Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Dryden of Conwall the Collector/Hunter, Averiela the Elf/Elven Elite, Lucia the Brave the Heir/Halfling Sheriff, Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight
Last time, the Fellowship arrived in the Forgotten Lands and traveled to the Bastion of Memory to meet Markus, Queen Lucia’s regent while she is off adventuring.
Markus arranged a big ceremony to welcome Lucia to the castle, so the square is full of cheering people. They shout, “Speech! Speech!” Lucia stands at the top of the steps and addresses the crowd.
Lucia: It’s so good to be home. I learned many things on my travels that I wish to share with you and Markus. I look forward to learned what happened here during my years abroad. That’s all for now. I’ll re-unite with family and learn what’s happened.
People cheer and shout her name, but Lucia ignores them and enters the castle.
Townsperson: Please, bless my land!
Peasant: I named my daughter after you!
- Claudia, she/her, human Vizier and Markus’ girlfriend
- Rules Are Rules: Claudia cannot be bribed, and refuses to forgive rule breaking. She will always lecture you or arrest you, depending on the severity of the rule.
- Suspicious Glare: Claudia will follow the fellowship around as long as they are in the area she supervises. She keeps a close eye on all their actions and moves.
Claudia: How eager you must be to see your brother that you’d overlook your subjects. Family is so important.
Lucia: Who better to update me on my subjects’ business than my brother?
Cluadia: Yes, he takes his responsibility to them seriously. He’s actually been here.
Lucia wants some privacy because Claudia is trying to embarrass her in front of the court. She greets the courtiers and servants and sends everyone bustling off with tasks. Her companions need to be housed. We must have a banquet this evening. I must confer with Markus and grieve for my parents.
Lucia Get Away 10+ avoid harm, avoid notice.
The courtiers leap into action and Lucia heads towards an inner room with Markus. Claudia is coming with them.
Dryden: Claudia! It’s been so long. I’m sure the new items in my collection appeal to your interests.
Claudia: How kind! My duties require that I stay with my lord.
Dryden pulls out his Prank Weapon: a mirage with substance. This time, the mirage is a lovely pearl necklace. He shows it to Claudia, but the string snaps! Pearls scatter and melt into the floor.
Dryden: Oh no! The Ice Pearls of Mesopotamia!
Dryden spends 1 use of Prank Weapon: get 10+ on Keep Them Busy
Lucia and Markus go off alone while Claudia is distracted.
Meanwhile, Edna is happy to be back in high society. She compliments laides on their outfits, and considers what local jewelry she could add to her collection.
Markus tells Lucia all about Claudia. Lucia recognized her as a member of the court, but didn’t know that Markus and Claudia were in love. Claudia’s father is Baron with land on the northern coast of the Forgotten Lands. The family is strong in fish, pearls, and sheep but doesn’t have much prominence in court. Claudia is a shrewd trader and good with numbers. She enriched the family by trading woll and pearls for citrus fruits and silk. Many courtiers wear pearls from Claudia’s underwater farms. She has two sisters. One is happy to stay at home and play with the sheep. Claudia is dismayed by her whimsical attitude. The other sister isn’t as smart as Claudia. She stays at home and works with their father the Baron. The Baron first sent Claudia to court when she was 15. Markus was only 7 at the time, so they met, but didn’t think much of each other. Claudia went back home for several years. She returned years later after both of them hit puberty, and sparks flew!
GM note: At this point I was sure this was a gender-flipped re-telling of Sabrina, but my players corrected me. It’s a re-telling of Padme and Anakin from Star Wars!
Claudia thought Markus was impressional and attached herself to him, becoming a trusted advisor, and then a lover.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
Averiela: Now that the Hidden Library is open, maybe they have re-established contact with the library here in the Forgotten Lands.
Dryden: I’m not allowed in the library anymore, but maybe Edna could get a library card.
Edna: The ghost at the Hidden Library was going to send flying messengers back home, right? They are popular these days. This trinket here is a beacon for Lady Evelynn’s messenger.
Dryden: You know Lady Evelynn? Have you seen her shadow puppetry?
Edna: We did not have time for entertainment. He were hot on the heels of forgers and scammers! You know that Dwarven dagger you have? It’s a fake.
Dryden: My ancient Dwarven ceremonial throwing dagger!?
Dryden, Edna, and Averiela are walking from the castle to the town while chatting about forgeries. Every major town in the Forgotten Lands has a library because education is important for all children. A few children (like Dryden) get their library cards revoked for misconduct, but that’s rare. Even smaller towns have a school, but this is the capital, so there are several schools and a library in Royal Education Center. Dryden stops before approaching the library.
