Gold for hostages

[Sigurd]

My campaign has a scarily organized non human country emerging where Hobgoblins form a scarily efficient army.

The party is on the border after seeing a war-camp first hand and they know how real the army is but the rest of the towns don't really.

Anyway - A contingent of 20 hobgoblins with a diplomat has just appeared on the river shore of a small city with an offer....

500 captives can be saved from certain death for the low low price of 350gld each. Everything is mostly on the up and up. Five drops of 100 people (Humans, halflings, some dwarves) will be exchanged for 35,000 gp or 70lbs of gold.

I'm creating a moral tension for the players\setting.


I'd be happy with any wrinkles\additions\comments that people have to offer.

 

[Gilladian]

What sort of moral tension does this create?

Are the PCs supposed to be worried about giving the scary hobgoblins too much money?

In return for the rescue of so many humans, and the insight into the hobgoblin culture, it seems a relatively low-cost exchange.

There might be more risk if the hobgoblins were demanding something besides money as a ransom. Perhaps the human kingdom has an artifact of great cultural significance to the hobgoblins in their keeping. A tattered war banner, captured a generation back- just a piece of cloth, or the last morale-building token the hobs need to establish their power and authority?

 

[Sigurd]

The tension is between the tactical analysis and the compassionate one.


The 500 are mostly non combatants and more of a drain than a benefit in the war. The money on the other hand is basically the cost of 500 suits of armor.


Sigurd