Fair warning: this is about using slavers as bad guys you can slaughter in fantasy roleplaying games because they are evil. Slavery is bad and slavers will try and justify it with poorly considered claims. I may amend this later if I have ideas.
Orcs might be nice but slavers are all awful.
All historical slavery is bad but some kinds were worse, this isn't meant to say the lesser forms were tolerable or OK.
Some had zero mobility or ways out other than a grave.
I recommend reading the code of Hammurabi and looking at Roman slavery a bit, but I don't mean bronze age values are prescriptive for the modern world.
Some people don't want this element in their fantasy novels or games that's ok. I'm more into cathartic fantasy violence but I get some people are the opposite to this and they are welcome to stop reading and visit one of my other tasteless posts. Maybe think twice about presenting odorous subjects in public. Though as kids in 70s we watched Roots and played games about fleeing captivity and id rather be on side of the slaves than masters.
If you do use this maybe feel out on your players if anyone does not. Don't railroad ppl into autonomy loss in game even if ppl say it's okay maybe don't.
I think a sandbox setting where players choose to fight slavery on their own is superior. Make some maps and place slavery routes and outposts and markets and anti-slavery areas. It's better than forcing them into being slaves for more than 5minutes if they don't want to do this. Ive warned players about autonomy loss in a series of published cthulhu scenarios and they were quite a bit darker than most and it kinda made a depressing gloom vibe worse than any id read since 1st edition box set (a friend wrote it but I won't say who). Being controlled and railroaded through a haunted cave exhibits torture which is a waste for games about making choices and the characters to solve problems.
Even evil edge lord players or weasely neutral centrists might be convinced killing slavers is good for business. Like pirate hunting people call you heroes. If beef is business you might as well plunder awful bullies. Maybe some other anti-slavers are overdoing it a bit weirdly or have other populist or cult motives.
My own game is full of real vice and crime a grotesque parody of history and early 80s UK FRPG vibes. In part, my campaign is about grubby colonialism and toxic nationalism/religion. Any slavers that players interact with should eventually get the chance to die at the character's hands.
What kind of slaver fighting should I be doing now?
Players at any level should be able to mess with slavers and slavery.
0 Helping runaways, being uncooperative, mocking slavers, avoiding dealing with slave owners, sabotage and graffiti, increase in slave keeping costs and taxes
1-4 Helping break slaves free, raid slave caravans, murder or rob a slave trader, drive them away from local area
5-8 Systematically destroy slave trade in a region, destroy their prisons and trading posts and ships, establish or aid anti-slavery organisations and people in governance
9-12 Work on international slavery targeting their palaces and help people resist slave raiders, rob temples of pro-slavery religions
13-16 Should be able to wipe out most organised slave trade on this dimension, maybe look at the underland or undersea slavery or other plan planes or hidden civilisations. Perhaps some nearby planes can benefit from your help. Stamp out slavery cults and religions
17-20 Go to other dimensions like hell and mess up their operations, enslaved souls on other planes need your help! Kill a god of slavery
Why aren't you not killing slavers right now you ask?
I bet you can't wait to round up all the slavers for the common good.
In basic D&D many modules feature the Iron Ring a despicable syndicate in cities and the wilderness. The use non-humans as goons in wild areas and in several adventures. They are into chains, and brands and are nasty enough to be destroyed. TSR didn't really give us a definitive adventure to crush global slavery which is always a campaign achievement in my games. It appears in several modules and is easy to hate.
AD&D has A1-4 Against the Slavelords a contention module in 4 books the in one book. Lots of these books have tournament fluff and pregens so a bit of wasted space I thought at age 14. Some later versions added more. The Slavelords could totally be the Iron Ring organisation. It is one of the 1st great railroad campaigns but for a convention, you should expand it
A1 has a ruined city I'd like to see a bit more of.
A2 raid a castle
A3 attack the slavers and all die
A4 resurrected and tortured and escaped from prison naked as the island had volcanic eruption - I'd have a deity warn them of this countdown
Has some brave stuff here by modern standards - killing the party in a railroad a bit wow.
It is as if capturing ppl impossible in dnd. I don't know how slavers manage to make it seem easy.