Dryden: Carpenter ants aren’t welcome in the library, despite their training.
Dryden reaches behind his cloak and pulls out a horse hair mustache. He also finds a white flower-shaped stone in his pocket. (Averiela slipped it there) Edna goes into the library, using Pulmero’s library card for access. She’s big and loud and tries to distract the librarians. She’s too big to fit between the stacks, so she requests that many books be brought to her in the reading room. She’s just pointing at shelves. She doesn’t really have any research to do.
Edna Keep Them Busy 7-9 their attention is on you, but you’ll face retaliation
Dryden slips past in the confusion and climbs to the top storey. He leans on a certain old door and taps a signal to summon the Carpenter Ants still living in the library, years after The Incident. They’ve secretly undermined secruity so he can open the door.
Dryden spends 1 Curious Curio
Behind the door is a passegeway to the aviary. Once a bustling place where messenger birds carried messages far and wide, it was shut down when the Forgotten Lands decided to become forgotten. Dryden tosses the flower-shaped rock to himself and drops it. It rolls into a corner and fits into a tiny crevice. A secret door opens! Dryden will deal with that later. Three ghostly birds sit on perches in the aviary, no doubt messengers from the ghostly librarian at the Hidden Library. No one checks the aviary anymore, so their messages have not been received. Dryden looks down from the aviary window and dumps his canteen down to the ground. Averiela does not appear and run up the water to join him. Dryden looks at the ghostly birds. They carry physical scrolls inside their ghostly, transparent ribcages. When he approaches and looks like he wants the scroll, the ghostly birds regurgitate them: a disgusting sight!
Meanwhile, down in the reading room, Dr. Melinora (the head librarian) is getting impatient. She drops an armful of books on Edna’s table.
Dr. Melinora: You don’t know what any of this means, do you?
Ol’ Jardiner damages Overwhleming Power
Edna Talk Sense (+grace, trick. +hope, Ol’ Jardiner’s assistance) 10+
With Ol’ Jardiner’s help, Edna makes up a story about arcane research.
Dr. Melinora: Ah, an intellectual challenge!
Edna Speak Softly 10+ ask 3 questions
- What can you tell me about the precious minerals or unique crafts of the Forgotten Lands?
- I’ll fetch the latest scrolls about minerals and metals. People’s tastes have changed over centuries. The courtiers keep changing their minds about what’s important in fashion. Knowledge is most important. It never goes out of style.
- What do they want, and how can we help them get it?
- I want knowledge and research to be at the heart of every human being! When you have that, it makes the world brighter. You can spread joy and light where ever you go!
- Edna is sad, because she is no longer a human being. Dr. Melinora apologizes.
- Tell me about the original language of the Forgotten Lands.
- As you know, people came here 800 years ago. The language of the first settlers was influenced by Elvish, according to this tome. Ethelton argues that another species from other border had a greater influence. Hamilton the Great says it was a combination of a little Dwarven and a little Spacklin.
- Edna: Spackling? Like holes in walls?
- No, it’s based on the Dwarven word for digging.
- Edna: I know some Dwarves. They have a lot of words for digging.
- In any case, the origins of the language are definitely non-human. We in capital speak with a certain accent, but relics from the northern tip of the island are different. Perhaps the original settlers were two different tribes. There are many theories. The royal house still uses the old language in royal decrees and logbooks. We belive these old documents are lists of inventory or poetry. It’s difficult to interpret.
Dr. Melinora hustles away to get some books from the Special Preservation Room.
Ol’ Jardiner: At least in our tradition, we can tell the poetry from the accounting.
Back in the aviary, with messages in hand, Dryden looks at the secret door opened by the mysterious stone. Behind the door is a narrow passage, so narrow that he has to turn sideways to fit. It slopes gently downward. Dryden hisses and a lizard appears.
Dryden Queen of the Wild: You can Command Lore about Beasts, and all Beast become your companions.
Dryden: Greico! Oh, Grieco the 4th? I’ve been gone longer than I thought. Nice to see you.
Dryden sends Greico the 4th down the passageway. It scampers away and returns a short time later. It reports that the passageway is very dark and goes down quite a way before opening into a large cavern. A faint blue light with no particular source illuminates three doors. Dryden squeezes through the passageway himself to see these doors.
- A big steel door, plain and strong, with no handle.
- A small wooden door, intricately carved, with a handle but no lock
- A tall narrow metal door embossed with an intricate pattern. It has a lock but no handle.
