Line #35 Literature/RoguesInTheHouse


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c721376e428080d298e55a6a24ab96cd.jpg]]
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7	"[[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Rogues_in_the_House Rogues in the House]]" is a Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story by Creator/RobertEHoward. First published in January, 1934.
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9	Conan is sitting in prison after killing a priest ([[AssholeVictim he had it coming]]) when he is approached by a nobleman named [[TheDandy Murillo]], who has a proposition for him: kill the Red Priest Nabonidus for him, and he will provide Conan a horse, a sack of gold, and a one way ticket out of town and away from the gallows.
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11	Conan escapes from jail, and, after dealing with the prostitute who turned him in, heads off to Nabonidus's mansion. Conan tries entering through the sewer, only to get stuck down there thanks to one of the mansions traps. While down there, he runs into Murillo, who had arrives there first with the intention of killing Nabonidus himself, thinking [[PoorCommunicationKills Conan had high tailed it out of town]]. They soon discover Nabonidus trapped down there as well, a prisoner in his own home.
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13	Turns out Nabonidus's servant, a man-ape named Thak, has rebelled against his master, and now uses the assortment of traps set around the mansion to keep out unwanted guests (and keep his prisoners in). The three [[TitleDrop rogues]] will have to work together if they ever want to get out of the mansion alive, lest they fall victim to Thak, or perhaps, to each other.
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15	The story has been adapted by Creator/MarvelComics in their ''Conan the Barbarian'' comic, as well as by Creator/DarkHorseComics.
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17	Notable as being one of Howard's personal favorite stories, and one of the stories that he was most happy with the finished result, only having to go through two drafts before publishing. He also remarked on how he was especially happy with the story as his editor didn't force him to add a fetish/nude scene, which was almost a requirement for pulp stories at the time.
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20	!!Tropes in the House:
21	* AdmiringTheAbomination: Nabonidus is thoroughly impressed with how knowledgeable Thak has become with his patented system of traps [[CombatCommentator and gleefully gives a play by play]] [[ToThePain of the elaborate hell Thak is unleashing upon the happless party of nationalist assassins]], much to Conan and Murillo's disgust.
22	* AngryGuardDog: Nabonidus has one, reputed to be exceptionally powerful and vicious. [[spoiler: It's dead by the time we see it, killed by Thak in his takeover of the house.]]
23	* BigFancyHouse: Nabonidus' house has elegant furnishings and appointments, but only one servant, by the reports of the few men who've been allowed inside.
24	* TheBerserker: The effect of the gray lotus powder, one of the many traps in Nabonidus' house, on men.
25	* BondVillainStupidity: Proves to be Nabonidus's undoing. He could have activated his final booby trap, killed Conan and Murillo, and gotten away with it all, but ''no,'' [[EvilGloating he just had to start Monologuing]]:
26	-->'''Nabonidus''': And so, Murillo, fool that you are-::BONK::
27	* BrickJoke: Conan earlier objects to Murillo not wanting to kill Nabonidus, instead figure out what's going on in the house. Conan insists he wants see what color Nabonidus' blood is, as so many say he has a black heart he must have black blood as well. After Conan kills him. . .
28	-->'''Conan''': [[BondOneLiner His blood was red, after all.]]
29	* TheDandy: Murillo, the soft, pampered nobleman with scented curls who hires Conan to kill Nabonidus for him. [[HiddenDepths Then straps on a sword and goes to do it himself when that plan seems to have failed.]]
30	* DecadentCourt: The unnamed city the story takes place is astonishingly corrupt, even by the standards of civilized places in Conan yarns. See GreyAndGreyMorality.
31	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Implied. In the chronologically-earlier story "The Hall of the Dead," which Robert E. Howard began and L. Sprague [=DeCamp=] later finished, Conan meets a Gunderman mercenary named Nestor, and they become FireForgedFriends over the course of looting an ancient cursed citadel and fighting the demons and monsters they find there. At the beginning of this story, passing mention is made of Conan's accomplice, an unnamed Gunderman who was captured and executed well before the events of the main narrative. Ohhhh...
32	* EnemyMine: Conan joins with Nabonidus, who he was hired to kill, so they can get past Thak and escape the house.
33	* EpicFail: How Conan get arrested. He is ratted out by a whore so when the guards find him half-asleep and fully drunk he fights his way out until he charges full speed into a stone wall and knocks himself out.
34	* EvilChancellor: Nabonidus is this to the king. He is technically just the king's chief advisor. In truth though he's a powerful sorcerer with many different schemes whom the king fears deeply, and is the true power.
35	* ExactWords: Nabonidus promises not to have the king kill Murillo. He didn't say anything about personally killing Murillo though.
36	* TheExile: Murillo is not sure whether he's been warned to opt for this. Nabonidus sends him the ear of his spy as proof that he is on to him and the guards have not come to arrest him yet. Later the priest admitted he was gonna do it tomorrow morning and as seen by his sadistic streak and gloating, Nabonidus is the type to play with his victim and likely just wanted to give Murillo a headstart.
