Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre/Knight, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander/Apex
Last time, Edna tried to secure Port Fennrick by kicking out the Vampires, and making everyone else rich and happy. There’s still plenty of work to get al lthe various faction to agree to her leadership.
Yuri and Vestri see the Luna Penumbra approaching the city. Infinite Windows opens and Edna steps through. She points at the flying ship.
Edna: My other friends are coming. From the air we saw people breaking into the contraband warehouses. We made the Vampires leave, but didn’t assign any new guards.
Yuri: That is valid criticism.
The Fellowship hustles to the contraband warehouse and find eight Burglars led by a Thug trying to get into the building.
- Group of Burglars: A simple thief, specialized in breaking and entering.
- Thief: They just want to get paid. When a Burglar would deal damage to you, they instead steal something from you. Once a Burglar has stolen something sufficiently valuable, they make a run for it.
- Wall Walker: Burglars can rapidly climb walls and fences with ease. The rooftops are known as the Thieves’ Highway for a reason, and burglars are never slowed down when trying to navigate through urban environments.
- 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.
- Thug: Vinnie, he/him, Merfolk. They beat up things that need a beating.
- Street Tough: A Thug deals damage to anyone who Keeps Them Busy.
- Hard As Nails: The first time a thug would be damaged or destroyed, damage this stat instead.
Vinnie: The new Ogre just wants to give this stuff away, so she won’t mind if we take it.
Edna: I do mind! It must be returned to its rightful owners!
The Burglars climb up the walls of the building. Edna leaps to the roof and swats at them like King Kong swatting at airplanes. She defends the front of the building, but some Burglars go around towards the back. Yuri leaps to the spine of the roof and runs to the back. He leaps at both Burglars bak there, jamming the venomous spurs on his feet into one’s shoulders, grabbing the other, and planking between them as he drags them down from the wall.
Burglars aren’t warriors, so they scatter. Vestri wraps his arms around Vinnie’s legs, keeping him in place with his weight. Vinnie reverses the grapple and strikes Vestri.
Vinnie: Y’all better back off, or your friend is going to get it!
Bork runs up behind Vinnie and picks him up. It’s a chain of grappling. Edna walks up to speak to Vinnie.
Edna: Look, there’s been too much fighting already. We should all come together and help the town instead of hurting each other. You should do that because it’s the right thing to do. You should also do that because we are better at hurting people than you are. We don’t have to hurt people. Bork, put him down.
Vinnie calls Edna a fool and a softie, and hits Vestri again before running away. Edna scoops up Vestri and apologizes.
Edna: I’m so sorry I put you in that position. It should have been me taking on the danger!
Yuri leaps to the Clock Tower to see where the Burglars are going. They’re going towards Warehouse 3. Yuri leaps there. Edna and Vestri see him leap from the Clock Tower and run in the same direction. Poor Vestri can’t leap like the others, and even when they run, his legs are the shortest.
Yuri lands on the roof of Warehouse 3 just as the Burglars are coming across the yard. He considers setting his Explosive Trap, but he doesn’t want to damage the warehouse. He braces his rifle on the chimney, with the muzzle over the hole so it will echo and sound like several shots. The Burglars are pinned down. The yard around the warehouse is intentionally kept bare so no one can sneak up, so the Burglars must retreat to take cover. They hide and hope Vinnie will have an idea.
Edna, Vestri, and Vinnie arrive at the same time from different directions. Vinnie urges the Burglars forward, but they don’t want to run out in the open and get shot. Vestri charges along the wall the Burglars are hiding behind, knocking them over. Vinnie runs in to defend his Burglars, but Edna won’t let anyone hurt Vestri again! She grabs Vinnie and throws him at the chimney. He strikes her hand and arm, but his blows glance off her tough skin.
Edna: Heads up, Yuri!
Yuri jumps back as Vinnie crashes through the chimney. As Vinnie starts to get up, Yuri clubs him with the butt of his rifle, and the Thug collapses unconscious.
Back on the ground, the Burglars grab one of Vestri’s heirloom daggers and flee! Vestri screams and pursues. Vestri’s not that materialistic, but the daggers are two of the few things that Vestri isreally attached to. Yuri leaps down from the roof, scattering the Burglars. One shakily brandishes the dagger to keep Yuri at bay. Vestri draws his rifle and shoots the Burglar dead! The other Burglars flee into their secret hideouts.
