Aerial Battles

Airships provide swift and relatively safe travel at a modest price for passengers, but such voyages are not without their dangers. Storms can whip and fling an airship to the ground. Prowling pirates descend from the great cloudbanks to strike passersby in the air or on the ground, while larger, deadlier monsters may regard an airship as a meal. This article presents a sample, customizable encounter to demonstrate the sorts of aerial enemies one can find in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons adventure.

The clouds pile up into great fluffy mountains that rise high above you and drift in the warm breeze. Below, you see the world in miniature, its farms and fields forming a patchwork tapestry stitched by greenery and threaded by narrow roads. That view is broken by a shout from a crewman which draws your eye to starboard. There you spy a magnificent vessel, equal in size and speed to your own, breaking through a cloudbank.