Chasing the Sunset & Ice Fields

Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.

The party: Buckle the Beast/Heart of Earth, Stella the Halfling/Hunter

Last time, the Fellowship found a scroll and learned of a Vampire expedition to the Ice Wastes, in the permanent shadow of Sunpeak. Buckle thinks there may be an Artifact Of Power there, so the Miranda sails north. This time, they explore the Ice Wastes and look for the missing expedition.

The shore of the Ice Fields cannot be approached easily. Ice floes jostle in the waves, threatening to crush any ship that tries to sail between them. There’s a wooden tower on the ice a good distance away. Buckle jumps out and runs around, melting some of the ice with his fiery body and setting explosives. The Miranda backs off and Buckle sets off the explosions, which clear a path to shore. Flags now wave over the wooden tower. Whoever is there must have noticed the explosions. Buckle returns to the boat and looks at the wooden tower more closely.

• Tell me about the tower? What are they doing? What will they do next?
  • It’s actually the stern of a ship, sticking up in the air. The rest of the ship is not visible. Eight shipwrecked sailors are looking for help.
• Is something hidden or out of place?
  • Buckle watches for a while. He can see the ice floes bobbing, but the ship does not move, so it’s probably stuck on someone.
  • There’s a figure on the shore, almost lost in the fog.
• What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?
  • Buckle has cleared a path through the ice floes. It’s the opposite of “Out of the frying pan, into the fire” because the Ice Fields are even colder and harsher.
  • Blizzard: A winter storm. Mighty winds, biting snow, and total darkness.
    • Frostbite: Anyone who does not have shelter from the blizzard must Pay A Price each time they take the spotlight. Protection can be used as shelter.
    • Fog and Darkness: The weather outside is frightful. There is no visibility to speak of, and even supernatural vision is stymied by the mix of swirling snow, thick fog, and near total darkness. You cannot Look Closely in a blizzard, and all rolls are made with Despair.
  • It’s quiet except for the bumping and sizzling of the broken ice floes. No wildlife, or settlements (except for the shipwreck)

Buckle takes his fireproof suit back from Stella. She calls Ice Foxes to snuggle and keep her warm. A baby curls around her neck and two adults flank her. Buckle swims ahead of the Miranda, looking for danger above and below the surface. As the Miranda approaches the shipwreck, he sees the rocky reef that snagged the unfortunate ship. He signals to Stella that the Miranda should approach, but no further than the point he’s marking.

GM note: We used the new “Explain your plan” move that we invented because we kept using technical solutions to problems, and none of the existing moves quite fit.

• When you enact a technical solution to a problem, explain your plan and roll +Sense:
  • 10+ You’re right, and your plan works.
  • 7-9 It’s more complicated than you thought. Take damage or spend gear as you scramble to compensate..
  • 6- You’re wrong and made it worse.

The crew hastily uses the crane to pull an ice floe away from the Miranda, damaging it. The Miranda is close enough for the shipwrecked sailors to run over.

• Captain Warner he/him human man with big mustache. Sea Patrol Elite. The best of the best, nobody else in the sea patrol can measure up to someone as skilled as this elite.
  • Sea Patrol: He can fill in for any role on a ship’s crew.
  • Justified Overconfidence: The elite never fails at any task, and will outdo you in any competition or attempt to show off.
  • Insufferable: Nobody likes the elite. Their allies will never back them up unless they have to, so the elite almost always does everything on their own. When you complain about the sky patrol elite to somebody they know, you may Forge a Bond with them.
• Mr. Marrough he/him fat human capitalist
  • Expansionist: The capitalist always wants more, and will do anything they can to get more. Anyone trying to Talk Sense with them is in Despair to do so.
  • Rich: The capitalist has infinite Precious things to spend. They can buy anything and anyone that can be bought.

The crew looks ragged, but Captain Warner’s mustache is trimmed and brushed, and his uniform is freshly pressed. He gives the Miranda a backhanded compliment for getting so close without wrecking, but he just has to mention the broken crane. He wants to hire the Miranda to get his crew back home and has some advice on how to do it. Mr. Marrough, who commissioned this voyage, doesn’t want to abandon his cargo. Buckle and Stella step aside to confer.

Buckle: What do you think, Stella?

Stella: I want to know what the cargo is. Maybe it’s a world-ending weapon. Maybe it’s better to leave it here.

