Posted on by Cliff

Chasing the Sunset & Stoss

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 evidence that someone else saved the world from a secret threat. Today, they continue towards Cloudhold.

From the top of Famine Table (a plateau that contains the Dragons’ Doomsday Engine) the Fellowship can see Ice Fields to the north, Sunpeak (the tallest mountain in the world) to the northwest, and Cloudhold to the west, across a valley. Stormy clouds surround Cloudhold’s peak, and the Fellowship wants to see what’s inside.

First they must navigate the steep slope of the Fanime Table to reach the valley below. A narrow trail switchbacks down the western slope. The trail crosses a swift river cutting through the slope, but the rope bridge has been washed away. Bits of rope and some planks hang from both sides of the gap. There’s a smaller trail that winds down a long way before the crossing the river, but that’s far out of their way. Buckle and Stella look around for ways to fix the bridge.

GM note: They rolled with hope and still failed!

Buckle starts down the other trail and sees a scrubby tree sticking out of the rock, bent over by the wind. But it’s actually bent over as a snare! Buckle is caught in sticky webbing and the tree snaps outward, so Buckle hangs by a flipper over the edge! He calls for help.

Stella runs down the path and looks around for signs of the Spider who set the trap. She doesn’t see any creature, but on the switchback below the trap, there’s a small cairn with an animal skull on top.

Stella: That’s not promising.

She sends Silk, a Giant Spider who is used to dealing with webs, out on the tree to bring Buckle back to solid ground.

GM note: They rolled with hope and failed again!

The tree snaps under their combined weight and they fall several switchbacks before rolling to a stop. Buckle pushes Silk offo f him and sits up. There’s another cairn down here with a rabbit skull on top, as well as little figures made from twigs and bone, lashed together with grass. As Stella runs down the trail, a Spider (a humanoid species) is running up from below. They all meet.

Stella: Hey, do you know what this is about?

Shadow Under Cloud: Oh, no, no, no. I thought people would be coming from below, not from above.

Buckle: That’s OK, I won’t hold you responsible for my injuries.

GM note: They rolled with snake eyes, another failure!

  • Tell us about the trap.
    • The snares are how she hunts, but she doesn’t want to catch people. She put up her crafts (the cairns and figures) so that people would know that someone was here. She didn’t think people would come down from the nice trail so she didn’t put any crafts up there.
    • Buckle: The nice trail wasn’t an option because the bridge was damaged. I thought the tree could work as a fix for the bridge, but…
    • Shadow Under Cloud: Now it won’t work as a snare either.
  • What should I be wary of when dealing with them?
    • Spiders are known for being tricky. The Fellowship is a large group, so of course she won’t try to eat anyone, but if you were alone with her, who knows?
  • What do they want? How could we help them get it?
    • The Fellowship is disturbing her hunting grounds and she wishes they were gone.

Buckle: My friend here is very clever at building pit traps what might work out better than a tree that looks like it could repair a bridge. We could be out of your hair–Spiders don’t have hair–if you don’t mind helping us fixing the bridge and we can leave you with some pit traps.

GM note: Another failure!

Shadow Under Cloud: I have no time for that. I have to reset my traps. All this commotion is scaring away my prey. You’re halfway down this trail already. Just keep going.

The Fellowship goes down the trail and approaches the valley marked “Lazy-I Ranch” on Buckle’s map. From a long way off they can tell what the ranch raises because they’re so big. Brontosaurs! Long-necked dinosaurs the size of a eighteen-wheeler. One of the brontosaurs has a small shack on its back. Dwarved by the dinosaurs but still huge are Megacerops, a rhino the size of an SUV with a Y-shaped horn on its nose.

Buckle: Stella, imagine how threatening you could be on one of those!

Stella: Don’t worry, Silk, we’re sticking together.

Buckle: You could ride Silk riding that!

  • Megacerops: This tough beast wears a shell of hardened armor, and strikes
    out at its enemies with its mighty horn.

