Bad Santa - An Overview and Deep Dive into Atnas from the Gambler's Chest | Kingdom Death: Monster

There's presents in its sack, it eats children for a snack, and there's a gleam in its eye that's pitch black.-- Survivor Nursery Rhyme about Atnas (GCE Page 147)

Atnas the Child Eater; a scarred amnesiac master. Its fervent pursuit of joy leads it to each children, dice up survivors and unleash flurries of forgotten swordsmanship. Dredging up old joys and sparking displays of master swordsmanship. – GCE, Various Pages

In a world where Cronenbergian horrors seeking their next easy meal stalk survivors in the pitch black void, lives can be little more than a short, violent full stop on the erased canvas of history. Many newly awakened survivors meet their end at the hands of an opportunistic White Lion or in the snapping, blood-soaked jaws of a Crimson Crocodile. But perhaps the cruellest fates are reserved for those survivors who encounter the more specialised form of predator, the parasite.

Parasites are everywhere in the world of Kingdom Death; hands that infest every nook and cranny of the Phoenixes, prosopagnosia delivering Oblivion Mosquitoes, Watchers that seed knowledge into unsuspecting survivors before awakening and extracting all the memories from their unwitting worshippers all the way up to the Knowledge Worm that dwells inside the Lion God.

Parasites are everywhere in the world of Kingdom Death.

One of the cruellest parasites is the one known as the Noble Jellyfish; clinging to the back of its victim, a once great swordsman, this creature appears on just three hit locations but it is the part of Atnas that I find the most fascinating as it appears to hold all of the reasons for Atnas's appearance, and current behaviour. It is also the second occurrence of a jellyfish type creature in the game's bestiary, the first being the core game's flagship monster; The Watcher. The Noble Jellyfish shares traits in common with Watchers, it has a cloth-like bell (the body of a jellyfish), long tentacles for appendages and a hunger for the memories of its host. Clinging to Atnas's back, this creature which mimics the appearance of the sack of presents that our own Santa uses to deliver presents to the children of the world. Except, here in the case of the Noble Jellyfish, it is instead full of children, their short lives being used as sustenance for both parasite and host alike.

We have little information about the Noble Jellyfish beyond its sculpted appearance on the Atnas miniature and a few cards in the decks, it is every bit as tantalising and mysterious as Atnas's sub-title of “Unseen Shooting Star of the Solar Diamond Age” words that have no context and just offer more questions about a time long gone. However, what we can see from the evidence we are presented is that at some point an expert swordsman came into contact with this creature and it latched onto him. This resulted in the survivor's frame growing to a titanic size, becoming the bloated, blotchy bringer of “joy” that is all we know of Atnas apart from a small glimpse into the past when you stare directly into the eye of the monster.

It is most likely that the Noble Jellyfish is not just some distant cousin to the Watcher, but is also connected closely to the Entity that dwells in the sword castle, the master of weaponry and the siren that calls to those who take up the path of Regalism.

The Entity known as Storm.

We have a description of Storm that comes from the Dragon King expansion, it is described as:

“A bloated jelly sack in the shape of a face stares down at you, its facial features a colony of mushroom-like organs with square teeth that gnash with lightning.” – Storm Constellation, People of the Stars

In Kingdom Death's lore descriptions words are chosen with a lot of care and connections are rarely (if ever) just coincidences. Describing Storm as “A bloated jelly sack” is one connection to the Noble Jellyfish and its host Atnas, as is the 'mushroom-like organs' which several types of jellyfish feature, and of course Jellyfish themselves have an appearance which could be called 'mushroom-like'. Some Jellyfish adjacent creatures like the Portuguese man-of-war are even colonies of zooids, reflecting that unusual word choice in the description above.

Another connection from People of the Stars is survivors who take up the mantle of the Storm Constellation in the campaign gain weapon proficiency at an incredible rate, changed forever by the sight of that Entity's constellation. Atnas is without a doubt a master of the sword to a degree that we have never seen in any other survivor, it is almost certain that he heard the call of the sword castle and at least began to travel to it at some point before he encountered the Noble Jellyfish and became infected. We don't know if he reached the castle or not before this happened, but I'd place a bet that at a minimum he got very close to it because of the Storm/Jellyfish connections mentioned above.