• Tell us about the cargo. How can it hurt or help me?
  • Two barrels of rare, expensive liquor. One barrel is underwater. The other is in the above-water section of the shipwreck.  His business plan is shipping it exclusively through cold waters because it’s best if it’s always kept chilled. When it gets warm, it loses something.
• What can they tell us about the Ice Fields?
  • He knows it’s cold enough to be part of the route. He didn’t research further because he didn’t intend to land.
• What should I be wary of when dealing with the ship’s crew?
  • He feels betrayed that the crew is so quick to abandon his precious cargo over some bad weather. He paid so much for these barrels, and paid the crew so much to deliver them. He doesn’t grasp the gravity of the situation.

Stella: Do we have enough room for this many people in the Miranda?

Buckle: I suppose they could all hang out on the deck if they wanted.

Stella’s a bit of an anti-capitalist, so she’s not sure about this. Sharing food and drink with everyone is an important value in Halfling culture, so Mr. Marrough’s plan to sell this liquor at a high price feels wrong.

Buckle: Why didn’t you float the barrels behind the ship? Alcohol is lighter than water, so the barrels would be bouyant.

Captain Warner: So the barrels would be right behind the shipwreck? If the barrels were in front of us, we might have stopped in time.

Buckle: I’m just saying, it would be a lot easier to get the barrels out of the ship if they were behind the ship on a line.

Captain Warner: That’s true. If they were already out of the ship, getting them out of the ship would be trivial.

Stella agrees to attempt to rescue the barrel that’s above water. If the ship was right-side-up and if the ship’s mast had broken and been burned for firewood, it would be simple to winch the barrel straight up out of the hold.

Insert image of shipwreck.

Buckle swims under the ice and sees that the bow of the ship has been bashed by the ice floes into the rocky reef. It would be firewood, but the pieces are soaked and extremely cold.

The sailors aren’t sure why people are having conferences when the correct course of action is obvious: rescue at sea. They wonder why they are not sailling south right now?

Buckle considering tearing a hole in the side of the ship to let the barrel float out. Too big of a hole would risk the stern collapsing, but letting the water do the heavy lifting would make moving the heavy barrel much easier.

Buckle reports his findings to Stella, who thinks it’s worth a try. Mr. Marrough agrees and gives them a Precious item up front for their help. It’s a roll of silver Fairmeadow coins.

Buckle: I don’t handle that. It would be a big problem.

Mr. Marrough hands the coins to Stella. He thinks that Buckle has some weird philosophical problem with money, not Stella.

Captain Warner acts like the plan was his idea and gives Buckle advice on how to melt the ice.

Buckle: Can you believe it? Someone who doesn’t even understand the specific gravity of Halfling bourbon is telling me how to move this barrel after he crashed his own ship in half.

Stella’s surprised that Buckle’s so rude to Captain Warner in front of his crew, but they don’t like their captain. One crew member in particular forms a bond with Buckle.

• Stanlee, he/him, Spider Sea Patrol Cadet: A new recruit to the sky patrol, ready and willing.
  • Sea Patrol
  • Up And At ‘Em

Buckle and Stanlee enact Buckle’s plan. Buckle’s estimations were all within the margin of error. The ship creaks worryingly but does not collapse. The barrel floats free. Mr. Marrough is so happy that he almost runs into the freezing water to hug the barrel.

Mr. Marrough: This ship looks fast. We could still make it on time to the festival.

The crew and Mr. Marrough are eager to leave immediately. Buckle lashes the barrel to the Miranda and lets it float behind. The Miranda sets off through the path Buckle cleared earlier towards the shore of the Ice Fields. Mr. Marrough and the crew are aghast. This is the opposite of what they wanted.

Crew: What are you doing? This is even worse. There’s more ice this way! Amazing that you found this channel that’s so free of ice. I’m sure it will freeze over again.

Buckle: It’s OK. I’m full of fire.

Crew: Yeah, we were not dealing with that because of all the other things. Another terrible thing that happens on ships, besides drowning, is fire!

Stella wonders if she can pay off the crew with the coins Mr. Marrough gave her.

Buckle: Here’s the problem: You will never have more money than this man.

Stella: True, but does he have food?

Buckle: Maybe we’ll take them to Castellum for more of that silver.

Buckle talks to Mr. Marrough.

Buckle: We are on our way to the Ice Fields. If you don’t want to come with us, we can take you somewhere else if you compensate us for our time.

Mr. Marrough: Yes, yes, OK! Great!

Mr. Marrough offers two signet rings. Buckle gestures to Stella. Mr. Marrough assumes that Stella is Buckle’s servant who takes care of things for him.

