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.
Last time, the Fellowship spelunked into The Flame Chimney, an abandoned VolWolkenStadt facility with a mysterious power source. They met Asana (an arconaut who explores underground ruins for a living) and drove off Dominique (a bully from Ol’ Jardiner’s Academy days) This time, they try to reach the mysterious power source at the bottom of the Flame Chimney.
Dominique is gone, but so is Asana. Where did she go?
Ol’ Jardiner: Can we take it easy for a bit? I need a snack.
Ol’ Jardiner Fill Your Belly: spend 1 Food, heal Sense
The fight against Dominique broke through the floor, so the Fellowship is now on the second level of the facility. It’s a hallway with doorways every 20 feet. Each door has a number and a name, so it’s probably a dormitory. They didn’t fully explore the top level before the fight. The source of the flame is further below. Boris wants to find a security or maintenance entrance to the power source. Surely the chimney isn’t the only way in. Dominique didn’t go up the chimney when he fled, so there must be another route to the surface.
Boris explores the top level. It seems to be a recreation area. It has wider halls than the apartments below. Some rooms are used for indoor sports. Lounges are overgrown with decorative local fungus.
Boris Look Closely 7-9 ask 3 questions, find 1 answer the hard way
- Tell me about Dominique. What is he doing? What will he do next?
- Dominique cast a spell to carve a staircase from the surface. It pierces the ceiling and all the debris that fell into the room formed into stairs. The Fellowship looks up the stairs, which are perfectly straight with no switchbacks. A point of sunlight is visible at the end, but it goes dark. Dominique probably covered the entrance with something as he left.
- What will happen if we follow the same path as Dominique?
- The staircase is well-made and without his spellbook Dominique doesn’t have the power to destroy it. He isn’t going to stick around to fight the Fellowship again.
- What is hidden or out of place?
- As Boris walks through a lounge, a bit of his dark magic flicks out to a low table. A hologram flickers.
Boris sends more dark magic into the table and the hologram powers up. It’s a visualization of the facility. It shows the chimney being dug with four levels of facility around it. Back on the surface, a tower rises and radiates energy to other machine cities. The Fellowship doesn’t understand the language, but the music is proud and hopeful. VolWolkenStadt intended to use this energy to power nearby cities, but the project was never finished. There’s no tower on the surface, not even debris. The hologram of the facility is basic, but shows the location of staircases.
The Fellowship is focused on the hologram and doesn’t notice that Boris’ dark magic activated something else. A robot rises behind the couch they are sitting on. It’s boxy and rides on small treads.
- Robot Butler: Or maid, if you prefer. They are capable of doing whatever is required of them, should you ask politely and they want to listen to you.
- Perfect Servant: Robot Butlers are Useful to anyone who has one.
- Backup Pilot: A Robot Butler can fill any role on a Ship except Captain, and do not need to be assigned to a Ship to fill a role on it. A Boss, Leader, or General can have their Robot Butler bring vehicles around for them, and act as their chauffeur.
Robot Butler: May I refill your beverages?
Boris wants to know if this thing is a person. He tries to talk to it, but it only has a few pre-recorded voice clips and gets confused when Boris talks about anything but food and drinks and scheduled events.
Boris: Would it be wrong to burden this thing with sentience? There are robots that are sentient.
The machines in this place were designed to run on the harnessed version of Boris’ dark magic. Boris keeps turning things on by accident, and he wants to keep the Butler active. He wonders about running a cable from himself to the Butler. Fetching things is part of the Butler’s duty, so it scoots off through double doors to a kitchen. Boris follows so it stays powered. Mold and mushrooms have grown from the food left in the kitchen long ago, but some of the food has grown into large vegetables. Much more growth than expected!
- Fungal Bloom: A creeping tide of moss and fungus that consumes entire ecosystems. It replaces them with a world of spores, decay, and rot.
- Spore Clouds: When anyone deals damage to the environment within the fungal bloom, it explodes into spores. Everyone nearby takes damage from the fungus’ attempts to grow inside their lungs or their wounds. Burning attacks do not trigger the spore clouds’ explosion.
