The weapons look good Jubelo! I'd say leave the tufnek out of the picture - it's not the sort of weapon you'd envision a hero using.
Sorry for my absence. I've taken a stab at the rogues but grad school has been murder...
It ends up that Sneak Attack and Rogue tactics can't be readily replaced because the first is iconic and the second is built into the powers. So, that leaves me with Rogue Weapon Talent and First Strike alternate class features (as I did with the Holy Slayer). This is more challenging than I thought!
So instead I've written a story that ties into the "Lost Scrolls of the Loregiver" storyline. It's based on an Ursula LeGuin short story called "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." I'm also working on the format that I want to present the various Campaign Models in.
The Lost Scrolls
Paragon-Tier
When Prince Suhail brought the lost scrolls of Aj’Altair to Huzuz, he sparked a religious controversy that continues to this day. However, last night the scrolls were stolen by a radical sect. Not fully translated, the enchanted scrolls of Aj’Altair hold the promise of a revival of the Faith and an end to rising sectarian violence. However the true power of the scrolls is yet to be revealed…
Background: When the Loregiver traveled with Fate’s message, she passed on a wealth of wisdom to the shepherds of the remote village Aj’Altair, who recorded it on sacred scrolls (see the Teaching of Fate tale in Appendix A). For centuries the humble people of Aj’Altair passed this sacred knowledge to their children, awaiting the coming of the First Caliph. However, the wisdom of the scrolls was anathema to the yak-folk whose sorcerers summoned an earthquake which swallowed the village temple the scrolls were housed in. Though the village elders did their best to relay the teachings to the First Caliph, he was young in his understanding of the Faith and unable to grasp their esoteric oral teachings. For a time, his court kept relations with Aj’Altair, who enjoyed their elevated status, but jealous sultans ended the relationship and in time the Caliphs forgot of Aj’Altair and the scrolls.
However, during the Great Unbinding the battles between the yak-folk and the dao unleashed a second quake which opened a deep fissure in the arid hills. While searching for a missing ewe, a young shepherd girl named Etana found the fissure, and entered thinking she had discovered a water hole. Much to her surprise, she emerged amidst ruins of a temple wherein she discovered the lost scrolls. Immediately the girl recognized the wisdom held within and returned to the village elders who decided the time had come to share them with Zakhara, and appointed Etana their keeper. However, Etana was suspicious of the greed of city men and so she decided to keep the knowledge among her village until a worthy champion arrived. To this end, the elders devised a test of character, awaiting the day that a pious Caliph would come.
Nearly a century would pass before Prince Suhail learned of the scrolls when converting hill tribes from the north. He searched for the scrolls for years until, desperate, he allowed himself to be captured by yak-folk and learned from them of Aj’Altair. Escaping, he traveled to the village and met the ancient Etana who he convinced to administer the test of character (see Prince Suhail’s Test in Appendix A for one popular version of what occurred). Passing the test, Prince Suhail was entrusted with the scrolls, Etana’s granddaughter Anjum accompanying him as an emissary of Aj’Altair. When he returned to Huzuz, Prince Suhail put the best translators to work deciphering the magical script with Anjum’s assistance. As it became clear the scrolls challenged dominant beliefs about fate, clerics began to question their veracity and two powerful sects emerged around the most vocal imams. Violence between these two sects has been on the rise, and Prince Suhail has been unwilling to reveal the scrolls until they are fully deciphered, fearing they would be misinterpreted.
To assuage the feuding imams, Prince Suhail planned to host a private viewing of the scrolls. However, after the feast when the Prince opened the sacred shrine housing them – the scrolls were missing! As palace guards searched for the thief, Anjum revealed that in the wrong hands the scrolls could be put to terrible use. Furious, the imams swore to find the scroll for themselves. Enter the PCs.
"The Teaching of Fate"
The Loregiver once stayed in a sheperd’s village where all the people loved one another as brothers and sisters and conflict was unheard of. Yet everyday one person was led by the elders to a secret place; when the person returned they always were distraught and comforted by their families. Curious, the Loregiver asked the elders of the custom to which they replied: “O, wise woman, we are honored that you stay among us humble people, but please do not ask us about the secret place, for it is the one thing we cannot share.” Yet the Loregiver was determined to know and so one day she disguised herself and followed a young girl who was taken away from the village to the foothills, down a passage into the earth where there was a prison cell with a lone shivering boy inside. Yet the boy was so emaciated, so filthy, so mistreated that he appeared a wild creature. The boy snarled at the elders who threatened to beat him sending the boy into a fit of whimpering.
Immediately the young girl began to cry, but the elders were stern with her. “This is his fate. Shed tears if you must, but this boy’s sacrifice keeps our village from disaster.”
The young girl pleaded for them to release the boy, who only snarled and whimpered , but the elders were adamant and when the girl grabbed the keys and tried to open the cell, she was carried from the underground prison screaming.
Horrified, the Loregiver waited till all were gone but the boy, then she went to his prison cell and folded her robes, sitting upon the floor and she told a story to him. Though tears were in his eyes, the boy’s face was blank. Each night the Loregiver secretly went to the boy and taught him the ways of Fate and the Law; gradually his eyes shone with the spark of understanding. During the day the Loregiver shared her wisdom with the girl – neither realized it, but they both were receiving half of a whole teaching. One day, at a festival, the shepherd girl asked the Loregiver in the presence of the elders: “What can change a person’s fate?”
The elders scoffed, scolding the girl: “Impetuous girl! What is given by Fate is not for us to change, but to accept. Your question is an insult to this wise woman!”
To which the Loregiver answered: “If you would know, ask the boy in the secret place.”
Shocked to see their secret revealed, and each secretly ashamed, the elders went with the girl to the boy’s prison. The girl repeated her question to the boy, who stood up from the refuse surrounding him and answered: “Know, o shepherd’s daughter, that there are three kinds of Fate in this world: That which is written on the Tablets of Destiny and cannot be changed; that which is inherited from the past and can be changed by action; and that which we believe is true and can be changed by faith. These are the three natures of Fate.”
The elders gasped, for they thought the boy had become dumb and unintelligible long ago. At once the shepherd girl realized he held the other half of the teachings the Loregiver had taught her, and she proclaimed: “Then rise from your imprisonment, for I have prayed for you every day since I saw you and your Fate is not so written.” With a stone she broke the lock on the boy’s cell, and taking him by the hand, led him to behold the glorious sun which he had not seen in years. The boy asked to see the Loregiver, but she had traveled on already. So the shepherd girl and the boy taught the village elders what the Loregiver had taught them, and these things were recorded in gilded script on papyrus scrolls blessed with holy frankincense so that all should benefit from the wisdom therein and never repeat the mistake the village had.