TSR marvel series X modules from the 80s you are mutants in an alternate near future resisting the techbro/fascist takeover of America persecuting mutants. Wild fantasy stuff I know but it pulls off the grim for marvel vibe well. There were tough times but it was heroic and you got to stomp on badguys and it was clear it was not suddenly a genre swap to a horror show. Players choosing on their own to plan infiltration as a choice is fine but forcing it can be meh. If you have the range choice on offer at uncle Don's 1981 Hong Kong holiday slideshow night maybe just make it a paragraph montage cut scene so players can get back to being effective. A bit of suffering is good for heroes but you have plenty of ways to make players sweat. Feel out if a prison breakout is something players would like to play from inside and how grimy it can get.
d12 Sneaky Slaver Scummy Tricks
1 Offer spiked booze then carry off "drunk friends"
2 Kidnap drunks off the street and taverns
3 Join our holy pilgrimage to meet a wonderous saint (no sickies need apply)
4 Advertise a job to lure victims into slaver temporary lair
5 Run a racket with prostitutes to lure victims into slaver's temporary lair
6 Offer miracle cure treatment (for something based on vanity not actual sickness) to lure victims into slaver's temporary lair
7 Join a holy crusade and come with us to absolve our sins by slaughtering foriegners but really to lure victims into slaver temporary lair
8 A terrible criminal in the area, joins the posse and get a cut of the reward! but lead to slaver's temporary lair
9 Hire labourers pay them a coin, then lead them to slaver temporary lair
10 Find desperate needy people and offer to buy their family members
11 Work with crime guild to get idiots into gambling debts to sell sellves as slaves
12 Influencing the state to help the privileged and persecute the weak. Use financial support or flooding system with pro slavers, give fancy slaves to posh people to get them into slaver circles
Temporary lairs are buildings occupied for short term or until bribery stops working and people complain. Often in a closed business or leased building but tents or a cave might do or a ship.
Permanent prisons might be in old castle dungeons, isolated forts, even in a city slum. Some short-term holding or local only, others are for receiving from smaller ones to mass export.
Slavers Guild
In my game the Slavers Guild is a continent-wide criminal syndicate with branches in every kingdom that use the wasteland to move slaves where kingdoms cannot. They kidnap people then carry them across the continent to put them from escaping. They buy and sell people sometimes from families, some kidnapped, some prisoners of war kingdoms don't want to keep. The guild branch that transports them has been doing this since ancient Exilon 5000 years ago and are linked to the smugglers' guild, the western lotus cults and the mining guild.
Slavers may worship cruel gods and demons but value healing magic to keep their slaves alive and prevent self-harm.
Slavers often run scams like miracle healing shrine that makes sick healthy then sell them. They might pretend to be a ship press gang in a port town. guiding pilgrims into trap disguised as monks is another old trick. They might kidnap a whole village which is why nobles are often against them.
My players constantly mutter about taking them down over past conflicts.
They think stopping the Slavers cross-continent routes will be possible.
d12 Good reasons to start beef with slavers
1 They are despicable traders in misery against liberty
2 They undermine society with their influence to increase slavery and take over industry and manufacturing guilds, devaluing honest labour
3 Saw friends taken by the slavers and you seek to free them
4 Slavers kill someone meddling in their affairs and must be avenged
5 Know ex-slaves or were slaves, mistreated and freed or escaped
d12 Local Slaver Troubles
1 Mystery kidnappers have taken quite a few people
2 People are taken with fake signs of humanoids found as red herring clues
3 Noble youth visiting the poor taken by masked kidnappers
4 Child reports friend taken by slavers and knows where their camp is with other prisoners (child might be a gang stooge)
5 Slavers moving chained humanoids were overthrown and now these slaves are living as bandits - locals debate the best course of action
6 Press gang kidnapping crew for a ship people say
7 Graverobbers have been stealing corpses of skilled and famous crafters or scholars (resurrection if can be profitable with high-value slaves or arcane research)
d12 Slavers Best Customers
Temporary lairs are buildings occupied for short term or until bribery stops working and people complain. Often in a closed business or leased building but tents or a cave might do or a ship.
Permanent prisons might be in old castle dungeons, isolated forts, even in a city slum. Some short-term holding or local only, others are for receiving from smaller ones to mass export.
