Anti Slavery League - An Adventure Background Idea

phavoc

Emperor Mongoose
Here's something I've been working on in my copious (cough) spare time... It's not totally complete but it's been fun fleshing it out thus far.

History

The Anti Slavery League, or ASL, was formally established in 697 in the Solomani subsector by the merging of a number of groups opposed to slavery and servitude. Prior to the formal establishment there had been a number of other groups located inside the Imperium, each with their own specific agenda and process in opposing slavery. The majority of the founding members were average citizens who found slavery in any form to be abhorrent and attempted to fight against through legal means. However the majority of the funding came from a small, but extremely wealthy and influential mix of merchanters and nobility. The public face of the ASL was created to legitimize lobbying the Imperial government and different planetary governments for changes in laws that made it illegal to have slaves in any form (such as indentured servitude, or debts that were passed from parent to child). At first the ASL made some headway in the Moot, and had varying degrees of success at the local sector or system level. But the nature of the Imperium left the individual systems and planets to make and enforce their own laws regarding slavery. And there were always those within the ASL who believed that other means would always be necessary to stop slavery.

In 779 a group of ASL members, led by Countess Van Amsbridge, grew frustrated with the slow pace of change. They felt the changes to this point were going too slow, not to mention that in some areas the slave trade was increasing and more people were being forced into slavery. The Countess gathered together a handful of other members who felt as she did – that the system needed a violent ‘shove’ in the right direction. Together with the more militant members of the ASL who had never given up violence as a means to action, the covert arm of the ASL was born.

Van Amsbridges’ group immediately began planning increased activities to free slaves. They quickly identified their first target, a small slaver facility on a backwater planet that was used as a clearinghouse and storage facility for slaves in transit. Through judiciously place bribes the facility and slavers operated under the radar of planetary officials, as well as the occasional use of slaves by the officials. Using her own not inconsiderate resources, Van Amsbridge purchased a small jump-capable liner that was to become the first vessel of the ASL. A small group of mercenaries was recruited to train her followers and prepare them for combat operations. Six months later she deemed the group ready to make their first freedom raid.

The initial raid had very mixed results. Twenty-eight people died during the raid, including six slaves and eight of the freedom raiders. But the facility was destroyed, fourteen slavers were killed and fifty-five slaves were rescued. The raid also netted the ASL the entire data store from the slavers operations, outlining individuals involved in obtaining and selling slaves, where the slaves had originated and where they had been placed. The information also contained information on the slavers ships and other locations of facilities where slaves were kept or were trans-shipped through. Van Amsbridge considered the raid an overall success. With the information gleaned from the interrogation of the slavers as well as information pulled from their computer systems, Van Amsbridge and her group of freedom fighters conducted another half-dozen raids over the next year. As the group became more professional, and with the hardening of the original recruits, fewer of the freedom raiders (and slaves) died during the raids. Though one constant always remained – any slavers found during the raid were always executed, oftentimes in a very painful and gruesome way, with the bodies left on display to send a bloody message to any other slavers foolish enough to engage in slaving.

As word spread of the raids and accusations and denials were made, the ASL leadership council conducted it’s own investigation and determined who was behind the raids. When brought before the leadership of the full council in a secret meeting, Van Amsbridge was defiant in her defense of her raiders. She was unrepentant and accused the council members of aiding and abetting the slavers for “doing nothing” to free the unfortunate who were forced into slavery. Eventually the two sides reached an accommodation – Van Amsbridge would be free to continue her raids provided that there was no link to the ASL, and that the raiders stopped making such public examples of what happens to any slavers unfortunate enough to be caught. The council also decided to formally fund Van Amsbrides group, with the provision that the members have formal training, and that it be run as a formal and properly equipped paramilitary organization. Publicly the council decried the loss of life, but also welcomed the fact that these mysterious citizens were freeing people taken against their will. The authorities, with few exceptions, found little information to go on, and were unable to publicly go after the ASL in response to the raids.
Meanwhile the smarter slaver groups began to see a pattern to the raids. Using their resources, and those of the politicians and planetary authorities they had co-opted, they began to push back against all ASL operations. Up to this point they had considered them to be an annoyance, but like any other law, one they could deal with. The raids, however, were forcing them to begin adopting an entirely different mindset for their operations. They began to deploy their own security forces at facilities, with mixed success. They also began to compartmentalize their operations to make it harder for the ASL to disrupt their business.

Over the next 100 years, as the ASL formally spread throughout all sectors of the Imperium, additional covert groups were formed. The ASL leadership continues to officially disavow the existence of an armed body within the ASL. Actual knowledge of the groups and where they are based is a tightly-controlled secret. And while the raiders are not officially sanctioned by any Imperial authority, there are a few civil and military personnel in every sector that have a ‘relationship’ of sorts with the ASL and are willing to turn a blind eye to their operations whenever possible.