Edna wants to interrogate Vinnie. Can’t take him to City Hall because it’s destroyed. Can’t take him to jail, because that was inside City Hall. Vestri speaks to the earth and creates a small but deep pit that Vinnie won’t be able to climb out of.
- What were you doing? What will you do next?
- He was taking a midnight stroll, and he’ll probably take a nap in a jail cell next.
- What should I be wary of when dealing with Vinnie?
- He’ll have his guys beat you up!
- Edna: That works better on some people and worse on others.
- What can they tell us about Louie’s plan to take control of the town?
- Vinnie’s too tired to lie anymore. Louie is going to create a disaster that he can prevent and pin on another faction, like Finsea.
Edna: I hate to admit it, but there’s a lot of good points about organized crime. The organization. They know how to mobilize people and get things done. They have most of the skills needed to run a town.
Yuri: Just subtract the crime.
Vestri: Edna, why don’t you offer him the job of being your sheriff, and they can guard the warehouses.
Edna: We’d have to change some of their policies.
Edna doesn’t like how the mob demonstrates their strength. They don’t fight fair. They threaten the weak. It’s not just wrong. It’s dishonorable. Vinnie values respect, money, and fear. How can Edna convince him to abandon fear? Edna’s government will protect people and demand payment for that protection, but it’s not “protection money” somehow. Politics is subtle and complicated!
Edna: Here’s the deal, Vinnie. you shoudl work for me. You catch more flies with honey. If we’re nice to people, more people will come here and we get more money. That means the town prospers. That means the government prospers. That means government employees prosper.
Yuri: You’ll get a pension.
Edna: You’ll have a better chance of spending that pension. People will respect you for doing good things for the community. You’ll get money. You’ll get respect.
Vestri: You won’t have to scare people into taking care of you when you’re old.
Vinnie: I like scaring people.
Vinnie is convinced. He arranges a meeting with Louie. Lucy hosts the meeting as a neutral third party. She has the penthouse in the underwater hotel, which has a dry level and a wet level. Lucy opens the doors on the balcony so Edna can enter. She doesn’t fit in the halls of the hotel. Edna stands on the wet level and her head and upper body extend up into the dry level so she can breathe.
Edna has Bork, Vestri, Yuri, and Vinnie with her. They want to show strength without being aggressive. Louie arrives on the wet level with his Merfolk. He’s upset that Vinnie is with us.
Edna explains her plan to hire the mob as part of her government.
Edna: There’s been too much fighting. Everyone needs to come together to rebuild Port Fennrick. I want to do that with goodwill, trust, and prosperity. There’s a lot I admire about Louie’s organization. They can quickly apply resources to a problem. They have an efficient command structure. Everyone knows where they fit in. You have contacts all over. Everyone knows and respects you. if you join my government, you still have respect and influence in the community. Since you aren’t threatening to spindle people’s fins, you don’t have to worry about people sneaking up to kill you. It’s easier to have positive interactions with everyone.
Louie: I don’t see why I should put me and all my guys under you if all you’re offering is more of the same. I like being on top.
Yuri: Isn’t respect more eternal when you are praised? We do not make statues of people who bust our kneecaps. We make statues of people who save towns.
Louie: So if I get all my guys to work for you, you make a statue for me?
Edna: Oh, definitely. Vestri, you’re good with stone, right?
Vestri: Stone, you say? I don’t know. You see, stone wears down underwater.
Edna: I will defer to your expertise in construction materials. When all the merchants come back because O’Later is not stealing all their things, you’ll have access to any material you desire.
Louie: Make a bronze statue of me and you’ve got a deal. I still control all my guys, right?
Edna: Yes, you would report to me. You’d have a position of authority like Bork. I might give her high-level instructions, but I trust her expertise implement those orders. Same with you guys. You could guard the warehouses for me, so I don’t attack you when you go there. You could also be the town watch and the treasury department.
Edna and Louie make a tentative agreement to try the new arrangement for one year, then revisit the terms.
Louie: I may overthrow you if you don’t bring enough of that shiny, shiny gold in. For my guys, you understand. I don’t need the gold.
Edna: Of course. I’ve got Companions. One must provide for the people in one’s care.
