Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is the first part of the campaign, published following a Kickstarter campaign. No specific character types are required and the Player Characters do not necessarily need to have their own starship. That said, a Player Character with the Data Djinn skill is definitely going to be useful and whilst a Mystic character is not mandatory, the presence of one will add an extra dimension to the campaign. One way in which the Player Characters can acquire a ship is in playing Last Voyage of the Ghazali, a prequel scenario to the Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost. It is worth running Last Voyage of the Ghazali before Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost, but it should be noted that the connection between the Last Voyage of the Ghazali and Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is never really explored from the perspective of the Player Characters. Hopefully, it will become apparent in Mercy of the Icons – Part 2: The Last Cyclade and Mercy of the Icons – Part 3: Wake of the Icons. Another possible scenario to run prior to Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is ‘The Tailor from Mira’ from Coriolis Scenario Compendium 1 as they share some of the same antagonists. The Atlas Compendium may also be useful. One possible issue with Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is that it does involve the abduction and shipping of slaves, but this is integral to the plot and thus unavoidable.
Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is divided into two scenarios—‘The Wake of the Martyr’ and ‘The Kuan Connection’. Together they involve a central mystery and take the Player Characters from the Coriolis, the space station constructed from the colony ship Zenith which arrived following the second isolation of the Third Horizon, which forms its cultural, economic, and political heart, down to the jungles of the plant Kua below. Both scenarios are divided into three acts and follow the same format. This includes the background, an overview of the three acts, the factions and groups involved, advice for the Game Master, and a list of the important NPCs. This is followed by the three acts, each of which describes the situation, key facts, locations, and then developments. Where appropriate it also includes events and complications which can be added to play by the Game Master through the expenditure of Dark Points. In Coriolis: The Third Horizon these reflect the influence of the Dark Between the Stars and in some cases in the campaign, they have a zero cost because they are mandatory. However, the format does not always make the scenarios and their acts easy to prepare or assimilate. The overview and the actual details that follow do not always quite align as easily as they should. More care and attention upon the part of the Game Master should alleviate the preparation process and ensure that she is ready to deal with any issues. The scenes often end with a list of several facts and clues that the Player Characters need to be aware of as a result of playing through the scene. This is useful, but it often feels more like directions than advice, and in some places, it could have done with more advice on helping to ensure that the Player Characters get the clues.
‘The Wake of the Martyr’ opens with the Player Characters back on the Coriolis. As rumours fly round the station about the death and disappearances of mystics, something journalists have dubbed ‘The Mysticides’, the Player Characters are there to meet a friend of theirs who is also a mystic. They are quickly thrown into the action as a young woman approaches them, explains she is a friend of their friend, and asks for their help. Behind her are several well-armed guards. Ideally, the savvy Player Characters will realise that the guards are not who they purport to be and when the young lady they are attempting to apprehend reveals herself to also be a mystic, they can make the potential connection between these ‘guards’ and ‘The Mysticides’. As they begin to investigate there is a big announcement across the station—the Emissary itself has gone missing. This ends the first act.
In the second act, with the news and rumour flying around Coriolis, the Player Characters are invited to dine with a judge. She wants their help, either because of their involvement in investigating the attacks on mystics or because they were involved with the Ghazali and successful rescue of the refugees it required, with the investigation into the disappearance of the emissary, which means examining the crime scene. There are clues here that the Player Characters will learn anyway, so it seems superfluous to make the players roll for it. Another issue is that the actual scene of what happened is explained thoroughly for the benefit of the Game Master, but the players and their characters will never get to see it. Which is a pity because it is a fantastically cinematic scene. Clues from the investigation into their friend’s disappearance and now this abduction, now point to a sanatorium run by the Samaritan healer cult. How can they be connected?
