Coriolis

Despite the catastrophic pace of our sessions, we have finally wrapped up the first part of the official Coriolis campaign, Mercy of the Icons Pt 1: Emissary Lost. Time to look back at this adventure with the benefit of hindsight, in the same fashion as our previous campaigns.

To set the scene, Emissary Lost is the first part of a three-volume campaign called Mercy of the Icons, released in the original version and in English (2019), and in French (2021). The second part has been released in the original version and in English, while the last one is still eagerly awaited (it seems to be sinking to the bottom of the publisher's backlog, crushed under more lucrative licenses like Alien or Blade Runner). As three-part adventures go, the campaign starts small before raising the stakes to the very highest level — we are talking fundamental changes to the game universe, which the characters will be called upon to take part in without donning the role of unstoppable superheroes (in any case, not in the two parts published so far).

Let's debrief our campaign with the usual format: a few quick statistics, a rapid recap of how our adventures unfolded with some commentary, and then a conclusion.

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Statistics

Strictly speaking, our Emissary Lost adventure started on January 10, 2021, and reached its conclusion on September 4, 2022, after 12 sessions. By extension, I reckon the whole campaign must clock in around 30 sessions, a rather respectable size without being downright unmanageable. Note of course that Coriolis greatly facilitates (and encourages) random mission generation, as evidenced by the scenario hooks at the end of the book (you can quickly add ~10 sessions). On top of that, the scenario The Last Journey of the Ghazali is intimately tied to Emissary Lost, and it added two sessions to our counter beforehand, followed by six more "interlude" sessions before the campaign properly began.

This first part of Mercy of the Icons is split into two major acts: one tours the unmissable Coriolis station from top to bottom, the other presents the planet Kua and the underbelly of the Conglomeration, one of the most important metropolises of the Third Horizon. Since this is a fairly free-form investigation, the size of the two parts will vary considerably from group to group. Ours spent more time on Kua than on Coriolis, notably because our first four sessions were played remotely, but also because the visit to the station's Cellar was rushed through in a single part. By default, count on a 50/50 split of sessions.

Even though the game system can be punishing (a single nasty critical is enough to kill any character), we had no deaths to deplore within the group. Just a few injuries here and there, enough to bring on cold sweats from time to time. Specialized characters being very good in their field, they succeed most of the time at what they undertake (even if it means giving the GM a Darkness point, here and there).

Recap of Our Sessions

Our team of winners revolves around the Gilgamesh, a stealth ship offered "on lease" to Captain Sahid by the Temple of Ahlam. The Gilgamesh's crew works for Hiram “Black Widow” Momasdi, grandmother of Noor, an assassin of the Temple of Ahlam. So the roster includes Sahid, one of the rare Zahedan rebels to have crossed the blockade and joined the rest of the Third Horizon; Allistair, an introverted dabarani Data Djinn, victim of the mystic disease; Bulluce, an ex-legionnaire turned mercenary and negotiator; Rumpel, an Algolian pilot who pulled himself out of misery before rubbing shoulders with the Zenithians of the Monolith; and Hassad, a thick brute who hauls a few debts with the Syndicate. Bulluce took over from Noor, who left the group just before the campaign proper began.

Before the Campaign

The Last Journey of the Ghazali

The Gilgamesh's crew was hired to reach Taoan aboard the Ghazali, but wakes up in the gigantic ship, adrift, after the portal explosion. Contrary to the scenario's idea, the group does not set up its HQ in the infirmary, but rather around its own ship, with the firm intention of leaving again as quickly as possible. I dangled a few enticing carrots to explore the place and rescue some survivors, but the influence game with the loathsome Komoro Vai fell by the wayside. As a consequence, our characters beat the hell out of the hostile survivors harangued by Vai, whom they capture with ease, then leave the ship aboard the Gilgamesh, taking the emerald disc with them with a view to handing it over to their employer.

