Ferments, Session one: Smog buggy and fire snakes

The East marched on West Thundermoon Trading Post.

Wrapping up a typical day, Keesrah noticed a thick, acrid cloud coming from the east. At the same time a not-unusual goliath walked up the packed dirt road from the south.

The goliath, Guarase Spinebloom, reached the gates of the wooden palisade enclosure a few minutes before the smog buggy. Keesrah starts closing the doors.

The smog buggy encounter was one of three random encounters rolled by the three players taking part in today's session.

In a thick accent, the boss of the smog buggy, a goblin with driver and second passenger, demands/requests entry to escape “fire snakes.”

Keesrah messages her mother. This takes nearly a minute because it is the spell. She opens the gate and lets the rancid smoke engulfed clackety buggy into the trading post.

Mere feet behind them are fire snakes.

This was not a euphemism. They are snakes, made of fire.

Fire snakes were also rolled on the random encounter chart.

The fight is swift with another Trading Post visitor, a halfling with six tiny terrier companions, Luke with a silent and non-appearing q in his name. Luke is a cleric and joins in the defense. He was picking up farm implements from Keesrah’s father, a smith whose forge burns over an open lava seam.

Luke, Keesrah and Guarase try to defend these goblins. They have difficulty conversing with the goblins. Though the goblins know common (Telsian as we’re using cultures not languages)the two dialects known aren’t similar between the Ferments-born and the Essians (goblin born).

A unique use of Create Water by Luke reduces the fire snake effectiveness for a round, while also limiting the spread of fire in the walls.

During the fight the fire snakes kill one of the goblin minions and damage everyone, as well as a bit of the palisade. It’s a win, but with a hefty loss.

A mistake the DM, me, made was having four fire snakes. Standard fire snakes have too many hit points for three 1st level characters, even with their allies.
As soon as I realized the error I dropped them to 13 or 14 HP. That meant the fight was very difficult, but not a campaign ender.

A morale roll means that the smog buggy driver will likely never leave the trading post again. Their best friend is gone, burnt. Malk, the goblin boss needs to repair their buggy, which is also crispy, and find a crew and find the resources to use as fuel. The goblins normally use tar trees, but outside of Essia those are extremely rare.

Malk and Keesrah’s father talk about the possibility of using lava to fuel the smog buggy.

After a bit of rest, and setting up a guard by Keesrah’s family the group tries to recover. They talk a bit.

Looking around the Post they notice the overflight of dozens of hunting birds. The Maltunyn family rivals up in the hills almost always bond with birds. At a heightened alert, the group of Luke, Guarase and Keesrah notice that one of the smaller doors out to the game trails is open. Keesrah’s younger brother is gone.

The overflight was the third random encounter rolled.

Key learnings (SlyFlourish would call these secrets).

• Goblins are searching The Ferments for a resource that can fuel their smog-tek.
• Fire snakes are now aggressive, rather than passive. They will chase outsiders in the area.
• Keesrah’s brother snuck out at night. That raised an alert from the adversarial clan nearby.
• Community helps community. No matter the challenge and the danger.

This was the first session of The Ferments, an East Marches Campaign set in the World of the Everflow.

It is an experiment in using random encounters, defensible places, and a West Marches style to talk about community, control of knowledge and love of pets.