Lucy: It’s good to see a deal come together. I’ll write up a contract making all this official, but since I’m just a third party, the contract will not be enforced by my power. Louie, I guess you won’t need that deal that we were discussing.
With Louie’s mob on her side, Edna turns her attention to Finsea. Finsea is expanding its influence over Port Fennrick in an admirable way, by providing disaster relief. The other factions can’t mathc them because they don’t have the resources of an entire town. Edna won’t turn away their assistance. Making the lives of her subjects worse to secure her own power would be unthinkable. Yuri suggests putting Finsea on the city council. Does Finsea really want to handle all the turmoil in Port Fennrick? Better to have some influence, but stay safe on the calm sea floor.
GM note: “How do you use your power to govern justly?” is a much harder question than the questions the Fellowship usually faces, like “How do you kill a flying enemy that is fire-proof?”
Finsea’s government is reasonable and Edna is basically accepting what they want to do, so this deal is easy to make. Finsea, the mob, and the dockworkers are all on Edna’s side, and she has a plan to get the merchants back, which will make the civilians happy. She has secured leadership of Port Fennrick.
GM note: All our characters are ready to retire! The rest of the session is a farewell tour. It’s sad to say goodbye, but it’s good, because all the characters leave having completed their missions, and it’s exciting, because all the players get to make new characters. It’s a nice feeling to love something, but not be precious about it. We can let these characters go because they are done.
Edna looks through the contraband warehouses for items taken from Bodgen and Thaumatown.
Froob ordered some rare and unstable reagents for his anti-lycanthropy research, but O’Later confiscated them. The reagents are unstable and must be transported very carefully. They are in six small boxes arranged on a large tray that’s half-filled with sand. The boxes are nestled into the sand so they don’t shift around, and the rest of the tray is packed with straw. Edna carefully carries the tray over her head and walks upriver to Bogden.
Edna: We’re sorry that the previous rulers of Port Fennrick took this. I’m sure you needed it to protect your family. I am now in charge of Port Fennrick. We are giving back all the stuff that the previous ruler confiscated. If you do any trade in Port Fennrick in the future, don’t worry about your stuff being confiscated. You just need to report thier value and pay a percentage. We sometimes check, but mostly you trust us and we trust you.
These reagents help the anti-lycanthropy bath find to the patient’s body, so the protection lasts (for a while) even after they leave the bath.
O’Later captured and deactivated some robots returning to Thaumatown after a mission. Each robot has a big domed head with a small graden growing inside.
- Botanical Collectors: Machines that gather plant life, for preservation or some other purpose. They tend to ignore animal concerns.
- Mobile Greenhouse: The botanical collectors can collect and preserve any plant life through any terrain or weather conditions. Each collector has a small garden inside of it, where it keeps its current collection until it can be properly
archived. When this stat becomes damaged, the collector’s garden is destroyed. - Nature’s Bounty: The collector has one of the following tags with 2 Uses, depending on the variety of plants that they keep: Drunk, Food, Necrotic, or
Precious. Collectors in a Group or Gang must all choose the same tag, as they cultivate the same crop.
- Mobile Greenhouse: The botanical collectors can collect and preserve any plant life through any terrain or weather conditions. Each collector has a small garden inside of it, where it keeps its current collection until it can be properly
The manifest says that these robots belong to Allan A Zham, who is dead. The Fellowship reactivates the Botanical Collectors so they follow the Fellowship into town like ducklings. The Fellowship presents them to the city council, explains the uses of the exotic plants that they collected, and gives Edna’s sales pitch for the new and improved Port Fennrick.
Now the Fellowship prepares for Yuri’s wedding to Lucy, the Business Devil. Vestri does not approve of Lucy and refuses to attend the wedding. Vestri will part ways with the Fellowship at the Magic Rest Stop, where the wedding will be held. Edna’s new position as mayor gives her the right to officiate at the wedding.
Vestri: I will miss you heartily. I will never see you again. I presume you are going back to your world.
Yuri: I am going back to my plane of existence, but if you ever want to come, just find the Devil…
Vestri: I’m not doing that. Please don’t talk to me about her. If you do intend to come, leave a letter with Edna. It was nice meeting you. And Steven. Goodbye Steven!
Yuri offers Vestri to Steven.