Slavers Guild
In my game the Slavers Guild is a continent-wide criminal syndicate with branches in every kingdom that use the wasteland to move slaves where kingdoms cannot. They kidnap people then carry them across the continent to put them from escaping. They buy and sell people sometimes from families, some kidnapped, some prisoners of war kingdoms don't want to keep. The guild branch that transports them has been doing this since ancient Exilon 5000 years ago and are linked to the smugglers' guild, the western lotus cults and the mining guild.
Slavers may worship cruel gods and demons but value healing magic to keep their slaves alive and prevent self-harm.
Slavers often run scams like miracle healing shrine that makes sick healthy then sell them. They might pretend to be a ship press gang in a port town. guiding pilgrims into trap disguised as monks is another old trick. They might kidnap a whole village which is why nobles are often against them.
My players constantly mutter about taking them down over past conflicts.
They think stopping the Slavers cross-continent routes will be possible.
d12 Good reasons to start beef with slavers
1 They are despicable traders in misery against liberty
2 They undermine society with their influence to increase slavery and take over industry and manufacturing guilds, devaluing honest labour
3 Saw friends taken by the slavers and you seek to free them
4 Slavers kill someone meddling in their affairs and must be avenged
5 Know ex-slaves or were slaves, mistreated and freed or escaped
6 Secret faction of nobles want slavers destroyed and will pay but don't mention their names
7 Kingdoms had a hard time with slavers and recruiting heroes to scourge the slavers
8 Rich merchants hate slavers who take relatives and whole wagon trains from the merchant clan. Hire adventurers to cost the slavers and bankrupt them with violence
9 A Church hates slavers and offers healing and raise dead to heroes who fight the slavers
10 Saw slaves being moved secretly in cruel circumstances and saw them kill those near death to silence them
11 Discover that many missing people in fact have fallen into silver hands but they make it look like bandits, cults or humanoids
12 Find coded slaver message about one of the secret master's real plans and showing slavery as just a means to an end and real goals are worse
7 Kingdoms had a hard time with slavers and recruiting heroes to scourge the slavers
8 Rich merchants hate slavers who take relatives and whole wagon trains from the merchant clan. Hire adventurers to cost the slavers and bankrupt them with violence
9 A Church hates slavers and offers healing and raise dead to heroes who fight the slavers
10 Saw slaves being moved secretly in cruel circumstances and saw them kill those near death to silence them
11 Discover that many missing people in fact have fallen into silver hands but they make it look like bandits, cults or humanoids
12 Find coded slaver message about one of the secret master's real plans and showing slavery as just a means to an end and real goals are worse
d12 Local Slaver Troubles
1 Mystery kidnappers have taken quite a few people
2 People are taken with fake signs of humanoids found as red herring clues
3 Noble youth visiting the poor taken by masked kidnappers
4 Child reports friend taken by slavers and knows where their camp is with other prisoners (child might be a gang stooge)
5 Slavers moving chained humanoids were overthrown and now these slaves are living as bandits - locals debate the best course of action
6 Press gang kidnapping crew for a ship people say
7 Graverobbers have been stealing corpses of skilled and famous crafters or scholars (resurrection if can be profitable with high-value slaves or arcane research)
8 Someone attacked the children's prison and took all the orphans and child criminals
9 Raiders have been depopulating small hamlets leaving only helpless elderly, sick or lame
10 A gang has been kidnapping village idiots to sell as jesters in faraway courts
11 A noble has been working with the slavers but nobody knows who (they have a secret under the castle d6 1=human zoo 2=lab to make monsters with slaver guild wizards 3=noble is a slavers guild secret master 4=lab to drugs with slaver guild alchemists 5=hell cult shrine 6=all of the above)
11 A noble has been working with the slavers but nobody knows who (they have a secret under the castle d6 1=human zoo 2=lab to make monsters with slaver guild wizards 3=noble is a slavers guild secret master 4=lab to drugs with slaver guild alchemists 5=hell cult shrine 6=all of the above)
12 A church helping slaves is under attack by infamous guild slave soldiers! If only someone would help the temple
d20 Slaver Alignments & Crap Excuses in Slaver Cultures
Alignment here is more like what they present as you might dismiss some of these alignment claims and you should be able to coax good people to help against slavery or at least its excesses. Many societies forbid slavery but have forms of serf or thralldom or indentured contract of service. In a family of any of these, they might vary and quarrel about what is best. Slaver cults will likely have worse alignments.
