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Hypothetical scenario. PCs are in Cheliax, and one decides he just has to have a Halfling to make camp, mend tools and clothes, and such. So he buys one. Now what? While adventuring, how do you keep a slave obedient and prevent escape? What do you do with the slave in combat? Where in the Inner Sea do you need to stay away from?
For the former it's fairly easy to look to real history. It requires one to be indescribably evil and constantly reinforcing the slave's mental status quo are being less than the owner. Anything less will result in constant escape attempts, and even then they likely will try to run away.
In combat a slave will never be effective unless their position is fairly static like a shield wall, or there is constant threat of physical violence from the master like a Soviet commissar with a machine gun.
You should probably stay away from anywhere with any sort of good aligned beings as even in places that tolerate slavery there will be abolitionists unless slavery is ingrained into every aspect of day to day life. Your DM should also really have every paladin that encounters you attempt to free the slave, and if you resist kill you. As owning a slave is an actively evil act, so a paladin not interfering is essentially the same as letting someone get away with murder in front of them. Your PC will also obviously have to be evil and thus have all the other penalties that come with that.
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Yeah halflings are much better for use as small sized ghoul scouts.
Another piece of food for thought, you character is pretty much objectively more evil than the necromancer that just creates mindless undead.
If you treat the slave well, depending on his pre-slave status, the might not want to leave. Basically convince him that he is better off with you than not being with you.
Just level with him, explain to him that you will treat him decent and keep him safe. so many dangers out there in the wild after all
Lay down a head of a giant you've slain in front of him and stare wide-eyed right into him. He'll get the picture.
Depends. Is this slavery as practiced in the American South, as practiced by the Roman Republic/Empire, is the opinion of the owner influential over the treatment of the slave and in what way, is the slave willing or unwilling, or what? Depending on the type of slavery and slave, options range from the mundane to the highly magical (e.g. a geas or similar magical restraint). In short, more detail is needed.
He said Cheliax so pretty much Roman. The owner (Dominar) can kill slaves at anytime and slaves are taken from poorer client culture to the main in power culture. They don't have any high demand expensive slaves like the Romans did with the Greeks though so it's unlikely that anyone ever willingly sells themselves into slavery and as it is almost entirely race based escaped slaves are easy to identify much like with the various Germanic slaves that couldn't speak Latin. Unless you were trying to imply a fairytale "happy Roman slavery" that didn't really exist, in which case I should specify that it's fascist slavery.
To get the American South's slavery you'd need some sort of capitalist nation that also allows slavery, or at the very least a nation that grants a lot of autonomous power to its minor nobility. So maybe Geb for capitalist chattel slavery? Though I'd assume in a lot of Geb they treat the living more like slaves were treated in the Carribean, Brazil, and Colonial Africa which is to say essentially concentration work camp inmates, as replacing slaves was more cost efficient that allowing them to slow down work enough to survive.
Induce Stockholm Syndrome.
He was pretty clear this is Cheliax/halfling type of slavery... Here's the thing. Most slaves - from earlier times to even modern sex slaves - stay where they're told to. Why?
1. You try to escape and you might get beat/something cut off/mauled by dogs/etc. Is it worth the risk?
2. You're going to escape to where? This isn't traveling in Andoran, this is in Cheliax. A random halfling wandering into town will get arrested and beaten into telling where the master he escaped from is. He's going to be wearing slave clothing, jewelry, haircut, etc. Depending on where you travel, you may have to keep a sharper eye; obviously you can't go places where slavery's outlawed without risk (there's many other threads with that list of countries in it). But heck, what does a slave know? How does he know that this mythical place you're traveling in that he's never even heard of before would just as soon turn him on or boil his eyeballs as liberate him? "Andorens, yeah, boy they really love to torture halflings to death, stay close lad..." If you're out in the middle of Varisia in Shoanti territory, you're going to run off to be dragged to death behind the horse of the first brave to find you?
3. Once you escape, even if not rounded up or die from direct hazard - yay, now you're penniless? Starving to death etc. is a real thing. You're going to get a job where? You're going to find some land you're allowed to live on where? From American slavery to the modern day fall of the USSR, the "suddenly free" often end up somewhat regretting it when the hard times come.
People get used to things. Slaves get used to their station, and settle into "well, I'm getting fed and clothed and protected... I'm actually doing better than most of these dirt farmers we're riding by..." In Rome a master could kill a slave immediately, but some slaves were still very esteemed and highly placed due to their education etc...
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"Objectively evil", like there is such a thing.
Moral relativism is really the worst philosophy. It is almost universally used as an excuse do disregard the well being of others for the sake of personal gain.
To actually answer the question though yes there is such a thing. Any conversation about morality must have some baseline of common right and wrong or else the conversation is meaningless. If you don't want to participate that's fine, but going "well it's okay for people to practice slavery because your morality doesn't apply to me man" is completely unproductive. It's just perpetuating societal abuse and exploitative status quos because you want to be edgy.
- Buy manacles
- weld them shut with the slave attached so they can not be opened again. Ever.
