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 tried to bring peace and democracy to Port Fennrick. They killed the remnants of the Vampire forces, and some other people, so everyone was afraid of them and they left. Now they will meet Kobolds and find evidence of previous adventurers’ great deeds.
Stella: Wanna see about some books?
The Miranda sails upstream towards the Hidden Library. As they sail upriver, they meet Edna and Bork heading down river, towing a raft made from the debris of the landing ships used in the invasion.
Stella: Nice suit, Bork!
Buckle: Where are y’all headed?
Bork: Going back home!
Buckle: Good, they need you. Things are different, but also the same. What’s your plan once you get there.
Edna: I think I can do a better job running the place than O’Later. I just found out about “commerce” and I’ll have an opportunity to try it in a place like Port Fennrick.
Buckle: You certainly won’t have to deal with O’Later’s lackies. But there’s a bit of a mess to clean up. Next time we come through, can we not have our stuff stolen?
Edna: Oh yes, that’s one of my proposed policies. I’m still not sure if ships will pay a flat docking fee, or a percentage of the cargo’s value…
Buckle: If you really want people to come visit, you should have an exception for people aren’t there for commerce, to do tourism.
Edna throws her rope to the barge and Bork pulls the barge to her side of the river, allowing the Miranda to sail past.
They arrive at the Hidden Library. The Champ isn’t there, and neither is the Undead Dragon he was going to defeat. Stella looks down the caldera and doesn’t see any enemies, except for two empty Dwarven Tunnelers. A group of crows are flying around the mountain. Buckle asks them what’s going on. They are here out of respect for Samantha. Buckle asks how he can pay respects to the fallen witch. Samantha would magically travel between trees in her swamp, so planting one of her trees here on the mountain would metaphorically connect this place to the swamp.
Someone is repairing the staircase that was damaged when the Dwarven Gunner exploded and killed O’Later. Signs direct people to the staircase on the other side of the caldera. At the bottom, Stella cautiously peeks her head inside the library’s ceramic shell.
Stella: Helloooooo? Ghost Librarian? Where are you?
Ghost Librarian: Good to see you! Thanks to you and the other adventurers, the library is still here, still open and ready to share knowledge.
Stella and Buckle didn’t prevent the invaders from entering the library and they didn’t eject the invaders, but they were part of the heroic defense, so they both get library cards. Very exciting! Each book has a card inside the front cover that lists who checked it out and when. To check out a book, hold the library card up to the book’s card, and your name is magically added. A master scroll, readable only by the Ghost Librarian, is also updated with the book, your name, and the due date.
Buckle wants information about sources of power. The Hidden Library’s information is over 100 years old, but is much wider and deeper than any individual’s knowledge. Buckle finds the memoirs of an crafts-elf named Caladan from Milbar. Foolishly, she kept refining her craft to make greater and greater artifacts, without thinking of who would use them and how they would be used. The Medallion of Cleft Sky is the pinnacle of her art, but her greatest regret. When she made it, she presented it to the king of Milbar, who used it selfishly and cruelly to oppress the people of Hyarmess. A tragic story.
Buckle looks for books about Artifacts of Power that he hasn’t yet encountered. Mer-Lynn, the transmutation wizard has an Artifact of Power. It is indescribable because it is always changing size, shape, color, and textures. The Fellowship met Mer-Lynn once and Stella convinced her to travel to Vieport. The Sea Viper seizes any Artifact of Power in Vieport. Was he able to take it from her? Have the Deadlands been transformed?
Buckle asks if he can check out this book, or make a copy of some pages. The Ghost Librarian places a magic parchment on the cover of the book, and bright light sweeps across it. (Like a photocopier) The one sheet of parchment now contains all the information in the whole book, but can only display one page at a time. Buckle can push on the words with his fingers to scoot them around and reveal more words.
GM note: I need to write a move for “When you consult the magic parchment to learn about an Artifact of Power…”
Stella looks for books about Cloudpeak, and what is hidden at the top. A human adventurer, Anthony Falconer, wanted to climb the ten highest peaks in the world. The section on Sunpeak is very exciting, because it’s sacred to Dragons, and they don’t allow non-Dragons on its slopes. But that’s not what Stella is here for. Falconer says there’s always a cloud at the top, and you can’t see inside the cloud but there are teeth that try to eat you.