The main place where the Noble Jellyfish really distinguishes itself from Watchers is in the element it is associated with. Watchers are closely linked to the void as a concept, many of their hit locations feature that very word as part of their name; Void Nerve Ring, Void Nerve Net, Void Ganglia for example; and Watchers also have bio-luminescent elements, leaking luminescent ooze when injured. The Noble Jellyfish instead has the ability to breath a frigid, icy mist into the air, which makes it responsible for the wintery aspects of Atnas's appearance and showdown.

While I am also pretty certain that the Noble Jellyfish is responsible for Atnas's horns in addition to his blotchy skin, erratic temperament and hunger for children, I'm not sure how this has occurred. The appearance of Atnas's horns most reminds me of the cloaks worn by the Disciples of the Witch, which is another parasite that latches onto survivors; there may be some connection there, but at this time there's not enough information about Atnas's horns in the cards to tease much out of it.

So what we can draw from this is the conclusion that Atnas was once a great swordsman who at some point came into contact with the Noble Jellyfish, this creature attached itself to him and through various processes (almost certainly a lot of inflammation) it has caused Atnas's frame to grow and distort into the titanic miniature we see on the showdown board. Atnas is so large that even The King looks insignificant in comparison. Atnas's body and mind are both held in a state of partial disintegration, something that is similar to how the Knowledge Worm has degraded the Lion King, as such Atnas is criss-crossed with so many scars that it should be dead, and its mind is reduced to a childish state; throwing tantrums and even bringing an imaginary friend to life.

A child would not be a threat, but inside the body of an overgrown man who has the skills of a master from the Solar Diamond Age? That is an unpredictably dangerous foe.

That's about as much as I can tease from this when it comes to the in game lore section, it is possible that Atnas hails from the same region as the Frozen Survivors (called the Frozen Seas on Hellebore's lore blurb) but there is is precious little information about that beyond the four character blurbs and given how scattered the focus seems to be with the resin releases it is impossible to guess if we'll get back to it at all (we've seen Halloween themed with the Dedheim, deep underground theming with the Giger inspired Talpagoria and Aztec with the Golden Bat for example and that's without considering the currently in design biomes of the Inverted Mountain, the Abyssal Woods and the long referenced Ringtail Swamp).

However, there's always a lot to be gained by looking at the real world references that a given monster is inspired from, these references often cut deep, for example the Hit Location deck for the Watcher includes cards that cover multiple parts from jellyfish such as the tentacle crown, hydrostatic skeleton/fluids, nerve ring and nerve net. Without looking into jellyfish anatomy with detail you might just think these are fantasy terms, but in truth the names are based at least in part on scientific ones.

Atnas is less based on scientific influences and more on the stories that surround St. Nicholas and his companion from Germanic, Austrian and Croatian folklore; Krampus. Before we get into that, I have to note that there are a lot of folklore characters who are similar to St. Nicholas but distinct so I guess we'll go into each of them briefly. If you have more familiarity with any of these, or other similar traditions forgive me, because I grew up with Siôn Corn (Chimney Pot John) and the Coca Cola influenced version of Father Christmas, so I don't have experience with the rest and there are so many.

There is Sinterklaas, a Dutch iteration of Saint Nicholas who's feast is on the 6th of December and is also celebrated in some parts of Belgium, western Germany, northern France, Luxembourg and some territories from the former Dutch empire like Aruba (which is where our dog Pamcha Borksley was born).

The Christkind; who came from Martin Luther during the 16th century protestant reformation moves away from the Catholic use of Saint Nicholas to instead give the role to Christ directly. This tradition is observed in many parts of Europe and some of Latin America. The Christkind is sometimes depicted as a blond child with angelic wings, which in itself also brings to mind cherubs and we've seen two things that are somewhat like cherubs in Kingdom Death, the first are the stone babies that hang off the back of The King and the second are the various children we see on the Atnas miniature.

Santa Claus and Father Christmas were originally two separate characters, with Father Christmas being the English figure who took on the role and Santa Claus being the American version who came from Sinterklaas. However they've very much blended together like some human eggnog and become essentially one and the same. Santa is also the main influence on Atnas, even to the point of Atnas's name being the reverse of Santa. Given that KDM is American product and features multiple Christian elements it isn't surprising that this is the primary source of influence.

