Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, the Fellowship found the forgers who stole Vestri’s family heirloom. They didn’t have the original with them, but they revealed where they hid it, so the Fellowship set off to find it.
Traveling north from the Oolite Mines, the Fellowship reaches the Magic Rest Stop on the main east-west highway. An enchanted fire prevents those in its glow from doing any violence. Travelers know they can rest safely here. Animals know they can steal food without retaliation. Birds of prey lurk in the trees around the Magic Rest Stop, waiting for fat, unwary prey to wander out of the enchanted firelight. But now the Magic Rest Stop is in danger that the firelight cannot prevent! Heavy rains caused a nearby river to overflow its banks, and the floodwaters may extinguish the magic flames. The travelers are in a panic!
Yuri Earth Friend: When you Speak Softly with the earth, you may use one question to ask it to move for you.
Yuri Speak Softly 7-9 Ask 3 questions, 1 unhelpful answer
- What can you tell us about the path of the floodwaters?
- The water will wash out the highway. Just as the fire is fueled by diverse travellers adding their own fuel, the highway near the rest stop is paved with various materials by various travellers. There are sections of brick, cut stone, even wooden planks.
- What do you want and how can we help you get it?
- The desires of the earth are inscrutable.
- Would you please make a wall around the rest stop three feet high?
- The earth rises in an unbroken ring. There is no exit to the road, and nowhere for the heavy rain to drain.
More travellers are worried. The wall prevents them from fleeing, and the water inside is slowly rising.
Vestri: I understand that this is very sudden. My apologies. Once waters recede, we can make an exit. Will be beautiful feature.
Jane: We’re in a bowl! It will fill up and put out the fire!
Edna: We should cover the fire to protect it from the rain.
Edna Talk Sense (+Sense, explain plan) 7-9 owe a favor
Edna spends 1 Precious Item
Edna tells Viktor to get some small gems from her jewelry box, and uses those gems to buy materials from people in the camp. A textile merchant sells some canvas. Edna also selects some nicer fabirc to use as trim. A merchant on the return trip with half-empty wagons repacks them, and disassembles the empty wagon to provide poles and timber for a frame.
Edna: Vestri, you’re a better engineer than I am. Tell me what to do and I’ll do the heavy lifting.
Edna Overcome (+hope, Vestri’s aid) 7-9 pay a price
Viktor damages Useful
Under Vestri’s direction, Edna and some travelers build a tent over the magic fire to protect it from the rain. Viktor helps enthusiastically, but he’s not used to manual labor and is left exhausted.
Hundrin pilots Gurtin and drills an entrance in the wall of earth, big enough for wagons to pass through.
Gurtin damages Drill Tank
The water inside the rest stop drains through the exit, the fire is protected from the rain and the flood, and the peoplebreathe a sigh of relief. When the rain subsides, the Fellowship continues west to the town of Fairmeadow.
Edna: We need to find a route to Saarland. Let’s ask at a tavern.
Fairmeadow has two competing taverns on opposite sides of town. The Fellowship picks The Brace Of Pigs
Yuri: We’re looking for directions to Saarland. Just give us the information, and you won’t have to go to a ghost town. I can offer jarred fruits and treats from far away.
Yuri Talk Sense (+Sense, explain plan) 7-9 owe a favor
Hobert, the owner and bartender, always wants exclusive items that his competitor can’t match, so he accepts the trade.
Yuri spends 4x Food
Hobert: Saarland was an Elf town, but it was attacked years ago and destroyed. The survivors fled, and the forest took back the paths. Rose there, in the black cloak, has gone there.
Rose, Halfling Thief, she/her
Yuri Speak Softly 7-9
Yuri Fool Me Once 10+ ask 3 questions
- What can you tell us about the route to Saarland?
- Rose marked tree trunks along the route
- What should we be wary of along the route?
- The forest has reclaimed Saarland and don’t welcome civilized folks
- What does Rose want and how can we help her get it?
- Rose used to go to Saarland and “salvage” “artifacts”, but she hasn’t gone in a while. Please bring her some Saarland artifacts.
The Fellowship sets off into the forest north of Fairmeadow. They find the marks that Rose indicated and follow the path. Between Rose’s last visit and now, torrential rain caused a landslide and felled some trees. This section of forest is unrecognizable.
