Chasing the Sunset & homecoming

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, the Fellowship traveled to the Rain Comet, where most of Yonne’s people live. This time, Yonne learns more about her culture, but also what happens to Vampires during the full moon.

Boris and Yonne want to see if Ol’ Jardiner really did change the Moon to kill Vampires. They want to return to Baron Von Till’s castle to watch the full moon rise, but Old Willow is in the way. Instead of going around to the north, through the Fairy Forest, Boris chooses to go south, through the Simple Savannah. In the distance, a river beomces a silver streak going up into the sky towards the Moon.

The animals look especially skittish. Something has distrubed them and they are now returning to their normal habitat. This pulls at Boris’ heartstrings, because it reminds him of himself, back when he was a mindless beast.

• What do my senses tell me about the habitat?
  • In the western part of the savannah are many dead animals. They haven’t been skinned or eaten, just killed.
• What’s out of place?
  • There’s soot and ash on the animal bodies, and sooty footprints on the ground from a large humanoid.
• Tell me about the animals? What are they doing? What will they do next?
  • The animals that the Fellowship passes are returning westward, because they all fled east.  The surviving animals are skittish and jumpy.

Boris and Yonne are looking around as animals stream past. The sound of hooves gets louder and louder and a group of Cape Buffalo run right over them!

• Group of Cape Buffalo: A large, powerful, ornery, and spiteful beast of burden.
  • Strong As An Ox: The ox can push aside or pull along anything less than triple its size or weight. Two oxen working together can push aside or pull along anything less than 10 times the size or  weight of a single ox.
  • Seeing Red: When an ox is enraged, its actions are Hard Cuts.
  • 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’s liquid form is splashed about, but the hooves and horns injure Boris.

Yonne: They are so nervous. How strange.

Boris: I don’t want to harm them.

Boris runs around at lightning speed, herding the Cape Buffalo like a sheepdog. He tries to force on into the hollow trunk of a baobab tree, but he ends up trapped there instead. The Cape Buffalo charges in and gores him. Boris kills it and heals himself.

Yonne: Perhaps we should stay out of their way.

Most of the Cape Buffalo flee, but two remain. They charge Boris and Yonne. Again, Yonne’s body just flows away from the strike. Boris embues his dark magic with the horrors that he’s seen in his long centuries, but this Cape Buffalo has recently seen horrors, so it lashes out instead of retreating.

Yonne: Can I help you?

Boris: I would appreciate it!

Yonne blasts the Cape Buffalo attacking Boris with a hig-pressure stream of water, knocking it away. The other Cape Buffalo keeps running back and forth through her.

Yonne: Shall we go the opposite direction?

Boris: We’re just going to run? I can run fast.

Yonne: I’ve seen it.

The Fellowship flees the angry Cape Buffalo.

Yonne: Do you need to stop and eat something?

Boris: No, that’s won’t help.

Yonne: Oh, right, you’re always hungry.

Boris: I’ll just insult the next person we meet.

Yonne: I’m starting to understand these behavior rules. Don’t be mean to people or they’ll get mad.

Boris: Or! For me: be mean to people, they’ll get mad, and I heal.

They travel through the Drowned Forest to Baron Von Till’s castle. At sunset, A sailing ship flies in and hovers above the castle. People descend from the ship, stand on the roof, and yell challenges to the people inside. Ol’ Jardiner and Atlas are among them.  Soldiers on the outer walls surround the intruders and threaten them with bows and slings. Von Till comes out to confront them just as the sun sets and the full Moon rises. Von Till flees from the moonlight. The soldiers attack the intruders. A young human man stands in the middle of it all, taunting them. Every single projectile misses him. Their attacks do nothing. After a few volleys, they panic and rout.

The intruders from the ship pursue Von Till into the castle.  Yonne and Boris enter the castle and find the other party of adventurers looting it. They greet Ol’ Jardiner and meet the others. The young human seemingly immune to arrows is Markus. He wears an amulet with the symbol of the Forgotten Lands, the civilization that Boris was created to destroy!

Yonne: Incredible how nothing hit him. I wonder if he is like me and the arrows just go through him.

Boris hasn’t given up on his quest to destroy the Forgotten Lands, but right now he’s focused on personal growth.

They meet an Elf woman named Averiela, tall and graceful with long blonde hair that never tangles. Dryden is a lanky human man always pulling some gadget from beneath his cloak, or hiding some object within it. There’s a Kobold, Wat-Wat IV. Yonne and Boris have never met a Kobold before. Everyone takes one item from the treasury.