1 Lawful Good - in a pro-slaver society they might claim to be kinder than average or protecting their slaves slaves from a worse owner. Better people will emancipate and help them as patrons or adopt them to give them legal status and freedom. Might lobby to restrict the trade in new ways or argue to end it. Allow slaves money or property or free marriage, frown on torture
2 Good - will be trying to make slave's lives easier, helping the sick and try and convince people to teat slaves better or free them. They may have to act in secret and be known as a trouble maker soft on slavery. They might offer charity and aid to slaves and may openly abuse slavers demonstrating their bad taste in public
3-5 Lawful - if it's legal I can do it, obviously it is heavily regulated. Ok to adopt, marry or free your own slaves but not ok to wastefully kill or damage them. Slaves can buy freedom and have their own money
6-8 Lawful Evil - it's traditional and even the gods do it, buying a free person for money is just a form of economic servitude and completely legitimate, it is better than killing people, letting them be coerced into compliant behaviour with a promise of freedom or marginal benefits. Use deceit, blackmail or desperation to keep slaves and promote the most obedient but avoid freeing anybody
6-10 Evil - everybody is a slave and you must make the weak your slaves, it's only natural. Slaves should be kept in pain and terror or drugged. If you don't torture subordinates nobody will respect you. Unusual indoctrination, narcotics, curses and surgical modifications of slaves are all legitimate (eunachs). Wicked slaves are best turned on by the others. Healthy slaves live longer and can suffer longer but you can always make them undead if they break
10-13 Neutral - as long as not my family or friends or people it's ok, that's what they get for not being local, it's a difficult issue nobody can solve.
14 Balanced - slavery has its place but too many or not enough slaves create problems and should be resisted. Too many slaves are trouble and might revolt or replace us but too few slaves who will do the worse jobs? Prefer slaves to be criminals or prisoners of war for the worst jobs and temporary indentured servitude contracts for other work. Paying people poorly and justifying why it can't change with various arcane analyses is normal
15-16 Chaotic - I can do what I want and buy and sell who I please for my pleasure, it is the slaves' own fault for not being free. Fraternise with servants but may use force or reward randomly, uncertainty and moodiness are the norm. May free slaves on a whim or outstanding performance and offer them jobs or abandon weak ones
17-19 Chaotic Evil - take delight in cruelty, sadism and murdering your captives, life is cheap and slaves mean you always have someone to torment and bully in any manner you like. You can free a slave so you can kill them for fun later as a surprise. Showing off your brutality makes other sadists respect you
20 Chaotic Good - Can't stand slavery or prisons, will break the corrupt law to help slaves find freedom, will lie and cheat and kill to help slaves. May have to operate in secret with allied ex slaves and will try to help slaves escape
d12 Slaver Guild Branch
1 Caravan Traders will appear to be legitimate merchants but also keep covered cage wagons. Where legal they more openly flaunt their livestock. They use camels, oxen, terror birds or lizards often with a rider and an archer if possible to cross the wastes but may have some horse rider escorts also. Many carry light hunting muskets, whips, lassos and wavy or curved-bladed weapons. They are the most ancient branch but now they let Cofflemen do most of the transport between markets
2 Slave Raiders live in waste and act like bandits but take prisoners, but otherwise might be hard to distinguish. Many get into more sophisticated guild operations if they show talent. Carry spears, lassos and bows. Might even have some fighting slaves forced to fight for them and even join them if they show willingness. May use horses or camels
3 Gladiator Masters operate grubby frontier fighting pits and are involved in the great Colosseum of the Empire, private events of the rich and other venues for blood sport slaves. Increasingly grubby and despised they are losing their fortunes. Wear more often ornate armour, carry small swords, blades or a cestus. Guards use crossbows
4 Pleasure Gardeners procure and trade sex workers for venues or rich orgies in some lands. They also use narcotics as a control rather than damage goods with violence. They operate secret mind control prisons for memory wiping with drugs and mentalism. Mystics use such people as weapons and spies promising them a supernatural paradise. The programmed killers are given poison to kill them after the mission expires
