Concept: 'Ancient' Aslan Based Dungeon Crawl - Thoughts?

[DeHammer]

For the sake of keeping things ever changing, I'm thinking of tossing an old fashion 'dungeon crawl' into the mix of adventures I am planning for our group. Our players have recently met a highly unusual male Aslan merchant and dealer in artifacts of antiquity. He operates out of Hradus inside the Imperium, and in the Borderlands region just outside the Imperium. He's a very unconventional Aslan in that he skirts both System & Imperial law but also ignores typical Aslan tribal & clan conventions, unless it serves a purpose in his business dealings. For instance, he thinks nothing of having a team raid an old Aslan crypt to retrieve Aslan artifacts for him to sell. But he cares enough to feign 'respect' by having the artifacts in the crypt replaced with respectable modern facsimiles (an upgrade in his mind)... in case someone should ever find out and accuse him of grave robbing an Aslan crypt.

Anyways, I'm looking to set the legend of this fallen Aslan warrior's crypt in the pre-Third Imperium era, so it's old enough to be considered somewhat 'ancient'. So maybe close to the year -1000 Imperial. But I want to get a handle on what the tech level the Aslan might be in that era. The founding clans of the Aslan Hierate date back to -2083, and they achieved jump capability around -2200 Imperial. So I would think they might not be too far behind what are now. Maybe TL 9 or TL 10? I think they are TL12 in 1105 iirc. It's just something I want to consider while formulating traps and puzzles, etc. In case I consider including more techie things like robots, computers, etc into the 'dungeon'.

Any thoughts about this concept?

 

[WHULorigan]

For the sake of keeping things ever changing, I'm thinking of tossing an old fashion 'dungeon crawl' into the mix of adventures I am planning for our group. Our players have recently met a highly unusual male Aslan merchant and dealer in artifacts of antiquity. He operates out of Hradus inside the Imperium, and in the Borderlands region just outside the Imperium. He's a very unconventional Aslan in that he skirts both System & Imperial law but also ignores typical Aslan tribal & clan conventions, unless it serves a purpose in his business dealings. For instance, he thinks nothing of having a team raid an old Aslan crypt to retrieve Aslan artifacts for him to sell. But he cares enough to feign 'respect' by having the artifacts in the crypt replaced with respectable modern facsimiles (an upgrade in his mind)... in case someone should ever find out and accuse him of grave robbing an Aslan crypt.

Anyways, I'm looking to set the legend of this fallen Aslan warrior's crypt in the pre-Third Imperium era, so it's old enough to be considered somewhat 'ancient'. So maybe close to the year -1000 Imperial. But I want to get a handle on what the tech level the Aslan might be in that era. The founding clans of the Aslan Hierate date back to -2083, and they achieved jump capability around -2200 Imperial. So I would think they might not be too far behind what are now. Maybe TL 9 or TL 10? I think they are TL12 in 1105 iirc. It's just something I want to consider while formulating traps and puzzles, etc. In case I consider including more techie things like robots, computers, etc into the 'dungeon'.

Any thoughts about this concept?

Well, Kusyu is TL14 in 1105, but much of the rest of the Hierate seems to average TL13 overall for the Tlaukhu Clans' civilian assets, IIRC.

Remember that at some point they crossed the J-5 Route to found the Trans-Rift Colonies (which can be done with multiple Jumps to make the J5 passages, of course).

 

[Terry Mixon]

Well, Kusyu is TL14 in 1105, but much of the rest of the Hierate seems to average TL13 overall for the Tlaukhu Clans' civilian assets, IIRC.

Remember that at some point they crossed the J-5 Route to found the Trans-Rift Colonies (which can be done with multiple Jumps to make the J5 passages, of course).

Teahehwaih Is TL 16 in 1105. Peak tech level in the Hierate.

 

[Garnfellow]

The first crossing of the Rift was -1040, and at that point some Aslan clans would have been at TL10 but with Jump-2 capability, so your base assumptions check out. By -1000 the Reach would have been very much like early Viking exploration of North America: the Aslan might have roamed quite a bit, tried to put down several different colonies, but probably didn't have critical mass to stay. An archeological site from that period might be very valuable, possibly proving or disproving Aslan or Imperial theories of settlement.