- Unnatural Forest: Rather than Aberrations or Undead, the fungal bloom is mostly filled with Blighted Beasts. Standard Scourge threats may still appear, they just make up the minority.
The plants and mushrooms seem infused iwth dark magic, like most things here. leaves and branches reach out and brush Boris as he passes by. The plants are hostile to Yonne. They lash through her and fizz. Their corrosive touch is basic and she’s acidic. Ol’ Jardiner hangs back.
Ol’ Jardiner: See what that thing did to you? It might do it to me, and I’m not as tough or flexible as you.
Yonne: I know this isn’t related, but I have a question, and I’ve been thinking about it the whole time we came down here.
Ol’ Jardiner: OK, could you step out of that scary room to ask me the question, please?
Yonne comes back. She’s a slightly different color from the chemical reaction with the plants.
Yonne: That guy you were fighting with? That we don’t like? He called you “Pierre.” Why? Is that an insult or something?
Ol’ Jardiner: Heavens, no! Pierre’s my name. My first name.
Yonne: What do you mean? Jardiner is your name. How many names do you have?
Ol’ Jardiner: That’s my last name. It’s Pierre Jardiner. Just two. Jardiner is my family name, so my parents were named Jardiner. Edna called me “Ol’ Jardiner” because she was my boss, she had that formal way of speaking. Everyone got used to calling me that and I guess I forgot to introduce myself.
Yonne: OK, which one do you want us to use?
Pierre: Let’s go with Pierre. I’m not Edna’s servant. I’m my own guy!
Yonne: Who picked “Pierre”? Your family gave you the other one. Did you pick that one?
Pierre: My family gave me Pierre as well. My parents decided when I was born to call me Pierre.
Yonne: So they made you and they were like “This is the name of the thing we made?”
Pierre: Right, that’s your understanding of reproduction. That’s perfectly acceptable. Sometimes people come up with their own names later. Edna, for example, changed her name from Edna Crusher-harcourt to Edna Harcourt-Dragonbane, because she killed at least two dragons, one of them several times.
Yonne:Is that killing Boris? He would just not be dead–I don’t get it.
Pierre: The Dragon was already dead, but there was a spell on it to keep its skeleton moving. It was a bad scene, but we broke the spell.
Meanwhile, the Butler bumbles over the overgrown kitchen and reaches a supply closet and gets a coil of electrical wire. Buckle ties it around both of their bodies. He is sure not to put it on a leash, because that’s disrespectful. Boris takes two questionable aubergines from the kitchen to share with his friends. Boris doesn’t eat and Yonne can melt anything organic with her acid, so they don’t really consider food poisoning. Only Pierre is at risk.
There’s not much else to see on the recreation level. The Fellowship takes the stairs down the dormitory level. The staircase continues down, but the doors to the third level are welded shut. Yonne can’t melt through the metal, but Boris’ pet slime is corrosive to metal, so Boris puts it to work to get through the weld.
Ol’ Jardiner: Ugh, that reminds me! I lost my knife again. I lost the other one.
Boris: Maybe we could find one in the upper levels. All kinds of people have knives.
Ol’ Jardiner goes up and returns with a cleaver from the kitchen. The wooden handle has grown little black leaves and twigs. He shows it to his friends and they all decide that it’s weird and bad. He puts it back.
The pet slime gets the doors open. The Fellowship enters the third level, the Engineering level. There are many machines that might react to Boris’ dark magic.
Pierre: Let me take the lead. I don’t want you turning things on my accident.
Pierre Look Closely: 10+ ask 3 questions
- Tell me about the power source? How could it hurt or help me?
- There’s no artifact that creates power. The object they saw spitting flames at the bottom of the shaft is a complicated valve to control and dispense power from a reservoir of magic that already exists deep underground.
- What will happen if I remove the power source from the facility?
- Removing the valve would create an explosion of magical energy!
- What is hidden or out of place?