The Miranda turns south for Castellum. Sailing through liquid water is much easier. The Miranda cut their fishing nets on their way north, so they probably won’t be happy to see them.

Stella: Maybe we can drop them off a little ways up the shore.

Buckle: Maybe we sail right in and tell them we brought a rich guy.

The Miranda waves a white flag and approaches to shouting distance. Priscilla (the commander of the fortress) comes out on the dock with some soldiers.

Priscilla: How dare you come back here after cutting our nets? What do you have to say for yourself?

Buckle: We brought you a rich guy who needs help. We found these shipwrecked folks. They want to get somewhere that we’re not going. You should take care of them.

Mr. Marrough: Yes, I am rich and motivated to get a different ship. These people are being most unreasonable!

Priscilla: Shelter to all survivors! Drop them off and leave quickly.

Mr Marrough and the ship’s crew disembark at Castellum, except for Stanlee, who stays on the Miranda. The Miranda sails back to the Ice Fields and the Fellowship finally reaches the shore. Buckle gives Stella the fireproof suit, which also protects from cold. The heat from Buckle’s fiery body weakens the icy ground.

• Thin Ice: A beautiful, deceptively deadly field of white. The ice and snow look passable, but one wrong step or sudden blow and you’ll fall beneath the surface. Freezing icy water and death await below.
  • Cracks: When anyone makes a move while on the thin ice, add a crack to this stat. Everyone can hear it. When this stat has three cracks on it, damage this stat. When this stat becomes  damaged, someone falls through the ice.

Buckle’s Little Lights brighten the blizzard enough to look around a little.

• Is anything hidden or out of place?
  • Buckle sees some footprints in the snow. Someone came to the shore from somewhere inland. Buckle’s electrosense detects something coming in and out of range, but it feels more electronic than organic.
• Tell me about the electronic signature. How could it hurt or help me?
  • Buckle follows his nose and finds a mechanized creature. It’s humanoid, wrapped up with heavy coat, hat, scarf, and goggles.
  • Roboticized Sentry it/its cyborg Lantern
    • Mechanized: Roboticized creatures have a job to do, and will ignore everything that is not that job, up to and including their own destruction. If their job is particularly important, they will have Armor (1 Use).
    • Soul Blade: The Warrior is a Melee, Piercing weapon.

CRACK! The ice weakens.

As Buckle approaches, a beam of light blasts out of its head, cutting the goggles and scarf! Buckle dodges aside and the slash cuts the ice at his feet.

CRACK! The ice fractures.

The Sentry turns and flees in the directions that the footprints came from. Cyana darts after it. She came her to hunt, after all. She’s mostly invisible at the best of times, so disappears in the blizzard before anyone can react.

Buckle: Little Lights, go make friends!

Buckle figures the Little Lights are Lantern-like. The lights move away into the fog and snow. Fifteen minutes later, Cyana returns, dragging a body.

Cyana: The head got away.

Stella: The head got away?

Cyana: I thought it came off real easy, but it was an independent thing and flew off. I gotta say, I’ve never killed anything like this before.

The Fellowship returns to the Miranda to examine the body.

• Is anything hidden or out of place? What looks suspicious.
  • This is the body of someone who froze to death. Robot parts have been added to make it keep going. The overall form is similar, so it still wears the clothes it wore in life. The head (and hat, goggles, and scarf) are missing. The jacket is old-fashioned and has no collar, so the creature’s neck was exposed. This is probably a member of Petra’s scouting mission.

Buckle puts Little Lights and Jammy inside the sentry’s clothing. Jammy’s in a bucket with little robot legs, so it can walk around, and there’s a little Light on top where the Lantern’s head should be.

• Three Minions In A Trenchcoat
  • Comedy
  • Horror

Buckle, Stella, Cyana, and Three Minions In A Trenchcoat set out again. Buckle and Cyana look for the Sentry’s footprints, hoping to follow them back to wherever this thing “lived”

CRACK! The ice weakens.

Buckle & Cyana lose the trail. Two Tyrant Penguins slide out of the fog at them!

• Tyrant Penguin. Like an Emperor Penguin, but bigger and more aggressive. Its cheek patches are red, not yellow.
  • Slide attack: The Tyrant Penguin slides on its belly towards its prey. While sliding, the Tyrant Penguin is a Piercing weapon.

Buckle dazzles one with St. Elmo’s fire, sending it careening off-course.

CRACK! The ice fractures.

Stella leaps forward to push Cyana out of the Tyrant Penguin’s path. All three of them collide.

CRACK! The ice breaks.

