[ENCOUNTER + MAP] The Heart of the Storm — A collaboration with TavernTales

An encounter featuring a sandstorm heart for characters of 9th to 12th level.

This epic encounter was created in collaboration with the wonderful folks over at TavernTales! Let them know we sent you. The files for their 'Heart of the Storm' map, which is the perfect fit for this encounter's deciding battle, can be downloaded HERE!

Encounter Setup

In this extended encounter, a violent sandstorm thrashes the desert, making life extraordinarily difficult for the populations that live there. The sandstorm is no random force of nature, however, but rather an ancient elemental whose awakening has been foretold by local prophecy. The sandstorm will not cease until a brave group of heroes can venture into the storm, find its elemental heart, and destroy it for good.

The Prophecy. The nature and reasoning of the prophecy is left up to the GM. Perhaps the elemental has awoken as the delayed result for the sins of a previous empire, or perhaps the elemental was created by an old god to regularly cleanse the desert of life so that it can start fresh. Perhaps a cult has completed a doomsday ritual. Alternatively, the elemental can be unrelated to any prophecy at all if different circumstances would better suit your game.

Into the Storm. The sandstorm envelopes a radius of approximately 18 miles. Assuming the party starts the encounter on the outskirts of the storm, they will have to travel 9 miles to reach the storm’s heart. As the party will be traveling at a slow pace, reaching the storm’s heart from the outskirts should take approximately half a day assuming that they don’t get lost. Have the party designate one party member as the navigator. The navigator can even be an NPC, such as a guide or other adventurer who lives in the area. Should they so choose, the party can switch its navigator after each navigation check that they make. When the party first enters the storm, have the navigator’s player (or the GM, if it’s an NPC) make a Wisdom (Survival) check. If the navigator has the Natural Explorer feature with desert as their chosen terrain type, they make this check with advantage. Each navigation check represents three hours of in-game travel time.

Use the Navigation table below to determine what happens to the party based on the check’s result. If the party triggers a random encounter, refer to the Standstorm Encounters table to determine the encounter.

Navigation

Check Result — Outcome

0-9 — The party loses its path, travels in a rough circle, and triggers an encounter from the Sandstorm Encounters table.

10-16 — The party travels 3 miles closer to the heart of the storm and triggers an encounter from the Standstorm Encounters table.

17+ — The party travels 3 miles closer to the heart of the storm.

Resting. The characters can take short rests during their travel, but cannot receive the benefits of a long rest while within the area of the sandstorm.

Random Encounters

d6 — Outcome

1 — Three earth elementals emerge from the sand and attack the party, fighting until they are destroyed.

2 — The party finds the ruins of an old, abandoned settlement. A character who makes a successful DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check to search the ruins finds an amulet of thoughts.

3 — A hungry behir lairing in a nearby cave spots the party and decides they might make for a large meal. The behir flees if reduced to one-quarter of its hit points or fewer.

4 — The party is surrounded by a swarm of locusts. Each member of the party is subjected to the effects of the insect plague spell (DC 17).

5 — The party is attacked by three swirling sand spirits (use wraith statistics) that utter warnings and threats about staying away from the heart of the storm. The spirits fight until they are destroyed.

6 — The party is attacked by a swarm of thirty dust mephits that unleash themselves with a cacophony of incomprehensible screaming. The dust mephits disperse if half their number are destroyed.

Destroying the Heart

When the characters reach the heart of the storm, read aloud:

Your vision clears as you step forward through the veil of sand and into the heart of the storm. The air here is calm. A scarab-shaped geoid hovers 10 feet in the air before you, rotating at impossible speed. Within moments, sand nearby begins to coalesce into a hulking humanoid form.

Roll initiative. The sandstorm heart will do everything it can to defend itself, summoning three sand guardians as quickly as possible and directing them at the party.

Treasure: Inside the Heart. A character who defeats the heart and pries it open finds an ioun stone of mastery that has grown within it.

Aftermath

Reducing the heart to 0 hitpoints sends a splitting fracture through it as it falls to the ground. The surrounding storm calms within moments, bringing a deafening silence to the area. The aftermath of the sandstorm depends on the circumstances of its origin and is left to GM discretion.