of ideas though, some quite good ones that I am going to steal for later use. Good luck and have fun!