Cyana, Stella, and the Tyrant Penguin fall through the ice! They land in an ice cave, covered with ice stalagmites and stalagtites. Everyone is injured. The Tyrant Penguin is Taken Out. Cyana was splashed and is pulling herself together.

Harming the local wildlife increases response level to 3.

New Response Move:  Show Of Force. The Boss gets a free Hard Cut when it has the spotlight.

Back on the surface, Buckle sees his friends disappear. The Tyrant Penguin that attacked him gets up and backpedals to start another run.

Buckle: Dude, what are you doing?

Tyrant Penguin: There’s so much meat! My family will feast! Prey is rare. Can’t pass up this chance.

Buckle: First of all, we’re not prey. We’re predators. Second of all, I can help you get prey, but you have to stop attacking me.

The Tyrant Penguin realizes that Buckle is higher on the food chain and is relieved that Buckle wants to help it instead of eat it.

Buckle: The plan is: you help me get my friends and your friend out of the crack, and we will get you some food. You know your way around, right? How do we get down to the caves?

Tyrant Penguin: Caves are scary.

Buckle: Don’t worry, I’m bright!

Buckle makes his fiery body flare up, and the Little Lights inside the trenchcoat brighten in response. The Tyrant Penguin knows a cave entrance some distance away. Buckle yells down the crack to inform his friends of his plan, then follows the Tyrant Penguin.

Inside the ice cave, Stella takes stock of the situation.

There are three passages leading away from the chamber she fell into. Light reflects on the icy surface of one passage.  Stella doesn’t have a light source of her own, so she leads towards the light.

The light comes from another Lantern, but its light is a ghostly light.

• Friendly Ghost: A kindly ghost. It just wants to play with you! Forever. You can never leave.
  • Helpful Haunting: This ghost quickly grows attached to those it meets, and will help them in anything they need. It will want to play games, if left to its own devices, or it will help them overcome the dangers they face here.
  • Possessive: The friendly ghost cannot leave the place it has haunted. It does not want its friends to leave this place, either, and will use all its ghostly power to try and keep you here. It will lock doors, throw things, and even call upon the other threats in the area to threaten you with, if it must.

Ghost: Oooooh, I am so haaaappy to see other peeeople. It’s very looooonely heeeeere.

Board game components rise up from around the room. The ghost wants to play a very complicated game.

Stella: Let’s play a game. Something we can play in motion. Say, Go Fish.

Ghost: For real? With real fish?

Stella: With cards!

The Ghost agrees and playing cards float up from around the room and assemble into a deck. Two passages leave this chamber. Stella looks for something to distinguish them. Both look similar: Ice forms the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Stella: What’s down the path to my right?

Ghost: That’s fine for me, but probably not for people who don’t float.

Stella: Will you elaborate?

Ghost: It’s unstable.

Stella cautiously goes down the left path.

Back on the surface, Buckle, Minions In A Trenchcoat, and a Tyrant Penguin reach the cave mouth. Inside they are sheltered from the blizzard.

Tyrant Penguin: We should take this first bit quickly.

It slides down the ramp on its belly and across the first room. A few icicles fall from the roof and bits of the floor collapse. Buckle imitates his guide and slides across the room on his belly.

• Falling Block Trap: The ceiling has suddenly collapsed! This threat is Secret.
  • Hidden Trap: When a player has to pay a price, the Overlord can instead damage this stat to have it drop on them. The trap is no longer Secret.
  • Pile of Rubble: This trap leaves a pile of rubble behind, blocking off a passageway. The person who triggered the trap, along with everyone right next to them, immediately takes 2 damage and are buried, unless they Overcome or Get Away from the falling rubble. Anyone buried is unable to move without outside help, unless they are very tough. The passage remains blocked until this stat is damaged.

A big chunk of snow falls from the ceiling and buries Buckle! It hurts, but he’s on fire, so after a while he melts his way out. The path to the surface is blocked, and Minions In A Trenchcoat are stuck outside.

Buckle and the Tyrant Penguin go forward because they can’t go back. The next chamber is not all ice. It has some rocky surfaces that are covered with reddish lichen.

Tyrant Penguin: After that unstable chamber, I want to put my flippers on something solid!

It walks onto the rocks, and the lichen reaches up to grab it! This is an aggressive, carnivorous lichen!

