Slightly delayed write-up as we had some issues with both the main gaming tools that we use for the campaign this week. Our VTT, Role, seemed to lose data in some of Lieto's character sheet fields (Graham and I are going on a bug hunt with the Dev at the moment), and Tabletop Recorder just refused to process the session, so no transcript or summaries were available for the session until this morning when the Dev on that platform found and resolved the issue. I also had an issue - in game - with fog of war in Owlbear Rodeo, but that was 100% a user issue on my part.
I have enabled the transcript feature in Audio Hijack as a fallback, but I hope I won't have to do anything with that output. It's just a backup, much like asking the players to give me a form-filled version of their character sheet is.
I was away from home with work again but this time I decided to run the game tethering to my iPhone as I had a very fast 5G connection compared to the WiFi. It mostly worked fine; some break up towards the end of the session but okay otherwise.
Anyway, enough tech. We were two players down - Hattie was travelling and Simon was still feeling unwell, and there was a risk that the session wouldn't happen but Graham came through, playing despite being full of lurgy.
It was interesting; this was - in effect - our fourth delve, and the third using the full delve rules, and it seemed to run much faster than on previous sessions. The players were also much more into the whole theme. There was more planning before they started and - from the GM's perspective - it felt very much like they were professional explorers trying to work their way through a challenging mission. This is one of my frustrations with some of the criticisms of the game you see out there, especially from people who have just read the book rather than played or run it. Delves are important, but the whole mechanical section drops to the background and generates tension. It gives a feeling of peril, of resources being consumed, and of a need to consider your next moves carefully. I've explored ruins in Traveller before, and the air storage of Vac Suits means that the environment doesn't feel that hostile. The mechanics of Coriolis: The Great Dark evoke the feel of exploring a dangerous environment.
They handled a very dangerous combat situation really well and are now using the crew manoeuvres to great effect. However, it did hinge on two key dice rolls; they managed to beat the 8 dice perception pool for the Ash Crawler, and then Graham took a decision to push one of Lieto's rolls with his fusilard pistol which achieved a critical and a single shot kill on the poor creature. They managed to completely finish it off before it had a chance to properly respond. Clever and lucky, that's what we like.
There were also some choices with the Bird - burning extra energy to ensure that they had an 'oasis' from the blight that lasted longer when they created their supply stash. Finally, Meristo finally got a really successful delving roll which moved them much more quickly.
Overall, a fun session.
- Arda Qamar, a Guild Surveyor and Traveller who came from the Far Colonies from a Mining Combine operation. She’s the bird handler and Scout for the team. (Played by Hattie).
- Meristo Koulas, an Esoteric Coriolite Seer who grew up in the Fog of the Haze, and has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Paul).
- Lieto Miesma, a Scholar specialised in Builder Archeology who came from deep inside the Factory City of the Turbine Halls, with a background in the Machinist's Guild. (Played by Graham)
- Fassour Faradi, a roughneck deep miner who also came from somewhere the eternal fog of the Haze, and - like Merits - has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Simon)
- Rashid al-Masri, a scoundrel Hull Cutter who came from among the hulks and wrecks of Hull Town, and has connections to the Gardener's Guild. (Played by Andy).
- Corvus the Bird, a specter; cobalt blue, with a long beak, always observing. Usually handled by Arda.
- Gina Zee, a Black Toad aligned expert ruin delver going under a pseudonym. (Hired by Fassour).
- Dr Layla Jaspel, a medical doctor and botanist from the Gardener's Guild. (Hired by Rashid).
- Karmelia Merest, a Navigator's Guild Algebraist, fascinated by the Singularity Spheres and apparently also a lover of Zinti novels. Very much angling to be Arda's BFF. (Hired by Arda)
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| The New Seekers (Corvus, Arda, Meristo, Fassour, Rashid and Lieto) |
The Session (Spoilers for The Flowers of Algorab).
