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Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, the Fellowship found the trail of Vestri’s missing dagger. Another Fellowship found an imitation of the dagger, and following their clues led to the ledger of Tomay and Soday, Dwarven scammers who stole and copied valuable items.
Continue reading “Chasing the Sunset & Clay”
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, the Fellowship announced the death of one ruler, threatened the life of another ruler, and found a library with information about the Remnants (the civilization that made Yuri’s magical sword)
Continue reading “Chasing the Sunset & Forgeries”
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, Edna met Vestri and Yuri and they ran afoul of O’Later, the chief of Port Fennrick who is also an evil Vampire!
Continue reading “Chasing the Sunset & Campfire Chats”
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The fellowship: Edna Crusher-Harcourt the Ogre, Vestri the Dwarf, Yuri the Outlander
Last time, the Fellowship explored a decommisioned Robotics Facility, but that was just a distraction from their mission to take the ashes of a sword made from the horn of a Unicorn and cast it into the sea. Very bad energy to make a weapon by killing a creature so peaceful and good.
Continue reading “Chasing the Sunset & Omens”
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
The party: Agnes Nutter the Harbinger, Buckle the Platyperson, Rook the Remnant
Anges and Rook quickly leave Thaumatown and arrive in Bogden in the aftermath of a werewolf attack! Most of the people who arrived to celebrate Platypalooza are fleeing in panic. Those bitten by the werewolves have been put in cages. There is spirited debate about how dangerous they are and what to do with them. Festival goers are mourning the victims of the werewolves, and the werewolves themselves. Agnes grabs a fleeing Buckle and they all duck into an empty shed. Agnes demands an explanation from Buckle. Buckle gives a brief summary of last night’s werewolf attack. Buckle’s consistently bad at telling stories, but Agnes gets the gist.
Nobody wants to stay in Bogden to help, and they aren’t welcome in Thaumatown either. People in both towns indicated that twin volcanoes to the south were important, so the crew decides to head that way. They join the hurried exodus of partygoers. Crowding is no problem for Rook, who just floats through people. This startles someone, who throws a punch at this strange phantom. Her fist goes right through Rook and hits the next person. This causes a confused scuffle/stampede! Rook shrugs, since the fight won’t affect him any more than the crowd did, but he uses his hypnotic voice to dazzle the crowd into calming down.
The crew reaches the Mighty River and needs to get across. Rook just floats across, dragging his toes in the water. Wallace (the magenta Pomeranian) is scared of water and won’t approach the river! Buckle makes a blindfold of Wallace, and holds the dog on his belly as he floats across. Agnes flies over the river on Snek.
On the far bank, they are beset by Platythugs: young ruffians with switchblades shaking down travelers for cash! Agnes is not impressed. She declares a terrible curse in a big spooky voice. Whenever they threaten someone, they will poop their pants! To break this curse, they must help 20 people. One platythug doesn’t believe this weird lady and her big talk, so he threatens her, and finds out she wasn’t kidding! The whole gang flees in terror!
The crew approaches the twin volcanoes and must decide which one to investigate. Anges flies ahead on Snek to scout. She discovers that the smoke from the eastern peak isn’t volcanic smoke. It’s from wood and garbage. She also sees Brainaic (who arrested her in Thaumatown) climbing the eastern peak. She flies into the Caldera and sees it’s covered with pipes, smokestacks, and hatches. A very unnatural mountain. She returns to share this information with the team. They sent the Brainiac this way to get rid of him, but he’s on the trail of something amazing! Rook says “We thought this was a fool’s errand” and Buckle replies “We are also fools.”
Buckle and Agnes follow Brianiac stealthily. Brainiac looks over the lip of the caldera, gets excited, and rappels over the edge. Rook just floats through the mountian, but discovers metal structures that count as “inside” that he cannot enter without permission. Buckle & Agnes peer over the edge to see what Brainiac is doing. Brainaic swings at the end of the rope to reach a door in the wall and go inside. Agnes and Buckle look around, but there are no doors or access panels on top of the caldera. To get inside, they need to go down into the pit. Buckle uses Brianiac’s rope to swing to the same door that Brainiac used. He invites Rook inside, and Agnes flies in as well, thanks to Snek. Inside the door is a smooth metal ramp leading up into the mountain, with a swinging door at the end. Rook scouts ahead and peeks their head through the door. It reveals the top of an elevator shaft, and the elevator car is headed down with Brainiac inside!