Vestri: Will he be OK underground? He likes to lay in the sun and make that sound that you say means he’s happy.
Yuri: You have warm rocks underground? He will be fine. But he won’t live forever. You are rock. You will live much longer.
Vestri: You don’t want Steven at your wedding?
Yuri: I would love that. I would…
Vestri: I’m not coming.
Yuri: I would love for you to have something to remind you of me that is full of love.
Vestri: Edna, this is not the end for us. I know where you live now, and my husbands and wives are looking forward to me showing them the places I have traveled. I will see you, maybe once a year even.
Edna: Yes, please come over whenever ou can. We will throw the biggest banquet in your honor. It’s been so wonderful traveling with you, training with you, learning from each other.
Vestri: Like that time we fought that Dragon!
Edna: Yes! Nobody knows about that. That’s the weird thing. They all owe us, but nobody knows.
Vestri: All the Redrocks will know, and soon all the Dwarves will know, but not the other races. They don’t always believe us.
Edna tries not to cry. She picks Vestri up and they hug each other with their Uncontrollable Strength. Yuri jumps up to join the hug. He’s on the outside, so he isn’t crushed. Then Vestri walks away, back to his home mountain.
Lucy has drawn up the wedding contract. She will take Yuri’s hand in marriage in exchange for returning with him to the Soviet Union on Earth. Edna will say some nice words as officiant, but the power is in the contract. The contract is written on fancy paper and the lettering is gold foil. There’s a footnote in every contract that she makes that says everyone that has a contract with her must attend certain important events, so Lucy’s side of the ceremony is full of misfits, criminals, and rich, influential people, like de Rolo, the daredevil billionaire. Some animals also show up. A few people said something like, “Oh, to be a lizard sunning itself on a rock” and she granted their wish.
Edan: Ladies, gentlemen, devils, beasts, and other assorted guests, we are here today to witness the signing of the most important contract in Lucy’s indefinitely long life. Yes, these two are making a permanent deal to go into business together. Yuri has agreed to give his hand in marriage to this lovely devil. The honeymoon will be in his home country, the Soviet Union. It’s a long way off, but it’s nothing that Lucy can’t handle. In fact, I don’t think there is anything that this couple can’t handle together. You may now recite your vows.
Yuri: From the moment i saw you, I knew you were powerful. I knew you could get anything done. With that comes confidence, but there’s a loneliness to stnading on top of the mountain. I saw that loneliness in youl. I knew there was an even higher peak that you could reach and I wanted to help you get to the top of that mountain with the best of my abilities. Hand in not-hand, I would love to be your hus-band.
Lucy: I have signed many contracts, made many deals. Some were wise. Some were foolish. Some business partners I respected. Some I didn’t. It’s a job. I don’t care what the contract is, as long as it’s fulfilled. But this is one is different. With all my arcane power, there’s no stronger bond or contract than a wedding. I can have anthing in the world that I want, and I want you.
Yuri blushes and his entire shaved hEnda tries not to try. Far off on the road, Vestri has a bad feeling. Lucy and Yuri sign the wedding contract. They shake hands, and when Lucy pulls away, Yuri’s right hand comes off in her hand and disappears.
After the ceremony, there’s music and dancing. Ol’ Jardiner uses Overwhelming Power to create a spectacular fireworks show. It must be true love, because the wedding was performed in the light of the Magic Rest Stop, and people lit by that magic fire cannot harm each other. Everyone gathers to see Lucy and Yuri leave. Lucy stands at the entrance to the Magic Rest Stop and starts drawing magic symbols in the air. Her hands move so quickly it seems like there are three hands. There are three hands! She used Yuri’s hand to help create the spell. She creates a portal and they walk through into another universe!
After they leave, Edna keeps the party going as long as anyone wants to stay. She loves entertaining, but she knows that soon she’ll be really sad because her friends are gone. It’s a good sad, since everyone is going to where they should be, but we used to be together. Life will be different now.
Yuri left a small gift for Edna. It’s the two magic horseshoes that he used as holy brass knuckles in the Library Invasion, and his library card. Edna returns the horseshoes to the Hidden Library. She gets her own library card for her assistance during the invasion.
GM note: We chatted a bit about what new characters we will build, but we didn’t build them until the next session.