Slavery in Varisia

[Geralt_Bialy_Wilk]

It's my first post on Paizo boards, so first of all I would like to say hello to everyone :)

I started GMing my first Pathfinder campaign, picking up RotRL. The thing is that one of my players is going with Lawful Evil halfling ranger and picked Humans as his fav enemy ;D He came to Sandpoint to assasinate a trader that supposedly got mixed up in enslaving halflings in Varisia (and other non-human races), and get some more information about slavery in the region.

Putting slavery into RotRL isn't hard, but I want to do it smart; allow my player to follow up his agenda without disturbing the main plot and without other players sitting at table idle, while the ranger fills up half of our session time. Good thing is that I wanted to allow players to join or drop out at any given time, and guy playing this halfling will be sometimes missing, which allow his character to disappear from time to time (and allowing me to get him one-on-one sessions).

So the question is - how to implement slavery into Varisia without breaking the whole AP. He already assasinated his target in Sandpoint, and he's going to break into his house for information. What if there's some kind of Asmodeus (LE god of tyranny, slavery, pride, contracts) cult, that is enslaving folk in Varisia, and our trader is a Asmodeus follower and is financing some of cult's smaller operations?

Any ideas or input is appreciated :)

[Haladir]

According to canon, slavery isn't practiced in Magnimar or Riddleport, or any of their holdings (including Sandpoint). Slavery is practiced in Korvosa, Kaer Maga, and orcish city of Urglin.

In my game, Magnimar's laws do not recognize any humanoid as anyone else's property; consequently any slave who can make it to the city is automatically a free man under Magnimarian law (much like runaway slaves in the pre-Civil War days who made it to a free state). Consequently, Magnimar has a fairly large halfling population, many of whom are escaped slaves from Cheliax. Varisians, being natural wanderers, find slavery abhorrent in general; even the criminal Sczarni families generally don't want to get mixed up in the flesh trade.

That said, slavers could certainly be in Magnimar or Sandpoint, looking for particularly good targets to kidnap, load on a boat, and sail off to the flesh markets in Cheliax or Katapesh. Slave hunters could also be in the prowl, looking to re-capture escaped valuable slaves and return them to their former masters. Such people would need to keep a low profile, though, and would likely need to travel under pretense of being a merchant, tourist, or mercenary.

[Geralt_Bialy_Wilk]

Thanks for your imput, Haladir.

About keeping low profile by slavers - that's the first thing I was thinking about, that way my player would have more fun with discovering that plot.

I'm just wandering if making them a cult is a good idea or not. It can open me doors to bigger sidequest for my group, but I'm not sure if other players would mind putting one person's agenda in the centre of events. Additionally, the halfling player is quite an experienced RPer, but most of the group isn't. He might easily convince them to go and dispose of _that_very_evil_cult_which_enslaves_people_!

[James Jacobs]

Yup... the best way to think about it is this—the further west you go in Varisia, the less publicly acceptable slavery is. It's a crime on the west coast, and a legitimate business in the east.

[tonyz]

There m ay not be open slavery in Riddleport or Magnimar, but I'm pretty sure there's a number of taverns where if you take an incautious drink you'll wind up unconscious on the floor and on a ship heading for Absalom before you wake up. Sandpoint is a bit too small for that.

[Mikaze]

It's been a while since we've finished CotCT, but I thought I remembered slavery being illegal in Korvosa(while remaining very much present in the criminal underworld or in private, as long as it wssn't out in the open in the public eye). Can't remember if I picked that up from Guide to Korvosa, CotCT itself, or elsewhere. A certain plotpoint being an exception to the general law was actually touched on in one thread, I remember that much for certain.

[Old Drake]

You should also remember that the AP is about Greed. In the second book there is a cult sacrificing greedy people... there's a good chance that anyone involved in locating/kidnapping slaves is a potential target. So the ranger may find a target already dead or a third party may drive him off when he tries to kill a target and he learns the next day that the target is now dead. Xanesha may even recruit him, giving him intelligence and perhaps money if he performs a certain ritual scarring before killing his targets.

[Haladir]

Mikaze wrote:

It's been a while since we've finished CotCT, but I thought I remembered slavery being illegal in Korvosa(while remaining very much present in the criminal underworld or in private, as long as it wssn't out in the open in the public eye). Can't remember if I picked that up from Guide to Korvosa, CotCT itself, or elsewhere. A certain plotpoint being an exception to the general law was actually touched on in one thread, I remember that much for certain.

I haven't read or played in Crimson Throne, but I thought I remember reading that slavery was practiced in Korvosa; especially since they style themselves as a "little Cheliax."

[Geralt_Bialy_Wilk]

@Old Drake:

That idea sounds good. I think that he can work with that kind of euncounters.

Thank you all for your ideas and knowledge :) I'll update as I proceed with this plot.

[Haladir]

Geralt_Bialy_Wilk wrote:

I'm just wandering if making them a cult is a good idea or not. It can open me doors to bigger sidequest for my group, but I'm not sure if other players would mind putting one person's agenda in the centre of events. Additionally, the halfling player is quite an experienced RPer, but most of the group isn't. He might easily convince them to go and dispose of _that_very_evil_cult_which_enslaves_people_!

A slave cult could be interesting, I suppose. However, in Book 2, chapter 3, the enemy is a "very evil cult that murders people." A slave cult might pale in comparison with a murder cult-- depending on what they actually do with the slaves, of course.

[Old Drake]

I guess that depends on the murder cult. If it appears that the murder cult goes after slavers and other criminals, especially if they are going after rich criminals (even if there are just rumors supporting so called crimes), the murder cult could be seen as the good guys by a large number of people.

[Haladir]

Old Drake wrote:

I guess that depends on the murder cult. If it appears that the murder cult goes after slavers and other criminals, especially if they are going after rich criminals (even if there are just rumors supporting so called crimes), the murder cult could be seen as the good guys by a large number of people.

Actually, I'm referring to...

Spoilers for Skinsaw Murders:

The Skinsaw Cult, who've been behind a series of grisly murders in Magnimar and (indirectly) in Sandpoint. They leave their victims mutilated, such that speak with dead won't work, and marked in a particular ritualistic way. It's this cult that the party tracks down over the course of the adventure. In my game, I had the cult murder one friendly NPC, one NPC the party had initially suspected as the murderer, and one PC!

[Old Drake]

Yes, I know. So was I. But just because the murders are grisly doesn't mean that the population would see them as unjustified, especially if there was a lot of incriminating evidence found on site against the first two or three victims. The cult would be established as bringers of justice against rich criminals that use their money to evade justice. And every future victim would be assumed guilty, because they drew the attention of the vigilante cult.
And since the Skinsaw cult goes after greedy people, rich criminals would exactly fit their prey.

So while the cult would be seen as evil in Sandpoint, once the players reach Magnimar, they could find the cult seen as some kind of local heroes that see justice done, even if many would consider them a tad brutal - however with rumors about mutilation being necessary to prevent certain magic, a surprising amount of people would be accepting of even that.

[Geralt_Bialy_Wilk]

The idea of vigilantee evil cult sounds interesting. And certainly, people would accept them if they "do whatever has to be done" to bring justice upon wealthy, untouchable by law (as always ;D), criminals.