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 gave up the Elder Star so the Kobolds left on the Moon could escape instead of dying. His empathy still outranks his desire for power, in this circumstance, at least. This time, the Fellowship tries to learn what effect they had on the Moon, and what effect it has on Vampires and Werewolves.
The Fellowship wonders where to find a Vampire.
Buckle: There was one at the Anti-Moon Weapon. Did we kill that one?
Stella: We know that there’s Vampires at the ranch. There are some in the forest, but we don’t know if they’d be impacted because the forest is safe.
GM note: There was confusion about the various ways that the Fellowship has traveled to or through the Fairy Forest. One player draws a map as they travel, but it’s not an exact match of the official map.
The Fellowship follows the river downstream, which will pass the Anti-Moon Weapon after joining another river from the Drowned Forest.
Buckle: There’s a thing for Zweiharn near here. We can go to the Anti-Moon Weapon, then go see what the Dragon symbol on the old map means.
Buckle uses his Electro-sense to find his way through the confusing jungle. He sits on the Dwarven Tunneler’s drill and yells instructions down to Stella, who is driving. There’s only space for Stella and Baffle inside. When the drill is turned off, it’s fixed relative to the Tunneler to avoid accidents, so Buckle can sit on it without falling on. Buckle plots a straight line through the forest to get as far from the angry Kobolds as possible. Fairies follow and look for a moment of weakness, but all their ambushes so far have failed. They’re not sure what to do now.
Despite the Fairies attempts to move the trees and erase the path in front of them, the Fellowship follow’s Buckle’s nose out of the Fairy Forest. They are on the north bank of the river and the Anti-Moon Weapon is in front of them, also on the north bank.
The Anti-Moon Weapon was the western front for the Library invasion. Stella and Buckle didn’t see much of that battle, only the survivors that assaulted the Hidden Library itself. There’s a warehouse by the docks that could easily hold the DwarvenTunneler. One of the doors is open.
Stella: Let’s park over here so we aren’t in full view of Lady Evelynn.
Most of the buildings have fire damage, which the Fellowship saw when they first visited years ago. The soot on the floor of the warehouse shows marks of heavy objects being dragged through recently. Some of the worst damage to the walkways between buildings has been repaired.
Stella looks closely.
- Tell me about the barracks? What has it been doing? What will it do next?
- Stella sees a light moving around in the windows. The door opens and Callie, one of Lady Evelynn’s servants, walks out.
Callie: Ugh, you again.
Callie is five feet tall, slim, with red skin and two small vertical horns on her forhead. The brim of her cap has cutouts to fit around the horns. The light in the window came from a small flame she emits from her hand, which she enxtinguishes when she steps into the sunlight. Callie never looks happy, but she’s sullen, not hostile.
- Callie she/her devil girl
- Biting Sarcasm: You cannot Talk Sense to Callie.
- Fiery: Callie can produce flame and is immune to damage from heat or fire.
Callie: Let’s step back into this building. Lady Evelynn doesn’t know how big this place is, so I can take as long as I want to survey it.
Stella: What can you tell us about what happened to the Vampires?
Callie: Well, that’s why I’m here. Lady Evelynn disrupted the competition between the Millers and the le Grind family when she arrived. Just recently, half of the le Grind family died! They’re Halflings, so it was a big family. Lady Evelynn wants to expand to fill that power vacuum.
Buckle: Wait, Lady Evelynn murdered a family of Haflings?
Callie: No, they just all died on the night of the Full Moon.
Stella: Either they were all Vampires or they were all Werewolves. We don’t know that we were the last ones to mess with the settings.
Buckle: Who else died that night?
Callie: Word also came from Appleton, just to the west, that their curse is gone.
Buckle: What are you doing here?
Callie: I’m looking at this facility to see if it’s useful to Lady Evelynn, and see if anyone will give her trouble about taking it. Are you going to give her trouble about taking it?
