If you could lend me an eye or two, I would like to tell you a tale, the tale of an industrious rogue...
The Tale of an Industrious Rogue is a story (divided into Parts I
, II, and III) about a Pathfinder campaign that follows a rogue named Hassan and his party in the game setting of Golarion, in the city-state of Katapesh. After finding a rift into the Paraelemental Plane of Salt, the parties begins down journey of ever increasing greed and hunger for power forever changing the world around them. For the better? Probably not.
Tale of an Industrious Rogue provides examples of:
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The city of Saltspit, named after its original main resource, a giant pit filled with salt.
- Expy: One NPC who becomes pretty important in Saltspit is explicitly noted as being based on Al Swearengen from Deadwood, with his name changed to Mahmud Al'Sherengen to fit in better with the "Arabian Nights" Days setting Saltspit is in the general area of.
- Rags to Riches: The party starts off as rather unimportant adventurers, having even been slaves at one point. By the end of the story the group ends off being essentially infinitely wealthy, but being also the strongest faction in the games world.
- Shout-Out: Saltspit is compared to Deadwood more than once.
- One NPC is compared to the King of Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven, wearing a silver mask to conceal a mutilated face.
- Villain Protagonist: Hassan and his group are such, especially towards the end of the story, with the ever increasing greed as well as what they would do for money and power.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: The orbital golem's with portals to the null zone serve as such
- Would Hurt a Child: Upon seeing that the trail to his fountain of gold rests in a sick, 8 year old child, Hassan immediately goes "Great. This makes it way easier".
