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Checking for link rot

My collection of photo galleries from events I like has been growing for years, with close to 10,000 links. But the Internet is ever-changing, and some of those links from years ago may no longer be valid. I’ve designed a system to check for this “link rot” and save users of this collection from the frustrating of clicking dead links.

Goals

  • Test each link weekly
    • not working one week, maybe it’s a hiccup. Probation
    • not working for two weeks. It’s dead. Hide it.
  • Don’t spam image hosts with unnecessary requests
  • Minimize the amount of manual work I have to do

Implementation

The gallery aggregator is written in PHP, with a MySQL database. I plan to run an automated job each day that will check everything in the DB over the course of each week. So each day, I check every seventh gallery, and move the offset based on the day of the week.

I added two columns to the DB.

  • last checked: timestamp of the last time I tried to access this URL
  • last accessed: timestamp of the last time this URL returned HTTP 200 OK

I skip any gallery with a “last checked” value within the past day. Then I try to fopen() each gallery. I don’t need to download these webpages (which contain many large images) I just want to know if they exist. If the URL returns HTTP 200 OK, I add that gallery ID to a list of “fresh” galleries.  When I’ve tried to visit all the URLs, I go through the list of “fresh” galleries and set their “last accessed” time to now.  The “last accessed” time for URLs that return errors will stay the same, and time will march away from it. The ‘last checked’ time is always updated to now regardless of the HTTP response code.

Even dividing the task up across the week leaves more than 1000 URLs to check per day. I don’t want my PHP job to time out, and I don’t want to trigger DOS protections on the image hosts I’m pinging. So I paginate the job with MySQL’s LIMIT keyword. Each time I process a batch of URLs, I update the “last checked” field, which means those URLs won’t be selected in the next batch. Eventually there won’t be any URLs left to check, so running the script too many times does nothing instead of performing unnecessary DB updates or HTTP requests. I know to stop when I don’t have any more input to process.

The webpage that displays galleries to the public now takes the “last accessed” time into account. If that time is more than 2 weeks in the past, the gallery is hidden. If “last accessed” is between 1 and 2 weeks in the past, an icon and tooltip appears next to the link to that gallery:

  • 🚧 This gallery might be offline.

Galleries that are “fresher” than 1 week are displayed normally.

Results

Since I give each gallery a few chances, this first week of automatic testing won’t remove any galleries from the list.  You may see some 🚧 icons appear over the next week, and in the new year, dead links will start to disappear. It’s a long-term project, but I intend to maintain this list for years, so I don’t mind waiting.

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Chasing The Sunset & depression

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

Party: Fafnir the Dragon, Stella the Halfling, Agnes the Harbinger, Buckle the Platyperson, and Rook the Remnant.

Fafnir spent the night sleeping under a porch after chasing a lanky black cat. The next morning, she happens upon the rest of the party as they are walking through the streets.  “Good to see you, Dad,” she says to Buckle.  She doesn’t know anything about the trouble last night, and just wants breakfast.  The black cat is walking along with them and Agnes has a vision that this cat will save the world. A magenta Pomeranian appears and chases the black cat.  As the party chases the two animals, a mobster named Billy appears to grab the Pomeranian.  That’s not OK! These are our pets now! Agnes tries to wrest the dog away from Billy and he tosses her aside.  Fafnir flies past at high speed and grabs the dog, but Billy punches her as she passes.  Billy sees that it’s five against one and flees.  Rook floats silently after him, hoping that he’ll go somewhere dark. If he does, Rook will make sure he never emerges.  Since it’s morning, even the narrow alleys aren’t dark. Billy returns to the aquarium and goes inside. It’s dark in there, but Rook can’t enter without an invitation, so they returns to the rest of the party.

The magenta Pomeranian that the mobster was after is named Wallace.  Agnes wants to know who owns this brightly colored pooch, so she holds its collar aloft.  She sees through the eyes of the owner, swimming over kelp fields towards and underwater city, holding a large bag.

GM note: We had a lengthy discussion about the definition of ownership. Is Wallace a possession of its owner? What happens if Agnes holds a mobster aloft? Do pets own their toys and collars? We decided that living creatures are not possessions, but objects given to pets belong to their owners.

Agnes holds Wallace up to Buckle, who can speak to any beast and asks questions through her interpreter.  Wallace lives in a house with other animals. He can’t read and is colorblind, so he can’t give an address or describe the place satisfactorily. Agnes asks if she is his favorite, and Wallace heartily agrees, licking her hands for emphasis.  Agnes tries to overcome her grim demeanor and smile, but it’s hard. Wallace does remember the way home, so he leads the group there: an aquarium

Agnes uses sight beyond sight to look through the wall of the building and sees two figures: a human and a Platyperson. The team prepares to breach the building. Fafnir and Stella are on the roof, reaching it through flight and wall-crawling spider mount, respectively.  Agnes, Buckle, and Wallace the magenta Pomeranian form up at the back door.  Stella’s companions, Gus and Rose, cover the front door. Rook is ready to float to whichever area needs help.

Paulie, the Platyperson, bursts out of the back door.  Fafnir leaps from the roof, grabs Paulie’s head on the way down, and smashes it into the boardwalk with all her weight behind it. Paulie’s still conscious. She gathers herself and lifts her head despite Fafnir’s efforts to keep her down. Paulie draws a nasty weapon, the limb bone of some large creature, with one end snapped off into splinters. She flails about, endangering everyone nearby. Rook approaches and uses his hypnotic voice to calm her so Buckle and Fafnir can get clear. Stella puts a pit trap in the boardwalk between Paulie and her friends.

Billy, the human mobster that fought the crew earlier today, makes a break for the front door. Gus and Rose try to hold him back. Gus is a cook, and forcibly Cinnamon Challenges Billy. While Billy is busy sputtering and coughing, Stella runs over to talk him down. Billy went after Wallace so aggressively because his whole life had been disrupted when the mob was betrayed by one of their own, their leader exiled, and their prized animals scattered. Billy was trying to reclaim the animals (like Wallace) to reclaim a semblance of the order his life used to have. Stella is sympathetic, but says that holding onto the past doesn’t work, and that Billy needs to act on what’s happening now, not what he wishes was still happening. Billy is really encouraged by these wise words.

