Yuan-Ti Slavers Session Ideas

[DireSickFish]

The Playground was most helpful in giving me unique encounters for my feywild trip so I thought I'd come asking again. I'm going to be running an adventure where the objective is to find and destroy a Yuan-Ti slavers base in the city of Muran.

Muran is currently under the ownership of 2 oger mages so is crawling with monstrous races as well as humans. I figured I could have a "monster bar" they could get a lead from to find the base, or go to the open slaver auctions to try and catch the Yuan-Ti buying slaves at.

I want them to have some difficulty finding it and would like some cool encounter ideas int he city, or traps to have in the base. Leads they could have in finding the Yuan-Ti would be cool too.

Any ideas? Thanks much.

[VoxRationis]

Wait, if there are open, legal slave auctions in the city, why would the yuan-ti bother hiding their slaving operation?

[DireSickFish]

They transport slaves outside of the city into elven lands and have a base out there. The elves (or at least 1 powerful Palladin) are looking to cut off all slave traffic tot hem. This is going to be the last of the bases the PC's destroy.

I'm not sure I have the most convincing reason for them to be hiding within the city itself. Yuan-Ti are master manipulators so operating in secret might just be there mode of operation. It's not like there a business with a storefront. Just a base of power transporting slaves to there final destination to work as laborers.

[AmbientRaven]

NPC (let's call him bob)

Bob's daughter was recently taken from the elven lands that border Muran's territory. he asks you find her
This lead's the adventurers into the city itself, where they find a city rife with slavery and other such vile things. Within the cityafter investigation they find rumours of an elven maiden whom will be on sale soon.
The adventurrers track own the "seller" whom is a front for a Yuan-Ti slavers. He tells you the location where the girl is kept. The adventurers go there, to a base on the border. They spring the trap, meant to capture more elven slaves, and battle ensues. From this battle they somehow find the location tot he true yuan-ti slavers base, in the Muran sewers. Where better place to hide then under a city of slavers

[archaeo]

Maybe the Yuan-Ti are secretly collaborating with the Ogre-Magi rulers? What if the slave ring was being operated out of the royal palace itself?

[infinitetech]

what level of complexity do you want in the story, and do you want/mind extra parts being added in, and what point will the characters be at by this point?

[DireSickFish]

what level of complexity do you want in the story, and do you want/mind extra parts being added in, and what point will the characters be at by this point?

I want something that isn't to convoluted, just enough to get in the way of it being a "go into the city, okay now blow up the base we're done" quest. So low complexity.

Extra parts added in are great, I can always trim stuff for time or turn it into two sessions if it is taking to long.

The characters should still be lvl4 and I should have a party of 4 or 5 to work with. Class is really all over the board, but a rogue is likely.

Other DM's are running oneshots this weekend so I should have plenty of prep time. If one of them drops I'll be running this as backup by the seat of my pants.

[Jacob.Tyr]

It sounds like the Yuan-Ti are in town buying slaves, and then illegally transporting them into Elven lands, correct? Slavery, being legal in the town, does make it seem odd that they would be in hiding, but they also don't necessarily need to have a base in town, either. Perhaps their reputation for moving slaves into regions that aren't "slavery friendly" makes them work via proxies?

Slave dealers know the Yuan-Ti get premium prices by selling illegally in hostile regions, so they started charging them higher rates. Maybe even the Ogre's have felt some backlash from the Yuan-Ti's activity, and now view them as persona-non-grata due to the risk of selling to people who might bring an Elven Army down on their lucrative trading.

The players have heard rumors of Half-Blood and Abomination Yuan-Ti, but in town they're more likely to be looking for Pure-Bloods that look almost entirely human or perhaps even just human servants of the Yuan-Ti.

