The Aslan Route: The Story So Far...

"Traveller is a game about space truckers that sometimes solve murder mysteries." - Rick Stump

This campaign has been rolling for a few months now, and rather than repeat the session writeups so far, here's a quick summary. (If you want the full details, you can find them here under the Aslan Route heading.)

The rules are Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, the setting is the Trojan Reach of the Official Traveller Universe, Charted Space; we finished The Pirates of Drinax campaign a couple of years ago, and now we're playing in the sandbox.

The first phase of the campaign was based on Reach Adventure 5: The Borderland Run, and it has just taken a sharp left turn into the Bulldogs! campaign Heart of the Fury. Who knows where it'll end up?

Dramatis Personae

• Captain Mazun Ashran, an IISS agent posing as the captain of the far trader Macavity.
• Vila Restal, ship's engineer, on the run from the Shugaka crime family.
• Dr Theosopholous Matauranga, ship's doctor, exiled from Tech-World for breaching the Council's ethical standards, such as they are.
• Grrrrshagrikrigggggrrsh AKA “Rex”, Vargr ex-corsair. Or so he claims.

Episodes

Time periods shown include jumpspace travel, takeoffs and landings.

1. Self-Loading Cargo. Fist, 001-1105 to 003-1105. The crew of the Macavity are chartered to take an aslan ihatei, Prince Hteleitoirl, from Fist to Tyokh. They discover that several other parties are looking for him, with unknown intentions, but eventually track him down and sneak him aboard. Vila recognises him as the leader of the recent failed conquest of Arunisiir, thwarted by mercenaries.
2. Blue-Skinned Space Babes. Iilgan, Exocet and Blue, 006-1105 to 035-1105. The Macavity delivers a cargo of tailored bacteria to a vegetable grower on Iilgan, which cargo they know has been tampered with. The crew come up with a scheme which allows them to leave without getting embroiled in the investigation. Dr Matauranga is kidnapped by blue-skinned space babes on Blue.
3. Death by Snu-Snu. Blue, 036-1105 to 043-1105. Rescuing Dr Matauranga from the temple of a nymphomaniac cult on Blue, the Macavity lifts off without an approved flight plan and jumps to Clarke. The crew are now wanted on Blue for traffic violations, contempt of court, and suspected aiding and abetting of known terrorists.
4. Scavs, Bounty Hunters, and Mercs. Clarke, 044-1105 to 054-1105. While looking for cargo on Clarke, the Travellers encounter bounty hunters looking for their passenger, Prince Hteleitoirl, who offer to split the bounty with them if they turn him in. Returning to the ship, they find the Prince about to fight a duel with a member of a rival clan, and assist him in obtaining an honourable draw. Later, in hyperspace, he talks about the abortive attack on Arunisiir; it seems likely he was set up, and the leak is either from a clan factor on Sink or some old friends on The World.
5. Black is the New Black. Torpol, Drinax, Hilfer and Sink, 056-1105 to 090-1105. Relaxing on Torpol is interrupted by the appearance of the Sindalian Empire Reborn, which annexes Torpol and the Grehai Movement by unknown means. Moving on to Sink, the crew of the Macavity sneak into the residence of the aslan factor while he and the Prince are out on a sightseeing tour. Vila, Mazun and Dr Matauranga are discovered by the household staff, but Rex remains hidden.
6. Unclogging the Sink. Sink and The World, 091-1105 to 103-1105. Escaping the household staff, the Macavity arrives at The World, where Prince Hteleitoirl’s old friends are on a security contract. His fiancee Elehasei secretly explains to the crew that they are taking the Prince home to be executed, and asks them to take him somewhere else instead. While everyone else is at a feast held in the Prince’s honour, Vila is working on the ship. A shadow falls across him and a slurred voice accuses him of snubbing the Prince by staying away from the feast.
7. Cui Bono? The World and Tyokh, 104-1104 to 112-1105. Vila talks his way out of trouble. The crew of the Macavity deliver Prince Hteleitoirl to his family estate on Tyokh in the nick of time, and convince the independent arbiter that he was betrayed by rivals in the Htyowao clan. He is declared innocent, and Rex fights the clan champion to first blood so that the people who came to see a duel are not disappointed. The Prince’s father, the Iuwoi clanlord, gives them prosthetic duelling claws they can wear to demonstrate their honour, and asks to meet them privately to discuss future employment.
8. Attempted Betrothal. Tyokh, 113-1105 to 126-1105. The crew of the Macavity fail to successfully conclude marriage negotiations between Prince Hteleitoirl’s clan, the Iuwoi, and that of Elehasei, the Aftei. They carry the Prince into a one year exile on Sink.
9. Monastic Disorders. Sink, 127-1105 to 136-1105. Investigating the monastery on Sink, the PCs discover it has a gold mine and jewellery shop supporting a hospice. Their former free trader contact has probably been impressed into the Drinaxian Star Guard, so the Macavity offers to take over that run. At night, Vila breaks into the monastery and copies all their digital data.
10. Swamp Thing. Sink, Byrni, Ergo, Tech-World, Paal, and back to Sink, 136-1105 to 210-1105. The Macavity takes over cargo runs from Sink. The purloined records indicate the cult is an offshoot of Buddhism, and believes being buried in the swamp allows one to pass directly to nirvana without death and rebirth. The missionary on Byrni, Brother Christian, is concerned by the Sindalian Empire Reborn, saying "the Fury is on the move again" and asking to be taken back to Sink. With almost two months for the crew to wheedle secrets out of him, they learn that the swamp is not a hive mind, but something closer to a data storage unit, hungry for information-dense input; the monks recruit the terminally ill, saying they can live forever in the nirvana of the swamp, and it records their personalities; they are not entirely part of a hive mind, but nor are they entirely individuals. Sometimes, the swamp needs direct contact with the monastery, and it regurgitates one of the hospice patients; this is how abbots are made. Some stored data are highly confidential, and kept in a secure satellite facility on Pourne: The House of Shrouded Mirrors.