When the car reaches the bottom of the shaft, Brianiac slips out and hides as a team of Goblins start loading trash into it. Rook returns to report to the rest of the team, and htey discuss what to do next. They take so long discussing that the car is filled with trash and sent to the top of shaft, where it tips out and starts sliding down the ramp! The crew is trapped between an avalanche of garbage and a sheer drop! Not Rook, of course. Trash just passes through them. Agnes flies out, and Buckle runs for it, but is bowled over by the tide of garbage. Agnes, flaoting by the mouth of the chute, grabs Buckle as he falls out, but she’s pulled off of Snek by his weight, and now they are both falling! Snek dives, coils around both of them, and pulls out before they and the mass of garbage smash into the ever-burning trash heap below! Agnes gets bonked on the head by a toaster, and the whole scene is witnessed by an amazed Goblin on a lower walkway! Agnes waves and the Goblin hurries back inside the mountain. Buckle would very much like to be put down now. Snek deposits him on the walkway that the Goblin used, and they all follow the Goblin inside.
Rook asks the goblin to help them find Brainiac, saying that he’s a shady character who means the Goblins ill. This seems reasonable to the Goblin, whose name is Grickle. Buckle is just tickled to meet Grickle. With Grinkle leading the way through the tangle of pipes, catwalks, and tunnels, they spot Brainiac down below. He activates a booby trap, bursting a steam pipe and burning Agnes! Brianiac runs for it and Rook follows. Agnes sends Snek ahead to block Brainiac’s escape route with a cloud of poison gas! This lets Rook catch up to Brainiac, but Rook lets him go. Brainiac flees the facillity, passing a crew of Goblins headed to repair the damage from his trap. The Goblins arrive at the broken pipe and blame the unauthorized intruders (Agnes and Buckle) for the damage. Agnes says they are after the real intruder, who actually did the damage. Grickle confirms her story. Agnes asks the repair crew to help search for Brainiac, but they need to fix this pipe first. (Also, Agnes is pretty creepy.)
So the crew leaves the sanitation facility and emerges into Swallet, the underground city of Goblins. It’s really hot down here, and they don’t know where Brainiac went.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
Party: Orichalcum the Construct, Fafnir the Dragon, Melvin the Rain
Ori is searching for his master along the Mighty River, and sees smoke rising above the trees. Too much smoke for a campfire. Ori flies in to investigate. Perhaps giants are literally smoking trees. Alas, reality is much less fun. A group of robed figures are tearing up a wagon, throwing the cargo into a fire. They yell about removing temptation from the youth. The wagon owner, tied to a nearby tree, urges them to “Please be chill!” but they don’t listen. Ori swoops in, grabs the robed figure who appears to be the leader, and carries him aloft for a chat. Ori demands to know what’s going on. The leader says that they have an annual ritual of removing contraband from the area. The wagon was carrying an intoxicant that is unacceptable according to the laws of this group. The leader agrees to let the wagon owner away safely, but when Ori returns him to the ground, the robed figures takes a swing at the Construct! Ori crosses his arms and blocks the blow.
Melvin has noticed this commotion and approaches unseen, still in the form of the late Allan a Zham. He summons rain to douse the fire and unties the wagon owner during the confusion. Melvin and the owner slip away, and Ori also disengages once he sees that the owner is safe.
Ori and Melvin rendezvous and make camp. During the night, Melvin has a strange nightmare, and when he awakens, there’s a small statue of a monster holding a pearl next to his head. he examines the statue. It’s a mountain troll, Trolls are rumored to be clever, but there are no stories about trolls and pearls. Weird. Melvin chucks the statue in the river. As the statue moves away from him, he gets a bad headache. He groggily walks through the river to retrieve the statue. He wears a big trenchcoat and stores the statue in an inside pocket.
There are tracks leading away from the camp. Ori floats up to see where they lead. He finds a campsite with two people sleeping. One seems like a normal traveler, curled up in a bedroll under the stars. The other is in a very fancy, very neat tent. The traveler is exhausted, but the occupant of the tent is busy with his morning routine. It’s the Brianiac who was recently exiled from Thaumatown! Ori asks if he could have a word with the Brianiac. The Brainiac says he has a vocabulary of over 45,000 words. Which one does he want? Melvin approaches, and Brainiac recognizes him from the trouble in Thaumatown! He wakes up the other traveler in a panic! The man apologizes to Melvin. He is the previous owner of the statue, and it wouldn’t let him sleep. Now that he has passed it to Melvin, he can sleep again. He’s scared that Melvin will retaliate, so Melvin takes a calming posture, keeping his hands in view and staying a distance away from the man. Melvin wants to know how the man acquired the statue. He just woke up one morning and found it. He couldn’t get rid of it, and he couldn’t sleep. The statue told the man to give it to Melvin. It wants Melvin more, somehow. The man carried it for weeks, and he can finally sleep now that it’s gone. Melvin asks what the man will do now, and he shrugs.