The Fellowship spots a few Kobolds in the library. They are adults, but are in the children’s section looking at “I Can Read” books. One Kobold, Co-Co VIII, is very curious when Buckle approaches. He stares and reaches out to touch Buckle’s arm.
Co-Co VIII: Is that your skin?
Buckle: No, my skin in its current state would burn you.
Co-Co VIII: Are all your people like that? Two layers of skin?
Buckle wonders if they know about clothes. They are wearing armor that seems to be made of tin cans. Buckle recalls seeing small spears tipped with can openers stacked at the entrance of the library.
Buckle: You haven’t seen a Dragon around, have you?
Co-Co VIII: Sadly, one of the first things we saw after leaving the Eternal Spiral was a dead Dragon. We thought it was a metaphor, but like many other things, we are finding out they actually exist.
Buckle: What’s the Eternal Spiral?
Co-Co VIII: That’s where Kobolds live, and until recently, we thought it was the whole world. So you can see why we are here in a place of learning. There’s so much to discover.
Stella: How is reading going for you?
Co-Co VIII: It’s strange. Maybe one person should learn to read and then tell the stories. Hearing the stories makes a lot more sense. We mark things to know what kind of food is in them. A whole stories in marks is just odd.
Buckle: How did you get here from the Eternal Spiral?
Co-Co VIII: Some strange people appeared and said they were from Outside, which didn’t make any sense. We went Outside and Outside exists.
Buckle: So you didn’t see Fafnir?
Co-Co VIII: No, it was super-big and had four-eyes. It was right Outside, and Outside keeps going.
Co-Co VII describes their journey, and the Fellowship recognizes that they are from the plateau north of The Singing Hills.
Buckle: Y’all don’t know anything about teleportation, do you? Do you know what’s going on with the Moon?
Both concepts are unfamiliar to the Kobolds.
Buckle: You have been out of the world for a while, haven’t you?
Co-Co VIII: No, we were in the world for generations. This is Outside. Outside is very confusing and dangerous, but I think we made the right choice. It was a big rift in our society. Some chose to stay.
Stella: Would they take kindly to visitors?
Co-Co VIII: Well, last time he had visitors was literally the most disruptive thing that ever happened to our civilization.
Stella: We’ll let you get back to reading, but what’s your favorite food?
Co-Co VIII: Canned cherries in syrup.
Buckle asks the Ghost Librarian if the Hidden Library takes donations. He pulls out “Breckenridge’s You Too Can Speak Dwarven” which is slightly singed. He’s been holding onto that for years.
Stella wants to go north. Both Cloudpeak and the Kobold civilization in the Eternal Spiral are fascinating. The Fellowship heads through Bogden instead of braving the Treacherous Mountains.
They park the Miranda at the foot of Bogden’s dam and start walking up the switchbacks on the dam’s face. They are ambushed by six small beings in capes and masks! They jump down from a higher switchback and yell Buckle casts off his fire-proof suit and blazes bright.
Buckle: You shall not pass!
Masked Beings: Oh no, Mister Buckle, please don’t hurt us! We were just trying to surprise you.
They’re kids from town, not a threat at all! The kids run ahead of the Fellowship into town. The kid in the red mask is trying to outrun the other kids. That’s Junior, Champ’s kid. He’s training him to be the best at everything.
Champ: I can’t believe you! Scaring kids. Plus you promised everyone a feast, but there’s no Dragon at that mountain for me to defeat.
Stella: I’ll cut you a deal. What if we have a smaller feast?
Buckle: A consolation prize.
Champ: Keep your charity!
He stomps away furious and the Fellowship throws a party for the kids. Stella offers her Halfling Packed Lunch, which include sweet dried fruit as well as real food.
Stella: You’re so fast and good at scaring people. Keep it up, kids!
All is forgiven! The kids don’t realize how much danger they were in, and food is distracting. Clara (the Halfling who lives in Bogden) joins the party with baked goods for everyone.
Clara: It’s a variation of the peacetime cookies that I made the first time you were here.