Yonne takes several items that look like water and refract light in interesting ways.  One is a precious gem. The others are worthless bits of glass.

Boris finds a book detailing Von Till’s lineage. Both his blood relations and the people he was born from. There’s a clue that might lead towards the Forgotten Lands if he can cross-reference it with other sources.

Ol’ Jardiner: Did you see that? That was so cool! How are you here?

Yonne: You told us that the Moon would kill all Vampires and we know one Vampire–

Boris: We hate that guy!

Yonne: He’s been making the place that I’m from even more poisonous so we’re like, “Oh, we should go see if it worked!” and we came here and we saw that it worked.

Ol’ Jardiner: Great minds think alike! That’s exactly why we came here: to gloat in our victory.

Yonne: Congratulations on your victory.

Boris: How did all the things go through that man? What happened there?

Ol’ Jardiner: They didn’t. They all missed. He’s got the luck of the devil.

Yonne and Boris see Von Till’s corpse in his study.

Boris:  Does his body need to be buried in a way that will stop the rot of the surrounding area?

Yonne: I think the area was rotting because he was sad.

They notice the absence of the aura of dispair that afflicted them last time they were here. It died with Von Till.

Boris: Does that mean the Old WIllow won’t be so angry?

Ol’ Jardiner: Makes sense. I’m improving the world everywhere I go. Even places I don’t go.

Yonne: Do you want to walk back to the comet with us? You can bring Atlas.

Atlas already has a quill and a fresh piece of parchment out. They’re excited to learn about the Rain.

Yonne reminds Boris that he was going to be mean to the next people they met, but Boris likes these people. Ol’ Jardiner offers a swig from his flask of healing elixir, but Boris doesn’t think his wounds are that important. Ol’ Jardiner asks if they brought anything from the Rain Comet. They didn’t so he can’t use Infinite Windows. He looks through his Endless Scroll to find a ritual that will protect the Fellowship from wild beasts, so they can go back through the Simple Savannah safely.

GM note: We took a break, forgot where we were, and started the next scene at the Rain Crater.

When the Fellowship reaches the Rain Crater, several rush over to greet Yonne because they recognize that she’s new here.

Rain: Hello, it’s so nice to meet you! Please introduce us to your friends.

Yonne: This is Boris, and this is Jardiner, and this is Atlas. Atlas is going to ask you a lot of questions probably, and I just wanted to say “hi” and meet you and —

Rain: –We’re preparing now! You can’t come in yet because we found out you were coming just now.

Ol’ Jardiner: Did you tell them your name?

Yonne: Uhh, it’s Yonne?

Rain: Yonne, it’s so nice to meet you!

The Rain wiggle so they shimmer and reflect the sunlight.

Yonne: I have gems that do exactly that.

Rain: Wow, you should show us!

Yonne displays the gems and bits of glass she took from Von Till’s castle.

Rain: Wow, do you also have things that do that?

Boris: No? My claws, when the light hits them?.

Ol’ Jardiner: I have this amythest, but I’m going to keep it.

Rain: We weren’t going to take them. But if you let me handle it, I can do something cool. I’ll move it around my body and make it shine in fun ways.

Ol’ Jardiner: I promise to loan this gem to you if you promise to return it to me unaltered.

The Rain agrees and Ol’ Jardiner seals the magical promise with a handshake, although he’s not sure what counts as a hand. His mark appears in air bubbles inside the Rain’s body and Ol’ Jardiner feels the magic work, so he hands over the amythest. The Rain passes the amythest through their whole body so the light reflects inside them and through the gem. It’s like a rave contained inside their body.

Rain: I guess technically it is altered in that it is wet.

Ol’ Jardiner: That’s OK. That doesn’t count.

Rain: Our apologies. We are trying to distract you but we still need more time. Perhaps you could tell a story of we could tell you a story.

Boris: I’m interested in your culture as a people.  What brought you here and why?

Rain: The comet did. We were all in the comet and the comet approached your land while we were inside it. It did so very fast and when we started entering the magic stripped away pieces so we lost some of our kind into the air, but most of us fell here. We were just inside the comet and–

Boris: Forever? Always in the comet?

Rain: As far as we can remember, but the comet was once part of something bigger. How do we explain? You have this Moon. Imagine if this Moon was once part of this that you live on.

Ol’ Jardiner: It was. It was built in sections here and then flown up by Dragons.

Boris and the Rain stare for a moment.

