Wall ahead. Sorry.
Greetings once again everyone. Fairly soon, my character, currently a vrykolakas vampire whose affliction was forced on him, will have a chance to earn a wish in exchange for completing a mission. My character had initiated the wish and mission exchange the night he woke and found himself less than alive, and intended to use the wish to turn into something a bit more breathing so that he can once again have his dog (something he cares for very much, and is being watched by an NPC friend) back.
All good so far right? Well. When my character went to the location to speak with the man granting the wish, he found the location to be amazing... except that they buy / sell / trade slaves. Our campaign takes place in a modern day world (as I've said before in other threads, I know... sorry). Our games have taken place in California for the most part. This place however, is in another dimension, and is basically a magical Agraba from Aladdin. My character doesn't like the idea of slaves, but at the same time, they're a legal thing in this plane of reality.
So, here's where the wish dilemma comes in. I've spoken to my DM and he's game for either wish.
- On the one hand, I have something that my character's been striving for, in changing to something living and breathing, and becoming happy once again. The vampire he is now, comes with some extra RP hindrances and problems for the character that would motivate him to want to change and he's told friends and his dog (via speak animal) that he would get himself fixed up.
- On the other, he can wish to have all the slaves currently for sale, and those sold in the future immediately magically bought under his name, and transported to properties also bought under his name, where he would then free them and offer them the choice of staying (as still free people) on the properties and living with shelter, food and drink if they've nowhere else to go.
Now. Normally I'd just go with whatever my character would do, but he really wants to do both. I don't get another chance at whatever I don't pick. At least not a likely chance.
I feel the character would want to pick the freeing of slaves, but that would seal his chance of becoming what he wants to become (i.e. not human like he was), and he'd probably start to break down and become sad, angry and bitter after giving up his dream. Also, just freeing the slaves probably won't mean the slaves are safe. If causes have reaction, then it's likely the people of influence and money in that plane won't take kindly to the monopoly and freeing of their slaves and I could easily see a miniature war, businesses not offering services to my character, attacks on the now free slaves, etc... So, even if they're free, they may not be safe.
My character would figure at least that much. Still though, how does one feel OK with not trying to free slaves and instead, wishing for something for themselves? Is knowing that they'd be in danger, and that you'd be potentially wrecking an economy enough to not try?
What is everyone elses thought's on the choices?
Note:
1) - I have the one trait that allows a sense motive check against the wish granter to get the wish you intend, instead of what's worded as well as a way to consistently get the check necessary for it. My DM knows this, and is fine with it.
2) - I asked the DM about another wish and he shot that down, so the above are 2 I know he'd be down with and would be within my character's personality. I had considered 10 writs that allowed him to negotiate extremely lower taxes for favors (the place has insane taxes going on), but my DM wasn't here or there on it.
3) - The thing my character intends to turn into is a custom template me and the DM would be working on together that fits my character and his goals. It'll likely be slightly weaker than the vrykolakas, but still close to comparable.
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I think I'd wish for myself to be human again. Keep it short and simple. What I've read about wishes is the more factors they involve, the more likely something will bite you in your @ss. You can't save the world, you can only save yourself.
Not to mention you weren't the cause for the slavery system there, you have no obligation to fix it.
The freeing of slaves is a more altruistic choice, perhaps consider your pc's alignment as part of your scales of balance for weighing?
What is to stop the slave traders from moving their organization to another area that is outside the influence of your wish?
At least with you turning back into a human you know there are not any tricks/loop holes to bypass your wish.
The second option is way outside the normal scope of a wish.
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Wishes. Man, I'm a cynical old coot. Why are they even in the game, I wonder, when GMs generally try to twist any wish with the best of intentions.
I really wouldn't be meddling with the affairs of any society. You may have the best intentions in the world, but its so easy for things to go horribly wrong.
Say, a land has a tyrannical ruler. You wish for him to be overthrown and the people granted the choice create their own government. Yet your actions cause the country to be plunged into chaos, and people have formed factions, killing each other to prove who is more worthy to be king.
Any societal change has to come from the society itself, when they are ready. Forcing the change upon them will only end in tears.There are plenty of real life examples, but I'm not going to have this boil down to a discussion of RL politics.
