I've accumulated a couple questions recently and I was hoping to ruminate on them with the fellow ACKs DM hivemind.
1) I've got a nobiran wonderworking in my group. It only just occurred to me that divine spellcasters have libraries too, and the rules even mention holy temples having them. Do you think divine and arcane libraries must be tracked and created separately? I assume at least some books don't have overlap.
2) speaking of spell research, the core rules say you can research a spell with your target throw increased by 1/2 the level of the spell, or the level of the spell if designing a new spell. For spells that are well above the power curve such as sleep or fireball, it seems like a no-brainer to attempt to research those first. do you make any exceptions for spells like that, or is it just assumed by virtue of them being part of the known set of discovered spells that even mages who don't know how to cast sleep and don't have access to it will have an easier time researching it than a brand new similar spell?
3) Tangentially related to spell research, my party went and assault a troglodyte lair in search of their chameleon-like glands to make, well, potions of chameleon. As if the moral quandrary of killing a sentient race to make magic potions wasn't questionable enough, they also have a handful of eggs and are likely to take a number of prisoners by the time the whole thing is over. They currently operate out of a decidedly neutral realm, run by a powerful ruler who is often courted by both the lawful and evil empires to join their realms. The capital for certain, and the realm as a whole to a lesser extent, is an "anything goes" city where you could reasonably expect to run into anyone. Thrassians, Zaharans, anti-paladins, sometimes even beastmen. I assumed that such a realm would be ok with slavery, but reading the book it turns out that selling slaves is a no-no in all but chaotic realms. However I recall reading something somewhere by Alex about the Auran Empire being comfortable with something more akin to indentured servitude rather than outright slavery, and used mainly as punishment for crimes. These troglodytes in question are from the L&E book, so the subtext is that they slaughtered the dwarves in a silver mine and took it over.
Ok, with background out of the way: assuming a band of mostly neutral or lawful characters come into possession of a number of troglodyte eggs and imprisoned troglodytes (mostly the females), what are they reasonably allowed to do without sliding towards chaotic alignment? Similarly, what can they reasonably do in a neutral kingdom without breaking an laws or attracting the ire of the populace? This, of course assuming they attempt to push that limit. If they decide the whole affair is a bit too vile for them, can they do something like ransom the troglodytes?
(also standard caveat: real slavery is bad and IRL there are no such thing as troglodytes or any other race magically constructed to be automatically chaotic/evil)