A Few Small Jobs

Our PCs drop the survivors off at the Portal Station of the Hamura system and take on various small jobs that will earn them ties with the miners' syndicate. Intrigued by the few pieces of information she manages to extract from the disc, Hiram asks the group to rescue a Zalosian defector on Zahedan, despite the blockade of the Order of the Pariahs. The trip to the Zalos system is eventful — the group misses a portal jump and disappears for four months, which leads me to consider their mission a failure. Indeed, Tabas Kemeth — the Zalosian defector — was in a precarious position, and the four months between his plea for help and the PCs' arrival were more than enough for his pursuers to gun him down. Our protagonists could only discover his corpse and his memoirs at the far end of a Firstcome labyrinth, in which he had been locked up by two shady individuals whose allegiance... has yet to be revealed at my table.

Be that as it may, Tabas reveals a few leads about the martyr commando sent into the Kua system. And that is how we gently kick off the first part of the campaign…

Emissary Lost, Act 1

When Noor's player leaves the group, we agree that her orphan character would take the place of... well, Noor, in the official campaign. What luck that the PC's name perfectly matched the one chosen by the authors! The assassin therefore travels to Kua at Hiram's request to learn more about Tabas' allegations, but discovers mystic powers within herself and ends up captured by the Martyrs.

The Mysticide

The group lands on Coriolis with the goal of finding Noor. The altercation with the disguised Martyrs plays out as planned, Altea informs the PCs of her situation and of her connections with Aram. The group gets on the wrong side of the journalist Jeyla, investigates at the University, retrieves Noor's tabula and contacts "Aram", who sends five of his Aconian colleagues to get a beating from the PCs.

Our protagonists visit Aram's family, and the man flees as soon as he spots them. As planned, they quickly subdue the fugitive, who spills everything he knows about Outpost 37 and the Sanatorium. The group investigates these two leads in a none-too-discreet and ineffective manner, which earns their informant a liquidation by the Martyrs. When the news of the Emissary's kidnapping is finally made public, they are contacted by Judge Nigélia Kurahan.

Up in the Highest Spheres

The meeting with Kurahan and Akouba Kosha goes as planned, with the Judge bluntly offering the Gilgamesh's crew a sum large enough to pay off the ship's mortgage, should light be shed on the Emissary's kidnapping. The investigation therefore begins in the highest spheres of Coriolis, where the group quickly discovers that the assailants left through the station's corridors.

The trail therefore leads the group back to the Sanatorium, which they decide to infiltrate by the book until they find Brother Ramas, previously encountered aboard the drifting Ghazali. The man reveals his information, gets grievously wounded by the Martyrs in the Questors' Garden, but the PCs' forceful intervention is enough to save his life (despite all my treacherous attempts to cut him down).

The Cellar

The Gilgamesh's crew begins its descent into the most hostile zone of Coriolis. Despite their unanimous moral disapproval, the PCs choose to keep a low profile when cruel station guards are about to eliminate refugees as if they were mere vermin. The passage to the Third Sphere is quick: the group agrees to rid Queen Elméda of Awl, Frax lets the cat out of the bag, and the PCs commit to taking Awl (and Frax) aboard their ship. The captain's social skills are enough to override the Queen's doubts, and she provides them with the information needed to reach the Martyrs' base.

On the way, the group crosses paths with the mad poet, as well as a group of barking-mad refugees, but not with the dark creature haunting the Cellar. Once at the Martyrs' base, the PCs observe the situation in order to set up an ambush that works rather well: the fearsome Salamah ach-Abaud is promptly subdued, and although the Martyrs are formidable, the PCs give as good as they get. Soon enough, the hangar is cleared of its occupants, leaving our heroes free to study it.

The group manages to free Salamah's ship, but the exploits stop there: they inadvertently trigger the hangar's explosives, causing a potentially deadly decompression from which they escape only by the grace of the Icons... and of Isthar, the Gilgamesh's AI, whom they call to the rescue.

Emissary Lost, Act 2

Baybassine

Obviously, the group takes the Gilgamesh to investigate Kua. Their arrival is therefore greeted as it should be by the rebels, who superficially damage the ship with their rockets. The PCs land, fight off the Jackals of Ramses, then get assaulted by the Shaukar, who prefer to sabotage the Gilgamesh rather than destroy it, while they learn more about the newcomers.

The group then begins the long march through the Kuan jungle to Baybassine, getting better acquainted with the rebels along the way. The latter agree to hand over the components needed to get the ship back on its feet, provided the PCs help them liberate the region in exchange.

