Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Boris the Remnant, Ol’ Jardiner the Harbinger, Yonne the Rain.
Last time, Yonne and Boris spied on Ol’ Jardiner while he had adventures with his other friends. When he didn’t return to them as expected, they traveled to Bogden. This time, Boris tries to find the Forgotten Lands, so he can complete his ancient mission of destroying that civilization.
Another party of adventurers come through Bogden. Some Halfings, a Goblin with big robot arms, a Platyperson wearing a moss suit like the one Yonne wore at the Hidden Library, and several birds. Yonne and Boris spend the night out in the bog, avoiding whatever was happening on the full moon that Anter didn’t want outsiders to interfere with. The next window, around noon, Infinite WIndows opens and Ol’ Jardiner staggers through. He’s soaked. He’s covered with bluish soot. He looks terrible.
Ol’ Jardiner: I’ve had such a day! I’d really like to share a meal with y’all.
Boris: I could watch.
Boris doesn’t eat food like the living, so Ol’ Jardiner eats with Yonne.
Yonne: Now that we are sharing this meal, what did happen to you?
Ol’ Jardiner: i’m just going to skip the werewolves. That’s not even important. We aimed Infinite Windows at the Moon and we missed. Some kind of creature came through. As a man of science I’ll pursue knowledge at any cost, and the cost was very high. Listening to the forbidden knowledge of this Strange Entity was painful. Then I realized it was too dangerous, so I blew it up.
Yonne: But you missed the Moon, so no damage to the Moon?
Ol’ Jardiner: Just me, and the cabin of our ship. You wanna know what the Moon is for?
Boris: Yes, I’m intrigued at how you aimed for the Moon, even.
Ol’ Jardiner: My friend Dryden says mirrors fell from the Moon and he was there where one hit and took a mirror shard. If we have an object from a place, that’s how you open Infinite Windows to that place.
Boris: That’s cool. How do Werewolves tie into the Moon?
Yonne: He also had a Werewolf problem, unrelated.
Ol’ Jardiner: Vampires are hurt by sunlight but move freely in the nighttime, so the Dragons put the Moon up as a big mirror to shine sunlight on the night side of the planet. It didn’t work as intended. Instead of destroying Vampires, it created Werewolves. If we can get up there and fix whatever technical problem there is, we’ll get rid of two problems at once.
Boris asks Ol’ Jardiner what the Strange Entity looked like, and wonders if it might be related to his ancient mission.
Ol’ Jardiner: It doesn’t care enough about us to punish anyone for hubris.
Boris: That in itself was a lot of hubris, because it got blown up.
Ol’ Jardiner: In all the excitement, I forgot what we were doing on this side of the portal.
Boris: I’m looking for any scent of the Forgotten Lands, and, Yonne, you’re looking for more of your kind. We’re just goofing around every town.
Ol’ Jardiner: We went south, we dropped off Lucia, and we got Markus. He must have gone to the Forgotten Lands. It’s definitely south. It’s not on this continent. I don’t want you to eat Markus. He’s not very bright, but he’s a good kid.
Boris: I can wait whatever, 100 years, 80 years. I’m ageless.
Ol’ Jardiner: We did meet one other Acid Rain to the west of Sugar’s Crossing, where the Werewolves are, but that won’t be a problem for another month.
Yonne: I will keep my eyes and ears and nostrils and tongue open for strange water-based happenings. Where do you find the news of all the land?
The Fellowship heads back towards the Hidden Library. They go to Thaumatown to take the ferry across the Mighty River
THAUMATOWN MESSAGE BOARD
Averiela: Missing Wizard: Allan a Zham. Last seen five weeks ago. Mandated democracy for thaumatwon. Return to town if seen. Reward: robot technology.
Dryden: Robots haywire, wizard departed
Robots sleeping, be wary awaking
Robots driven by power unknown
Seek we for the source? We might be blown (up)
Lucia: There may be complications if Brainiac or Redstone return.
The cranes on the docks are automated, loading and unloading ships on their own. People bustle everywhere. Robots are common, directing traffic and carrying heavy loads.
Ol’ Jardiner: This is where I got that vague dossier about myself. We went into the tower and Redstone was there. Lucia warned us! We should have read this earlier. We kinda ran out of him last time, so we shouldn’t stay here.
Boris: Will the security bots detect us as undesirables?
Yonne: Shall we go back in the water?
Boris and Ol’ Jardiner take a look around first.
- Tell me about the Robot Stewards? What are they doing? What will they do next?
