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 investigated the wreckage of Sunpeak and the Debris Bowl, which used to be the Lazy-I Range. They learned that Sunpeak was destroyed by an Ice Witch and a giant robot spider. This time, they???
Ol’ Jardiner comes through Infinite Windows, puts his Endless Scroll down at the stern, and beckons Averiela to the bow for a chat.
Ol’ Jardiner: How do I put this? I know I’ve been careless and rude to you before. I shouldn’t have done that and I really do admire your cool under pressure and your grace and the skill you show in combat. Also your new-foudnd artisan abilities.
Ol’ Jardiner pulls out a puzzlebox: a tangle of metal bars with a gem in the center. By carefully sliding and twisting the metal bits, the contraption will open and reveal the gem.
Ol’ Jardiner: Can you turn this into a little marionette? A little articulated doll. Please. I will do something for you.
Averiela: Anything I craft comes at a high cost. I need to know more and I need to know what you’re willing to sacrifice.
Ol’ Jardiner: Right, so we’re out there, exploring this city, right? It’s underground, there’s heat, whatever. We go inside and Dominique is there. He’s like “Pierre!” and I’m like “Dominique!” and Yonne is like “Who’s Pierre?” Anyway I’m so sick of Dominique, ever since school, so I curse him. I got that book of curses from Von Till’s place and added it to my endless scroll I didn’t realize that Von Till trapped the author of that book inside his own manuscript. He’s now inside my Endless Scroll and when I cast a curse, he cast a curse on me. I can’t eat until I get him a body, and I want it to be a small body.
Dryden pops out of a smuggler’s compartment.
Dryden: So you can’t eat because the author of the book of curses hid himself in his book, that you put in your Endless Scroll.
Ol’ Jardiner: We were having a private conversation, but yes, Dryden, that’s basically it. Everybody knows I’m cursed now.
Averiela:I will consider it.
Averiela glares at Ol’ Jardiner and walks away.
Tomay and Soday run up to the deck
Tomay: The eggs! They’ve hatched! The eggs!
Dryden: We had a plan for that, didn’t we?
Ol’ Jardiner: I think we were going to deliver them to the Sage, before they hatched.
Markus: And we failed since we couldn’t find the sage.
Dryden: Let’s make sure they don’t escape.
Soday: You think it’s good that two flaming birds are trapped in the middle of our wooden ship?
The Fellowship goes downstairs to the room where the Phoenix Eggs were stored. Now, two sets of shell fragments hold two small flaming birds.
Ol’ Jardiner: More evidence for the “tabula rasa” theory. He’s not smouldering.
Dryden: Welcome to your new home! I’m so excited you’re here! I’ve got a perfect spot for you. Why don’t you go over to that stove?
Markus: Why are you putting them in the stove?
Dryden: Where else would you put flame on a boat? It’s nice and warm and cozy.
The baby Phoenixes hop towards the stove on their unsteady legs.
Markus: What do they eat?
Dryden: The fascinating thing about a Pheonix is, it will eat anything burned, and anything on fire. Very very few Phoenixes have been raised by anybody other than a Phoenix. I heard about one guy who put a barrel of whiskey up high, opened it, and shot a flaming arrow so the whiskey lit on fire. That kept the Phoenix happy until it could hunt for itself.
Markus: Maybe we could start with worms?
Dryden: If we fry them.
Dryden scoops up the Phoenixes in a skillet, then realizes he’s not wearing oven mitts and the skillet is heating up rapidly. Ol’ Jardiner takes the skillet with Wizardry and puts the Phoenixes inside the stove. Dryden takes a fragment of Phoenix Egg.
Dryden: Maybe they’re be good. We can teach them. They’ll become our friends! We can ride them into battle!
Markus: When they’re on fire?
Dryden: We have exosuits.
Ol’ Jardiner: The Library has a fireproof suit. Where did they get that?
Dryden: Ooo, we could craft one. We gotta find the Dwarves.
Tomay and Soday: We’re right here.