Paulie is still mad and goes after Buckle, but falls into the pit trap, which drops her into the river. This just lets her escape, since Platypeople are excellent swimmers. Buckle dives in to pursue her, and has a heart to heart talk with her.  She and Billy were trying to hold on to the mobster way of life after their headquarters was smashed up and their people scattered. Paulie (mechanically a “Beast Loner”) realizes that she doesn’t need to cling to this structure that doesn’t even exist anymore. She’s capable on her own. She swims off to make her own way in the world.

Things seem handled here in Port Fennrick, so the crew decides to head up the Mighty River. As they walk upriver, they meet a boat coming down river. It was attacked and is on river. Buckle uses Tail Slap to splash water over the burning boat and put it out.  They ask how the boat caught fire, and the captain says that it certainly wasn’t a fire-breathing lizard. Those have been extinct for a hundred years!  Fafnir fumes, literally.  Agnes tells her to behave, or she’ll withhold Fafnir’s snacks. Fafnir’s Kobold companion Coco will feed Fafnir, so Agnes’ threat is blunted.

Further upriver, Stella’s riding spider (named Silk) bolts off the path after a bird. It’s the chrome songbird that Ori and Melvin released a while back. The chrome bird, (a Crow-m, perhaps?) sings a piercing note that resonates at the frequency of reality itself, and manifests a coiled spring underneath Silk, sending Silk flying into the air. Silk and Stella decide not to mess with this bird and return to the path. Rook is happy, because Songbirds were considered extinct. Nice to know a few are still around.

Further upriver, mysterious music floats through the air. “Do you hear that?” Agnes retorts, “I’m blind, not deaf!”  Fafnir flies ahead to investigate and finds Slick (ex-pirate) playing a harmonica next to a campfire, with a traveller’s bindle nearby.  This is what people do when they are sad and they have nowhere to go, right?  Fafnir likes his music and asks to hear more. Slick is pleased and plays very fast.  Fafnir is impressed. People would like to hear this music. You could be in show business.  Slick is encouraged to hear this. He’s got a goal to aim for now.  He thanks Fafnir and runs towards Port Fennrick at incredible speed to start a new life as an entertainer!

Further upriver, Agnes notices something sparkling on the riverbed. Fafnir hates water and won’t investigate. Agnes sends Wallace, but Wallace is unable to dislodge it from the riverbed. Agnes cuddles him and tells him he’s a good boy and tried his best.  Agnes sends Snek down to investigate and discovers that it’s a hatch, mostly buried under mud. Snek has no hands and can’t open it.  Agnes tells Buckle to go open it, but he puts his foot down and demands that he use his proper name. In the last day she’s called him “Beagle”, “Bickley”, and “Buckley”. His name is Buckle!  With that settled, Buckle swims down to grab the valve. With remote assistance from Agnes, he pulls the valve open, revealing a tunnel beneath the river! Rook floats down into it and finds a hidden tunnel network. There’s a station nearby with a stairway concealed by a false rock. Fafnir pushes the rock aside from the top, and the crew heads down into the mysterious depths.

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Chasing The Sunset & aquarium

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

Party: Orichalcum the Construct, Melvin the Rain

Looking west at Port Fennrick on the delta of the Mighty River.

Melvin just arrived in Port Fennrick on de Rolo’s one-of-a-kind racing yacht. de Rolo rescued him and his crew when they were shipwrecked. They jettisoned some cargo that their captain, Jensen, agreed to deliver to some shady people here in Port Fennrick, and promised to keep her safe from their retaliation.  They pull up to the dock where Jensen agreed to deliver the cargo, but no one is there to meet them.  Sebastina, the navigator who did not know about Jensen’s illicit cargo, is very unhappy.  She says, “Jensen, you paid me half upfront, and you usually pay me the rest of my fee after you get paid for delivering your cargo. That’s not going to happen, so how about you give me all the cash you have on you, and I never see you again?” Jensen has to agree, since she dragged Sebastina through a shipwreck and got her in trouble with the mob. After receiving the cash, Sebastina (a mermaid) makes a rude gesture, falls backwards off the yacht, and swims away.

Melvin inspects the dock where Jensen was supposed to deliver her contraband to her underworld contacts.  Strange that there’s no one here.  He digs through some crates and finds disguise kits, and a ring that indicates membership in the mafia.

Orichalcum (Ori for short) appears! Ori is an artificial life form made of aether and energy. Most of his vaguely humanoid form is a shifting purple energy. His hands, shoulder pauldrons, and faceplate are made of golden metal.

He approaches Melvin a bit sheepishly, because he has an odd request.  He wants Melvin to be his master.  Melvin is dedicated to the freedom of all things, so he hates that idea.  “You should be your own master!” he says. Ori explains that he’s been sent out into the world by his creators to find someone.  His creators weren’t exactly clear on who he was supposed to find, but based on how they made him, he thinks that he’s supposed to find a great leader, and he can do that by following various leaders so he knows what good leadership is. Melvin still thinks that’s weird and dumb.

Ori and Melvin have been hanging about on an empty dock for a long time now, long enough to draw the attention of Bork, the Ogre who keeps order on the busy docks. She approaches and demands to know what they are doing.  She’s dressed like a bouncer, but is clearly uncomfortable in the role. She says that if he’s going to be on the docks, he should board a boat, because that’s what people do on docks.  She picks Melvin up and takes him to the nearest ship and deposits him on board. The ship’s first mate is very confused by this, but he doesn’t want to cross Bork, so he thanks her for her good work.  Bork is very pleased and leaves convinced that she’s made the world a better place.  Melvin & Ori apologize to the boat’s crew and quickly leave the docks.

Melvin wants to see the river, so Ori demonstrates his usefulness by taking him there. Ori’s shoulder pauldrons move in to grab Melvin’s shoulders and pick him up, and Ori flies to the checkpoint at the back of the town. There’s a line of complaining boats and carts being inspected before they are allowed to enter or leave the city.  They notice Johnny, a mafia member who had a very bad night last night, in line to leave the city. Ori chats him up.  Johnny says that he used to work for Louie. He checks the time and adds that Louie is sleeping with the fishes now.  Johnny’s responsibilities used to include smuggling things and snatching people, but that’s all over and he’s leaving now.  Ori is still curious, but Johnny wants a favor for more information.  Ori flies Johnny past the checkpoint, so the officials don’t ask him any inconvenient questions. Ori asks who killed Louie, and Johnny is confused. Louie is a merman . He’s sleeping with the fishes in the fancy aquarium back at base. He always takes a nap at this time. Ori is flabbergasted by his misunderstanding.  Melvin sinks into the river delta in town and emerges on the riverbank next to Johnny and Ori. He urges Johnny to make good choices and not to enslave creatures anymore.  Johnny has heard several encouraging yet threatening speeches recently. He hastily agrees and rushes off, heading upriver towards a new life.

