Thursday 17 November 2022

d100 Elf uses for human slaves



Damn dirty human grubs what are they good for?
Yes slavery exists in my settings and adventurers are welcome to fight it and stop it.
Yes elves are jerks possibly worse than humans sometimes.
This could be an alternate character meet up instead of a tired old tavern.
Possibly this explains the elves of Auldwood better than a block of lore text.

Well wise elves knew ever since humans crawled out of the earth, they have been suitable slaves for many purposes. Goblins have their place and can do many of the things humans can but humans as inferior copies of elves sometimes can be more appealing in their ape-like savage way. The best thing about humans is so many of their menfolk will be attracted to elfmaids or succubi and will walk into a thousand years of slavery without even using glamour. Their is also the use of food from fairyland which to humans is addictive and slowly makes them into natives of faerieland. Pretty trinkets and faerie fruit are commonly employed on human women, especially mothers who can be wetnurses for greedy elf babies. There was one elfmaid who just offered human men a chance to suck on her breasts which she would drug with strange unguents but she probably used this method for her own amusement. A few faeriefolk have unusual or elaborate means of kidnapping or hunting. There is always the tried and trusted baby replacement scam where elves swap a healthy human baby they admire. They replace it with a sick goblin with a glamour that usually dies so the poor parents never know their child may live forever serving elves.

Once in faerieland a slave will be sold and all kinds of buyers will come to choose humans. The less disgusting ones with some charm might be more valuable as house servants. The ugliest are expendable labour or worse. Human bodies are kept shaven as faerie find human body hair repulsive and bestial. Some elves like their humans naked and oiled to be more statuesque and artistic. Human children are often preferred to adults and faerie consider them so faerie-like they actually don't like to see children suffer. By adolescence, the fey lose this affection and discard them as creepy sub apes. Child slaves often get the most adorable costumes like bees or flowers or reindeer. 

Because of time dilation in faerieland your missing child might return an old cripple addicted to strange faerie fruits. Or they might return home after hundreds of years. Some slaves you meet in faerieland with good jobs or masters have been alive for vast time periods by mortal world reasoning. The faerie food that enthrals humans helps assimilate them to elfland but sometimes it fails or stops working.

You could replace many of these jobs with goblins which the dark elves still prefer.

Faerie food addiction is often fatal if supplies are not kept up but sometimes other drugs or alcohol can substitute or some other compulsive behaviour for those that survive. 

One elf trick is to offer a mortal a wish then grant it in the meanest way they can. 

You could be a jerk DM and make players start as elf slaves or have them all briefly enslaved and escape. Not all elves are bastards many just are thoughtless about animals that are brief and precious like autumn leaves.

d10 How was slave trapped
1 Taken as a baby leaving a sick goblin in its place
2 Taken as a child by tempting with delicious strange addictive faerie fruit
3 Lost in the woods as a child and snatched
4 Parents sold to a faerie in a ritual as they had too many children to feed 
5 Seduced by an attractive stranger in the woods and was really a fey
6 Taken by werewolves and assumed eaten but really given to elves
7 Found a trail of silver coins going into the forest
8 Goblins offered some delicious fruit at a low price and it was the best
9 Tricked with an illusion of heart's desire and led into a trap
10 A mysterious bard playing strange music led all the prettiest youths away to never be seen since

d10 How bad were my owners above and beyond my job?
1 Masters enjoyed whipping, mutilating, burning or spanking slaves
2 Master used to force slaves to marry each other or orcs to breed more slaves
3 After a day's work the masters would demand sexual favours in return for food
4 Slaves were branded, tattooed, styled and dressed in outlandish costumes 
5 Slaves sterilised so they cannot breed, also eunuchs are delightful
6 Seen as farm animals to be well cared for by good husbandry
7 Seen as pets and almost members of the family. Get given table scraps, a basket in the house or even sleep at the foot of masters bed
8 Master didn't approve of humans with clothes and kept them naked and their bodies shaved
9 Surgically modified humans into orcs, beast folk. lycanthropes or other creatures
10 Turned into an animal or tree and turned back human when required

d10 What brands and marks did the masters use on slaves?
1 Simple identification tattoos in elf script
2 Torc of copper for humble workers, silver for servants and gold for privileged trusted slaves
3 Arm and leg bands for chains often bronze or enchanted silver or gold
4 Brand usually text or a symbol of the owner's clan
5 Passport with stamps and identification information
6 Scarification done artfully with a scalpel making complex elf patterns
7 Fanciful costumes identifying you as the master's property, some cannot be removed normally
8 Metal ring or armband of copper for humble workers, silver for servants and gold for privileged trusted slaves
9 Surgical and alchemical modification to look slightly more elf-like of the master's clan and considered a gift. Some call them half-elves in error thinking the two species can breed
10 Tattoos with magical ink to be luminous or more