In Baybassine, the group takes the temperature of the situation, but does not question its allegiance to the Shaukar. They meet their contact on site, list the tasks they can contribute to, and choose to convince the city's popular leaders, as well as to neutralize the combat exos. While the first objective is achieved without a hitch, the infiltration of the Birbasil palace proves more delicate, despite some great moments of bravado. The group manages to destroy part of the exos, but must flee under the militiamen's heavy fire.

A few hours later, the rebels attack Baybassine, assisted by the PCs. A few unlucky dice rolls cause the Shaukar army to get bogged down despite the group's remarkable efforts, until, at the end of the day, the spaceport falls into the hands of the assailants. In the ensuing rout, the Birbasil are captured in their palace, and everything works out for the best for the rebels, who not only agree to repair the Gilgamesh, but also to hand over all the information they can extract from Artyr, the slaver who transported the stasis capsules to the Conglomeration — including those of Noor and the Emissary.

The Conglomeration

The group arrives at Little Algol in style: the PCs hide the Gilgamesh a good distance from the city and finish the journey by boat, so as not to raise suspicions. As luck would have it, they come across the warehouse used to store the stasis capsules, just as a fire is ravaging it. They then look for a buyer for Salamah ach-Abaud's ship, so I improvise a meeting with a bigwig of the Syndicate interested in Faction artefacts. Far more than the ship, the antimatter torpedoes greatly interest the buyer, and the sum collected in exchange allows our heroes to consider a few extensions for the Gilgamesh, comfortable as it already is.

The PCs therefore park the Gilgamesh at the local spaceport, where the upgrade work begins, while they follow the trail of the hammam, then of the magnate Léod dol-Quassar. During their investigation, they discover they are being followed by the Martyrs' assassin, and choose to confront him in defiance of their own safety, which earns them the destruction of part of their ship, as well as heavy criticism after the antimatter grenades went off. They achieve their ends nonetheless and eliminate Ataia.

Learning that dol-Quassar was busy organizing his son's wedding with a Zenithian dignitary, the group undertakes to infiltrate the ceremony as servants, thanks to the support of a local rebel. Part of the group — the most social ones — pose as Akouba's servants, she being present as a guest, while the rest join the low-born servants through the kitchen and the storage area. The PCs meet Jarja, agree to extract her from dol-Quassar's palace, take part in the explosive fight triggered by the second assassin, then flee with the mechanic. As for Léod, he is grievously wounded, but still manages to confide to the group his doubts about the façade and the Asturban's involvement.

The Sultra Marshes

Guided by Jarja, the PCs enter the marshes by barge, realizing too late that radio communications are jammed. They rescue smugglers, avoid the locals, fight a few aquatic monstrosities, then reach the cataract and the palace of Sul-Mahala.

Setting foot on land, the group splits in two: one part climbs the hill through the palace's gutted underground passages, while the other follows the path through the collapsed gardens. The first squad fights the palace's "sick residents", while the second must evade the watchfulness of the two Martyrs posted atop a palace tower.

Reaching the two martyrs, the group gets rid of them quickly, then switches off the radio jamming...

They spot the Butterfly ship from the observation post, then fine-tune their stealthy approach to enter the cursed hospital and bring this long investigation to a close. Unfortunately, the plan falls apart when the demolitions specialist fails, despite his prayer, to defuse one of the grenades littering the path to the building. We have seen better, as far as stealth goes.

Very quickly, Chabaun Kheml and his henchmen deploy into combat positions. A proper pitched battle takes shape. The living armor's incredible ability to absorb blows slightly changes the dynamic of the confrontation (usually, Bulluce tends to destroy just about everything he aims at, with ease, from his combat position — this time, it was different). And yet, despite great difficulty breaking through the enemy's defenses, Sahid manages to cut Chabaun down — fitting, as he was a renowned torturer who had manhandled many rebels on Zahedan — and the rest of the group pushes the Martyrs back inside, while the Drones sweep the area with machine-gun fire.

The PCs capture Priest Gaddar-E Abrar without bothering to interrogate him — Akouba will see to that upon their return to Coriolis — and discover Noor alive, along with the Emissary's remains. What follows is a most enlightening little interview with the individual who was animating the Emissary, then the surreal fight against the Shadow between the Stars...