Ori flies Melvin back into Port Fennrick. What should they do now? Melvin wonders how to get an audience with the Baron, head of the legitimate government of Port Fennrick. Ori doesn’t think that established leaders are fruitful inquiry for his quest. Ori asks Melvin about his dedication to freedom for all living things.  Melvin wants to free the creatures and people held by the mafia.  Ori wil help, if Melvin will be Ori’s master.  Since it’s not permanent, and it would be nice to have some help, Melvin agrees to be Ori’s master, just for now.  Ori hands over a repair kit and a talisman of calling, which can instantly teleport Ori to Melvin’s side. Melvin absorbs them into his body, like the collection of knives he already has inside.

They go to the location Johnny told them about. It appears to be an aquarium, but there are secret back rooms inaccessible to the public where shady deals go down, and prize animals are kept.  They do the ol’ Chewbacca routine. Melvin shapeshifts into Johnny and says that he’s captured Ori, who is a rare and valuable lifeform. Joey, the mobster on duty, leads them to a secret hall with cells along one side. The cells contain a variety of creatures: a chrome songbird, a little light like the Lanterns have, two animated skeletons, exotic pets including a magenta Pomeranian, and a Halfling. Joey goes back to his post and Ori and Melvin wonder how to unlock all the cells. Melvin can ooze between the door and the frame, and Ori can teleport in, but how can they get everyone out?

GM note: We decided that spending a Rain point was a sufficient expense for the effect of unlocking a door, although that’s not on the list of things that Rain points can be spent for.

Melvin blast the Halfling’s cell open with a burst of water.  The Halfling starts opening the other cells.  When the chrome songbird is released, it uses Power Word Spring to create a large metal spring that knocks the door to the hallway open.  The loud noise attracts attention.  A few more cell doors are opened before two mobsters arrive and block the hall. Our party will have to fight their way out of this.  Ori asks if lethal force is authorized. Melvin says no, and Ori’s eyes switch to glowing blue.  The two mobsters are keeping the animals from getting down the hall. The skeletal boar charges, pushing the mobsters back.  The Halfling herds the animals further down the hall, running over Melvin. His amorphous fluid body is not damaged by being trampled.  Louie, the boss, arrives to help his underlings hold the line right where the secret hall opens to the room with his apartment-sized fishtank.  Louie’s a merman, so to move on land he straps his tail into something that looks like a mechanical Segway.  Melvin blasts the assistive device out from under Louie with a jet of water, sending Louie flopping to the ground. Ori rushes forward, grabs Louie by the shoulders, slams him into the wall of the fishtank and slides him up, until Louie’s tail is entirely off the ground.  Terrified by this show of power, Louie grabs the top edge of the fishtank and scrambles out of Ori’s grip, flipping over into the relative safety of the fishtank.

The two remaining mobsters can’t hold back the animals alone. As the animals rush out of the aquarium, Melvin, who still looks like their co-worker Johnny, tries to rally the mobsters under his leadership. They are frightened by Johnny’s sudden change in personality and his violent take-over, so they flee.

Ori and Melvin are mostly alone in the building now, and eye all the fancy fish in the giant fishtank with Louie.  Ori wonders if they should free the fish as well by smashing the bottom and letting them swim into the river delta.  Melvin isn’t sure if they would survive outside. Do they need salt water or fresh? Freedom isn’t more important than life, so Melvin leaves the fish where they are safe.

The mafia is in shambles, and Ori and Melvin leave the aquarium. Ori asks why Melvin seeks freedom so strongly. Melvin says that the Rain were contained in the past and they hated it. He doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else.  Ori asks if Melvin thinks he is a fool for seeking a master. Melvin says, “If that’s your way, that’s what you have to do.”

GM note: There’s a great line in my notes, but I can’t remember the context, so here it is without context: “Sometimes it is necessary to be someone else in order to learn who you are.”

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PROCJAM 2019, Day 1

Background

PROCJAM is a fun, relaxed game jam with the goal to “make something that makes something.” It doesn’t even have to be a game.  (itch.io jam page) (twitter hashtag)  This will be my third year participating.

Goal

This year, I’m making a tool to assist Chasing The Sunset, a sprawling, persistent exploration-based TTRPG based on West Marches and Fellowship. Explorers need locations to explore, and Fellowship has lists and instructions for creating new locations with pencil and paper. My goals for the online, procgen implementation of this tool are:

  • Automatically generate legal, well-formed locations
  • Teach the generator that some combinations make more sense than others.
  • Allow the user to adjust any choice the generator makes
  • Compress the output into a “random seed” that can be plugged back into the generator to reliably create the same output.
  • be slick, non-hacky, and user-friendly. (I want to take a level in Artificer)

Progress

I’ve been fiddling with project setup and workflow for a few days. I’m using react.js and it requires a different mindset than jQuery, or component-based systems I might use in a game engine. I think I have the hang of sending data down the heirarchy through properties & automatic render() updates, and sending data back up through callback functions.

Here’s a screenshot of the current state of the project.

  • Multiple lists that have the same code, but different data sources.
  • Lists can toggled between read-only and editable modes.
  • It displays checkboxes if multiple options can be chosen, or radio buttons if only one option can be chosen.
  • List items have optional descriptions
  • “Affinities” are a first pass at creating cohesive locations. Asterisks on options indicate how much they match with what’s already selected.
  • The each list creates a number that uniquely represents its options, and the top-level generator concatenates them into a single seed, which is displayed a emoji because emoji are fun!

What’s next?

  • Lots of data entry. Lists and lists of creatures, terrain descriptions, location moves, and relationships.
    • Low priority because code may require changes in data format, and I want to minimize re-work.
  • Random seed needs more thought. There are plenty of edge cases where the current system fails.
  • Randomly select from a list, but with influence from other lists
  • Affinities need more work. Right now I only have positive affinity: like attracts like, not negative affinity, where opposites repel.
  • Export as text file.
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Chasing The Sunset & mobsters

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

The party: Buckle the Platyperson, Agnes Nutter the Harbinger, Stella the Halfling, Rook the Remnant.