- Some of the machines have started to turn into plants and animals. Being this close to the nature magic doesn’t just power them. It transforms them.
- Ol’ Jardiner looks through the observation window. It’s two thicknesses of tough plastic with a metal mesh between. Asana has reached the bottom level. Her goal is to take the powerful artifact.
Pierre sends a thought bubble.
Pierre: Asana! Do not touch that thing!
Asana startles and looks around. She sees Pierre and says something, but Pierre can’t hear through the glass.
Pierre: You will explode! And possibly be turned into a tree.
Pierre:I don’t know if she believes me, guys. We might have to do something.
GM note: The timing of the Flame Chimney is now important because someone is near the Flame Chimney, but I completely forgot to track it.
When Boris moves toward the observation window, his dark magic activates a Security Bot! It rolls on treads but has arms and a head. Branches and leaves grow out of the head like hair. One arm is wooden, but has animal claws at the end.
- Security Bot: These machines guard their post for as long as they need to. You need identification to get past them.
- Identify Yourself: The Security Bot can detect anyone who gets within the area they are trying to protect. If you do not have proper identification, they will call for reinforcements, then try to catch you.
- Ejection Protocol: The Security Bot doesn’t care where you are or what you do, so long as it isn’t in their security zone. Anyone they can catch is quickly and forcefully thrown out of their zone.
Boris: Do you have my papers, my friend?
Butler: Have you forgotten your identification, sir? Tell me your room number and I will seach immediately.
Boris fortune roll to remember room numbers: 4-5 partial success. He thinks the numbers were in the 200s
Boris: I am so sorry. It seems I have left them in my apartment. Do you mind if I run to room 242 with my butler while you wait here?
Security Bot: That is acceptable.
It demands identification from Yonne and Pierre.
Boris: Their papers are with me. We’re a family.
Pierre: Yeah, I’ll go too.
Boris, Pierre, and the Robot Butler go back upstairs. Yonne stays behind to see if the Security Bot shuts down when Boris leaves. The proximity to the magical energy source allows the Security Bot to stay active when Boris leaves.
Security Bot: If you do not have papers, you must leave this area. Return to your apartment on the second floor.
Yonne: Who put you in charge of this?
Security Bot: Security Chief Ludwig.
Yonne: You should talk to him. He gave me special ability to be down here without paper. You can bring me to him if you want.
Yonne Talk Sense (+Grace, trick) 7-9 owe a favor
GM note: I can’t think of a favor the Security Bot would want, so I reserve the right to add a complication later
The Security Bot escorts Yonne to the Security Office on the same level. There’s no one there.
Security Bot: Irregular. This is dereliction of duty. Perhaps they are in these back rooms?
The Security Bot and Yonne look around.
Yonne Look Closely 7-9 ask 3 questions, find 1 answer the hard way
- Is anything hidden or out of place? Especially a hidden way to deactivate robots?
- There’s a table in the back which is oddly empty. Most tables have stuff on them. There’s a padlock on the near edge of the table and hinges on the far side. This table flips open to reveal a control panel with screen and gauges on the inside of the lid.
- Tell me about the largest machine nearby. how could it hurt me or help me?
- The large machine is kept in the back of the security office for when things do bad. It’s a Killbot, partially transformed by long exposure to magic.
- Transformed Wolfhound Killbot: It’s built like a wolfhound, long-limbed, but very narrow. It is surprisingly fast and can move through surprisingly cluttered areas. It’s mostly a quadraped with double shoulders. One set of shoulders lead down to the front legs. Another set just above them lead to arms tipped with knives. It’s a counter-espionage asset that works in a lab full of valuable and fragile things, so nothing as imprecise as a projectile weapon is allowed. The head has partially turned into a predator’s skull with cameras sticking out and antennas instead of ears.
- Exterminate: Killbots are Melee, Ranged, and Piercing. If they are trying to kill you specifically, you need to pay a price whenever you go near a Killbot.
- Tell me about the Security Bot. What is it doing? What will it do next?
