A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Four Horsemen Present: Pakuvresh, the Flesh Golem Factory

Four Horsemen Present: Pakuvresh, the Flesh Golem Factory by Steven T. Helt is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games and The Four Horsemen for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as an 11 page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.95 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the front cover, one the Open Game License and half is the Credits.

The opening text gives some details on Pakuvresh. It was built on the Plane of Shadow by a necromancer archmage who, once he was certain the factory was up and running properly and capable of defending itself, left it to function on its own. This explains that the encounters provided are enough to explore Pakuvresh in a single session, and is suitable for 4-6 characters of level 9 or 10.

Description gives an overview of the factory, which can change locations and which sees a constant influx of humanoid raw material for processing by the various creatures based in it. Pakuvresh operates at almost full capacity but is showing signs of wear around the edges,

Locations and Encounters has six different encounters for the factory, starting with bone devils getting new raw materials from wherever the characters currently are and teleporting them to the factory. The other encounters are mostly for the factory itself, bar a brief one for the shadow plane, and the various creatures, some new, that can be found.

Conclusion has some further options.

Four Horsemen Present: Pakuvresh, the Flesh Golem Factory in Review

The PDF is linked with the major sections bookmarked. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two column format and one error was noticed, in that the page headers are for Gruesome Constructs, not this supplement. There are a variety of colour illustrations which would appear to be either mostly or completely custom. Presentation is decent.

The factory isn’t mapped at all and is rather a bare bones collection of interesting encounters. It could be developed into something much more complex and it’s a shame that it hasn’t been. There are some interesting, and sometimes disturbing, constructs to be found in the factor, not just the standard flesh golems the place is intended to create. The concept and descriptions are, in truth, rather better than the execution of this. It could be, and, really, should be, longer, in order to truly explore the idea. Four Horsemen Present: Pakuvresh, the Flesh Golem Factory can be found by clicking here.