Role playing moral dilemma, what would you do?

[Erithtotl]

I'm currently playing in a campaign and though I don't know if its cheating to ask this here (since there are no right or wrong answers, I'm guessing no), I'm wondering what you would all do in this situation.

My party was sent to the jungles, a month by sea away from civilized lands to recover a particular artifact. The only towns in this area are run by pirates, slavers and a few merchants. On the way back, we decided to wipe out the local slaver outpost in the town.

We soon discovered far more than we expected to find. Some of this may have been borrowed from a published module so no one post any spoilers. But it turns out the slavers were in league with a group of Nerull cultists and were training captured jungle dweller children to become warriors for Nerull.

In a rather large battle, we wiped the floor with the slavers, but now we are left with the following dilemmas.

First, there is this vast group of children who actually attacked us with training spears. We disabled them all with subdual damage. There are 40 of them, and another bunch who are younger and not combatants, but also already indoctinated into Nerull Worship. Additionally, some of the slavers surrendered, and we have a bunch more bottled up using webs into their barracks buildings.

This is all complicated by the fact that we have to catch a ship out of town within a few hours, and there are no figures of law and order in the town, so there is no one to turn the prisoners over to. My character, the de-facto party leader is a Paladin of Heironeous. He doesn't believe in killing helpless prisoners, but there is no one to turn them over too, as mentioned. He would have prefered to defeat them all in battle, but the part has limited resources, and could hardly afford to rearm them and give them a fair death. And if we just leave the children behind, they will continue their evil ways, or become urchins and thieves, or be recaptured by one of the other slaving groups.

Anyway, I'm not looking for an answer here, I have my own ideas of what to do, but I'm curious what other people think, and if they've encountered similar situations in the past and what they did.

 

[Crothian]

Idealy, I'd try to find a way to take the children to a good aligned place and get them raised properly.

If that wasn't possible, I'd try to set something up in the town, even if it meant delaying leaving.

However, there are a few deatils that are important. What is the parties level and ability? And do you have a time table to find the artifact? Both of those could easily interfere with above ideas.

 

[Erithtotl]

Yeah, you nailed a couple other points. The party is a large (8 member) 6th level party. We are under a lot of time pressure to get back to civilization, and since ships are not leaving a regular basis, if we miss the boat we'll be stuck here for quite awhile, which is not a solution.

There really isn't anything approximating a 'good aligned' group for about two weeks travel. We do have one ally in town, who is popular and has some authority, and he might be able to make arrangements for some of the children, but thats very questionable at this point. (He refused to take direct part in the attack because he was maintaining a certain profile in the town for other reasons.)

 

[Crothian]

Place trust in your ally. I'd give him some extra cash so he has the ability to do what he needs. Maybe he can use the money to get some of the children to safety. Maybe you guys can take some of them with you.

It's very possible you can't save them all, so try to save as many as you can and set the rest up as well as you can.

 

[Tonguez]

Where are there parents?

Try and get them back to their parents would be the ideal (and if it was me as the player I'd do it just to throw the DM a curve ball and make him have to figure out our adventures in the jungle for the next 2 months until the next ship comes past

If thats not possibly then the ally seems your best bet...

 

[mythago]

The paladin no doubt believes that since these are children who have been indoctrinated, a long time in the light of the God of Good will cleanse them of this evil. IOW, killing or abandoning the children is right out.

Pet peeve, btw: 'pirate towns' with no law and order at all, but which function like real towns instead of like sprawling rat's nests. That is all.

 

[LostSoul]

Pet peeve, btw: 'pirate towns' with no law and order at all, but which function like real towns instead of like sprawling rat's nests. That is all.

I figured that most of these towns function like orcs or goblins do - one guy at the top, ruling with power and fear. Most people try and stay out of his way, or side with an opposing faction hoping to get a piece of the pie once the old regime is out. It sounds a lot like Machiavelli's city-state (whichever one that was).

 

[Relic]

Have some of your party members take the ship back into town. In town they can hire a ship to transport the children. Ship arrives, children and remaining PCs board, and set sail to city. At the city, you can decide what to do with them (orphanage, try to locate their parents, boarding school/priest indoctrination, etc).

 

[Duncan Haldane]

With such a large party I'd consider leaving some/most of the PCs there, and sending others back to civilisation.

When getting to a city they should then contact a church or other such organisation that would help with the children, and then see if they can hire someone to help them teleport back to the jungle town with any help required.

See if you can find some foci to help with a teleport - items that the PCs know well they could leave behind, memorising locations, etc.

It might cost a bit of money to arrange, but hopefully a church (say, of Heironeous) could help.

Duncan

 

[Crothian]

Find an island, dump them all there, come back in a few years and see if Lord of the Flies happens.