Chasing the Sunset & von Till

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

The fellowship: Boris the Remnant, Ol’ Jardiner the Harbinger, Yonne the Rain.

GM note: Players retired Edna, Vestri, and Yuri and made new characters. This is the first adventure for those characters.

Boris the Remnant. Long ago, a Human civilization was cursed for its hubris. Half-human, half boar beastmen swarmed over the land and destroyed it. The survivors fled and hid themselves in what became the Forgotten Lands, using magic to prevent outsiders from learning of their existence. Boris happened to become smarter than the other boar-men. Instead of rampaging mindlessly, he wanders the world trying to fit in to civilized society. he is very old.

Yonne, the Rain, is a fragment of the comet that brought to this planet years ago. It broke off from the main body and is isolated from other Rain. It landed in a pond, turning it acidic. Ol’ Jardiner discovered the pond and Yoone.

Ol’ Jardiner is the handyman from the Crusher-Harcourt who has been accompanying Edna through her adventures. He’s a Halfling who attended a magical academy.  He’s snarky and generally doesn’t respect people, but without an 16-foot-tall Ogre with metal bones between him and danger, he must learn to be subtle and polite.

The three acquaintances meet in Port Fennrick. Ol’ Jardiner is free to wander as he likes. His employer, Edna Crusher-Harcourt, settled down as mayor of Port Fennrick and doesn’t require his services anymore. They decide to travel together. Their first stop is Thaumatown. Ol’ Jardiner hopes to find magical artifacts in the wizard’s tower. Allan a Zham is dead, so he won’t miss them. They also keep an eye out for entrances to the Dwarven Waterways hidden underground. Boris was amazed to hear how Yonne came to be, so Yonne wants to show him the swamp where she was ‘born’

When they enter the tower, they are accosted by Redstone, an advanced artificial lifeform made mostly of energy. Allan a Zham was his creator and friend, and he’s looking for clues to the identity of his killers. He is suspicious. How dare these strangers enter the secret wizard’s tower. Boris walks past Redstone and walks out on the balcony to view the city.

Redstone: How dare you turn your back on me, beast?

Boris: What did you say?

Redstone: Oh, now you listen to me.

Boris: The conversation was not pertintent, and I have something to look at.

A tense situation! Ol’ Jardiner doesn’t care about Redstone’s problem, but without a giant wall of muscle in front of him, he can’t disrespect people openly. He must be sneaky.

Ol’ Jardiner: If you promise not to hurt us and let us look around, we promise to show you anything we find about this guy’s killer.

Yonne: I would be happy to show you anything I find!

Ol’ Jardiner shakes Redstone’s hand. He claps his other hand over Redstone’s hand and when he pulls away, there’s a fancy “O J” magically written on the back of Redstone’s metal hand. Ol’ Jardiner’s hand also bears Redstone’s signature, a bad code. A magical pact has been sealed! The Fellowship looks around, mostly for cool gadgets, but maybe for some clues.

GM note: Our previous characters took the murder weapon.

• Tell me about Redstone. What is he doing? What will he do next?
  • He relentlessly follows the Fellowship, watching their every move.
• Is something hidden or out-of-place?
  • While exploring the wizard’s tower, Ol’ Jardiner pitches down the stairs and knocks open a secret door!
• What will happen if I go through Allan a Zham’s papers?
  • Allan a Zham was paranoid of other wizards attacking him. The secret room contains dossiers of every magic user he’s ever heard of. Instead of police sketches, Allan a Zham preserved oracles, like little bones, or tea leaves.

Ol’ Jardiner stares back at Redstone and sidesteps around the room. Redstone follows him and Ol’ Jardiner maneuvers the robot so his back is to the dossiers. Using Wizardy, Ol’ Jardiner pulls his dossier out of the stack and floats it over to Boris, who pockets it. Ol’ Jardiner walks past Redstone to the dossiers and pulls out a folder on another wizard who has illusion powers.

