Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
Melvin the Rain
He a slime person who can’t be hurt by normal weapons, and in fact keeps several normal weapons inside his gooey, malleable form to produce and weild when the need arises. The Rain (singular and plural) arrived on this world as fragments of an ice comet. Rain tends to live with other Rain and not in the cosmopolitian, multi-species cities that are common across the world. They all answer to the Ice King, and Melvin is exploring new lands partially because of some unpleasantness back at the royal court. Rumor has it that the Rainwant to create a great Ice City.
Lumen the Lantern
She appears to be a female humanoid accompanied by a small floating light, but really she’s an extradimensional traveller, and the light is closer to the “real” her than the humanoid form it projects. Maintaining the humanoid form is tiring, but makes interacting with others in this world much easier. There are not many Lanterns in this world. She’s exploring to right wrongs, enforce justice, and protect the innocent, and she’s focused all her skill into making her Little Light as versatile and dangerous as possible. Woe to the wicked! Rumor has it that Lanterns can possess other creatures, kind of like they ‘possess’ their humanoid projections.
Grokch the Goblin Tinker
He’s a little Goblin in a big suit of power armor, equipped with a blaster gun and giant drill. Goblins are somewhat shy and stay in their technologically advanced underground cities, never venturing to the surface. Grockch (be sure to to pronounce the guttural ‘ch’ after the hard ‘k’!) was voluntold to explore topside for new materials or power sources to help advance Goblin civilization. In addition to seeking scientific progress, he also wants the chance to show off his cool toys! Rumor has it that Goblins are redirecting underground streams.
Bungo Trotter the Squire
He’s not the champion of humanity. He’s just a guy who’s good at making friends and is a little over his head. He wants to see the sights and maybe discover more about who he is, deep inside. Rumor has it that humans are brainwashing the Goblin scouts that are sent to the surface, so they will go back and infiltrate the Goblin underground cities.
Rumors
- There’s a new material that enables a new form of energy
- A swamp monster lurks inside a lake
- A mystical shrine that lets one recover from grief
- Drinking from a certain natural spring brings euphoric feelings
Let’s Begin
Bungo, Grokch, Lumen, and Melvin did not take a ferry like the previous party. They took a charter vessel that was already carrying some cargo to Port Fennrick. It’s a small boat, with barely enough room for the six passengers and crew, plus the carefully wrapped, couch-sized cargo. The boat is pulled by two manatees, commanded by Jensen (a platyperson) and guided through an unconventional route by Sebastina (a mermaid). During the journey, some vast undersea creature passed by. A fast-moving hill of water, pushed up by the unseen monster, overtook the boat and threw it off-course. The manatees broke loose and fled in panic. Sebastina barely held on to the hull, and the boat and its six occupants washed up on an unfamiliar shore.
Our heroes take stock of the situation. No one is injured, and the boat’s hull seems intact, but their propulsion is gone, and they don’t know where they are relative to their destination. Lumen surveys the scene. They are on a sandy beach. The water is shallow, dotted with many islands of strange, unnatural shapes: a hemisphere, a cube twisted at an odd angle, curlicues, and other shapes which wind, water, and time would never create. Inland, there’s dense jungle, and hills rising far beyond. Lumen’s sharp eyes detect giant spiders lurking in the jungle, hunting birds looking for stragglers overhead, and the tops of masts far away to the south. So the main shipping lane is to the south, but how can they get there?
Melvin walks into the sea and shapeshifts into a manatee. He calls out, hoping to find the lost manatees. Instead, he finds strange fishes, as misshapen and twisted as the islands they swim among. They head towards him, and they don’t look friendly! Fortunately for Melvin. he’s hard to see when he’s immersed in water, and normal weapons like fish teeth can’t hurt him anyways. Bungo still throws rocks to distract the fish and pulls Melvin to shore.
