Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Dryden of Conwall the Collector/Hunter, Averiela the Elf/Elven Elite, Markus the Squire, Ol’ Jardiner the Harbinger
Last time, the Fellowship ran some errands without success. This time, events change their priorities completely.
The Phoenix eggs do not hatch. At the scheduled time, Infinite Windows open and Ol’ Jardiner comes through.
Ol’ Jardiner: Markus, we’ve had some interesting discoveries. There’s people living in the land that you originally came from. We thinking there might need be some cultural–what is that behind you?!
The Luna Penumbra is flying high enough to see over the Clay Hills to Cloudhold, a mountain whose peak is always shrouded by a storm. The storm is being torn off the top of the mountain.
The Fellowship has several ways they could go. The Sage, the Pheonixes, informing the great Turtles of Underfoot’s death, investigating Cloudhold. Markus leans towards their previous mission to learn about the Phoenixes. He leaves the decision to the others because he’s just a lowly squire, which is a weird thing for the prince and former regent of the Forgotten Lands to say. Averiela is caught in a long deep think. Dryden thinks the remaining clues towards the Sage aren’t much help. Penny, a new companion from the Rainbow Village, says that the Sage visits every so often, but wasn’t expected soon.
Averiela: What if we left the Phoenix eggs with the Rainbow Village?
Markus: What about the hedge witch? She could probably handle it.
Ol’ Jardiner: Last time I talked to her, a Saber-Toothed Tiger mauled me.
Dryden: If we have no other clues, then I’m curious about the storm.
The Fellowship decides to investigate the storm, which is being torn apart by heavy winds. Averiela is confident in her ability to fly through. Dryden yells piratey things.
Dryden: Mast the billows! Ha ha! Batten down the hatches! Bank to the left!
He’s the Officer, so the crew runs around, trying to implement his nonsensical orders. It’s rough going, but the ship is undamaged. Until a huge set of jaws slam into the deck!
- Stoss the Cloud Eel (it/it) Boss of Cloudhold
- Threat to the World
- Cloudhome: secret when hiding in clouds
- Ravenous: Hungry, Necrotic damage, Swallow whole
- Tough as Nails: first time Stoss is damaged or destroyed, damage this stat instead.
Stoss’s upper jaw is on the deck. His lower jaw is on the side of the ship, and his long tail wraps around the ship.
Dryden: Massive eel, what is it that you want?
Stoss does not respond, but another voice comes out of the storm.
Voice: It’s just hungry! It hasn’t been able to eat in a long time!
Yrta, a bird man, flies out of the storm and lands on the deck. He stands upright, about five feet tall with a 12-foot wingspan. He has no hands, but nimble clawed feet. Averiela skewers two loaves of Elven bread on an arrow and draws her bow to shoot right past Stoss’ nose. She hopes to lure Stoss away from the ship without hurting it, but Yrta thinks she’s trying to kill Stoss and jumps in front of the arrow!
Ol’ Jardiner tries to scare Stoss away by firing the ship’s cannon, but the loud noise only makes Stoss squeeze the ship tighter!
Markus takes the bread from the arrow stuck in Yrta, runs towards Stoss, and throws the bread overboard. Stoss releases the ship to go after the tasty bread. Ol’ Jardiner blasts it with the ship’s cannon! It’s a headshot, but Stoss’ head is a weapon, not a weak point like it is on many other creatures. The Cloud Eel is alive and angry!
Back on the deck, Dryden is trying to revive Yrta. He remembers that Ol’ Jardiner carries a healing elixir.
Dryden: Can I man the guns and you take the guy?
Ol’ Jardiner: Where am I taking him?
Dryden: Heal him! Revive him! I want to talk to him! We need to know how to beat him.
Ol’ Jardiner: OK, this is traversal. This is elevation. They’re heavy, so–
Dryden: Where’s the trigger?
Ol’ Jardiner runs over to Yrta after givng Dryden brief instructions. He pulls the arrow out and pours the elixir on the wound.
Stoss turns back to attack the Luna Penumbra again, but Averiela out-maneuvers it and leaves it behind. Cloudhold comes into view as the ship leaves the storm. It’s a rugged peak with a large cave mouth, big enough to fit a Cloud Eel. A strange-looking building is perched on the far slope. Everything north and east of the mountain is completely destroyed. The northeastern slope of Cloudhold is peppered with boulders. The base of the mountain is covered in ash and smoke. Some geological cataclysm has happened.