Ol’ Jardiner: This is Mer-Lynn, the transmutation wizard. She changes the shapes of creatures, so maybe she changed herself to impersonate Allan a Zham. You can see here that Allan a Zham was quite worried that she was going to come for him. There you go. That’s the clue you’ve been looking for.

Ol’ Jardiner tricks Redstone into going after Mer-Lynn, but Redstone asks that the Fellowship stay to watch over the town. As Redstone leaves, he looks back and sees the Fellowship keeping watch from the balcony. But that’s not the Fellowship! Doodle, the two-dimensional creature from Ol’ Jardiner’s Endless Scroll, has transformed into an image of them. Restone turns back and the Fellowship leaves town quickly. Ol’ Jardiner was not able to find any magical artifacts, but he does have Allan a Zham’s dossier on himself.

Ol’ Jardiner: It says here I’m not a large threat. Is that short joke?

Boris: Well, he’s dead, you got the last laugh.

Ol’ Jardiner: HA HA HA! I thought the last laugh would be more satisfying.

The Fellowship heads toward’s Yonne’s swamp, which takes them west past the volcano containing the Hidden Library. When Yonne hears about the library, her insatiable curiousity takes over and she insists that they go in. Ol’ Jardiner brags that he has a library card because he helped defeat an assault on the Hidden Library a few months ago. The library card grants the Fellowship access and Yonne picks up the first book she sees. Her acidic body starts eating away the book and the Ghost Librarian pulls it from her hands with telekinesis.

Ghost Librarian: You have one of those destructive bodies, but you’re not glowing. What a pain. We’re adding accessibility features. We have some fire-proof suits. You have to wear one to protect our precious and fragile materials from your body.

The fire-proof suits are made from a special type of lichen. They are thick, spongy onesies in pastel colors. They were built by Rain, so they protect against acid as well as fire.

Ol’ Jardiner: Yonne, do you know how to read? Can you turn these symbols into thoughts?

Yonne: Turn symbols into thoughts? No. The books have knowledge.

Ol’ Jardiner: You have to understand how to get it out. Librarian, do you have a beginner section? Like “I can read” books for kids?

The Ghost Librarian floats over to show the Fellowship where those books are stored. There’s a colorful rug and the shelves are short. There’s a Kobold with an “I can read” book reading to three other Kobolds sitting on the rug and listening. Yonne joins the storytime in her pastel green plush fireproof suit. She looks over the reader’s shoulder instead of sitting with the other listeners.\

Yonne: How? How are you pulling knowledge from this?

Kobold: Check this out! Each symbol has a sound. When you say the sounds, you recognize that you said a word, and the word has meaning. It’s not just the names of foods and expiration dates.

Kobold: Urist milks a cow. Milk is good to drink. The cow is big.

The other Kobolds recieve this information with wonder and reverence.

Yonne: Can you make a cow exist from the book, or just knowledge?

Ol’ Jardiner: Yes I can, but most people can’t.

Yonne wants to take a book with her, but the Hidden Library doesn’t check out books. Ol’ Jardiner’s Endless Scroll contains all possible combinations of letters, so he promises to find easy sections and teach Yonne to read whenever they make camp.

Each member of the Fellowship has very different knowledge. Yonne is like a child. Ol’ Jardiner has several degrees gained from study and research.. Boris has centuries and centuries of live experience.

The Fellowship moves on from the Hidden Library, continuing west towards the Dwad Swamp. They spot another mountain, this one with a huge slit cut through it.

Ol’ Jardiner: That mountain is actually a huge gun. That slit lets the barrel rotate, but only along the ecliptic.

Boris: How long has that been around? This last century just flew past.

Yonne: How old are you?

Boris: I have no idea. Lost track.