Brianiac always knows what to do next! He has retreated to his tent and emerges with a strange metal capsule. He fires it at past the tired man, knocking him to the ground, and capturing Melvin! Nonporous containers are the only things that Rain can’t just ooze through. Ori flips out his claws and slashes the capsule to burst it, but it’s charged with electricity! Ori’s own energy is disrupted, making it difficult for him to control his physical components. Brainiac gloats. Ori may have more physical power, but that power is subject to the laws of science, so Brianiac always has the advantage! Brain over brawn! Ori recovers during the monologue and snatches Brainiac up for a forced chat. “We’re less trouble for you if we leave,” says Ori, “so it’s better if you just release Melvin.” Brainiac is impressed by Ori’s logic. From his many belts and pouches he produces two tools. One will turn off the electricity, and the other will open the capsule. Ori lets Brainiac down and he flees.
Ori releases Melvin and they continue on their journey towards the two volcanoes on the southern horizon. Melvin warns Ori that the cursed statue may make him a bad master.
At the foot of the two volcanoes, Ori and Melvin meet Fafnir and her Kobold servant Coco as they search for a route up to the peaks. Smoke rises from the eastern peak, but the western peak is dormant, so they head for the dormant volcano, since that seems safer. They recognize each other as fellow adventurers, kindred spirits. Fafnir says, “Since we aren’t fighting, we can be friends.” Ori thinks that’s a good idea, and does not anticipate violence. “Yeah, if there was, I would win!” says Fafnir. Introductions all around. Fafnir is amazing when Melvin demonstrates his shapeshifting. Coco is the brains, and Fafnir is social muscle. Ori asks Coco to be his master. Coco objects, saying “Fafnir is my master!” Ori realizes his mistake and addresses Fafnir, “You’re not hired social muscle. She’s hired brain muscle.” Ori asks Coco about her experience serving Fafnir. Coco does a lot of damage control. Ori decides to try serving Fafnir for a while.
Melvin says “This is my first time meeting a dragon. Do you like treasure?” He shows Fafnir the cursed statue, and she immediately jams it in her mouth. Melvin gets an awful headache, so Fafnir spits the statue out. it’s not so easy to be rid of the curse.
Fafnir flies up above the two volcanoes to look around. The smoke from the eastern peak smells like wood and garbage, not molten rock. The caldera of the western peak contains staircases spiraling down. Around the caldera are signs of an old camp. It’s a war camp. Decades old. It was abandoned, not destroyed. Its defenses point in towards the caldera, not out towards a threat coming from the mountain slopes. Very strange. Fafnir points out a route to her earthbound companions, and they all join her at the top and look around. There’s a memorial: 40 spear points stuck in the ground in neat rows, and a chunk of volcanic stone engraved with the name “Crusher”.
GM note: I apologized for delaying the game by flipping through pages of notes at this point, but my players were thrilled to learn that they were seeing the aftermath of a one-shot played by a group on the other side of the country.
The group wonders about sending Ori down the caldera to investigate further. Ori asks Fafnir, “Is that an order?” Ori is never in Despair when following orders. “Yes!” says Fafnir, and Ori goes. The two spiral staircases in the calera are old and haven’t been used for a long time. one of them is broken near the top. The bottom of the caldera is a thin layer of dirt and rubble over a perfectly smooth sphere of hard rock. The sphere is so big that it extends past the edges of the caldera. Fafnir and Melvin join Ori at the bottom to look around. This rock is not natural. Melvin figures it was created by magic, in a ritual that would have taken minutes or hours. Hard to do while besieged by an enemy army.
Coco has a couple of plans. Fafnir could dive bomb the rock sphere and try to break it, or they could investigate the other volcano. Ori worries that whatever they find might be hostile. Fafnir thinks getting in a fight would be fun. Ori worries that they might be powerful, but Fafnir would welcome powerful allies. Ori tries one more time to make her understand “OK, combine the two.”
Ori looks inside the caldera of the eastern peak.
The inner wall is covered with metal chimneys, pipes, and hatches. The smoke comes from these and from a smouldering pile of trash at the bottom. This is clearly artificial! Ori brings Melvin down into the caldera and they float into one of the large pipes. It slopes upward as it goes into the mountain, and at the top is a dumbwaiter. Apparently trash is loaded into the dumbwaiter, then sent up the shaft. At the top, the dumbwaiter tips over, and the trash slides down the chute and falls into the smouldering heap at the bottom of the caldera.