Looking west at Port Fennrick on the delta of the Mighty River.

Buckle, Agnes, and Rook have just limped into Port Fennrick on a damaged fairy-ferry that was attacked by a Kraken.  Fafnir the Dragon was also onboard, but is nowhere to be found now.

GM Note: Fafnir’s player wasn’t here for this session. One of the concepts for West Marches is being able to mix and match characters into different groups, so I didn’t want to make a big deal of a character’s absence, but that’s what the players wanted to role-play, so we did it.

Rook is especially worried by Fafnir’s absence, since they was dedicated to caring for dragons in their former life.  Agnes magically senses that Fafnir is fine, and says not to worry.  Rook isn’t happy about this and drags their feet as they floats down the road after her. The party doesn’t know what’s going on in town and looks around for excitement. There’s a commotion at the back of town, where the Mighty River enters. They get closer and see a Giant yelling about pirates upriver.  As people listen to the Giant’s story, a damaged longboat arrives with its own story about a battle with pirates.  People waiting at the checkpoint to go upriver start complaining to the inspectors.  “You say these inspections and regulations are for our safety, but you can’t keep us safe from these pirates! Why are you even here? Get out of our way!” The party decides not to get involved.

It’s evening, so they go to a tavern for food and a room for the night.  Stella, the newest player character, has some space at her table in an otherwise crowded tavern and invites the party over.  Rook sort of floating through a chair, but can’t really sit in it.  Introductions all around. Stella is a halfling. She’s traveling with two friends and a giant riding spider which is out back in the stables.  At another table, Sebastina (navigator of an ill-fated charter boat) tells of her brush with the Kraken.  She never saw the beast, but our party knows exactly what she’s talking about, because they fought and killed it. Buckle interrupts to tell his story, but he’s not good at public speaking, and the crowd shouts him down.  He buys a round of milk, which also does not endear him to the hard-drinking crowd.  He does get a big reaction when he says he was traveling with a dragon, since dragons have been extinct for about 100 years.  The rest of the party decides that Buckle shouldn’t talk anymore and drags him away.  They pile into Stella’s crowded room upstairs for the night.

In the middle of the night, two figures slide open the window and creep into the room where everyone is sleeping. Rook isn’t sleeping, because Rook doesn’t sleep. They screams, waking everyone up.  Stella is near the window and grabs one of the figures clambering through. She pulls him into the room, but he rolls with the movement and throws her to the ground.  Agnes shoves the second figure out of the window. He stumbles off the roof of the porch and falls to the street below.  The one still in the room grabs Stella, but Buckle makes him drop her with a tail-swipe.  The invader turns his attention to Buckle and jams a canvas sack over his head.  The invader is human-sized, and Platypeople are only four feet tall, so the invader has a big weight advantage. As he struggles to fit Buckle completely in the bag, Rook floats through the window after the second figure. Rook is alone in the dark with an enemy, and, using their terrifying ghostly powers, silently rips the life out the would-be kidnapper. Back in the room, the kidnapper has Buckle in the bag and tries to toss the bag out the open window. Agnes steps in a blasts the kidnapper’s leg, wrenching it into a very unnatural position. Snek (Agnes’ pet flying snake) enlarges and coils around the disabled kidnapper, flicking its tongue in his ear.  The kidnapper is unmasked and must explain himself.  Outside, Rook casts Speak With Dead on the other kidnapper ot gather mostly the same information.

the kidnappers were sent to grab Buckle and bring him to the boss, because Buckle knew about a dragon, a rare and valuable prize. The boss is Louie, and he runs the underworld here in Fennrick. Anything that’s not above-board belongs to Louie. The live kidnapper that’s being constricted by Snek is Johnny. The other one that fell out fo the window is Jimmy. Agnes takes Johnny’s ring that marks him as a member of Louie’s gang.  She says that if Johnny crosses them again, she’ll find him, and she won’t be so kind.  She heals his leg. The ruined flesh grows back brand new, pale as a Seattlite, soft as a baby, and hairless.  Snek releases him and they send him out the window. Rook returns at the same time and passes through Johnny, an unpleasant cold sensation.  Johnny finds Jimmy’s dead body, and, keeping to secret gang traditions, disposes of the body. Only Johnny and Rook know that Rook killed Jimmy. No one else saw anything.  Stella’s friends keep watch for the rest of the night, but there are no further disturbances.

In the morning, Stella shares her Halfling food with her new friends. Buckle wants fresh game, so he swims under the city to catch some fish. Port Fennrick is built on a river delta, so most buildings are built on stilts over water.  As he pursues fish, he realizes he is being pursued by a Mermaid with a trident and net. A mermaid mermydon. A mermaidon! he outswims the Mermaid and reaches land, where the mermaid can’t follow. He rejoins the party without fish.  Agnes holds Johnny’s ring aloft to see through is eyes. He’s on a road, holding a bag. He looks over his shoulder, and Port Fennrick is receding in the distance. Johnny skipped town.  Agnes wants a possession from every party member so she can see through their eyes. Buckle doesn’t have many possessions. He won’t give up his hat, and doens’t like the idea of cutting off a lock of fur. He offers a treasure that he took from the Kraken, but Agnes just whips out her runeblade and takes a tuft of fur. Stella refuses to give her a possession.  (These new friends of hers are a lot!)  They linger and ponder their next step until the innkeeper knocks on the door. The inn is busy and need to either pay for another night or make way, because other people want the room.  They leave, and decide to track down the mob boss that keeps sending goon after them.

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Lasers & Feelings Hack for fantasy dungeon-crawling

Characters in Lasers & Feelings (a free, one-page RPG. It’s so good!) are defined by contrast & tension. It’s right there in the name: Lasers oppose Feelings. They pull characters apart instead of leading them to a single point.  It’s quite a paradigm shift for me, because I usually build characters around a central theme, with each detail re-enforcing the others.  Can I define the stock characters of fantasy dungeon-delving in terms of contrast?  Let’s try!

Rogue: cowardice & greed
Heists, reconnaissance, and assassinations are tense activities, so it’s easy to see how a Rogue is torn between making the score and avoiding a fair fight.

Wizard: knowledge & destruction
Wizards are nerds that love books, research, and high-quality paper. Wizards will also turn you into a newt, strike you with lightning, and drop you through a portal to Hell.