Dryden: I don’t want a counterfeit fireproof suit.
Markus: Can you make a real one?
Ol’ Jardiner: Can you make a little articulated mannequin?
GM note: Tomay and Soday should have stats that reflect their ability to create convincing counterfeit items.
- Tomay and Soday he/him and he/him Dwarven counterfeiters
- Convincing Copy
- Dwarven Craft
Markus: Isn’t Averiela doing that?
Ol’ Jardiner: I would like a sure thing sooner rather than later.
Averiela: I’m happy to explain why it’s so expensive. It would cost me an emotion that I would never feel again.
Ol’ Jardiner: How about annoyance?
Averiela: Whatever emotion I imbue into the marionette would consume the marionette.
Dryden: Ha ha, an annoyed curser?
Averiela: It could never be used by mortal hands, lest a great tragedy occur.
Ol’ Jardiner: He might not be mortal anymore. He’s a spirit stuck in a book.
Averiela: What beauty would you remove from the world to create this?
Dryden: I can draw a stick figure that’s kind of beautiful.
Averiela: You have no concept of what beauty actually is, Dryden.
Ol’ Jardiner: I did not understand what I was asking. It’s too much to ask of you. I’m sorry.
Markus: Tomay and Soday, could you make a reasonable facsimile of a body for this cursed spirit?
Tomay: How much do we have to interact with the curse?
Ol’ Jardiner: Don’t worry, I’ll take the body and do the ritual. You’ll be safe.
Tomay and Soday get to work, safe from the dangers of fire and curses. The Fellowship plans their next mission.
Dryden: The Baby Dragon might give us wisdom on baby Phoenixes. You know, fire creature, magical powers?
Ol’ Jardiner: The only Dragon I ever met was not in the mood to dispense wisdom. Oh, neither was the other one. I’m kinda worried about that ice witch. Averiela found that tunnel. She’s underground.
Markus: We’re going to track down this Ice Witch? Take her out? I’m in! A chance to save the day, and make the world a better place.
The Fellowship examines the main clue: the severed leg from the Spider Tank. Watson, a clever Kobold from the Moon, examines the leg, and talks to Averiela about the tunnels she found underground.
Watson: This is custom-made. There are so markings or serial numbers. There are remains of a tunnel going east. This was probably built in what used to be the Ice Fields. There’s probably an underground base there.
The Luna Penumbra flies over the Ice Fields, which is much faster and easier than walking. Averiela thinks it’s foolish to fly to an underground base.
Ol’ Jardiner: There must be access hatches or secret tunnels or something. Do we have earth-moving equipment? Alas, Edna has retired.
The Ice Fields are a frozen wasteland. It used to be covered in ice, but Sunpeak’s collapse covered it in debris. As Sunpeak was always in sunlight, the Ice Fields were always in shadow, but not anymore. The surface is covered by obsidian shards and boulders, and fast-flowing channels of meltwater cut into the ice. It’s very cold. Oloris Oberon uses the ship’s sensors to scan for signs of an underground structure. Averiela is upset by the barren landscape, which is antithetical to her love of natural life.
- Is something hidden or out of place?
- The sensors detect a cave mouth that opens into a tunnel. One of the many cracks in the surface leads to an underground chamber. There’s a cold signature that indicates something large moving around under the ice.
- Tell me about the entrances. How could they hurt or help me?
- The crack looks accidental. Entering through the crack would surprise the cave’s residents, but the Fellowship would have to jump down.
- The cave mouth is safer to navigate, but the residents of the cave probably watch that entrance.
Ol’ Jardiner: Can an Escape Pod punch through the ice sheet?
Markus: That works for me.
The Fellowship gets into Exosuits to protect them from the cold, then boards an escape pod. Markus pilots the escape pod. Ol’ Jardiner gives directions, but he and Markus just argue. It’s not helpful. The Escape Pod punches through the ceiling and lands on Level 1 of Petra’s underground base.
