Thayvian slavers were, by their very nature, VERY not nice people. These were individuals who went out to find people, kidnap them, break their spirits, and sell them off to the highest bidder. Also by their very nature, they weren't pushovers by any stretch of the imagination. Inexperienced slavers typically had the scutwork jobs and worked their way up. Those who did the raids were the more experienced and more powerful, because not everyone they ran into was entirely unskilled at defending themselves.
Slaves tended to fall into two major categories. Skilled and Unskilled. The Skill might actually be simply attractive appearance or be physically strong or something of that nature, anything that increased their value like that placed them in the Skilled category and warranted special care. Unskilled were destined for work as farm labor or drudgework. They were treated much as cattle.
In either case, there were the need for places to put the merchandise and safeguard the captives while they were being introduced to the concept that they were property.
Fenced areas that the herd could be shoved into were little more than cleared dirt that became mud easily enough. One area for the cattle, while the Skilled and more higher priced merchandise could be chained to posts driven into the ground. There were a number of ways of breaking the wills of the captives, and most of the slavers who had been around a few years knew most of them.
What the Thayvians had done was select an area as a hidden base. Their various operatives would smuggle those newly enslaved individuals to this little distribution point, and eventually to Thay itself.
Despite being a land of magic, they relied on many nonmagical things in the same manner as other civilizations. They might have magic mouth or alarm spells on their barricades and fences, but those barricades and fences were mainly made of wood harvested on the spot and shaped by hand. They might have access to spells that allowed flight or teleportation, but mainly they relied on water as a medium of transport.
Which was why a group of slavers, slaves, thugs, and craftsmen all looked up as the sounds coming from the river trailed off into nothing.
Which was why a group of people on a raft went abruptly silent as they realized they were not alone and that there was a large and sinister looking encampment in this bend of the river.
The odd tableau held for a few moments as surprise was held on both parties until:
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(Posted Thu, 24 Jun 2004 10:28)
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