d10 What did we do when not on the job?
1 Had another secondary or possibly secret job
2 Lived in a humble share house high on drugs and having orgies
3 Kept in a drug coma for possibly years while not needed
4 Turned into an animal or plant in the masters garden
6 Plotted escapes and violent revolution
7 Got to boss around goblins and not be bottom of the pecking order
8 Kept in a breeding colony or caring for stolen human children
9 Turned into an artwork, ornament or piece of jewellery
10 Lived in a village in the elf kingdom peacefully

d10 Masters favourite punishment
1 Sexual harassment
2 Whips and flagellation d4 days
3 Hung on the wall with chains d4 weeks
4 Chased by werewolves or other horrors in the forest d4 hours
5 Given to goblins to abuse for a d4 days
6 Make a humiliating spectacle where elves hurl acorns and plums (but you get some plums!)
7 Given some bestial disfigurement like a lions paw, birdface, hedgehog spines, or scale patch or odd eyes. Over time they become a beast abhuman, mutant or animal
8 Turned into a leech, parasitic worm, lamprey or some other disgusting animal d4 months
Kept inside a hollow tree cell with no way out without magic d4 months
10 Made to play with elven children d4 hours but potentially deadly

d10 One terrible day at work...
1 An older slave who helped you was crippled and was discarded in human land or murdered in cold blood
2 The master was in a terrible rage and punished everybody for some petty accident that nobody was responsible for. They only calmed down when a guest arrived
3 The master had a guest who wanted to hunt a human so the master dressed people up as reindeer for the elves to shoot at for sport. Then the meat was served to unknowing slaves as a cruel treat
4 The master decided to have all the slaves marry and breed and chose who would be with who despite their desires. The elves even held a mock wedding for the humans and wanted to watch the newlyweds and encourage them
5 A bugbear got in the house and murdered several slaves and took their skins and heads to make bugbear crafts 
6 Master had labourers working to breaking point then had them killed and made into undead to toil forever
7 One of your best friends in the masters household was taken away to be made into some abhuman or monster for the amusement of the elf nobility
8 Was lost in the Underland running an errand in the dark blind lost for days alone after your party all lost. The screams of some in the darkness haunt you still
9 An elf in the household pestered you constantly to be their lover and threatened to lie about you to ruin your life. Eventually, they lost interest in you when a new younger prettier slave arrived in the service
10 You were killed in a work-related accident and felt your souls swimming into the light of the heavens when you were brought back to life. The master was very angry at you for dying and punished you

d10 Quick Slave Types
1 Labourer - for the dirtiest often fatal jobs (CHA under 12 or less)
2 Household - service staff for less repulsive humans
3 Personal - servants attending to individual needs
Outdoors - jobs working with natural resources
5 Travel - jobs moving goods and messages
6 Arts - work from music to craft or even being made into art
7 Transformed - into a new species
8 Woodland warfare - to help the faerie frontier a limit for humans
9 Wild Ways - workers care for the elven-occupied woodlands
10 Arcane - slaves working on magical processes for a master

