Your party is traveling through the Darklands to reach a dwarven settlement to complete their quest. They come across a duergar caravan which has been ravaged by aberrations. Your party is strong enough that defeating the monsters is trivial. But you find one survivor. A duergar teenager. Your party is righteous so they obviously won't leave a child to die in the wilderness. But what do you do with this boy? Will the dwarves accept him? Does Droskar already own his soul, or is he young enough to be shown a better path? Would it even be safe for you to bring him to a Duergar settlement? Can you spare the time for the detour? Is it ok to bring him back so he can continue to be raised evil?
We had a lot of fun with this scenario a few years ago, and I kind want to try s variant of it again. But
I'm not sure what ancestries can walk that line of "not biologically evil, but culturally pretty far gone." We know drow are being removed in the remaster and I kinda think Duergar will be too. Can serpent folk be raised good? Do they have kids? Are they cute enough to be endearing?
It doesn't even have to be the Darklands. Goblin babies used to be a thing, but since goblins went core that feels like way less likely. Same for orcs. I guess we have kholo outside of the Mwangi expanse? But I'm not sure bringing a kholo to a human settlement would feel as dicey as bringing a Duergar to a dwarf settlement.
So I ask you all: who will make for the best evil orphans?
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The Hryngar have already come up a few times, as the replacements for the OGL Duergar.
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The Hryngar have already come up a few times, as the replacements for the OGL Duergar.
They are duergar after all, just with their serial numbers filed off and a new focus from slavery to pyramid schemes.
Nidalese.
A significant percentage of the Nidalese population are just regular folks (Desnans even) just trying to keep their heads down and make it through the day. But if you made the kid already thoroughly indoctrinated into the cult of ZK, it could work.
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Nidalese.A significant percentage of the Nidalese population are just regular folks (Desnans even) just trying to keep their heads down and make it through the day. But if you made the kid already thoroughly indoctrinated into the cult of ZK, it could work.
I read Liane Merciel's Nightglass about a sorcerer from Nidal, and the early chapters highlighted that the regular folks are extremely trained as children to keep their heads down, so much that hiding their true beliefs is a way of life. This would cause trouble with adopting a Nidalese orphan because the orphan would secretly distrust people of power, such as the party members, while pretending to trust them. I have read of real-life foster children who had been starved so often that they routinely hid food in their rooms regardless of being fed well by the foster parents. I think a Nidalese orphan would be like that and would steal a knife to be able to stab party members if necessary.
Likewise, a Droskar-worshipping Hryngar child would probably be accustomed to hard labor. If the party coddles the child instead of forcing heavy chores on the child, the child will think that something is seriously wrong. They might imagine that the party is fattening them up as a sacrifice or something equally sinister, especially since the party members don't worship the proper god Droskar.
Extremely devoted dwarven followers of mother goddess Folgrit would have the patience and might have the training to persuade such children that they are in safe hands and do not need to have a backup plan to escape or murder people in the night.