• Spreading Rot: A parasitic or fungal infection that grows exponentially.
  • Infection: This rot infects a person or a place, and spreads across them over time. Infected places and people slowly fall apart until they become nothing. If nothing is done, ruin is inevitable.
  • Fire And Ice: The rot is killed by extreme temperatures, both hot and cold alike. It also cannot survive in or spread through water, so drowning it is an option. However you try to kill it, you need to be thorough, or it’ll grow back.

Buckle pulls the Tyrant Penguin free, but the lichen and Buckle’s flames overcome it and it dies. Lichen is a combination of algae and moss, so Buckle puts his hand near it to see if it wants to photosynthesize. He can see the tiny lichen structures turning to follow his hand as it moves back and forth. Perhaps if he gives them some light, they’ll be less voracious the next time someone wanders in. The exits from this chamber are a square, clearly artificial tunnel, and a small crack in the wall that he could sqeeze through.

Buckle takes the artificial tunnel to a room with stacks of scrolls, each sealed with the same ice that sealed the scroll that sent him on this adventure. They’re all vellum. None were made from plant fibers. This room is a dead end. Buckle’s first priority is finding Stella, so he leaves the scrolls behind and goes back to the narrow crack in the ice, which is the only other way to proceed. The ice doesn’t melt as fast as he expects.

Buckle and Stella appear on opposite sides of a large chamber supported by ice pillars. There’s a workstation in one corner, and a creature working. It wears clothing similar to the sentry.  One of the exits from this chamber definitely goes down. Buckle starts over to Stella, but he’s casting moving shadows on the wall that the creature is sure to notice. Since he can’t hide, he goes over and greets the creature.

This creature wears scarf and goggles like the sentry, but these goggles are more protective against impacts than snow. It’s holding the Sentry’s head. It’s a small metal frame with wings around a burned-out Lantern light.

• The Recruiter: A terrible machine scientist that can mechanize captured living creatures, converting them into new Machines.
  • Mechanization: Once per day, the Recruiter can convert a captured enemy into a Machine, giving it the Roboticized modifier.

The Recruiter: I have seen you before!

Buckle: Lantern friends, like our friend Gummidge!

The Recruiter flees towards the down ramp. Stella throws out her Wireport and teleports in front of it. She appears on a section of ice that collapses under her weight. She reaches out and slows her fall on the pit walls.

Going down a level increases the response level to 4.

New Response Move: Guardian. A Titan threat appears to defend a location.

She finds herself in a room full of huge stone drill bits: toothed rings 12 feet across. The teeth are worn down. Through the door she can hear the Recruiter yelling about invaders. Stella shrinks to the size of an apple and sneaks towards the door to see what’s going on. She sees the Recruiter talking to a huge armored walrus!

• Nunatak, he/him Arctic Primordial Beast. A huge walrus, covered in ice armor.
  • Primordial Beast, Arctic: A blubbery beast that wears ice for armor. It is sealed away deep in the ice of the coldest part of the world.
    • Primordial Beast: A primordial beast is ancient and perfect. Its attacks are Giant. It cannot be harmed by standard weaponry. It cannot be destroyed – if it would be, it takes damage instead. This stat functions even while damaged.
    • Arctic Champion: This primordial beast has Protection from the ice and cold. The thick ice growing on its body give it (Armor, 2 Uses).
    • Pure Power: The arctic beast can smash through anything in its path. Nothing without equivalent power can Keep It Busy.

Buckle goes to the workstation and looks at the sentry’s robot head. It contains a number of tiny gems that can record images. When it returns to base, the gems are installed in a projector, which projects the image onto photochemical paper. A few images have been developed. There’s an image of the Miranda, an image of Buckle trying to greet the Sentry, and a blurry image that’s probably Cyana decapitating the Sentry.

Buckle: Hang back and cool off, Cyana.

Cyana’s been wounded a few times and Buckle doesn’t want her to be killed. Buckle looks down the hole that Stella fell down and calls out to her in a stage whisper. He doesn’t see her, so he walks down the ramp. It’s so cold on this level that his normal fire does not melt the ice. He’s more concerned with the giant armored walrus before him!

Buckle: Hello! Umm, we don’t know what’s going on here. Can you help me and my friend get out of here? We fell down a crack.

Nunatak: Yes, boss doesn’t like fire. You should definitely leave.

Stella looks around. One end of the room has big frosted-glass windows and a fancy door. There’s a walrus-sized tube leading out of the room. Stella sneaks towards the fancy door. The Recruiter spots her, but doesn’t recognize the tiny creature. It tries to corral an interesting specimen.

Recruiter: Look at this! It’s so tiny!

Stella looks up at Buckle and puts her fingers to her lips.

