The Congress of Arden

[FreeTrav]

Hans, flesh this out a bit, and forward it to Freelance Traveller - the idea as you've outlined it here screams "Featured Article".

"Fleshing it out" would include providing a bit more of a timeline of the immediate history (5FW) (why is Norris missing?) (etc.), and perhaps listing a few possible goals for each participant (as well as explaining why some of the participants are present at all (e.g., the Avalars, and some of the single-delegate worlds that are also members of larger polities)).

While I don't think there are necessarily going to be enough people at TravellerCON/USA this year to actually run this, I'd love to see enough info et cetera to be able to put this together into something that Timothy Collinson might want to run at the 2015 TravellerCON in the UK...

 

[DonM]

Here... I'll provide some additional details...

The Rhylanor target for the Zhos was actually Marc's storyline from the MegaTraveller period. It was supposed to have been the foundation of the MegaTraveller 2: Quest for the Ancients, but Marc could not get Paragon to understand his explanations, so that game was released as it was...

So the Erdriad Erdriap and Erdriap Chensh are old ideas that just hadn't been published previously. And the interaction between them and the Fienzhatshtiavl was worked out between Marc and I in several discussions over the Zhodani.

Remember that details about the threat of the Fienzhatshtiavl were very limited during the 3FW, and the 4FW was a mistake.

 

[rancke]

I prefer the classic (that is to say, MT ) version of Zhodani motivations and the MT2 version of the Ancient artifact on Rhylanor.

And I will repeat my claim that given a decent budget and a couple of decades I'd undertake to get any artifact on Rhylanor that is actually movable and isn't actively defended by the Imperials without having to resort to one war, let alone five.


Hans

 

[Carlobrand]

... And I will repeat my claim that given a decent budget and a couple of decades I'd undertake to get any artifact on Rhylanor that is actually movable and isn't actively defended by the Imperials without having to resort to one war, let alone five. ...

Agreed. If it's anything halfway portable and the Impies don't know enough to defend it, then it becomes the interest of some minor university professor who's a Zho agent, gets shipped off and quietly slips into Zho hands that way. Heck, even something the size of a planetoid cruiser can be moved - if nothing else, a few jumps takes it to Regina and then you swallow Regina, much easier to accomplish and more likely to stick than a deep thrust at one of the Imperium's most important industrial centers. If it's not portable, the same ruse gets it cautiously studied and monitored; if the Impies get wise to it and they decide the Impies can't have it, they have a chance to destroy it - and I might point out that very little can survive a drop into a sun or a gas giant. Making a direct thrust into the heart of the sector is not taking the long view; it's a very big, very expensive gamble that might not have (and in the OTU did not) pan out.

On the other hand, this is apparently Mongoose canon, so I can't quibble too much. I'll just park it alongside that Dallas-Dream-Season bit about someone assassinating the Emperor and Virus breaking out.

 

[Drakon]

I prefer the classic (that is to say, MT ) version of Zhodani motivations and the MT2 version of the Ancient artifact on Rhylanor.

And I will repeat my claim that given a decent budget and a couple of decades I'd undertake to get any artifact on Rhylanor that is actually movable and isn't actively defended by the Imperials without having to resort to one war, let alone five.


Hans

The object is 35,000 Dtons in size. Its the size of a battleship. If it is underground, we are talking major execavation to expose it. Forget lifting it off planet in the dead of night. We are talking a major and expensive undertaking to remove the device. Which is going to get noticed.

If you are able to utilize the device in situ, simply buy the land over the top. A family farm on top, hiding the secret zhodani base.:devil:

 

[mike wightman]

Agreed, the aforementioned group of Imperial adventurers find it.

Zhodani middle men then start buying up the land/homes/factories that hide it away.

They then start building your secret facility. It takes a bit of time, but wouldn't cost you more than a trillion credits - the cost of a fleet

What happens in the computer game this is based on?

 

[Hyphen]

What happens in the computer game this is based on?

At the very start of the game, the device gets triggered and starts releasing goop (I'm serious) all over Rhylanor. It will be completely covered in [insert failing memory here] days.

All you have to do is to travel to EVERY ANCIENT SITE (*) in the game (i.e. pretty much every world - including ones you never knew had a site) and find other artefacts that will allow you to turn the device off.

Never finished it, so I don't know how it ends. (* this is why - I didn't know this requirement until a few years ago, and I've had the game since the 80's!)

 

[Hyphen]

After all, the purpose is to create as many interesting features for an LARP event as possible (I'm only sorry I can't think of a way to get Aslans involved ), not to come up with the very most plausible historical events. That's the main reason I'm proposing setting it in an alternate universe.