Markus: The Guardian is that way. Let’s go take out this evil being that destroyed the Sun Mountain.
Markus leads the Fellowship east from the room with the crack to a large chamber supported by four icy columns. The ship’s sensors indicated a cold signature in this direction. There’s a work station in one corner of the room. Dryden examines it and finds equipment for making robots. Ol’ Jardiner comes over to look. He’s breathing in a very deliberate pattern.
Ol’ Jardiner: Maybe we could get a body from this! Once we make sure it’s safe, we could bring Tomay and Soday down here.
There are envelopes marked with dates that contain little gems that fit into a projector. Dryden puts the gems into the projector and looks at the images on the screen. They are grainy and black-and-white, but there’s a shore and a strange ship near the shore. It has a large wheel in place of a sail. A large metal figurehead points forward. The next image shows the ship at the shore, and some figures disembarking. The last gem shows a blurry image of something rushing at the camera.
Dryden: I could spend a lot of time looking at all these.
Averiela looks around to make sure the base is as safe as it appears. She ventures into neighboring rooms through the five doorways that lead out of the large chamber. Through a narrow passage to the east, she finds a chamber with reddish lichen growing on exposed rocks, and a dead Tyrant Penguin (like an Emperor Penguin, but bigger and more dangerous. The colorful patches on their cheeks are red, not yellow) The lichen on the rocks is consuming the corpse. It’s carnivorous!
- Carnivorous Lichen: A strange predator adapted to the extreme climate of the Ice Wastes.
- 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 heat, but lies dormant in the extreme cold of the Ice Fields. That’s how it survives on infrequent meals. 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.
In a chamber to the south-west, Averiela finds a ghost.
GM note: Normal weapons don’t work on ghosts, but Dryden has a lot of abnormal weapons.
Averiela looks down a ramp that leads to a lower level of the caves. There’s a pit trap on the ramp! Averiela carefully looked down and sees another pit trap directly beneath it. Anoyone falling in this trap will fall two levels. The ramp curves around, so whatever it leads to isn’t visible, Averiela hears movement and sees reflections moving on the icy walls, The Luna Penumbra’s sensors warned of a powerful creature nearby. It must be down this ramp. Averiela tells the Fellowship what she saw, including the pit trap.
Dryden: I have Elvish rope! But we’ve gotta go meet this ghost. Go for it, Averiela.
Averiela: Do we have to? It’s friendly ghost that will trap us here forever.
Ol’ Jardiner: You underestimate our ability to get out of sticky situations!
Averiela: You underestimate your ability to get into sticky situations.
Dryden: Friendly ghost! There’s an Elf who wants to meet you!
The ghost floats into the room. It has the general form of the stereotypical sheet ghost, but this ghost appears as it did at the moment of death, wearing a poncho and other cold-weather gear. She removes her ghostly hood and mask and smiles, revealing Vampire fangs.
- Roos, she/her Vampiric 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.
Roos: Friends! It’s been so lonely, especially these past couple days. This is wonderful place. I’m sure you’ll be very happy here.
Markus: What’s been so lonely about the last couple days?
Roos: Everyone left. I guess Nunatak is here, but he’s grumpy. He doesn’t have hands, so he can’t play most of my games.
Averiela: Tell us more about–
Roos: –my games? Of course!
Cards, meeples, and dice float out of the ice and set themselves up.
Roos: I’ve had a lot of time to think. I’ve been designing my own games. I think you’ll really enjoy this one. It’s got this really cool bidding mechanic to determine the turn order.
Roos continues to describe several complicated board games. If Europe existed on this planet, she’d be a Euro-gamer. The Fellowship sits down to play one of her games, and Ol’ Jardiner cheats. He uses Wizardry to peek at other players’ cards, and take extra cards when no-one is looking. Roos notices and quickly swallows her anger.
Roos: Oh! I–I gotta be polite. They are guests. I don’t want to chase off any new friends. OK, this seems like this isn’t the game for you. You like looking around? Here, see this token? I’ve hidden six of these all around the facility. No one has found more than three. If you find all six, you’ll be the winner.