Dryden: The librarian told me that the only secrets were in encyclopaedias. Clearly they were wrong.
Dryden pulls the handle on the wooden door, but it doesn’t open. He looks for a way to open the steel door, but doesn’t find anything.
Dryden spends 1 Curious Curio
Dryden pulls out a big piece of parchment and makes a rubbing of the pattern on the tall narrow door.
Dryden: Greico, we found something cool, but spelunking alone isn’t good.
Dryden leaves the secret passage and returns to the aviary. He picks up the flower-shaped rock, closes the secret door, and checks to make sure that he can re-open it.
Dryden: Greico, let me know if anyone else goes down that passageway. There are extra bugs in it for you.
Meanwhile, Lucia and Markus catch up. Lucia tells Markus about the Dragon Egg, and Markus tells her that he has been dating Claudia for a year.
Lucia: Is the relationship public or a secret?
Markus: It’s public. We can’t keep secrets in the court.
Lucia: Do you enjoy ruling, or do you want to travel? I must complete this quest. I gave my word and my sword. When I finish, I could return home or not.
Markus: Claudia advises that I rule because I’ve been here the whole time. But your stories are so amazing. I’d love to travel to that other continent.
Lucia: Just as I leave and return, you could also leave and return. We could share ruling for many years. What are your intentions with Claudia?
Markus: This is true love! We’ll be together forever! Ah, but she’s so attached, she couldn’t bear to be away from kingdom for a long time.
Lucia: Our alliancesa nd trade routes have flourished under her care. She could stay on as my advisor.
Markus: How could I bear to be away from her? I’d write a letter every day!
Lucia learns that Claudia started dating Markus shortly before his parents (also Lucia’s parents) died, and she comforted him in his grief. Lucia is worried that she’s opportunistically seeking power and doesn’t really care for Markus. But everything she learns about Claudia indicates that she is relentlessly competent. When she decides to do something, she does it well. She wouldn’t even consider being a poor wife or queen. Lucia may not get along with Claudia, but she’s glad that her brother and her kingdom are in good hands.
Claudia finally finds where the royal siblings slipped away to.
Claudia: Your majesty. My prince.
Lucia: My brother told me you were a light in his time of darkness. It’s so good that he was not alone in his grief. I’m so thankful to you!
Claudia: I am honored that you appreciate my humble service.
Lucia: We were discussing the future for you and Markus and me. We think you will make the kingdom thrive as your father’s land thrives.
Claudia: I’m touched to be included in such plans.
Lucia: Markus says you’re so dear to him.
Markus rushes to Claudia and hugs her a bit too enthusiastically for decorum.
Lucia: I must complete my quest. After that, I want to give Markus freedom to choose his adventure. That adventure may be here, or in the wider world. I give him the choice. I have much to do before the banquet tonight, so I bid you adieu.
Markus: What about a small adventure, just to the Elven lands? Perhaps for our honeymoon….
Lucia leaves and doesn’t hear the rest of the conversation.
Dryden (still wearing his horsehair mustache) comes down from the aviary to the reading room and approaches Dr. Melinora. He makes a flourish and a deep bow.
Dryden: Dear Dr. Melinora. Lovely to see you again in these lovely halls.
Dr. Melinora: I recognize your face…
Dryden: You see the face of one enlightened. My classroom has extended to the world, and I’ll help expand your knowledge to the mainland. I have discovered and opened a library that we lost contact with.
Dr. Melinora: Only the royal family can open a library!
Dryden: I opened it with Lucia I cleared the path for her.
Dr. Melinora: Hard to believe the queen chose to adventure with this troublesome Dryden fellow.
Dryden offers the messages from the Hidden Library and asks for his library card to be reinstated for services rendered.
Dryden Talk Sense 6- The favor you must do for them is expensive, difficult, or demeaning.
Dr. Melinora snatches Dryden’s false mustache, then flips through a dusty old book.
Dr. Melinora: Your membership was revoked for misconduct. There are ancient rules that must be followed. The only way to renew is to clean the aviary for 6 months, and also pass a written exam. Part 1 is library etiquette…
Edna: If there are only ghost birds in the aviary, is it covered in ghost poop? How does one clean that?
END OF SESSION MOVE
- Did we thoroughly explore a new location?
- YES, the Forgotten Lands
- Did anyone find what they are searching for?
- YES, Lucia is finding her destiny as queen or adventurer. Averliela is working on her quest to call a Conclave of the Elves.
- Did we learn something new about the world or its people?
- Yes, court intrigue about Claudia.
Restore Gear, Level up Lucia, Dryden, and Edna