When the Queen’s Fleet discovered Sheljar they landed in the NW suburbs where the cliffs become hills. There’s a cave system that they originally used to hide their aixips. Now, after the elimination of the Necromancer and the Tunneling Nightmares, their little neighborhood among the hills is a densely populated, for the Free City of Sheljar, space that is a transit hub by sea and sky. Each of the guilds are represented in the many dozen gobkons that have settled in the space.
The main space where all peoples of the Everflow interact with these goblins, hobgoblins, and mulgobs is the Chupmolea Transit Center of Sheljar. It has space for seafaring vessels, multiple sky gondolla cables and a spire for airxips to dock as well.
Chupmolea Transit Center of Sheljar
Made with Canva’s Text to Image. The prompt was a “Leonardo da Vinci inspired transit center with airships, cable car gondollas and greasy smoke stacks.” The cable system scene connects the transit center to the Grand Entry of Sheljar.
Exit to the Chupmolea Square, the main plaza in the goblin suburb. There are hills to the Western Wildes beyond the plaza.
A high, arcing bridge to a tiny island now occupied by a dwarven family.
Swyns café.
Peoples
Chupmolea – Grand Mistress of cables, she rode with the Queen’s Fleet as part of a minor house. Her quick thought to connect the bog-city via sky-cable gondola earned her two flags. On her left shoulder are now five flags, two from her house and three she earned. She has a hook-spear used to guide gondolas to their spaces.
Swyn – a mulgoblin that discovered the power of coffee. Their café is a center of gossip and a primary spot for non-goblins to meet goblins. Swyn is always in an oilcloth apron (effective as leather armor), has random burn scars from roasting coffee, and carries a small, for them, cup of coffee.
Blerxa and Patha – two goblins of different guilds, these sisters are arguing over maintaining a connection to the Queen. Blerxa has many more flags on her left shoulder, nearly running out of space. Patha has a single flag for self and one for house.
Umikdrael Honorfeet – one of the dwarves from the nearby isle. He seems a bit lost and flustered by all the damn noise. He is constantly glancing at his notebook and then at the skyline. There is a lantern drake sitting on his hat.
Peculiars
The air reeks of burning tar from tar trees. There are fresh trees in the hills. But here in the city they are burned to power numerous teknikal devices.
A constant clamor of mekiniks hammers in the background and foreground. There are grinding gears, ratchets, pneumatics and other systems that cause this neighborhood always loud.
Unfortunately the brackish waters of the bog-city in this area are covered with a thin film of soot and tar.
I’m doing Lore 24, an attempt to write small lore elements daily in the year 2024. Each element will be something that’s come up in play or will come up in play within my homebrew World of the Everflow — there will be actionable threads for PCs to grab onto and advance the story.
My campaign world doesn’t need more monsters, but it does need more ideas. That’s a great way to look at settings and adventures — they are other people’s ideas to put into your world. That’s a short cut to worldbuilding, and a great one.
Goblins in the World of the Everflow are part of a smog-punk society building gadgets, very much like Tinker Gnomes, but grimy and greasy. Today’s release is an opportunity for me to use several new inventions in my world.
The Nevermind Gnome Inventor has three inventions. The Flying Fangtrap is a springwork device with tiny wings that pinch and pierce to do damage and may even stop the movement of the target.
In my world the Thunderscream gadget is an opportunity to latch onto the concepts from the Airmatics and Waterwerks Alliance. They could build a cannon of screaming sounds that damage like a breath weapon.
Of course the Alchems Sisterhood would invent Flash Powder, the blinding simple fireworks that can aid the goblin to escape.
Clockwork Claws that act like a third arm, or even a first or second arm; Chattergrab is essentially a grenade that is a bear trap; Phasmoball would be another invention from the Alchems.
In just this one free download the World of the Everflow has six new inventions for goblins. You can borrow from official materials for your own world too.
Maybe your world needs some undead knights? Use the Foresworn.
Another variety of magical giantkin? Irda.
Humanoid walruses? Thanoi.
A unicorn older than every forest? Forest Master has impressive powers and is not the passive unicorn at the game’s core.
Everything you encounter can be part of your session prep or worldbuilding, especially if it is a free release from the creators of the game.
The smogpunk land of goblins in the World of the Everflow was set apart from the Kingdom of Sheljar, Crinth, and other areas for a few millennia. Within this separation the goblins and hobgoblins changed from the standard tropes.
In the Everflow they answer to the Queen Mother. Everyone is organized around their family’s history of developing teknology for one of the various guilds. Inventiveness and cleverness are more important than fighting and viciousness.
To emphasize these differences, but still capture traditional goblinoid feelings there should be a some differences in language. This discovery of numerals from the 13th century feels proper for the gobkon of the world.
The Cistercian monks invented a numbering system in the 13th century which meant that any number from 1 to 9999 could be written using a single symbol pic.twitter.com/VRuEx4dkPF
— UCL Department of Mathematics (@MathematicsUCL) February 2, 2021
It works in a printing press, scribbled on paper or carved into wood.
Will it ever see the table? Probably not. Or maybe just one or two numbers in a handout for the players to demonstrate the differences between their lands with the languages of Telse (Common) and the rest of the Six Kingdoms.
If there was a campaign book for the World of the Everflow this could be a tiny sidebar for flavor, not a rule for use.