Ol’ Jardiner agrees to the new game and walks down the ramp, towards the powerful creature. He imitates Elvish breathing exercises to keep himself calm. For an Elite Elf like Averiela, such exercises are unnecessary. Serenity is a way of life for her, but Ol’ Jardiner is fighting his nervous temperment. At the bottom of the ramp he finds a walrus the size of a moving truck, covered with thick sheets of icy armor.
- Nunatak he/him Arctic Primordial Beast: 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.
Nunatak: Hmm, I suppose you’re a new recruit too. The last few were trouble-makers. Always talking back.
Ol’ Jardiner: That sounds disrespectful. I wouldn’t do that.
- What can you tell me about your organization?
- That hardly matter now. They’re all gone.
- What does he want and how could I help him get it?
- Our standard hazing is pretty light. Get me 500 pounds of fish. That hole right there leads into the ocean. It goes down and up to avoid flooding. Just swim out there and get me 500 pounds of fish.
- What should I be wary of when dealing with Nunatak?
- His physical power is overwhelming. He’s grumpy because the team he used to be part of left him here.
Ol’ Jardiner: OK, OK, that sounds cool. I have my own way to get to the ocean. I’m just going to go back up the ramp.
A giant flipper interposes between Ol’ Jardiner and the ramp.
Nunatak: No. You must go out the drain.
Ol’ Jardiner: Oh please don’t flush me out of your secret base. I can hardly stand the cold. I don’t have armor or power like you do. I have to find a way that works for my little frail body.
Nunatak shoves Ol’ Jardiner into the drain! Upstairs, the Fellowship hears a yell quickly get quieter and further away.
Dryden: I think he just bailed on us. He’s not playing your game!
Roos: I’ll go get him, then we’re going to play another.
Dryden: I love games. Can I choose the next one?
Roos zooms down the ramp and into the drain. She hurries to catch Ol’ Jardiner before he leaves the area to which she is bound. Nunatak turns around to see Roos dragging Ol’ Jardiner up the ramp. Nunatak and Roos argue like two people who are stuck in the same place long enough to annoy each other. Ol’ Jardiner sneaks back to the Fellowship. Soon after, Roos just leaves the argument because Nunatak is too big to fit up the ramp.
Roos: Alright, We’ve got this territory control game, we’ve got this bidding game, we’ve got this abstract card trick-taking game. Which one do you want?
Dryden: I was hoping to play a different game in which we try to get around Nunatak without him tagging us.
Roos floats through a solid object.
Roos: Not much of a game.
Averiela: Let’s play “Two Truths And A Dare”. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn a little bit more about each other and the people who have come through this place?
Roos: OK, OK, that’s pretty appealing.
Averiela: The way you play this game is: You have two questions that you have to tell, and then you have a daring trick to see who does it better.
Ol’ Jardiner: I’ll go first. Go for it, Averiela.
Averiela: First, what is the most interesting thing that has happened in the past 48 hours.
Ol’ Jardiner: That would be: running into my nemesis from the Academy, cursing him, and then getting cursed.
Spirits can sense each other.
Roos: Oh, is that the guy in your book?
Ol’ Jardiner: He’s the guy that cursed me, not the guy from my school. I don’t even know this guy. I wish he wasn’t in my book.
Roos starts talking to Trajan, and Endless Scroll scrolls to find words to form Trajan’s responses.
Ol’ Jardiner: I thought we were playing a game! Quiet, Trajan.
Avieriela: The next question is: What is one piece of information that you know that nobody else in this room knows.
Ol’ Jardiner: My first name is Pierre.
Dryden cackles. Averiela is dumbfounded.
Markus: I thought it was “Old”
Roos: This is such an exciting game! You are really into it. What’s the dare?
Avieriela: You have to assemble something artistic from the workshop.