d100 Elf uses for human slaves
01 Miners who dig iron which the fey folk hate and dangerous minerals
02 Smiths who work pure iron into steel which is less painful to the fey
03 Farm labourers for certain crops 
04 Muckraker collecting and working with compost and fertiliser
05 Gongfarmer who gathers faerie faeces and ensures it is safely removed so witches don't find it 
06 Butcher who kill and prepare animals so faerie don't touch blood. May act as a carver in a household and have a fancy outfit
07 Tanner working with animal skins and polluting chemicals
08 Dyers who tread in vats of wool and fibres in toxic dye 
09 Gleaners who gather lost hair, wool scraps from fences and unfound vegetables from fields
10 Mortician who gathers dead human slaves and processes them into liquid garden fertiliser
11 House servants in a small household possibly with a few goblin helpers 
12 Basic manor servant like a chambermaid or footman
13 Chamber pot boy who collects chamber pots or holds them while lords relieve themselves or clean up vomit or poop they find around the palace
14 Laundry servant who gathers and cleans elf clothings and is responsible if any items are missing (especially underwear)
15 Senior servants like a butler or head maid commanding other servants
16 Firekeeper who cuts wood, stokes fires and lights candles and is blamed for fires
17 Scullery for cleaning dishes, cutting and peeling vegetables,  Human tastes are not trusted and human food is seen as awful peasant pig swill
18 Brewer who makes beer, mead and wine. Often well-fed and drunk   
19 Baker who makes bread and cakes and buns and other items as well as make bread for horses and house goblins
20 Quistron or Spitboy who turns a spitroast over fires by hand crank or running in a wheel if a child
21 Bathroom attendant who helps wash elves while bathing, some earn extra rewards with sexual favours and have elaborate volumes of books on the correct way to see if the master is interested. Some end up with better jobs if they do well
22 Wardrobe attendant who helps elves get dressed and lives in the closet
23 Privy Keeper who cares for the toilet chamber and assists lords in cleaning and assisting them with tools if required. Quite trusted compared to other slaves
24 Food taster testing for poisoned food and often obese from rich food they have access to
25 Apothecary assistant who can administer drugs to master for hours and cultivates various narcotic herbs and fungi. Most are terrible drug addicts and have used drugs to control their faerie food addiction 
26 Groom attends to the clothes, hair and makeup of an elf and often accompanies them on trips and can be quite intimate with masters. They also dress well and may carry the long ends of the master's cape or dress
27 Spice Keeper who keeps them locked away and supplies the cook and table, often dressed in outlandish costumes if guests are present. May also prepare sauces and other condiments
28 Biographer who records every moment of the master's life and edits out anything not appropriate
29 Nursemaid who cares for children and feeds them. Often kidnap human mothers for wetnurses but sometimes will surgically modify a male to bear breasts. Many elves get a fondness for humans from this practice and see them as adorable cows. Midwives are also possible as elves dislike blood, especially elf blood
30 Clerk who keeps account of household items and other servants' uses and misuses of items like food  
31 Birdkeeper care for the estate non-predatory birds especially fancy or talking or singing birds and also care for pigeons and crows used for messengers and the doves and swans who are kept in tiny replica mansions 
32 Stablehand who attends the master's horses and assists in grooming and care
33 Gardener who helps attend to basic chores of a faerie garden which can be risky
34 Falconer who keeps master birds of prey for hunting. Some are instead owlkeepers
35 Hound keeper who cares for master's dogs and werewolves around the house and for hunting. Often carry a silver whip and dagger
36 Beaters who help drive animals into hunters often in loud costumes with a musical instrument like a horn or drum
37 Beekeeper attends the deadly faerie bees and some that produce special honey that might be poison or cause hallucinations
38 Menagerie Keeper for houses that have a private zoo often with faerie animals or monsters
39 Herb Keeper who plants and cares for plants with medicinal and magical uses  their needs and may work planting more on borderlands of mortal kingdoms
40 Herder who cares for herd animals and protects them often has a staff and a silver dagger
41 Sailor crewmember of a boat but usually just an oarsman
42 Coach Driver who drives the rich around and helps them climb in and out and deal with bounders and bandits. May be armed and one of the few uses elves have use of crossbows
43 Ferryman helping with river crossings that faerie finds distressing. May have a boat or a raft
44 Wagon Driver who delivers food and other goods often in a caravan. May use oxen or horses or other creatures like giant lizards or beetles
45 Porter carries baggage and loads, possibly in a household or over distances by foot
46 Messenger who runs with notes for elves, always use illiterates for secrecy
47 Runner who hastily delivers goods as humans mostly can run longer
48 Gatekeeper who holds keys at watches the gate against intruders of elf estate
49 Groom who cares for the faerie horses which is hard as they love to eat human bone marrow
50 Palanquin Bearer who carries with others on poles a luxurious pedestal with a bed or lounge for elf nobles. It's hard work, bearers are naked and hairless except sandals though some have fanciful costumes like unicorns or silken scarves and ribbons. 
51 Singer with voice modified to sing one note in a choir or as part of a fantastic vast organ that uses slaves as sound makers
52 Concubine for elves but as humans are a bit shameful will be hidden or disguised in some other job like a house slave or personal servant 
53 Gladiators used in performances to enact famous battles but always saved from death to fight again and might have species altered each time depending on the performance
54 Sculptors' assistants as humans are too crude to make elf art but they can assist with hard labour. Some have to handle pet basilisks for lazy elf artists
55 Life Model for posing while elf artists work. Often in fabulous costumes and possibly kept in a state of paralysis for weeks or months while artists work 
56 Kept in a menagerie with a cave, furs and stone tools, encouraged to be hairy and filthy and act savage to scare children and sensitive faerie
