Behind the Dark Fist - three NPCs

Here are drafts of three NPCs I've created for BTDF. The second NPC  
here, Thosta Ji, actually appears in UTDF in a minor way, though I've  
fleshed him out somewhat here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Volgal D'Artice
Male Vodoni Conqueror
10 Hit Dice
Neutral Evil

Str 18/00	Int 17		HP 87
Dex 16	Wis 12	AC -1 (bracers, cloak, dexterity)
Con 18	Cha 14		THAC0 11 (8 due to Strength)

Equipment: Bracers of AC 2, Longsword +3, Cloak of Protection +1  
(black in color, wiith a high collar)
Special: Volgal has the standard abilities for a Vodoni Conqueror. In  
lieu of weapon attacks, he can claw twice for 1d10 damage and bite  
for 1d8 damage. At will, Volgal can incite the Blood Rage, gaining +2  
to hit and +4 to damage, at the cost of a -4 penalty to AC. Volgal is  
also able to leave this state at will.
Volgal's training and exceptional strength set him apart from most  
other Conquerors. Instead of the standard Conqueror's +2 to damage  
when wielding a weapon, Volgal has +6. He has also trained as a  
longsword specialist, mastering an obscure and esoteric tradition of  
Vodoni fencing that gives him extra attacks as a specialist of 13th  
level ability (2 sword attacks/round), as well as attack and damage  
bonuses (+1 to hit, +2 to damage).
Finally, and perhaps most dangerous of all, Volgal is much smarter  
than most Vodoni lycanthrope soldiers. He has tremendous foresight  
and strategic knowledge, and is among the most capable military minds  
that remain among the Vodoni after the war.

Volgal D'Artice is one of the last of his kind: a Vodoni Conqueror.  
This next-generation Enforcer was only beginning to go into full  
production when the Empire fell. Now, all of the Breeders with the  
knowledge to create the Conqueror strain of lycanthropy are gone, and  
only a few stragglers of this breed are left in the Twelve Spheres.

Volgal was one of the prototypes for the Conqueror breed, and he was  
an anomaly when he was created. The Conquerors are ideally supposed  
to show a greater amount of creative thought than their Enforcer  
bretheren, but they are still supposed to lack the pesky independent  
attitude that would otherwise make them dangerous. Volgal's  
recognition that he was being tested by the Breeders for precisely  
this trait, and his efforts to mask his self-awareness, served only  
to confuse his creators. Rather than waste anymore time with him in  
the Undercity of Vulkarus, the Breeders tagged his left ear with an  
orange ring (a mark for subjects who may require extermination) and  
shipped him to a study center in Gorthspace. Since each individual  
Conqueror required an enormous amount of screening, training,  
attention and study to live up to Vulkaran's expectations for the  
project, it was hoped that even the orange-ringed subjects could be  
put to use somehow, even if they were only suited to serve as  
bodyguards for the less important High Breeders.

Volgal bided his time at the facility in Gorthspace. He quickly won  
the favor of the High Breeder, a soft, pudgy noble called Xheiryn  
Bekk, by pretending he was mute, and likewise feigning submissiveness  
in the role of a household protector. He would do Bekk's job for him  
by loping out into the forests of Gorth to meet and supervise  
Enforcer hunting parties. In so doing, he met these lesser wolfmen,  
and quickly established a reputation among them that spread very  
quickly. Soon every Enforcer stationed in Gorthspace knew Volgal's  
name, and respected that he had proven himself as the Alpha to every  
Enforcer group that touched down.

The Breeders who were in charge of testing the orange-ringer began to  
get nervous, as Volgal displayed more and more boldness. He seemed to  
be beyond any Breeder's ability to control -- any Breeder except, of  
course, High Breeder Bekk. To Bekk, Volgal displayed the utmost  
loyalty, behaving with him as a favorite hunting dog. Though the  
other Breeders at the Gorth facility recommended destroying him, Bekk  
would hear nothing of it and instead ordered them to remove Volgal's  
orange ring.

