You know Ricther doesn’t have they money to buy slaves out of suffrage. I don’t know if you recall all the uses I mentioned for the Counts signet ring. I suppose Ricther could use it pay the high premiums on what few slaves he can find. After all slavery still isn’t a legal business in Yves as far as we know. I believe the under ground slavers market would be hard to break into. Most of the non humans pressed into slavery I believe were for sadistic purposes or sacrifice. Many of those slaves could not be bought back at any price due to the lack of supply. They simply couldn’t be replaced easily.
True, it wouldn't work with the skilled, but many are just laborers and their families, people without great skills or abilities. Regular people who once belonged to the lower class. In book 1 it was mentioned that many nonhumans are forced to work on the estates of the kings friends. If cash doesn't work trickery is also an option. Blackmail works too. I just think force should be the last resort against Yves. Against local slavers they can reach and beat, crush them and conquer their holdings. Richter should have a code. Slavery needs to go. I want Richter to basically be an iron fist in a silk glove. First the soft touch, and if he is forced to squeeze, then make them squeal.
I think if you reread you will see that slavery isn’t big in Yves. I don’t even think it’s legal at this time. Non humans are treated very badly and forced into servitude not slavery. The only slaves that we know of at this time are the ones that the thieves guild had held and sold. It is comprehend-able that there are others doing it as well. We know of one sex slave and others being sold. We also know that they are most likely being bought to feed the needed sacrifices for some. Slavery isn’t an open air thing in Yves so far as we have been told. I just don’t think many of those people that are purchasing sex slaves or people to sacrifice would be willing to sell them. Especially when it would be extremely hard to replace those that they hold. I do believe there is a “progressive” group pushing for those changes. As we have been told By Randy the Kings new friends are influencing him. As far as we know he could be under the influence of their magic. I do know Aleron set a time line. That time line has been clicking away to finish the quest and fulfill his promises. With every day passing there is another chance of someone being sacrificed. The Signet ring could be used to purchase the slaves if he knew where they were and who he needs to deal with. Once those slaves are all sold it would be much harder. We know he has a list of of those which had been sold and was working to decipher the code. Other then Ricther using the ring he doesn’t have the gold nor the power to force someone to sell a slave. With the signet ring he could write promissory note “backed” by the authority of the Count. He could also use the signet ring as a threat to those who are not agreeable. Honestly, in my humble opinion smashing in freeing the slaves, looting the place and trashing it is more along our hero’s character.
Agreed There are two versions, the legally bonded nonhumans who have a human overseer who take most of their income and the unofficial ones that exist on the king's friends estates, who have been described as slaves. They aren't legally slaves, but that becomes meaningless when the man in charge of enforcing the laws of the kingdom have no intention of doing so. The king simply doesn't care about them breaking the law. We also know that there is a nonhuman slave trade going on, with some being used as sacrifices to the Exiles. That might not be an issue for the more valuable nonhumans or their families as their manager have an interest in keeping them safeish, but for the majority it could be bad. The signet ring has come up before. I think I agree, with careful handling they could trade it through Hafiz or some other merchant or even pretend to be his emisary. Dumb brute force would be fitting for Richter, but i'm hopeful the next iteration of the operation to free the Yvesian nonhumans will be controlled by Randy as well as possibly Terrod, Mama and Hafiz.
We know the King and the Count are friends. Have we been told that the King is aware of the slave trade? I think it’s funny we have had these discussions multiple times. Once someone had tried to make a very clear difference between slaves and the bonded workers. I had made the statement that bonded servants were often treated worse then slaves in our history. Making the point that all the non humans were in a very dire position. I expect it to be something Ricther tackles and resolves in time. I can’t remember whom it was but they claimed the situation of the non humans very different from each other. They also said that Ricther needed to wait that any action could place him at war with Yves too fast. I do agree that there are not many slaves in Yves. That being said their cost would be very high. Indeed I had mentioned the signet ring being used to purchase materials and items off all sorts. Ricther could possible gain enough supplies to last his village another year along with plenty of other very valuable supplies. Making huge material gains and leaving the bill for the Count. No way would I trade the Signet ring to Hafiz. That would only place a death warrant for whoever was caught. If not he would be tortured at the very least. I really don’t expect Ricther to return to Yves until Randy has a spy ring trained. With luck their training will go fast. The lock Smith, a rogue, a thief, a bard, and a lady of the night should make a heck of a team. With Ricther and several of his human guards they would make a formidable force for extracting nonhumans held against their will.
I have not done any math. However, from a story point of view, It would make sense for Yoshi to me in the mid level 40s, like Ritcher. It would also make sense if everyone who fought in the battle gained several levels as well. We need more professional warriors. Going into the battle I think the soldiers were average level of 12 and the hunters were average level of 9? What if it bumped the hunters up to like 12-15 and the soldiers close to 20? It would'd make sense to Ritchter to get too far above his villagers, and anyway they are facing level 10-20 bugbears so need to be higher level to compete.
I agree they should have all bumped up pretty good. I think Yoshi should have really jumped up high. If Ricther went up by 40k points Yoshi should have climbed 160k.
Perhaps elite slayer units trained to fight well above their own weight class could be established to deal with champions like Richter and the like? We saw what the 4 professional orcs did, they slaughtered a tier 2 creature that had 30 levels on them.
I was thinking of the tier 2 wyrm they faced on their own while Richter slaughtered the remainder. That's 4 professional orc warriors facing off against one level 40+ tier 2 ravager worm. Its an impressive feat. I think Richter could use a similar setup to take on powerful champions and monsters, without needing those fighters to reach level 40+ first. Edit: Also a minor correction, I said the crature had 30+ levels on them, it only has 20+ levels on them.