Ori and Melvin take the dumbwaiter down and emerge in a bustling industrial facility. There’s a whole city hidden underground! The inhabitants are Goblins: short, green-skinned humanoids. Those who spot the intruders are surprised, but not panicked. Outsiders aren’t unheard of. Ori and Melvin go back outside and tell the others. They take a different route inside. Melvin unlocks a maintenance hatch, so they can enter the city by a route intended for people. The tunnels are winding and branching, but the crew eventually reaches that same facility. It’s a waste management facility. Loads are brought in, valuables are sorted out, then the rest is either burned, dumped, or poured into a large stone pipe.
Ori floats out into the bustling street and says “Take me to your leader!” which causes quite a commotion! There’s an official-looking Goblin directing traffic who offers to navigate Goblin bureaucracy for the right price, if you know what I mean. A shady Goblin slips a card to Ori and says, “This is the real power!” The card has an address for a place called “Cloorick’s” Ori consults with the team to see which option to choose. Coco recommends bribing the official, but no one has much money, so they go find Cloorick’s. It’s an unfriendly looking building with no windows. The main entrance is a heavy metal door with one of those sliding slots like a speakeasy. Fafnir knocks, the slit opens, and a pair of bored, dismissive eyes peers out at her. Fafnir asks for access, but the doorman couldn’t be less impressed, and tells Fafnir how she’s uninteresting, weak, and unworthy. fafnir immediately smashes the door in!
A big metal hand reaches out from under the door and tosses it aside. The doorman is a Goblin wearing robotic arms attached to his real arms and a harness on his chest. he congratulates Fafnir on figuring out the test so quickly. Kicking in the door is the way to prove that you deserve to enter Cloorick’s Fight Club! The doorman’s name is Rabbish.
Players: The doorman is rabid? No, he’s rubbish. Rabbit? Radish? Not quite rad, only rad-ish.
GM note: Say your characters’ names out loud a few times before revealing them to players.
Rabbish explains that Cloorick teaches martial arts as a means of self-improvement. The crew wants to join and learn, but they have to earn their way in. Ori suggests that the crew has styles that the fight club hasn’t seen, and letting them join would give the club access to these new techniques. Rabbish is impressed enough to let them meet Cloorick. Cloorick is a Spider, not one of the giant arachnids, but the intelligent humanoid kind. He wears a Goblin Power Suit, modified for his multi-armed physique. He hears the crew’s pitch, and says that in order to join, they have to win one-on-one fights with some of his students. All FOUR of them have to win to be admitted. Coco has to fight too! Thinking quickly, Ori asks if Coco can wear her armored suit, like Cloorick. You see, Ori IS power armor.
GM note: For time, we had one four-on-four battle instead.
The circular arena has a raised platform in the middle, with half-walls to give some cover. The crew enters from the doors on one side, while Cloorick, Rabbish, and two Goblins with rifles enter from the other side. Cloorick leaps to the center platform. Ori engages Rabbish, parrying his big metal fist with his own metal blade-arms. The impact damages Ori’s blades, and Rabbish grabs him with his other hand and throws the robot across the arena. A gunner takes advantage and shoots Ori where he lands. Fafnir flies up and smashes into Cloorick, destroying part of the platform with the fury of their battle. Melvin rushes a gunner, transforming into Cloorick on the way. The gunner is shocked, and Melvin slams him into the wall, terrifying him out of the fight. Rabbish hits Ori again, and Melvin comes to his aid, distracting the enhanced goblin. Fafnir disengages from Cloorick, giving the remaining gunner a clear shot at her. Blammo! Ori rushes Rabbish, getting too close for Rabbish’s big metal arms to swing, and pummeling him all the way out of the arena into his own locker room. Cloorick leaps in and strikes Ori. Ori’s taking a real beating in this fight. Fafnir takes off and drops onto Cloorick, striking a lethal blow! The last gunner makes a show of throwing his gun aside and forfeiting the match.
The crew has prevailed! Rabbish is very impressed! Since Fafnir defeated Cloorick, she is the new leader of Fight Club! Cloorick had many apprentices, but none ever managed to defeat him. The crew stays to train at the Fight Club for a while and get much tougher. They all gain the Iron stat at +1.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
Party: Fafnir the Dragon, Stella the Halfling, Buckle the Platyperson
The full moon will rise tonight, so it’s time for Platypalooza, the greatest celebration of Platyperson culture! A party boat heading upriver spots Buckle and invites him and his companions to join. They do, and the boat goes up the Mighty River and takes a tributary to the north to the Platyperson town of Bogden. Paulie, the former mobster, is also on the boat, but there’s no reason to fight anymore.