- When the Robot Stewards rotate off-shift, they go into the Civic Center for maintenance.
- Is anything hidden or out of place?
- There’s a hidden hatch in the side of the Civic Center that leads to the Robotics Facility under the Civic Center
- What will happen if I look for a traveling bard?
- A Bard passed through yesterday and interviewed some residents. He was tracking several stories: Any leads on Allan a Zham? How is the new self-run democracy faring? He headed south because he heard about some other robots to the south.
The Fellowship looks through the secret hatch into a wedge-shaped entrance hall. The south door is labeled “Employees Only”
A Steward Bot enters from the west and into the north door. The Fellowship drops down from the hatch in the ceiling. Another Steward Bot enters.
Stewart Bot: Halt! Where is your authorization?
Ol’ Jardiner: Oh, just a moment! I left it over here.
Ol’ Jardiner sees a slot in the locked “Employees Only” door and squishes some magical silly putty into it. It turns into something that should go in that slot: a keycard with a picture of a tetrahedron.
Ol’ Jardiner: Here’s my card. It’s not working. Could you get this fixed?
The Steward Bot believes Ol’ Jardiner’s lie and goes to replace the fake with a real level 1 security card. While it is gone, Yonne takes the shape of a Steward Bot. With the real card, Ol’ Jardiner unlocks the “Employees Only” door. Inside is a control room with dials, levers, and flashing lights. Redstone is operating the controls and recognizes the Fellowship as the adventurers who broke their promise last time they met.
- Redstone he/him Construct. A unique robot with his own personality
- Exterminate: Killbots are Melee, Ranged, and Piercing. If they are trying to kill you specifically, you need to pay a price whenever you go near a Killbot.
- Not Soulless: This killbot refuses to harm the weak or the innocent. It has no qualms about killing those it considers evil, or anyone who has damaged this stat. The longer it lives, the better its morality becomes, and the more able it is to resist orders from its superiors.
Redstone: I trusted you to provide security to my people and you failed!
Boris: But we didn’t fail.
Redstone: You didn’t even try! Now I will do it myself.
Yonne: I believe that you are very strong and apt and capable of protecting these people much better than we would.
Redstone: I don’t want to re-litigate this. I’ll just show you what I’ve been doing.
Redstone presses some buttons and summons some robots into the control room. These Steward Bots have been retrofitted to carry melee weapons on their simple arms. Now they are Warrior Drones. They are led by a Shield Commander, adome-shaped robot with four legs, like a turtle with a glass shell. A Phalanx Drone rides on top of the Shield Commander.
- Group Of Warrior Drones: Steward Bots armed with a variety of Melee
weaponry. They will easily overpower anyone one-on-one.- Overpowering: Anyone trying to act alone against the warriors must pay a price. If they are a Gang or Army, the warriors are Piercing and Giant.
- Group: This enemy can act against two people at once. When this enemy is destroyed, this stat is damaged, or this is their only stat left, replace the Group with two normal enemies.
- Shield Commander: This powerful protector grants invincibility to the Horde. They must be take out first, or else the Horde cannot be stopped.
- Diamond Command: All nearby Horde threats, NOT including this one, are Dwarf-Made. They cannot be damaged by anything short of dragonfire or by secrets known only to the Dwarves.
- Phalanx Drone: These spider-like robots protect other machines with their lives, using an energy shield canopy to negate damage entirely. Phalanx Drones almost always appear in Groups or Gangs to provide multiple layers of protection for a more destructive Machine, allowing it to do its job safely.
- Energy Shield: The Phalanx drone clings onto and protects its allies. When an ally a Phalanx Drone is riding on takes damage or is destroyed, destroy the Phalanx Drone instead.
Redstone: Warrior Drones, show these intruders the door!
In unison, all the Warrior Drones turn and point to the door.
Redstone: Warrior Drones, eject these intruders from my Robotics Facility!
Yonne: It’s fine, You do not need to eject us. We will leave peacefully. Clearly you have done a great job with the defense. Goodbye.
Ol’ Jardiner: Yeah, I’m not really in any shape for a fight.
The Fellowship leaves through the door instead of the secret hatch and find themselves in the basement of the Civic Center.
Boris: What were you hoping to gain from the basement?
Ol’ Jardiner: It just seemed cool. I like poking my nose where it doesn’t belong and learning things.
Boris: They were all in one room. We could shut the door and throw a torch in there. I’m just trying to solve problems.