The team gathered at the edge of the Ashen Gorge with a clear objective: reach the signal they believed lay deeper in the ravine, while avoiding as much blight as possible. Rashid Al Masri, Meristo Koulas and Lieto Miesma were joined by Arda Qamar, Fassour Farradi and Gina Zee, the experienced Delver they had hired for the mission. They planned to establish a supply cache at location F7, where several routes could lead back towards their rover if their chosen path became blocked. The group had brought extra supplies, accepting that carrying so much would hinder their movement, and made sure much of the load could be dropped quickly if they needed to move fast. Gina’s presence also meant the team would burn more supplies as they travelled, but they felt her experience would pay off
The gorge was dark beneath heavy cloud, with ash whipping through the wind and lightning flashing both down from the clouds and up from the ravine. Lieto used his natural affinity for cartography alongside the portable deep scanner to study the terrain. His mapping revealed a slower route along a ridge that would halve the number of hazard checks, at the cost of increased supply use. The team chose the safer path.
Meristo led the descent. The first stretch was uneventful, but a violent lightning strike close enough to shake and disorient the team on the next section cost them additional supplies. Lieto and Arda were left distracted by the spectacle; Fassour had to push himself to stay focused. The team pressed on, while Arda sent the bird ahead to scan the route. Its readings revealed blight in the areas further down the gorge.
The blight took its toll as they advanced. Their suits protected most of the party, but Rashid, Arda and Gina each lost heart at different points. Lieto was caught in a cloud of luminous spores, which threatened to leave him shaken and blighted, but his suit held and he brushed them away. The team also found a cave opening in the cliff, with ash grit and fragments of bone inside. Though Lieto was eager to investigate, they decided to mark it and continue towards F7.
From their position, Arda used the bird to survey further ahead, while Lieto and Rashid worked with the deep scanner to clarify the map. The scan cost time and supplies, but revealed more of the route and the high-blight areas ahead. Meristo then pushed through several sections at pace, hoping to reduce the exposure of the team. The quicker advance brought them to the planned staging point with fewer hazards, though the blight still forced the group to make further protection checks.
At F7, the team decided to return to the rover rather than immediately push deeper. They placed 71 supply in a cache, keeping only enough for the return journey, and used the bird to clear blight from their current area for a limited time. The party withdrew through the gorge and rested in the rover. Their rest helped clear the lingering distraction and restored some heart and hope. Before setting out again, they used the bird and scanner to survey the route ahead, confirming that particularly dangerous concentrations of blight lay further down.
During the rest period, Rashid spotted a shuttle descending rapidly into the gorge. The Akhander - at the end of a poor comms connection - confirmed that it had observed a mining combine vessel passing over the area, similar in size to the shuttle, and that it had refused attempts to hail it. The vessel claimed to be on Combine business, but had offered little explanation. The Akhander warned that relations between the Mining Combine and the Sharzad Collective were poor, and to be careful. The team suspected they had competition in the gorge, though they did not yet know who had landed or what they wanted.
The group returned down the route, again carrying extra supplies. Near the cave they had passed earlier, Meristo used his night-vision goggles and spotted movement inside. The creature appeared to be a huge, armoured centipede, more than ten metres long, its carapace anybody glowing with blight. The team judged that leaving it behind them was too risky, and chose to attack rather than try to sneak past.
Rashid coordinated concentrated fire against the creature and moved to flank it. Meristo's opening shot tore away some of its legs. Rashid’s incendiary attack set it alight and inflicted serious damage, while Gina struck it with her Zapti Long Gun. Lieto initially missed, but, taking advantage of the team’s coordinated attack, identified a vulnerable point beneath its head. He fired into the weak spot, and the creature’s legs buckled as it died. Its final thrashing caught Gina, who took a minor injury despite her armour; the others managed to avoid the worst of it. Meristo's rousing words helped restore the team’s morale.
The cave proved to be a blight-free pocket. Once the fires had died down, Gina searched the remains and found a pale, dusty exosuit glove. Rashid and Lieto recognised it as identical to the glove recovered from the body at the Well of Souls. Its markings suggested that it might have belonged to someone from the Nadir. The cave held no other useful finds, and the creature’s young had been caught in the fire.
The team ended the session with a substantial supply cache established at F7, a clearer picture of the blight ahead, and evidence that another party had entered the gorge. The old glove was the most promising clue yet that they were close to a place connected with the Nadir and their objective.
Source - initially Tabletoprecorder.com, heavily edited for names, clarity and brevity with some parts injected to explain or catch elements missed in the summarising.
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