    • Thick Hide: This stat must be damaged three times. When the Megacerops would be destroyed, fully damage this stat instead.
    • Mighty Horn: When the Megacerops deals damage to an enemy, they are sent flying away from it. If your Courage is damaged, you cannot face the Megacerops head on.
  • Brontosaurus: This massive long-necked dinosaur is the largest land walking animal in human history. Any number of riders, or even a small house, could comfortably fit atop its mighty back. Wild Brontosaurs don’t have the Riding Cottage stat, only trained and tamed ones do.
    • Riding Cottage: The Brontosaurus can have an entire house built on top of it. The cottage can comfortably support the livelihood of a family of 2-4, and can easily support as many as 10-15 people for short rides, if they squeeze in.
    • Tail Whip: The Brontosaurus is a Giant, Melee weapon. It attacks by sweeping its tail over a huge area, battering aside everything in the way.
    • Unbelievably Huge: The Brontosaurus cannot be defeated by anything human-sized. Only high explosives or other giant monsters can hope to damage it.

Normal fences wouldn’t contain such huge beasts, so the Lazy-I Ranch is surrounded by huge thornbushes! The Fellowship is able to army-crawl under the thorns. Like the Death Star, Lazy-i Ranch isn’t designed to protect against small things. Up close, the Fellowship can see the Lazy-I brand on each huge beast. Buckle greets the Brontosaurus with the Riding Cottage.

Buckle: Hello, grand creature…

An Elf sticks her head out of the Riding Cottage. She wears a cowboy hat with slits in the brim for her long ears.

Elf: Hello? I’m Charlene, and this here is Jake.

Buckle can speak the language of Brontosaurs, and knows that “Jake” has his own name that humanoids tongues can’t pronounce.

Elf: Why are you here in our ranch?

Stella: Well, you see, we were on our way to Cloudhold and saw this lovely establishment and wanted to congratulate whoever was in charge for doing a great job.

Charlene: I’ll relay that. Cloudhold, eh? It’s dangerous. We lost a Brontosaur up there not too long ago.

  • What can you tell us about Cloudhold?
    • A couple months ago, a huge flying creature came down the slopes trying to eat our livestock. It was driven off, but it’s still up there.
    • Buckle: Did it look like an Undead Dragon? We killed that thing.
    • That’s new information which is important to Charlene.
    • Charlene: No, no, it was like a huge snake or eel.
    • Buckle: Sounds like Aku. Was he blind? Did he have Giants riding on him? Was it a flying snake or did it have wings?
    • Charlene: Whoa, whoa, hold on!
  • What should I be wary of when dealing with them?
    • She seems upset to hear that the Undead Dragon was killed, which means that she knew about the Undead Dragon and liked it.
  • What do they want? How can I help them get it?
    • She won’t say.

Charlene: Seems like you are set on your foolish notion to go to Cloudhold. We can’t have you traipsing through and disturbing our livestock. Jake can carry y’all to the far side of the ranch.

Jake lowers his head and the Fellowship walks up his neck like a ramp to join Charlene in the Riding Cottage. Charlene guides Jake with extremely long range as he gallops faster than something that big should be able to move. She drops the Fellowship at the bramble fence, just before the land starts sloping up towards Cloudhold.

Charlene: Well, good luck, and you should probably take a different route home.

Since Charlene seems eager for them to leave, Buckle wonders if he’s scaring Jake. Jake likes Buckle because he speaks his language.

The Fellowship crawls under the brambles and Stella looks closely at Cloudhold.