From the river, all that’s visible is the great dam of Bogden, which creates a large, flat marsh suitable for Playtpeople living. the waterfall prevents the party boat from advancing further, so everyone has to disembark and walk up the switchbacks to the top of the dam. Bogden is a village year-round, but Platypalooza temporarily makes it a vast city. Platypeople from all over the continent come here to celebrate, and people from other cultures also attend because it’s a great party. The permanent dwellings are off in the back. and most of the artificial marsh is a fairground, with booths, stages, games, and so on.
The leader of Bogden officially kicks off the festivities with an opening speech, but our crew realizes that he’s a tricky politician. Listening to his speech will damage their Sense, so they ignore him and explore the shops and stalls. Fafnir loves food and Buckle points out traditional Platyperson food. Lots of fried food. There are giant spider legs on skewers, competing hot sauce vendors shouting about the virtues of their special recipes, and so on. One booth has a challenge: eat a spicy seed pod. Only a few seeds are needed for a whole pot of hot sauce. Fafnir jumps at the chance, and since she’s immune to damage from fire and heat, she has no problem eating the spicy seeds! She gladly receives the cheers of onlookers and a sampler platter from the impressed vendor.
Stella finds Clara, a fellow Halfling running a booth. Clara sells pastries, which are a staple in Halfling culture, but an exotic treat to Platypeople. Clara is one of many Halflings who fled the Halfling homeland during the Giant War, a war against Giants. Part of the reason that Stella explores this continent is to find scattered Halflings and tell them the good news: It’s safe to return home. The war is over! The Halflings won by surrendering! Instead of fighting the physically superior Giants, Halflings let them settle in Halfing towns, then relentlessly pranked them until the giants got so annoyed that they fled! Clara is delighted to hear the news ,and starts a batch of celebratory peace cookies. Stella asks if Clara knows where other Halflings are. There’s usually one in every city. Clara mentions Sam, living in a walled city to the north. Stella and Clara say farewell with the old Halfling saying, “You always have a home.”
As the crew is moving through the crowd, looking for more fun, a large Platyperson roughly shoulders past Fafnir. Fafnir won’t stand for such ill-treatment. “I’m not stairs! You can’t just stomp over me!” The large Platyperson is The Champ! He says “I’m on my way to win the Fluming championship again. There’s still time for you to sign up. Meet me on the field and see how easily I can stomp over you!” It’s on now! Fafnir, Stella, and Buckle rush to sign up for the tournament. Fortunately, Buckle can explain the rules of the traditional Platyperson game to the Dragon and the Halfling. Silk, Gus, and Rose will cheer from the stands.
Each team has to take a log from the log pile, stand it upright at their base, and climb it. One point for reaching the top. One bonus point for flipping the log during the dismount, but failing the dismount costs one point. It’s a foul to clearly hit with another player, so don’t get caught! The field is flooded, since Platypeople are amphibious.
The first team that the crew faces in the preliminary round is three lumberjacks. The referee slaps his tail to begin the match, and everyone rushes for the log pile! Stella keeps the lumberjacks busy while Fafnir and Buckle grab a log. Fafnir is ready to climb the log, but Buckle can’t raise it himself. Fafnir switches with Stella so she can help raise the log. Once it’s up, Fafnir runs from the lumberjacks, spreads her wings, and flies to the top of the log! One point! A flippy dismount for a bonus point and it’s 2-0. Fafnir goes in to get another log, but the lumberjacks block her path out. She’s super-strong, so she picks up the log and flies over them, dropping the log to her teammates and continuing into the stands. Stella and Buckle raise the log, and Stella flies in to land on top. Foul! It’s illegal to score from out of bounds! The crew loses a point instead of gaining it. Next, Fafnir interferes with the lumberjacks and gets caught. She has to wear a penalty vest, restricting her movement. The vest is designed for Platypeople, so it’s especially awkward on her. She’s around the same size, but has more limbs, and in different positions. The field is reset, and when the refereee slaps his tail, Fafnir and all three lumberjacks rush for a log. Fafnir draws their attention by running in a figure-8. With all three focused on her, there’s no one left to score or prevent Stella and Buckle from scoring. Buckle is barely able to lift the log by himself, and Stella struggling upwards, barely slapping one hand on top. It counts! The crew wins and goes to the next round of the tournament!