Make it an investigation to figure out who these agents are. Leave hints that this is DEFINITELY where the Yuan-Ti are buying their slaves. But when they ask around, they find that the Yuan-Ti haven't been in town in months, and their business is no longer wanted there. Most people at the auction that are buying in Bulk will be enigmatic, but have the players be able to tease out details on most of them. Either via talking to their retainers or via their buying habits ("This guy keeps buying warriors, probably not just looking for labour").

At the end of it, the Yuan-Ti pureblood is the one who no one has details on, and was buying bulk cheap slaves for simple labour. This person then leads a column of shackled slaves to the Yuan-Ti main camp, maybe a few days away, and is probably not hard to track.

[Shining Wrath]

There's slavery and then there's slavery.

The ogre magi don't mind slaves who work as servants or farm hands, or even in brothels.

What the Yuan-ti use slaves for involves demon worship, human sacrifice, and similar bad stuff. The ogre magi don't like this, not so much on moral principles, but because it threatens the stability of the city - there's a LOT of slaves, and the idea that they might wind up on an altar to the snake god is the sort of thing that leads to slave uprisings. Not to mention that it's also the sort of thing that might lead those pesky Elves to actually invade.

So the Yuan-ti are forced underground by the nature of their evil, rather than just because they are evil.

This leads to the delightful moral conundrum for your party that by finding and eliminating the Yuan-ti slavers they are helping the ogre magi perpetuate slavery in their city and establishing their evil rule more securely.

[DireSickFish]

What the Yuan-ti use slaves for involves demon worship, human sacrifice, and similar bad stuff. The ogre magi don't like this, not so much on moral principles, but because it threatens the stability of the city - there's a LOT of slaves, and the idea that they might wind up on an altar to the snake god is the sort of thing that leads to slave uprisings.

Hmm I hadn't thought about the whole sacrificing to Sseth being a big negative impact. The Yuan-Ti have mostly been using humans to front and Lizardfolk as grunts up to this point. I could use this opportunity to introduce the sacrificing and such, as I forgot about including it before now.

The Oger-mages not liking the snakes int here city would be a neat twist. Also other slavers could be disappointed they are driving up prices on laborers and that the slaves are -leaving- the city ass opposed to being a workforce int he city. People selling slaves are loving it and protect there contacts/source of income. People buying or trying to buy are more helpful.

[Shining Wrath]

Hmm I hadn't thought about the whole sacrificing to Sseth being a big negative impact. The Yuan-Ti have mostly been using humans to front and Lizardfolk as grunts up to this point. I could use this opportunity to introduce the sacrificing and such, as I forgot about including it before now.

The Oger-mages not liking the snakes int here city would be a neat twist. Also other slavers could be disappointed they are driving up prices on laborers and that the slaves are -leaving- the city ass opposed to being a workforce int he city. People selling slaves are loving it and protect there contacts/source of income. People buying or trying to buy are more helpful.

Ooo, politics. The slave-sellers set assassins after the party, but the slave buyers (big plantation owners, brothel owners) set counter-assassins after the assassins, and the PC's are eating lunch in a tavern when suddenly a gang fight between two groups of Assassin Thieves breaks out around them.

[DireSickFish]

Ooo, politics. The slave-sellers set assassins after the party, but the slave buyers (big plantation owners, brothel owners) set counter-assassins after the assassins, and the PC's are eating lunch in a tavern when suddenly a gang fight between two groups of Assassin Thieves breaks out around them.

Hmm I actually do have an Assassin Hafling the party has run into before. Have her show up and say, "They wanted to higher me for a hit, but when I found out who it was I told them to stuff it. Fool me once ect. ect. So look out for assasins! You owe me a sold. Bye!"

The local thieves guild is being run by another DM and is very thuggish. I'd run with a 3rd party assasin. A one eared gnoll or something. That or just have the Yuan-Ti get tipped of if they question the slave sellers, or be caught unaware if they ask the other slave buyers.

[infinitetech]

query... whom do the magi worship, and how far do they go? because being caught between 2 angry hell princes could be an interesting issue for the city, will the world die by fire or ice...