  • What do my senses tell me?
    • A trail leads up the slope of Cloudhold into snow, then cloud, then storm. Some parts of the clouds shine continuously, not flashing like lightning.
  • How can the trail hurt or help me?
    • The trail is a safe route through a hostile environment, but hostile creatures know the trail is a good place to attack.
  • Is something hidden or out of place?
    • As the Fellowship hikes up the trail, they are attacked by a Group of Mountain Lions! They pounce from behind rocks at Stella and Gus

 

  • Group of Mountain Lions. A mountain lion is a deadly feline ambush predator that pins down their prey before going for the throat with their powerful jaws.
    • Pounce: When the Mountain Lion deals damage to an enemy smaller than them, they also put them on the spot as they pin the enemy beneath them.
    • Stalk From The Shadows: This beast is Secret until it makes a move.
    • Group: This enemy can act against two people at once. When this enemy is destroyed, this stat is damaged, or this is their only stat left, replace the Group with two normal enemies

Stella: Do not harm my friends!

All Beasts must heed Stella’s commands, so the Mountain Lions stop short. A bird-like humanoid appears from hiding. He’s 5 feet tall with a 12-foot wingspan. Instead of hands, he has grasping feet.

Yrta: Retreat to me!

Yrta flies into the air, and the Mountain Lions follow!

Stella: Don’t go scaring unsuspecting folks on this trail! We didn’t do anything to you!

Yrta: Can we just have that Spider and that bird? The rest of you can go. Stoss needs food.

Buckle: Are you Stoss?

Yrta: No, Stoss is the great one that I serve.

Stella: Does this Stoss eat not-animals?

Buckle: First of all, we’re really gamy. You don’t want us. Second of all, we explode when we’re attacked. Just let us go. Maybe we go talk to Stoss ourselves and sort this out.

Yrta: Yes! Good! I’ll lead the way!

Yrta leads the Fellowship up through the snow, then into the clouds. Suddenly, they are surrounded by a blinding white light. They can’t see Yrta anymore. Buckle casts off his fireproof suit, hoping his glow will overpower this other glow.

  • Little Light Swarm: These pieces of Sola have escaped the Lanterns, and move as a single instrument of Sola’s will.
    • Blindingly Bright: You cannot look directly at a little light. Anyone trying to Keep Them Busy or Overcome their attacks is in Despair. Anyone trying to Look Closely at them fails to do so.
    • Fickle: Little lights act arbitrarily and there is no way to predict what they will do next.
    • Swarm: A swarm fills the space they are in. You cannot move into a swarm or Keep Them Busy without paying a price. A swarm can be pushed back or distracted by standard weapons and attacks, but they can only take damage from Burning, Dangerous, or Area attacks.

Buckle’s eyes can’t handle the bright glow, and they don’t feel like animals to his electrosense. Very strange. They swarm towards Buckle. Stella steps away from them and looks around at the not-blinding parts of her surroundings.

  • Is something hidden or out-of-place?
    • Stella’s lost sight of Yrta, but she sees the shadows of Mountain Lions and can tell where they are going.
  • What will happen if I command the Little Light Swarm?
    • Stella gets respectful vibes from the Little Lights. They would obey if she gave an order.
  • Tell me about the surrounding area. How can it hurt or help me?
    • The moutain slope is rocky and covered in snow. Buckle is melting the snow around himself now that his fire is revealed. The meltwater flows swiftly down the slope and threatens to carry Ugg away!

Ugg’s robot arms show up strongly to Buckle’s electrosense, so he notices the Goblin’s plight, even if he can’t see through the Little Lights. Buckle summons an Aurora in the middle of the cloudy light show caused by the Little Lights. A psychedelic show! A Mountain Lion and two Little Lights are charmed and join the Fellowship as Buckle’s Companions.

While Buckle was performing, Ugg was swept down the slope into a snowdrift, then the ice water formed a hard shell on top of it. Buckle breaks out of his trance and runs towards Ugg. Buckle’s heat melts the ice, but creates the same problem of flowing meltwater. Buckle pulls Ugg out, but Buckle’s burning hand is harsh on Ugg’s robot arms. He’ll be OK. He’s Tough As Can Be.

Yrta is out of sight now, so the Fellowship is lost. While Buckle puts his fireproof suit back on, he asks his new Mountain Lion Companion (named Skimbleshanks) where Yrta went. Skimbleshanks knows the way and leads the Fellowship to the lower edge of the storm. Stoss is on the other side, through the lightning.

