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, Buckle decided to fix the teleporter terminal he blew up years ago, to rescue the Kobolds trapped on the Moon after he stole their power source. They found a necessary component in a Dwarven Fortress, and now they venture into the Fairy Forest to fix the terminal.
The Fellowship leaves new Clay Fortress and looks over the City Junkyard. From their postion in the Clay Hills, they can see more than they did when entering the City Junkyard the first time.
- What do my senses tell me?
- The City Junkyard is a confused jumbled of parts of buildings piled on top of each other. Around the edge there is a marsh. Any buildings that appeared there sank.
- Going straight south avoids the City Junkyard entirely. In that direction, balloons suspend buildings, plaforms and catwalks over dense underbrush.
- Going east leads to Cloudhold.
- What will happen if we take the Tunneler around the City Junkyard?
- The Dwarven Tunneler would sink into the muck of the marsh.
- They have a Tunneler. They could dig under the whole thing. But how deep? The message board mentions caverns under New Clay Fortress.
- The Dwarven Waterways offer quick and safe transport to any station on the route. Stations include City of Clay, Thaumatown, and Bogden. Someone mentioned
- Is anything is hidden or out of place?
- Smoke rises from a crack in one of the buildings. Perhaps other traveler started a campfire.
- The underbrush to the south teems with swarms of hungry insects.
- The Dwarven Waterways has a tunnel leading into the Fairy Forest, but that location is hostile, so the tunnel was abandoned.
The Fellowship goes to the Waterway station to see about taking their Dwarven Tunneler to that closed tunnel. There is no charge to ride the Waterway. Dwarves believe that increase in travel leads to increase in commerce. They want to make it easy for people to come and buy their crafts.
The Dwarven Waterways have been repaired. The tunnels are round, about 20 feet in diameter. Rafts going in the direction of the water go with the flow on one side of the tunnel. On the other side of the tunnel, conveyor belts are slightly raised above the water. Waterwheels below each conveyor belt provide power to move rafts on the belts upstream.
The turn-off to the abandoned tunnel is shortly before the City of Clay, so the Fellowship books passage there. First they try to book passage to New Clay City, and the long-suffering Dwarf working the Waterway patiently explains that New Clay City is where they are now, and City of Clay is different. People keep getting the two confused.
The Fellowship has to wait an hour and a half until a cargo raft that can carry their Tunneler is available. Buckle browses the shops looking for some fish to eat. Food stalls offer simple meals, fine meals, and lavish meals. Buckle wants something simple.
Fishmonger: How about minced steelhead trout soup with minced prickle berries? Or cave turtle with wild carrots.
Buckle: Turtle please.
Fishmonger: If you like that, my youngest here makes turtle shell crafts. You can get rings, crowns, or earrings to look cool, or little toys and gems. They make great souvenirs.
Buckle: Yeah, I’ll have some turtle soup and a shell bracelet.
Buckle gives the fishmonger a few clay coins. Fortunately New Clay Fortress’s currency isn’t metal, or Buckle’s Medallion of Cleft Sky would shock him. Commerce inside the city is done with these intrinsically worthless clay coins, while precious items are kept under guard in the city’s stockpiles. Special kilns can stamp out as many coins as needed. A bar of copper trades for two coins, silver for ten, and steel for thirty. High rollers trade in gems and gem-encrusted items. The town’s bookkeeper keeps track of the stocks and makes sure that every clay coin printed is backed by some real valuable item. There’s a tradition, when cashing out a lot of coins for valuable items, to crush the clay coins because they’re not needed any more. The mint can also make change, destroying a large coin and replacing it with several small ones.
GM note: Making lore for this game brings in expertise from a wide variety of fields.
The Fellowship’s raft arrives and is pulled off the conveyor belts.
Conductor: Here’s your raft. You’re scheduled to go out in nine rafts. That’s nine minutes. Don’t cause a delay.
The Tunneler and raft are all built to Dwarven standards, so there’s no trouble driving it onto the raft and securing it. Each raft has a post with different flags tied to it by the Conductor. The flags tells switch operators along the tunnels where each raft is going, so they know where to direct it. Stella wonders about bribing someone to let them into the closed tunnel.
The branch to the Fairy Forest is obvious, but is no engineer at the intersection to move rafts. Even if there was, the engineer wouldn’t want to send them to the Fairy Forest anyways. There’s a beam across the tunnel and a sign that reads “Under construction. Coming soon!” The engineers don’t want passengers to be worried by a sign warning of deadly enemies. Conveyors have been built some ways up the tunnel, but the water wheels are disconnected, so the conveyors aren’t moving. No one operates the crane that moves rafts from one tunnel to the other. The main tunnel is illuminated by lamp light, but the branch tunnel is dark. Somewhere down that dark tunnel, something prevents the hostile Fairies from entering the Dwarven Waterways, but the Fellowship can’t tell from here.
