Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The party: Buckle the Beast/Heart of Earth, Stella the Halfling/Hunter
Last time, the Fellowship killed the Vampire Lord leading the invasion of the Hidden Library, but hostile forces occupied the library. The Fellowship locked them in and set out to find someone who can tell them how to put down an Undead Dragon permanently.
The Fellowship heads north from the Hidden Library to the Mighty River at dawn. Downriver, they see a campfire with other adventurers resting, and a lot of wreckage in the river. The wreckage is between the Miranda and the branch to Bogden. Buckle wades into the river and investigates while Stella eats and heals. With the fireproof suit, he’s able to swim AND hunt for fish like the old days. This wreckage is from landing ships. Tree trunks stuck in the riverbed wrecked one boat. Another boat collided with it. Three other boats are beached or wrecked on the shore. There’s a dead Brontosaurus by the beached boats. One of the deck guns from the transports is intact. It’s a ballista that fires huge arrows. It’s heavy, but if they can extract it from the wreckage, they may be able to use it. The other party includes two Ogres, two Dwarves, two Humans, a snake-person, and a Halfling. The Miranda isn’t a large boat, so there’s a section of wreckage by the north shore that would be relatively clear and large enough for the Miranda to pass.
Buckle explains that they could clear a path for the Miranda, but they could also use the underground waterways or walk. Stella loves vehicles! She was so sad when her Siege Tank was broken. She’ll use the Miranda every chance she gets. It’s her child! Most of the wreckage is broken up stuff and some of it is caught on the spikes. Buckle has to dive under the wreckage to move it, which is quite dangerous! Buckle can only hold the channel clear for a short time. Stella quickly sails the Miranda through. One post falls over and catches Buckle’s paw! He wriggles free and returns to the Miranda. They’re all through safely, but the way closes behind them. They’ll have to deal with the wreckage again if they want to go upriver.
They sail to Bogden with no further trouble. A Platyperson raft arrived last night, with stories of a man flying onto the raft with a flaming sword and told them to turn back. The Champ says that if he was on the raft, he would have sailed into the fight and won it!
Buckle: If you want to fight something, there is an Undead Dragon. You can fight it all day, all night. Go for it.
Stella: If you defeat the Dragon, we’ll give you a feast! Gus, are you in?
The Champ always accepts a challenge. Several impressionable Platyperson youths also want the feast, since food is scarce in Bogden.
Buckle: Don’t go. It’s not worth it. The dragon is unkillable. I will be amazed if you do manage to kill it, but you’ll probably die.
Youths: this is a scam! You don’t have any food for a feast!
Buckle: You are invited to the feast if the Champ succeeds.
The youths demand food now, so Buckle takes some time to catch some fish for them.
Bogden is above a dam that keeps it marshy, so the Miranda can’t sail to the Singing Hills to the north. The Fellowship gets advice on drier routes through the marsh, for the benefit of the non-Platypeople among them. Most of the path is dry. Stella takes a few steps onto wet ground, then with the next step she falls into a bog! She scrambles to the surface, calls for help, then is pulled under!
- Marsh Bile: A vine-covered swamp beast. The majority of its body is a gaping maw, and many creepy eyes poke out from underneath its vines.
- Corrosive Tentacles: Anyone trying to touch the marsh bile must pay a price. Anyone grabbed by the bile has their armor destroyed.
- Vile Discharge: The marsh bile pollutes its surroundings. While in damp or wet areas, its attacks have the Area tag.
Buckle dives in after Stella. His electrolocation isn’t working, so after flailing a bit, he stops to listen. Sound travels well underwater, so he hears Stella and the creature. He takes off his fire-proof suit and walks along the bottom of thebog towards the sound. His fiery body boils the bog water on contact, sending columns of steam into the air. The Marsh Bile doesn’t recoil as Buckle expects, so Stella is scalded by the hot water. It reaches out to grab Buckle, but realizes that touching Buckle will burn it, so it retreats. Buckle pries the vines off Stella. Buckle’s fire burns the vines, but the Corrosive Tentacles hurt Buckle’s webbed hands. Stella wriggles free, and they both climb out of the bog.
The Fellowship reaches the Singing Hills. Beautiful rolling hills with green grass blowing in the constant wind. Standing Stones on top of each hill produce musical notes as the wind blows through precisely carved slits, giving the location its name. There’s a plateau to the north. There’s a forest to the east. The hills rise into mountains in the west. They walk towards the plateau, hoping to spot Aku from a higher vantage point.