- The rooms in the back are holding cells. It’s trying to trick Yonne into steppping into one.
Yonne’s fluid body is very hard to contain, so she steps into the cell, confident she can flow out through whatever doors or bars the Security Bot will deploy. The Secruity Bot pulls a lever to seal the cell. It’s a forcefield, not bars! Activating the forcefield draws a lot of power, including the power from the Security Bot. It collapses. The power overflows from the forcefield and turns on the Killbot! Yonne’s not in immediate danger because she’s behind a forcefield and the Killbot hasn’t been given a target yet. It’s just pacing. Asana seems like exactly the sort of person the lab would use a Killbot against.
On the second level, the Robot Butler takes Boris to Room 242 and opens the door, since Boris “forgot his keys”. Inside is kind of a mess. Drawers were pulled out of the desser and set on the floor. The wooden furniture is warped, but this long-abandoned room was protected from most external stimuli.
Fortune roll to find keys: 3 no key
Pierre: Boris, how long do we keep this up? I don’t think it will work.
Boris: I could just blast it with fire.
Pierre: But it’s helping us search!
Boris: No the Security Bot.
Pierre:That thing makes me uncomfortable. I’m fine with that.
Robot Butler: Did you know that fire is the second leading cause of death in industrial accidents?
Pierre and Boris go back to the third level. Yonne and the Security Bot are not at the doorway. Boris wants Pierre to walk ahead, so Boris activates as few things as possible. Pierre uses his breathing exercises to stay calm.
Pierre Serentiy: walk without intending harm, and nothing will harm you
The Security Office is the only room with any activity. Pierre sees Yonne behind a forcefield, the Security Bot collapsed, and a creepy centaur-dog pacing around.
Yonne: Hi, I made a mistake. That thing’s dangerous.
Trusting Serenity, Pierre walks past the Killbot, sees the Security Bot’s wooden hand on a lever, and pulls the lever. His deduction was correct. The lever controls the forcefield. Yonne is worried that Asana might run afoul of the Killbot, so the Fellowship closes the door behind them as they leave the Security Office.
Boris: Could I have overloaded the security system?
Yonne: Would you not just make everything turn on? I feel like when you touch things, everything turns on.
Boris: Maybe if I touch it for long enough, it’s too much power.
An alarm rings. The Fellowship hears two thumps from behind the door of the Security Office, then knives cut the door apart and the Killbot runs out, right past the Fellowship.
Boris: We could probably save her.
Boris runs after the Killbot, hoping it will lead him to the inner chamber. That’s probably where Asana is now. The Killbot runs into a room and the door starts to close. Boris dashes through the door and up to the ceiling. The Killbot is sprayed by nozzles on either side of the room. It smells anti-septic. A bright flash momentarily heats the surface of the Killbot and Boris’ skin. The Killbot gets into an elevator and goes down to the forth floor. Boris follows on top of the elevator car.
Down on the fourth level, everything is becoming organic. A chair’s legs have grown roots. A leather chair now has fur. Asana is in the final airlock protecting the power source. The lock on the near door has been ripped off, and a chair prevents the door from closing. Asana crouches by the inner door, working on her tools. She doesn’t notice the Killbot or Boris approaching. The Killbot plays a pre-recorded message as it runs at her.
Killbot: You are tampering with critical infrastructure and are a threat to VolWolkenStadt society!
Boris: Stop doing that!
Boris blasts the Killbot’s hind legs with flame.
Boris Keep Them Busy 7-9 gain their attention and ire
The Killbot turns toward Boris and repeats its prerecorded phrase. Asana does not want to be in a dead-end with the Killbot. She runs out of the airlock and climbs the wall, banging with her fists as she goes. She finds a removable panel, rips it off, and squeezes inside.
The Killbot attacks Boris, but its claws don’t pierce his armor. Boris no-sells the hit.
If they are trying to kill you specifically, you need to pay a price whenever you go near a Killbot.
Boris pays 1 use of Armor
Boris hesitates because he doesn’t want to kill such a unique lifeform. He grabs the Killbot and pours as much dark magic into it as he can.