Rain: Like that but imagine that instead it just lifted out of the ground and became separate from it. There was a land that we were from that was entirely water and we were all as one, and then from beneath the water there came a rock that lifted up. As it got higher and higher it froze, and those of us who were in it froze with it. It flew across nothingness. We were all frozen and none of us could understand time. So we landed here and we lost some of our kin to the land. (Yonne was one of those. So nice to have you back, Yonne.) Those of use who have unfrozen are now separate droplets.

Boris: Do you want to go back?

Rain: We would not know how to. We think it was a very long journey but we were all frozen, so it could have been short and we imagined it being long.

Boris: What’s it like having been not fully individualistic and now being individualistic?

Rain: It is strange, but we have ways of connecting to each other. Which, Yonne, you will learn soon. We are preparing for a celebration. We are happy every time we meet another piece of ourself. There are some who choose to live apart from us. There is a village of those that prefer to live separate. We let them do as they like. If they choose one day to re-become a part of us, then they can.

Boris: Is your culture different here than it was there?

Rain: I think so. When we are touching, fully immersed in each other, we can understand each other’s memories, thoughts, and feelings. At the time we were always immersed together. Now that is not always the case, so there must be differences.

Yonne: Oh, I wonder what that feels like, can I feel it with you?

Rain: Of course.

Yonne and the Rain meld together

Yonne/Rain: You are tingly. We are tingly.

Yonne/Rain reach out to Boris, who shrinks back. They reach towards Ol’ Jardiner’s face. He offers his hand instead. The combination is less acidic than Yonne. It feels like pop rocks on Ol’ Jardiner’s skin. They separate.

Yonne: I liked it.

Rain: If you do not have other questions, perhaps you could tell us of your culture?

Boris looks uncomfortable. Ol’ Jardiner starts talking because he assumes everyone wants to listen to him, accidentally saving face for Boris.

Ol’ Jardiner: I went to the Academy. It’s the way we combine and improve our minds. It’s not as literal and direct as yours. We can manifest knowledge in objects and pass the objects around and when the object leaves, the knowledge remains. They are called “books”. After that I was with the Crusher-Harcourts for a while. People here are very individual and can become quite different, not only from each other but from themselves through time.

Rain: How long do you live?

Ol’ Jardiner: When our planet goes around the star once, we call that a year. Have you noticed the passing of the seasons?  My people live 150 of those, barring accidents.

Rain: Seems short.

Ol’ Jardiner: I don’t think I’ve been called short in that particular way before. It’s different for different people. The Crusher-Harcourts are taller than me (especially the Ogres!) 90 or 100 is a good goal for them.

Boris: I do not know how old I am.

Rain: Were you also frozen for some period of time?

Boris: No. I am alone in this world, as a being.  I’m coming to terms with it over time.

Rain: We would absorb you if we could, but we cannot.

Boris: It’s OK. I fear I might absorb you in way that might be harmful.

Rain: Then I must warn you to stay on the periphery of the celebration. You may enter the comet, but be careful not to contact anyone.

Boris:I am diligently aware that I can harm living beings.

Rain:  Does this happen with you as well?

Ol’ Jardiner: I can manipulate the ley-lines that hold reality together, so I can go into the ceremony, then twist off a little bubble around myself to insulate me from whatever effects.

The Rain go back into the Rain Comet. A short while later they come back and announce that everything is ready. They lead the Fellowship into the Rain Comet, reminding Boris that he must remain on the periphery. The comet is porous, but the pores are large enough for most creatures to walk through. A tall Human would have to stoop and an Ogre wouldn’t fit at all. The Rain are amorphous and adjust to fit the passage. The center of the comet that used to be the frozen core is now a hollow chamber. A hole at the top of the chamber allows sunlight to come in.  The surface of the chamber is always wet because Rain are constantly moving back and forth across it.

Atlas: I wonder if the residual water Rain leave behind could be used forensically. Could it be traced to an individual? Maybe the concept of “an individual” is not so solid here.

Ol’ Jardiner creates a small bubble of space-time to protect himself and Atlas from whatever is about to happen. It’s a tight fit. He sits on Atlas’ lap and holds the scroll so Atlas can write their observations.

All the Rain in the Rain Comet enter the central chamber, sticking to the walls at all angles as if not affected by gravity. One shouts Yonne’s name and the rest shout it back and dance excitedly. Groups of three combine into a single large bubble and start jumping and bouncing around. Two Rain merge with Yonne. Groups of three merge into groups of nine, which merge into groups of twenty-seven, and so on. They bounce across the chamber and join into a single huge mass of water. As they join, their voices get deeper and deeper until the sound is inaudible to normal ears. Yonne’s friends can feel the space vibrating and see the combined mass of Rain dancing and reflecting sunlight through its collective body. The mass splashes out and each Rain splits into an individual droplet again.