Buckle: So, it really depends on whether Lady Evelynn wants to keep the super-weapon in operation.
Callie: Is that what the pile of machinery inside is supposed to be? I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Buckle: Yeah, it’s what blew up Port Fennrick. Is that what Lady Evelynn wants this for? The cannon?
Callie: She does have one of the best collections of weapons on the continent. I probably shouldn’t tell you that.
Buckle: What is her best weapon?
Callie: She goes for the personal touch. She prefers the weapons she was, umm, born with? The ones she has now.
Callie creates a fire in one hand and uses her other hand to make scary claw shadows on the wall.
Stella: She’s so much scarier than I thought!
GM note: Every party has run afoul of Lady Evelynn, but Stella and Buckle haven’t actually fought her, so they haven’t seen her strange powers.
Callie hides her feelings by acting like everything is boring and lame. This conversation distracts her from doing work, which she likes, but she might report everything she hears to Lady Evelynn. She’s not much of a physical threat to Buckle, since he’s immune to fire, but his go-to attacks also don’t work on her.
Buckle: Is Lady Evelynn a Dragon? Does she like Dragons?
Callie: She admires Dragons because they seize power by force and they demand respect. She also likes coming out of the darkness to strike down enemies, like the Vampires.
Buckle: What do you want?
Callie: I’d like to leave town, but unfortunately, I have become important at work. I want to visit my cousins in the Fire Pits, just past Appleton.
Buckle: That’s kind of where we are headed. I saw on an ancient map that maybe there was evidence of Dragons that way.
Callie: This map you’ve drawn is wrong. Fire Pits are here. The Bile Pit is there. Anyway, I’m not sure how to sneak out, because she has spies among creatures of darkness. Bats definitely. I don’t think the shadowy things inside the mountain work for her yet, but it seems like they would get along.
Buckle: We can talk to bats for you. What did you say about shadows? We should probably check that out.
Callie: I lit up the chamber inside and some of the shadows didn’t move. They were whispering some nonsense. I didn’t pay attention.
Stella: Callie, we’ll do the best we can to get you out of here. We gotta do a couple things here before we go. Keep doing your survey.
Callie puts a morsel in her hand and extends it. A bat flies down to eat it. She grabs the bat and attaches a slip of paper to it, then lets it fly away.
Buckle and Stella go inside the mountain and see that the mechanisms for the Anti-Moon Weapon have been wrecked twice. Originally, the thousand-foot barrel of the cannon rotated around a huge axle that was parallel to the planet’s axis. The machinery around the cannon has been smashed, then jury-rigged, then smashed again. The chamber is coverd with unstable and dangersou machinery. Buckle tosses off his fireproof suit, flooding the chamber with firelight. Shadowy creatures shrink back.
- Remnant Shadows: A shadowbeast that hungers like no other.
- Shadows: The Nightmaw can only move through shadows, along the surface. It cannot form in total darkness, and it cannot touch anything off the ground or in the light. It can only be harmed by fire and direct sunlight.
- Hunger: Whenever Nightmaw deals damage, it gains Armor (1 Use). It can hold a maximum of 2 Armor at a time.
Remnant Shadows: I haven’t seen fire like that in a while.
GM note: At first I said “a hundred years” because that’s when Dragons were still around, but Fafnir came through here sometime in 2021.
Buckle approaches the Remnant Shadows and they flee further into the rubble. He can kill them just by getting close, so they don’t want to chat.
Stella: Buckle, get out of my way. What questions did you want to ask?
Stella stands in front of Buckle and casts a safe shadow.
- What can they tell us about the previous time they saw fire like Buckle’s?
- A year or two ago, a young Dragon came in here and tore the place up, killed most of the people living here, and melted a hole though the cannon’s axle with very powerful heat.
- What do they want and how can we help them get it?
- They don’t want the Anti-Moon Weapon to work, so they approve of the young Dragon’s actions.