Boris Finish Them (+Blood, kill) 10+ Killbot TAKEN OUT
The overload of energy destroys the Killbot. Asana peeks her head out of the ceiling.
Asana: You saved me! Together we can get the artifact and get out of here.
Boris: If we take the artifact the entire place will explode and we’ll both die. Or turn into a tree and then die.
Asana isn’t sure if she believes him. She retreats back into the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Yonne and Pierre followed Boris at normal speed. They put on hazmat suits (conveniently stores just outside the decontamination chamber), went through the process, and took the evelator down. Now they catch up to Boris.
Pierre: This thing’s alive too. I hope the inside hasn’t turned into a stomach yet. Doesn’t look like anyone’s getting killed here, so I’m going back upstairs to get out of this thing.
Yonne: What happened to the thing?
Boris: I was trying to save her, and it was trying to kill her, and I just wanted to stop it, but I blew it up and she was very ungrateful and now I feel bad for blowing it up because it was alive, kinda, and she is mean. She was not very thankful for the assistance of murder that I just did.
Pierre: Maybe we could give her a different artifact that she would like more than this artifact of seemingly unlimited power.
Boris:I could give her this robot.
Boris looks back and the Robot Butler is not with him. The power cable around his waist snapped when he took off running after the Killbot.
Pierre: Are we still going to control this thing and turn it into a portal? I don’t want to send the people of the Forgotten Lands into the realm of this flesh-eating furniture.
Boris: This is a natural source. It’s something that can be tapped. We need another way of tapping it. Something that doesn’t turn them into chairs.
Pierre: Something that doesn’t explode every few minutes. If we do turn this into a portal, and we don’t have half-tree Killbots trying to kill anyone who comes through, there’s still the giant Worm. And I wasn’t even thinking about the Komodo Dragons.
Boris: That is just the nature of the place. That is what the world is like here.
Yonne: “Hey guys, we figured out how to go back to where you were from before that kind of fell apart but the thing is, there’s a giant worm and also there’s these big lizards that try to eat you when you get to the top and also it sets on fire every few seconds.
Pierre: If we do turn it into a portal, what stops things from going into the Forgotten Lands Are we just allowing monsters to invade?
Boris: How many things come into this chamber with it exploding every eight seconds? It’s its own safety mechanism. This is for the eggheads in the Forgotten Lands to figure out. We’re just making a portal like we promised.
Yonne: Did we promise that?
Pierre: I hate to bring this up when we are literally one door away from our goal, but I was distracted until now.
Boris: Is there a way to bottle or hold some of the fuel that is being tapped? Can I go in there and take some fuel that is causing the fire?
To collect the magical energy, the Fellowship must overcome several challenges:
- Deactivate security, so the killbots don’t attack them
- Boris must go into the chamber and fill magnetic bottles with the magical energy. He’s immune to fire, but the bottles are fragile.
- Create a portal from here to the Forgotten Lands
Complicating factors:
- What else will the magical energy bring to life?
- Where do they put the portal?
- Asana is somewhere, still seeking a treasure.
- Will the people of the Forgotten Lands be able to re-open the portal from their side?
Yonne leads Pierre back to the Security Office. They go up the elevator to the decontamination chamber and take off their hazmat suits. Pierre’s suit starts walking after him. He hustles out and closes the door of the decontamination chamber, trapping the suit inside.
Yonne: I kinda like it. Can I keep the one I’m in?
- Techorganic hazmat suit: The body of the suit is still heavy-duty plastic with fasteners to get in and out, but the appendages have become organic and covered with human-like flesh. The heavy manipulators on the arms look like chicken claws, but too big to be chicken claws. Two smaller arms resemble tentacles with human skin. The helmet and shoulders are furry. The flashlight on the helmet is now and eye that still emits light. The suit can see, but Yonne can’t see through it’s eye.
- Definitely Creepy
in the Security Office, Pierre opens the trick table to reveal the control station. He tries to identify and de-activate dangerous parts of the system, which is hard because he doesn’t read the language.
