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I'm running Life's Bazaar as an e-mail game, and the group is well into Jzadirune. They have yet to kill anything bigger than a mosquito.
They have taken prisoner 7 skulks, 2 dark creepers, and Yuathyb. They Charmed the skulk in Ghelve's shop, which was interesting.
One of the PCs is a Beguiler, and anytime they (or the Druid's Riding Dog) detect anything in a room ahead, he casts Sleep!
(None of the skulks they tried radiated evil, and the others are CN.)
Intriguing. Let us know how far the party gets before they're force to kill or die.
What are they doing with them all? I am sure the town guard would take a couple,(weird little gnomes) but more than that? All I can picture is a group of PC's with a train of skulks in manacles following behind. Sort of like a reverse slaver ring. They don't try to escape? Anyways, interesting play style.
Hey, being able to arrest the baddies is one of the advantages of urban adventuring. I encourage it. It demonstrates a respect for all life, a level of civility, and faith in the city's legal system.
The Town Guard Barracks is described in the SCAP as having a five-level underground prison facility that can hold hundreds of prisoners. It probably also serves the prison needs for Cauldron's environs in a fifty mile radius.
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I wonder what the sentence terms are for "being a skulk", "intent to assault and battery" and "trespassing in Jzadirune"? There isn't much more they can be blamed for, and the adventurers are just as guilty of the latter offense. But still, I think it's cool they don't kill as long as it doesn't become too impractical.
All the PCs could take the Leadership feat and take the skulks and dark creepers as followers and/or cohorts. The beguiler could also become a mindbender (prestige class from CM) and take some fo the prisoners as minions. Eventually they wouldn't need to kill anything. They can just let the monsters they face kill all the prisoners.
Of course, this makes them sound more like evil bastards than pacifists. ;-)
There is nothing wrong with pacifist PCs, but there must be some sort of limits to their pacifism. Taking undead, plants, oozes, or constructs prisoner might be somewhat problematic. Also, some of the major villains later on can teleport with but a thought, so keeping them prisoner might take a bit of effort.
If your players are intent on following this strategy they should be burnt and rewarded for it in equal measure. From what you've said though, their strategy also appears to be heavily dependant on the circumstances. Many of their prisoners are not evil, and they are close to Cauldron (well, underneath it) so their actions are sound if rather strange from a classic D&D standpoint.
I've played a pacifist paladin and cleric in the past.
It's actually tons of fun.
Coincidentally, I'm also running "Life's Bazaar" as a play-by-email game.
My players took various prisoners, too (the thugs and the skulks at Ghelve's shop); one of the members is a dragon shaman with the Vigor aura, so he can easily stabilize the bad guys before they bleed to death.
However, my version of Cauldron has a bit more of a "frontier justice" system: I'm planning on having one of the Last Laugh thugs testify against the others (sending them to the gallows while he escapes with a flogging) and the captured skulks were killed by the party when I explained that members of non-PC races are frequently lynched before they even get to trial (exceptions made for the wealthy and powerful, of course).
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One feature of the Ptolus setting that I like is the Brotherhood of Redemption. Basically, they will pay PCs to give them captured intelligent evil non-PC-race creatures who they then reform using magic or something. The process is not clear, but I'm pretty sure it involves drugs, violent movies, and Beethoven.
At least it does in my campaign.
Anyways, it gives the players the option of capturing the bad guys without then having to decide whether to let them go or kill them afterwards.
For a while, one of the PCs was a monk who specialized in grappling and wanted to capture anything he thought he could sell. Unintelligent creatures got sold to the delver's guild for their adventure holidays or whatever they are.
Funny thing is, he wasn't a pacifist. Intelligent evil PC race enemies he usually shot with his dragon pistol, because he couldn't get any cash value for them.
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I confess, the word "pacifist" was for effect -- they're certainly happy to go down and bash whatever they find, which isn't exactly pacifism.
As to what they do with them, we're about to find out. The guard took away the thugs, as in the book. They took the charmed skulk to the Cuthbertites to have a little Q&A; the priests then turned it over to the guard -- there's been no followup yet.
The two skulks from the barracks south of the mask room were bound and left in Ghelve's shop, being watched in the short term by a couple of one of the PCs' guard contacts.
The characters then went through the tunnels and faced Yuathyb and a couple of creepers (and the pulverizer); they got ambushed by the remaining skulks when they were dragging their prisoners back through the tunnels, and won. (Didn't help that I didn't roll above a 13 to hit in the whole fight, including four 5s.)
So now they have a lot more prisoners suddenly, and the guard friends are wanting to make all this official before they get in over their heads.
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I wonder what the sentence terms are for "being a skulk", "intent to assault and battery" and "trespassing in Jzadirune"? There isn't much more they can be blamed for, and the adventurers are just as guilty of the latter offense. But still, I think it's cool they don't kill as long as it doesn't become too impractical.
You could also get them for kidnapping and probably burglary, and I think you could get them tried as accomplices to the enslavement of the townsfolk as well.
I think it's a really interesting development you have, and there are tons of things you can do with it down the line.
I wonder what the sentence terms are for "being a skulk", "intent to assault and battery" and "trespassing in Jzadirune"? There isn't much more they can be blamed for, and the adventurers are just as guilty of the latter offense. But still, I think it's cool they don't kill as long as it doesn't become too impractical.
Or then its for monsters the same way with those holding green cards... can be arrested and held without cause for up to 3 years before right to be heard in a court of law.
A certain wrestler Ludvig Borga ran into that, and demanded to be kicked out of "the s&*#country".. 3 days later he was back home to finland and no wish to see usa ever again. This regardless that WWF was planning to make him the champion... officially the story is about a injury in the WWF history, but thats all BS ;)