Now that they have the hang of this, the crew is able to beat other opponents and reach the finals, against The Champ and his dangerous team! The match begins at sunset, and the stands are packed as most other events have wrapped up, and everyone wants to see the final showdown! Big lenses on towers around the arena catch the last light of sunset and focus a spotlight on the referee, as he announces the two teams and hypes up the crowd.
The Champ’s team is mean and effective. In addition to the Champ, widely known as the greatest individual player the game has ever know, there’s a Brawler, tough and strong; and a Hunter, who disappears under the shallow water to reappear at an inconvenient time. The crew huddles to discuss strategy before charging into battle.
At the tail slap, Stella and Fafnir rush for a log. Champ and Brawler get in their way, and Hunter silently slips under the water, disappearing. Stella insults Brawler’s mother as she tries to slip by, and he angrily slams her into the stack of logs. Obvious foul! The field is reset. At the tail slap, Champ heads right for Fafnir. Stella moves to intercept, but Champ dodges to the side and kicks her leg as he passes. Stella falls into the water and is face to face with Hunter, who strikes her again. No call from the ref. Meanwhile, Fafnir and Buckle try to keep Brawler away from the logs, but he wrestles one away from them. Stella gets in Champ’s face to keep him busy, and snatches something from his pockets while he’s distracting. It’s blackmail material on the referee! No wonder our crew aren’t getting the calls they deserve! Fafnir and Buckle steal Brawler’s log back. While the three are tussling near the stack of logs, Fafnir breathes fire, setting fire to the whole stack! Flaunting her immunity, she climbs on top of the flaming pyre and lies down. Brawler and Buckle fall into the fire and catch a light! Fafnir grabs Buckle and hurls him out to their goal, where the shallow water extinguishes his flames. She follows that up by hurling a flaming caber out to Buckle. Stella tries to set the log up for Buckle to climb, but Brawler is coming for her!
During this exciting match, the sun has set, and the full moon has risen. The cheers from the massed spectators turn into screams! People start running, and three large figures emerge. Three werewolves: one of the left, one of the right, one near Stella’s companions! Buckle looks closely and realizes that the bite of these monsters can turn its victims into more werewolves! He yells at the crwod to run! A werewolf slashes at Silk, knocking it out of the stands into the flooded playing field. This clears space around the werewolf, so Fafnir seizes the opportunity, hefting a flaming log, and throws it like a mighty javelin! It strikes the werewolf and carries it through the stands! Nothing left but a pile of flaming debris! Buckle assists Silk, and Stella engages one of the remaining werewolves to keep it away from civilians. It still has clothes and pockets, and she swipes a slingshot. Fafnir’s about to leap into battle, but the Champ is upon her. He yells, “You’ve ruined the game, and you’ve stolen my spotlight!” and throws a mighty punch. Fafnir catches the Champ’s fist in her claws and her face shines with the power of her conviction. She says, “You say you’re the hero of these people? Prove it! Save them from these creatures!” The Champ is stirred by her impassioned speech. He agrees, but after they beat these monsters, he wants to finish the game and beat Fafnir. the Champ strides towards the werewolf by Stella. The werewolf swings down with his massive paw. The Champ dodges the paw, which crashes into the benches. The champ steps on the paw, pinning the werewolf, and winds up a powerful blow to the jaw. These things don’t look so scary after that humiliation. Stella finishes that werewolf with its own slingshot. As the werewolf crumples to hte ground, it transforms back into the Platyperson that it used to be.
Was that all of them? Some people are hiding under benches. Other have fled the stadium and cowering in tents around the fairground. There’s a third werewolf that no one engaged! It left the stadium and is running for a tent full of helpless civilians! Fafnir flings herself into the air and hastily attacks form the air! This will be an awkward landing that leaves her in a bad position in front of rampaging, but she’ll land a mighty blow first. The blow is enough! They both crash to the ground, but only Fafnir gets back up. The werewolf also shrinks back into a human form as it dies.
All the stands and booths have hastily closed. Shopkeepers and partiers alike are fleeing the area. The Champ wants to continue the game, but Hunter disappeared in the chaos and hasn’t re-emerged. The referee declares that hte Champ’s team can’t continue and must forfeit! The Champ is going to tell the referee something, but notices that he no longer has the blackmail material! He’s lost the game, lost his leverage, and Fafnir outshone him in combat. His defeat is thorough! He stomps away, but his little webbed feet make funny slapping noises. The Mayor of Bogden hails out crew as heroes! they receive the prize money, and for saving the town, he tells them a secret: There’s a legendary magical site under extinct volcanoes to the south. The crew examines the blackmail material. Platypeople don’t use paper, since it would dissolve in water, so documents are written on wax tablets. These documents prove that the referee is actually a beaver with a false bill, not a Platyperson at all!