5 Kidnapper Clan takes mostly children but also takes adults for ransom but then sells any they can't get a ransom for. Operate lots of private prisons in isolated places for the guild. Carry clubs, ropes, bola, lasso or drugged darts. Best are experts at sneaking, disguise and surveillance. Most in their region don't know about their international links
6 Sinister Order is a fake masked cult terrorising communities with masked-robed kidnappers, but instead of killing or sacrificing captives, they ship them away for the slave trade and families think they have been sacrificed. They also perform assassinations to cover tracks or throw off investigations. Use drugs and disguises on operations out of the cult garb and often armed with strangling cords, daggers, poison and crossbows. They also spy and kill for money or to advance slavery. They will enslave other cults who contact them
7 Cofflemen transport large numbers of slaves by land caravan. They make take strange routes to avoid civilisation so employ barbarians, beast folk, orcs and goblinoids as guards. Some know secret underground shortcuts to avoid borders or mountains. They carry whips, chains, clubs, daggers and scimitars and swords. In lands where slavery is legal these are more open and use humans workers. They march prisoners in chains across the wastes to markets or water transit hubs. They try best to get slaves to market alive but bad things happen often
8 Sorrow Fleet transport cargos of slaves across seas around the great continents and raid island peoples for slaves. These natives are notoriously hostile now to any ships now. Slaves can also be sold to fish folk and undersea people with shorter trips for more gold and this is more profitable than really taking people to other continents. They will also act as pirates to procure slaves. They increasingly worship cruel undersea gods
9 Chained Legion a mercenary slave army that can be shipped over continents but mostly south or west as the north is more hostile and the east is too chaotic and more advanced. The basic soldiers fight in chains with pikes, slings and darts. Loyal soldiers that live might become chained flagellants or archers or riders or other exotic specialists. Elites are famous for loyal displays of self-decapitation to prove their loyalty (they keep priests on hand for those they are impressed by). The officers are the masters who unlock the trusted slaves into trusted zealots. When the legion are called they usually slaughter everyone without remorse but other factions might assist in prisoner taking. It takes a while to assemble a large force to take a city but it can be done
10 Iron Chain a criminal guild that operates as a thieves guild but the bottom members are owned by the guild masters and must obey. They recruit from trouble makers among slaves held by other faction. If they cooperate they get to be a guild free member otherwise they are made into drug addicts and kept slave rank. Rejects are also sent to the Secret order. They are used for spies and to control crime and their role in international slavery is secret. They fight criminal guilds interfering in slavers activities and setting up well funded rival guilds
11 Torchbearers a secret message carriers of the slavers who work among other message services and couriers but also serve to deliver secret slaver messages about markets and new hunting grounds or depleted regions. They do not read the messages but know secret signs to prevent being enslaved if caught while doing their job. Many low-ranking members are slaves and illiterate. The high-ranking free ones have trained memories and are often bards who do know some of the secret codes. The highest-ranking bards negotiate with Underland and underwater species who greatly enjoy surface humans
12 The secret masters rule all from their secret Island and mountain fortresses and direct large regions of guild activities.They often coordinate efforts against regions surviving disasters and wars. Many are nobles in courts around the world. Besides profiting from misery they also conduct medical and magical experiments such as creating orcs or beasts or elemental abhumans and various monsters in secret dungeon complexes around the world. Lower ranks are bureaucrats or spies. They use the wasteland of Chagrinspire to cross the continent with their trade and study the Black Sphere for their advanced slavery and monster creation lore.
d12 Secret Order Evil Plans
1 Create a hoard of d4 1=orcs 2=beast folk 3=elemntal folk 4=automatons
d20 Slaver Alignments & Crap Excuses in Slaver Cultures
Alignment here is more like what they present as you might dismiss some of these alignment claims and you should be able to coax good people to help against slavery or at least its excesses. Many societies forbid slavery but have forms of serf or thralldom or indentured contract of service. In a family of any of these, they might vary and quarrel about what is best. Slaver cults will likely have worse alignments.