In his free time, Volgal studied in Bekk's libraries, and he was  
allowed access to Bekk's arsenal and arms masters. He was allowed to  
drill with the soldiers in the barracks, both human and Enforcers.  
Even among the human warriors, respect for Volgal grew.

When word reached Gorthspace that the homesphere was under attack,  
Volgal knew that it was time. He spread out word among the Enforcers,  
and within a single night they had seized control of the sphere. The  
Breeders of Gorth tried to step in and assert their control over the  
Enforcers, but Volgal put an end to their resistance quickly by  
presenting them with High Breeder Bekk's severed head as a warning.

Volgal's original intention had been to fulfill his own ambition by  
commandeering Gorthspace's garrisoned Vodoni military assets, which  
included a respectable fleet and thousands of Enforcers, and riding  
with them to the rescue of the Emperor. However, this was not to be.  
Even with Neogi reinforcements, the Allied fleet was simply too  
massive for even the Vodoni to hold back. Volgal's fleet arrived on  
the Allies' flank, and rather than stopping the Allies' momentum in  
their drive for Vulkarus, the would-be-Conqueror ended up losing over  
half his ships.

In the end, Volgal withdrew, along with a contingent of Neogi  
survivors and the remnants of several other Vodoni battlegroups, back  
to Gorthspace. They were chased a good portion of the way by a flock  
of Elven Men-O-War, but Volgal was able to lose them in the Flow by  
sacrificing some of the less-important Neogi ships as distractions.  
Since that battle, Volgal and his fleet have moved from sphere to  
sphere, engaging in hit-and-run warfare with the occupation armadas,  
careful not to lose any of his remaining vessels while doing as much  
harm to the Elves as he can manage.

Recently, Volgal's contingent linked up with the Neo-Imperials. For  
now, their goals are aligned and so cooperation is acceptable. But  
Volgal's treacherous history and pesky independence could eventually  
shape up into a fight with the leadership of the Neo-Imperial movement.

Fleet Admiral
Thosta Ji
Male Vodoni Human
7th level Fighter
Chaotic Evil

Str 13		Int 12		HP 46
Dex 10	Wis 15	AC 3 (chain mail, shield)
Con 15	Cha 12		THAC0 14

Equipment: Chain Mail +1, Shield, Long Sword +1
Special: Admiral Ji is a coward. He will say or do anything to  
survive, and fights only when he is sure to win. He has no special  
skills, but is more than willing to leverage the information he has  
about the Occupation Authority if it means his life.

Thosta Ji played some minor part in the events that unfolded in Under  
the Dark Fist. He was the warden of a slave mining operation on  
Calandia that surrendered to the spies from the other side who ended  
up being instrumental in handing the Allies their victory, and  
ensuring Vulkaran's demise.

After the events that ended the Vodoni Empire's power, Ji had little  
choice but to continue his collaboration with the occupying forces.  
He is presently one of the highest ranking Vodoni within the  
Occupation Authority, having been named Fleet Admiral by the  
Occupation Proconsul and given charge of the Armies of a Free Vodon.  
Ji is held up as an example by the Proconsul of the successes that  
the Vodoni are capable of, and the successes of the AFV in  
maintaining secutiry in Vulkarus and elsewhere in the Vodoni home  
sphere are touted as victories for the Free Space Alliance's efforts  
to prop up a friendly government in the Vodoni worlds.

The reality, however, is that the AFV has more failures than  
successes. The officer's corps, from Thosta Ji on down, is inherently  
corrupt and abusive of its authority. Ji pays lip service as often as  
he can to both the Office of the Proconsul and the efforts at  
building a permanent independent government on Vodon, but he finds it  
is likely more in his best interests to make sure that the new  
government remains weak so that it can be taken over once the  
Occupation leaves. Ji's hope is that the Occupiers will eventually  
leave from sheer exhaustion of effort, manpower and resources, and  
when that happens it will be no big thing to topple the government  
and become the new Vodoni Emperor.

