TOPIC: R5 - Coriolis: the Third Horizon

Previously… On Coriolis…

While investigating the disappearance of their New Engineer’s (Matta) friend, Noor, The group get tangled in, and asked to investigate, the disappearance of the Emissary known as the Messenger. Judge Kurahan Offers the group 5000 Birr, Plus bonuses, for locating and recovering the Emissary Alive. Also giving them the aid of Judicator Akouba Kosha as a contact when needed.

Mostly forgetting about Noor until the DM occasionally reminds them they exist the group throw themselves into the investigation. The trail from the Emissaries apartment leads them to the Zenithian ambassador Johar Quassar who, after some questioning, admits to installing a data djinn that shorted out the ambassadors security. He did this as his family was threatened.

It also led them to the Sanitorium, a free hospital ran by the Samaritans, a charitable offshoot of the Order of the Pariah. Their initial questions lead to nothing but an old acquaintance, Brother Ramas who they met on the Ghazali, slips them a note to meet at the Garden of seekers. Before he can tell them anything though the group is ambushed, barely fighting them off. However he left a tag explaining that Noor and the Emissary were captured and taken into the the Cellar. Finishing with the words:

“I don't know what you have found, and I guess I never will. But I must speak up, even if doing so means betraying my order. Before the Icons, there is no room for lies. A martyr strike team from Zalos is operating on the station with a mandate to wipe out all new mystics. They take them to a place they call “the real sanatorium”. I know that it must be somewhere in the Cellar, but not exactly where. You will have to find it yourselves. Maybe there are others who can help you.”

A Martyr Strike team of the Order of the Pariah is behind the kidnappings and murders of the mystics. They use their contacts to gain access to the Cellar. The lower portions of the station where the law rarely applies and the light barely shines.

Following the route down they come past signs of the strike team, and the Emissaries passing, an abandoned weapon stuck to the ceiling with residual psionic winds, a mangled body in armour in a ventilation fan before making their way to the slummers court of “Queen” Elmeida rule of “The Third Sphere”. She tries to convince them to kill Awl, a Skavara, for her aid, sending along Frax the Nekatra to “assist them” but the group, showing uncharacteristic restraint, don’t shoot the Skavara on site and find this is simply a trade dispute, Awls Market is taking the Queens subjects and customers. Never happy in service to the “queen” the group manager to convince Frax to leave them be and go their separate ways.

In return for sparing them Awl agrees to lead the group to the old hanger the Strike team are using as their base. To get there they must pass through the slummers cemetery to get to the Labyrinth however. After an encounter with a mad poet, who spoke to the Emissary psychically (he was also a poet) they enter the Labyrinth with a feeling of dread. Almost making it through they encounter the beast at it’s centre, barely surviving before making it to the Martyrs base.

Awl helpfully shows the group where they removed a sensor, giving a gap in their coverage of the external wall. The group show some insight after inspecting the hangar and, travelling around the full, Perform a space walk to approach from vacuum, unable to get in they instead are able to sabotage the lock both to cause a distraction and to stop some of the strike force immediately engaging them when they assault.

After a firefight the group are victorious, taking no prisoners as the last person alive slit their own throat. Investigating the hangar, after diffusing the fail-safe explosives that almost killed them all, they find a launch ramp launching pods down to the Kuan surface below. It’s clear the captives were placed in stasis pods, loaded in and shot down. There are also a group of 6 captives rescued (five being dead in their cages), Some are marked with a black cross, some with a White. It quickly becomes apparent the group with white black crosses are afflicted with the Mystics disease while those in White are not.

There is one drop pod left however the group manage to capture the coordinates the pods are being directed to deep in the Kuan Jungle.

It is here we left it as they decide what to do next. Do they report back to the judge their findings? Do they try to blindly use the last drop pod to follow the trail? Do they take their own ship down? Who knows (I certainly don’t).

Quick recap of Week 1:

The group rescue the captives. Debate whether to get the pod down or trek back to fly their ship down into a jungle where the nearest civilisation, and proper landing spot, was several days trek away. They also decide they should probably make sure the rescued people survive (it was touch and go for a moment there) and call Judicator Akouba for a pickup.

