Return to Atronos Begins!

First round of our new Necromunda campaign, “Return to Atronos!”, kicked off yesterday at our regular FLGS in the city. I am the arbitrator for the campaign, and I have designed it as a sort of Underhells “inspired” campaign, but heavily modified to both match already existing lore and the fact that I just did not want this to feel like a simple re-skinning of Underhells. That being said, I would love to actually play through a true Underhells campaign someday, I just don’t want to arbitrate it hahaha!

Anyway, we are going with a 3-part structure to the campaign, with 3 phases of 3 games each, with a downtime section between each. Here’s a link to the Gdrive with the campaign & house rules packet, as well as the scenarios I develop.

I’m going to wait until we have finished the 1st of the 3 phases before I do a post summarizing that’s happened so far, but here is a little lore write up I did for the players in the campaign to get those who knew Atronos before the fall, and those who have joined since its ruin, acquainted with the setting. Hope you enjoy!

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“‘Aye, sit a spell and listen to what I got to say. They tell ya Atronos is dead in the other hives, but tha’s pure ignorance. Atronos ain’t dead! She’s more alive ‘n ever! Just I’m not sure ya really would wanna share a pint with most of the curren’ residents!” ~Synder Jack, resident drunk of Two Cranes Town.

“Two kinds down in the twists. Those who admit they’ve shit themselves over what they’ve seen…and liars.” ~ Old Magnus

Atronos has seen better days. It has been a long and hard fall from its once vaulted position as the most powerful hive city in the Southern hemisphere, and arguably the second most important hive on Necromunda. Gone are the haughty and commanding lords of the Atronos nobility. The manufactoria that once produced a panoply of weapons and starships lie in ruins. The great spires have collapsed into the hulking corpse of the city, crashing down through hundreds of levels to make a twisted helter-skelter labyrinth of warped metal and stone. The Slag Sea has, with the failure of the massive ancient pumps, flowed into the underhive, creating a half-submerged maritime nightmare.

But, as with anywhere in Necromunda, in death and destruction, there is always opportunity, for those willing to fight for it. Atronos is not unpopulated, though those survivors who have not, or will not, flee the ruined city are but a fraction of the original population. No one knows how many still eke out a living in the carcass of the hive, but hundreds of thousands would be a minimum.

In addition to the survivors of Atronos’ fall, there are many more drawn, as scavengers to a corpse, to the collapsed hive seeking out their own fortunes. House gangers, bounty hunters, scrap-dealers, would be war-chiefs, narco-lords, cold traders, common scum, powerful crime bosses, grasping guilders, cult demagogues, heretics, hereteks, and anything & everyone in between have been drawn to Atronos’ carcass for a multitude of reasons. The competition for resources, and rewards, is to say the least, intense.

Generally, the further into the depths of the ruined hive one goes, the greater the dangers. That is not to say that the settlements clinging to the outer shell are safe, with constant exposure to all the elements of the ash wastes, as well as constant violence as gangs, warbands, clades, congregations, companies, and sundry others fight for control of what most closely passes for “civilization” in the area. Nevertheless, this environment is still much safer, and there have even been a few settlements that have evolved into proper towns, some even with a semblance of an authority enforcing the “law” over the inhabitants.

Descend into the wreck of the hive however, and even this modicum of refinement disappears almost instantly. The interior ruins of Atronos’ are under the sway of their own dizzying variety of bloodthirsty, cruel, and twisted petty lords. Innumerable cults made up of survivors of the fall and augmented with outsiders fight against hordes of neuron-plague zombies. Xenos abominations make their nests in the bowels of the city, competing with the twisted native fauna and mutated flora. Heretics from across the planet have found refuge in the dead hive, pursuing their own agendas. Even the feared Cadre Oublie is rumored to still have a presence in the hive they killed to further their own enigmatic plans.

Atronos is dead, but so is Necromunda; and in death, there is life, for those who know where to find it.