1 Lawful Good - in a pro-slaver society they might claim to be kinder than average or protecting their slaves slaves from a worse owner. Better people will emancipate and help them as patrons or adopt them to give them legal status and freedom. Might lobby to restrict the trade in new ways or argue to end it. Allow slaves money or property or free marriage, frown on torture
2 Good - will be trying to make slave's lives easier, helping the sick and try and convince people to teat slaves better or free them. They may have to act in secret and be known as a trouble maker soft on slavery. They might offer charity and aid to slaves and may openly abuse slavers demonstrating their bad taste in public
3-5 Lawful - if it's legal I can do it, obviously it is heavily regulated. Ok to adopt, marry or free your own slaves but not ok to wastefully kill or damage them. Slaves can buy freedom and have their own money
6-8 Lawful Evil - it's traditional and even the gods do it, buying a free person for money is just a form of economic servitude and completely legitimate, it is better than killing people, letting them be coerced into compliant behaviour with a promise of freedom or marginal benefits. Use deceit, blackmail or desperation to keep slaves and promote the most obedient but avoid freeing anybody
6-10 Evil - everybody is a slave and you must make the weak your slaves, it's only natural. Slaves should be kept in pain and terror or drugged. If you don't torture subordinates nobody will respect you. Unusual indoctrination, narcotics, curses and surgical modifications of slaves are all legitimate (eunachs). Wicked slaves are best turned on by the others. Healthy slaves live longer and can suffer longer but you can always make them undead if they break
10-13 Neutral - as long as not my family or friends or people it's ok, that's what they get for not being local, it's a difficult issue nobody can solve.
14 Balanced - slavery has its place but too many or not enough slaves create problems and should be resisted. Too many slaves are trouble and might revolt or replace us but too few slaves who will do the worse jobs? Prefer slaves to be criminals or prisoners of war for the worst jobs and temporary indentured servitude contracts for other work. Paying people poorly and justifying why it can't change with various arcane analyses is normal
15-16 Chaotic - I can do what I want and buy and sell who I please for my pleasure, it is the slaves' own fault for not being free. Fraternise with servants but may use force or reward randomly, uncertainty and moodiness are the norm. May free slaves on a whim or outstanding performance and offer them jobs or abandon weak ones
17-19 Chaotic Evil - take delight in cruelty, sadism and murdering your captives, life is cheap and slaves mean you always have someone to torment and bully in any manner you like. You can free a slave so you can kill them for fun later as a surprise. Showing off your brutality makes other sadists respect you
20 Chaotic Good - Can't stand slavery or prisons, will break the corrupt law to help slaves find freedom, will lie and cheat and kill to help slaves. May have to operate in secret with allied ex slaves and will try to help slaves escape
d12 Slaver Guild Branch
1 Caravan Traders will appear to be legitimate merchants but also keep covered cage wagons. Where legal they more openly flaunt their livestock. They use camels, oxen, terror birds or lizards often with a rider and an archer if possible to cross the wastes but may have some horse rider escorts also. Many carry light hunting muskets, whips, lassos and wavy or curved-bladed weapons. They are the most ancient branch but now they let Cofflemen do most of the transport between markets
2 Slave Raiders live in waste and act like bandits but take prisoners, but otherwise might be hard to distinguish. Many get into more sophisticated guild operations if they show talent. Carry spears, lassos and bows. Might even have some fighting slaves forced to fight for them and even join them if they show willingness. May use horses or camels
3 Gladiator Masters operate grubby frontier fighting pits and are involved in the great Colosseum of the Empire, private events of the rich and other venues for blood sport slaves. Increasingly grubby and despised they are losing their fortunes. Wear more often ornate armour, carry small swords, blades or a cestus. Guards use crossbows
4 Pleasure Gardeners procure and trade sex workers for venues or rich orgies in some lands. They also use narcotics as a control rather than damage goods with violence. They operate secret mind control prisons for memory wiping with drugs and mentalism. Mystics use such people as weapons and spies promising them a supernatural paradise. The programmed killers are given poison to kill them after the mission expires
5 Kidnapper Clan takes mostly children but also takes adults for ransom but then sells any they can't get a ransom for. Operate lots of private prisons in isolated places for the guild. Carry clubs, ropes, bola, lasso or drugged darts. Best are experts at sneaking, disguise and surveillance. Most in their region don't know about their international links
6 Sinister Order is a fake masked cult terrorising communities with masked-robed kidnappers, but instead of killing or sacrificing captives, they ship them away for the slave trade and families think they have been sacrificed. They also perform assassinations to cover tracks or throw off investigations. Use drugs and disguises on operations out of the cult garb and often armed with strangling cords, daggers, poison and crossbows. They also spy and kill for money or to advance slavery. They will enslave other cults who contact them