Buckle: So over here is where my friend fell through a hole. Can you come look at this and help me find her?

Buckle leads Nunatak away from Stella, into the room full of drill bits. Nunatak tosses them aside to make room for his huge body.

Back in the main chamber, Stella grows to the size of a good chair. The Recruiter scrambles back and flees through the fancy door. Stella follows. The other side of the door is surprisingly normal. There’s a row of doors like an office building or dormitory. A huge tunnel disappears in the distance.

• Tell me about the Recruiter. What are they doing? What will they do next?
  • The Recruiter is panicking. Right after it learned that the sentry was destroyed by intruders, those intruders appeared in the base! It’s not sure if it should run down the big tunnel, or through another door.
• What is behind door number one?
  • The doors have nameplates. Three nameplates are blank. One says “recruiter” The last one says “Aarlack”
• What is hidden or out of place?
  • Aarlack the Wall Walker is above her, dagger drawn, ready to drop down on her!

Stella shrinks, so Aarlack’s carefully-aimed blow does not land because Stella’s neck is no longer there. He kicks and slashes at her as she runs around on the floor, but it’s hard to reach the floor with a short dagger.

Nunatak: Hmm, sounds like trouble. I’m supposed to stop trouble.

Nunatak rushes out of the room, tossing stone drill bits around. One lands on Buckle, injuring his tail and pinning him.

Buckle: Hey, friend. I’m stuck!

This isn’t the first time something like that has happened, so Nunatak lifts the drill bit with his rear flipper, and they enter the room where Aalack is fighting Stella. The Recruiter flees down the large tunnel.

Buckle: A Vampire! Get him!

Nunatak: No, that’s Aarlack. He’s fine. Bring that one over here. I’m supposed to get them out.

Stella: I’m here because the Recruiter told me to be here. I’m supposed to be here. I don’t know why this guy is chasing me around.

Aarlack: You’re being recruited? Great, she’s got them coming in here on their own now. Let’s go see her.

GM note: I let the players tell too many conflicting stories before the NPCs got sick of them.

Stella: The Recruiter told me to meet in there.

Stella points to the door labeled “Recruiter”

Aarlack: OK, that’s easy. I guess I’ll see you around.

Aarlack leaves through another door, revealing a staircase down.

Nunatak: Are you staying or leaving? I was told you wanted to leave.

Buckle: We’re new recruits. We don’t know what’s going on here. What is going on here?

Nunatak: Oh, no, that’s a secret. You have to complete the onboarding before we let you go down to the work site.

Buckle: What would you have us do?

Nunatak: You’re new, so you have to serve us. We have seniority. I am going to lead you outside for your first job. Collecting 500 pounds of fish for my dinner. It takes a lot of food to maintain this physique, which is ancient and perfect.

Stella: I’m supposed to meet the Recruiter here.

Nunatak: The Recruiter’s not here and I am. I’ll show you the exit.

Buckle: Can we drop our stuff off first?

Nunatak starts herding Buckle and Stella with his flippers. Stella shrinks to the size of an apple and tries to escape. Nunatak’s flipper is longer than she realizes. It crashes down, pinning her to the ground.

Nunatak:  You tricksters aren’t getting away from me!

Buckle wants to go up the ramp, but Nunatak can’t fit up that ramp.

Buckle: My friends are up there.

Nunatak: Your friends are up there. Your friends are over there. I’m sick of your nonsense.

Buckle: It’s cool. I’ll be right back.

Buckle flees up the ramp. Nunatak tries to slap him down with his other flipper, but he can’t lunge fully without releasing Stella, so he falls short.

Buckle:It’s OK Stella I’ll be right baaaaack!

Buckle gets Cyana and goes back down the ramp.

Nunatak: Oh, you were serious.

Buckle: Yeah, why would I lie to you, buddy?

He’s leading them to a Primordial Beast-sized hole that leads to the ocean.

Buckle: I thought we were going to the surface.

Nunatak: This is how I get there.

Buckle: My other friend is–

Nunatak: Too many friends!

Nunatak shoves Buckle and Cyana into the hole, but Stella wriggles away from him. He just wants to squish her now. She’s given him too much trouble. Stella runs up the wall, dodging a giant flipper. The ceiling is too high for him to reach. He can’t stand on his hind legs. None of the doors reach the ceiling, so Stella would have to move into danger to try to open any of them. Stella goes up the ramp, where Nunatak can’t follow. Stella wall-walks down the pit trap to the drill bit room, then lays another pit trap and goes down to level 3!