That's why I don't think it's right to release spawns / meeting Gandrel in the dungeon #baldursgate3

[yanabanana]

to be honest, I expected more from this meeting. the dialogue seems to be unfinished. Astarion didn't react at all 😔

[salazar]

This goes to show just how awful Cazador truly was. He didn't care if you were a child. All he cared about was power and control.

[yona]

I set them free when I heard one of the spawns saying they did not want to die in that dungeon they were locked in for centuries.

[witch.y]

The dissonance of telling astarion he deserves happiness and freedom and then dooming innocent, traumatized children to death is so fucked. In my astarion romance route, after finishing the game we went to the underdark together to lead and protect the spawn. It worked perfectly, since my character was a drow originally from the underdark. He gives me his home, I give him mine, and we work together to help thousands more find their own.

UPDATE: omg the epilogue with that ending is perfect ;-; spawn rights spawn rights

[VioletteValkyria]

I think the epilogue settles that releasing them is the best choice. Even the Gurs talk about how much they learned from Astarion, both the turned kids learning to restrain themselves and the adults learning compassion. It's a beautiful letter.

[Louves]

When I play redeemed Dark Urge I cannot find a justification to not set them free. Astarion got a chance, despite being a little shit in act 1. Durge got a chance, even after killing and torturing thousants of people and literally eating babies. Most people see a vampire spawn and only see a monster that needs to die, but we learn they are just people. Even the gods don't give a shit about them because they are undead. But even in their sorry state they still fight their instincts. At the time you release them, they are innocent people who just want to live. They have been through so much shit, they deserve some kindness for once in their life. Gandrel seems hopeful his kids will 'get better'. If you tell him he should put them out of their misery he will tell you that there was already enough misery and he is going to keep them safe.
But that might be just the animal rescuer in me talking lol. I just can't stand the thought of them waiting in their cell, hoping you will free them and then they die a rather painful and awfully slow death. It's not the rational choice I guess, but stupid choices are just so much more fun. I would love to see a hidden underdark city of non-hostile vampire spawn in a future dnd game.
Edit: The comments here made me a Spawn Rights Activist. Spawn rights are human rights. I'll adopt them all. They are my children now.

[Finetas]

Wild to go through Astarion’s story and see him as a person, see that he’s more than capable of controlling his hunger, that he’s able to overcome the horrible shit he was forced to endure, that vampires don’t need to feed on people, and still refuse to apply that logic to the other spawn. Wilder still to leave out the fact that you can tell these kids some of that, that they can eat animal blood, and that they in fact thank you for sparing them. That Astarion himself chooses to spare them when he’s the only one in the crypt, and that he feels miserable when you don’t spare them. Amazing that he can come to see their personhood with more ease than some players.

They’re people, that’s the whole point of this character arc. Just because someone did something horrible TO you doesn’t mean you can’t learn to live with it, and it certainly doesn’t mean your life suddenly has no value, that other people have the right to callously discard it. Being a victim shouldn’t be a death sentence.

Life forces us to deal with very difficult circumstances and sometimes we’re dealt a bad hand, but we can make the best of it and learn to thrive again. We all deserve the chance to try and to be allowed to make our own choices, right or wrong.

[M_Alexander]

My Monk philosophy was "It's not up to me if they live or die but I won't be leaving them in cages."

[faerie_willow]

They're literally thanking you and saying they're grateful

[MOTIVES]

Them saying they’re thankful kind of nullifies you thinking it’s wrong tbh. The “what if’s” are valid except for the fact that we know how it turns out and nothing bad happens by letting them out lol

[thiriann]

Yeah, except Astarion's pretty messed up about this. He hates that you don't give them the choice to live or not. He compares them to himself and he's right. A diet of flies and dead rats wasn't what one would call fulfilling. Yet he acted perfectly fine. Because the moral of the story is that they are people and so is he, not monsters. The underdark goes through the span of the entire world. There are illithid down there and all kinds of beasts. 7000 vampires would literally be a tiny village at best. Let's not mention those kids thank him for the mercy. His exes BEG him for freedom and absolutely all of his companions think those lives should be spared

[ninjificus]

I really hope they polish out Act 3 and it doesn't take super long because it is just so lacking in responsivity from companions and all over the place narratively.

