Posted on

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.

Posted on

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!