Ol’ Jardiner goes to the corner and tries to build something. He uses Wizardry to more pieces than he has hands. He’s not very creative, so he makes a geometric form out of wire: A cube with an octohedron inside.
Ol’ Jardiner: That took a while. This is a slow game.
Dryden: We’ve got some friends who could make something really cool, like, a mannequin person, if they could come to this workshop. Hey, Ol’ Jardiner, you should send a thought bubble up to Soday and Tomay and see if they can come down.
Pierre Jardiner sends a thought bubble, but the Dwarves have no way of replying.
Roos: This game is awesome. Me next! Me next!
Dryden: OK, Averiela. Do you have some good questions for Roos?
Averiela: I asked the questions last time. It’s somebody else’s turn.
Pierre Jardiner sends Averiela a thought bubble.
Pierre Jardiner: But this is your scam!
Markus: I never played this game before, Averiela, you should do the questions.
Averiela: Who is the most interesting person you have met, outside of this group? In the past three months?
Roos: Interesting? It would be that flaming Platyperson. He was on fire! Of course, it’s supernaturally cold here, Petra’s Frost Breath, and all that, so he wasn’t melting the ground when he walked. Pretty lucky. He would have gone into the ocean eventually.
Dryden: I’ve never seen that either. A flaming Platyperson?
Markus: And not dying?
Roos: He could control it and everything, but he didn’t stay and play with me.
Averiela: That’s so sad. Why didn’t he stay and play with you?
Roos: i don’t know how to answer that. Is that the second question? Do I lose?
Averiela: No, no, That was just conversation.
Roos: Look, we have to focus on the game. It’s very important.
Averiela: What’s a secret that you know that no one else in the room knows?
Roos: I know where all six figurines are hidden! And you don’t! This is a great game.
That’s two questions. Now for a dare. Pierre shows Roos a technical drawing of the mechanical leg from the Ruins of Sunpeak.
Pierre Jardiner: Show us where the rest of this is. Not the paper. The object. We found the object. It’s too big to bring in.
Roos: You guys are picking on me. I can’t go outside. They left. They went down the tunnel two days ago and none of them came back.
Markus: They abandoned you?
Dryden: They didn’t even leave a second one of those things for you?
Roos: They had eight, but they were using all of them.
Dryden: That’s selfish. They had eight? Eight of the arms, or eight of the big thing attached to it?
Roos: The robot had eight legs.
Dryden: And they didn’t leave a single leg for you? You could have had your own robot.
Roos: I guess that would be cool. I haven’t practiced possession, but I think I could get the hang of it, even with something mechanical.
Endless Scoll flashes through many pages as Trajen desparately tries to communicate with Roos about this subject. Pierre shoves Endless Scroll back in his bag.
Averiela: You must have had so many friends. I can’t believe they walked out.
Dryden: Did they play games with you?
Roos: Petra was always too busy. “I’ve got to study!” “I must master Frost’s Breath” The Dragons are dead. What do we need to attack them for? Why are we even here?
The Fellowship tries to keep Roos talking about friends and games so they can learn more about this group that apparently plotted against Dragons and used Frost’s Breath and an eight-legged robot to collapse Sunpeak.
Roos: Anyway, that’s sad. We should, umm, Markus! What’s the first thing you’re going to do after you die?
Markus: After I die? I don’t know.
Roos: I guess that doesn’t have a true answer yet. I’m sorry. I’m not good at this.
Averiela: Markus, do you have any secret names?
Markus: Everyone knows I’m Markus Ironheart. That’s just my everyday name. There’s my full royal name, which is longer and more official-sounding. I have a couple other titles thrown in. I’m the Crown Prince of the Forgotten Lands. I’m also the Duke of the neighboring isles.
Roos thinks she’s heard of the Forgotten Lands, but can’t remember anything specific. Dryden has wandered off to build a snowman from bits in the workroom.
Averiela: Give us one example of the best adventure you’ve been on.