- What were they doing and what will they do next?
- They are lying in wait to kill any smart mechanically-minded people who approach. That’s how they ensure the Anti-Moon Weapon will never work again.
Stella does her best not to look at Buckle or Baffle.
Stella: Seems like y’all have this covered, minus if someone comes in with fire.
Buckle: Maybe we should jury-rig the Anti-Moon Weapon so that the whole mountain explodes if they ever try to fire it again.
Renmant Shadows: Great idea. You should get started immediately.
Baffle is in favor of limiting access to super-weapons. Buckle climbs up to check the barrel of the Anti-Moon Weapon. As his light leaves Baffle, she is enveloped by Lingering Shadows and becomes a Shadow Warrior!
- Lingering Shadows: A place where darkness rests, no matter how bright the light around it may become.
- Shadow Trap: This threat is Secret. When someone enters the shadow or steps too close to it, they are pulled in, then damage this stat.
- Armor of Darkness: Anyone pulled into the shadows becomes engulfed by them. When they step out, the darkness is controlling them, acting as both armor and puppeteer. They become a Shadow Warrior until the armor is removed from them. Exposing the lingering shadows to bright intense light or fire destroys them, removing this threat.
- Shadow Warrior: They would be an ally, if the darkness wrapped all around them weren’t forcing them to swing their sword at you. They can still speak and think as normal, but have no control over their movements.
- Forced Movement: The shadow warrior was a friend, but they have been possessed by dark power. They have all of their normal physical abilities, except they are also Clumsy.
- Entangled In Shadow: If you expose the shadow warrior to light or fire, the shadows are destroyed. They person inside the shadows still suffers whatever affects that light or fire would deal to them, but then they are free from the shadow’s control and this threat is destroyed.
Baffle: Perhaps we should not have revealed that we are technical specialists capable of repairing this weapons!
Buckle: Dudes, what are you doing? We’re helping you!
The Shadows march Baffle up a pile of debris to throw her down onto sharp and rusty metal bits. Buckle runs over and instantly dispels the Lingering Shadows.
Buckle: We’re going to disable this thing so that no-one can use it–OK, look, maybe you don’t know Platypeople. In our culture, we have come to realize that these kinds of technology are the most dangerous thing in the world, and our whole schtick is: We know about these things, so that we can keep them from happening.
Baffle nods firmly, now that she can nod again.
The Shadows can’t touch Buckle, so they back off and let him and Baffle work. Buckle inspects the barrel of the cannon. It has been disconnected from the axle. It used to turn on the axle without touching either side of the slit through the mountain. Now the barrel rests on the lower edge of the slit. Up at the mountain’s surface, the muzzle end of the cannon is wrapped up with ropes and pulleys. It was being dragged back and forth through the slit with muscle power. There are signs of battle: spikes stuck in the wall, ripped mummy bandages, dead Oxen. This is from the Library Invasion.
Stella: I don’t remember there being Mummies.
Buckle: Maybe they got stopped.
The Anti-Moon Weapon was trashed by Fafnir, then barely brought back to functionality as the Anti-Library Weapon, then destroyed again. It can’t fire on the Moon anymore, and it can only aim in a certain arc, but it’s still over-the-horizon artillery, and there are many locations within its field of fire.
Buckle: Let’s booby-trap this barrel so if it ever gets re-used, whatever projectile it fires destroys the barrel and causes it to explode and backfire, instead of the projectile exiting the barrel. If we make it so the rifling in this barrel slowly decreases in diameter, and we put imperceptible cracks here, here, and here, it will make it so when a projectile is fired through, the barrel catches the projectile and releases all the charge into the mountain.
Buckle and Baffle climb over the Anti-Library Weapon and implement his plan. Baffle slips and hurts herself in the process.
Callie: What are you doing? Are we sneaking out of here or not?
