This is one of the stories where I had to be the necessary evil.
Part 1:
>Party is traveling through a foreign city, party is a Pirate-based Fighter, Beastmaster Ranger, and me, the Mage
>Recently successful job, everyone's in good spirits
>A rich merchant strolls into the restaurant we're eating at, with a couple of slave girls in tow
>One of them makes a mistake or something, gets publicly beaten for it
>This is not unusual in this country, only my character was aware of it
>Fighter lost his entire family years ago to a foreign country invasion, including his daughters
>This triggers some serious fatherly instincts, he immediately threatens the merchant
>I step in, dissolve the tension before anyone does anything serious, merchant leaves to his private table
>Fighter later encounter the merchant punishing the slave girls
>Fighter has had enough, goes in guns blazing
>Merchant panics, grabs a handheld explosive from one of his bodyguards and throws it, runs away
>Explosion in a pretty small room, Fighter and both slave girls get caught in it
>Ranger finally catches up, start administering first aid to everyone
>One girl is dead, one is severely injured, Fighter is unconscious
>When I come along the scene, I instead track down the merchant
>corner him and his bodyguards escaping down an alley
>Realize if we let him live, his money will fuck over our relations here and potentially get us killed
>Burn him and his bodyguards to ash, leave no trace of the scene except for the scorched walls of a stone alleyway smelling suspiciously of burnt flesh
>The merchant is still "missing", no signs of kidnapping or murder.
Set up complete, time for sadness in part 2...