- Chain the manacles to your military saddle
During travel the slave has to follow your mount. If he stumbles, he dies. During the night the slave will be too weak to run off with the heavy saddle. A normal military saddle weighs 30lbs, an exotic one 40lbs. Combined with the manacles and chain it's a lot to carry during an escape attempt.
If you have more than one slave have them stand in a row and tell them: If one of you misbehaves I'll punish the one who is now standing to your right. So if you want to keep your fingers, tongue and such keep the one to your left from misbehaving.
Or what wraithstrike said.
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"How do halflings know where these safe havens are?"
Oh, they know, all right. They know. We make sure of that.
Bellflower Road
(to the tune of 'The Ghost of Tom Joad')
Men bein’ whipped along a beaten track
Road map carved in the scars on their backs
Foreman and his thugs watchin’ from the ridge
Cold gruel for a banquet under the bridge
New meat brought from over the border
“Welcome to the Hellknight Order”
Families missin' their kin, from East to West
For them, there is no peace, no rest
The highway is alive tonight
With tales and songs, from the ones we’re taking home.
I'm writin’ this song by the wayfinder light
Ridin' on the Bellflower Road
Garik tells me he came from Andoran
“I did honest work with these two hands.
I built the alms houses for the old folk in need.
The Thrunes made me build temples to their greed.”
“I was a nurse to their squalling brat.
Wiped their arses, when they were too fat.”
“I cooked for a man, of unnatural lust,
I left him a eunuch, in the dust.”
The highway is alive tonight
With people returnin’ to the places they need to go.
I’m sittin’ here in my covered hide,
Guardin' along the Bellflower Road
Now, before you call anyone ‘slip’, Mister, you best think.
Could I have ‘slipped’ a little somethin’ in your drink?
When you’re shaved, could a razor ‘slip’ from ear to ear?
Before you beat a child, better check if I’m near.
You can spend your life, in fear, lookin’ over your back,
Chained to your sins, on your own rack,
Or you can accept people’s right to be free,
Do the right thing… before you see me.
The horizon is a welcome sight
As we wave our new-found friends to their lands and homes.
I watch them a while in the pale moonlight,
Then set off back down Bellflower Road.
Make it obvious that he depends on them for protection. Depending on where they are, there might be nowhere he could go if he escapes.
Or just treat him well. Maybe even start paying him a measly amount, though he wouldn't be a slave. Though by higher levels, paying someone an unskilled laborer's wage is a drop in the bucket.
Places that don't need to be avoided would probably consist of:
Absalom
Cheliax
Irrisen
Jalmeray
Katapesh
Molthune
Osirion
Qadira
Rahadoum
Sargava
Shackles
Kaer Maga
So that's a pretty sizable list. No reason you couldn't keep this adventure in Cheliax.
Also not if the player wants to have the slave participate in combat in any meaningful way, they will need to invest in them to keep them effective.
The Shackles are iffy. There are halfling pirates that work to free slaves.
Respect and love your halfling more than your dog, give it a little freedom to pursue its artistic aptitude and remember give it a praise, when it tries to impress you. That makes it happy and it will love you back and follow you everywhere by its own will.
"Objectively evil", like there is such a thing.Yeah halflings are much better for use as small sized ghoul scouts.
Another piece of food for thought, you character is pretty much objectively more evil than the necromancer that just creates mindless undead.
Well, in my opinion, slavery is an always evil act. There are varying degrees of severity, in that enslaving prisoners of war is not on the same level as chattel slavery, but it is a bad thing to do. I have no illusions that I'm suggesting a non-evil deed in this thread. I'm just curious as to the logistics of how such a thing would work.
If it is a halfling you want to keep, a dungeon ring/prisoner ring pair is a pretty cheap solution.
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Well, in my opinion, slavery is an always evil act. There are varying degrees of severity, in that enslaving prisoners of war is not on the same level as chattel slavery, but it is a bad thing to do. I have no illusions that I'm suggesting a non-evil deed in this thread. I'm just curious as to the logistics of how such a thing would work.
Just in case this thread goes down an alignment-debate rabbit-hole, and gets locked, I want to say I have no problem with any player wanting to try out an occasional evil PC, as long as, like you, they are in no denial that that's what they're doing, and if they can do so in a way that doesn't disrupt the game or make it miserable for the other players.
When I post under an alias, it's almost always in-character, so while my abolitionist agitator above would happily poke out your slaver PC's eyes with a rusty spoon, I'd have no problem with you, personally.
And I'd let you play that PC alongside any of mine, as long as we had a player-to-player agreement, that neither of us would get butthurt by any in-character rivalry. It can be fun to play a team of misfits, who loathe each other, but have to work against the bigger threat.
"So, Cardinal Fang...the Dark Lord is no more."
"Indeed. And I no longer have to suffer a maggot like you, now you are surplus to requirements."
"It is a good thing that healing I gave you was only temporary. Should be wearing off any second. You got cut a few more times after, didn't you?"
"Gah! Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!"