The Fellowship wonders how to escape Lady’ Evelynn’s notice. Her estate is between the Anti-Moon Weapon and the Fire Pits. Buckle wants Stella to order the bats not to snitch. Stella thinks Callie should hide inside the Dwarven Tunneler so the bats don’t even see her. They also need to get to the south bank of the river, and the river is higher than usual.
Stella: Do we want the bats to not report back, or have a good story for why Callie is gone? Something along the lines of–no, we don’t want her to be interested and come over.
Callie: Tell her I died of boredom.
Stella: We could send her in the wrong direction.
Buckle: She could be abducted. Who was that guy we sent to the Cracktooth Wastes?
Stella: That would make sense. A Platyperson came though and abducted Callie and he said something about going back to the dinosaurs.
Stella hopes that the Cracktooth Wastes are not in the direction they are going and gives the bats the story to report to Lady Evelynn.
GM note: Stella and Buckle are pinning this on Perry Ogre-Bane, because Buckle didn’t realize that the strange figure that he vaporized in the Amphibeous Arms was Perry Ogre-Bane wearing a mask.
The Fellowship heads upstream with Callie hidden in the Dwarven Tunneler. Stella doesn’t trust Callie 100%, so she wants Buckle in the Dwarven Tunneler with Callie, even though Baffle would like to ride and rest her strained arm. Stella gives Baffle a cloak so she’s not an obvious target for Lady Evelynn’s wrath, and applies a healing poultice to her arm.
Dark clouds gather over Lady Evelynn’s estate. A huge hand-shaped shadow moves across the ground from the estate towards the Anti-Moon Weapon.
Stella: She’s so scary.
Buckle: I say we TUNNELLLLL!
Buckle drills into the ground and the people on foot hurry into the tunnel after it. The shadowy hand feels some of the buildings on the mountain, then sweeps across the ground and tries to fit a clawed finger into the narrow tunnel. The tip of the claw cuts Stella right before she moves out of reach.
Stella: It was silly to think we could get away from a giant magic shadow hand.
Buckle tunnels through the earth, going south and a bit down, hoping to go under the river. Water starts spraying out in front the Tunneler. Buckle didn’t go deep enough. He backs up and water starts filling the tunnel. He tries to patch the hole by melting the rocks. The flooding slows but doesn’t stop. Stella wall walks to the top of the tunnel to avoid the water. Buckle drives the Tunneler parallel to the river and upwards. The Tunneler emerges far from lady Evelynn’s estate, near the fork in the river. The branch that flows out of the Drowned Forest is the source of the extra water in the river. Instead of a choked marsh, it’s a free-flowing river. Smoke rises from the south.
Callie: I haven’t been there, but I was under the impression the Fire Pits were smaller. This seems big.
Stella looks for something that will help the Fellowship cross the river.
- Is something hidden or out of place?
- Most trees are dead, but there is some new growth barely visible deeper in the forest.
- What’s going on here? What do my senses tell me?
- The Drowned Forest. The new growth seems special. It’s contained to a small area, not widespread. To the south are several different plumes of smoke and steam. A small white column of steam. Thick brown smoke with ugly green smoke beyond it.
- Tell me about what’s in the water. How could it hurt or help me?
- Some of the water flowing out of the Drowned Forest moves differently. It’s a group of camouflaged Shadow Rain!
- Group of Shadow Rain: A sneaky and deadly slime that strikes from darkness.
- Ambush Tactics: When attacking someone who does not know where the shadow rain is attacking from, it is Piercing and Necrotic.
- Mostly Invisible: Shadow rain is Secret, and remains Secret until this stat is damaged. In addition, nobody can see the shadow rain’s attacks coming while it is Secret. This stat becomes damaged if anyone Looks Closely in an area with shadow rain hiding in it.
- 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.
Stella: Hey, there’s rain in the river!
The Shadow Rain see Stella pointing and know they have been spotted, They change course and stay in the river.
Buckle: Hello, Rain friends. Where are you off to? Coming from the Comet?
