D&D General How much trouble are the Slave catchers in for taking A 4 year old Crown Prince whose mother was A Escaped Slave?, which legally makes him a slave

FrozenNorth said:

Still doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Why would there be a registry of birthmarks? Apparently this is a family thing, so are there really that many slaves with birthmarks that setting up a registry is warranted?

Again, how many resources does this nation allot to recapturing slaves? We have independent, roving bands of slave catchers that will put out elaborate charades to catch a single suspected slave. They are equipped with magical items that allow them to detect whether some one is a slave or not (how does that even work? What happens if the law changes? Does the item stop working?). Now we have a registry of slave birthmarks that is apparently easily accessible by this 7-man strong band of roving slavers.

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I'll admit I didn't think of how unfeasible the idea is, but the most likely answer is that theirs so many escaped slaves and catching them can be so problematic that theirs a entire guild of freelance government sponsored slave catchers that operate both inside and outside the country

Theirs also the fact that the countries police force has a entire division devoted to catching all escaped slaves, and their children, that are still inside the country and the secret service has a entire division devoted to catching all escaped slaves, and their children that manage to get out of the country

Charlaquin said:

Note that the very first sentence of this thread is “I've had A Idea for A Unique DAD Character but I've got a question.”

OP is a player. They often come up with elaborate and convoluted backstories for their characters based on dreams they have, and then come to the forums asking questions like “how much did The King mess up by marring his Nine Year Old Daughter who is secretly a Thousand Year Old Succubus (which in Succubus years is the equivalent of a Very Intelligent 6-Month Old) to the Seventeen-and-a-half Year Old Prince of a Small But Wealthy Country who is also A Thief?”

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Then the character, who I can't make out if they are supposed to be the child or the guard, or completely uninvolved in the situation, should kill the slavers.
This isn't complicated. Slavers should die.

Bill Zebub said:

Well, birthmarks don't have to work like they do in our world. Maybe they are distinct and reliable genetic markers, and in the same way that aristocracies carefully track family trees and marriage ties, this society has a developed a "registry" of birthmarks.

Birthmark forging would likely be a thing, too.

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Didn't think of the genetic markers idea but its a very good idea, but since the birthmark only appears on male family members is it still classed as a genetic marker?

In my opinion the best example of the kind of birthmark I'm talking about is The Brand of The Exalt from Fire Emblem Awakening, the 2 differences being that only males get it and it never fails to appear

So who is the PC in this backstory the crown prince? An ex slave catcher?

Umbran said:

No, they really didn't. You cannot have reasonable grounds for arrest if you don't have jurisdiction. The laws of his mother's homeland are irrelevant if the boy isn't in his mother's homeland at the time.

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It was mentionned in the OP and reiterated that the kid (at 4 years old) somehow mounted an expedition to leave his country and enter, under a false identity, the jurisdiction of his mother homeland. I am having trouble to understand why the bodyguard would go with this strange plan, but at the time of arrest, he's clearly in his mother's country, under their juridiction.

I have also trouble suspending disbelief at his father the king allowing his son to... wander (can a 4 years old plan a trip, really, or even understand the concept of foreign country?) in another country under a false identity. If he wants to take his son to see his mother homeland, he could just take him on an official trip, with a certain measure of diplomatic immunity expected to prevent any legal claim against them.

He's apparently the crown prince of the Kingdom of low collective wisdom.

@OP: to help us understand the campaign premise, could you clarify who the PC are? The prince bodyguards? Some people hired to get the prince back? The slave-catchers?

[I could see a campaign with law enforcement officer of a corrupt country that arrest the slave/crown prince, who are betrayed by their own country, which realizes he has a lot to gain from exploiting their neighbour's stupid move by claiming the boy was abducted by outlaws, say that really he should have entered under his true identity for the country to protect his guest accordingly, and mount an expedition to "free him" and appear as good neighbour, saviour of the poor crown prince, at the price of setting up a team of slave-catchers... So the PC would hunted by both country A and country B. But it could really be cut short if the PC just (sensibly) give back the crown prince to the autorithies in his own country and explain the truth... and I have trouble imagining players actually condoning child slavery and nabbing the boy in the first place.

JMISBEST said:

He was in his mothers homeland, he wanted to see it, somehow his father agreed and in case anyone tried to kidnap the 4 year old crown prince they disguised him

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Oh, for pity's sake! The kid is four years old. He likely can't even read yet!

A king can't say no to a four year old? And they can't find a better way to handle the situation than to send him guarded by people so incompetent that low-level characters can get past them to steal the kid?

Alternatively, that four year old, who can't even read, can manage to finagle enough resources to sneak away against his father's wishes? When everyone involved is likely to be executed when the king finds his heir gone? And, these people who go are so incompetent that the kid gets snatched from them, but they are clever enough to have gotten the kid out?

This is contrived to a point past sensibility.

Is the thousand year old succubus involved at all?

Umbran said:

Oh, for pity's sake! The kid is our years old. He likely can't even read yet!

A king can't say no to a four year old? And they can't find a better way to handle the situation than to send him guarded by people so incompetent that low-level characters can get past them to steal the kid?

This is contrived.

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I didn't think of that either, but the most likely reason is that the slaves catchers/Thieves, all had A Above Average INT, the princes guards all have A Low INT, this allowed the slaves catchers/Thieves to outsmart the guards and the slaves catchers/Thieves superior knowledge of the area allowed them to evade pursuit

Umbran said:

Oh, for pity's sake! The kid is four years old. He likely can't even read yet!

A king can't say no to a four year old? And they can't find a better way to handle the situation than to send him guarded by people so incompetent that low-level characters can get past them to steal the kid?

Alternatively, that four year old, who can't even read, can manage to finagle enough resources to sneak away against his father's wishes? When everyone involved is likely to be executed when the king finds his heir gone? And, these people who go are so incompetent that the kid gets snatched from them, but they are clever enough to have gotten the kid out?

This is contrived to a point past sensibility.

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Being A Future King the odds are he's got reading abilities that are very advanced for his age and its likely that he enjoys reading the kind of childrens stories that most children his age enjoy having people read to them

2 very good examples of books that I used to enjoy people reading to me at that age were The Topsy and Tim Books and The Puddle Lane Books

What is the most important point of this story?

The Crown Prince of Westlandia is kidnapped at a young age?
The child has a birthmark that distinguishes a bloodline?
The child has a family history of escaped slavery?

How does the most important point relate to the potential character, if this is important to a character's history?