Well, since you're already through the looking glass, you could use IMTU's version of Tavonni. Basically, the planetary foundation events shown in our TNE version actually occur around mid-1105, so Tavonni has a (small!) local navy and a bunch of Aslan mercenaries when the Swordies show up.

One possible scenario you could use is that Tavonni has been taken (or even invaded.)

The Aslan have been part-paid with land on the planet, so are understandably interested in what's going to happen at the negotiating table...

(What a great freeform! And just imagine if an Aslan is insulted: ritual combat - and much GM hilarity - ensues...!)

 

[Carlobrand]

The object is 35,000 Dtons in size. Its the size of a battleship. If it is underground, we are talking major execavation to expose it. Forget lifting it off planet in the dead of night. We are talking a major and expensive undertaking to remove the device. Which is going to get noticed.

If you are able to utilize the device in situ, simply buy the land over the top. A family farm on top, hiding the secret zhodani base.:devil:

We're not talking about a dead-of-night operation. We're talking about an under-your-nose operation, the kind where you do something in plain site with a cover story good enough that they don't wonder why you're doing it.

Of course, shipping it rests on portability. 35,000 dT makes it light-cruiser sized. CT Fighting Ships offers the Empress Troyhune, a 50,000 dT planetoid monitor, nonjump, that was hauled to another system on a Navy fleet tender. So, it's doable if it's in space, though it'd take some decidedly clever manipulation and a better excuse than the defense of a barely inhabited outback settlement to pull it off. Still, there's a certain daring about managing to get the Imperial Navy to help you kidnap an Ancient artifact, if you can pull it off.

If it's aground and buried, that's probably not an option. Less a question of what's possible than why anyone would go to the effort, so the effort alone would attract unwanted attention. However, other questions come into play - the biggest being how they know its size. Still, as you point out, discretion in that case works better than a sector-wide assault.

 

[DonM]

It's a mountain. In fact, it's the biggest mountain on Rhylanor. It's a device, but activating it requires the key the Zhodani have (that battleship sized thing fits in a huge cave opening), and it's...

Well, if you want to rip the world of Rhylanor apart, perhaps you can move it. But otherwise...

Don't worry though, it does get activated by Norris...

But now I'm slipping and revealing future canon. Next I'll be talking about The Galaxiad and The Edge of the Empire.

I'm going to go open a bottle of brandy, and read more Liftoff notes from Rouven.

 

[Aramais]

It's a mountain. In fact, it's the biggest mountain on Rhylanor. It's a device, but activating it requires the key the Zhodani have (that battleship sized thing fits in a huge cave opening), and it's...

Well, if you want to rip the world of Rhylanor apart, perhaps you can move it. But otherwise...

Don't worry though, it does get activated by Norris...

But now I'm slipping and revealing future canon. Next I'll be talking about The Galaxiad and The Edge of the Empire.

I'm going to go open a bottle of brandy, and read more Liftoff notes from Rouven.

Yes, and that's the interesting part. Because, as I understand it, Norris has to get it into space to use it. He attaches ten billion bottle rockets to the mountain with string, and twines their fuses together to one very long fuse. He takes out a match and strikes it...and the Roadrunner blows it out.

Oh, did I not mention that IMTU Norris is an uplifted Coyote?

 

[robject]

This guy I know over at the starport authority, Daashulinta Aku, told me that the Zhodani bastards are everywhere, infiltrating Our Fair Planet.

And he told me that there was an artifact here, but it was stolen by the Joes recently. Remember when all that naval hubbub was going on around Fulacin? There was a little scuffle there, wasn't there? Some say it was some weird alien invasion. Well I happen to know that that was a Zhodani diversionary tactic, and they used it to distract the Navy as they smuggled it (whatever it was) from Rhylanor.

 

[Carlobrand]

It's a mountain. In fact, it's the biggest mountain on Rhylanor. ...

35,000 dTons is the biggest mountain on Rhylanor? Wow, flat little world. That's no more than a good-sized hill in most places.

 

[whulorigan]

35,000 dTons is the biggest mountain on Rhylanor? Wow, flat little world. That's no more than a good-sized hill in most places.

Actually, the "Controller of Controlling devices" (the "Erdriad Erdriap") was 35000 dton, and found in orbit about a moon in Zhodani space.

The Controlling device itself (the Erdriap Chensh - "Controller of Wills") that was found on a world in Zhodani territory was "mountain-sized". The one on Rhylanor is "significantly larger" than the one found on the world in Zhodani territory.

 

[Carlobrand]

Actually, the "Controller of Controlling devices" (the "Erdriad Erdriap") was 35000 dton, and found in orbit about a moon in Zhodani space.