Ol’ Jardiner tries to talk to Yrta.
Yrta: I’m not going to help you because you shot me and tried to destroy my friend.
Markus: To be fair, we were trying to feed it. If you had not jumped in front of that arrow, you would not be hurt.
Ol’ Jardiner: I’m trying to get on this guy’s good side. We did almost kill him.
Averiela: If I wanted him dead, he’d be dead.
- Tell me about Stoss
- Yrta: I won’t give you any info to help in your cruel mission to hurt Stoss.
- Tell me about the geological cataclysm.
- Yrta: Sunpeak used to be there. The mountain collapsed.
- Dryden: Atlas, what’s Sunpeak?
- Atlas: Sunpeak was a sacred mountain to the Dragons. Legend says it was so high that the summit was always in sunlight. There’s Cloudhold. The plateau’s over there. Sunpeak should be here. Sunpeak should be higher than our ship.
- What do you want? How can we help him get it?
- Yrta: Stoss’ favorite food is tuna. If the you get fish from the ocean, Stoss would hibernate for years and not bother anyone.
Dryden: How does it like tuna if he’s in the middle of the continent?
Yrta: It’s a rare treat. I have to go check on it.
Yrta leaps off the Luna Penumbra and flies away.
Averiela: There goes the bird man. Should I shoot him for real this time?
Instead, Averiela uses her Elfsight to look through the dense choking smoke and ash where Sunpeak used to be.
- What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?
- Through the smoke, there’s a spectacular amount of debris. Cubic miles of broken rock. Lazy-I Ranch used to be in a valley between Sunpeak and the Treacherous Mountains. It’s completely destroyed by landslides. Locations next to Sunpeak are covered in ash and bombarded by flying boulders. Sharp shards of broken obsidian are everywhere. There’s no lava anywhere. The only thing that glows is a spirit at the center of the debris.
- Is something hidden or out-of-place?
- A bit of machinery sticks out of the debris.
- Tell me about the spirit? How could it hurt or help me?
- Sunpeak is sacred to the Dragons, so if a Dragon dies on Sunpeak, its spirit remains. Anyone who braves the climb can ask the Dragon Spirit a question, which it will answer based on the knowledge it had in life. Most Dragons are both wise and ancient. The Dragon Spirit hidden in choking smoke, surrounded by broken rocks that are covered in sharp obsidian. Getting to it will be dangerous.
Dryden: If I can talk to a Dragon Spirit, I definitely want to do that.
Markus: Also, the Dragon Spirit probably knows what do to about the Phoenix Eggs.
Averiela has a deep sensitive spot for Dragons. The Fellowship decides to visit the Dragon Spirit. Dryden prepares by getting rid of his books. Atlas is shocked, but Dryden assures them that he’s putting them in a safe place. He replaces the books with some medicinal spirits. (Strong beverages, not ghosts) Averiela flies the Luna Penumbra down towards the surface.
Ol’ Jardiner: Do you want to fly inside the smoke?
Averiela: That feels imprudent.
Dryden: We could just jump off in our Exosuits and see what happens.
Ol’ Jardiner: Let’s put our Exosuits and get in an Escape Pod and land safely.
That’s what the Fellowship does. Ol’ Jardiner brings Atlas so they can question the Dragon Spirit in his place. The Dragon Spirit is a Red Dragon named Fafnir. It’s quite small, only the size of a horse. It’s very energetic for a spirit. It’s still getting used to being incorporeal. Markus goes first, rambling through an explanation of how the Fellowship acquired two Phoenix Eggs.
Markus: What do you know about Phoenix Eggs and how we can make sure these hatch as good, life-giving Phoenixes?
Fafnir: I’m not impressed by Phoenixes. They are the inferior creatures of fire and flight. Use a firm hand. Let them know who’s boss, and make sure they don’t act out.
Markus steps back after asking his question and the ground gives way beneath him. He reaches out and grabs a rock at the edge of the hole that just opened up. His hand slips and he falls to the bottom, injuring himself. Dryden flies down, gives Markus some medicinal spirits, and flies them both out.