The Fellowship explores the Anti-Moon Weapon.There are several buildings built in the slopes, and tunnels lead to large chambers within. Most of the buildings and internal chambers have been burned and smashed. A huge central chamber houses an axle aligned with the planet’s axis. On the axle, the thousand-foot barrel of the Anti-Moon Weapon used to turn, but the axle has been burned through with Dragonfire, melted, and fused in place. The barrel has been disconnected from the axle and held up by hastily-constructed framework  Remnants, undead servants of long-dead Dragons, detect the presence of someone who could figure out how to make this weapon functional again, and they won’t let that happen. Ol’ Jardiner summons a soft light. which reveals the Remnant shadows lurking at the edges.

Boris: This has been the most eventful week–not of my life, of the past century at least.

Yonne: That explains why the centuries just slide by for you.

Ol’ Jardiner: While adventuring you’ll get in trouble so often! It’s pretty cool.

Some shadows don’t shift as Ol’ Jardiner swings his light around. Ol’ Jardiner is too busy looking at the machinery and sounding smart to his easily-impressed friends to notice that he’s walking right into one such unnatural shadow!

• Lingering Shadows: A place where darkness rests, no matter how bright the light around it may become.  Exposing the lingering shadows to bright intense light or fire destroys them, removing this threat.
  • Shadow Trap: This threat is Secret. When someone enters the shadow or steps too close to it, they are pulled in, then damage this stat.
  • Armor of Darkness: Anyone pulled into the shadows becomes engulfed by them. When they step out, the darkness is controlling them, acting as both armor and puppeteer. They become a Shadow Warrior until the armor is removed from them.

He is pulled into the shadow, which covers his body, controlling his movements and turning him into a Shadow Warrior!

• Shadow Warrior: They would be an ally, if the darkness wrapped all around them weren’t forcing them to swing their sword at you. They can still speak and think as normal, but have no control over their movements.
  • Forced Movement: The shadow warrior was a friend, but they have been possessed by dark power. They have all of their normal physical abilities, except they are also Clumsy.
  • Entangled In Shadow: If you expose the shadow warrior to light or fire, the shadows are destroyed. They person inside the shadows still suffers whatever affects that light or fire would deal to them, but then they are free from the shadow’s control and this threat is destroyed.

Yonne notices something is wrong when Ol’ Jardiner stops talking about the gun. He walks towards Boris, drawing his necrotic dagger. Forged by Ol’ Jardiner and quenched in Yonne, this dagger leaves wounds that continue to burn and don’t heal naturally.

Ol’ Jardiner: This is very disconcerting! I’m glad this didn’t happen to Edna.

Yonne: Is Edna the really, really tall one?

Ol’ Jardiner’s mind is still his own, so he fights his body by using Wizardry to pull against the hand trying to stab Boris. Boris tries to snatch Ol’ Jardiner out of the shadows with his incredible speed, but as Ol’ Jardiner struggles with the Shadow Warrior, he pushes the dagger into Boris’ path! Boris is slashed in passing!

Yonne: Hello, Jardiner? How did you make that light before? Is it not strong enough?

Ol’ Jardiner summons his floating light and moves it back and forth voer his body, erasing the Shadow Warrior.

Yonne: That was fun. Is that adventuring?

As Ol’ Jardiner moves his light back and forth he points out the shadows that don’t move and warns the others to stay away. The Remnants try another approach.

Ghostly whispers: Leave this place. The Anti-Moon Weapon must never threaten anything again.

Yonne: Anti-what?

Ol’ Jardiner: The moon. That thing in the sky that’s not the sun. Wow, this was going to shoot the moon? We thought it was going to shoot the library. We made them miss, though.

Yonne has many questions for the strange creatures. The Fellowship is in a small circle of light in a huge industrial space. Outside the light, shadows circle and whisper.

• What can they tell us about the Anti-Moon Weapon?
  • A show of force to terrify all opponents.
• What do they want? How can we help them get it?
  • They must destroy anyone who could rebuild the weapon, and that includes Ol’ Jardiner.
• What would they have us do next?
  • Put out Ol’ Jardiner’s light.