Queen’s Fleet continues to expand presence in Kirtin-on-the-Lake; various factions may lead to infighting; what are these stunning and dirty technologies?
Kirtin-on-the-Lake | Neremyn Quizana
Lately you’ve seen, heard, or smelled the newest additions to Kirtin-on-the-Lake. During this stalemate between Daoud and the Dragons and Kirtin traders from the Free City of Sheljar have entered the city. Some land on the lake with ships under great balloons filled with oily gasses; others enter with the rackety-clackety of wooden gears on various cycles of one, two, and even four wheels — like a cart without a horse.
These goblins (we shall use this word for all of them whether merely the size of halflings or the masses of muscle as large as goliaths) are organized differently than any of the Five Kingdoms of the Everflow. Most similar to the guild-houses of Qin, the Kon organize into at least six guilds that are based in familial relationship and what they call ‘teknical’ skills.
Through numerous conversations we have learned that these are their guilds active in the Western Wildes. Not all have been seen in Kirtin-on-the-Lake yet. According to our sources all are present in Sheljar and the towns under the Free City’s sway — Fort Ooshar, Mira, Telse, Bell-an-Fair, Hagtown, and possibly The Ferments.
A new peoples to the Western Wildes, these snapshots should help the fair people of Kirtin-on-the-Lake understand the goblins and their bizarre systems that ignore the shared bonds of people with animal or the potent magicks of the Dragons and their allies.
Most noticed on the streets of Kirtin-on-the-Lake due to their loud clanking cycles, the Clockwerks League is currently the most powerful of the various goblins. The Queen herself is a member, having won many flags prior to ascending to the throne.
Besides the cycles, the Clockwerks include clocks, timers, repeating crossbows, giant powerwheels similar to a waterwheel that uses their mulgobs rather than water. There is word that they will open a new grain mill took.
Ratxets Guild
Conflicting reports say that the Ratxets Guild are a spinoff from the League or something entirely new. They make wonderful climbing devices and on many days you can find a demonstration down by Theater. The ability to use their rope and ratxet to climb the side of Rock is amazing. When this author used the device it made the journey up Rock pleasant rather than the long chore that the stairway can be.
Rumor is that the Ratxet may install a gondola from the Rock that connects several districts by massive sky-ropes.
Coils of strong metal come off of smiths that burn hotter than ours. Without the tartek maybe the Springwerks Union couldn’t exist. This symbiotic relationship betwixt the guilds is routine. They compete harshly for recognition from the Queen and yet their greatest werks are interconnected and use tekniques of others.
Their crossbows are a bit lighter. A siege engine powered by a Springwerk may be able to fell a Dragon. The energy trapped within the springs is grand. It may take days for the muls and hobs to get the springs set, but once they are the power can slowly release or go all at once.
A good little friendly goblin introduced me to how the Alliance works. Our waterwheels are what they used a life of lifes ago. Now using either water or something called pneumatics the Alliance is two former competitors joined. Anything that flows can be trapped, contained, and utilized.
If you’ve been to Haystreet after DragonTree you’ll have seen the inn there with running water! There is an attached bath with a dryer!
Why do so many goblins stink of their tartek when the Alliance allows such great cleanliness? I know after a day at print (our newsletter has bids out to the League and Guild for help reducing prices for you our fair reader) I will use that bath of warm water.
At Carnival you’ve seen the Sparklers. They contain joy in their little packets. The Sisterhood is a group that takes that type of energy and applies it to more than just entertainment. The Alchems are busy foraging the rocks, vegetation, and even animal waste of our lands to find new ways to create violence. Their inventions are on par with many of the magicks of Dragons, in a way that can be taught and handed over.
This Sisterhood will not share their methods of creation. They make the Sparklers look like a newspaper since the Alchms refuse to be public in how they operate.
Also, they hate the Tarteks Federation. Supposedly these groups could be the unified, there’s some sort of familial break that has nothing to do with the teknology used.
You know the smell by know. Using their tar-trees the goblins have changed the air and water in Kirtin-on-the-Lake, maybe forever. They burn this sticky oil and create self-powered cycles, no pedaling needed. Like the Sisterhood, The Federation are reclusive.
This lack of information seems to be how the gobs keep their strength and respect. A combination of Tartek and Airxip work is what enabled the gobkon to cross the Teeth of Sheljar and, as they claim, return to their lands.
Those massive ships travel the air, floating above the rapids of rivers, the mountain passes, the brigands and bandits. Their ‘airxips’ are barely related to Daoud’s large galleons. Some of the airxips cannot even land in the waters of Kin! They must have towers or long rope ladders to interact with the grounds below.
Bladders may be filled with the works of Alchems, Tarteks, or even Airmatics. Each insists their techniques are best. This author does not know which is best. The xips and gliders of the Syndicate enable travel and connection to communities in ways that our horses cannot. Sheljar’s connection to Hagtown shouldn’t be possible. It is just uphill from us, but due to regular visits from the Syndicate it maintains a relationship to the Free City rather than Kirtin or Daoud as it was in the past.
These transports are stunning, if slow. I have booked a ride to go to Kirtin-in-the-Sky for the summer as my first test of what the Syndicate can do. Hopefully the stalemate between rebel, Daoud, Kirtin, and the Dragons will hold until after my report.
Additional reporting was provided by allies and sources within Hagtown, Sheljar, and Telse. Those sources will not be revealed.
Full Moon Storytelling 