Markus: Whoo, that was kind of fun, guys!
Atlas: How did Sunpeak collapse?
Fafnir: That is a wild story. I got a signal. I’d given my surrogate father (Buckle the Platyperson) one of my scales so he could call on me in his moment of need. I fly towards the signal and it’s inside Sunpeak, so down the lava tubes I go. I break into this underground chamber and I don’t see Buckle. What I do see is a metal spider the size of a house. It was using some sort of frost magic, blasting parts of Sunpeak. I get in there. I’m tearing with my claws, blasting with my flames. I ripped one of its legs off before the mountain came down on me. It was that evil spider and its frost magic!
Atlas: That would explain all the obsidian, if the lava swiftly cooled. Most objects contract when they freeze, so the frozen lava would leave big empty spaces inside the mountain. I didn’t know that would be enough to collapse a mountain, but apparently it was.
Atlas opens several volumes to make notes: physics, geology, biology, and of course the atlas. Ol’ Jardiner, seeing slightly into the future, grabs Atlas and pulls them behind a small boulder. Averiela noticed a shift in the wind, ducks, and slides under another rock. She’s just gone. A car-sized boulder lands nearby, shaking the ground and knocking everyone off their feet. Dryden and Markus are still flying on Dryden’s Flying Device, so they are fine.
Dryden: Where is your most magical dangerous item?
Fafnir: That would be the other Dragon. It’s on a volcanic island that just emerged from the northern ocean. It’s northwest of here.
Averiela: The Dragon egg hatched?
Markus: We could get some tuna for the Cloud Eel while we’re at it.
A wispy, incorporeal, full-sized Dragon skeleton flies out of the smoke and goes through Dryden, attacking his mind. The spirit of Dalt, once bound to Sunpeak, is about to disappate entirely and uses the last of its power to protect the Dragons’ secrets. The next time Dryden talks about Dragons, he’ll take psychic damage.
Averiela peeks out from under the rock and reminds Fafnir that, long ago, the Elves and Dragons were friends.
Averiela: My greatest desire is to restore the Dragon community. Are there any more Dragons or eggs to rescue?
Fafnir: The baby is the only one I know about.
Averiela sheds a tear, and can’t wipe it away because of her exosuit’s helmet. The overhanging rock collapses and Averiela chooses to go deeper. Once again the Fellowship doesn’t know where she went. Ol’ Jardiner tries to move some rocks, but he’s small and weak.
Atlas: Sound travels really well through rocks. I’ll send a code!
They tap on the rocks and put their ear to the ground to listen.
Atlas: I’m not sure Elves know that one. Long, short, long-short? She’s definitely down there and alive.
Dryden: This would be a good time to have an explosive trap.
Ol’ Jardiner: I could blow up the rocks, but I need to know when to stop blowing up the rocks. Last time, someone went through the debris and told me the distance.
Averiela looks around underground.
- Is something hidden or out of place?
- The edges of most of the rocks are fractured. These rocks were broken by the mountain’s collapse. Some edges are instead ground down. Someone dug their way under Sunpeak.
- Tell me about the tunnel? How could it hurt or help me?
- It’s a collapsed tunnel, so traveling down it is dangerous. Averiela is able to wriggle around underground with her Elven agility. Tunnels connect places. There may be an evil base at the other end of this tunnel. One tunnel leads east. Another leads south.
- Tell me about who made the tunnel?
- It was made by a large mechanical drill, bigger than a Dwarven Tunneler.
Averiela travelled alone for a long time before joining the Fellowship, so she doesn’t mind exploring alone. She works her way through the collapsed tunnel towards the south.Every so often, a thought bubble comes through the wall.
Ol’ Jardiner: Hey, Averiela, are you OK? It seems like you’re moving away from us.
She does not lose the tunnel or get stuck. Eventually the tunnel is not collapsed or full of debris, so she’s able to walk instead of crawl or scramble. It’s the width of a three-lane road, bigger than the Dwarven waterway. It intersects a large cellar. She explores the seemingly abandoned building.
- What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?
- The tunnels passes through and continues past the cellar for a mansion. There are no wine barrels, but it’s used for storage, things the owners don’t use very often. There’s an Iron Maiden and other weird stuff that indicates this mansion was inhabited by Vampires. Staircases lead up one storey, then are filled with rubble. Accessing the surface would be difficult.