Organization

The public face of the ASL council is located in the Imperial capital system to be close to the seat of power and influence. Each sector has its own leadership council, and, where possible, each subsector has its own group. This helps in two ways – the first being that it allows coordination of activities and a common message across the Imperium. The second being that it allows each sub-group a reasonably short time delay related to control and communication.
The covert groups operate independently at the sector level. While local leadership provides information and public identification/condemnation of potential targets, all decisions based on armed intervention are exclusively made by the local covert commander. The ships and equipment available to each group varies widely, and is primarily based upon the locally-sourced resources. Most ships are 200-400 ton range, with a few larger ones available for raids that might require them. Ground troops are equipped with an average of TL12 equipment. The standard ground troop wears combat armor and a gauss rifle. Some units have G-carriers as well for support. Most units use standard civilian anti-grav vehicles (trucks, panel vans, etc) to blend into the local traffic as much as possible.

ASL for Traveller Settings

ASL adventures can be easily incorporate into your existing Traveller campaigns. Your PC’s can work either with the ASL in freeing slaves, as part of the security forces protecting the slavers, or they can be tossed into the middle of the ongoing covert war between the two sides. Here are a few adventure seeds:

Operation Doublecross – The PC’s are approached by an ASL operative for their assistance in freeing a group of young women who have been recently taken and are destined to be sold as pleasure slaves. The ASL operative needs the PC’s to help storm a small facility located in the countryside where the girls are being temporarily held. There are only half a dozen women being guarded by four slavers. The slavers have already beaten or cowed the young women into submission so their guard is down, so how hard could this be for a group of adventurer’s like the PC’s? Upon the success of the raid the ASL operative promises a reward of Cr50,000. After the rescue an unmarked ground effects vehicle shows up to take the girls away to a safehouse where they will be debriefed and provided assistance to return home. Unfortunately the PC’s will find out after the girls are “rescued” that the ASL operative is really working for a rival slavers gang and the PC’s assistance in removing the rivals AND adding to their stock is greatly appreciated, though the only renumeration provided is a firefight. Can the PC’s survive the doublecross and rescue the young women a second time?
 
phavoc said:
Van Amsbridge would be free to continue her raids provided that there was no link to the ASL
phavoc said:
The council also decided to formally fund Van Amsbrides group
No link but formally funded?

I'm a little confused on the setting. The Mongoose material I have, which is far from complete, is a bit vague on the details but in the OTU Imperium slavery is outlawed.
phavoc said:
established in 697 in the Solomani subsector
Not familiar with the Solomani subsector. Which mongoose publication is this in? Or did you mean Sol subsector? Solomani Rim sector?

Are you using one of the 3rd party settings or your own? What is the date of your setting?
 
CosmicGamer said:
No link but formally funded?
Yes, to both. :D They do provide off-the-books funds to the militant arm, i.e. formal funding. But in essence they use the funds to also have a bit of a leash on them. Much like the NSA lies to Congress with a straight face about how they do things.

CosmicGamer said:
I'm a little confused on the setting. The Mongoose material I have, which is far from complete, is a bit vague on the details but in the OTU Imperium slavery is outlawed.
To the best of my recollections, OTU allowed slavery on individual worlds. Imperial law didn't say it was legal/illegal. Worlds are allowed to be douchebags so long as they don't trouble the Imperium as a whole. So it's (as far as I can tell) a gray area. If you got boarded by Imperials in space, you no longer can say "slavery is legal on world X, so these are my property". Imperials might allow them to walk off, might now.

The MGT Merchants Prince supplement talks about slavery, and even has a career path. But it, too, seems to indicate its a world-by-world issue. I didn't see anything in there that would cover what happens between space. Though if you see something, or anyone else does, please do share!

CosmicGamer said:
Not familiar with the Solomani subsector. Which mongoose publication is this in? Or did you mean Sol subsector? Solomani Rim sector?
Yes, I'm referring to the Solomani Rim subsector.

CosmicGamer said:
Are you using one of the 3rd party settings or your own? What is the date of your setting?
Since I've not run across anything that contradicts my interpretation, I would say this would be applicable in any Traveller setting. And date wise is indeterminate, aside from the founding. I suppose similar factions/groups could be traced to multiple sectors and worlds throughout the Traveller timeline, but it's just easier to plop it down like this and go from there. Easier for me to start from a point anyway. I didn't want to get too detailed or complex, as it would not contribute anything useful to the background. And if you wanted to add more detail for your own, it's open enough to blow it out to your hearts content.
 
To the best of my recollections, OTU allowed slavery on individual worlds. Imperial law didn't say it was legal/illegal. Worlds are allowed to be douchebags so long as they don't trouble the Imperium as a whole. So it's (as far as I can tell) a gray area. If you got boarded by Imperials in space, you no longer can say "slavery is legal on world X, so these are my property". Imperials might allow them to walk off, might now.

Exactly. It may be legal to take them on world (a), and legal to sell them on world (b). The tricky part is getting from (a) to (b) without...imperial entanglements...because it's theoretically illegal to move them through imperial space.
 
locarno24 said:
Exactly. It may be legal to take them on world (a), and legal to sell them on world (b). The tricky part is getting from (a) to (b) without...imperial entanglements...because it's theoretically illegal to move them through imperial space.

It's not listed anywhere that says it's against Imperial laws. So it would be problematical I think if you got stopped and boarded by the Imperium in transit. I would think that the odds are your prisoners would get to go free if they so chose, since slavery is frowned upon by most. And a slaver can't claim a commercial exception for his property being taken if the law doesn't explicitly classify people as potential property.
 
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