Pierre Technical Plan 7-9 It’s more complicated. Pay a Price to make it work. Spend Doodle’s Illusion
Doodle imitates circuitry in the control station and hangs itself on the wall like a poster for Pierre to refer to. Pierre studies the lay-out, makes notes on Doodle, and presses some buttons on the control station.
Pierre: I think that worked!
A panel in the wall slides open, revealing a hidden room full of Killbots, which lie down and go to sleep.
Down on the fourth floor, Boris gets the go-ahead to take magnetic bottles into the chamber and tap some magical energy.
Boris Overcome 10+
It’s a combination of tapping oil and tapping sap from a tree. He follows the lines of the magic with his magic. It’s vibes-based. Boris pulls the magic across his body, from one hand to the other, to bring it to the magnetic bottle. Pierre sends a thought bubble from the observation deck.
Pierre: Very impressive. Can we get two more?
Boris Overcome 10+
Shortly after Boris finishes filling the second bottle, the Flame Chimney erupts! Boris is immune to heat and fire, and fortunately he just took the fragile magnetic bottle out of the room, so it’s also fine. He goes back with a third bottle.
Boris Overcome 7-9 pay a price. Damage Courage.
Boris brings the three magnet bottles to the third level with Yonne and Pierre. Pierre’s excited to examine them, but wants Boris to hold them. Next the Fellowship must build a portal to return to the Forgotten Lands. The transmission towers for this facility were never built, but the parts were stored here. The metal frames have turned into tree branches.
Pierre: Do we want to build it here on the Engineering level?
Boris: I think the Personnel Level would be better. In case any of the bots get power somehow, I don’t want them to be accosted.
Yonne: If we build it in the Residental Level, then, they can have a residence here.
The Fellowship hauls the tower/branch/dish parts to the second level. Boris arranges the large pieces and Pierre makes fine adjustments.
Pierre: This looks like an arch between two trees that might take me somewhere else in a magical forest.
Pierre magical ritual takes several minutes and there’s a catch: the portal connects to an arch between trees in the Unicorn Forest.
The portal opens and the Fellowship walks through. They realize they are in the Unicorns’ sacred forest without the Unicorns’ permission and quickly back up through the portal again.
Boris: I will wait inside the portal so as not to cause any issues until we get permission, since I was put in chains when I first came to the Forgotten Lands.
Pierre and Yonne go up Dominique’s staircase to the surface and bring the lost Unicorn down to the portal. They go through, the Unicorn vouches for the Fellowship, and they are quickly escorted from Unicorn territory. On the way, Pierre tries to explain the portal, and the benefits of visiting VolWolkenStadt
Pierre: I’m pretty sure Unicorns understand Common, right? I think this one is ignoring me.
When the Fellowship leaves the Unicorn Forest, they consider the adventure that just ended.
Pierre: Did we succeed? I’m vague on what our goals were. We thought, “We should connect these two places because?” Something good will happen. I think.
Boris: Yes and no. We didn’t really clear it with the people that we were doing it for. Our plan was a little nebulous. We will find out if it was something that they wanted when we present it to them. You have two bottles of pure magic if they don’t want it. Don’t let that other wizard find out about it.
Pierre: Funny story. Let me eat my other snack while I tell this story to flex on that guy. We went to this frozen wasteland and there was a secret base that had a machine shop. I made this little articulated body and put a snowman body around it, and that was a body for Trajan. I totally got him!
A thought bubble flies in to Pierre
Trajan: Did they teach you about the water cycle in your fancy Academy?
END-OF-SESSION MOVE
- Did we thoroughly explore a new location?
- YES, the Flame Chimney
- Did anyone find what they were seeking?
- NO. We weren’t sure what we were seeking? It depends on the reaction of the Forgotten Lands, so not yet.
- Did we learn something new about the world and its people?
- YES The existence of magic veins that can be tapped and turn objects into fleshy monsters.
2 boons
- heal
- boon