Living the High Life

We’ve had a long break from Traveller, due to holidays, illness and other events. In the previous session, the crew of the It’s A Sex Thing left Goblin Planet and headed into jump, with the jump drive giving a little glitch as it did so. Nothing serious – but signs that their ship could probably do with a bit of an overhaul sometime soon.

After Goblin’s Planet their destination is Goal Terminus, where they are due to meet up with the Deepnight Revelation which has gone through the Correllan League to pick up information on the route ahead.

Whilst in Jump, Zanobia runs some medical examinations on Teeka, who is suffering from the lack of correct nutrients that were available to her from the food on Goblin’s Planet. The problems are caused by the anti-agathics that are in her body and which can’t be synthesised aboard the ship.

Zanobia gets a really good Medic roll, and is able to come up with something to start changing Teeka’s stomach biome so that it can properly digest ‘normal’ foods. That solves the immediate problem of her not starving to death, but the cells in her body are starting to break down, and she may only have a few months to live. The fact that she is also pregnant is another complication.

Teela decides she doesn’t want to go into a Cold Berth just yet – she has a few weeks before she really needs to make a final decision about that – and really doesn’t want to go back to Goblin’s Planet. So the crew do the best they can for her for now.

Since they only have J-2, they made the two parsec jump to empty space and transfer fuel from the expandable tanks in the cargo hold to their main fuel tanks. From there it’s a second J-2 to Goal Terminus, which proceeds smoothly. They are due to meet the Deepnight Revelation at 1108-231 around the innermost gas giant. The Sex Thing is due to arrive at Goal Terminus around 208, so they will have three weeks of time to spare.

I’m sure I screwed up somewhere in the dates, but haven’t been able to find where the missing time went to. But an extra three weeks isn’t game breaking, so they arrive at Goal Terminus ahead of schedule.

When the It’s A Sex Thing announces itself at the highport, there are some snide remarks from starport control about what services the ship is here to provide. It is pointed out that they might want to head to Bedfellows after docking, which is a high class brothel and casino. Alternatively there is Terminus Heights which is the best hotel.

Docking fees for three weeks will be Cr2,500 a week, in League Credits. If they insist on paying in Imperium credits (which they have to), there is a 20% ‘transaction fee’. This far from the Imperium, their cash is becoming less useful.

The best rooms at Terminus Heights are LCr1,000/night, which Khadashi balks at but Zanobia offers to pay for three weeks for everyone. It comes to Cr176,000, but what else are they going to do with their money? The further spinward they go, the less useful Imperial currency will become. Once they leave Old Colonies sub-sector, there are going to be very few ‘civilised’ worlds.

Given that they had three weeks to rest, I gave them some experience from their adventures previously. A whole 3 XP. I’m not at all consistent with how XP is given out – but it tends to be given at the end of particularly exciting events.

Given there were some activities available at Goal Terminus, I also allowed them to either pick up Seafarer (there were sailing and fishing tours down on the planet) or Gambling at 0 ‘for free’. Though the latter had a chance of losing or gaining money in the process.

One thing the Travellers did look into was the point of Goal Terminus. It’s a B class starport in the middle of nowhere, right at the end of a trade run with a planet of only 50,000 people with not much in the way of resources except for seafood. My random world generator had this to say on the subject:

Goal Terminus II is a young terrestrial world where life has evolved to produce oxygen.

Goal Terminus II is 65% covered with deep blue liquid water which are the signature of a Gaian world. The land is just rock, worn down to sand in places. The wind and rain swept plains are cut by rivers, which empty their lifeless water into the oceans. Though the salty seas are filled with life, the fresh water environs are empty of it.

The seas of Goal Terminus II teem with complex life. The dominant animals are a type of fish, scaly finned vertebrates which are a mix of algae grazers and hunters which hunt smaller fish and the various animals that inhabit the sea floor, including scaly worm-like walkers and sessile clam-like filter feeders.

So why do people come here, and why build a class B starport? Not only were there human traders here – mostly 200t-400t ‘tramp’ freighters, but there were also Aslan ships. It’s an independent world where both cultures can meet far from their respective governments. It’s also J-3 from Clanheim which gets people to the Broken Chain, especially those who want to avoid bounty hunters from the Hefrin Colony. So it’s middle of nowhere nature, combined with the hands-off attitude of the local government makes it a good place for ‘independent traders’ to exchange trade.

Also, this is not the Imperium where the starport authority enforces a level of independence on starports. Out here (in my campaign at least), starports often fall under the individual world’s governmental control, so a truly free and independent port is more of a rarity.

At the end of their three weeks of luxury living, they head out to the gas giant and the Deepnight Revelation turns up a day ahead of schedule. They are pleased to see the Sex Thing still in one piece, and even more pleased when the Travellers are able to spend the next week in Jump giving presentations on everything that they found. Definitely a morale boost for the life sciences teams, and it keeps their minds off the fact that the Deepnight’s combat sensors have been playing up recently and they had plumbing problems earlier.

From Goal Terminus, they will head towards Homeward and from there to Deata Chi, heading Spinwards around the Aslan Hierate. But that’s something for next week.