This Traveller campaign is intended to be kind of a history of the Traveller universe (or at least my version of it). The framing device for the campaign is the start of The Rebellion in 1116 with the assassination of Emperor Strephon. The players took the roles of imperial archdukes that were present at the assassination and through them help define the fate of the Third Imperium. The archdukes will be the constant backbone of the campaign, providing context for everything else. We will return to them between arcs spent with other characters in which we explore different parts, and different eras, of the universe. I hope to visit many different times throughout the history of the Traveller universe and to tie events in those times to the fate of the empire in the future.
This page will be useful for figuring out which arcs were covered in which sessions. I hope this will make it easier to keep all of the different characters straight and to refer back when we return to a time or a concept reappears in a new arc. I will give a short synopsis of each arc and a list of sessions. You can read the recap for any session using the drop down sidebar to the right. This page will be updated periodically.
Archdukes
Player Characters:
· Archduke Adair
· Archduke Brzk
· Archduke Ishuggi
· Archduke Tranian
· Archduke (formerly Duke) Craig
· Empress (formerly Duchess) Margaret
The campaign kicked off with a focus on the archdukes. All but Craig, whose player had not yet joined the group, were on Capital for a meeting of the archdukes with the emperor starting on 129-1116. Throughout this meeting they discussed many matters of imperial policy, including the hot topics of liberalization, the rule of the Spinward Marches, and Aslan immigration. On the last day of the planned meetings, Emperor Strephon was assassinated by Archduke Dulinor in the throne room. Brzk fled the system back to Antares, Ishuggi and Margaret fled to Vland together, and Adair and Tranian stayed on Capital to advice the young Lucan, nephew to Strephon and claimant to the throne. By the time the dust ceared there were at least three claimants to the Iridium Throne: Lucan, Dulinor, and Margaret.
Session 1, Session 2, Session 3, Session 4, Session 5, Session 6
As Tranian and Adair continue to deal with the fallout from the assassination on Captial, the other archdukes rush back to their home territories. Margaret finds that a witness to the death of Prince Varian has stowed away are her ship, and he claims that Lucan did it. Tranian loses Lucan’s confidence as he is unable to pull the moot together to make the prince emperor. Tranian and the Senior Moot flee Capital a few steps ahead of Lucan’s secret police, leaving Adair alone with the temperamental prince.
Tranian, Brzk, and Ishuggi (with Margaret) reach their home systems and give out orders to minimize their domains’ participation in the civil war between Lucan and Dulinor. Lucan recalls many of the sector fleets leaving the Solomani Rim and the coreward border with the Vargr poorly defended. Adair tries to keep Lucan’s more violent instincts in check while getting Lucan’s ascension confirmed with the Moot. Duke Craig refuses the recall orders for his fleet, declares that he is only interested in “defending the Imperium” and concentrates on doing what he can to secure the border with the Solomani. Even as Craig is refusing his recall orders, Lucan promotes him to Archduke of Ilelish in Dulinor’s place. News reaches Vland that Margaret’s realm is in turmoil due to infighting amongst the fleets loyal to her and those loyal to Lucan. Brzk decides to focus on securing his coreward border and declines an offer to join the Julian Protectorate. Tranian orders his forces to prepare for the K’kree to take advantage of the Rebellion. The Solomani attack on the Imperium begins.
The Rebellion intensifies and the situation on the Vargr and Solomani borders continues to degrade. Someone claiming to be Emperor Strephon reveals himself on Usdiki. Adair leaves Captial in order to mediate the conflict between Duke Norris and Duchess Delphine over who is the true ruler of the Domain of Deneb.
We returned to the Archdukes at the start of 1118. The Solomani continue to make advances as Terra falls and they start their attack on the Diaspora sector. Ishuggi and Margaret negotiate an asset swap as many of their corporations have been cut off from their more distant assets by the war. The Vilani take possession of many holdings in the Domain of Vland while companies aligned with Margaret take possession of assets they have better access to from Delphi. Ishuggi continues to fend off demands from the more conservative Vilani elements to declare a new Zira Sirku. Lucan declares Craig and Brzk traitors when news of their refusal to engage Dulinor reaches Capital. He also launches the Vengeance Fleet with orders to destroy high value worlds rather than let them fall into enemy hands. Craig, mired in a stalemate with the Solomani orders the creation of a black ops squadron led by a new ship, the Invisible Hand, which will operate behind Solomani lines. Tranian orders his researchers to prioritize telepathic communications in hopes of shortening communication delays. His admirals present him with a plan to link up with Delphi forces loyal to Margaret through areas that Lucan has largely pulled his fleets from. Margaret learns that her husband, who is till in Delphi, has had three of her eggs fertilized to ensure she has heirs as Empress. He used Strephon’s DNA for one to strengthen the claim. News reaches the archdukes that whole planets are being razed in the Gushemege sector by Lucan and Dulinor. The death toll is in the billions. Adair reaches Deneb and gets permission from Norris to travel to Regina to negotiate with Delphina to end the conflict between them.
Adair negotiates a ceasefire between Norris and Delphina and a plan to phase the rule of the Domain of Deneb to Norris over the next few years as long as certain assurances are made to Delphina and her heirs. Both Delphina and Norris request that he travel to the rimward border of the domain to negotiate with the Aslan.
Adair meets with the Aslan delegation to negotiate how many ihatei will be allowed to settle in imperium space and where they may claim land. The proceedings are interrupted by an attack from a separatist group of Aslan known as the Glorious Empire. Adair and the Aslan delegation flee the invasion.