- Is something hidden or out of place?
- There’s no one in here. If the landslide buried it with no warning, there should be survivors or casualties inside. Yet the pantry is empty. There’s no time to empty the pantry during a hasty evacuation. Where did everyone go? What happened to all the food? All the paintings and furniture are still here, so it wasn’t looted either.
- Is there anything that could help Averiela survive?
- Averiela searches the accessible rooms, and one contains Charlene, a livestock wrangler! That’s like a cowboy, except she’s not a boy and doesn’t wrangle cows.
- Charlene she/her Elf livestock wrangler
- Lasso: She can wield rope in unusual ways. She’s able to grab foes from a short distance away, tying them up to pull off of their mounts, or keeping them still for easy target practice.
- Quick Draw: She has a six shooter (Ranged, Piercing, Reload). She always wins in a contest of sharpshooting.
- Rodeo: She can ride any animal big enough to hold it, and tame it for riding within a minute.
Charlene tries to lasso Averiela, but she steps back into the hall and disappears.
Charlene: Stay back! Get away!
Averiela: I’m trying to get out. I assume you want to get out too. Maybe we could do it together.
Charlene thinks it’s a trick and comes out into the hall firing her six-shooter. Averiela boldly dodges forward, around a corner she hasn’t checked yet. Around that corner is a Varg, clawing at a pile of rubble that blocks the end of the hallway. It sniffs at a gap at the top of the doorframe.
- Varg: These massive wolves are large enough for a full grown ogre to ride, and surly enough to make an ogre think twice about doing it.
- Cruel Beast: A Varg is wild and malicious, and cannot be tamed easily. Anyone trying to ride it must Pay a Price.
- Go For The Jugular: A Varg that gets up on top of somebody instantly deals damage to them.
Averiela sees an opportunity to gain a new animal companion, but would rather escape and let this beast attack the person attacking her. She runs and flips off the Varg’s back, like a bull-jumper from ancient Crete, and disappears into the small gap. Averiela figures her companions might be worried, so she climbs back to the surface.
All this time, Ol’ Jardiner has been sending thought bubbles to Averiela from the Luna Penumbra. They fly down at an angle and disappear into the ground. Dryden flies along on his Flying Device, watching where the thought bubbles go underground. So when Averiela reaches the surface, it’s quick and easy for the Fellowship to reunite on the Luna Penumbra.
Markus: We got no help on the Phoenix Eggs. maybe we could take them to the other Dragon.
Ol’ Jardiner: That’s a baby being raised by a baby. I don’t think Fafnir was very old.
Atlas is on hand with statistics on both average and extremes recorded sizes of Dragons.
Dryden: Ow, the Dragons!
The Dragon Spirit punishes Dryden for discussing Dragons.
Ol’ Jardiner: There’s a giant metal frost spider going around somewhere.
Dryden: Where did the tunnel end? That’s what I want to know.
The Fellowship wants to help Charlene, but don’t want to be shot at, or bitten by a Varg.
Dryden: Can’t you send a thought bubble down to negotiate?
Ol’ Jardiner: She can’t respond. It’s not a two-way thing.
Dryden: Here’s what we can do. We open the entrance. We train the guns on the entryway and let her know–she’ll win in a shoot-out.
Averiela: We could leave supplies as a peace offering. I’ll crawl back and deliver it.
There’s a lot of rubble between Charlene and the surface. Averiela could only get through because of her Elven senses and grace. Dryden uses an explosive to clear the first few feet and Averiela goes down to leave supplies and a note. Averiela lets Dryden write the note, because she knows she’s not tactful.
Dryden: Despite your recent attempts to capture and kill one member of our Fellowship, we have decided to offer you opportunity to escape with supplies. Your route out is shorter. Your food is longer. We hope to see you in the future.
END OF SESSION MOVE
- Did we thoroughly explore a new location?
- YES. Averiela explored what was left of Sunpeak.
- Did anyone find what they were seeking?
- YES. Markus seeks adventure and usually finds it.
- Did we discover something new about the world or its people?
- YES. Sunpeak’s collapse, the giant spider, the exact number of Dragons (1) in the world.
3 boons
- gear
- gear
- Luna Penumbra & Ol’ Jardiner level up