Bard: sex & puns
This is the cultural consensus on proper Bard activities, although not many systems provide official support for them.

Fighter: combat
The Fighter only has one stat, because Fighters are one-dimensional and boring. A fighter who tries to do something that doesn’t fall under “combat” fails without rolling.

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Chasing The Sunset & tunnels

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

We pick up immediately after the affair with the pirates, with Rod the Exile & Sapphira the Spider discovering an entrance to a mysterious underground facility.  Before they head down the spiral staircase into the ground, they notice a thin, white spire in the distance.  It’s a giant, magical taper candle, a signpost where travelers leave notes.

GM note: This is a diagetic way for players to share information about the area with other players. There’s one in every location.

They don’t have much to say to other travelers, so they head down into the darkness, lit by the shimmering of Sapphira’s electric field. At the bottom of the staircase, they find a tunnel running perpendicular to the river above. It’s about 4m across, and half full of water. There are posts in the middle of the tunnel at regular intervals along its length. there are signs that other structures used to be attached to these posts, but they’ve disappeared from decay and neglect.  A narrow pipe runs along the top of the tunnel, with periodic vents.

A cross-section of the underground tunnel.

Again, our heroes want to travel by water, but don’t have a boat. They return to the surface and find some logs and branches along the river bank. They carefully carry them down the spiral staircase and Sapphira lashes them into a raft. They have been traveling west, against the eastward current of the river.  This tunnel stretches north and south, with the water flowing south.  They decide to float with the current and head south.  After some time, a tunnel splits from their tunnel, heading west. They take the side tunnel and soon find metal spikes hammered into the stone and brick tunnel walls, like punji sticks keeping something from coming east towards the main tunnel.

The raft encounters punji sticks pointing the other way.

The raft can’t fit between the spikes, so Sapphira picks up Rod & Tobit and climbs over the spikes.  Just past the spikes are two alcoves set into the wall of the tunnel, right next to each other. Each alcove is the size of a modest room, about 3m on a side. They are set above the waterline of the tunnel and have dry floors.

Two alcoves, separated by a barrier.

As Sapphira approaches the first alcove, her electric shimmer reaches out and dances over a vertical plane across the tunnel. It’s an invisible magical barrier, blocking their path.  The water in the tunnel flows unimpeded. There are some weapons lying on the floor of the near alcove: 2 daggers and a flare gun (ranged, burning, 2 ammo).  It’s common knowledge that magical barriers have a power source, and a condition that allows or denies passage. Rod wonders if this is a Dwarven badge-reader.  He attempts to swim through the barrier, but is stopped harmlessly.

They enter the near alcove and claim the weapons. Rod takes the daggers and Sapphira takes the flare gun. There’s a door at the back of the alcove that leads up a spiral staircase to another concealed entrance.  They emerge on a hill. Below them, to the east, the mighty river crashes over impressive rapids. To the west, high white mountains rise like a wall. The river drops hundreds of feet in a powerful waterfall. If there is a pass through the mountains, it’s not obvious from this position. They check for a hidden entrance nearby that hopefully leads to the far alcove, but no luck.

They return to the tunnel and ponder the mystery of the magical barrier.  They talk to the barrier, but if there’s a verbal password, they don’t guess it.  Rod wonders if living material is blocked and tries to push a dagger through.  The dagger’s point touches the barrier and stops. The barrier flares with energy and Rod tries unsuccessfully to push the dagger through. Since aggression didn’t work, Rod tries relaxing and just floating through.  It works for the water, but not for him. He bumps into the barrier and stops.  Next, they throw rocks, which also bounce off the barrier. Throwing rocks all across the face of the barrier reveals that is has no gaps.  Frustrated, Rod charges up and blasts the barrier with electricity. The barrier flares brighter and brighter, matching Rod’s escalating power until the entire barrier is opaque. Rod can’t overpower it. Tobit barks, and the bark echoes down the tunnel, so air as well as water can pass through.

Rod is right up next to the barrier, so he has an angle to look into the far alcove, the one blocked by the barrier.  He sees some glowing equipment set into the back wall. This is probably the barrier’s power source.  Sapphira notices that the wall between the two alcoves is in disrepair and dispatches her spiderlings through the cracks with instructions to disable the equipment.  the spiderlings wriggle through, there’s some creaking and straining, then a crash.  The glow from the far alcove fades, and the barrier is gone.  Sapphira and Rod enter the far alcove and see that the Spiderlings dislodged some kind of power crystal, which fell to the floor and shattered. It’s no good now.  They rest and heal.  Rod scoots closer to Sapphira.

Rod: Have any feelings you want to talk about?

Saphhira: That’s the first time you’ve asked me that.

They continue down the tunnel. It’s better preserved than the exterior sections.  The central poles hold conveyor belts powered by paddlewheels that could carry things against the current. There are larger platforms on the sides of the tunnels that look like tram stations, but everything seems to be long-abandoned.  There are burned and melted trails across some of the platforms, probably caused by lava.

Elevated conveyor to travel against the current.

There’s a glow and a hiss ahead. As they approach, they see that the tunnel has been breached by a lava flow. The water is flowing into the lava and evaporating, causing the hissing sounds and a cloud of steam. Our party exits the tunnel at the last platform. The far wall of that platform is gone. There’s a big chamber carved out of the mountain, cutting right through the Dwarven ruins. Only the bottom is filled with lava.

GM note: One player wanted to discuss contingencies without me overhearing, because she knew that I could literally make her worst fears come true. I assured her that I had already decide what awaited them, and it turned out to be exactly what she feared.

Fearing an ambush by some sort of lava creature, Sapphira attempts to rig the platform with webs, but she’s interrupted as a lava monster does indeed emerge from the lake of lava in front of them! Rod fires his slingshot at the lava monster, attracting its ire. As it approaches, Sapphira interposes herself to keep Rod safe. Rod tries again to knock the creature unconscious with his sling bullets.  The creature takes a swing, splattering lava over Sapphira, who uses fast healing to soak the damage.  Sapphira deploys a pit trap right at her feet and the lava monster falls in right before it grabs her. The heat radiating from the lava monster’s body sears Sapphira’s armor.  While the lava monster tries to get out of the pit, Sapphira deploys webs around the platform, and Rod runs to get some water to pour on it.  As Rod returns to the pit, the lava monster climbs up and swats him away with a burning arm. Rod retreats towards the watery tunnel, pulling at Sapphira. She’s not quite ready to flee and uses her webs to fling loose rocks at the lava monster.  It pauses and flares with extra heat to melt the rocks embedded in its gooey body.