Initially they were planning to get a lift back to their ship but, after deciding 18 hours was just too slow in the same vein as someone reacting to a bus replacement service, do the equivalent of "i'll just walk then!" and hop into the pod to fly down (not before Matta sensibly thinks going into a jungle unprepared would be silly and finds some rations from the strike team 11 days worth to split between them).

After landing Flashiz insists on "blowing the bloody doors off" which luckily doesn't come back to bite them later. they find two other pods that crashed before them, one of which up a tree, and plenty of old pods showing this is a commonly used landing site.

the 2 pods contain others in cryo apart from one woman who has literally had the "woke up in a coffen you can't escape" experience so is a tad traumatised.

They hack the pod and manage to recover the below communication (that the GM definitely didn't forget to print out last week) that could be called a "a clue" and also manage to get a signal that would let them track the pods with the right equipment.

While having to literally hold back a brick (brandon) wall from attacking the smugglers when they arrive they somehow become one with the jungle and hide.

The smugglers find the opened pod but seem to think it's not unusual for one to malfunction and to have a runner and the groups pod they, fortunately for them, assume it was sent down empty as they are closing up shop. they head off in their crawler and the group prepare to follow them. Through inhospitable jungle, on foot, with barely any supplies or idea of their destination while bringing along a malnourished traumatised civilian.

This is fine.

Week 2
Stuck in the middle with you or Splish Splash I was talking a bath.
After the smugglers load up there transport and leave we follow them through the unrelenting jungle. We loose ground on them while trying to simply survive. Flash is still moaning about not flying down here and Brandon is boiling like a lobster in his own shell, he must have athletes foot of the crotch, as he's sweating more than normal. We can't make communication with the station due to atmospheric conditions. Rana sends up a drone and sees a haze on the horizon. Stumbling into quicksand, Rana, Flash and the Captain get stuck. We manage to free them from mire and continue. We come upon a stream, where we fill up bottles and Flash and the Captain bathe. The Captain notices a tremoring on the water and Rana notices the leaves. Realising something big this way comes. Out of the bush comes a huge creature, maws with razor sharp teeth, tentacles thrashing looking very much like a bear. I duve out of the way while Brandon lines up a shot, both the Captain and Flash dive for their weapons. Rana is grabbed by the tentacles a pulled towards the beasts many maws. Brandon takes his shot and Rana is dropped. I take a shot from safety, but it is ineffectual. Everyone fires to no affect. Brandon pulls a shot out of his ass like never before, and peirces the beasts heart killing it dead. We butcher the beast as best as possible, we don't know how much further we have to go. Back on track we make good progress and eventually find signs of some sort of occupation.

XP for the Mechanic.

Setting for next week -

Call of Cthulhu: The Pale Horse


The year is 1348.

It has been twenty years since famine swept across Europe, leaving mothers to make unthinkable sacrifices, and ten years since the outbreak of a relentless war with France. Now, as the kingdom struggles to recover, another shadow looms: whispers of a plague creeping westward from the East, bringing death to England's shores.

Cases have already begun to appear on the outer isles, spreading fear and chaos. Edward III, plagued by doubt and despair, summons you to his court. He believes you are the kingdom’s only hope to uncover the source of these horrors and to determine whether these events are a divine punishment—or something far darker.

Will you uncover the truth, or will you succumb to the rising tide of madness and death?

----

Just a little homebrew adventure I have put together to test out what it could be like. CoC Dark Ages, you can come up with your own characters - Obviously since the king has summoned you are likely to be pretty well to do or atleast well known. For what reason is up to you. Are you a foreign emissary? A scholar of arcane lore? A skilled leader of men or a perhaps even a holy man.

Anyway, have a think if you want to give this a go and I will have something for us to play.

Coriolis peeps just an early heads up.

I've woken up with a stinking sore throat, swollen glands and a chesty cough. Hopefully it'll calm down and I'm still planning for tomorrow night but wanted to mention just incase anyone wants to get a one shot together as a backup incase this gets worse.