Yonne: I suppose we should do find our intrepid reporter.
The Fellowship fills their bellies before heading south from the Mighty River. They see a lake with an island in the middle, and something floating above the island. Birds fly over the lake, but some of them are flying robots, not birds. There’s a person with colorful clothes and a big feathered cap cowering behind a tree. He motions for the Fellowship to get down.
- Group of Flying Camera: A staple of Machine armies of every kind, these eyeball-shaped drones are not themselves dangerous, but you don’t want them watching what you’re up to.
- Communications Network: Anything the Flying Camera sees or hears, every Machine in the area also sees and hears.
- Keep Away: The Flying Camera will never willingly get close to someone it is watching, and will use its flight to try and stay out of range. This is because it is very frail: if the Flying Camera is damaged, they are destroyed.
- Group: This enemy can act against two people at once. When this enemy is destroyed, this stat is damaged, or this is their only stat left, replace the Group with two normal enemies.
Yonne takes cover by sinking down into a puddle, confusing the Flying Cameras. Ol’ Jardiner uses the insight that he gained, both from talking to the Strange Entity and from having particles of its body embedded in his by a powerful explosion. Seeing slightly into the future, he uses Wizardry to push something unseen. A missile smashes into the ground right next to him! It came from that floating object far across the lake: The Sky Spear. It fires rocket-propelled projectiles with hardened metal tips, relying on kinetic damage, not explosives.
- Sky Spear: The Sky Spear hovers over a region, working with its cameras to provide long range security and threat removal. That is to say, its a big gun.
- Snipe: The sky spear can shoot at incredible distances, farther than it is capable of seeing by itself. Its shots are Ranged and Piercing and never miss. If the Targeting Reliant stat is damaged, the spear gains the Dangerous
tag and its attacks always miss their intended target. - Targeting Reliant: The sky spear cannot aim at anything on its own, and requires a Support Unit to aim for it. Usually, the sky spear relies on Flying Cameras or a Tracking Chip, but it also makes an excellent defense for Machine Cities like Regulus or Forge. If the sky spear’s targeting system is jammed, or if the Support Unit it is relying on is taken out, damage this stat.
- Snipe: The sky spear can shoot at incredible distances, farther than it is capable of seeing by itself. Its shots are Ranged and Piercing and never miss. If the Targeting Reliant stat is damaged, the spear gains the Dangerous
GM note: Oops, the Sky Spear never misses. I won’t undo a call I already made, but I’ll apply that rule going forward.
The next missile strikes Yonne, but she’s unharmed. Boris considers hiding inside Yonne, but realizes that the missile went straight through her, so her liquid body would not protect his solid body. Ol’ Jardiner dives for cover next to the colorful person, who is the intrepid reporter that they were seeking.
- Atlas, Human Bard: This reporter is a completionist who wants to assemble all the world’s knowledge. Books and scrolls are strapped and carried all over their body. Helpful sources of news and entertainment, but some find bards to be loud and obnoxious.
- What News Do You Bring?: The bard will tell you one interesting fact or piece of news for each that you share with them, once per person.
- What Tales Do You Sing?: The bard can sing magical songs. They can perform a song of power, giving Hope to all who hear it; a song of sorrow, giving Despair to all who hear it; or a song of joy, distracting all who hear it.
Atlas: Do not get shot at! Come behind tree!
Ol’ Jardiner: Your warning could have been more specific.
Atlas: I understand. The thing with language is when there’s so much going on that–how are you? You’re being shot at. That answers that question.
Boris: How long have you been pinned down?
Atlas: A couple of hours. I noticed I was getting shot at, I got behind a tree, I just cooked up an egg. How are you? What are you? I’ve never seen anyone like you before. Give me on moment, let me find my quill.
Ol’ Jardiner: I disagree with your priorities.
Boris: Yes, I think we need to worry about the giant gun.
Ol’ Jardiner: Boris, you’re pretty fast, right? Could you run across the lake and ramp off of something to get up to that thing?
Boris:I can’t run across water, unless Yonne could somehow follow and act as slightly more solid bit of water for me to stand on.
The Fellowship spends quite a while inventing outlandish schemes for attacking a long-range flying enemy without any ranged weapons. Eventually they figure out that the Sky Spear needs the Flying Cameras to aim, and those are much closer and easier to destroy. Yonne acts as a distraction, since the Sky Spear’s projectiles don’t hurt her. Every fifteen seconds or so, a rocket with a hardened tip blasts through Yonne and sticks into the ground behind her.