Rod and Sapphira retreat back into the tunnel, sure that the water will harm the lava monster if it pursues them.  Sapphira prepares more webs in the tunnel and Rod is ready with a bucket of water to throw at the creature.  They are right, the lava monster does hate water. It does not follow them into the tunnel, but moves back into the lava lake and stares down the broken end of the tunnel at them.  Rod pins it down with sling bullets, allowing Sapphira to slip back out onto the platform and fire acupuncture needles form her mouth The monster’s chakras are not in the expected locations, but she finds them and paralyzes the monster. It freezes in place and tips over, sinking partly into the lava lake.

Victorious, Sapphira leaves her mark at the end of the tunnel, then carries Rod over the roof of the chamber and to the exit.  The emerge on the other side of the mountain into an ancient forest, and that’s where the session ends.

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Chasing the Sunset & pirates

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

Rod the Exile

He’s a Halfling, but knows nothing of Halfling culture, because he was raised in an evil lab and experimented on. This lab, funded by a mysterious and nefarious organization, kidnaps children and brainwashes them to become spies.  Rod lost the use of his legs, but can harness the power of electricity, which he channels through the shock collar still locked around his neck.  He’s been out for about 1.5 years, dumpster-diving and stealing to survive. Tobit the dog is his faithful steed and closest friend.

Sapphira the Spider

She is almost humanoid. She walks upright on two legs ,but has many arms, web spinners, and can spit poisoned needles from her mouth.  Spiders live in fear of each other because they are power-hungry and often resort to cannibalism to consolidate power. Strange electrical current shimmers across their exoskeletons, like that glass sphere toy that sends harmless bolts of lightning to your fingers when you touch it. Spiders can sense each other and communicate via a special electrical frequency. Sapphira carries her babies along with her, which is unusual,since most Spider parents would eat them. She avoids killing if she can help it.

Let’s Begin

Looking west at Port Fennrick on the delta of the Mighty River.

Sapphira, Rod, and Tobit are in Port Fennrick, which is built on the delta of a mighty river. They plan to head up-river to and search for a legendary subterranean Dwarven highway that Rod is sure actually exists.  Sapphira uses her spider silk to make a harness that holds Rod more securely on Tobit’s back.  As they approach the back of town, where the river splits into a delta, they see a gate where all travelers are being stopped by officials.  traffic is backed up and people are grumbling.  Rod doesn’t want to deal with that at all! he hasn’t had good experiences with authority figures or law enforcement.  Our party slips down a sidestreet to hop a fence out of town. It’s trivial for Sapphira, since she was walk on walls, branches, and ceilings.  Tobit is not so agile, so she drops a silk line and pulls him and Rod over.

Outside of town is a jungle. Hunting birds circle overhead, looking through the canopy for weak and isolated prey to pick off. Staring into the dense foliage, Sapphira spots tripwires laid by giant spiders. Lowercase S. These are dumb beasts, used as mounts by smaller humanoids.  Disturbing these tripwires will alert spiders lying in hiding to rush out and attack.  Rod manuvers around the tripwires as best he can, but is forced to push through a sticker bush & takes damage.  Sapphira was made for this challenge. She can easily climb into the trees to avoid the tripwires. If no branches are available, she can use a line of her own silk. She also an expert on webs, so she knows where the tripwires are even before she sees them.  She leaves her mark for the other spiders to find, so they know who they were dealing with.

Our party emerges from the jungle next to the mighty river.  How will they travel upriver? For now, they walk.  After a while, they see a raft coming downriver.  It’s 40 feet on a side, but piloted by a single Giant using a tree trunk as a pole. The raft is damaged. If it carried cargo, there’s none onboard now, and the Giant looks scared and a bit hurt.  Our party hails him to ask what happened and ask for a ride, but he yells something about pirates and doesn’t slow down.  Our party decides to wait for the next upriver boat.

They wait a bit longer, and the next boat that appears looks like a Viking longboat, but without the shields along the side: long, narrow hull that rises at the prow and the stern, one mast, and one row of oars on each side.  Sapphira sneakily attaches two lines to the stern and she and Rod let the boat drag them along as if they were inner-tubing, just with no inner tubes.  The boat’s high stern blocks them from the view of the boat’s crew.  they overhear some chatter from onboard. the crew is worried about pirates. One man goes aloft to the crow’s nest to look about and spots the Rod & Sapphira tagging along.  The lookout calls out, but just then the boat hits something! Its forward progress is stopped immediately and the bow is pushed up out of the water!  The lookout falls from his perch to the deck. From their position behind the boat, our party can only see something large, armored, and spiky rising out of the water under the boat.

It’s a giant crocodile, covered in metal armor, with an armored platform built on its back. It pulls back from under the boat and faces it, nose to nose.  Nose to tail, this fearsome creature must be 40 feet long.  A small man emerges from the armored compartment and dashes in a loop around the boat, leaving a roostertail spray behind him as he runs across the surface of the river!  He definitely spots our party as he passes by.  He returns to stand on the crocodile’s snout and shout to the boat’s crew, demanding that they hand over their valuable cargo.

Rod and Sapphira don’t want any of this mess, so they disconnect their tow lines and discreetly start swimming to shore.  The small speedy man, who calls himself Slick, notices and zooms to cut them off before they reach the shore.  “Not so fast!” he says, “Stay fight there and I’ll get to you once I finish my business with the boat.” Poof, he’s back on the crocodile’s snout.

Sapphira and Rod consider their options.  Sapphira takes a bear trap from her gear and sets it in the water at their feet.  Rod calls out to Slick, saying he’s willing to surrender all the cash and jewels he’s carrying.  This is music to Slick’s ears, and he already has his hands in Rod’s pockets by the time the trap snaps shut on his legs.  Slick howls in pain and tries to flee, but the bear trap has his leg stuck.  The armored crocodile hears and responds to its master’s cry, charging straight for Rod, which means going under the boat! The hull groans and cracks, crew members are sent flying as the armored crocodile rushes forward in uncontrolled fury. Sapphira flees to shore, but Rod and Slick and the bear trap are all damaged by the attack.  With the trap broken, Slick flees as fast as his legs can carry him, which is incredibly fast. He’s out of sight in no time.