"The Aslan were never in Tobia subsector before -900! The so-called 'khauerlyel' site on Gor proves nothing! A couple of coins from a pre-Purge clan, some rusted tools, a fire pit? Those coins might have been in circulation for centuries. And don't get me started on the 'Song of Tawer', which was obviously composed in the -500s."

 

[Garnfellow]

Teahehwaih Is TL 16 in 1105. Peak tech level in the Hierate.

Teahehwaih is a very weird outlier. Personally, I treat it as having only limited TL G capabilities.

I suspect that if Marc's T5SS review had even gotten around to Afawahisa it would have been knocked that tech level down to TL F or even E. Older sector data files -- which often reflected a later time period than the 1105 baseline -- had lots of TL F and G worlds, and most of those were regressed in the T5SS.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Teahehwaih is a very weird outlier. Personally, I treat it as having only limited TL G capabilities.

I suspect that if Marc's T5SS review had even gotten around to Afawahisa it would have been knocked that tech level down to TL F or even E. Older sector data files -- which often reflected a later time period than the 1105 baseline -- had lots of TL F and G worlds, and most of those were regressed in the T5SS.

That’s fine, but the wiki writeup is pretty clear that it isn’t a mistake and really is that advanced and even explains why, though it has some seriously negative drains on its output. For me, I’ll treat it as canon and roll with it.

Teahehwaih (world) - Traveller

wiki.travellerrpg.com

 

[Sigtrygg]

I would ignore the wiki and make up a better reason for the high TL, and further explain why that tech has not been spread to the Aslan as a whole.

The core concept of the Dark Nebula game was the Solomani/Aslan conflict over alien relics. While the wiki says it is not Ancients, it could be relic tech taken from the Dark Nebula cache.
An alternative is that Aslan returning from pre-Maghiz Darrian space established a high TL enclave, and it is their Darrian heritage that restricts the technology from the other Aslan clans - and being TL16 the TL14 clans stand no chance of taking it by force - especially with a potential star trigger MAD.

 

[steelbrok]

I thought Alsan settlement in Darrian SS was post-Maghiz?

 

[Sigtrygg]

Some brave souls made the trip centuries before... it is clutching a straws since the wiki version makes no sense in universe.

Aslan crossed the Great Rift in AD3474, the Maghiz isn't until AD3594, do there could be some trade in that 120 years.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Some brave souls made the trip centuries before... it is clutching a straws since the wiki version makes no sense in universe.

Aslan crossed the Great Rift in AD3474, the Maghiz isn't until AD3594, do there could be some trade in that 120 years.

Some enterprising Aslan spy stole their entire tech database, and they were too embarrassed to admit it.

 

[collins355]

I think the wiki entry on Teahehwaih is an uncredited precis of MJD's Great Rift book 2 entry. See what you think...

 

[Terry Mixon]

I think the wiki entry on Teahehwaih is an uncredited precis of MJD's Great Rift book 2 entry. See what you think...

View attachment 7034

I think you're right. Thanks for the reference.

 

[WHULorigan]

I would ignore the wiki and make up a better reason for the high TL, and further explain why that tech has not been spread to the Aslan as a whole.

The core concept of the Dark Nebula game was the Solomani/Aslan conflict over alien relics. While the wiki says it is not Ancients, it could be relic tech taken from the Dark Nebula cache.
An alternative is that Aslan returning from pre-Maghiz Darrian space established a high TL enclave, and it is their Darrian heritage that restricts the technology from the other Aslan clans - and being TL16 the TL14 clans stand no chance of taking it by force - especially with a potential star trigger MAD.

What about a combination of the two.

Certain pre-Maghiz Aslan became aware of the Darrians and had scientific, intellectual, and some mercantile intercourse with them before the Maghiz hit Darrian Space for about ~ 120 years. Though the Aslan themselves did not necessarily possess the advanced technological base or infrastructure, the superior knowledge they acquired from the Darrians allowed them to exploit and reverse engineer relic alien artifacts later discovered in the Dark Nebula (over which they came into conflict with the Old Earth Union), and their knowledge and abilities have become a closely guarded clan (or pride) secret, and their reputation legendary.