The Remnants can’t enter the light, so the Fellowship huddles close to it and walks towards the exit. The Remnants drop things from above: large bolts, boards from the scaffolding, and so on. Yonne reshapes her body like an umbrella to cover the others. The falling objects are slowed while passing through her, giving Ol’ Jardiner enough reaction time to push them towards Boris with Wizardry. Boris eats the projectiles, destroying them forever. The Fellowship makes it out of the mountain without harm.

Yonne: I’ve seen shadows, but not one that can speak on its own.

Boris: I bet the felt the same about you and water.

Yonne: There’s a bunch of me. I’m looking for them.

Boris: There’s a bunch of shadows and there’s bunch of you.

Yonne: You stands on two legs and he stands on two legs. Are you the same?

The Fellowship stops arguing to Fill Their Bellies, but Boris gets no nourishment from food. Yonne puts food inside her fluid body and lets it dissolve. Ol’ Jardiner gives Boris a flask of healing elixir that heals the necrotic damage. He feels responsible, even though he couldn’t control his actions at the time. They make camp near the confluence of two rivers. The river from the west comes from a Dead Swamp. Dead conifers covered in hanging moss stand in shallow water. The river from the northwest drains a lush and beautiful forest. Ol’ Jardiner consults his Endless Scroll for a magical ritual to summon a boat. The spell takes a while to form the boat, plenty of time to eat supper. The boat is made of clear, shimmering force. Knocking against it makes it flash and get a bit more opaque for a moment. It is propelled by a single rear-mounted oar  Yonne doesn’t mind getting wet. The swamp water is very close to the substance she’s made of. She travels with the boat as its bow wave.

Two men appear on tree branches above. They move silently and balance with perfect grace.

• Larry & Laurent. Both he/him, Humans. Trying hard to bring the energy of dance into this dreary place. Happy to see guests, but they expect that Van Till will eventually order them to kill those guests.
  • Twin Dancers: These two move in perfect harmony, and fight with synchronized movements and devastating combo attacks.

    • Duet: While this stat is undamaged, the Dancers are inseparable, they have the Piercing tag, and rolls to Finish Them are made with Despair. When the Dancers take damage, damage this stat before damaging any others. When this stat becomes damaged, separate them – they are now in two places at once. Whenever they separate, damage this stat. When the Dancers meet back up again, they heal this stat.

    • En Point: This Dancer cannot be escaped. When you Get Away from them, they may separate from the duet to come with you. If they are not in duet, they can use this ability freely.

    • En Passant: This Dancer cannot be stalled. When someone Keeps Them Busy, they may separate from the duet to go do whatever they want anyway. If they are not in duet, they can use this ability freely

Laurent: Oh look, Larry, visitors!

Larry: Yes, Laurent, the first excitement we’ve had in quite some time.

Laurent: I suppose von Till will want to see them.

Larry: Do we have to tell him immediately?

They hop down from branch to branch approaching the Fellowship. One carries a rapier, the other two stilettos. Yonne stands up from the water.

Yonne: Hello, I am Yonne. I am from near here.

Laurent: Nobody lives here.

Larry: Look around!

Boris: Come on the boat and I’ll bite you. It will hurt a lot.

The dancers split and dance around the boat.

Laurent: He’s confident.

Larry: But slow!

Laurent: I don’t think those teeth are as quick…

Larry: …as our blades!

Ol’ Jardiner: You try to pare us, but I will pair you! You seem inseperable, so inseperable you will be! You ARE joined at the hip. When you each tell me two things you hate about the other, this curse will be lifted. A pair of pairs.

Laurent: Oh ho ho, you are interesting.

Larry: von Till will love to meet you.

Laurent: Just come with us…

Larry: …and we won’t use force.

Yonne: I am fine with that. Are you fine with that?

Boris: I don’t agree with the methodology. Hmmm, I guess we can just kill the von Till guy. OK, fine.

Ol’ Jardiner: I enjoy not being stabbed. Lead on.

The dancers lead the way, hopping from rock to branch and whispering to each other. Boris pilots the boat behind them. They approach a castle in the center of the swamp.