Markus: Well, one of the best adventures was when I was six, and Dryden took me into the library. This was the adventure where Dryden got banned from the library, but I was so cute and adorable as a six-year-old, and they realized that Dryden was the instigator of all of the trouble. For sure. Hundred percent. None of it was my fault. And we explored so many secret places in the library. We may have accidentally set off a few different traps, and one curse, and thoroughly destroyed one of the rooms, but it was so much fun. No one knew we were there until the very end.
Averiela: I dare you to find one of the pieces that Roos hid around.
Markus: Roos, can I have a hint?
Roos: Go where things go when they cannot dig anymore.
The Fellowship huddles to discuss what they’ve learned.
Averiela: Come on, guys. I set this up. I handed it to you on a silver platter. Help me out.
Markus: We found out something.
Dryden: We know where they went. They went to Sunpeak. They one had one big machine, which was destroyed.
Pierre: One leg was destroyed. That’s all we found.
Averiela: They’ve been planning this mission for years. We know there’s a Flaming Platyperson, an Ice Witch, Aarlack is really good at facts, the Recruiter–this was quite the party.
They return to Roos.
Dryden: Roos, why are you stuck here? Who stuck you here?
Roos: It just seems to the be the rules of undeath.
Markus: Were you a ghost when you came here?
Roos: Would I need this cold-weather gear as a ghost? No! I gotta wear this forever.
Dryden: So who sent you here?
Roos: Are we still playing Two Truths And A Dare? Not anyone has gone.
GM note: We’re spinning our wheels! These scenes aren’t going anywhere.
Averiela: Dryden, what’s your favorite flower?
Dryden: Daisies!
Pierre: I dare you to get past Nunatak.
Meanwhile, Markus has been wandering around the caverns, looking for the hidden figurines. She finds one! It’s hidden a few inches inside inside the ice and refraction makes its true position hard to pin-point, but she digs it out.
Dryden slides down the ramp, then jumps up and gets on his Flying Device to get over Nunatak! He also gets over the pit trap on the ramp. The ceiling in the second level is high enough that Nunatak can’t reach.
The room to the south is filled with toothed stone rings. These are blunted drill bits for a huge drill.
Nunatak: Hey, do you know that little fella? He owes me some fish.
Dryden: We’re just trying to figure out what this mission is that people keep talking about recruits for!
Nunatak doesn’t see a need for secrecy, since the mission has already happened.
Nunatak: Petra, after she got control of Frost’s Breath, she built a giant machine to take out the mountain. It must have worked.
Dryden: Was there no follow-up plan? What do they need us for?
Nunatak realizes that Petra and her team abandoned him and are not coming back.
Nunatak: They ran out on me! I can’t believe it!
Nunatak goes into a rage, carving huge chunks of ice out of the walls and floor with his tusks and throwing them around with his flippers. Dryden tries to give Nunatak an inspiring speech, but Nunatak isn’t listening! Dryden is hit by flying debris! The noise of Nunatak’s tantrum is easily audible from upstairs.
Roos: That’s new and different. I should see what’s happening.
Roos drops through the floor.
Pierre: Hey! We could leave, but also, that might be Dryden getting killed.
He takes some deep breaths and starts walking down the ramp. Chunks of ice land all around him, but none of them hit him. Things just fly through Roos.
Roos: I’ve never seen him this mad. He’s going to leave! He’s the last person and he’s going to leave!
Both residents of the secret base are completely freaking out and not listening to reason. Dryden flies back up the ramp on his Flying Device. Pierre follows a bit later, because his breathing techniques only work if he walks calmly. Once out of danger, he starts hyperventilating.
Pierre: They seem to be busy. We should leave!
Dryden: OK, can you put your little person in a snowman body before you go?
Markus: You can leave a friend! For Roos!
Pierre: I have a ritual, but it takes time. Let’s take it with us.
The Fellowship leaves the caves and returns to the Luna Penumbra. They’re not sure if they learned anything useful. They don’t know where to do next.
Averiela: We failed, guys!
NO END-OF-SESSION MOVE