I also brought up Krampus, who is a very widespread character across Europe because it is Krampus who has the more threatening appearance (and horns) while also taking on the role of punishing naughty children. Krampus's horns are usually depicted as being goat-like, while Atnas's have a moose shape (and as mentioned above appear to be alive and somewhat similar in design/texture to the Disciple of the Witches cloaks). Given the original pitch from Adam as Atnas being a “bad Santa” it is not at all surprising that Krampus comes up, even if it appears to be filtered through an American lens.

Krampus heads out on Krapusnacht (5th of December) before the Feast of St. Nichalos and traditionally Krampus would deliver punishment with a birch rod or placing the naughty children in a sack or basket for later punishment. The most relevant of these punishments is Krampus eating the naughty children, but other equally horrible fates have also been suggested.

To run through the various physical elements on the miniature, we see the Noble Jellyfish which is the sack filled with children on Atnas's back, its tentacles framing Santa's upper body as they deploy their frigid mist. He is wearing a satin robe with fur trim, fastend with a single button, he also has a matching cap with large bells dangling from each of the sleeves. (We know the robe is satin from one of the Hit Location cards) and on his feet is a pair of Crakows (Poulaine), which hail from 14th Century Europe and have long pointed toes.

One of the areas I've had the most difficulty in understanding is the collar or ruff of hands that exist under Atnas's beard. Seeing hands there is not a surprise, they're a very common element in this Cronenbergian hell-scape, it is more that they are clearly referenced in a single one of Atnas's hit locations despite their size and prominence. The Grasping Beard is almost certainly the Hit Location card that references it, though that does feel a little strange because Atnas has a beard of hair sat above the beard of hands. I don't know, it's rare that the game's hit locations feel a but fuzzy like this one does.

The last feature of note is for survivors the most terrifying one, Atnas's candy cane shaped sword cane. During the showdown Atnas will slowly unsheathe the sword cane before reaching a point where a flurry of attacks break out as represented by the Sword Craft cards. These cards are at the heart of the threat Atnas can deliver, because the AI and HL cards are a fair bit softer when compared to other Nemesis Node 2 monsters. It is this that can create the uneven and random feeling nature of the showdown and I think the mechanic itself is a bit unsatisfying in design. I'll go into the Sword Craft card deck in more detail in part 2 because it is going to need its own section.

To return to the Sword Cane, it has all the features of the classic hook shape candy cane even down to the diagonal stripes running up and down its length except for around the hilt. The hilt and the end of the handle are more decorated than normal with a devil like face on the handle that stares directly towards the hilt. There is no extended sword guard here, in part because that would ruin the aesthetics of the design, but also one could posit that due to Atnas' extreme proficiency with swords he has less need to utilise them.

This sword cane seems to be the last physical reminder of what Atnas once was before his parasitic infection, so it makes a lot of sense that when the sword is unleashed, the master's skills come to the forefront and we see swordsmanship on a level that no survivor can reach in game. Atnas is capable of killing people who are nowhere near the battle if he so desires.

The Events and Associates

I want to close this lore deep dive out with a look at Atnas's associates and the Story Events that come with his inclusion in the campaign. Atnas has two events with Unwanted Gifts in lantern year 6 and the Self Invited Guest which only happens if Unwanted Gifts results in a 4 to 7 result and it happens 1d10 lantern years later.

Unwanted Gifts

Unwanted Gifts has Atnas leave a present for the settlement, the contents of this box depends on the results rolled on this table but many of the results showcase Atnas's ability to project its sword craft from a distance without being seen. With the worst fate being reserved for the four survivors who open the box. This loss of population is similar to what we experience with the Armored Strangers for the King's Man, but there's no chance to resist, so Atnas can be a settlement killer if population has dropped too low.

The 4 to 7 result gives a perfect hide and adds the Self-Invited Guest to the timeline, we'll look at that event next. The 8 and 9 result inflicts a gaping chest wound on a survivor and inflicts the Gaping Chest Wound severe injury on them, however unlike many 'rocks fall and you die' type dice rolls that usually create a dead survivor or one you don't want to take on hunts there is compensation here, not only is the Ornate Bone Blade gained, but the survivor who took a sword to the chest gains Sword Proficiency and a point in it. This is a neat little piece of design because instead of ending up with a survivor you ignore until they die we have instead one with a negative, but also a couple of enticing positives that also interact with Atnas's showdown mechanics. Difficult choices and options with both carrot and stick are some of the most interesting parts of Kingdom Death's design. While this is generated randomly, it's not a pure punishment, in fact the Ornate Bone Blade goes further towards sweetening the impalement that the survivor suffered.