37	* FingerInTheMail: An ear is sent to Murillo.
38	* FrazettaMan: Thak, however see ItCanThink. We are told that in 100,000 years or so his people are liable to become human.
39	* GadgeteerGenius: Nabonidus who uses a lot of ClockPunk tech to safeguard his house.
40	* GambitPileup: A fairly good description of the plot. Murillo arranges Conan's escape from prison to have him kill Nabonidus, but then ends up going to Nabonidus's mansion to do the job himself when he hears that the escape was botched. Conan, meanwhile, manages to break out of prison on his own, but decides that he could probably use the sack of gold and the fast horse that Murillo promised him once the job was done (and he felt at least partially indebted to Murillo for getting him unshackled and nourished with a good meal while he was in prison), so he heads to the mansion as well. Unfortunately, this is the exact night that Nabonidus's pet Ape-Man Thak decides to rebel against his master. ''And then'', partway through the story, a [[HeroOfAnotherStory band of political rebels]] breaks in with the intent of assassinating Nabonidus (they do [[MuggingTheMonster about as well as you'd expect]]). ''Everyone'' wants to kill Nabonidus, they all want to do it ''right now'', and nothing goes according to plan for any of them.
41	* GasChamber: One of Nabonidus' traps, sealing intruders between glass panels and spraying them with [[TheBerserker gray lotus powder]].
42	* GreatEscape: Arranged for Conan to escape prison and assassinate a target. It does not go according to plan, and Conan is forced to affect his own.
43	* GrayAndGreyMorality: As per the norm for the [[CrapsackWorld Conan universe]], the unnamed city where this story takes place is ''astoundingly'' corrupt and decadent. Even the guard that Murillo bribes to get Conan out of jail is into a bunch of unscrupulous things, which is what gets him caught and the escape stopped. Murillo is a courtier selling state secrets to rival kings. Nabonidus is a classic EvilChancellor with all kinds of plots in motion. And between them is Conan, amoral sellsword. Everyone pretty much agrees that of the three of them, ''Conan'' is the most morally upright, because [[AtLeastIAdmitIt at least he's not pretending to be anything but an amoral sellsword]].
44	* HiddenDepths: Murillo is a dandy and a traitor, but he's no coward. Once he hears that his assassination plot has been thwarted, he straps on a sword and heads off to Nabonidus's mansion. Granted, he's acting out of desperation and he doesn't really think he'll pull it off, but he's clearly not going down without a fight. He also helps out Conan during the final battle with Thak by smashing a stool to pieces on the Ape-Man's back while the two are tearing at each other, stunning him long enough for Conan to get the fatal blow in.
45	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Nabonidus dies when Conan throws a stool at him, with enough force and accuracy to drive one of the legs through his skull.
46	* ImprovisedWeaponUser: Conan's a resourceful guy. When the new guard starts hassling him about the joint of beef he's eating, Conan simply wallops him with the bone and walks out of dungeon. And in the climax of the story, he takes out Nabodinus with a stool.
47	* IOweYouMyLife: Minor example: one of the reasons Conan decides to carry out the assassination even though Murillo's attempt to get him out of prison fails was because he's got a rough code of honor and feels indebted to him: Murillo made sure that Conan got a decent meal and was unchained beforehand, without which Conan couldn't have had the strength and opportunity to make his own escape. The promise of gold and a ride out of town doesn't hurt either.
48	* ItCanThink: Thak is not just inhumanely strong, he is also much more intelligent than he looks.
49	* JustEatHim: Thak had his chances to merely tear Nabonidus and Murillo limb from limb at different points in the story, but chose instead to drop them into the mansion's sewer system in order to have them disposed of later in one of Nabonidus' more elaborate traps.
50	* KilledMidSentence: Conan chucks a stool at Nabonidus's head right in the middle of his evil monologue. We'll never know what gruesome fate he had planned for our heroes now.
51	* KillerGorilla: Thak's portrayal is somewhere between this and a more typical Frazetta man.
52	* TheManBehindTheMan: Nabonidus is the man behind pretty much everyone, manipulating everyone from the king on down in his web of intrigue.
53	* TheMole: Murillo sells secrets to foreigners.
54	* NobleFugitive: Murillo thinks of this but it might not be allowed.
55	* SeenItAll: Nabonidus isn't really shocked by the events of the night and finds it amusing the bot Murillo and the nationalist decided tonight was the night to kill him.
56	* TheRat: Conan and his Gunderman ally are betrayed by a priest who works as both a fence and a snitch. Conan kills the priest for it, but is then betrayed by a hooker. And that's why he starts this story in jail.
57	* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Thak, clad in Nabonidus' red robe gives off this effect through his ebony features.
58	* WorthyOpponent: At the end Conan acknowledges Thak as this.
59	* WouldHitAGirl: Conan gets revenge on the whore who turned him in to the guardsmen by tossing her into a cesspool. [[BlackAndGreyMorality Note that this makes him positively chivalrous by the standards of the Hyborian Age.]]

Context Literature / RoguesInTheHouse