Ichabod the Phoenix and Elektra the Harpy Eagle approach from the south. Elektra reports that the Dragon got up again and starting shooting fire at her and Ichabod, but another group of heroes came to deal with it, so they left to report the change. Stella asks what the birds said. She can give beasts orders, but she can’t understand them.
Buckle: Go see how they’re doing. Let us know if they die or something.
Elektra: Ugh, we just flew all this way!
Stella pulls out a big Halfling pastry and throws pieces up for the two birds to eat and gather their strength. She eats the rest.
As the Fellowship approaches the plateau, they see a staircase extending directly out of the wall of the plateau. The steps are sized for creatures like Halflings and Platypeople, not some extinct race of giants. They also see Aku flying in the distance.
Stella: Aku! Aku, over here!
Aku has great hearing, so he flies to the Fellowship and circles overhead. Fee, a Giant and one of aku’s disciples, jumps from Aku’s back and lands in a cloud of dirt and debris a safe distance away.
Fee: Good to see you again. The waving is unnecessary. He is blind. He has very good hearing. He heard you.
Stella stops waving and mutters.
Stella: Maybe the waving was for you.
Aku is too big to speak the languages of little people, so Fee acts as translator. Aku understands, of course, but his mouth and throat can’t make the sounds.
Buckle: There’s a Dragon is that isn’t alive and doesn’t die or fly and is terrorizing the library.
Fee:He asks if it has two horns that go straight back and fire on its tail.
Buckle: Yes, fire on its tail.
Fee: Aku remembers this particular dragon. It’s Zweiharn. He used to live far in the west, but was betrayed by Vampires and their agents. They did terrible things and would not let him rest.
Stella: Are you telling me that this Dragon just needs to take a nap?
Fee: Is that your second question?
Buckle: We killed the Vampire leader and he still won’t rest. What can you tell us about the spell?
Fee: The spell doesn’t have to be continuously channeled by the master, so it could continue after the master’s death. There’s always a ritual to counteract any spell. Aku doesn’t know what particular spell affect Zweiharn.
Buckle: Where can we find information about spells and Dragons and undeath?
Aku had a strained relationship with Dragons, back when they ruled the continent. They considered him an incomplete version of a Dragon. Aku is himself and doesn’t not aspire to be something else, so their attitude seemed condescending to him.
Fee: The center of Dragon knowledge and secrets was Sun Peak, home of the Archdrake.
Buckle: Well, Aku, thank you for your wisdom. Is there anything we can do for you?
Fee: The music is in harmony
The Fellowhip consults their Atlas. What route should they take to reach Sunpeak? It’s far north of anywhere they have gone before. The could go over the Treacherous Mountains and Lazy-I Ranch, or the Famine Table (the plateau) and the ice Fields.
Buckle is still angry at O’Later. It’s extra-frustrating because O’Later is dead, so Buckle can’t touch him. He could take all his stuff.
Buckle: We should go to Port Fennrick and take it over.
Stella: What did you say?
Buckle: We should go to Port Fennrick and liberate them from Vampire clutches. Their army is in the library. Their leader is dead. They need a new leader. If we’re going to make it to the Sun Peak, we’ll need a party.
Stella feels uneasy. Something seems wrong with Buckle.
Stella: Buckle, when you say “Take Over” you mean temporarily, right? Are you just going to stay there?
Buckle: They’re going to need a leader who’s powerful. *gestures to himself* We’ll stabilize it and see who the good leaders are, then we’ll make an expedition to Sun Peak.
Stella: You said we didn’t have time!
Buckle: That’s before I knew the other adventuring party would handle it. Who knows how long the army will be trapped in the library. We need to turn Port Fennrick against them.
Against her better judgment, she agrees to go to Port Fennrick, but she keeps a close eye on Buckle. Buckle wants to take the Underground Waterways back to Bogden so they don’t have to deal with any swamp monsters. Stella can’t swim
Stella: Fine, we can take the tunnels, but you have to pull me along.
Buckle: Just walk on the walls.
Stella is going along with Buckle’s plan, but she’s unwilling to use her Wall Walker ability for something so trivial. So she floats on her back and the people who can swim push her along. Returning to Bogden is easy because they are traveling with the current.
Back at Bogden, the Champ has not returned, but Ugg and Rose are waiting for their leaders.