57 Turned into living furniture in a state of torment but cannot scream
58 Made into a stone statue but still aware and able to see and hear
59 Turned into a living harp, kettle drum or trumpet
60 Trapped in a painting usually a scene in a micro world in an eternal loop
61 Turned into an orc and let loose to wage war on humans
62 Turned into a goblin and put to work after own goblins ran away
63 Turned into a goat or stag folk and let loose on the frontier woodlands
64 Made into a werewolf as a hunting hound and to menace humans on the frontier
65 Made into a mutant horror and released in a swamp as an alchemy test subject
66 Made into a satyr, mermaid, faun or centaur and human legs on some other monstrosity
67 Made into a manticore, wyvern or another awful monster with barely any memory of human life
68 Made into some more unusual were-creature to haunt the borderlands and weaken human invaders
69 Made into an owlbear or hook horror or landshark or some other hybrid horror
70 Made into a musclebound abhuman usually a beast folk or tree folk or elemental folk, possible to serve in army or to harass frontier humans or protect special places. Often given to druids and wood witches as guardians
71 Given a plague and made immune to it then released to kill other humans
72 Trained as bandits and released on the borderlands
73 Spy released among humans to gather news and recover various relics, may use animal or sprite messengers or 
74 Skirmisher and scout troops on borderlands to keep elves and humans apart
75 Shield bearer whose duty was to protect an elf warrior or archer 
76 Squire or servant for a knight, if they cannot get a proper elf one
77 Bodyguard to protect the master with their body and deal with those who dare lay hands on their owner
78 Assassin used for jobs in human lands or may be raised since a baby for a single job then eliminated if they survived. Even their souls are destroyed so none may question their spirit about their work
79 Sabotuer who works with humans but secretly damages tools and machines and frees livestock
80 Turned into an exotic mount for use by a faerie lord such as a dire wolf, sabretooth, elk, boar, unicorn, lion or griffon
81 Tree herder who plants trees to expand the great forest into the frontier and wastes. Sometimes plants monstrous vegetation to make barriers between humans and elfland or certain locations
82 Trap wrecker who patrols the woods destroying traps and aiding wounded animals. Will sabotage and even attack trappers
83 Wood Wardens who protect elf forests from human poachers who want to steal magic healing unicorn poop or see dryads bathing or hunt animals belonging to elves. Often conflict with travellers, poachers and those seeking magical experiences in faerielands 
84 Turned into game animals to replace species overhunted by humans 
85 Turned into trees to replace ones humans cut down
86 Beastmaster who handles animals of the elves, especially magical hounds, meat-eating apes, werewolves and other monstrosities elves breed in menageries. Beastmasters are often orders who live on the frontier breeding a single species and supervised from a distance by an elf 
87 Druidic Preacher helps peasants follow the old ways in secret and even convince them to flee beyond the frontier to join wild peoples or even serve elf agenda
88 Bard who acts as a spy in human lands and spreads stories favouring faerie
89 Turned into Cave Folk who are more ape like and live underground. They make good workers, fighters, underground scouts and are very fearful of elves 
90 Turned into Wild Folk who are covered in hair (sometimes green!) and often wear vegetation at most. They roam woods alone or as a tribe. Also used in the great hunts of the lord of the  forest 
91 Potion Tester who tastes alchemical brews to see if they cause mutations or explode or make side effects. Do get to know the taste of a potion or poison so get to be food tasters when the alchemy is slow
92 Blood Brood who provided human blood for potions, summoning and other uses like a vampire dinner guest. Some occasionally become vampires and escape 
93 Portal Scout who explores through magic potions to see with the other side has survivable temperatures, air pressure or other conditions. They are to report to the master and get to see some other realities and strange creatures
94 Wand Bearer who carries wands and magic implements of an elf wizard lord and may be familiar with their use
95 Drug dealer who sells addictive potions to humans made with the magical food of elfland then keep up the supply if they serve an elven coven
96 Alchemists assistant as some humans can incredibly learn magic, they can be put to work making potions and magic items or at least on some of the processes to aid a master. They are more used in times of war when elves take decades to repurpose their interests while a human generation passes quite quickly 
97 Made into a magic item for some time and eventually released maybe. Was able to influence the weapon and a few may even speak
98 Magic Theif sent into human lands or a rival elf palace to steal a pretty bauble or treasure that is too pretty for the rival to possess
99 Arcane Agent sent to infiltrate an enemy possibly transformed. Will infiltrate human households as a wizard but secretly advises and works in elf interests. If needed they will use magic for assassination if glamour and friendly advice fails
100 Zombie Herder who cares for zombie labourers kept in dark cavers. Soaking them in brine or vinegar to keep them fresh and sewing their wounds up is just some of the fun. Aid dark faerie necromancers and black druids in their work making haunted forests or haunted zombie sweatshops. The best may even make zombies or be put in charge of a zombie decoy or guard

Others:
XX Matweavers who weave floormats replace often when soiled and occasionally baskets, sometimes they find some fancy food titbit or better in the filth and vomit
XX Orchardist who gathers fruit and tends fruit trees and vines of an elf garden. Often dressed well and must move in a ballet-like manner and beg the tree each fruit taken

2 comments:

  1. This is great! I have always like unfriendly elves.

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  2. Good stuff.

    Don't trust the elves, humans have the lifespan of a housecat or gerbil compared to most elves.
    Many years back I had a D&D campaign where feudalism and church governance of magic were tools the elves used to keep humanity in line, while not letting humanity know what it was doing. Even when they think they are doing things for the good of all, it's their view of good.

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