Finally ran it yesterday evening to two new players. A lot of fun was had. They sussed out the enclave from the random encounter of the Spore servants, but they were sure the enclave was hostile. The golden egg relic was the lynching pin of their plan against the other feather hunters. In the end they chose to protect the arboreal geese. 

For me, the random encounters felt easily tied to the locations or to each other, giving me all I needed to create a cohesive experience. The blank map was clear enough so that they could track their journey. 

:Admire: Thanks for a great product.