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View Full Version : Escape from a Drow City [3.5]



SilverLeaf167
2010-10-07, 08:08 AM
The situation:

The players' airship crashlanded on an island, thanks to an antimagic cloud created by the Drow on the island.
The High Elves and the Drow on the island were starting a war.
The players were sent to investigate the disappearance of a scouting squad.
They found the bodies of the scouts and defeated the Drow who killed them.
The players found a hidden entrance to the underground Drow city.
The guards, armed with Drow poison, knocked them out.

So, the players are now in Drow prison. All their equipment was taken, and they were put into shackles. How could I give them a fair chance to escape? I have thought of making a guard mess up or something like that. It would also be nice if they were able to retrieve their equipment.

The party consists of a Barbarian 6, Cleric 6 and Wizard 5. The barbarian doesn't have a high enough Strength to break the shackles. The cleric had his holy symbol taken away. The wizard can't use somatic components and also had his component pouch taken away. Might sound harsh, but I don't want to fudge the NPC's basic sense of logic.

We are supposed to play on Saturday.

Lev
2010-10-07, 08:15 AM
Oh man, this totally calls for a mechanical spider steampunk breakout.

Have them spot a nearly-finished mechanical spider (Gargantuan or Col), and there it is, big fat escape ticket waving in their faces.

There's a few options for this ave.
You can put it outside the prison allowing the players a chance to escape and get to it.
Or you can put it inside the prison employing the prisoners as slave labor by the warden as a present for the drow's emperor or whathaveyou.

SilverLeaf167
2010-10-07, 08:24 AM
Coolest.
Idea.
So far in this thread :smalltongue:

Seriously, sounds pretty good. The campaign uses a lot of magitech, so not entirely unreasonable, either. Being forced to build the spider also gives them the chance to escape while they aren't shackled in their cells.

I will also have them encounter a survivor member of the scout squad, who got taken prisoner, too. Maybe he'll help them somehow.

Diarmuid
2010-10-07, 08:58 AM
What you need is occasions when they arent shackled to a wall. Whether that be "exercise" or "meal time" or "go crap in that hole time" (that last one would need coordination with a "dont crap on the floor in your cell or we beat you" clause.)

If they're nothing but shackled to a wall with no equipment and no on with a decent escape artist check then you're pretty much not giving them anything to work with.

SilverLeaf167
2010-10-07, 09:08 AM
Given that Drow are evil, they would probably consider "muscle spasms of pain" exercise, and the hole wouldn't be necessary, as the feces would be the "meal". :smalltongue:

I'll probably do the latter, for sneaking's sake. The spider will come to play later.

Lev
2010-10-07, 06:54 PM
The word you are looking for is sadistic.
Evil is the apathy, sadism is the pleasure.

TheStranger
2010-10-07, 07:16 PM
Hmmm... the problem here is, there's a reason people don't escape from prison all that often - if the guards are halfway intelligent, it's a lot easier to keep somebody in prison than it is for that person to break out.

But, in the vein of cheesy action movies everywhere, there's a solution; have a faction within the drow let them out in order to further some type of plot against the powers that be. Presumably, it would make somebody look bad if the prisoners were to escape. Maybe there's something the PCs' patron wants done by parties that can't be connected to her. And if the patron were to then kill these dangerous escaped prisoners, that would probably make her look good. Of course, PCs are notoriously hard to control...

(None of this precludes the inclusion of a giant mechanical spider.)

Beelzebub1111
2010-10-07, 07:43 PM
The best escape plans happen during torture and interrogation. Here's what I'd do.

Have some convenient debris on the ground for use as improvised weapons
Have the guards take one of them out at a time for interrogation and/or torture

From there:

Make sure the guards and torturers have ordinary weapons.
Give a 1 round window between unlocking the wall manacle and locking them in new manacles
have a 1 round window between traveling manacles and strapping them to the torture device

Your players will take it from there.

TheThan
2010-10-07, 08:14 PM
Well you could do a mass breakout.

Or you could introduce another adventuring party that is breaking into the jail to free a companion. The PCs could convince them to let them out too.