Buckle: Skimbleshanks, my new Companion here, says that we have to go through the lightning. I feel like I could get through with the Medallion, but whatever’s on the other side, we’re stuck with it.

Stella: I’m coming with you.

Buckle: Wait, Skimbleshanks, can you get through the storm? The other Mountain Lions got through.

Skimbleshanks: Not now. The Yrta can only get through because Doeb, the Rain Lord, lets him through.

Buckle dashes through the storm at the speed of lightning, leaving lightning crackling in his wake. Cloudhold’s peak is still covered in clouds, but not dark and stormy like the clouds below. In one direction, there’s a big cave. In the other direction, a strange structure like a hamster maze, but made of earth and the size of a house. Stella slowly approaches the house. They hear sloshing from inside, and a Rain (an amorpheous slime person) appears.

  • Doeb (he/him) Rain Lord:
    • Rain’s Master: The rain lord can control the weather at will, starting or
      stopping rain storms of any intensity they like.
    • Divine Purpose:  They will never follow the commands of the Overlord or a Boss, and act as their own agents in all things. When you Talk Sense to a rain  lord, you do so with Despair.
    • Sun’s Touch: They can heal or harm just by laying a hand upon you. Their touch is either Piercing or Healing, at their preference.

Doeb: Strange, we don’t get many visitors. What brings you to the top of my mountain?

Stella: An adventurous spirit and strong reverence for meteorological phenomena.

Doeb invites them into his house, which is more convenient for people who are fluid. A few puddles sploosh away into other chambers.

Doeb: Apologies. I’m not used to entertaining.

Buckle: It’s all right. We’ve been to plenty of Rain’s domains before. We’ve been entertained by King Bernard on the back of Bertha. Luckily I have my fireproof suit now. That’s thanks to Lichenton, which showed us their ability to craft fine clothing. I’m very happy to have Rain friends.

Doeb doesn’t seem to like King Bernard.

Doeb: I’d like to have more Rain come to visit. I have such a large house.

  • Why won’t more Rain come to visit?
    • It’s a remote location, and Stoss makes it dangerous, but this is my moutain and I won’t be bullied away.
  • What can you tell me about Stoss?
    • Despite what Yrta would tell you, Stoss is just a big dumb animal. It just wants to eat. I have to keep it contained up here so it doesn’t rampage around the countryside.
    • 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.
  • Is there anything we can do to get the Rain up here and deal with Stoss?
    • There’s a tunnel that bypasses the lightning, so Rain can reach his house safely.
    • Buckle: Stoss wouldn’t drink the Rain, would he?
    • Doeb: I have a low opinion of Stoss’s discernment. Even if something isn’t nourishing or tasty, he’d still go for it. IT would go for it. Ugh, Yrta’s rubbing off on me.

Stella takes over the questioning.

  • What can you tell us about Yrta?
    • Yrta’s a kind of fanatic. He thinks Stoss is a great creature that demands respect. He and his Mountain Lions hunt for it and bring it food. Recently, when Stoss went down the mountain to eat all those dinosaurs, Yrta had to admit that Stoss needs to be contained. That’s why I created the storm below to keep Stoss up here.
  • What does Doeb want? How can we help him get it?
    • Doeb would like more Rain to join him. Spread the word.
  • What would Doeb have us do next?
    • Tell King Bernard to bring Bertha here.

Stella: I thought you didn’t like Bernard.

Doeb: What gave you that impression?

Stella: A facial twitch.

Doeb: Reading body language is complicated and subtle. Solids so often misinterpret things.

Buckle: We got all the Rain together to share a community thing, so we can tell them to come share community with you. Bertha can bypass the lightning. It will be great!