Rod ends up on top of the crocodile’s armored platform, and squares up to fight the rest of Slick’s crew, but the platform is empty. Slick was the only passenger.  Sapphira spits needles at the crocodile’s face and eyes to distract it from her vulnerable colleague.  Rod uses the opportunity to charge up and unleash a blast of electricity from his shock collar. Confused and hurt, the crocodile panics and starts swims away, upriver.  This presents a dilemma for Rod who is still aboard. He and Sapphira have been looking for a ride upriver all day, but the crocodile is a dangerous vessel, and Sapphira isn’t with him.  He bails out and stays with Sapphira and the damaged boat.

Calm settles over the scene as our party ponders their next steps and the crew of the damaged boat try to recover.  The captain intends to cancel the trip and return to Port Fennrick. Sapphira offers to protect the ship if it will bear her and Rod upriver. She hopes their swift defeat of the pirate crocodile will reassure the crew.  the captain refuses. The boat is too damaged to continue. Half of the oars snapped and many of the crew are injured.  The able-bodied will be bailing water the whole time that the current bears the boat back to Port Fennrick.  During this recovery period, Rod shares a meal with a sailor named Cooper and forges a bond with him.  Cooper says that if Rod ever needs anything, he’ll be in Port Fennrick, ready to help.

Eventually the boat departs and Rod and Sapphira once more start walking upriver.  Rod is looking for evidence of a secret underground transportation network that he heard was built by the Dwarves long ago.  After hiking upriver for miles, he spots something odd.  A rock on the riverbed shifts up for a moment and air bubbles out from beneath it.  Observing it for a while indicates that the rock conceals a valve that is regulating the air in something hidden below.  Rod looks around and finds a large rock on the riverbank that conceals a spiral staircase leading down into darkness!

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Chasing The Sunset & party prep

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

Rod the Exile, riding Tobit the dog, is walking around Port Fennrick with Pikano, who appears to be a human child. The sidewalks in Port Fennrick are boardwalks around buildings up on stilts over the river. They look over the edge of the boardwalk and see mermaids swimming around.

Pikano is a good swimmer, so she jumps in and talks to a mermaid. This mermaid just spent weeks swimming up the river and back down, collecting local delicacies. She offers a blue flower with thick, salty petals. Pikano eats a petal and doesn’t like it. The mermaid has a treat for Tobit: fish that only live in a frigid mountain lake far above. They are two inches long and bright red. The mermaid needs to go. She has been away from her family for a long time and wants to get back. Pikano asks about the mermaid. The mermaid says to head to Finsea: follow the river out to the sea, past the seaweed farms, and that’s Finsea. Ask for Allura, who runs a shop of exotic treats. People know her. She’s be happy to receive you.

The mermaid swims away, and a boat passes. It’s drawn by two manatees, and piloted by a platyperson. Someone on the boardwalk calls out to her, and she quacks back. They throw out lines and tie up the boat. There are humans walking on the boardwalk above, and fairies flying everywhere. They don’t need to respect waterways or sidewalks.

There’s a fairy struggling with a heavy load. Pikano climbs out of the water to assist the fairy. She leaves wet footprints on the boardwalk as she approaches. Rod and Tobit climb out of the water and Tobit shakes himself off, getting water everywhere. The Fairy is named Marigold, and her package is too heavy for her. Fairies are only 11 inches tall, so they aren’t physically strong. Marigold says that Pikano looks big and strong, and will she please help her carry this heavy package? Pikano agrees, and can easily carry the package. It’s not that heavy.

Marigold says that her house is just over this way, and flies off, over a house! Rod and Pikano can’t fly! What will they do? Pikano can turn into a spider, so she climbs up the waterspout. She drops a silk line so Rod can tie it to Tobit and pull the dog up. Once all three are on the roof, they see a big tree growing in the back yard, with branches extending over the roof. Marigold’s house in in the branches. The door to her house is very small and Pikano can’t fit inside. She turns back into a human and knocks on the door. Marigold answers the door and is so happy that Rod and Pikano carried her heavy package for her. She was throwing a party soon, and the package contains all her supplies. Now the party is saved! Marigold digs in the package, looking for something she can give to thanks her helpers. She throws flowers and loops of ribbons around until she finds what she’s looking for: a delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie! Pikano thanks Marigold and devours the cookie.

GM note: In real life, Pikano’s player received a real oatmeal chocolate chip cookie at this time.

Rod sticks around to watch the party. The party is in Marigold’s “back yard”, the upper branches of the large tree. Fairies of many colors arrive and dance to music played by songbirds. The dance moves are small, quick, and precise. The fairies find seats all over the branches at many different levels. There’s no dance floor or flat table. The whole party is very three-dimensional.

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Chasing The Sunset & shipwreck

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

Melvin the Rain

He a slime person who can’t be hurt by normal weapons, and in fact keeps several normal weapons inside his gooey, malleable form to produce and weild when the need arises.  The Rain (singular and plural) arrived on this world as fragments of an ice comet. Rain tends to live with other Rain and not in the cosmopolitian, multi-species cities that are common across the world.  They all answer to the Ice King, and Melvin is exploring new lands partially because of some unpleasantness back at the royal court.  Rumor has it that the Rainwant to create a great Ice City.

Lumen the Lantern

She appears to be a female humanoid accompanied by a small floating light, but really she’s an extradimensional traveller, and the light is closer to the “real” her than the humanoid form it projects.  Maintaining the humanoid form is tiring, but makes interacting with others in this world much easier.  There are not many Lanterns in this world.  She’s exploring to right wrongs, enforce justice, and protect the innocent, and she’s focused all her skill into making her Little Light as versatile and dangerous as possible.  Woe to the wicked! Rumor has it that Lanterns can possess other creatures, kind of like they ‘possess’ their humanoid projections.

Grokch the Goblin Tinker

He’s a little Goblin in a big suit of power armor, equipped with a blaster gun and giant drill.  Goblins are somewhat shy and stay in their technologically advanced underground cities, never venturing to the surface.  Grockch (be sure to to pronounce the guttural ‘ch’ after the hard ‘k’!) was voluntold to explore topside for new materials or power sources to help advance Goblin civilization. In addition to seeking scientific progress, he also wants the chance to show off his cool toys!  Rumor has it that Goblins are redirecting underground streams.