The clues set up some entertaining and challenging and hazardous excursions through the maintenance tunnels and passageways, not once, but twice. The second time, they lead deep down into the bowels—or ‘Cellar’—of Coriolis and to the court of the Slummer Queen. One of the intended purposes of ‘The Wake of the Martyr’ is to showcase the highs and lows of the station, which it does, literally. First with the invitation to a very high-class restaurant with the judge, the home of the emissary, and elsewhere, then down into the supposedly unused and unoccupied slums of the Cellar, virtually at the bottom of the station. Here the high and low parallels continue with the Slummer Queen herself, being a fallen noble. With negotiation, the Player Characters can find their way down to where the antagonists are based. It brings the scenario to a close with a bloody fight and hopefully gives a chance for the Player Characters to learn just a bit more. The primary fact they will learn is that those abducted are being shipped down to the planet below.
‘The Kuan Connection’, the second scenario in Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost takes place on Kua, the world below the Coriolis station. It is a radical change of tone and atmosphere as the action and mystery shifts to the sweltering world below with its steamy jungles and fetid swamps. The result is a less constrained and more straightforward investigation, as the Player Characters are no longer hemmed in by the walls of the station and factional politics, instead dealing with local politics. By now, the Player Characters will have learned that someone is abducting Mystics and others on the station and then keeping them in stasis pods to drop onto the planet below via drop ships. Progress is achieved through following the chain of possession of the stasis pods, from one gang affiliated to the criminal Syndicate to the next, leading out of the jungle, into the major settlement around the Monolith, and back out, this time into the marshes. A Player Character with Factional Standing with the Syndicate will have some advantage here, whilst the Survival skill will be useful. There are some effective scenes and encounters along the way, including the horrific discovery of those trapped in a stasis pod amidst a fire and a set piece at a pre-wedding ceremony that the Player Characters are going to have to infiltrate before it goes very wrong. As they progress, the Player Characters should begin to feel that someone is cleaning up after whomever they are tracking—and that means them too!
In the last act of the scenario, the trail leads into the Sultra valley, the location of a city drowned and turned into a deep marsh after the cataract protecting it from the sea was destroyed. It gives it an eerie, strange atmosphere, made all the worse by the darkness of the waters and their corrupting influence. In one of the few standing buildings the Player Characters have a chance to confront those who have been abducting the mystics and others, and learn more about the Emissaries, and perhaps the wider threat to the Third Horizon.
In addition to the first part of the campaign, Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost also contains a mission generator for creating extra scenarios, especially ones involving the Emissaries, which is supported with details of various Emissary powers and base NPC stats. This is followed by several detailed scenario outlines. It is followed by ‘A Song for Jarouma’, a standalone affair designed to be run as a flashback between Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost and Mercy of the Icons – Part 2: The Last Cyclade. It is designed for five players and uses pre-generated characters, so it does represent a sudden switch from the events of Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost and the Player Characters’ involvement in them. However, there is a very good reason for this, playing out, as it does, the first encounter between humanity and the Emissaries over Xene.
Physically, Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is a good-looking book. The artwork is excellent, but the writing does need an edit in more than a few places, and it does feel as if the English translation of the campaign has been rushed. The campaign is light on handouts and there are very few physical clues. This is not an issue, but the campaign does feel as if a few more maps would have been useful, certainly ones suitable for use by the players and their characters.
Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost does begin to explore some of the secrets and mysteries to Coriolis: The Third Horizon and that is more than welcome. However, the structure of the campaign does not make the discovery of those secrets and the secrets within this first part of the campaign all that easy. The campaign is linear, yet progression is not always obvious because of the difficulty in obtaining some clues. Fundamentally, Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost requires careful study—perhaps more than most—by the Game Master to understand the plot, its antagonists, and other factions, and be able to impart them to her players and their characters. Thus, Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lost is best run by an experienced Game Master and also played by more experienced players, including having played Coriolis: The Third Horizon before. That will give them the background to the campaign as well as their characters.
Mercy of the Icons – Part 1: Emissary Lostis a solid start to the campaign for Coriolis: The Third Horizon. It will need effort on the part of the Game Master to really flow, but once it does, it will bring the players and their characters closer to some of the secrets and the threats endangering Coriolis: The Third Horizon.
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