Edna: If I jump to the treetops to look around, they won’t hold my weight.
Edna takes a bearing from the last two intact marks, hopes the path goes straight ahead, and starts charging through, throwing debris and tree trunks out of the way.
Edna Unconrollable Strength: You are strong enough to uproot trees…and
lift just about anything. You are Dangerous, and any
uncontrolled action you take can cause collateral damage
or destroy the world around you.
Saarland increases Response Level to 3 because of collateral damage
Saarland gains Sheriff: A Threat will attempt to arrest the next member of the Fellowship who goes out in public.
An Elk approaches and stands up on its hind legs! It’s limbs change shape and its antlers fold back and split into more and more tines, until it’s not an Elk, but an Orc woman. It’s Yasha, the Druid who protects this forest.
Yasha: Uncouth beast! Leave the forest before you destroy anything else!
Yuri: Technically this has already been destroyed.
Yasha: Typical short-sighted city-dweller. These trees may be dead, but they provide food and shelter to many small animals.
Yuri: They can do that over there. The animals will have a better home if they don’t live on a path.
Yasha: What do you mean “path”? Oh, those marks!
Vestri: We better move quickly before she destroys the rest of the marks!
Yuri Mighty Leap: Jump to anywhere you can see.
Yuri jumps around Yasha, while she fixes him with a terrible stare.
Yuri Keep Them Busy: 10+
Yuri Top of the Food Chain: Wild beasts…and thick vegetation all get out of your way… They cannot willingly deal damage to you or get in your way.
Yasha: Strange. The forest creatures refuse to attack you.
Yuri: I’m not a Druid, but I am nature-adjacent. We should talk shop. I’m ignorant of your culture, but I want to be a friend of the forest.
Edna prepares to charge ahead, but remembers that that’s the exact action that started this trouble.
Edna: Maybe you’re better at clearing a path than I am.
Vestri: The Drill Tank isn’t functioning, but I can clear a path with my own body!
Vestri Clear A Path: 10+
Vestri crashes through the debris. Yasha is frustrated, as she isn’t able to catch Yuri nor sic her forest friends on him.
Yuri: Show us the way to Saarland. The quicker we get through your forest, the less damage we’ll cause.
Yuri Talks Sense (+sense, explain plan) 10+
Yasha agrees. She can’t beat the Fellowship. She guides them to the walls of Saarland: huge living tree trunks growing right next to each other, and much higher than the surrounding trees.
After Yasha departs, a large bat flies in and flutters around Edna’s hand. It’s Lady Evelynn’s messenger, attracted to the beacon in the jewelry Lady Evelynn provided. Edna retrieves the message. Lady Evelynn is displeased with the Fellowship’s slowness and demands an update on their progress.
Edna: This requires some delicacy. All these words are technically polite, but she’s clearly displeased.
Vestri: Let’s lie in a useful way. We doscovered where they were, but we didn’t apprehend them. The chieftain of where they were hiding drove them away.
Yuri: I can’t write a replay. I promised the forgers I wouldn’t tell on them.
Vestri: Gimme that paper. I’ll write a note and let Edna proofread it.
The Fellowship ponders how to explain the situation, then remembers the specifics of their deal with Lady Evelynn. They were supposed to apprehend the forgers, and find the real Double Bill (the polearm in Lady Evelynn’s collection is a forgery). They let the forgers go and didn’t ask about the Double Bill at all!
Vestri: We didn’t do anything that we promised! We need a complex lie to convince Lady Evelynn that we’re friendly. Having three husbands and three wives have taught me to bend the truth to keep the peace.
Edna: Oh, totally. This kind of white lie is normal in high society.
With Edna’s approval, Vestri sends the following reply to Lady Evelynn via the bat messenger.
Dear Lady Evelynn,
We did come upon the forgers. Unfortunately they were under the protection of the chief of the Oolite Mine. We managed to convince them to tell us where some of the items they have hidden were stored and hope to discover your polearm amongst them. Unfortunately, the chieftain, upon learning of their true nature, drove them from town. Once we have recovered your property, we will hunt them down once more to bring them to your door.
Respectfully,
Edna Crusher-Harcourt, Vestri RedRock, Yuri Asimovsky and Steven
NO END OF SESSION MOVE