Boris: Didn’t they say no one lives here?

The castle radiates corruption. The Twin Dancers grimace as they push through the boundary into the corruption.

• Corruption: A spreading blight. This bastion darkens the area, changing the environment within it to unnatural purples and greens. It grows over time.
  • Corrosive Field: Anything that enters the Corruption that isn’t part of The
    Scourge must pay a price.
  • Long Term Problem: The spread of Corruption can be held off by containing or damaging it, perhaps with fire or thick barricades of sand or stone, but it cannot be stopped permanently without stopping The Overlord.

Ol’ Jardiner digs into the many pockets of his vest and pulls out magical chewing gum that purifies the air that he breathes. Yonne enters the field and has a strange and new sensation. Something is dissolving her like she dissolves other things. Boris radiates magic at short range, and the castle’s corruption blasts it away like hot wind overpowering an air conditioner. A few undead and half-rotted birds perch on the parapets. The twin dancers lead the Fellowship into a big hall with a throne on a raised platform at the far end. This castle used to be grand and beautiful, but has fallen into decay. On the throne sits Baron von Till, the Vampire Lord!

• Baron Van Till. he/him. Human vampire. Sulking in hatred for so long that even other vampires want to avoid him. Everything is rotting and ruined around him.
• Agenda: Tyrant, Maintain your rule.

  • Vampire Lord: A powerful aristocrat who drinks the blood of the weak. The Vampire Lord is Melee, Piercing, and they heal when damaging a Blood stat. Sunlight and holy symbols deal damage to them

    • Blood Frenzy: Your weakness is their power. If your Blood is damaged, you are in Despair when dealing with the vampire lord.

    • Lord of the Night: Beasts and monsters will do as a vampire lord tells them to. Beast and Scourge threats cannot harm the vampire lord, and they will follow the vampire lord’s orders to the letter. The vampire lord can drink the blood of any Beast to heal. This kills the Beast.

    • Sunburns: When the vampire lord takes damage from sunlight or holy symbols, they are filled with Despair and they must try to flee the scene.

Baron von Till: What have you brought me, twins, and why are you walking like that?

Yonne: Hello. You live here? I am from near here. I did not know you were here.

Larry: These people boldy entered your territory and have some magical skill.

Laurent: This little one cursed us. it’s rather embarrassing.

Baron von Till: Curses, eh? There are some spaces in the org chart that need to be filled. Perhaps he’d like to join us.

Ol’ Jardiner: Hmm, I’m not impressed so far. This open position: why did the previous person leave?

Larry: Sadly, Cassandra was killed.

Laurent: Yes, sent off on a foolish war.

Ol’ Jardiner blows a thought bubble, splits it in half and sends it to Boris and Yonne:

Ol’ Jardiner: This guy was involved in the invasion of the library. He’s a bad dude.

Ol’ Jardiner has spent his whole life serving aristocrats and just set out on his own. He doesn’t want to go back, but he also doesn’t want to be eaten by a vampire.

Ol’ Jardiner: I have many years experience as a groundskeeper and handyman. This castle has good bones but needs a lot of work. Before I give you an estimate, I need to walk around and see what I’m up against.

Baron von Till agrees, but demands that one person stays behind. Boris has no fear for his life and moves incredibly fast, so he volunteers to stay. Ol’ Jardiner takes Yonne and they start wandering through the corridors.

Ol’ Jardiner: I was hoping that we would all come along and we’d just slip out the back. I don’t want to leave Boris.

Yonne: Boris is very, very fast. Maybe he can catch up? I didn’t like that man. He seems very rude.

Ol’ Jardiner: Yeah, I also think he tried to kill a bunch of my friends.

GM note: We ended here so I could create a detailed map of the castle for a dungeon crawl next time.

END OF SESSION MOVE

• Did we thoroughly explore a new location? NO
• Did we learn something new about the world or its people? YES. Boris discovered Yonne. Yonne started to learn to read
• Did anyone find what they were searching for? NO