GM note: Always draw a map! Much confusion could have been avoided by drawing a map earlier. Also, specificity helps creativity. Putting the situation down on paper may reveal something that no one considered.
The raft in front of the Fellowship is a party boat chartered by a Dwarven pop star named Platinum and her adoring fans. She goes by only one name, like Cher. She is performing at every terminal on the Dwarven Waterways to celebrate their re-opening.
Behind the Fellowship is a cargo raft carrying medium-to-low-value items, which they make up for in volume. The raft is loaded to its maximum capacity, and maybe a little over. A father and daughter duo count and double-count the goods, making sure nothing has happened to it.
Buckle: Stella, you should try to convince those party people that it would be cool to steal road signs, like “Tunnel Closed” and “Coming Soon”
Stella tries to hail Platinum, but one of her fans steps in front of her and tells Stella not to bother here.
- Fanboy he/him Dwarf. Official member of Platinum’s fan club
- Loyal Beyond All Reason: Enemies must damage this stat before they can damage your allies.
- Get Right In There: A Fanboy cannot be ignored.
When you are the Fanboy’s opponent, you are in Despair when trying to do anything except deal with the Fanboy.
Fanboy: You’re not on the guest list. Look how beautiful and important and busy she is! You can’t talk to her!
GM note: Stella is never in Despair when rolling Courage, so she continues undeterred.
Stella: The folks working on the Waterways didn’t have time, before you got here, to remove the last of the signage for this new area they’ve been working on. They’d appreciate your help removing it so you can play your show.
Platinum sees that they aren’t dressed nicely and have a Dwarven Tunneler, so she assumes they are roadies, here to assist her.
Platinum: Take your raft ahead with my roadies and make sure the venue is ready to receive someone of my magnificence.
Buckle: She’s going to have a magnificent venue when we’re done.
- What is going here? What do my senses tell me?
- The fans are making a lot of noise, but the roadies are used to yelling over Platinum’s concert, which is even louder.
- What will happen if I try to use the raft-switching machinery?
- It will work, but the barricade needed to be removed. The upstream conveyor belts have been disconnected.
- Is anything hidden or out of place?
- An aquatic fairy scout is watching the tunnel.
Unless the conveyors in the side tunnel start moving, switching Platinum’s raft and then the Fellowship’s raft will place one on top of the other.
Stella: Buckle, I think I need to jump over to the terminal and see if there’s an emergency off switch.
Stella jumps like a spider to the control panel carved into the corner. The controls are clearly marked. She hits the emergency stop button, which stops the convoyer at the intersection, slows the conveyors behind it (so the stopped traffic doesn’t get run over) and accelerates the conveyors in front of it (to get away from the emergency) Platinum’s raft stops. The Fellowship’s raft and the cargo raft behind it are moving at half-speed.
Stella wall-walks to the top of the tunnel and tears down the barricade with the help of Platinum’s roadies.The roadies are good at their jobs and quickly tear the signs down and toss them in the water.
Buckle swims over to find some way to make the conveyor belts in the side tunnel move. The chains connecting the conveyor belts and the water wheels have been pulled off, and a few waterwheel have pins to keep them from turning. Buckle yells for the roadies to pull the pins out while he reconnects the chains, but he’s right there, so he does it himself. Stella runs back to the control panel and hits the go button! The conveyor under Platinum’s raft sends it down the main tunnel.
Roadies: Nooo, the extra tour stop!
The Roadies try to push the raft from one conveyor belt to the other with sheer muscle. Stella uses the crane to pick up Platinum’s raft and drops it in the downstream lane.
Stella: Sorry!
Buckle: Turns out the Fairies cancelled this stop!
Platinum: You’ve delayed me for the last time!
When the Fellowship’s raft comes along, Stella switches it to the conveyor belts going upstream into the Fairy Forest. It’s not that fast, so Buckle and Stella are able to board the raft again.
The torches in this tunnel aren’t lit, but Buckle’s Little Lights illuminate the area around the raft. After a rumbling along the conveyor belt for a while, the Fellowship approaches an obstacle. Silver spikes have been hammered into the tunnel walls pointing out towards the Fairy Forest, ready to impale anything large coming down the tunnel. Right behind the base of the spikes is a fine silver mesh, to catch small creatures like Fairies. Even Barbie-sized fairies can’t fit through the mesh. There is a hole in that mesh below the water line. No converyor belts are built out to the barricade. The raft goes off the edge of the last conveyor belt and floats on the water, which pushes it back so it bumps against the edge of the conveyor belt.