This sword is a great example of this interplay, the Gaping Chest Wound is a permanent -1 strength, but that is offset entirely by the passive of this sword and if you take that survivor out after they have recovered then this weapon will only get stronger and stronger over time. With a base (2/5+/5) stat profile and a sentient drawback this weapon isn't best in class, but that increasing strength over time in combination with the bone keyword and some solid affinities means that it's right for the period where you gain it and I like that.

The 10 result gives us another sword user, this time it is a baby sword fighter, I'm not sure if the stylized mowhawk is a reference to the Champion Weaponsmith as she features the single most striking mowhawk in the game and she's the only Gambler's Chest miniature that fits the bill, however she's more often associated with axes or hammers, so I'm not convinced on that one.

Self-Invited Guest

You're only going to see this event in 40% of campaigns (ignoring rerolls spent to avoid the survivors dying), which is in itself an interesting choice. That's not necessarily a bad thing because this event picks a random victim who may die or suffer the hamstrung severe injury.

There's also not a lot to get into with this table outside of the Chaos Elf Hat, it's mostly various forms of random punishment with that 1 result being such a major set back that I wouldn't be surprised to hear about it ruining people's enjoyment of a campaign. There's really not much mitigation you can take here either, don't leave resources in the settlement storage and pick Survival of the Fittest for the rerolls I guess.

Even the removal of the gear card is a bit hard to determine, what represents “highest” here? The addition of the word “highest number” would have been a lot clearer, because resources all have a different value. If you asked me which resource was the highest cost out of the three basic ones, I'd give you Hide > Organ > Bone. I have played it as “highest number of resources cost” because that feels closest to the intent of the designers, but I do have to wag my finger at slightly sloppy writing here that just needed a couple more words to tighten it up and make it clear.

Time for the Chaos Elf Hat!

On the surface this gear card has a lot going for it, 4 armor points to the head and +4 strength is nothing to sneeze at. Those are respectable numbers, also locking the priority target token onto one survivor when fighting Atnas is a solid benefit because if you know where Atnas is going to target every single turn you can handle a lot of AI cards by outdistancing them.

The negatives here though are a little awkward, we have the gain of a random disorder on arrival, which isn't a deal breaker for me, but it can result in some bad situations in the showdown. The real negative is the lack of Accessory or even Outfit (with good keywords) on this card. Not being able to deploy this with a set bonus is a significant negative; we do now have Clothed & Satiated to help build pseudo-sets from multiple different elements, but many load outs really utilise an Armor Set card quite heavily. You can build around this, but you're mostly building for +4 strength as your new “set” bonus if you choose to do that and considering what we can get elsewhere that's not that much in comparison. A lot depends on what lantern year this hat turns up, it could appear anywhere from lantern year 7 all the way up to 16 and like all armor cards it has diminishing impact the further into a campaign you get.

There's some neat tricks you can do with Rolling Armor or Vagabond Armor to have this as part of a build, but the affinity demands of this hat are very strict and that causes a lot of slot position and number limitation issues to rear their ugly heads.

All of this comes down to my end experience, which is yes you can make use of this hat, but I usually don't want to.

Atna's Associates and Related Content

Finally as I'm trying to pull everything together into one place, we'll briefly go over the white box release thematics, they are all somewhat seasonal in their appearances. Even before Atnas was released we were seeing products that referenced the fiend so it's time for a quick fire round.

The Imaginary Elf

Spawned by one of Atnas's highest level AI cards, the Imaginary Elf is an incredibly unique thing, as while it is listed as not existing, if you defeat Atnas while the Imaginary Elf is still alive then Atnas may return to life half the time. I'll go more into this card and the card that creates it next time, but here one of the key things I'd like to point out is that this diminutive character seems to have Elgnirk's face (see later on for her). Here's the close up version of her face we have.

They're drawn in different styles, but the overall details, especially the markings around the eyes are the same. This becomes even more interesting when we consider the lore surrounding Elgnirk (see her entry later).

Holiday White Speaker Nico

One of our oldest promo white box releases was Nico, who was originally released as Holiday White Speaker Nico, but has recently been re-released in Painter's Scale form as Deathmas Nico. She came with the Story in the Snow settlement event card. This has little direct lore connection beyond the name, release timing and references to snow as far as I can tell. Apart from making cheating an officially approved mechanic in the game, which in my family was the Spirit of Christmas (So many years I watched them play Monopoly while my sister stole from the bank as the banker).

