This session will mark the 1 year anniversary of my parties campaign and to celebrate that as well as me going to college we are having our first in person session for this campaign and I want something to make it special. I intend to pull out all the stops for this including buying and making a few maps.

The set up is as follows. After getting a base established in thrane the party has decided to travel through the mournlands to the home town of a deceased party member in the blade desert (something I made up kinda) to inform the family of what happened. They have already crossed the mournlands (I forgot how fun it is to scare the shit outta my players with the mourlands) and we ended that session with them emerging on the other side of the mist.

The place there going in the dessert I've decided is already destroyed and being prowlled by something (more many somethings). I know I want there to be 2 combat encounters and I've already got clues written out as to what happened to the place they are going but I have no idea what to fill the rest of it with. The process of crossing the planes and traversing the desert I want to be exiting in there own right I just don't want to involve something that might leave a loose end (like the tribal halflings of the planes) so what could I fill that time up with and what minor combat encounter could I put in before getting to the desert and what could I put in the ruins of there destination the would be a challenge.

My party is as follows all level 7 Storm Sorcerer Half elf with the mark of the storm. Death domian kenku cleric. Fighter 5 artificer 2 warforged. Swashbuckler Rouge goblin Paladin blue dragonborn.