Aslan Route Interlude: A Tangled Web

"All of us are limited mortal creatures with finite amounts of time, energy and focus. We can't afford to spend it on trifles when there is more important and more satisfying work to be done. Instead, focus on what you need and what you enjoy." - Kevin Crawford, Worlds Without Number

Group schedules give me an excuse to pause the campaign for two weeks while I figure out what's going one and where to go next. The only thing I'm sure of at this point is that the next session has to involve a fight on Cordan; as an experiment I told the group that there would definitely be a fight next time, and there was less pushback than I expected given the amount of effort the PCs devote to avoiding any form of combat.

I need the break, as I'm very low on spoons and have no idea where the campaign is going next or how to plan it. Over the years I've tried and discarded a number of options for this:

• Published adventures. By the time I've ruled out the ones we've already played, the ones that don't fit the setting, and the ones that don't appeal, there's not much left.
• Flat-out sandbox. This group prefers a quest-giving patron who gives them an objective.
• Old School procedurally-generated encounters using Classic Traveller, Solo and 5150. These all work well for solo play, but there I can stop and think about the implications and logical next steps for days at a time; the pace of group games demands better improvisational skills than I have demonstrated of late.
• Stars Without Number factions. Great in principle, but I struggle to maintain the required discipline.

Now, in a typical campaign, I could throw in regular fights to buy time, but that doesn't work very well for this group.

NPCs and Plot Threads

1. Only Mazun knows about this one: IISS covert operations (Mazun's employer). They want intelligence on the Hierate, and may be behind the emergence of the Fury. Mazun's handler is on Cordan, probably embedded in the starport staff.
2. Only Vila knows about this one: The Shugaka crime syndicate (Vila's Enemy). They want to revenge themselves on Vila for his pre-campaign actions. The syndicate is more active the closer you get to Imperial space, but since Cordan is a trade hub situated where the two biggest trade routes in the sector join, it's reasonable for them to have connections with any smugglers or pirates nearby.
3. The Scientific Advisory Council of Tech-World (Dr Matauranga's rivals). They would like independence from GeDeCo, but we've already played out that thread in an earlier campaign so don’t expect it this time around. Matauranga wants to show them who the real scientist is, but having kicked him out, they seem content to leave him alone. Their indifference is probably more irritating than anything else they could do.
4. Only Rex knows about this one: Rex's pirate connections, based out of Umemii. The Law of Conservation of NPCs mandates that they should include the vargr corsairs who flattened the House of Shrouded Mirrors on Pourne. Rex has gone to some lengths to distance himself from the corsairs he knew in his misspent youth. Vargr corsairs could show up anywhere - if nothing else, they need to overhaul their ships too - and make mercury fulminate look stable.
5. The Fury, some sort of expansionist mind-controlling effect using the Sindalian Empire Reborn (i.e. Drinax) as a front, and possibly triggered by IISS activity.
6. The monastery on Sink, which is a front for some sort of giant psychic hive mind that lives in a swamp. It doesn't like the Fury and is pondering what to do about it.
7. The nymphomaniac Cult of Sindal on Blue. They want a Sindalian relic from Collace, and offered the Macavity a commission to recover it. The PCs are not sure if the cult blames them for the government raid that smoked them out of their temple.
8. The official government of Blue, who want to suppress the Cult of Sindal as it threatens their own dominance (and allying with Sindal didn't do them much good last time). The PCs are wanted on Blue for suspected aiding and abetting of terrorists and traffic violations.
9. The Rea’a Hrilkhir, an aslan organised crime syndicate based on Tyokh (and which thanks to the PCs' actions now has control of The World, it is unclear why they wanted this). This syndicate wants respectability through being able to sheep-dip its outcastes into a proper clan; expect them to try making the Prince an offer he can’t refuse. The PCs have met the syndicate’s leader, the female Okheai, also known as “the Alley Cat”
10. The Android Liberation Front, who wish to 'rescue' self-aware androids from Tech-World (the Scientific Advisory Council would call this 'theft'). This powerful organisation currently has six members, an abandoned pirate base in the Exe system, and a deal with the Macavity.
11. Clan Iuwoi, with which the PCs are aligned. A minor clan based on Tyokh, with an outpost on Sink. Notable members include Prince Hteleitoirl, who has claimed the PCs as his boon companions; and Ahoakhi, the starport authority on Sink.
12. Elehasei (“Ellie”) has an understanding with the Prince and they will marry once his exile ends (127-1106, i.e. week 19 or so). He is marrying up, she is from the wealthier Clan Aftei.
13. Clan Htyowao, clan Iuwoi's rival. A minor clan based on Tyokh, which has beef with Clan Iuwoi.
14. Sister Raquel, a hacker from Pourne who joined the monastery on Sink to get off-planet when authorities on Pourne got too close to her. Last seen on Tech-World after volunteering for missionary work there (episode 10).
15. Dr Matauranga has a curious spike made of precious metals and engraved with who-knows-what which he picked up on the way out of the House of Shrouded Mirrors (episode 11).

That's... more than I thought was going on. I should be able to work something out from that.

Behind the Curtain

The PCs know two things about the Fury which will combine to dispose of it eventually if they don't get rid of it first; the effect is expanding from Drinax at lightspeed, except where the Sindalian Empire Reborn places a menhir to relay it outside its current sphere of influence, and second, the field doesn't affect aslan, as they were never genetically manipulated by the Ancients.

The first of these is sheer laziness on my part, as the alternative was investing a lot of effort in playing out domain-level NPC-on-NPC action off-camera, and that didn't appeal to me at all. The second seemed a logical extension of the fact that IMTU ("In My Traveller Universe") aslan can never be psionic.

Consequently, if the PCs continue to ignore the Fury, sometime in early 1108 it will absorb Pourne, which will make the Fury too big a threat for the local aslan clans to ignore; they will gang up on it, probably stomp it flat in short order, and possibly trigger the big Imperium-Hierate war everyone is trying to avoid.

However, by that point I expect this campaign to be over, and if not, we will skip gaily off into another sector, our path lit by the Trojan Reach burning behind us; I don't expect us to keep playing in that sector after this campaign closes.

Worlds

For the foreseeable future, it seems likely the Macavity will be plying a jump-2 route anchored at one end by Mazun’s handler on Cordan, and at the other by the Clan Iuwoi landhold on Sink, with occasional visits to the clan’s main holding on Tyokh.

This means the primary worlds for the next few sessions will be Cordan, Exe, Paal, Sink, Tech-World, and Tyokh, so I will focus my attention on those for the short term.

For the second interlude, I'll take a look at who is knocking around on Cordan, and what interactions the PCs may stumble upon. More of that next week.