Stella asks to see Clara’s bakery. Clara shows the Fellowship around, and starts working on little things here and there because the tasks are right in front of her. Stella asks if Clara has cherries. Bogden has a famine, so ingredients are hard to come by. Stella’s second choice for ingredient is cattails, which are common but mostly worthless. Stella picks some cattails and gives Clara a Halfling Snack for her help.
On to the Singing Hills! The Fellowship goes north to the plateau and start up the artificial staircase on its vertical face. Stones start falling from above!
Buckle: Stella, shove the rocks!
Buckle and Stella use Wizardry to push the falling rocks away. There are too many! Rocks hit Stella, Buckle, and Rose. Rose is knocked off-balance and teeters on the edge of the step. Stella grabs a stair with one hand and reaches out to grab Rose with the other. She misses, and Rose plummets!
Buckle: Elektra, help her!
The huge Harpy Eagle swoops down and grabs Rose, slowing her fall and steering her onto a lower stair. Rose can’t stay made, since everything did work out in the end. The Fellowship continues up the stairs and finds the source of the falling rocks. Some stairs have fallen away, leaving a large gap that they must cross. Stella uses her wall-walking animal trait to carry the Fellowship across the gap one at a time. The birds can fly past with no trouble. Ugg and his big robot arms are unwieldy to carry.
Stella: OK, Ugg, you’re going to give me your smaller arm, and I’ll swing you across and you grab with your robot arm.
It works, and the Fellowship reaches the top of the plateau without further trouble. On top of the plateau, they see shafts leading down inside. Stella examines them. She leans too far and slips down into a secret facility! She’s on the balcony of a large room.
The room is at least 100 feet on a side and 3 storeys tall (four including the balcony) In the center is a pile of sand and broken glass. One wall is taken up by some complex machine that is obviously broken. A dead Dragon lies in the middle of the room! It has four eyes, like the Kobolds described. No living beings are immediately obvious.
Buckle: Stella, are you OK?
Stella: Yeah, there’s a big room in here. Bring the team.
The Fellowship reunites on the balcony. Buckle climbs down the exposed bits on the machine in the wall. He clambers over the machine with a feather touch. Not even a heat sink vane is bent. He inspects the machine as he climbs.
- Is something hidden or out of place?
- Bits of broken grass stick out of the ceiling above the pile of sand on the floor. A glass pillar filled with sand used to stand here, but was broken.
- Tell me about the machine? How could it hurt or help me?
- Much of the machine is for show. It doesn’t need to be this complicated. There’s a complicated procedure to turn the machine off. The machine extends far into the wall. It’s much bigger than it seems. Draconic writing on the wall says “DOOMSDAY ENGINE” at the top, with some other words about “spite” and “century” The machine can’t be turned on again.
- Buckle: Hey, Stella, it looks like this controls the Doomsday Engine.
- Stella: We’ve come across a couple of those recently.
- Tell me about the people who built this? What are they doing? What will they do next?
- The Doomsday Engine was built by the Dragons. This dead Dragon was hidden here in case something like the Vampire-Dragon War ever happened. A secret weapon of last resort. If this Dragon was not contacted by other Dragons, he would know that the Dragons had lost, and he would activate the Doomsday Engine to go Scorched Earth on the continent. If the Dragons can’t rule it, no one will! But someone killed this Dragon and deactivated the machine.
Buckle: This is challenging a lot of things I thought I understood about Dragons. They’re starting to sound as bad at the Campires! Never meet your heroes.
Stella: Welp, we don’t need a Doomsday Engine.
Stella opens the door leading out of the room to reveal a ring-shaped room that’s full of traps! Blades spin around a central column at different hieghts and speeds. Spikes emerge and retract from the floor.
Buckle: Do you want me to blow it up?
Stella: Let me try something fun first.
Stella walks on the wall and shrinks until she can walk between the spinning blades comfortably. She goes from the east hallway (which leads to Doomsday Engine) to the west hallway. That hallway leads to a saloon. A door in the north wall of the saloon leads elswhere. A door behind the bar is closed and barricaded. A few Kobolds sit around the tables.