ADDENDUM: I like this enough that I am half tempted to add this to the wiki description to flesh it out and footnote it as an Unpublished non-canon wiki contribution.

 

[DeHammer]

Wow, awesome information all. That's a treasure trove of info for me to explore more fully. Much appreciated.

 

[DeHammer]

The first crossing of the Rift was -1040, and at that point some Aslan clans would have been at TL10 but with Jump-2 capability, so your base assumptions check out. By -1000 the Reach would have been very much like early Viking exploration of North America: the Aslan might have roamed quite a bit, tried to put down several different colonies, but probably didn't have critical mass to stay. An archeological site from that period might be very valuable, possibly proving or disproving Aslan or Imperial theories of settlement.

"The Aslan were never in Tobia subsector before -900! The so-called 'khauerlyel' site on Gor proves nothing! A couple of coins from a pre-Purge clan, some rusted tools, a fire pit? Those coins might have been in circulation for centuries. And don't get me started on the 'Song of Tawer', which was obviously composed in the -500s."

Awesome! Thanks so much. I like the idea of making this particular warrior part of an ancient (by Aslan jump affiliated exploration standards) clan that he 'jump started' on Hradus, but for some reason the much of the history was lost to time... perhaps the clan fizzled out at some point only to be supplanted in the system by another clan.

 

[Garnfellow]

I thought Alsan settlement in Darrian SS was post-Maghiz?

Yes, but . . .

CT Alien Module 8 had the Maghiz occur in -925/-924, so after the -1044 crossing of the Rift -- making Pre-Maghiz Darrian-Aslan contact possible.

This is supported by GURPS Traveller: Sword Worlds, which claimed that "Mithril had prehistoric populations of both Aslan and Darrians. An unknown group of [misjumped] Aslan settled the world some time prior to -905; these Aslan were responsible for the Aslan Chasm" (7), which was "the earliest known sign of the Aslan in the Spinward Marches" (73).

(I'm not familiar with MgT Sword Worlds, so I don't know if that book is consistent with anything in GT:SW.)

So if early Aslan explorers did contact the Darrians prior to the Maghiz, they probably didn't settle on Darrian worlds proper -- or if they did were maybe wiped out in the Maghiz. The Aslan on Mithril, for example, were described as having died out around -880. This is consistent with the analogy to Vikings in North America: maybe the Aslan came, maybe they saw, but they didn't seem to stay or survive.

So Aslan could have carried Darrian technology back to the Hierate, but probably would have had to keep it under tight wraps during the Cultural Purge to avoid the fate of the Trui’kt or Trui’ah.

AM8 described the "Arrival of the Aslan" in the Spinward Marches as happening in 585, "on the eve of the First Frontier War." This would be a totally separate migration. Perhaps neither the Darrians nor the Aslan in the Imperial era knew about the earlier contact as anything other than legend.

 

[WHULorigan]

By -1000 the Reach would have been very much like early Viking exploration of North America: the Aslan might have roamed quite a bit, tried to put down several different colonies, but probably didn't have critical mass to stay. An archeological site from that period might be very valuable, possibly proving or disproving Aslan or Imperial theories of settlement.

"The Aslan were never in Tobia subsector before -900! The so-called 'khauerlyel' site on Gor proves nothing! A couple of coins from a pre-Purge clan, some rusted tools, a fire pit? Those coins might have been in circulation for centuries. And don't get me started on the 'Song of Tawer', which was obviously composed in the -500s."

Too many isolated colonies of regressed Rule of Man era expedition descendants running around screeching and screaming like "Skraelings" for a nice respectable and honorable neighborhood . . .

 

[Garnfellow]

Too many isolated colonies of regressed Rule of Man era expedition descendants running around screeching and screaming like "Skraelings" for a nice respectable and honorable neighborhood . . .

Doesn't it sound like a kick-ass game?