Groups of Rain rush up to Yonne’s friends.

Rain: Welcome also! We can’t absorb you, but we would like to feed you or how do you celebrate? Do you have dances? We will learn your dances.

Ol’ Jardiner doesn’t celebrate often. When he was a servant, he had to work during Crusher-Harcourt parties. He have other Halflings in his adventuring parties, so he doesn’t express his Halfling culture often. This is a perfect opportunity. Halflings love family and parties. He performs a traditional Halfling dance with Atlas (who knows the customs of many cultures) The Rain try to imitate the dance. When they link “arms” they merge into a horizontal hourglass shape and spin. It’s tricky for Ol’ Jardiner and Altas to link arms too, with the height difference.

Ol’ Jardiner: Food is very important for celebrations in my culture.

The Rain already intended to feed Yonne’s friends. Ol’ Jardiner’s manipulation was unnecessary.  They just didn’t know what they ate. Usually the Lost Shards who find their way back to the Rain Comet arrive alone.

Ol’ Jardiner: I’m sure you don’t have pastries, but we Halflings also like fresh fruit and roasted vegetables.

Rain: We don’t really do heat here. We have fresh fruit and vegetables.

Ol’ Jardiner accepts the fresh fruit.

Boris: If you’d like, Jardiner, I could cook those vegetables for you. Put them in my hands and everyone stay away from me. Wait, I’ll do this outside.

Boris wants to show appreciation for the Rian’s dance. He contorts his dark magic, trying to resemble the merging orbs and flashing lights of the Rain, but it doesn’t work. His magic is too scary. The Rain dance along anyways. He goes outside and focuses his dark magic into his hands, heating and cooking the vegetables. A few Rain follow him outside to watch, but keep their distance.

Boris comes back with the roasted vegetables. Ol’ Jardiner reaches into his tool-vest and pulls out silverware. He cuts the fruits and vegetables and serves himself and Atlas. Boris shows Atlas the book of Vampire geneologies. Atlas stops eating, cleans his hands, and starts reading the book. Knowledge is more important than food, and source documents must be handled carefully. Boris knows food is important to the living, so he tries holding up pieces of food for Atlas to eat out of his hand. Atlas doesn’t like that.

Boris: I learned something about Human culture. Don’t feed people unless you are very close.

The Fellowship has earned the Fellowship of the Rain, because Yonne is part of the family. The Rain offer several boons.

• Symbiosis The slimes here have granted you a shared power, a kind of strange link to your allies that grants them a piece of your power. The player who picks this fellowship move chooses one Custom Move they know. This is your Symbiotic Move. When an ally you have a Bond with is in the same scene as you, they have access to your Symbiotic Move, and can use all its benefits freely.
• Slime Ranch When you leave this community, each member of the fellowship leaves with a Slime, a small amorphous monster with varying properties. Each player has one Bond with their Slime, and chooses the second stat of their Slime.
  • Slime: These small, liquid monsters can have wildly varying properties, depending upon their diet. They are all Amorphous, but their second stat varies, and is selected upon the slime’s introduction.
    • Main Stat: Amorphous
    • Secondary Stat Options: Camouflage,  Explosive, Flesh Dissolution, Metal Corrosion, Sticky, Winged
• Castle In The Sky King Bernard has agreed to let you guide Bertha, the giant flying turtle. You can use it to fly to anywhere you wish to go, safely traveling there inside of a giant fortress of ice.

The Fellowship chooses Slime Ranch. Boris is happy to have more living things around him, like his bird. Ol’ Jardiner names his sticky Slime “Mucilage”. Yonne names her winged Slime is “Flibby”. Boris’ slime has Metal Corrosion.

RAIN COMET MESSAGE BOARD

Boris: Be kind. Don’t light fires near them.

Ol’ Jardiner: A fascinating lifeform. I look forward to continuing observations.

Yonne: We are one.

Another adventurer wrote about the Rain King. The Rain have seen other lifeforms that don’t merge with each other and realize that those creatures like hierarchies. Thus, five Rain (one of each kind) will combine into a large Rain to act as the Rain King, because the Rain assume that the other creatures will expect a King. It’s not always the same five Rain.

The Fellowship has accomplished big goals for Ol’ Jardiner (fix the Moon) and Yonne (find her people) so their next move is to help Boris with his big goal ( find the Forgotten Lands) The Hidden Library is a good place to look for clues.

