Vodoni Aftermath

Paul Sonnier wrote on the subject of the Vodoni Aftermath:
"There are a couple of possibilities that can be utilized by the alliance to
counter the military force of the vodoni.  First, since there are "thousands" of
vessels plying trade, couldn't the alliance pose as traders and infiltrate
systems controlled by the breeders? Then a prearranged strike time could be set
and take the breeders by surprise again.  After all, the vodoni are described as
human."
One major problem here is that the Vodoni use ships of an entirely different
design. See the entry for Zalanispace: " All of the Vodoni vessels carry the
distinctive winged appearance of Zalani craftsmen, and the vessels themselves
are masterpieces of workmanship" (p. 53). Therefore any vessels from the Known
Spheres will be spotted immediately as intruders! And even if the alliance was
able to appropriate enough Vodoni ships for infiltration purposes, they'd still
have problems sneaking into the Vodoni spheres, as there are "many outer patrol
vessels scattered throughout Vodoni wildspace" who are "awaiting some type of
hailing signal". If the PCs "wait too long to signal, begin closing without
waiting for permission, or are not travelling in a captured Vodoni vessel", the
patrol vessel "attacks immediately. The Vodoni are not interested in making
friends, so the mission of the PCs is irrelevant for them" (all quotes on p.
18). So much for posing as traders. And a prearranged strike would suffer from
even greater problems than the great assault on Vodon, - since - as I have
pointed out - the majority of the Vodoni fleet is stationed outside of
Vodonispace and the Alliance fleet will be even less effective if it is spread
out over eleven spheres. IMO the battle plan outlined in the scenario is an
against-the-odds gamble, but still the best option open to the Alliance.

"Second, I recall one crystal sphere that vulkaren was keeping at war with
itself.  If a
contingent of the alliance goes to each side and tells them of his hand in their
war, that he was purposefully keeping it going and controlling it, there will be
several angry leaders that may want to help the alliance (and he had his hands
full).  This will possibly also counteract the danger of a new and more powerful
force that they were to become upon the  defeat of vulkaren, and might bring
them into the alliance rather than as  enemies.  Think of them like a controlled
fire."
You are obviously thinking of Vergonspace: "The six inhabitable planets of the
Vergon system are at war with one another, and have been for centuries. Vulkaran
is supplying intelligence and weapons to all sides, in oder to keep their
collective strength at a minimum" (p. 53). Using them against Vulkaran sounds
like a good idea at first, but there is one >major< problem: This is information
that you, as the DM, are privy to, but the Allaince doesn't know the slightest
bit about! What do you think are the chances that the Alliance is going to find
out about this on a fly-by recon trip if the Vergon warlords (who surely have
intelligence networks of their own) have not found out in hundreads of years?
And even if you find out about this, how are you going to convince the Warlords
that this is not a plot of one of their enemies? Nice try, but no cigar.

"Finally, a vodoni breeder  could be consulted about the process, or notes could
be found.  The alliance  could create their own version of enforcers, only of
neutral or good alignment.  Weretigers, werebears, and wereboars anyone? "
I'm not sure the Vodoni Breeders would cooperate, as they are brain-washed loyal
subjects of Vulkaran (cf. p. 61:  "Vodoni citizens powerful and intelligent
enough to challenge the least of Vulkarans policies and survive are "recruited"
and their memories magically erased by Mongrelle, Vulkarans high councilor.")
But even if the knowledge is found on a scroll or gained by making the Breeders
"talk", there should be major difficulties. The Alliance would have to do
research to modify the spell (takes time ..) and the new "Alliance enforcers"
would need some time to be "recruited" and trained (takes more time ..).
Moreover, I have quite some doubts that volunteers would be found to undergo the
enforcer transformation. See p. 62: "The Vodoni form of lycanthropy is more
virulent than the comon strain, in that the victims are nearly mindless and
vicious unless further treated ... The strongest are selected for "testing",
which involves swallowing a virulent poison. A succeesssful saving throw vs.
poison creates a loyal new Vodoni enforcers; failure means death". Right-ho: If
(sic!) you survive the training, you are transformed into a vicious,
bloodthirsty lycanthrope. What a career prospect!
I am not sure that the Alliance would condone such a program (well, the
Illithids would ...), and even if they initiated it I am not sure they would
earn the thanks of the transformed subjects ("Monsters breeding monsters ...").

"If that possibility doesn't work out, I remember a creation of the alliance
during the first unhuman war of the bionoids, tall insectlike beings created out
of elves and humans. (6 attacks/rnd, 10HD).  They are found in the module
{Goblin's Return t.m.}."
The Bionoid warriors are actually living exampes for the problems caused by any
living weeapon program. The first Bionoids were Elven volunteers, who had
themselves transformed as an extreme last measure in order to stop the Unhumans.
As soon as the War was won, the Elves gave their ex-brethren the sack and
actually do not want to be reminded of this incident nowadays. I'm not sure they
either >could< create Bionoids again or >would want to< create them again. As
far as I recall (haven't got the MC entry on Bionoids or the Unhuman War modules
at hand) quite a few bionoids are actually working for the Scro these days! And
even if the Elves decided on creating Bionoids again, I'd guess they have some
difficulties in finding new volunteers, seeing how they treated the last ones.
Apart from the fact that all of this is going to take time (see my previous
objection), while this will get you warriors which are superior in boarding
combat, the Vodoni still have the advantage of being able to pack in more
warrors as they are fighting in their sphere and don't have to worry about their
air supply. Not to mention the ground combat ("tens of millions of enforcers",
remember?).
"Finally, the zalani, a peaceful race similar to gargoyles could be convinced to
stop making enforcer ships and start making them for the alliance; especially if
they can be shown that they will have more freedom and will be able to live
peaceful
lives."
This assumes that the Zalani have any choice here. Now the entry for Zalanispace
states: "Vulkaran initially forged a truce with the Zalani ..., but as
Vulkaran's spies gathered more and more information, Vulkaran massed his forces.
The Zalani empire fell in a matter of days, and now the Zalani serve as ship
builders for the Vodoni Empire." I don't think the Zalani will be able to do
very much for the Alliance. The best the Alliance cold hope for here would be a
kind of general strike (which would in all probability result in a few million
dead Zalani shipwrights ..). While this would slow down the Vodoni ship building
program a bit, this will not help the Alliance overcome the grave disadvantage
in numbers from which they suffer.
Please don't think that I am trying to shrug off all your ideas! I am quite
grateful for the input. My players (who have taken over the role of the Alliance
War Council whilst also having some fun with their high-level PCs who act as the
"Alliance Commandos") have also tried to come up with some new ideas (they also
thought of the Bionoids and the Spirit Warrior/Zvarths - organic Battlemechs if
you ask me ..). As yet I've seen nothing more promising than the plan suggested
in the module: "We try to engage them in a massive fleet action over the Vodoni
homeworld and use the confusion of battle to try to kill off Vulkaran in the
meanwhile". I wonder whether there >is< a way of beating the Vodoni in the
field?
I therefore beseeech all you strategians out there to give me some input. What
about transporting troops in hibernation to save air? Is there a possibility to
circumvent the lengthy journey through the flow (using something like the Reigar
artifact mentioned in "An Artist's Errand") and will this work in Vodonispace as
it seems to be cut off from the Outer Planes? Should they launch a preemptive
strike, or should they entrench themselves in the Known Spheres and wait for the
Vodoni to come for them (mining wildspace behind portals from the flow and
such)?
I'm looking for novel ideas - come on and get your high-powered brains in gear
...:-)
Kent