Ataxes Must Die!

By Nikoline
Self Published
B/X
Levels 1-4

Kurhan is wounded at its heart. The Akros, tower of its long-gone kings, stands crippled, torn in two by tyrant-mages; its ruler, Ataxes, is prisoner and warden both, disfigured, unmanned, and cursed. He has locked himself within, attended by the embittered and dissolute, deaf to his people’s cries. Tithes to the wizards pile high in lightless vaults, one-time heroes entertain themselves with stale recollections, and those who long for change wait, plot, and weave their skeins . . .

This 41 page setting describes the governors palace for a wretched city, with plots and secrets to uncover. As that, it don’t think I’ve seen another setting which accomplishes as much in terms of “place of government intrigue for your campaign.” It is quite complex with A LOT going on, in terms of guard rotations, alert levels, NPC’s, and everything needed to have a complex environment. Too complex? Not if we consider most of it optional?

I have a certain heresy. I can grok the 1e rules set much more easily if I just allow myself to consider all of the rules optional. Do I care to use the potion miscibility table? Or the weapon vs armor table? This was a watershed moment in my life, when I realized it was MY game and I could use, or not use, whatever I wanted from the “rules.” With that in mind …

I’m going to call this a setting, rather than an adventure. There are a number of “hooks” included in the appendix, ways to get the party interacting with the palace, but at its core it’s a description of a government building in a city with a focus on LOTS of ways to get involved and get in to trouble. This is its strength, so much so that I am adding it as a permanent part of my campaign, the default Palace for the main city the party adventures out of. It’s a part of my standard setting now, much in the way I crib businesses and dungeons to populate my Dungeonworld setting that I run my game in. When you have to deal with the government, or get sucked in to its intrigues, what do you use for inspiration? This. This is what you use. It’s perfect for those backwater empire decrepit cities full of corruption. Sanctuary anyone?

It describes about 35 locations in the government palace, a multi-tiered building with a decent map that includes a side view. It’s a decent map, with, perhaps, a little more attention that could be paid to to the ups and downs and windows and rooftops, but there’s enough complexity in it that your mind races with possibilities. 

Its primary strength is in what’s going on, or could be going on and the support materials to make that happen. We’ve got rumors to toss in to the game. There a decent wanderers table with giard rotations, dignitaries, assassins, multiple groups happening at the the same time (I love chaos!), NPC’s, and illicit meetings. Guard patrols have a table on where they start, by level of the palace, and how they move, there are threat level tables that help the DM respond based how on alert the palace is and what has happened, complete with loyalty of the guards to bribes and looking the other way and intrigues. There’s three pages of NPC’s, dignitaries and officials that know things, want things, and have capabilities to offer, and full of intrigues and motivations. And I’m just covering the major points, there are extensive notes for each table that add potential complexity to the encounters with people. 

And then we get to the rooms, proper. These are almost all quite extensive. Room one is the public hall, full of the usual riff-raff. “Stale beer and sour milk, oil and rust and mould, all

poorly concealed by incense-smoke. “ We’ve got nomads and traders talking in small groups, sometimes being ushered off for an audience, lazy guards patrolling, door guards on alert who raise the alarm if you are too nosey and acting out of place, There are event tables, with guards dragging people through the room, murders, and so on. “A young man stands bound, wild black hair thrown back. A woman pleads with him to rescind his curse on their unborn child. He stays mute; the child is not his, and he knows it.” The cells of the prison are awash with those meant to be deservedly, and others with their own plots. “hree filthy figures crouch in the dark. They shrink back from the light. Each is emaciated, with papery skin and peeled-back gums, lantern eyes. They wear scraps of finery; one has a brass arm-ring ( 30c ). The floor of the cell is strewn with cracked bones, animal and otherwise, and 1d4x100c in silver jewellery .” Imprisoned for cannibalism. Now, those three are ghouls. Great! And even more from them, with one of them being someone importance brother who, turns out, saw too much and was cast in there. The rooms are just THICK with things going on. There are things going on during the day that don’t happen at night and an EXTENSIVE NPC location table to tell what and where the important are in the palace art certain hours. And, note, I have not even touched upon the major intrigues and minor ones that are going on in the palace, or the brief timeline that can help run it, or the various small hooks to get people moving around and in the palace. A simple treasure raid would be the least interesting thing to do!

Back to those 1e comments I made. There’s a lot going on in this, just like in the 1e rules. As a point-in-time adventure I don’t see it being possible to use this as written. However, as an ongoing location in your game, with various people showing up, intrigues going down, visits to the palace and so on then it is perfect. It’s a toolkit for the local government building. Not in the negative sense of a bunch of tables and anything can happen, but strong plots and subplots and a variety of events that can take place to make the place feel alive through various visits. It’s wonderfully deep and complex and full of possibilities to spice up the game and act as an adventure or four as your campaign plays out in the home base of the party. 

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $2.50. The preview is seventeen pages. REVEL IN THE POSSABILITIES PRESENTED IN THE PREVIEW!!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/539107/ataxes-must-die?1892600