Beasts and Monsters will always stop to talk to Buckle.
- What can they tell us about the green smoke?
- Green smoke is home. Green smoke is turbulent. Upset. Looking for who is responsible.
- What were they doing? What will they do next?
- Satisfied in layers, then sudden water. Thrown out. Try to find who disturbed home. Freeze it and break it!
- What would they have us do next?
- Buckle: We’ve know folks like you. We’ve been to Lichenton and the Comet and Bernard. We can help you find friends, if you want.
- The Shadow Rain are taken aback by this strange offer.
The Shadow Rain continue down the river.
Callie: Wait, do you know Shasta? I don’t think they’re from the Fire Pits.
Buckle calls after the Shadow Rain.
Buckle: Maybe Lady Evelynn had something to do with it!
I’m not saying she did it. I’m just questioning. They should investigate.
Stella: Wow, so deceitful today.
Stella wonders about crossing the river. The Platypeople can swim but she cannot. Callie’s body temperature is warmer than most humanoids, around 110F, but she’s not super-heated like Buckle. Buckle helps Stella swim across. Stella panics, swallows some water, and clobbers Buckle as she tries to cilmb on top of him.
GM note: this triggered the rarely-used “The Bonds That Breaks Us” move, and a discussion about how to form Bonds, something we had been neglecting. Buckle and Stella have been through so much together, like stealing the Elder Star and defending the Hidden Library.
Callie: I am not doing that!
Callie looks around for other ways to cross the river. Baffle, Silk, and the Dwarven Tunneler are still on the northern bank of the river. The south side of the river is an apple orchard. Stella looks around and finds a ladder. That will only get her a fraction of the way there. She looks for the people that own these trees and finds Martha, a Human woman in her mid-20s with short blonde hair.
Stella: I need your help. My friend is stuck on the other side of the river. I was going to mush together a bunch of ladders, but if you have a boat, that works too.
Martha: No, we don’t cross the river. We don’t go up to that mountain after MacLeod was killed.
Buckle is sure he’s heard of “MacLeod” before, but he’s mostly looking along the riverbank looking for a boat. He finds the ferry, but it’s been unused for a while and is swamped. Buckle bails out the water with his webbed hands and it’s back to working order. It’s a wooden box that’s pushed by a pole. Hard to mess it up. Buckle poles down the river and picks up Baffle, Callie, and the Dwarven Tunneler. Stella doesn’t want to damage the apple orchard. The carts the people of Appleton use to transport apples are much lighter than the Dwarven Tunneler, especially since they are moved by people. There are no horses in Appleton. Stella sends the Dwarven Tunneler around the edge of the orchard. The people they pass stare at Callie, and she ignores them.
Stella: Callie, what is the Fire Pits’ relationship to Appleton?
Callie: I haven’t been here before.
The Fellowship continue around the edge of Appleton. If the residents are going to be weird about Callie, then avoiding them seems wise.
They reach the Fire Pits, a geothermal feature in the ground. It’s roughly cone-shaped, but with steps and pools at different heights. Some pools are brightly colored and some are bubbling. The pools near the bottom seem hottest. Callie looks over the edge and sees two red-skinned figures in the lowest pool.
Helen: It’s little Callie! We haven’t seen you in so long!
Callie: Hi, Helen. I’ll be right down.
Callie doesn’t want to be excited around Stella and Buckle. Callie hops down, splashing through various pools. One pool moves aside before she jumps in. It’s a Rain. Callie’s cousins are Shasta and Helen. Helen’s chubby and looks like she gives good hugs. She invites the Fellowship down. Buckle throws off his fireproof suit and heads down.
Helen: Wow, we’re going to get some real heat!
Stella: I think I’ll sit this one out at the rim.
Helen and Shasta are very easy-going. They like to relax in the hot springs and don’t interact with Appleton much. Shasta tries to explain how Dryden, another adventurer, tricked the people of Appleton into thinking he had vanquished the “Burning Deceivers”
Shasta: There was a really funny pun. What did he say?
