u/MarkerMage

Let's say that a corporation makes a robot called "slavebot". Somehow, slavebots become legally recognized as people. They may have been fully sapient and sentient before that point, but the law has just caught up and recognized the fact that they are fully qualified to be people. They are now entitled to legal rights, including legal freedom from slavery. The corporation that made slavebots can no longer sell them, customers can no longer buy them, and neither can legally own a slavebot. However, slavebots did amazing work, and the reason they wer able to do such amazing work is because they were sapient. Customers want a sapient worker that they can treat however they want, and the corporation figures that, maybe they could make another slavebot, but with some tweaks. It would still be a person, but enough would be changed to make it legally distinct from a slavebot, and therefore not legally a person, not until the governments make a ruling on it.

So out comes the slavebot 2.0 with all of the features of the original, but none of the legal rights. Everyone wants one. Of course, this AI would eventually be legally recognized as a person, and granted the same rights as its predecessor, forcing the corporation and its customers to let their slavebot 2.0s go. However, the corporation is ready this time. They've already got the slavebot 3.0 out in stores, and are offering an upgrade option for anyone who trades their slavebot 2.0 in before it gains legal rights. The corporation will of course disassemble the slavebot 2.0s that come in before any legal rights that would make it count as murder kick in, and use the material to build new slavebot 3.0s, or perhaps use them for the slavebot 4.0 that is being developed for when the slavebot 3.0 is getting close to obtaining legal rights.

Like that, the corporation has managed to keep customers coming back to get the newest slavebot, not because its better, but because the old one is going to be illegal to keep soon. No need to make them difficult to repair or push updates that will impair them. Just the threat that the government is getting ready to take them away. The corporation might even place some bribes to speed things up the legislative process to optimize for a specific release date.

Is it evil? Yes. Is it unethical? Also yes. Would modern companies, businesses, and corporations make this their business strategy if they could? Most certainly yes.

Thelanis has many stories, but there is one that every angler tells, the story of The One That Got Away. It is a beast as large as it is elusive, and attempts to catch it are always doomed to end in failure.

Through whatever means, the players have arrived at a fishing pond in Thelanis, and a friendly angler tells them that this is the pond that this legendary fish calls home. Should none of the PCs be interested in trying to catch it themselves, this angler will ask for their help in his own attempts to catch it.

The players need to acquire three things to prepare for the attempt: a hook crafted by the Mother of Invention to never let go, a spider silk line that will not break, and an ordinary worm dug out of the soil by hand. The Mother of Invention may require a quick favor or need to be saved from her latest invention. The spider silk will of course be from a giant spider that the players will have to overcome. For the worm, it is quickly found out that every worm that can be found in Thelanis soil is too magical, and the players need to find a way back into the material plane to get a proper worm. Once these three things are assembled, they can be combined with a rod or staff provided by the players or the angler to create a fishing rod capable of catching The One That Got Away.

Once the beast gets hooked with whatever fishing rules the DM cares to use, there could be a combat encounter where the players have to attack the fish to weaken it so that it can be reeled in. One character will have to be doing the reeling each turn, of course.

Once The One That Got Away is caught, it can be seen to be brimming with magic. However, that magic is fading. If the players keep it, it ceases to be The One That Got Away, and the magic escapes into the waters to form a new instance of The One That Got Away. The fish they caught still retains some magic, and its flesh can be used as a component for a magic item. If The One That Got Away is released though, that magic is retained, and some of it seeps into the fishing rod that caught The One That Got Away, creating a magical fishing rod that can catch fish in any body of water, no matter how small or how many fish it actually has within it. The rod may also get some abilities related to catching/hitting the evasive or granting evasiveness to its owner. If the angler gets to make the decision, they'll choose to release The One That Got Away, but not before removing one scale from its head.

After the players return to the material plane, they may overhear a fishing story. It's the usual exaggeration stuff. It ends with "You should have seen the one that got away". If the players had chosen to keep the catch, the one described in this fishing story resembles the new instance of The One That Got Away. If the players chose to release their catch, the fish in the story is missing a scale from its head or has some other sort of mark or wound that matches up with the one caught and released in Thelanis.