Gone Away With the Fairies

Why is it always so hard for the evil witchlord, the fairies, or whatever to find a victim? Some will argue that it is just the internet that makes Rule 34 true (Rule 34 being that if you can imagine it porn for it exists. And the website for that comic now exists too. Somewhere a man (or woman) with a very specific fetish is so happy.) Back to my point, I think this has always been true of people. The internet didn't change people, it just made it easier for them to find each other. So while it might have been more time effective to grab a random victim from the local village during the dark ages I think with the addition of magic it probably would have been possible to find willing victims aplenty in an urban area. And even without some sort of seeker spell to find someone who'd be happy to lay down his/her life there are always jaded crazy wealthy people who might just fit the bill for at least part of the plan.

I can easily imagine someone in the late Roman Republic being a willing sacrifice to some sort of mystery cult in real life, how much easier would it be if magic really worked? The German cannibal found someone who was a willing meal, why would the cultists kidnap anyone? Unless that's part of their fetish anyway. Likewise for almost any cybernetic thingy. Finding a useful test subject might be hard among them but there will be volunteers aplenty.

What inspired this? Reading a story where a babe is stolen away by the fair folk in a modern urban setting. What, they couldn't find a mother who didn't want her child and would be more than happy to give a magically disguised bit of wood to the authorities saying it died in the night? The fairies probably wouldn't even have to pay a lot of women for their child, then or now, just relieve them of a burden foisted on them by a man who then disappeared. Hey, that's a plot point idea. Fairies against abortion because it makes it hard for them to find willing mothers...