Badaxe Hold is a small dwarven vault located roughly halfway between Boscovania and Bastardville, in the hills along the river. The founder of the stronghold is a Dwarven Craft-Lord who calls himself 'Badaxe Jack', a former adventurer and son of Stingy Jack, the Vaultlord of Stingy Jack's Freehold (a less lively vault located roughly in the middle of the Badlands). Badaxe Hold maintains friendly relations with Stingy Jack's Freehold and Boscovania, warm relations with Portchester and the smaller towns/villages in the northern badlands, and strictly business relations with Bastardville. Anybody associating with orcs (half-orcs are judged on their individual behavior), goblins, undead, old ones, barrow elves and other known enemies of dwarves are made violently unwelcome in the area.
Badaxe Hold is notable mostly for the actions and policies of it's leader. Badaxe Jack provides significant benefits to the dwarves under his leadership, including free housing (in multiple refurbished mines under the vault), employment (every dwarf who can swing a pick can work in the mines in the area), medical care (clerical spells cast by the Badaxe himself or an under-priest or certain magic items), and provides affordable, quality weapons and armor to the populace. In addition, Badaxe is working hard to attract other dwarven craftsmen into the area. He provides workspace, and affordable tools, to mundane craftsmen (smiths, armorers, etc), and maintains a sizable workshop, and research library, for craft-priests or machinists. It is also worth mentioning that Badaxe Jack maintains a monopoly on the market for the buying and selling of gems and precious metals in his territory.
Badaxe Jack is a neutral traditional craft-priest, following the old traditions of the dwarven religion. However, he is not overtly opposed to the more lawful, Bor-inspired traditions of the new dwarven religion. Badaxe is more interested in building things, and improving the lives of his people, than participating in religious debates.
Notable persons in the vault include:
Badaxe Jack (Level 9 Craftpriest, master weaponsmith and master siege engineer)
-Craft lord
Feeble Jack (Level 4 Craftpriest, master dwarven brewer and master alchemist)
-Owner of Feeble Jack's Boffo Brewery
New Jack (Level 5 Dwarven Machinist, master locksmith)
Old Jack (Level 5 Dwarven Vaultguard, vault military leader)
Badaxe Hold Market Demands
(VI)
Merchandise
Grain, vegetables -1
Fish, preserved +3
Wood, common +2
Animals +0
Salt +1
Beer, ale +0
Oil, lamp +2
Textiles -2
Hides, furs +2
Tea or coffee +0
Metals, common -2
Meats, preserved +0
Cloth -2
Wine, spirits -2
Pottery +1
Tools -3
Armor, weapons -3
Dye & pigments +1
Glassware +1
Mounts +1
Monster parts +0
Wood, rare +1
Furs, rare +2
Metals, precious -4
Ivory +3
Spices +1
Porcelain, fine +0
Books, rare +1
Silk -1
Semipr. Stones -3
Gems -6
Okay, this is really weird. I tried to publish this here, and nothing showed up. It just appeared this morning (for me, at least).
ReplyDeleteI noticed it was on the list as "Draft" on the editing cue, so I went in and hit the "Publish" button. Same thing for the schedule notice. I think blogspot was having some issues on Sunday or something.
ReplyDeleteThis most important question about Badaxe Hold is what is its stance on harboring fugitives from Portchester?
ReplyDeleteWell, it's funny you ask that Dave.
DeleteI had always envisioned the driving reason for Badaxe Jack having left his pretty freaking sweet workshop/fortified house in Portchester as being one of the random session occurance cards you had talked about. The ones where there could be a dragon rampage through the Badlands, or something weird happens. I remember one that had a 'race or ethnic group expelled from town' or something like that. I had always played it through in my mind that dwarves were suddenly made borderline violently unwelcome in town (oddly enough, I had envisioned it having been because a moderate level dwarven fury went berserk during a bar brawl and killed a whole lot of people before being killed), and Badaxe Jack's crew was enthusiastically being invited to leave town at the end of large, angry mob's supply of pitchforks and torches. Perhaps words were exchanged, and more than a few hurled rocks. Just as a larger, more organized group of armed people were preparing to start battering down the gates, Badaxe took one last, lingering look at this freaking sweat urban fortress he had JUST finished paying for, paused briefly to hurl several loud insults to the crowd, before pulling the lever which activated the large assortment of traps in the buildings and on the grounds, then proceeded to march downstairs to the secret tunnel out to the underways along with everything his hirelings and henchmen could carry. His old house there was actually going to be an urban dungeon I was going to run you guys through, but that doesn't look likely now.
So long story short, he's got no problems tweaking the nose of the Portchester authorities a bit, and offering a discrete safe harbor to such minor-league fugitives. Denying official requests, delaying inquiries, stubbornly refusing to see diplomats, that sort of thing. The group could come in, rest up, buy/sell/trade whatever goods are available, all with little in the way of worry.
There are only three small problems for the group hiding there:
1) While the underground area in the hold is quite large, the interior is not open to the general non-dwarf public. The surface structures amount to maybe six or eight buildings (with more in the process of being built). Not a lot of space to run or hide, especially if there are bounty hunters after us.
2) Hog the Bounty Hunter does, occassionally, drop by the area to visit his old boss. While it doesn't amount to a whole lot, Hog now has himself, Leroy the Assistant, Earl the Driver, Bethhogs Bitch, and Kyle the bait-boy in his 'posse'. They don't operate openly in the area, but it could become an issue should the reward get high enough, or the characters make themselves horrifically obvious.
3) Badaxe Jack is (as Dave can attest to) one viciously vindictive dwarf. Crossing him by abusing his trust or good humor, can have dire consequences far beyond what would be considered just, fair, sane, rational, or cost effective.