7 Cofflemen transport large numbers of slaves by land caravan. They make take strange routes to avoid civilisation so employ barbarians, beast folk, orcs and goblinoids as guards. Some know secret underground shortcuts to avoid borders or mountains. They carry whips, chains, clubs, daggers and scimitars and swords. In lands where slavery is legal these are more open and use humans workers. They march prisoners in chains across the wastes to markets or water transit hubs. They try best to get slaves to market alive but bad things happen often
8 Sorrow Fleet transport cargos of slaves across seas around the great continents and raid island peoples for slaves. These natives are notoriously hostile now to any ships now. Slaves can also be sold to fish folk and undersea people with shorter trips for more gold and this is more profitable than really taking people to other continents. They will also act as pirates to procure slaves. They increasingly worship cruel undersea gods
9 Chained Legion a mercenary slave army that can be shipped over continents but mostly south or west as the north is more hostile and the east is too chaotic and more advanced. The basic soldiers fight in chains with pikes, slings and darts. Loyal soldiers that live might become chained flagellants or archers or riders or other exotic specialists. Elites are famous for loyal displays of self-decapitation to prove their loyalty (they keep priests on hand for those they are impressed by). The officers are the masters who unlock the trusted slaves into trusted zealots. When the legion are called they usually slaughter everyone without remorse but other factions might assist in prisoner taking. It takes a while to assemble a large force to take a city but it can be done
10 Iron Chain a criminal guild that operates as a thieves guild but the bottom members are owned by the guild masters and must obey. They recruit from trouble makers among slaves held by other faction. If they cooperate they get to be a guild free member otherwise they are made into drug addicts and kept slave rank. Rejects are also sent to the Secret order. They are used for spies and to control crime and their role in international slavery is secret. They fight criminal guilds interfering in slavers activities and setting up well funded rival guilds
11 Torchbearers a secret message carriers of the slavers who work among other message services and couriers but also serve to deliver secret slaver messages about markets and new hunting grounds or depleted regions. They do not read the messages but know secret signs to prevent being enslaved if caught while doing their job. Many low-ranking members are slaves and illiterate. The high-ranking free ones have trained memories and are often bards who do know some of the secret codes. The highest-ranking bards negotiate with Underland and underwater species who greatly enjoy surface humans
12 The secret masters rule all from their secret Island and mountain fortresses and direct large regions of guild activities.They often coordinate efforts against regions surviving disasters and wars. Many are nobles in courts around the world. Besides profiting from misery they also conduct medical and magical experiments such as creating orcs or beasts or elemental abhumans and various monsters in secret dungeon complexes around the world. Lower ranks are bureaucrats or spies. They use the wasteland of Chagrinspire to cross the continent with their trade and study the Black Sphere for their advanced slavery and monster creation lore.
d12 Secret Order Evil Plans
1 Create a hoard of d4 1=orcs 2=beast folk 3=elemntal folk 4=automatons
2 Help necromancers by giving them our dead and selling slave zombies in secret in secret sweatshops to devalue labour
3 Use human souls to power an ancient artefact with vast dungeon complex
4 Torture factories to coerce people to make pacts with hell for red devil gold
5 Obtain required ancient lore to d4 1=summon a dead god 2=open a sealed portal 3=operate an artefact in a dungeon
6 Open a portal to sell humans to another horrific dimension in return for bound demons and elementals the slavers can use to eliminate obstacles and punish enemies
7 Develop means to control branded slaves or sense through them with a magic item
8 Develop magical manacles to pacify people and ship around the world
9 Reserect the dark lord and make them do godlike things for the slave masters
10 Awaken kaiju at select point to create disaster and a perfect chance to capture desperate people
11 Overthrow kingdoms with vat-grown doppelgangers
12 Unsellable slaves turned into farm animals and sold
d12 What the Slavers do to Medlers
1 Warning from thugs
2 Attacked by a gang
3 Blackmail, possibly kidnapping
4 Branded as a slave and kidnapped
5 Assassins guild contract
6 Public bounty
7 Use corruption and influence to make legal trouble
d12 What the Slavers do to Medlers
1 Warning from thugs
2 Attacked by a gang
3 Blackmail, possibly kidnapping
4 Branded as a slave and kidnapped
5 Assassins guild contract
6 Public bounty
7 Use corruption and influence to make legal trouble
8 Pay a cult to persecute enemies in return for sacrifices
9 Summn invisible killers from beyond
10 Send army of humanoids or orcs to ravage area seeking enemy
11 Send slave soldiers kill any in the way of enemy
12 Trap into another dimension or sell to planar beings, may send demon bounty hunters
d12 How did you get owned?
