Slavery Question

[stormos]

Hey all;

My not to brilliant half-orc Holy Liberator is running into a moral dilema and wondering if anyone else can figure out a way around it.

He is currently travelling through the underdark and trying to stop a group of slaving Beholders from capturing slaves, etc. Well, what should he do with the evil slaves.

If he releases them out into the underdark he is afraid that they will cause more evil and that is bad. (Or worse, create more evil little buggers.)

If he kills them outright, they have no chance for redemption and that is bad.

If he says, "Help us free slaves or die." Well, they will die anyway and that is bad.

Any ideas.

 

[Crothian]

Free the slaves, it is not your responsibility what they do once they are free. If they turn out to do eveil things, then hunt them down.

 

[S'mon]

CG Holy Liberator should free the slaves, give them a lecture on moral virtue & a pat on the head, and tell them to find their own destiny. That's assuming they're evil-aligned Underdark natives. Non-native non-evils should be protected & returned home.

 

[Starglim]

You never know. They might actually listen and create at least a neutral enclave in the Underdark where the Holy Liberator can find support in the future.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Free them. Now, the repent I think he would offer it to them but there is a chance that he will kill some and say they are "truly free now".

 

[Snoweel]

kill some and say they are "truly free now".

W3rd.

It all comes down to the truths behind your PCs religion.

What is redemption? What is death? Which is more important, freedom or life? The rights of the individual or the greater good?

Don't come here and ask us these questions because we're not your DM (most of us aren't anyways).

The answers to moral dilemmas are, ultimately, all campaign specific.

I'm sorry.

 

[dougmander]

This dilemma illuminates an interesting question related to the heroic fantasy genre: are evil creatures inherently so, asTolkien's orcs seem to be, or can any evil creature be redeemed, given enough tough love and opportunity to make amends?
Several of my campaign's most memorable NPCs began as anonymous cannon fodder who were spared by the PCs and given a second chance, including Zin, the goblin rogue who was captured trying to steal a PC's loot; and Shagg'ratt the orc, who eventualy became a paladin and dedicated his life to "waking up" other evil humanoids to the possibility of redemption.
Given your dilemma, I would play it this way: most of the freed slaves will revert to evil, but one or two of them will be transformed by the liberator's mercy and join his cause, perhaps as followers.

 

[Starglim]

Check the Monster Manual: most humanoids are listed as usually one alignment, meaning that either individuals or whole groups can have other alignments if the DM chooses. I've been thinking of expanding that descriptor to "often", "usually", "almost always" and "always" for each alignment component.

 

[SALADIN THE JUST]

Hey all;

My not to brilliant half-orc Holy Liberator is running into a moral dilema and wondering if anyone else can figure out a way around it.

He is currently travelling through the underdark and trying to stop a group of slaving Beholders from capturing slaves, etc. Well, what should he do with the evil slaves.

If he releases them out into the underdark he is afraid that they will cause more evil and that is bad. (Or worse, create more evil little buggers.)

If he kills them outright, they have no chance for redemption and that is bad.

If he says, "Help us free slaves or die." Well, they will die anyway and that is bad.

Any ideas.

As mentioned by one other, I would humbly suggest that your Holy Liberator free the slaves and speak to them about the error of their ways and let them know that if they intend to follow in the same twisted path as their slave masters, they will have to contend with the Holy Liberator sooner or later and justice lives forever and has a very long memory. Other than that, your Holy Liberator can do nothing else for to do anything else to them would be based on unjust and unfair presumption well before the perpetration of any crime or offence.

 

[Trickstergod]

Lead and teach by example.

Free some evil creatures now, and they very well might start having a change of heart.

Start killing them, though, and should any escape, you're only going to make things worse when they go back and say what happened.

As for "Help us free slaves or die," that's almost like saying "Be my slave/indentured servant or die," which makes the character a bit of a hypocrite.

Let them go, possibly tell them why you're letting them go, ("You didn't like being slaves, did you? Well, neither would I, so I figure by letting you folk go, it might inspire others to do the same if I'm in your position....yadda, yadda, yadda."), then continue with your adventure.