Ol’ Jardiner: There’s a Dwarven city near here. They’re repairing the Dwarven Waterways. There’s a terminal near the library. We just have to find a terminal near here. They might try to come up in the Fairy Forest, but we’d get lost trying to find it.

Boris: Dwarves like mining. Are there mountians nearby?

Ol’ Jardiner: New Clay Fortress is north of here in the Clay Hills.

From the north rim of the crater, the Fellowship looks over a location covered in dense underbrush to the Clay Hills beyond. The location just north of the Rain Comet has a series of floating platforms and building, connected by bridges and suspended by balloons. Nothing touches the ground.

Boris: Something is up with the down.

Ol’ Jardiner investigates: He rolls little glass balls that look like eyeballs down the rim of the crater into the brush, and floats some out with telekinesis.

• What is hidden or out of place?
  • The brush covering the ground is swarming with ravenous bugs!
• Tell me about the people on the platforms? What are they doing? What will they do next?
  • They are looking down at the ground, ready to throw rocks and stuff. One of them has a rope.
• What will happen if we destroy the bugs’ habitat?
  • Attacking the bugs individually wouldn’t work.  Setting the whole place on fire would kill the bugs, but the hot air balloons would no longer provide lift and the platforms would fall into the fire.

There’s a commotion. The bugs seem to gather below where all the people are looking. The man with the rope throws one end down to the ground. A Rain flows up the rope, holding a bunch of stuff inside his fluid body. As soon as he reaches the platform, they drop the rope because bugs are following him up the rope. The people swat and smash the few bugs that reached the plaform with the Rain.

Ol’ Jardiner: I might have a ritual that would keep the bugs away from us.

Ol’ Jardiner summons a transparent ball, big enough for several people to stand in. The Fellowship can walk inside the ball and make it roll forward over the bugs.

Ol’ Jardiner: To keep all the bugs out, I made it airtight, so if we take too long in crossing, we will suffocate.

Boris: You and Atlas will suffocate.

Boris and Yonne don’t breathe.

The Fellowship enters the ball and Ol’ Jardiner seals it. They walk forward together. Boris can run impossibly fast, but he matches pace with the others so they aren’t flung around. The ball rolls over the swarms of bugs. The bugs try to climb onto and into the ball, but they slide off the slick surface. The people on the platforms run alongside, gesturing and yelling, but the Fellowship can’t hear them. The ball emerges from the underbrush and barrels up the hill to the entrance of the New Clay Fortress. There’s a shallow moat around the entrance. People can wade across, but bugs will drown. The ball floats across the moat, then splits open and deflates.

Dwarven Guard: We’ve never seen anyone get through the bugs as cleanly as you. You’re clear to come inside.

Usually the guards have to kill a few bugs on anyone who enters this way.

Ol’ Jardiner: We’ve come to use the great Dwarven Waterways. We’ve heard that the craft and wisdom of the Dwarves have made travel easy.

Dwarven Guard: Of course! We’re very proud of them. Perhaps you’d like to stay and see the wonderful crafts and skills of the Dwarves.

Ol’ Jardiner: No, no, we’re in a hurry.

The Dwarven Waterways are partially filled with water. Rafts float downstream on one side, and conveyor belts powered by water wheels carry rafts upstream on the other side. The Fellowship waits in line for the next available raft.

Ol’ Jardiner: I don’t want to spend too much time in this town. We told them that their old city was accessible, so they were happy with us. Then we went out on a mission with their soldiers and they walled us up in the caverns because it was too dangerous before them. Rude! We also kind of broke open this obsidian cluster that was full of gems but had a monster in it. So it would be awkward if I was recognized by the leaders of the city. The town looks fine. I’m sure the nine-foot skeleton covered in soot and ash didn’t come in from the caverns to the town.

Yonne: How interesting and coincidental. When we were on our way to see the Vampire during the full moon we saw soot everywhere and the water buffalo were very upset and there were dead animals everywhere.

Ol’ Jardiner: So it’s on the surface? Success, we defended the city again. We drove it off once. We can do it again.

Yonne: They seem to like gems here, so I’m sure they were happy to have those.

Ol’ Jardiner: We took the gems.

The Fellowship rides the Dwarven Waterways to the Hidden Library.

END-OF-SESSION MOVE

• Did we thoroughly explore a new location?
  • YES, the Rain Comet.
• Did anyone find what they were seeking?
  • YES, Yonne found her people
• Did we learn something new about the world and its people?
  • YES, lots of Rain culture.

3 boons

• level up Yonne and Boris
• gear
• gear