Stella: Buckle, we have to find a way to get through the silver, but also, maybe we should not totally destroy the silver.
Buckle: We should be able to peel it back. It seems like a fine mesh that I could bend by hand…
Tiny unseen voice: Boring!
Other unseen voices: Party time!
The Fairies were expecting a Platinum to perform for them and they are going to give the Fellowship a show by summoning a Manastorm! A group of Fairies channel the Manastorm, while others are free to play tricks.
- Manastorm: A beautiful, glowing, but extremely deadly magical storm that warps the world around it.
- Accelerating Rain: Time passes more quickly for things exposed to the colorful rainbow of mana rain. Plants grow, die, replant, and regrow. Animals age and shrivel and die. Fungus and unnatural creatures flourish.
- Warping Bolts: Bolts of purple and blue occasionally fall from the sky. Anything struck by them is not destroyed, as normal lightning does – it is changed. Each bolt applies a curse to whatever it hits, from any of the Curses available. Polymorphing into new things is particularly common.
- Wandering Light: The manastorm has bubbles of colorful light that float through it, randomly changing direction as they drift. Anyone who spends time in the wandering light finds the effects of the Accelerating Rain and Warping Bolts undone, as curses lift and their age returns. These safe spots are fragile, however, and can be shattered by strong movements or sudden impacts.
- Trickster Fairy: a Barbie-sized humanoid with brightly-colored skin, insect wings, and a wicked heart.
- Arboreal: Anyone trying to catch or harm a Fairy in the trees is in Despair.
- Trickster: When you take aggressive action against a Fairy, you automatically fail as if you got a 6-, then damage this stat.
Fairies act like Halfings taken to an extreme. Halflings fought the Giants with mischief and pranks. The Halflings don’t intend to cause long-term harm. Halfings are Chaotic Neutral. Fairies are Chaotic Evil.
Buckle uses the Medallion of Cleft Sky to summon the Aruora Borealis, pitting his light show against the fairies’. Buckle sends out rhythmic waves of aurora, intercepting Warping Bolts and turning them into shooting stars. He’s trying to calm down the music.
GM note: We created an ad hoc move for this unusual activity. Buckle rolls +Grace to dazzle and impress the Fairies. On a 7+, they like his show. On a 10+, they stop their show.
The fairies channleing the Manastorm keep it going, but the other fairies stop to watch the show instead of moving in to harass the Fellowship.
Warping Bolts strike Buckle’s Little Lights, changing their element to water. The Little Slimes flop on the raft. Without their light, the tunnel is only lit by the Manastorm.
Buckle uses the dimming light as part of his performance and builds tension in his music. The Fairies want more, so Buckle throws off his fireproof suit, blazing with fiery light, as fireworks go off all around him! They’re extremely loud in the enclosed tunnel.
The Fairies love it and intensify the Manastorm in harmony. A Warping Bolts turns the silver mesh across the tunnel into spider silk. It’s not longer anathema to Fairies, but it’s flammable, so Buckle’s pyrotechnics ignite it and it burns away almost instantly. The Trickster Fairies flee the fire. The only Fairies remaining are the ones channeling the Manastorm.
Accelerating Rain falls on the Fellowship’s raft and it starts to rot. A bubble of Wandering Light rises through the water on the far side of the tunnel. Stella gently scoops it up with the flat side of her longsword and pushes it onto the raft. The raft returns to normal.
The Fairies increase the tempo of the Manastorm, sending out enough Accelerating Rain to hit everyone on the raft. Buckle’s fiery body evaporates the rain before it can hit him. Stella shrinks and hides under her address book. New addresses are added as the book ages, but the pages also turn yellow and brittle.
As a finale to his performance, Buckle sends a wall of Dragonfire down the tunnel! Warping Bolts turn the Dragonfire into colored powder. The Fairies leave and seal the tunnel behind them with a boulder. The manastorm fades away. The Little Slimes evaporate into Little Lights. Stella’s address book is still damaged.
Unfortunately, the Dragonfire was turned to powder before it could destroy the big metal spikes jutting from the tunnel wall. The Dwarven Tunneler can’t get through with those spikes in the way. Buckle can heat the spikes and bend them flush to the wall. Stella worries about removing all the tunnel’s defenses and letting fairies into the Dwarve Waterways. She’d like to replace the spikes after they pass through.
Buckle: Hold this for me.