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
Party: Agnes the Harbinger, Lumen the Lantern, Melvin the Rain, Rook the Remnant
GM note: In the original West Marches, it was easy to have new characters team up, because everyone went back to a single home base. In Chasing the Sunset, characters can be in different places, and we players must contrive ways for them to meet in a single place.
Lumen (last seen on a racing yacht docked at Port Fennrick) has a problem projecting herself into reality and uses Melvin as a beacon to pull herself back into this dimension. Melvin, fresh from busting up mafia headquarters, still wears the form of one of the gangsters, and Wallace, Agnes’ new dog, recognizes him and runs back to him. Agnes and Rook run in after Wallace a short time after. Lumen asks Agnes “Do you know this dog?” Agnes asks Wallace, “Do you know this being?” But they make introductions and realize that they are follow adventurers and should go on adventures together. Melvin tries to shake Rook’s hand, but the shapeshifter and the ghost can’t touch each other. But what adventure should they seek? Lumen swore to protect Jensen from the shady people that she was smuggling contraband for, but the mafia is already destroyed. Agnes and Melvin saw to that. They decide to head upriver, and try to get a ride from Jensen. She would help, since she owes them for saving her from the mafia, but her boat is wrecked, so she can’t.
Our crew heads for the mouth of the river to look for a boat that could give them passage. There’s a raft piloted by a giant, and a longboat with a crew of humans. Agnes gets a doomy sense from the longboat, so they choose that one, and exchange work for passage. Melvin uses his Rain powers to clean the boat, while Rook floats above and keeps watch.
Agnes checks in on Johnny, the mobster who has been fleeing upriver for some time. There’s interference in her vision, like the interference when two Harbingers are close to each other. Through the interference, she sees a crowded city with narrow streets. That’s Thaumatown, and the longboat is headed there. Agnes doesn’t want to go to a town with another Harbinger, but she’ll go anyways. Anything could happen.
Thaumatown is a crowded, bustling city. There are clockwork robots everywhere. Automatic cranes load and unload boats at the docks. Flying surveillance drones watch everywhere, and police robots expertly direct traffic to keep the crowded streets moving. The streets are narrow and the buildings loom over them, so they sky is barely visible. Two towers are visible over the roofs of the other buildings: a large clock tower on the civic center, and a wizard’s tower on the far side of town.
Melvin drops into the water to look around while the rest of the crew disembarks like normal people. The police robots direct them like they direct everyone, but it seems the robots are taking a special interesting the crew. Melvin finds some big pipes taking in water from the river, and dumping water into the river, He swims up the pipes into a water treatment center. His formless body can squeeze through the filters, but it will take some time. As he’s squeezing through, he sets of water quality alarms, and someone is coming to investigate, so he abandons his search of the water treatment plant and flows through other pipes under the city.
Some police robots approach Agnes and tell her to follow them. They clear crowds out of their path, quickly leading Agnes, and Lumen to the civic center. In the central chamber of the civic center, there’s a piston rising all the way up the clock tower. This piston retracts, and on the end is a fancy chair, and in that chair, Brainiac, who controls all of the robots, and thus the entire town, from this central location.
GM note: Not the comic book character. A very smart man.
Brainiac explains that he works for a wizard, an amazing man who can see the future! He foresaw that one day another Harbinger might come and threaten his rule, so Brainiac devised a plan to ensure the stability of the town. Brainiac gestures, and a police robot brings a weird hinged cage, like a tea strainer, but two feet long, up to Agnes. It’s like a Faraday cage for magical powers, and will block the interference that Anges is causing the wizard, and vice versa. Brainiac demands that Agnes wear the helmet!
The crew decides to go loud instead of accepting captivity! Lumen’s light flashes ,temporarily blinding the police robots and surveillance drones, but Brainiac was prepared and sends the surveillance drones crashing into Lumen’s last known location. She didn’t move, so she’s hit. Melvin arrives at the civic center and lets Rook in. Rook floats in and whispers spookily in Brainiac’s ear. Lumen starts fighting the police robots with her knife and light. In the melee she drops her knife and smashes her bare hand into the unyielding armor of a police robot. Brianiac raises his chair to escape to the clock tower, and Rook floats up after him, but Brainiac is prepared and activates an electric grid beneath his chair, zapping Rook & stopping his advance. Brainiac arrives at the top of the tower, where huge control panels and screens are arrayed before him, letting him control everything in the city. He’s sure to call in reinforcements. Agnes uses the ley lines to reach out from Brainiac’s position, flipping switches and yanking wires. Traffic goes haywire as the police bots malfunction and direct people into impossible patterns.
