So part of a player's backstory is that he was separated from his family at a young age and spent most of his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood as a slave.
Fast forward several years, there's been a slave revolt, he's free and working for a powerful thieves' guild. He wants part of his "main quest" to involve looking for his parents.
Keep in mind, he's a Trox. His parents are Trox. They're not very common, and they're really hard to miss. They tend to leave an impression on people.
I'd like for his employer (a woman with long reach and deep connections) to have some kind of tip for him, but I haven't had a decent "Aha!" moment, and my next session is this Friday. I'm in last-minute-panic-prep mode.
Also, they don't have the same racial history as the Trox in the books. They originate from an island off the west coast, and he's already been there looking for them. Where did they go? If they were sold as slaves, they were probably separated, but after the revolt, where did they end up, and why have they been so hard for him to find?
Any ideas or starting points or can openers for my brain would be greatly appreciated.
Was this slave revolt universal, or just in one country or region? It is possible that they were sold off somewhere else.
Or their owner managed to flee, taking them with him to somewhere he could maintain power. It could be a small isolated place, perhaps connected to another evil that the rest of the party is more interested in. A 'James Bond villain' secret island where slaves are still kept, perhaps as part of a plot to restore the old order might fit the bill.
So the slave revolt was the start of a nationwide revolutionary war. The two countries are Alvaria and Thalcania (Thalcania being the "parent" country). The war has lasted about 16 years, during which time the government has changed and slavery has been outlawed. The fighting was intense during the first few years, but has died down to almost nothing for a long time. Thalcania still refuses to acknowledge Alvaria's sovereignty.
I say all that because Thalcanian forces are going to invade again. This whole time they've been building up their armies and their naval forces, and in a few weeks' time, they'll have taken over some of the cities on the southern coast of Alvaria and will be in the process of re-establishing Thalcanian law.
When my player's character was taken, he was alone and separate from his family. After the revolt, he joined the Alvarian military and helped in the fighting, until his contract was up and he went off looking for his parents. He went back home, but didn't find them there. So far he hasn't found any other leads.
The parents were enslaved at the same time as the PC but he doesn't remember that as it was a traumatic event. He was sold into the pits (or whatever other bad place you wanted him to be sent) while they were purchased by a more progressive lord. While he wouldn't free them, he did allow them to live a life that wasn't like the traditional slave.
The lord was a seafarer, explorer, and merchant. The parents were trained as sailors and spent time working with crew (free and slave alike) in an environment where their physical strength and multiple limbs made them perfect for hauling sails and dealing with ropes. Additionally, their ability to burrow made island exploration more simple.
The lord sailed away with his crews and his ships when the war threatened his properties. They now reside on an island where the lord had a large manor and estate. He hasn't returned to the nation yet because he is still regarded as a traitor or criminal by both sides of the civil war. His ships still ply the trade routes but now as 'free' ships. The crews try to maintain a low profile while in ports so they don't draw unwanted attention from any authorities or persons bent on some sort of revenge.
The parent's own investigation into their son's whereabouts (aided by contacts the Lord and his business contacts) revealed that the place the son was sent was destroyed in the fighting. They have no idea that he escaped and joined the army. Believing him to be dead, they have stopped looking.
Disclaimer: I don't know if you've changed the history of Trox much in your world (whether explicitly yet or not).
Idea if you want to be a bit . . . cruel: He wasn't separated from his parents. They sold him into slavery, much like they had other children. They used this money to help gain power and influence and now own/captain a powerful Thalcanian naval vessel.
The guildmaster tells the PC of an area or town where there was said to be a heroic throx during the revolution. In the area, there's a statue of a throx (just a statue), commemorating the PC's mother or father. Supposedly, during the rebellion some slaveowners either released a gorgon into the slaves or one of the owners was a medusa and during a fight in a manor or warehouse or something they were petrified. Do to lots of statues or fighting or something, the floor collapsed into the sewers, cellar, underground caverns, etc. and the hero was broken too much for the slaves to restore at the time (there was still fighting going on.)
The PC can go find the ruins and explore, but they lead to underground chambers and caverns. They find a throx arm or some other clue. The rest of the pieces have been carried off, either by curious subterranean inhabitants or a few (former) slaves living down there as a memento. If the PC can gather all the parts and mend the smaller pieces (weight restriction) or, more likely, make whole before unpetrifying them, they can be reunited. The petrified one obviously won't know what happened to the other after the incident, but may have information, like a planned meet-up spot or know of where they had intended to go afterwards.
Or possibly the parents had another child, either conceiving shortly after or they were pregnant during the capture and the PC was too young or unable to realize it), and the statue is a younger sibling, either a brother or daughter that greatly resembles the father or mother as he remembers them in the past. In which case, now the PC has a sibling, who can share information or something that they know of.
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