Mars 2040
Player Characters:
· Mildra Ryante
· Wilson Ridgely
· Lucas Trask
· Romilius Fabian
· Hunter Brady
· Zalf Agrippa
This segment of the campaign focuses on the early Terran settlements on Mars. The travellers are a UN Space Cooperation Office team sent on a mission to recover missing drones that had been gathering information (spying) on a Cydonian archaeological dig of an ancient Martian site. During the mission they run in to Cydonians who want to stop the UN’s snooping and strange red sand that seems to be able to corrupt their systems and just might be alive. On the way back from the dig site, they are diverted to aid a crashed flyer and discover strange black globe technology and a traitor in their midst. After they return to Reunion, they are sent to Adrienne to learn more about Darryl Hall and the mysterious artifact he found while drilling in the ice. Their search leads them to a cache of alien technology and a confrontation with the Russians.
Session 6, Session 7, Session 8, Session 9, Session 10, Session 11, Session 12, Session 13
Far Horizon 2100
Player Characters:
· Command-pilot Lucas Adair
· Pilot Sara Cheng (deceased)
· Mission Specialist Vic Peterson
· Mission Specialist Katiya Kuznetsov
· Mission Specialist Shireen Lanstrom
· Navigator Michael Dodds
· Medic Kurt Hollister
· Hydroponics Specialist Helen McLean
· Chief Engineer Sven Ackerman
· Reactor Engineer Bob Summerfield
· Life Support Engineer Jason Bartikovsky
· Hangar Engineer Nori Sumitomo
This portion of the campaign takes place in 2100 AD in the pre-interstellar Sol system. The Far Horizon is a deep space research vessel (DRV) built for the first manned mission to Pluto. While en route, the DRV is diverted to investigate Tartarus, an exoplanet briefly passing close enough to reach. The Far Horizon exploration of Tartarus reveals that it was once inhabited by intelligent life that developed some kind of faster than light propulsion. The FTL system is still active and malfunctioning, making the exploration very dangerous. They recover an example of the FTL drive and narrowly escape.
Session 16, Session 17, Session 18, Session 19
Five years later, the crew of the Far Horizon has returned home to find the world changed by a brutal interplanetary war that resulted in massive destruction on Earth. While returning from a freelance science mission to Enceladus, they divert to respond to an emergency aboard the Star of Rhea, a ship bound for Titan from Mars. They dock with it and find that there has been a murder and Rev. Kavanaugh, the leader of a strange religious sect that believes Jesus left secret messages on Mars to find paradise, seems to be the culprit. They capture him and take him back to Mars. There he is rescued by his men who are posing as police. They look into the strange Church of the Heavenly Stigmata and learn that it has been building a generation ship, Crimson Dawn, to go to a planet they believe is Eden. They head to the church’s museum where they meet with Kavanaugh again and he shows them ‘God’, a cube of red sand discovered by Saint Romilius that has communicated a set of coordinates to them. They believe that the cube is like a giant computer inspired by the word of god. Kavanaugh offers to take them on his ship to Eden, all but Farah decline.
Session 32, Session 33, Session 34
Diaspora 1118
Player characters:
· Aryanna
· Arenui (Deceased)
· M’han
· Zarf
· Hal
· Marvin
· Simi
This section of the campaign focuses on a group of travellers making their way through the Diapora Sector in 1118. The Solomani have been testing the rimward border and many of the imperial fleets have been recalled by Lucan to fight Dulinor. This particular group of characters has more in common with your classic Traveller space hobos. They all have recently mustered out of a career and are just trying to find their way in the universe one job at a time. The first arc of this section saw them take control of a scout ship that Zarf was entitled to in retirement and manage to get off the water world, Twinsong. They made their way to Last Exit in order to have the necessary repairs performed on the Prismatic Ray. While waiting for their ship to be ready, they had run ins with SolSec, Imperial Intelligence, a dealer in illegal Ancients artifacts, and a Zhodani ship in distress.
Session 21, Session 22, Session 23, Session 24, Session 25, Session 26, Session 27, Session 28, Session 29
In the second arc of this section of the campaign, the travellers, still waiting on their ship refit, hire a commercial liner to take the captured Zhodani and the kids they freed to a Navy base. While in transit, the ship is attacked by a hull eating virus and forced to drop out of jump far from any source of fuel. After one of the Zhodani gets loose, they are captured by an Ine Givar crew who hope to win favor with the Zhodani by returning the spies the travellers captured. While aboard the ship, they experience the strange effects of an alien artifact which the Ine Givar let them keep when the drop them in the middle of nowhere. They make their way back to Last Exit and retrieve their ship. Then, based on reports of strange radio interference around a gas giant, they begin making their way, one job at a time, towards Icestar. This arc ended on Soar when Arenui was killed while filming a wedding that turned into an assassination.
Session 40, Session 41, Session 42, Session 43, Session 44, Session 45, Session 46
The third arc of this section began with a new crewmember,
Simi, joining the travellers to replace Arenui. They continue to find work as
they make their way to Icestar. While on Daazu, the are surprised by Agent Chakraborty who tells them that Trow Backett was murdered and warns them to be careful.
The Invisible Hand 1118
Player characters:
· CDR van Borkus
· Hanzo de Groot
· CDR Yost van der Deen
· Carstairs
· Don Gerritson
· Capt. Tensley Brauer
The initial mission of the Invisible Hand sends the crew behind Solomani lines to smuggle some corrupted computer parts in and capture CAPT Smith, an important Solomani logistics officer. They manage to capture her in a daring operation in the Harp highport. In the process they learn that Dr. Delgado, Smith’s lover, is involved in some kind of important research on Landell station in the Wasat system. After their return to Daibei, Admiral Ten tells them to prepare for a trip deep into Solomani space to learn more about this research.
Session 36, Session 37, Session 38, Session 39
Comments
Post a Comment