At this point, the wizard decides to step in. A beam of energy from the top of his tower cuts across the twon and into the side of the civic center, burning a spiral pattern through the wall and into the floor, widening and widening until Agnes is hit! The harbingers interfere with each other’s vision, so Allan a Zham had to fire blindly towards the densest static in his vision.
The tactical situation changes in an instant. The crew needs to close the distance since they can’t match Allan’s power at range. Lumen’s light moves to shield Agnes. Melvin causes a fog to appear, hampering Allan’s vision. Agnes puts on the Faraday cage helmet, so she disappears from Allan’s view. Lumen, Melvin, Rook, and Agnes all fly, float, or clamber over rooftops and across alleyways towards the wizard’s tower and Allan continues to fire on them.
Rook is floating straight in, confident in his incorporeality, when a flask of holy water teleports right on top of him and bursts! Agnes is flying on Snek, Allan’s attacks force them down below the roofline, towards police droids! Melvin and Lumen are running over rooftops together and a fireball explodes under them just as they leap from a barbershop! Barbers are thrown through the air with a perfect four-part harmony of screams! Clients stagger out of the rubble, haircuts burned away. Melvin and Lumen are singed, but escape further fire and confront Allan a Zham in his sanctum at the top of his tower! Windows look out over the city. Screens show camera feeds from surveillance droids. Maps, scrolls, and books are stuffed into shelves and piled on tables all over the room. Allan is furious! HE knew that someday someone would come to overthrow him, and now these adventurers have come even to his inner sanctum. He will tolerate no threat to his power! Melvin causes rain inside, soaking reams of irreplaceable magical research. Allan is momentarily distracted by the destruction, and Lumen seizes her chance! She uses her survival knife as a focus for her Light, and fires it with laser precision into Allan’s head, killing him instantly!
Down on the streets, Anges is receiving conflicting instructions from two malfunctioning police robots. One orders her to take a path blocked by the second, which tells her to turn around. They will get rough if she doesn’t obey, so she stalls for time and starts a fire inside the second robot. When it is too damaged to insist, she obeys the first robot and just walks away.
The whole drew assembles in the wizard’s upper room. Most of the papers are ruined, but there is one note about twin volcanoes. Sure enough ,the two peaks are visible to the south. Rook speaks with the spirit of the slain wizard, asking why he attacked them. Allan wanted order above all, and proactively removed anything that could cause upheaval or disruption.
Melvin shape-shifts into the exact likeness of the wizard and leads the crew back to the Civic Center. Allan a Zham had a “I can do what I want” badge, and flashing that to the police robots allows Melvin to ignore their senseless, contradictory orders. The citizens of Thaumatown are not so lucky. One group is being sent in a never-ending circle by a few police robots, and an automated crane on the docks just shoved and entire shipment off the deck of a boat and into the water. Brainiac has put the Civic Center in panic mode. Big metal shutters cover all the doors and windows, and a Stone Sentry has been activated inside to eject any trespassers. The crew gets onto the roof and climbs up catwalks to the outside of the clock tower.
The clock faces are transparent, and they can see Brainiac desperately trying to regain control of the city. Brainiac is suprised to see the wizard with some of the troublemakers, but Melvin assures him that it’s fine. Brainiac opens the window and lets them in. He gives a situation report to Melvin, who he thinks is his boss. The damage is severe, but in another six hours he cna have the robots back to 65% efficiency. Brainiac requests that Allan a Zham lend his magical aid, since the situation is so dire. Melvin says, “Are you implying you’re not up to the task?” Brainiac is cowed and promises to work even harder. Lumen whispers “You should fire him” to Melvin. Melvin agrees and tells Brainiac he’s be reassigned because he’s handling this crisis so badly. Melvin hands over the paper with the twin volcanoes on it and tells Brainiac to go take care of it. Brainiac pushes back a little. It’s such a long and dangerous journey that he’s going to take a surveillance drone. That way, he can call for help if he needs it. Melvin agrees to these terms, having no intention of actually helping if Brainiac gets in trouble.
Finally, Melvin appears to all the people on the docks. He says that the people are strong and capable. They no longer need rulers over them. He tells them to elect representatives, then walks out onto the water and sinks in. The rest of the crew also slip out of town, which has no king, no overseer, and whose overcrowded streets are jammed with malfunctioning police robots.
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.
Chasing the Sunset is a West Marches-style exploration game using Fellowship 2nd Edition‘s Horizon rules.
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.
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.
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!