Adventures Ahead: ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’

Eagle-eyed visitors to Ancient Spire Outpost have noticed Tasha the tavern keeper acting rather strangely in recent days. While she’s remaining uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the cause of her distress, she has begun to openly reminisce about her childhood hero: the legendary pirate known as Captain Briggsy.

Clearly, the adventures of Tasha’s old friend and mentor are playing on her mind. But just who was Briggsy really, and how did her name become spoken only with fear and contempt by artisans of the arcane like Madame Olivia? To answer that, we can revisit the history of the trailblazing pirate who came to be known as the Cursed Rogue…

The Rogue’s Origins

At a young age, Briggsy was one of the first renegades to reach the Sea of Thieves in the Pirate Lord’s wake, and had already earned her distinctive moniker thanks to an unnatural talent for escaping cells and confines of all kinds.

Inspired by the opportunities and equalities of an untamed pirate paradise, Briggsy soon built a reputation as an eccentric adventurer, forever determined to be the first to set foot on whatever might lie over the horizon.

While most crews formed a tight bond and preferred to stay aboard a single ship, Briggsy was far more mercurial. She would join crews or invite others to join her as the fancy took her, only to slip away when her mood changed, to resume the life of a solitary adventurer.

There was one constant in her life, however: she would make frequent visits to the Unicorn Tavern, then owned by a tavern keeper named Teddy. Taking her place by the fire, Briggsy would enthral onlookers – particularly Teddy’s young daughter, Tasha – with tales of her daring deeds. Many of these were noted down by Tasha as best she could, filling volumes with colourful recreations of Briggsy’s exploits.

The Rogue’s Ambition

As Tasha grew older, Briggsy seemed to sense potential in her, and began to gift Tasha both with mementos of her adventures and guidance on becoming a successful pirate – a notion that Tasha was firmly disabused of by Teddy. Unfortunately for Briggsy, she would never have the chance to mentor her young admirer…

Briggsy had been working to assemble an Ancient relic known as a Shroudbreaker, hoping to make her way to an island so laden with wealth that it had become known as the Shores of Gold. Once a lengthy but manageable journey, the Shores of Gold had since been isolated by the deadly miasma known as the Devil’s Shroud – an obstacle that could only be overcome if and when the Shroudbreaker was complete.

Bidding her friends goodbye, Briggsy set a course for the Shores of Gold, beaching her Sloop in her excitement at making it to this strange, uncharted wilderness. Once there, she learned two lessons of her own: the island’s treasures had been claimed by the avaricious Skeleton Lord known as the Gold Hoarder, and by touching them, she had condemned herself to join him.

The Rogue’s Tragedy

Having undergone her own skeletal transformation, Briggsy soon found herself treated as an outcast, becoming hostile and distrustful towards all pirates. She grudgingly followed the Gold Hoarder’s commands, for he had promised a cure for her curse, and she spent many hours hunting for such a thing – all to no avail. She did not obey his order to destroy the Shroudbreaker, though, and merely disassembled it once more.

That was a decision that would come back to haunt her, as a crew of pirates who wished to reach the Shores of Gold themselves began to hunt for the artefact’s missing pieces. They were sent to face the Cursed Rogue by Madame Olivia, who saw her as nothing more than a threat to be eliminated, and after a fateful confrontation, they returned to the Order of Souls with Briggsy’s masked skull in hand.

The Rogue’s Redemption

As for Tasha? Having heard the horror stories of Briggsy’s many misdeeds in recent years, she had long since become disillusioned with her former idol. She willingly surrendered her storybooks to the same pirates who had sealed Briggsy’s fate, believing them to be filled with nothing but lies. Those stories, however, really did lead to the Shroudbreaker’s stones – proof enough for Tasha to realise that Briggsy had indeed been the legendary rogue she remembered from her youth.

Briggsy may be gone, but Tasha’s respect and admiration has been rekindled. She’s turned her attention to the teachings Briggsy left behind, and there’s been no-one to forbid her from realising her lifelong dream and indulging in a few expeditions of her own. Until, that is, she awoke to the revelation of some grisly side-effects...

Now it’s your turn. The task of navigating those riddles and responsibilities rests with pirates who choose to shoulder the burden Tasha once carried, deciphering Briggsy’s lessons, sorting fact from fiction and uncovering the treasures that Madame Olivia so urgently seeks. When ‘The Rogue’s Legacy’ launches on December 8th, you’ll finish what was started and discover the consequences of Tasha’s after-hours adventures for yourself…

Previously
Adventures Ahead: ‘Return of the Damned’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Herald of the Flame’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Sirens’ Prize’
Adventures Ahead: ‘A Hunter’s Cry’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Forsaken Hunter’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Lost Sands’
Adventures Ahead: ‘The Shrouded Deep’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Forts of the Forgotten’
Adventures Ahead: ‘Shrouded Islands’