Background on Victoria in Lanth Subsector

[BenQ]

Hi, wonder if anyone can help? I'm new to Traveller - somehow missed it when it first came around, and have recently picked up the new Mongoose version. Looking forward to running a mini-campaign with my regular gaming group soon, and am contemplating using the Imperium setting. Here's the catch, the rest of the group didn't miss it when it first came around...

Going through the new Spinward Marches supplement, looking for somewhere to base the campaign, I've settled upon Victoria in the Lanth Subsector (p. 83). This seems to be a setting that offers up all sorts of opportunities for game hooks at a number of different levels. It hints at all sorts of stuff. Before I dive in, is this an area which has been expanded upon before in the Traveller 'Canon' - obviously My Traveller Will Vary - but it could be confusing if I offer up background to this area that conflicts with what players may have been very familiar with before. Also, if there is good additional information about the area from previous editions, naturally that will save me some set up time!

Cheers!

Ben

 

[Stuie]

The Journal of TAS issue #2 has an article on Victoria - not sure how much is repeated by the Mongoose book. That's the only canon source I can think of.

 

[alex_greene]

Victoria, and its moon Albert, were a heavy Ancient fortification until Yaskoydray (Grandfather, the Ancient, the mutation who was the first and best of his kind) came along and basically dropped large nickel iron deadfall ordnance on it, almost splitting the planet apart.

Victoria did not, however, fly apart, but resettled in its present form, with its weird islands separated by canyons kilometres deep yet only a few hundred metres apart.

Albert has an active Ancient base still on it reminiscent of the Selenites' base in H G Wells' "The First Men In The Moon." In fact, with continents called "Darwin" and "Huxley," and I think there's a "Newton" in there somewhere, Victoria is supposed to come across as having this Steampunk Victorian feel to it, only with very little metal available they don't have much chance of building the sort of Big Machines even to achieve powered atmospheric flight, let alone space travel.

The Navy keep the world interdicted because there are some useful post-TL 15 technologies still housed on Albert, in hidden underground bunkers and Ancient-built laboratories which remained active simply because all attention was being turned to blasting its primary into rubble.

The atmosphere on Victoria is dense and unbreathably tainted at the foot of these canyons, a kind of soupy mist that defeats every known kind of filter and which gradually induces confusion and disorientation and ultimately coma and death over a period of weeks. I remember reading the name of the gas in the JTAS article - it was something like methyl oxychloride or ethyl oxychloride, IIRC - but I left the damned thing back on the shelf of my FLGS, so I can't confirm or deny this just yet. The locals risk their health mining at this depth simply because this is where Victria's mineable surface metals are concentrated: at the sites where the metal rocks fell, 300 millennia ago.

I believe Victoria gave up some more of her, er, secrets in the CT Short Adventure "Annic Nova" and, later, in an account of an adventure at the start of the CT LBB Adventure 12, "Secret of The Ancients." Apparently, a prized animal to go big game hunting after on Victoria is called the ivory gazelle, and at least one Ancient base - typically a residence - remains intact and unseen on the surface of Victoria, concealed by thick jungles and apparently undetectable by any known sensor technology, just waiting to be looted by tomb robbing player characters.

Just beware of those TL 18+ traps ...