1 Family sold to strangers for money
2 Snatched as a child off streets
3 Bought from an orphanage or child prison
4 Sold to pay off parent's shameful vice debts
5 Sold self to raise money for some worthy cause to save the family
6 Born a slave to slave parents
7 Gambled away by parent
8 Raider captured and killed you and your kin
9 Kidnapped by a gang who couldn't get blackmail money so sold you
10 Evil relatives wanted you out of the way and sold you and a d4 others
11 Snathched from your bed by professional kidnappers serving slavers
12 Murder hobos rescued you from a dungeon then sold you to slavers
d12 Slaver Disguises
For when slavers are well known as jerks
d12 How did you get owned?
1 Family sold to strangers for money
2 Snatched as a child off streets
3 Bought from an orphanage or child prison
4 Sold to pay off parent's shameful vice debts
5 Sold self to raise money for some worthy cause to save the family
6 Born a slave to slave parents
7 Gambled away by parent
8 Raider captured and killed you and your kin
9 Kidnapped by a gang who couldn't get blackmail money so sold you
10 Evil relatives wanted you out of the way and sold you and a d4 others
11 Snathched from your bed by professional kidnappers serving slavers
12 Murder hobos rescued you from a dungeon then sold you to slavers
d12 Slaver Disguises
For when slavers are well known as jerks
1 Labourers travelling
2 Friendly drunken sailors out to party
3 Nomadic wagon folk
4 Circus or carnival
5 Travelling performers
6 Gang of thugs (smugglers or less awful criminal types)
7 Bounty hunters
2 Friendly drunken sailors out to party
3 Nomadic wagon folk
4 Circus or carnival
5 Travelling performers
6 Gang of thugs (smugglers or less awful criminal types)
7 Bounty hunters
8 Witch hunters
9 Merchant caravan
9 Merchant caravan
10 Pilgrims and holy travellers
11 Priest entourage with guards
12 Noble entourage with guards
12 Noble entourage with guards
d12 Slavers Best Customers
Slavers tend to ship cargo far away so the slave is too bewildered to hope of getting home and the slave will stand out as a foreign where they live making it harder to flee. Some of the last few types, people rarely return from even if relatives got letters saying how great it was
1 Muckraking for agriculture (life expectancy 4 years)
2 Toxic Industrial labourers mostly dyers and tanners (life expectancy 4 years)
1 Muckraking for agriculture (life expectancy 4 years)
2 Toxic Industrial labourers mostly dyers and tanners (life expectancy 4 years)
3 Mining or quarrying (life expectancy 4 years)
4 Gladiators, pit fighters and soldiers
5 Agricultural labour mostly picking, planting, shepherds
6 Household service possibility of becoming family
7 Manufacturing labour working heavy and dangerous mostly unskilled sweatshop work
8 Mercantile labourers like baggage handlers, animal tenders, labourers, scribes
9 Strange dungeon cults - who knows why they use so many
10 The Undersea - who knows why they use so many?
11 The Underland - who knows why they use so many?
12 Dimensional - who knows why they use so many ?
In my campaign, the alchemist guild use slave miners and leverages the miners guild to get workers to mine cobolt (koboldium), sodium, bismuth, quicksilver, lead, arsenic, phosphorous, asbestos (salamander wool) etc. So they are big customers.
In my campaign, the alchemist guild use slave miners and leverages the miners guild to get workers to mine cobolt (koboldium), sodium, bismuth, quicksilver, lead, arsenic, phosphorous, asbestos (salamander wool) etc. So they are big customers.
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