Normally, a Vodoni officer of Thosta's position would have a personal  
retinue of Enforcer bodyguards. But since the Enforcers are hunted  
down by the Occupation Authority, he instead settles for the  
protection of a squad of IEN Marines, officially detached with the  
Admiral's elven liaison.

Proconsul
Velrethwen Silvereyes
Female Elf
12th level Cleric
Neutral (Good)

Str 15		Int 15		HP 56
Dex 19	Wis 16	AC 2 (chain mail)
Con 9		Cha 16		THAC0 14

Equipment: Elven Chain Mail +3, Holy Symbol Flail +4, Mace of Disruption
Special: The Proconsul is ambidextrous and trained in two-weapon  
fighting, wielding both her holy mace and enchanted flail each in a  
hand when she enters combat. Her flail has been specially designed  
such that its ball is engraved and considered a Holy Symbol for the  
purposes of causing extra damage to beings so vulnerable (especially  
undead and fiends).

Proconsul Silvereyes is in commant of all Elven forces within the  
Vodoni sphere. She is a mature Elven female, with gray streaks in her  
rich auburn hair that tell of her long experience with the Fleet. A  
High Priestess of the Seldarine, the Proconsul believes she is  
uniquely qualified to determine what is in the best interests of the  
Elves, and therefore in the best interests of everyone else as well.

The Proconsul was part of the massive contingent of ships that  
invaded Vodonispace and broke through the Web to attack Vodon. Her  
placement in the Proconsulate by the Admiralty of Lionheart was owing  
to her high rank within the organization -- she was basically the  
next in line to receive command of an Elven fleet. It is already  
decided that once the situation in Vodonispace stabilizes, the  
Proconsul will be given proper Admiralship of the IEN's Vodonispace  
Fleet.

However, her time in the office has changed her. During the Vodoni  
War, Velrethwen was fully Chaotic Good. She believed in the  
traditional Elven tenets of freedom and goodness, and while she  
herself had little use for the stifling bureaucracy of the Fleet, she  
recognized that the Fleet was the only way to protect good and Elven  
ways across the spheres. Throughout her career Velrethwen routinely  
turned down promotion after promotion: in the past she had been  
offered commands in both the Realmspace and Krynnspace fleets,  
preferring to remain a ship's healer in her home sphere of Greyspace.  
She did eventually accept the Proconsulate in Vodonispace after  
witnessing the terrible results of the Vodoni war machine, believing  
that she could do some good by helping to cultivate a civil society  
in Vulkarus.

Little did she anticipate the hardships she would endure with her  
position. Her faith in the Seldarine was tested, but ultimately  
survived. Her naivete, however, did not. She is gradually becoming  
more and more accustomed to the lawful mechanisms of her bureaucratic  
job, and slowly coming to value the integrity of that machine over  
even the people it is supposed to serve. She still retains a shred of  
her idealism: while she has all but given up the plight of the Vodoni  
to her cynicism, she is still convinced that what she does on Vodon  
is for the benefit of Elves everywhere.

With her latest stratagem, the Proconsul has started down a path that  
will ultimately strip her of the last of her Good alignment  
tendencies, and potentially also her clerical powers as well. She has  
presented to the Admiralty her proposal for Endless War -- a term she  
coined, on loan from the Vergon she's encountered while stationed in  
the Twelve Spheres. By purposely keeping the Vodoni fighting each  
other, just as Vulkaran did in Vergonspace, the elves can prevent  
another ruthless dictatorship from taking root in Vodonispace. To  
this end, she proposes that the Elven Navy permanently allocate a  
portion of their annual budget to buttressing the Vodoni Occupational  
Authority just enough to sustain the conflict with insurgents  
indefinitely.

Surprisingly, the Admiralty has agreed with the Proconsul's  
assessment, though a final decision on the plan is pending a review  
by the elven national leaders who support the Navy.