Tag: East Marches

  • Ferments, Session two: Punch chickens, Malk the taker, Lenny the lynx

    Ferments, Session two: Punch chickens, Malk the taker, Lenny the lynx

    The second session of The Ferments campaign, an East March style took place again at West Thundermoon Trading Post.

    Again, the session started with rolling on the random encounter chart. Only one of the encounters happened, as there was a lot of great roleplay between the characters.

    That encounter was with “Chickens with arms and fists” also referred to as “punch chickens.” These larger-than-a-turkey chickens have humanoid arms coming out of their wing joints and are semi intelligent.

    The Ferments reading;

    Session two started with a brief recap of the last session and a reminder of the nature of the East March campaign — problems come to you.

    Then Keesrah spoke to her brother, Caile, about the situation with the open door up to the game trails. That conversation leads to the discovery that the brother is dating one of the goliaths in the rival clan up in the hills. Keesrah leans on the young love bird to keep the doors and gates closed as the brother mocks Keesrah for the fight with the fire snakes.

    Ellis, a guest (another PC) enters the compound seeking materials for their homestead. He’s taken over an abandoned plateau homestead nearby. Those religious zealots left the region nearly 30 years ago during the time of the born generation. With decades of wear on the home, mill and other equipment Ellis will have to work hard to reopen the spring-fed mill and granary.

    Needing smithed goods, Ellis chats with Keesrah’s father, Cay, and the goblin Malk. During those conversations Keesarh and Ellis learn that Malk is not merely a refugee, but has strong goals to learn how to take the magma and steam power from The Ferments to the Queen.

    This learning is specifically called out in the quick recap as a note for all players. As was the brother's love interest.
One piece of advice I try to follow is to remind players of the clues their characters learn. Our memories of a game are more fallible than our characters' memories of their lives.

    Learned clues

    • Malk (goblin leader) is a taker. They want to take whatever they can from The Ferments that helps the Queen.
    • Keesrah’s brother has a lover up with the Goliath Clan Drudzhar.
    • Ellis homestead was previously abandoned by religious zealots during the Born Generation when magic returned.
    • Someone is creating animal hybrids.

    Those first three clues are from the conversations between the characters and the named NPCs.

    The fourth clue was an interjection because I could tell the table needed some action, plus there were two random encounters rolled and we hadn’t gotten to either.

    Using the open door to the game trail from session one, and the obvious wealth of the trading post as inspiration the punch chickens were the easier of the two random rolls to integrate.

    Punch chickens

    Three punch chickens are discovered by Ellis’ lynx, Lenny. The lynx flushes them out of one of the merchant booths. Those armed chickens are carrying some goods away, sprinting towards the open door.

    What are punch chickens?

    Statistically they are axe beaks (Black Flag page 371) that punch rather than poke. Their special ability of Evasion turns out to be too significant for 2.5 combatants.

    Deadly encounter

    This is a deadly encounter with two characters and one combatant animal companion. The action economy combined with consistent dodging means both characters are dropped unconscious. The final roll comes down to Ellis’ lynx versus a wounded punch chicken. The lynx lands the fatal blow.

    Keesrah did bar the door preventing a simple escape, so even if they had completely failed there was a narrative success available via the peasants and non-heroic NPCs.

    Keesrah’s mother, Velthuria, helps the group heal.

    During the recovery the group used some social checks to learn that the punch chickens likely originate from a group that myths call the Children of Chorl (an evil transmuter who tried to create various hybrid creatures).

  • Ferments, Session one: Smog buggy and fire snakes

    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.

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