The Controlling device itself (the Erdriap Chensh - "Controller of Wills") that was found on a world in Zhodani territory was "mountain-sized". The one on Rhylanor is "significantly larger" than the one found on the world in Zhodani territory.

Okay, that takes it comfortably out of the jump-transportable range, but Mount St. Helens spit out enough junk in its eruption to equal the volume of a typical dreadnought, which is likewise "significantly larger" than a 35 Kt controller-controller. If we're talking an Everest-size construct, that "significantly larger" quote is an understatement's understatement.

(May I ask what the busines about the titles is?)

 

[rancke]

Actually, the "Controller of Controlling devices" (the "Erdriad Erdriap") was 35000 dton, and found in orbit about a moon in Zhodani space.

The Controlling device itself (the Erdriap Chensh - "Controller of Wills") that was found on a world in Zhodani territory was "mountain-sized". The one on Rhylanor is "significantly larger" than the one found on the world in Zhodani territory.

Is this device on Rhylanor a 'bang, you're dead, no saving throw' device that would allow the Zhodani to defeat the whole Imperium if they got control of it and activated it?


Hans

 

[whulorigan]

(May I ask what the busines about the titles is?)

They are just the translations of the names the Zhodani gave them in Zdetl.

 

[whulorigan]

Is this device on Rhylanor a 'bang, you're dead, no saving throw' device that would allow the Zhodani to defeat the whole Imperium if they got control of it and activated it?

MgT Alien Module 4: Zhodani: p.54:

Erdriap Chensh: Literally, ‘controller of wills’. The Ancient artefact that devastated the central subsectors of Zdiedeiant sector in the −5200s.

MgT Alien Module 4: Zhodani: p.62:

The Erdriap Chensh
The Erdriad Erdriap (‘controller of controllers’) was discovered by Zhodani explorers in −5341, in the Iadvada system (0302 Zhdant), floating in space orbiting a moon. The Erdriap is a single 35,000 ton piece of rock veined with a variety of minerals, riddled with tunnels. The Qlomdlabr ordered the Erdriap to be brought to Zhdant but its size (approximately that of a battleship of that era) and other priorities meant it was recorded and forgotten. Qrekrsha (1929 Zdiedeiant) sits on the edge of the great Zhdant Abyss. Initial exploration in the –5400s found nothing of interest but in −5326 a survey team found a massive, mountain-sized amorphous blob of vitreous stone embedded in the ruins of an Ancient city. Eventually similarities between the Erdriap and the vitreous stone were reported and, after discussions, the Qlomdlabr agreed to have them brought together for study. The Erdriap arrived in the Qrekrsha system in −5274 and researchers began earnestly working to find out what the two did. The mountain object, eventually called the Erdriap Chensh (‘controller of wills’), was theorised to be able to control the wills of Humans over a vast area of space, elevating or reducing their motivations and direction. This information was kept secret and buried as the Consulate began to collapse under its stresses. When fighting did break out, the faction in control of the Qrekrsha system reviewed the two artefacts and, after ensuring their people were safely nearby, they activated the Erdriap Chensh in −5248, intending to benefit their own people and their allies. In fact, the artefact was set for the reverse effect. The field expanded at the speed of light, first within the Qrekrsha system itself, then to the worlds around it, within a 30 parsec radius. The Consulate watched with horror as all Humans within the area stopped caring about themselves or anything else, eventually starving to death. The zone lasted for centuries, leaving a massive barren zone within the Consulate. The warring factions quickly dropped their fighting, recognising that urgency needed to be given to saving populations. In fact, no one knew how long it would continue to expand, so many plans were set in motion. There was great relief when the effect finally stopped progressing in −5150. The two artefacts are now kept sectors apart and under direct Qlomdlabr control. Even after six millennia, the zone has a much smaller population than the rest of the Consulate and the Qrekrsha system remains Forbidden.

 

[Carlobrand]

MgT Alien Module 4: Zhodani: p.54:


MgT Alien Module 4: Zhodani: p.62:

Soooo - the device on Rhylanor is a larger version of a device that already exists in Zho space, one that wiped out a 30 parsec radius of space several thousand years back, but they're hoping that this larger one will somehow instead protect them from the psionic bogeyman from the core? But, it's too big to move, so it can't really protect Zho space, which is already half overtaken by the wave by now anyway?

I think I'm more confused. o:

(Not those titles. The other titles.)

 

[DonM]

When the Zhodani activated it the first time, they had the labels switched because they didn't understand the settings. They've had time to figure it out.

And if you're in T1248, the device on Rhylanor was already activated and one of the reasons most folks are safe is because of it.

I'm assuming Norris makes the same decisions in the Lorenverse, but Your Traveller Universe May Vary...