X-Mas Special Pinup Twilight Knight

This was one of the earliest “Painters Scale” models and it came with the still excellent Xmaxe, which is a weapon I really enjoy using as a treat occasionally. If you've never seen it, the weapon is basically the axe version of the Gloom Katana, except it has generic crafting costs.

Winter Solstice Lucy

This version of Lucy has the greatest quality of life Seed Pattern in existence, the Grim Muffler provides a solution to the noisy issue for one piece of gear and it has been essential for me to experience the Smog Singer gear. It's saved the survivor using the given noisy gear card multiple times to date. However, outside of some festive theming in her outfit there's no direct connections here.

Santa Satan

One of the only KDM pieces to take advantage of Santa and Satan being anagrams (I'm honestly a little surprised Atnas doesn't link to them in some way). This box set came with the first “Cube” of Atnas, as basic resource. In many ways the cube feels like the predecessor to the Deathmas gift resources that we have now, it shares a number of thematic elements with them while also being different.

The other contents included a strain unlock that added the card to your basic resource deck and removed Heat Wave from the deck forever. It feels more like an alternative path that wasn't followed in the end, though it does link to Atnas directly.

You can read about it all here.

Elgnirk, The Choas Elf

(Choas is NOT a typo)

Elgnirk was driven mad with grief when its twin soul was lost in the fog of dementia. It carries a glowing cane fashioned from the bough of a forbidden tree, guiding Elgnirk among the naughty and nice, touching them with joy to fill the world with memories for its beloved to devour.

This miniature's official rules only allow you to use it during the holiday season (December), she appears on the end of the hunt board and advances towards survivors during the hunt phase, triggering if she reaches them. It's a really situational, limited window release that the main lore question I have here is if “its twin soul” that was “lost in the fog of dementia” is Atnas. I originally thought that the deformed human “Rudolf” was the twin soul, but after looking through all the Atnas stuff, I note that both Elgnirk and Atnas are called “it” and Atnas is indeed “lost in the fog of dementia”. Also both of them revolve around joy and the phrase “for its beloved to devour” could be referencing Atnas's driving need to consume children. Something to think about for sure because there's a lot of connections there and KDM rarely does accidental connections.

Deathmas – Apotheosis

No real lore here, just some fun antlers on the Apotheosis Male miniature.

Deathmas – Cockroach Queen

The guest had arrived and they felt merry and bright despite the gloomy frost that descended on the settlement. Their joints ached and their blue-tinged skin stung in the biting winds. Barely audible above the howl of the wind and the glad tidings bellowed by their guest, a papery tune emerged. They gathered, pressed together for warmth to sing the carol they each knew in their hearts without ever hearing it. On the first glow of Deathmas our best guest gave to us... The guest grew quiet, listening intently, closing its eyes and searching the back of its eyelids for a memory. With a rising hiss, its appendages began to twitch and sway along to the chorus.

This represented the formalisation of what the plastic Deathmas miniatures seem to be, some extra cards for the Atnas showdown along with a Chaos Satin dressed depiction of the character who comes with them. For myself the main disappointment here was the removal of the Rocker Vermin card that came with the Beta version.

Deathmas – Kale & Deathmas – Gunborg & Gunborg Sleighs

None of these came with any additional lore, they seem to be style only. Gunborg did bring us a sleigh and Kale has brought ducks into the game though.

Deathmas – Percival

Relentless mirth spread across the table. The gathered survivors shoulders heaved, distended stomachs jiggling with ceaseless laughter. Their muscles seized, chests aching with exhaustion, tears seasoning their festive meal. The laughed and laughed until they collapsed.

I've recently covered this one, it's the sequel to Deathmas – Cockroach Queen and has an expansion of the gift mechanics along with more sword craft cards. I'll write more about the Sword Craft mechanic and its cards next time.

I think that is all of them covered, if I've missed any please do mention them in the comments because I'm trying the best I can to really explore the why of Atnas here and any scrap of written lore can help shed a tiny bit more light onto the subject.

I'm going to have to wrap this here because I've now got to get into both all the showdown mechanics of Atnas for next week and continue working on the notes for the Smog Singer's Dark Bestiary!