Buckle is excited to help the Rain, since they made him the useful fireproof suit. How can he find Bertha? Looking from Cloudhold is no good. The peak is always covered in clouds. Buckle and Stella run for the tunnel that Doeb told them about. They’ll look for Bertha from another vantage point.  They detect motion in the clouds above them, like something large was passing by. They traverse the steep tunnel and emerge still in the clouds, but below the lightning. The Little Lights make the companions easy to find. The Fellowship regroups and plans a route to the Lichenton. Buckle asks Skimbleshanks, but he hasn’t traveled much. He’s spent his life on Cloudpeak acquiring food for Stoss. Do they retrace their steps and go around, or through the Treacherous Mountains? Stella traveled from Lichenton to the City of Clay through a small drain. The rest of the Fellowship would have trouble following.

Stella is curious about that cave at the peak.

Buckle: You know what curiousity did.

Stella: You don’t have to come.

Buckle: I’ve got to keep you safe.

The whole Fellowship goes up through Doeb’s tunnel. They walk towards the cave. The clouds in front of them swirl and resolve into a mass of needle-sharp teeth! Stoss attacks! Buckle casts off his fireproof suit and blasts Stoss with Dragonfire! Stoss is so tough that he’s just wounded, not vaporized. He passes over the Fellowship and disappears into the clouds.

Buckle: To the cave!

As the Fellowship runs towards the cave, Yrta appears.

Yrta: No, you can’t attack the great and powerful Stoss!

Buckle: Yrta, you’re a manic, and you’re supporting a ravenous beast!

Yrta: You know how predators work. This isn’t a surprise.

Yrta’s Mountain Lions appear from hiding and try to pin Stella and Buckle. Buckle tells Skimbleshanks to stop the one attacking him. Stella orders the one attacking her to assist Skimbleshanks.

Yrta: What is happening?!

Stoss is coming around again, jaws open fifteen feet wide. Buckle sends in Little Lights to blind it. As Stoss tosses his head around, the Little Lights zip and zoom to follow. The rest of the Fellowship makes it inside the cave while Buckle stays to direct the Little Lights. Stella hops on Silk’s back and rushes to Buckle’s side.

Yrta is upset that they’re attacking his favorite creature in the world, and his Mountain Lions can’t do anything about it. It gets worse! Stella commands the Mountain Lions to attack Stoss. Yrta dives in a desperate attack against Stella. Stella steps aside and Yrta hits the ground hard. The Mountain Lions jump on it. The Little Lights harry it. Buckle sets it on fire. Stoss panics and flees into the cave. Yrta has a tantrum. He can’t imagine any worse situation. Buckle stares at Yrta with glowing eyes and makes an inspiring speech.

Buckle: Yrta, listen to me. You are supporting a monster! An actual monster! I can tell because I speak the language of monsters. You need to snap out of it. Stop this nonsense!

Buckle shakes Yrta around, which is very easy because Yrta has hollow bones and the flimsy build of all birds. Yrta flies away crying. His Mountain Lions lose his Uplifting Command and can’t fly anymore.

Stella: Go be free!

The Mountain Lions slink off. The Buckle and Stella go into the cave. Stoss is wrapped around stalagtites on the roof of the huge cave, staying as far away from them as possible. The floor of the cave is littered with bones and some armor and weapons. They are beat up by their passage through Stoss’ stomach. Stella finds a little piece of paper. On one side, there’s a picture of a man holding a club. On the back, there’s a bunch of stats. It’s Yuri’s missing baseball card.

Stella: Must be an important person if there’s all this information about how strong he is.

There’s nothing else interesting in this cave. It’s the lair of a big animal. As they leave the cave, Buckle turns and starts lobbing firebombs at the cave mouth. They expode and rocks fall. They pile up in front of the entrance. Just as it seems completely closed up, one rock starts teetering. Buckle runs up and tail-slams it back into place. The cave is blocked! Stoss is trapped! Yrta’s life is ruined!

The Fellowship tells Doeb that Stoss is not a threat anymore. Doeb relaxes and the refection if his fluid body shifts slightly. When the Fellowship leaves Doeb’s house, there’s no lightning in the clouds below.

NO END-OF-SESSION MOVE