Ugg: Some other adventurers came to help. The Dwarven Defenders inside the library put their shields against the drill and all the Warriors got behind them and pushed. They were starting to push the drill out, then the Ogre tried to jam another Dwarven Tunneler in next to mine and bounced me out. All the warriors came out. There was a scuffle that turned into very tense negotiation. There was another Ogre that looked like a Bouncer. She was wearing a very well-tailored suit.
Buckle: She got her suit!
Stella: The last we saw her, we threw it at her!
Ugg: So the invaders were going to steal all the information from the library and take it back to Port Fennrick. Bork says she invaded by the river and just as she was leaving, Port Fennrick’s City Hall exploded! Bloodletter was convinced that O’Later’s plan to get over the library was a total failure, so she’s hustling back to town to take power. The other adventurers didn’t mind because they were leaving the library alone. That seemed important to report, and also, I didn’t need to use the Dwarven Tunneler, so that’s why we’re here.
Buckle: What happened to Bloodletter?
Ugg: She’s going back to Port Fennrick to take power with the Defenders and Warriors and whatever Dwarven Tunnelers were left. Bork seems to be with the other adventurers now.
Stella pushes her worry about Buckle acting strange right to the back of her mind.
Stella: We have to get there first! Full speed ahead on the Miranda!
Ugg drove a Dwarven Tunneler to Bogden. Maybe they could take that with them. The Dwarven Tunneler is the size of a compact car. It’s basically two seats and a big drill.
Stella: I think it will fit.
But first, the Fellowship needs to heal up. Stella’s short on food, and Bogden still has a famine, but Buckle is able to catch enough fish to feed them.
Buckle looks around for a Platyperson that can build a crane for the Miranda. Not only do they need to load the Dwarven Tunneler on board, they want to return to the wreckage of the landing ships and salvage a ballista. Buckle finds an engineer with the appropriate skills, but they want a precious item as payment. Stella glares at Buckle and throws a purse of foreign coins to the engineer.
The Miranda now has a deck crane for loading and unloading heavy cargo. They add a cargo net between the main hull and the outrigger and store the Dwarven Tunneler there.
Buckle: We’ll be back to find out if The Champ completes his quest, and there will be a feast.
The Miranda sails downstream and joins the Mighty River. Port Fennrick is downstream. The wreckage of the landing ships is upstream.
Buckle: Why don’t you get the gun? Ugg and I will take the drill and go on ahead. No, Bloodletter is on foot. We can outrun them in the Miranda.
While they are deliberating, a merchant ship comes downstream and passes the Miranda.
Stella: How did they make it through the wreckage?
There is no wreckage in the water upstream. It’s piled up on the shore. Buckle hails the merchant ship. The Greonlund looks like a Viking longboat with one sail and rows of oars. The lookout is a human named Cooper.
Buckle: Are you headed to Port Fennrick? There’s about to be trouble. Be careful.
Cooper: I thought we passed all the trouble.
He points to the wreckage on the shore.
Buckle: Apparently City Hall was leveled and a Vampire Queen is rushing to take control.
Everyone on deck stops and listens. An officer gets an abacus and makes some calculations. Captain Sven comes over to talk to Buckle.
Sven: Do the Platypeople have any use for metal bars and ropes?
Buckle: Platypeople love metal bars and ropes.
Sven: OK, we’re taking the fork to Bogden.
Buckle: Before you go, if you see us coming back up the river, everything’s fine. But if you want to help us out, see that ballista? Could you help us get that on our boat?
Sven has experienced crew and a lot of ropes, so he can get that done, but he wants to be paid. Stella just spent all their money paying the last person who upgraded her boat.
Buckle: Would you be interested in an older map of the whole continent, including the locations of Dragons? Or some excellent anti-Vampire stakes, which may be useful given recent developments.
Sven accepts the map, and gets the ballista out of the wreckage and mounted on the bow of the Miranda. The ballista was designed for a larger ship, so it looks a little silly on the Miranda. Buckle and Ugg remove the heads from their ammo in preparation for attacking vampires.
Now the Miranda and Bloodletter’s army are both rushing towards Port Fennrick. Who will arrive first?
END OF SESSION MOVE
- Did we throughly explore a new location? NO
- Did anyone find what they were seeking? YES, the vampires don’t control the library, even though the Fellowship didn’t personally kill them
- Did we learn something new about the world and its people? YES, the Undead Dragon is Zweiharn, a specific Dragon with a past.
- 2 boons:
- heal Stella’s necrotic damage.
- restore Stella’s food & Buckle’s Dragonfire