Flush with success, the Gilgamesh's crew brings the survivors and the late Emissary back to Coriolis, and as agreed, Judge Kurahan pays for the ship in full, down to the last cent. Everything works out for the best!

A Song for Jarouma

Immediately after bringing Noor back to Hiram, the group decides to investigate the Emissaries still alive across the Third Horizon. One has to admit that the Bulletin's articles on the matter are stingy with details.

As the Gilgamesh passes close to Coriolis, the crew has a strange dream...

The characters find themselves in the shoes of Foundation scientists working aboard station SF-7 in orbit around the planet Xene, on behalf of Jarouma Had Peleter. If you are a GM, you understand the stakes. As planned, the experiment the team has been working on for nearly a year must be activated early, triggering a storm in Xene's atmosphere that threatens the facility. Despite the internal psychodramas, the scientists reach quadrants 3 and 2, until Leila falls completely unconscious and Yorûg decides to sabotage the shuttle to allow the living Icons to incarnate in them. Faisal is the last to succumb, before the Gilgamesh's crew comes back to its senses.

Armed with the information offered by this strange dream, the group chooses to investigate the Judge and his sudden departure from station SF-7…

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My Thoughts on This First Part

Overall, I am very satisfied with this campaign. While the authors' quasi-pathological vagueness about the general product line bothers me, the scenarios they create are full of good organizational ideas to make the GM's job easier, of details that bring the scenario to life, of variety in the scenes, and of an easily adaptable plotline. The focus on Coriolis and Kua makes a lot of sense in the second part of the campaign, and their relatively exhaustive visit was well thought out. As for the investigation, it is well-crafted enough to keep the players on the edge of their seats, without of course reaching the level of the genre's best campaigns (which can notably be found in the Trail of Cthulhu line): you still walk a marked path where interpreting the clues is a matter of the obvious rather than hard-nosed investigator work.

What advice to give to someone who wants to dive in, in addition to the margin notes in the recap of our adventures above?

Among the recurring problems to anticipate, the fact that the PCs have a ship ranks high. From the second act onward, the ability to travel quickly through the skies makes the PCs' lives so easy that you find yourself improvising excuses left and right to keep them from using it. Sometimes, you will have to accept that the players get away with it "easily", even if it means skipping part of the scenario...

This campaign also undermines one of Coriolis' principles: as presented in the core book, the conflict between Zenithians and Firstcome is meant to be "neutral", since each side acts for legitimate reasons. Yet in the campaign (this part, just like the next one), the Zenithians are mostly portrayed as despicable, racist, greedy, polluting, slave-driving, hypocritical, violent scoundrels... in short, big oppressive bastards opposed by an oppressed population. In itself, I have no problem with this approach, which strongly reminds me of Shaan's take on humans. It would however have been necessary to be clear from the start. But however awkward this poorly digested orientation may be, the cultural conflict behind it allowed me to give a new dimension to our sessions from the arrival at Baybassine onward, by drawing a parallel with the real world, reinforced by Orphaned Land and its wild songs (if you don't know the band and Metal doesn't disgust you, take the opportunity to listen to a few of their albums while you're at it). A little less SciFi faction play, a little more Oriental Metal!

Otherwise, the advice from my previous article on Coriolis still seems relevant to me. The scenarios are put together logically, presenting the stakes, the fronts, the locations, the characters, then a series of setbacks, some of them mandatory, others "purchasable" with Darkness points. As a GM, this is really how you should plan your sessions: you prepare a "menu" of setbacks based on the points you have, in line with the PCs' actions. This adaptable and modular structure won me over, because it frames the use of the "Doom Pool" so that it stays stimulating without becoming a source of frustration for the players. Keep in mind that critical hits can rain down fairly easily, and that even the tiniest attack that thus lands a critical on a character can simply fell them on the spot. Depending on your playing habits (how comfortable you are with PC death), you may need to avoid using crits and favor spending additional successes on increasing damage.

That's it for this first part. I can't wait to start the second one, which is meant to be freer, more in tune with the idea that the characters have a ship, but also perhaps less richly detailed. We shall see!