Just then, from behind a perfectly cylindrical island, a small racing yacht appears. It’s zooming dangerously close to the island, it’s lone occupant leaning so far off the side that the pontoon on the opposite side is out of the water. It’s do Rolo, the millionaire thrill-seeker! Bungo knows him! Bungo helped de Rolo select the perfect tree to turn into that yacht’s mast. Bungo hails the yacht and de Rolo swiftly heaves to. The castaways explain their predicament, hoping for a ride on the yacht, or for de Rolo to build a mast for their boat so they can finish their journey under wind power. de Rolo is excited by the strange, large creature that got them into this mess. He’s a thrill-seeker, so of course he wants to pursue the creature immediately. Of course he won’t leave them stranded. They can all accompany him on this grand chase, and then he’ll take them to Port Fennrick. The castaways are not interested in heading into danger, especially Captain Jensen, who really wants to deliver her cargo on time. It’s very important. They convince de Rolo to make a mast for them so that he can go chase monsters and they can go to Port Fennrick.
de Rolo is now fixed on his new mission and marches boldly into the jungle to select a proper tree. He doesn’t see that he’s walking right towards a couple of giant spiders! The spiders’ attention is all on de Rolo, so Melvin and Lumen blast one with their respective ranged weapons. The second Spider pounces on top of de Rolo, but Lumen drops that one with a single,well-aimed shot! Our heroes move forward to secure the area, and de Rolo finds a good tree. He and Grokch attempt to fashion a mast from it, but Grokch has only a blaster and a drill, tools better suited to other uses. He destroys the tree.
de Rolo is frustrated and won’t try again. If the party wants to leave, they had better accompnay him on his yacht. They all return to the beach, but the yacht isn’t there! Neither are Jensen or Sebastina. They’ve stolen the yacht and stranded our heroes! Melvin can move through bodies of water at incredible speed, so he catches up with the yacht and pleads for Jensen to return and pick up the others. She reluctantly agrees, and Melvin owes her a favor. When everyone is onboard, their destination is hotly debated. Jensen wants to deliver the package to Port Fennrick immediately, but de Rolo wants to pursue the creature. During the commotion, Lumen sneaks a peek at the mysterious cargo. It’s a large wooden box, maybe 2m x 1m x 1m, wrapped in canvas and secured by rope. Lumen unites a few knots and lifts the lid. Inside, there’s a creature that has been reshaped so much that no original shape is left. Eyes, limbs, teeth at all angles. It lies perfectly still, because on the inside of the lid is a glowing Symbol of Sleep! Lumen manages to cover it with her hand just before it knocks her unconscious. Now she remembers Jensen’s mannerisms and her insistence on delivering the package. She’s smuggling this beast for some unsavory folks, and if it’s not delivered as promised, Jensen is in serious trouble.
Just as Grokch is convincing Jensen to go on de Rolo’s adventure first and deliver the cargo later, Jensen spots Lumen messing with the cargo! Lumen reveals the secret of the cargo. She doesn’t uncover the Symbol of Sleep, of course, but explains the situation. She gives an inspiring speech about slaying this foul creature and fighting the mobsters who put Jensen and everyone else in danger with it. Most are convinced, but Melvin is dedicated to the freedom of all things, and sees the Chaos Beast as a prisoner. Everyone starts arguing as mutant fish start circling the boat, drawn to the Chaos Beast.
Melvin prevails. They will release the Chaos Beast from its enchanted slumber, but they don’t want to deal with an active Chaos Beast on the crowded yacht. Grokch rigs some floats and a time-release spring so they can set the Chaos Beast adrift, and dump it into the water when the yacht is a safe distance away. Unfortunately, the spring goes off immediately, throwing the box high into the air. The lid opens, throwing the Chaos Beast clear, but also flashing the entire crew with the Symbol of Sleep! Jensen, Sebastina, de Rolo, and Bungo all collapse, but Grokch no-scopes the lid right out of the air with his blaster, destroying the symbol.
With all immediate threats dealt with, the racing yacht heads for Port Fennrick.