[Avariel]

The wish spell exists in the game version of DND so if someone found one then it would be just a couple of words to cure all of Cazador's spawn.

[breahwright]

My first character was a female Seldarine Drow Warlock who romanced Astarion. We let the spawn free and at the end Astarion and I traveled back to the Underdark to help them. I love the idea of ruling over a peaceful Underdark city full of Vampire Spawn and the Fish People, allies with the mushroom people, with Astarion by my side. Perhaps some of the deep gnome will come back and I didn’t leave on horrible terms with the remaining Duergar so perhaps they’ll trade. There are outliers for all races so we’d allow any race the chance to live there as long as it’s peacefully. It will be a city to rival Baulder’s Gate!

[TheLittleBlackOwl]

Nah but the Gur sending the letter saying they can control the children’s hunger and Sebastian’s letter will always make freeing them the right decision in my eyes

[Hexalys]

Gonna throw my hat into the ring here and be a bit controversial. It doesn’t matter what choice you make when it concerns the spawn. There is no consequence for letting them live, so that’s what I did. Not one person is attacked by the spawn. Cause and affect do not matter in this context. Sure, we have the hypothetical to debate about, because it’s incredibly foolish to believe that there is not one bad person (or even morally ambiguous) amongst the 7, 000 spawn, but there are no repercussions for choosing “mercy” in this scenario. Honestly, the only choice of impact is whether to help Astarion ascend or not.

[_Rat__Boy_]

We’re also forgetting the fact that the spawn don’t just die. They’re dammed to Mephistopheles.

If I remember correctly, they all serve the arch devil for all eternity until somebody decides to free them from their contract.

So, it’s either free the spawn and leave them starving for a while until they figure out a way to feed themselves, or damn them to Mephistopheles forever.

Feels like a lose-lose situation for them either way, but at least they can figure out how to exist without becoming killing machines.

[dragonhale]

This is such a difficult decision for me. I took my decision but I am still unsure if it was the right one. I freed them...but I don't judge anyone who killed them. They are very dangerous, after all...I simply think it is one of those decisions that are utterly impossible. You're a monster if you pick one, and you're a monster if you pick the other.
If they could be cured I would definitely and without hesitation choose that option, in a good playthrough.

[raphaelregnault]

In my last run, I played as a Devotion paladin. I wanted to go for the mercy kill, but my oath said " killing thousands of innocents with no chance of redemption ? Not on my watch", so I was forced to release an army of blood hungry spawns into nature...

Cazador's main spawns lead them into the Underdark where they fed on monsters and established a colony, then they proceeded to teach them how to control the blood hunger. There's even an ending where Astarion decides to lead them.

So yeah, it's basically a Krogan Genophage situation. It's an awful risk and it will lead to much suffering, but it's worth it.

[froggieslegs]

Despite the popular "release the spawn" narrative in the comment section... I too believe that killing them is more of a mercy.
Looking at the vampire children all I can think of is that they will be like that forever. They will never grow up. Thank you, Interview with the vampire, for scarring lil me to the point I can't not think about the tragedy of the vamp-child.
Also, releasing them to the Underdark... A lot of them will die in the first few days. Can you imagine this? Finally be free from the nightmare just to be torn apart by some beast
And why no one care about the amount of animals that need to be killed daily for spawns? Astarion alone can suck bear dry, what about 7000 hunger driven spawns? And no, regular humans don't eat a bear or boar per day.
What I also can't stop thinking about is for how long they was stuck there. In a small cages, butt-to-butt, locked in the dark, hungry. That's horrific. How many of them actually have sound enough mind to try and learn how to live without hurting the living? How many of them will go the Cazador way because of the power and revenge?
Depending the choices in the dialogue with Sebastian you could see how broken he is, how he wants revenge.
By the way, there is no way that al least some part of the pawns won't try to kill Astarion and other six.
"Ah, sorry, we made it because Cazador ordered" won't be the good enough reason to not kill someone who inflicted years, decades of the nightmare there is to live.
So yeah, in my opinion, while it's the horrific choice to make, scary, I believe it's better to kill them.