Stella: Hi! Where’s the best place to get a drink around here?
Kobold: That’s a problem. We’re not allowed back into the Eternal Spiral, but the danger is too great to go further. We are being punished for our hubris to leave.
Stella: Did you all come from the same place?
Kobold: Yes, all Kobolds come from the Eternal Spiral. We are running out of beast. We figured out how to make food out of it, but there’s only so much.
With gestures, the Kobolds indicate that the Eternal Spiral is behind the barricaded door to the west, and the beast is through the door to the north. Stella goes to the door to the north to see this beast. The room beyond looks like a natural cavern, except every surface is a uniform white color. In the center of the cavern is the skeleton of an Abyssal Primordial Beast, which seems to be a terrible serpent. Stella slowly backs out fo the cave.
Stella: Seems like you have a problem here. How did your other friends get out? We met some of them earlier today.
Kobold: They made it? That’s good. We were not bold enough to challenge the trap corridor. Alas, we were not bold enough for the outside, but not traditional enough for the Eternal Spiral.
Stella retraces her steps on the wall to return to the rest of the Fellowship.
Stella: Buckle, there’s so much on the other side! First, there’s a bar, really a saloon, but they dont have drinks, but they have food, but they’re running out. There’s a cave with a dead beast in it that they’ve been eating.
Buckle: Did it look like a delicious beast? We should help the poor fellows out.
Stella: I agree. Should we figure out why these spinny things are here before we destroy them?
Stella notices four big switches spaced around the central column. Flipping all the switches should deactivate the traps. She can wall walk on the outer wall, but moving to the inner wall would be tricky. She uses Wizardry to pull the switches remotely! The traps power down, allowing free passage through the central corridor. Just be careful not to run into the stationary blades. Stella returns to the bar and the Kobolds.
Stella: I have good news! You do not need to be brave to go to the outside!
Buckle: You just have to climb up a three-storey machine.
Kobold: Wow, these people really know how to deal with Outside. Do all rooms have trap corridors? Is this normal for you?
Stella: Little bit at this point.
Buckle: Go upstairs, get Aku’s attention, ask him how to get to the library.
Buckle seems to know what he’s talking about, so the Kobolds take his advice. Stella takes Buckle by the mossy gloves and drags him to the entrance to the cave to look at the skeleton of the Abyssal Primordial Beast.
Buckle: You’re right. Not appetizing. Why is it so white here?
GM note: Why are you white?
Buckle explores the strange cave and strange beast. The shape of the cavern, with stalactites and stalagmites, is perfectly normal, but everything is a smooth, uniform white. It’s not a normal stone color, and even if it was, there should be some variation. The Abyssal Primordial Beast was once a great serpent with softly glowing skin, but something killed it and Kobolds have eaten most of its flesh, exposing its bones. The Abyssal Primordial Beast absorbs all the light around, so opponents must fight it in complete darkness. When it died, all the light it had absorbed exploded out of it and painted the room. Buckle consults the parchment from the library. There’s nothing about the Doomsday Engine, but surely it was powerful enough to count back when it was functional. The flesh of the Abyssal Primordial Beast is pale and translucent, and most of the recipes Buckle knows would be better with other meats. It’s not poisonous. It will do in a pinch. It pairs with white wine. Buckle checks the bar for white wine, but all the bottles are empty.
Stella collects a few scales from the beast’s skin. The scales are as big as Stella’s hands.
Everything that needed to be done here was already done by someone else, so the Fellowship leaves the bar and goes to the north hallway.
The northern hall opens into a room dominated by a life-size statue of an Ogre. The statue is on a platform in the middle of a pool, fed by a waterfall that runs down the back wall. There are no fish, no moss, no life of any kind in the pool One of the Ogre’s hands is raises, like it should be holding something. A plaque indentifies the statue as Walter the Unquenchable, an Ogre hero famous for saving a human village from bandits. Fresh water is life, so saving the well saved the village. The pinky of the Ogre’s upraised hand is missing.