For fiction, in the Elenium, the King of the Atans sold his entire race to slavery to the Tamuli. Sounds horrifying, no? Again if he didn't, the entire Atan race would have wiped themselves out, taking their "warrior" traditions too seriously. He was hailed as a wise king of his people for making such a choice.
My 2 coppers is you should just wish to remove your vampirism.
It's a simpler wish and less likely to go wrong.
You can also purchase the slaves legally and free them after acquiring them. Or at least as many as you can, and keep doing so when you are able.
Thanks for the input everyone!
The trait I have is the Thoughtful Wish-Maker trait, OK'd by my DM earlier in the campaign.
It's a good point about the vampirism removal being somewhat simpler. With the freeing of slaves, that can be done, and bad things happen after as cause of the wish, rather than the magic of the wish itself doing the harm. So that is a very good point.
As for my character's alignment coming into play... he's true neutral. He does lean towards the side of good most of the time though.
Anyways, thanks everyone. I think I'll go with the curing of the vampirism, and try to find ways to legally free the slaves after the fact if he can manage it at all as Claxon suggested.
Thanks again.
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Also - that trait of yours is for outsiders granting you a wish. Is that man an outsider? Else that trait of yours wouldn't do jack. He could be a powerful NPC wizard casting wish...
Again, its all semantics.
Before you start freeing slaves, please check if the slaves in question want to be freed. Perhaps they're perfectly happy where they are.
Also - that trait of yours is for outsiders granting you a wish. Is that man an outsider? Else that trait of yours wouldn't do jack. He could be a powerful NPC wizard casting wish...
Again, its all semantics.
Before you start freeing slaves, please check if the slaves in question want to be freed. Perhaps they're perfectly happy where they are.
He is indeed. He's an Efreeti business owner that needs a special job done. My character and this one have already met, fortunately.
Another good point about the slaves though. I'll take that into consideration when trying to decide which to free after I cure my vampirism.
Also - that trait of yours is for outsiders granting you a wish. Is that man an outsider? Else that trait of yours wouldn't do jack. He could be a powerful NPC wizard casting wish...
Again, its all semantics.
Before you start freeing slaves, please check if the slaves in question want to be freed. Perhaps they're perfectly happy where they are.
He is indeed. He's an Efreeti business owner that needs a special job done. My character and this one have already met, fortunately.
Another good point about the slaves though. I'll take that into consideration when trying to decide which to free after I cure my vampirism.
You should also determine wether some of them should be freed.
Some of them may well be serving legal punishments.
The biggest problem with the slave buying and freeing scheme is that you are creating a huge demand for slaves.
It isn't clear where the slaves are coming from, but from our own history it is likely to be either captured in battle/raiders or from captive breeding populations, raised like livestock. Increasing the demand in these two resources is unlikely to promote the general good, even if they are later freed.
You don't mention how you are planning on supporting the freed slaves, but unless you have virtually unlimited wealth (or the kind of magical technology that would probably make slavery useless) your refuges would quickly become overcrowded hellholes.
Of course you already indicated that you aren't going this way, and in a game such things might just be hand waved away anyway and freeing the slaves relegated to background and flavor rather then mucking about with the sad way things would really work.
While I do agree that you should do some research as to what would happen if you free everyone, there is no reason that you should blow your wish on getting rid of vampirism.
Instead of using the wish to fix yourself, you could get yourself killed, ending the whole undead thing, then have someone resurrect you.
That requires a Resurrection, which would normally cost 10,000 gp and finding someone who is capable of casting it (and possibly paying them).
The OP has an efreeti who has the ability to grant a wish to him and is conceivably several levels below having guaranteed availability of Resurrection. But if, the party is capable of casting Resurrection on their own and the player is capable of paying the 10,000 gp cost then it may be worth it to do as you suggest and then use the wish to help free the slaves. But the scope of the spell is not "I wish all the slaves in __________ were free". That's probably too big for wish to do. He could however wish for 25,000 gp to try and buy and free the slaves.
Freeing slaves by purchasing them cannot work, economically speaking, without legal abolition of putting new people into slavery, even the children of existing slaves.
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Cure your vampirism, even if the outsider can't twist your wish to their purposes the wish is so far outside the scope of a normal wish that the magic itself will most likely malfunction. That is a part of the wish spell itself not affected by the trait. I would be very careful with wish, outside the scope of it's normal parameters all bets are off.