You could have a renegade drow being help prisoner, the drow helps them escape by showing them a secret passage way out (emergency escape passage). Which happens to bring them close enough to the giant mechano-spider that they could easily capture it and use it to wreck havoc.

dgnslyr
2010-10-07, 08:29 PM
I like the idea of a giant mechano-spider. Seriously, when does having giant mechs NOT improve the game? I guess a super-gritty, super-realistic, ultra-low magic game, but not much else. Maybe one of the guards is a Drohnny Sasaski. Offer your players ketchup. See who gets the hint. Of course, then they have to escape a heavily-guarded complex with no equipment. Then again, they'll just knock out a guard and take his gear, to start. Who wouldn't? Hrm, stories always mention the Drow having powerfully enchanted gear that deteriorates in sunlight. How will that be handled.

Word will get out pretty quickly, so guards will come running, armed with more Drow knockout poison, no doubt. They'll have to hustle to the PC Equipment Holding Room, or they get peppered with bullets crossbow bolts. Have a strongish enemy for them to deal with before they get their gear back, so they'll need to think of something other than "I smash him with my club."

And then, they'll eventually find the Giant Mecha-Spider prototype. Let them have a good time playing with it, until lo and behold, the Drow have a Giant Mecha-Spider MK II. Let the epic battle commence.

Dust
2010-10-07, 08:41 PM
The best escape plans happen during torture and interrogation. Here's what I'd do.

Have some convenient debris on the ground for use as improvised weapons
Have the guards take one of them out at a time for interrogation and/or torture

From there:

Make sure the guards and torturers have ordinary weapons.
Give a 1 round window between unlocking the wall manacle and locking them in new manacles
have a 1 round window between traveling manacles and strapping them to the torture device

Your players will take it from there.
/endthread

Expand on it though, declare that security will be lax in a few days due to some drow gathering, thereby giving the players the option of busting out and causing utter and total chaos, or suffering through the pain and humiliation for a few days to make their getaway much cleaner. If they're SMART they'll take the latter option and won't find themselves immediately back in prison with worse security.
This also allows you to really let the drow be cruel, show the depths of their depravity and really make the PCs hate them. Have a fellow prisoner npc get close to the players (possibly the informant about the upcoming gathering), only to die from starvation the following day and get used to feed the Driders.

Lev
2010-10-09, 08:13 AM
Quick rule on torture, make sure if you use it that your players would be OK with that.

Not everyone is super desensitized to these sort of things, lots of people I play DnD with are not huge gamers, these people imagine these things happening as if they were actually happening. Putting someone through a trauma is something to consider the consequences of whether it exists in the reality or imagination of those you put it into effect upon.

SilverLeaf167
2010-10-11, 01:27 AM
Okay, we played the session yesterday.

They were encountered by a member of the scouting squad they were sent to rescue in the first place. One member was killed, one made it back home (and gave the players the mission) and this guy was captured.

They, along with lots of hobgoblin prisoners, were forced to build a gigantic spidery warmachine. During his short stay in the prison, the scout had already found out that the spider was almost ready, and told the party they would break out tonight.

Turns out that the scout was a Rogue/Monk. He had managed to smuggle a lockpick with him (not willing to explain the exact method, if you know what I mean). He lockpicked his cell door, punched a few guards to death along the way, stole some keys and let the party out.

With the keys, they retrieved their confiscated equipment and unleashed all the hobgoblins. They started a riot, and while the remaining guards were busy, the scout and the party climbed in the spider. The scout used a hidden button he had installed to activate the spider. He used the spider's Disinteg-Ray to kill a few guards and walked the spider to the city, where one of it's unfinished legs broke in half. It fell over, but the players managed to run back to safety.

mobdrazhar
2010-10-11, 01:31 AM
sounds like it was a success then. did the players enjoy it? sounds like they did

SilverLeaf167
2010-10-11, 04:13 AM
Well, they did make some evil laughs during the escape... and the dwarf kept throwing his food at guards, which some players found to be funny. He got sick from eating some moldy bread, barfed on a monstrous spider and killed. Poor thing.

Lev
2010-10-11, 04:40 AM
Aw, I was thinking more of a millenium falcon setup, pilot and copilot, turrets that have to be manned, ect.

Gives everyone a mega-zord feel.