Buckle gives Silk the Medallion of Cleft Sky so that he isn’t shocked when he handles the metal spikes. Stella carries Buckle very carefully and wall-walks to each spike, which Buckle bends out of the way. They are both very careful and Stella comes away unburned. They pull the raft forward (using the ropes supplied to secure cargo) and beach the raft at the end of the tunnel, then drive the Tunneler off the raft, through the boulder, and out to the surface of the Fairy Forest.
The Manastorm failed to stop the Fellowship, and the Fairies remember how their T-Rex was instnatly turned against them. They try a more indirect strategy: getting the Fellowship hopelessly lost.
- Escher’s Maze: This labyrinth is built without the laws of physics, at least not as you know them. The maze is entirely enclosed on all sides, with roots, branches, and vines being placed apparently at random. Exploring this place is confusing, and it is extremely easy to get turned around.
- Personal Gravitation: Every surface is down. Which direction is currently ‘down’ for you depends on which surface you last stood on.
- No Direction: There are few landmarks and no markers to tell you which way is forward, back, the entrance, or the center. Without something to mark your path, excellent luck, or some kind of supernatural tracking ability, it is impossible to find your way back out of this maze.
Baffle uses the Astrolabe to navigate. It’s powered by the Elder Star, so it can pierce the maze’s illusions and lead them in a straight line. A Fairy swoops down to snatch the Astrolabe from Baffle. Buckle swats the Fairy away with his flat tail.
The Fairies have tried and failed to stop Buckle and Stella so many times! They have to think of something new! The watch where the Dwarven Tunneler is headed and notice the pyramidal cage. They realize that the Fellowship is headed to the Teleporter Terminal in the cave.
The Fairies don’t bother the Fellowship for the rest of their journey. They emerge in a clearing with a tree gorwing on top of a large rock with a cave mouth underneath. The previous teleporter mishap teleported each particle of rock in the cave one foot in a random direction, so the inside of the cave is spiky and unstable. The Fairies have magnetized the rock. When the Tunneler enters the clearing, it starts being pulled towards the cave. Stella drives at full speed, because a sharp impact can demagnetize objects. Buckle dumps power into the Drill, turning it into an electro-magnet. The impact demagnetizes the cave.
The Fairies have tried every way they know to kill the Fellowship and nothing has worked. They settle for keeping an eye on them and snatching anything they put down and don’t pay attention to.
The Fellowship has the manuals and the parts for the Teleporter. Now they have to put it back together. After a while, the teleporter looks complete. It passes the smoke test: When they turn it on, no smoke comes out. Buckle is delighted, until Baffle comes over with a tray of parts.
Baffle: These are supposed to be in there, somewhere.
Stella is clever and mischievious, so she wants to counter-prank the Fairies. She eats some garlic bread and leaves the rest as if she forgot it. She will determine if the Fairies are Vampires or not by their reaction to garlic. One Fairy swoops in then swoops out. Another Fairy lands and eats her Garlic Bread.
Stella: Either they’re about to have a really bad time, or they’re not all Vampires.
The Fairy Forest is so thick that no direct sunlight ever reaches the ground, so it’s a great place for Vampires to hide. She looks for a keyhole anywhere in the cave or on the teleporter. There’s a latch on the teleporter’s cage, but that’s just to prevent accidents. The makers of the teleporter assumed Dragons would provide security, so they didn’t think to lock anything. Stella notices something that looks like a keyhole in the random, spiky surface of the cave. She injures herself scrambling over the rocks to reach it. She tries O’Later’s skeleton key. Nothing happens. The hole in this particular rock is keyhole-shaped by coincidence.
Buckle examines the teleporter, looking for where to put those extra parts. If he can’t find anything wrong, he’ll attach the Elder Star to the four battery terminal on the teleporter and give it full power!
- Is something hidden or out of place?
- These parts in the tray are supposed to be inside the machine.
- Tell me about the other side of the teleporter?
- There’s a hyperspace carrier signal that all teleporters broadcast when they are powered on. There are 20 teleporter terminal on the Moon, each at the hub of a cable car network. The Moon is too big to travel only by cable car, so it’s sub-divided into triangular zone like an icosahedron.
- All the other terminals go to Standby, indicating that they are ready to switch.
- What will happen if I activate the teleporter?
- The scheduler doesn’t work. You will not be able to predict when the cage switches places with the cage at other terminal.
Buckle use the Elder Star to bring ths teleporter to full power, and the cage unexpectedly switches! There’s a Kobold inside. He exits the cage and looks at the scorched and glitched cave.
Op-Op III: It worked. Oh no! The Vampires destroyed everything! You maniacs! You blew it up!
He exits the cage and it doesn’t switch when he’s halfway through the door.