Bungo Trotter the Squire

He’s not the champion of humanity. He’s just a guy who’s good at making friends and is a little over his head. He wants to see the sights and maybe discover more about who he is, deep inside.  Rumor has it that humans are brainwashing the Goblin scouts that are sent to the surface, so they will go back and infiltrate the Goblin underground cities.

Rumors

  • There’s a new material that enables a new form of energy
  • A swamp monster lurks inside a lake
  • A mystical shrine that lets one recover from grief
  • Drinking from a certain natural spring brings euphoric feelings

Let’s Begin

Bungo, Grokch, Lumen, and Melvin did not take a ferry like the previous party.  They took a charter vessel that was already carrying some cargo to Port Fennrick.  It’s a small boat, with barely enough room for the six passengers and crew, plus the carefully wrapped, couch-sized cargo.  The boat is pulled by two manatees, commanded by Jensen (a platyperson) and guided through an unconventional route by Sebastina (a mermaid). During the journey, some vast undersea creature passed by. A fast-moving hill of water, pushed up by the unseen monster, overtook the boat and threw it off-course.  The manatees broke loose and fled in panic. Sebastina barely held on to the hull, and the boat and its six occupants washed up on an unfamiliar shore.

Our heroes take stock of the situation. No one is injured, and the boat’s hull seems intact, but their propulsion is gone, and they don’t know where they are relative to their destination.  Lumen surveys the scene. They are on a sandy beach.  The water is shallow, dotted with many islands of strange, unnatural shapes: a hemisphere, a cube twisted at an odd angle, curlicues, and other shapes which wind, water, and time would never create.  Inland, there’s dense jungle, and hills rising far beyond.  Lumen’s sharp eyes detect giant spiders lurking in the jungle, hunting birds looking for stragglers overhead, and the tops of masts far away to the south.  So the main shipping lane is to the south, but how can they get there?

Melvin walks into the sea and shapeshifts into a manatee.  He calls out, hoping to find the lost manatees.  Instead, he finds strange fishes, as misshapen and twisted as the islands they swim among.  They head towards him, and they don’t look friendly!  Fortunately for Melvin. he’s hard to see when he’s immersed in water, and normal weapons like fish teeth can’t hurt him anyways. Bungo still throws rocks to distract the fish and pulls Melvin to shore.

Just then, from behind a perfectly cylindrical island, a small racing yacht appears.  It’s zooming dangerously close to the island, it’s lone occupant leaning so far off the side that the pontoon on the opposite side is out of the water.  It’s do Rolo, the millionaire thrill-seeker!  Bungo knows him!  Bungo helped de Rolo select the perfect tree to turn into that yacht’s mast.  Bungo hails the yacht and de Rolo swiftly heaves to.  The castaways explain their predicament, hoping for a ride on the yacht, or for de Rolo to build a mast for their boat so they can finish their journey under wind power.  de Rolo is excited by the strange, large creature that got them into this mess. He’s a thrill-seeker, so of course he wants to pursue the creature immediately. Of course he won’t leave them stranded.  They can all accompany him on this grand chase, and then he’ll take them to Port Fennrick.  The castaways are not interested in heading into danger, especially Captain Jensen, who really wants to deliver her cargo on time.  It’s very important.  They convince de Rolo to make a mast for them so that he can go chase monsters and they can go to Port Fennrick.

de Rolo is now fixed on his new mission and marches boldly into the jungle to select a proper tree.  He doesn’t see that he’s walking right towards a couple of giant spiders!  The spiders’ attention is all on de Rolo, so Melvin and Lumen blast one with their respective ranged weapons.  The second Spider pounces on top of de Rolo, but Lumen drops that one with a single,well-aimed shot!  Our heroes move forward to secure the area, and de Rolo finds a good tree.  He and Grokch attempt to fashion a mast from it, but Grokch has only a blaster and a drill, tools better suited to other uses.  He destroys the tree.

de Rolo is frustrated and won’t try again.  If the party wants to leave, they had better accompnay him on his yacht.  They all return to the beach, but the yacht isn’t there!  Neither are Jensen or Sebastina. They’ve stolen the yacht and stranded our heroes! Melvin can move through bodies of water at incredible speed, so he catches up with the yacht and pleads for Jensen to return and pick up the others.  She reluctantly agrees, and Melvin owes her a favor.  When everyone is onboard, their destination is hotly debated. Jensen wants to deliver the package to Port Fennrick immediately, but de Rolo wants to pursue the creature.  During the commotion, Lumen sneaks a peek at the mysterious cargo.  It’s a large wooden box, maybe 2m x 1m x 1m, wrapped in canvas and secured by rope.  Lumen unites a few knots and lifts the lid. Inside, there’s a creature that has been reshaped so much that no original shape is left.  Eyes, limbs, teeth at all angles.  It lies perfectly still, because on the inside of the lid is a glowing Symbol of Sleep!  Lumen manages to cover it with her hand just before it knocks her unconscious.  Now she remembers Jensen’s mannerisms and her insistence on delivering the package.  She’s smuggling this beast for some unsavory folks, and if it’s not delivered as promised, Jensen is in serious trouble.

Just as Grokch is convincing Jensen to go on de Rolo’s adventure first and deliver the cargo later, Jensen spots Lumen messing with the cargo!  Lumen reveals the secret of the cargo. She doesn’t uncover the Symbol of Sleep, of course, but explains the situation.  She gives an inspiring speech about slaying this foul creature and fighting the mobsters who put Jensen and everyone else in danger with it.  Most are convinced, but Melvin is dedicated to the freedom of all things, and sees the Chaos Beast as a prisoner. Everyone starts arguing as mutant fish start circling the boat, drawn to the Chaos Beast.

Melvin prevails. They will release the Chaos Beast from its enchanted slumber, but they don’t want to deal with an active Chaos Beast on the crowded yacht.  Grokch rigs some floats and a time-release spring so they can set the Chaos Beast adrift, and dump it into the water when the yacht is a safe distance away.  Unfortunately, the spring goes off immediately, throwing the box high into the air. The lid opens, throwing the Chaos Beast clear, but also flashing the entire crew with the Symbol of Sleep!  Jensen, Sebastina, de Rolo, and Bungo all collapse, but Grokch no-scopes the lid right out of the air with his blaster, destroying the symbol.

With all immediate threats dealt with, the racing yacht heads for Port Fennrick.