Ol’ Jardiner: Boris, one of cameras is going to pop out from behind that tree. I’ll tap you on the shoulder at the right time, OK?
Ol’ Jardiner looks slightly into the future and taps Boris just before a Flying Camera appears from behind a tree close to the ground. Boris dashes over with blinding speed and jams the main body in his mouth. The two wings fall to the ground. Many of the Flying Cameras flee, but two remain.
Ol’ Jardiner: Maybe we should just get Atlas and ourselves out of danger. I am very worried about being impaled by a missile twice my size. It’s making it difficult to concentrate on intellectual matters.
Atlas: I’d rather know what’s going on here. Look at that floating thing, very interesting! How did they make it? How is it up there?
Yonne: I think we should just get Altas out of shooting range and perhaps we can exchange some information?
Ol’ Jardiner:I have some very tasty information about The Moon, but I will only tell you after we have evacuated.
Atlas: A floating platform over a lake: very interesting. Not as interesting as The Moon. Let’s all walk in this exact line so we do not get shot, yes? Shot, tree, make a line. If we walk in a straight line, we don’t get shot. Do you know geometry?
Atlas, Ol’ Jardiner, and Boris run away in a straight line. Yonne doesn’t need to hide behind cover. As they run, Boris turns to eat the next missile, but realizes at the last moment that it’s too big get get his mouth around. He jerks aside and the missile strikes a glancing blow and hits Ol’Jardiner on the ricochet. The Fellowship escapes from the Sky Spear and takes cover behind the huge trees of an old forest.
Ol Jardiner: Atlas, now I owe you some information. The Moon: built as a secret weapon for the Dragons when the Vampires rose up to destroy them. The Moon is designed to reflect sunlight onto the night side of the planet, so even the night is not safe for vampires. It doesn’t work. Somehow the light is not reflected purely, so it doesn’t come in as sunlight and that is responsible for Werewolves.
Atlas: Very bad mistake by whoever made this error.
Ol Jardiner: They most likely paid for it with their lives. Now, you know any experts in teleportation?
Atlas: I’ve heard of groups of adventurers that disappear and reappear, including a very, very tall lady. If you head back, there’s a gentleman who is running kind of a robot army. He worked for a wizard in a tower. Wizard disappeared. Nobody knows where. Town runs itself now. Very interesting. You should talk to Redstone. You could also talk to a gentleman named Gummidge. I say gentleman but he is light inside scarecrow. You can find him in Swallet if you are very lucky.
Atlas wants to sing a song. Ol’ Jardiner suggests the fight song from his school: l’Academie de Magique Principale.
Atlas: I’m very interested in you, Boris. Where are you from?
Boris: I don’t know.
Atlas: How old are you?
Boris: Ages.
Atlas: How many ages? Name a kingdom that existed when you were born.
Boris: That is beyond me, I’m sorry.
Atlas: You don’t breathe? Why not? You are undead? You are machine? You are shadow? You are Revenant?
Boris: I am boar.
Ol Jardiner:You’re being too hard on yourself!
Atlas: What do you eat?
Boris: Here, I’ll show you. What’s not important on your person?
Atlas: Everything on my person is important.
Atlas decides to offer a pair of woolen gloves because it’s not cold. Boris eats one, which dissolves to nothing inside his mouth, and hands the other gloves back to Atlas.
Boris: Have you met anyone from The Forgotten Lands?
Atlas: I have heard stories about the Forgotten Lands. The story is: if you go and you leave, you forget. I haven’t met anyone from there. They tend not to advertise, probably because they forget.
Atlas: What’s you’re deal? You are acidic water? How old are you?
Yonne: I fell from the sky into a bog. Gradually I was aware of little creatures coming in and dissolving. It was like waking up from a long sleep. Or so I hear from the way sleep is described to me by people like yourself. I gradually became aware of myself, but I don’t know how long that took. I’ve been fully aware for a season and a half. Have you met any others like me?
Atlas: There’s a gentleman by the name of Doeb who lives on a mountain with an Eel, or the Eel protects the mountain. It’s been a while. He is like you. Let me look through my books. Ask me tomorrow.
GM note: The party lacks direction. We need to decide what we are doing. It’s funny that Boris wants to kill Markus, Lucia, Dryden, and all their friends, but that’s better to think about, not to actually do. Yonne and Boris both haven’t had friends before, so we could have more downtime and coversations to explore them learning to be people.
NO END-OF-SESSION MOVE