Walter was carved with a missing pinky on one hand. The statue wasn’t damaged. The statue should be holding something, but it’s gone. A hidden niche in the base of the statue is open, and whatever was inside is gone. The pool doesn’t overflow as water flows into it, so there must be a drain and a pump behind the wall to recycle the water. Stella climbs the statue and sits on its upraised hand. She sees some tiny dead bits of moss on the statue. Stella takes some water and splashes it on the moss. There’s no obvious reaction.
Buckle: Maybe you shouldn’t splash around that water. Seems like it doesn’t support life.
Stella: To the other room! It’s been a while since we’ve been somewhere totally new!
The southern hallway is the only way they haven’t explored.
The western half of the room has shifted down, leaving a gap between western ceiling and eastern floor of about a foot. A platinum plinth in the center of the room is pinned between the ceiling and floor, keeping the western side of the room from falling further. A large ramp carved into the floor provides easy access between the western and eastern sides of the room. A large corridor leads south. Stella goes down the ramp and through the door to the west
There’s a short walkway over a circular pit. Above the walkway is a narrow chimney, presumably to the outside. A large switch is mounted at the end of the walkway. At the bottom of the pit there are ashes, some stubborn debris, and a big metal fan. Stella shrinks so her reduced weight will not disrupt the unstable terrain. She moves slightly into the room and pulls the lever with Wizardy. Some actuators lead up towards the chimney, but the ends are broken off. There used to be something here. Stella returns to the Fellowship.
Stella: There’s a lever, and a lot of broken stuff.
The only way left to explore is the large hallway leading south. At the end is a big door with a complicated lock. Only someone with a very special key could open this door from the outside, but it’s simple to open from the inside. They open the door and there’s nothing outside! The door is halfway up the sheer face of the plateau!
Stella: I think we should close this door.
Buckle: Let’s leave it open. Who cares about this place?
Stella: Hey, Buckle, do you want to see about a spiral?
They return to the bar and examine the barricaded door that seems to lead to the Eternal Spiral, home of the Kobolds. It’s a large metal door in a stone wall and it’s barricaded from the inside. Buckle takes off his fireproof suit and starts melting through the door on the hinge side. The hinges are on the inside, but he’ll reach them hinges. The door falls inward. The Eternal Spiral is a storeroom in the shape of a spiral, with shelves floor-to-ceiling on either side. most of the boxes on the lower shelves are empty, but the upper shelves are almost full. Many Kobolds stand amazed and appalled at the Fellowship’s violent entrance.
Kobold: The barricade has fallen! Outside is coming in!
One Kobold wears a very large hat and is clearly in charge.
Kobold Chief: Begone, do not disturb our perfect civilization!
Buckle: OK, it there any easy way to get back up to top of the plateau? We kinda fell.
Kobold Chief: I don’t know what you’re talking about. All that Outside stuff is not for us!
Buckle: What if we go to the top of the spiral. Is there a vent or stairs?
Kobold Chief: No. This is the only entrance and it’s one entrance too many! We had our cosmology all figured out.
Stella: You gotta wonder how you got here
Buckle asks about Co-Co the first through the seventh. They are all dead. No one is eager to say they are friends with Co-Co VIII, but the Fellowship says that he’s doing fine and learning how to read.
Buckle: Y’all don’t like Vampires, do you?
Kobold Chief: Is that some Outside idea you’re trying to bring in here? No! We don’t like it.
Buckle: I’m going to leave you with one of these. If you see any Vampires, use that. Right through the heart.
He offers the Kobold Chief a garlicwood stake.
Stella: Buckle, it seems like they really, really don’t want out. We should probably put the door back.
They leave and lift the door back into its frame. Buckle spot-welds a few areas to hold the door in place.
The Fellowship leaves the Remnant Dungeon the same way they came in. From atop the plateau, they can see neighboring locations. To the north, Ice fields. To the northwest, Sunpeak, the planet’s highest mountain. To the east, Cracktooth Wastes. A valley between Sunpeak, Cloudpeak, and the plateau.
END OF SESSION MOVE
- Did we thorougly explore a new location?
- YES, the Remnant Dungeon
- Did anyone find what they were seeking?
- YES, Buckle got a library card!
- Did we learn something new about the world or its people?
- YES, the Kobolds from the Eternal Spiral
Level Up, Gear, Gear