Help with a particular scenario

[Zeikstraal]

We had a blast at our last session, but there is one particular interesting scenario, that i want a bit more ideas for.
The party was escorting a prisoner from a small town to the big city so he could get trial. It was like 3 days travel time, and it did not go uneventfull. the party encountered a group of enemy's with 4 human prisoners, the enemy's told them they where the army of the south and the humans where their prisoners and asked the party to move along. The party didn't trust it so they stayed close, and that evening they fought them.
They unbound the prisoner to fight with them, as they have done before and he proved to be a little thrustworthy. In the combat the Alchemist got knocked unconscious, and the prisoner picks him up and tells that they will go back to the camp.
What he actually did, was tie up the Alchemist, slung him over a horse, and rode of. They began searching for tracks and they found them an followed it for a couple of hours. The prisoner let the horse go free and walked further with the Alchemist. He switched clothes with him, rested for a bit and headed for the city.
The party followed the horse trail and found the horse grazing in the woods, they decided to wait for him when he came back. But he never came back. The prisoner used the Alchemist name and he gave the Alchemist the prisoners name, and handed him over to the authorities.
The party founds out about it and want him to be freed, the guards say that they can't do anything for them, but they say they will try as best as they can.

The guards in this town are pretty corrupt, as is the whole city in general. The city is kinda taken over by the army of the south, which consist of Orcs, Goblins, Giants etc. The leader of the south promised everyone who fights for him wil gain equal rights.

What are some fun things I can do with this scenario. Getting the Alchemist out of jail, and with the escaped prisoner?

[BowStreetRunner]

Okay, I am assuming that you are the DM here. That's not actually 100% clear from your post. Also not clear is whether the Alchemist is a PC or NPC. I am going to also assume PC.

As DM, I would make sure interesting things are happening all over the place - with the main party, with the alchemist, and with the escapee.

With the alchemist, I would make sure the fully populate the jail with 3 dimensional characters. Maybe a head jailer who is brutal not just to prisoners but also to some of the guards he doesn't like. A guard who is very corrupt and offers all sort of favors for a variety of prices - things like better food, blankets, and so on. Another guard who is not corrupt at all and is hard on the prisoners. A guard who suffers under the head jailer and has little backbone. Put in a couple of serious criminal type prisoners facing hard time. Maybe a rogue type with connections who expects to get freed as soon as the right bribes are paid. And my favorite - a bandit who would be able to pay the necessary bribes, but he can't get to his stash of loot as there is no one he trusts to go get it for him. :smallwink:

With the main party I would make sure they get to witness an execution their next day in town and find out the guilty party was executed for some really minor-seeming offense that makes them really, really worry about the alchemist. :smallamused: This sounds like a town where a decent dragoman would be a nice help. Maybe a young goblinoid who seems to know his way around and offers to help introduce them to the right people to bribe and that sort of thing.

I think the more trouble the escapee gets into in the alchemist's name, the better. Especially situations where the offended person doesn't actually see the escapee in person. Maybe the escapee can set up as a 'snake oil salesman' type, using his alchemist's rep to sell fake potions and stuff.

[Zeikstraal]

Yes, I am the DM and the alchemist is a PC.

I'm already working on interesting characters for in the jail. So the player is not bored to death with being a prisoner. But you gave some extra NPC's.

And that is a very good idea regarding the party, the more they worry the better.

For the escapee, I just had in mind he would take an other name etc. begin a new live. But yours is way better, and is easier and more fun to deal with for the party.