Buckle: They wanted to vanquish you? Why?
Helen: A couple people went into some pools that were a bit too hot for them and somehow that’s our fault.
Buckle investigates the Rain. Not all Rain creatures are like people. This Acid Rain acts like it’s very sleepy and reacts very slowly, if at all.
- Acid Rain: A burning, acidic ooze that eats whatever it touches.
- Acid Touch: Anyone touching or touched by acid rain takes damage. This acid burns through organic materials only, so metal and stone are safe.
- Amorphous Slime: The acid rain can fit through gaps or any size, and walk right through grates or screens as if they were not there. They cannot be tied up or restrained, except by forcing them into a sealed container of stone, glass, or metal
Callie is letting her cynical demeanor slip a bit. She’s with family. They’re happy by default. It’s much nicer than working for Lady Evelynn. Buckle wonders how she ended up working for Lady Evelynn.
- What were you doing with Lady Evelynn? What will you do next?
- Callie is a young adult to set out to make her way in the world. That’s why she left home and ended up working for Lady Evelynn, who admired her fire affinity and cruel streak. She didn’t work in the house. She wasn’t polite enough. She mainly cared for the Hellhounds.
- What can you tell us about your people, the Devils?
- Callie grins. The people in Appleton are right. We really are the source of all evil in the world.
- What should I be wary of when dealing with you?
- Wouldn’t you like to know?
Helen elbows Callie.
Helen. Come on, you’re being too mean. You should be warm and friendly to everyone.
Buckle hangs out for an appropriate period of time, then leaves. The Devils show the Fellowship a token of their appreciation for bringing Callie to them: insulated vials of hot spring water. (Ranged, Burning, 2 uses) The Devils don’t realize their obvious use as splash weapons.
On the way out, they visit Appleton. In general, the people of Appleton leave to sell their goods and buy supplies. Visitors are unusual.
Passer-by: Is that Devil gone? Did you take her back to the Fire Pits? I hope they stay there.
Buckle parks the Dwarven Tunneler somewhere out of the way. Stella wants to know a lot of things, but mostly what kinds of apples they have, and if she can have some. She finds Martha, who gestures to various boxes and describes the varieties of apples within. As she gestures, her rolled-up sleeve shifts and reveals a scar from a full row of teeth above her elbow. Definitely not from a vampire.
Buckle: Oh hey, how do you get that?
Martha hesistates.
Buckle: So you dont turn into a werewolf now, is that right?
Everyone in earshot stops and stares when they hear the world “werewolf”.
Martha: On the last full moon, we put the kids away and came out to the square. The moon rose and nothing happened. We weren’t sure what was happening so we waited all night. The sun cmae up and nothing happened.
Buckle: You’re welcome. We fixed the Moon.
Martha: What? How?
Buckle: We had to mount a giant wheel on our boat, and then we had a massive skeleton ride the wheel and we used interdimensional travel to get to the moon and we convinced the Kobolds to re-align the mirrors on the moon, so–am I talking too much, Stella? I feel like I’m talking too much.
A ten-year-old boy with a bandaged arm interrupts.
Jimmy: Does that mean I never get to turn?
Stella: You got it.
Martha: Is this permanent? Are you sure?
Buckle: Is anything really permanent? Look at my eyes. Is that really permanent?
Stella: Well, we’ve done enough here.
Buckle: Have you seen any Vampires around?
Martha: Word from Sugar’s Crossing is that many of the le Grinds died on the night of the Full Moon. If they were Vampires they were keeping it a secret, but I don’t know what else it could have been.
Buckle: Well, Stella, we saved the werewolves.
Everyone in Appleton is reeling from all the changes and revelations, so no one cares that Stella steals a few apples on the way out of town.
NO END-OF-SESSION MOVE