Stella realizes that anyone the teleporter brings in will be in danger from the spiky surface of the cave. Stella drives the Dwarven Tunneler around like a Zamboni, trying to grind down the rough surface to be less dangerous.
Op-Op III: I camped out in the teleporter hoping against hope. Now I’m not sure I’m better off.
Buckle asks about conditions on the Moon.
- Tell us about the evacuation plans for the Moon.
- The Kobolds feel doomed. Their power source was stolen and the adventurers who had the ability to travel to the Moon left. Op-Op III camped out in the teleporter terminal. It didn’t work for a hundred years, until that robot came through about a year ago, but it never worked after that. Until now!
- Buckle: We have this thing set up, so now we can evacuate you.
- What would he have us do next?
- Op-Op III: It was you who took the Elder Star! You destroyed this planet and now you’re destroying ours! Give it back!
- What should you be wary of when dealing with him?
- He’s just a little guy. No threat to these powerful adventurers. Buckle’s treachery is known on the Moon.
Buckle: My friend, it is not possible to return the Elder Star, for, you see, the only way back to the Moon is this somewhat used Teleporter which is being powered by the Elder Star.
Op-Op III has had nothing but bad news for a whole week and doesn’t know what to do.
Op-Op III: Can we put the teleporter inside itself? Oh, you have the manuals! Can I read the manuals, please?
Buckle: Sure, you can read the manuals. While you’re doing that, let’s talk about how we’re going to get your kinfolk out of their dire situation.
Stella: You look like you need a snack. Here you go!
Stella hopes food will make him feel better. It doesn’t work as a friendly gesture because she immediately returns to zamboni-ing the cave floor.
With Op-Op III’s expertise, Buckle and Baffle are able to install the missing parts so the teleporter works properly.
Stella: See, he’s less hangry now.
Op-Op III was more comforted by reading manuals and maintaining equipment. That’s what he’s done his whole life.
Buckle says he knows where some Kobolds live on this planet, which Op-Op III and the others could join, if they wish.
Op-Op III: So do you want me to go back and explain it to them?
Buckle: We need to send you to tell the other Kobolds that they can come back to the planet. They don’t have to die up there. Collect everybody and work the teleporter from up there to bring them back.
Stella: How will the last one get back?
Op-Op III: It can be triggered from either side.
Stella: So whoever comes second-to-last needs to
stay here and trigger it from this side.
Op-Op III: You’re going to be here the whole time, right? Just check the status lights for the other terminals.
Op-Op III gets back in the teleporter and gives a thumbs-up. Buckle sends him back, then watches the status lights until one changes from “Powered” to “Ready to Transport” Buckle activates the teleporter again and a group of armed Kobolds appear. Junior is commanding them from the back. He’s wearing a backpack with copies of all the manuals stacked on a frame.
- Group of Kobold Pokers: This kobold warrior hides behind a shield and pokes their enemies with a well-used spear.
- Use the Pointy Bit: The Poker’s attacks are Piercing.
- Big Shield: When an ally would be damaged while the Poker is near them, damage this stat instead.
- 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.
- Junior he/him Kobold Lord: This kobold has the manuals, making them the boss.
- Manuals: Whoever has the manuals is the current Kobold Lord. All kobolds obey the Kobold Lord so long as they have the manuals. If this stat is damaged, the Kobold Lord loses the manuals and becomes a different type of kobold. If another kobold picks up the manuals, replace their stats with these ones.
- Scamper Away: When the Kobold Lord becomes damaged, they run away.
The Kobolds are here to attack Buckle and seize the Elder Star. Their predicament is all his fault! Buckle hits the button to send them back! Fortunately, none of them were coming through the door, so they all returned to the Moon in one piece.
Stella: Buckle, you see that guy with the manuals? Do you think we could get them?
Baffle: I really don’t approve of your use of technology. We’re supposed to be saving these people. What are you doing?
Buckle: Should we just leave and let them have their teleporter? Clearly they can come through if we leave everything.
Baffle: Perhaps it would be best if we were not here.
Buckle leaves a note on the Fairy Forest Message Board.
GM note: Usually only players can read the message board, but this situation is perfect.
Buckle: Kobold friends – you’re free now! The others are in the Singing Hills at the Table Of Famine. The Dragon went south to find another.
Buckle came all this way to because he didn’t want to leave the Kobolds to die on the Moon. The Elder Star is nice, but it’s really dangerous. His familial feelings for Dragons and Dragon-like things overcomes his desire for power. It’s not worth having this Artifact of Power if it means killing all these Kobolds. He leaves the Elder Star behind and leaves with the rest of the Fellowship. In her bag, Baffle relaxes her grip on the gun with the kryptonite bullet.
NO END-OF-SESSION MOVE
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