Help save my party!

[tzar1990]

So, at the end of our last session, my party got caught in a very nasty ambush by a large number of guards - normally this wouldn't be a problem, but some of the ambush happened by DM fiat, so I assumed it was a "cutscene-style" way for the DM to get us all in prison until after the session, when he said we could actually have started fighting if we wanted.

The situation is as follows: We just went to visit a rather evil fellow, who's MO tends to be subtle manipulations and quiet assassinations. We suspected he had one of the five pieces of an artifact we need to collect (it's evil, we want it locked away or destroyed, yadda yadda yadda). We confirmed we had it, but decided not to attack him right them because we were in his house, with his guards, and the wizard confirmed there was a plot-powerd teleport blocking field up within the house, preventing us from ganking him and porting out.

Unfortunately, when we walked out, a "random city guard" walked up to us, and accused us of theft - then pulled out the fancy art piece the BBEG had planted on one of our members. We weren't worried at first, since we're all between levels 9 and 11, and this was a random guard. Unfortunately, he then called for backup, and FIAT ATTACK happened - dimensional anchors auto-hit everyone, dozens of guards appeared out of nowhere, a silence spell was dropped on the party, and guards auto-grappled one of our party members.

Here are our assets:

Clay Golem
A moderately-optimized wizard (currently within the Silence field)
A low-op cleric (currently within the silence field)
Myself, a mid-op Magus (currently within the silence field)
An alchemist (grappled, mouth covered, in the silence field, he's the golem's master)
A druid (currently Wild Shaped into a pigeon, hanging out in the air above us, and OUTSIDE the area of silence.) He's the only one who HASN'T been Dimensional Anchored


Normally, I would have considered just murdering these dudes, but I didn't realize that it wasn't just a "rocks fall, everyone's captured" thing until we were already in this position.

Can you think of any ways that might be useful for escaping? None of us have any magic we can use within the silence field. The druid has the option of dropping Wall of Thorns on all the guards immediately around us, but if they have Dimensional Anchor, they might have dispel. I still have my sword and my full arcane pool, so I could cut my way through some of these guys, at least, maybe the ones holding on to the Alchemist.

Alternatively, we could just let ourselves be caught, but the DM has been willing to toss us in indestructible, magic-proof prisons before (albeit never the whole party, just one or two of us at a time.)

What do y'all think?

[Gavinfoxx]

I think the Druid should bust the party out of prison...

[Twilightwyrm]

I think it would be a good idea to determine for yourself whether or not your DM is giving you a false choice. That is to say, is saying that you can fight your way out, but in reality the DM has every intention of getting you arrested. Normally I would not in such suspicion, but if, as you say, the DM has just auto-silenced, grappled/pinned (think you need to pin someone to cover their mouth in a grapple), and dimension-anchor/locked the party (which is not actually rules-legal barring DM fiat) I cannot help but doubt the sincerity of his "oh you can totally fight your way out of this scenario". If this is not a sincere choice, surrender and don't bother. There is no point in wasting resources when the DM will make it all pointless.
If you have determined that this is indeed a sincere choice, then you have two options: fight or feign surrender and then strike.
Scenario A: Fight. If you are going to fight, Dimension Anchor/Lock is irrelevant. As a 9th-10th level party you should have access to Fly, Gaseous Form or the like should you need to escape. If the Clay Golem has prior orders to defend its master (which it should), then you need not worry as it will fight on its own, and indeed will likely help the Alchemist get out of the grapple. Silence is only a 20ft. radius, so any of your party that isn't grappled should have no problem getting out of it in one turn. If the Wizard has Gaseous Form (which has no verbal component), or indeed the silent spell feat, he should cast it on himself, then get out of the area of silence asap. You can go ahead and slash your way either out of the area of silence or to your alchemist's defense. The Cleric likely has the defensive capabilities to move out of the silence and start casting/fighting easily enough. Your Druid should throw Wall of Thorns on top of the guards to keep them occupied until you guys can get out of the silence, as it does not much matter of he is dimension anchored; he's a bird, he can fly away if need be. If your Druid is combat capable, he should feel free to drop himself into combat in the form of a bear, or a rhino, or whatever form would be most appropriate.
Scenario B: Feign surrender. This may temporarily losing your weapons, but will give you the opportunity to get out of your disadvantageous situation. Do not wait to be taken to prison, but attempt to escape on the way. Once it looks like minimal guards are present, your druid (still in disguise) should start opening up spell casting, as should your wizard, and cleric, and your alchemist should (as his first, free action) order his golem to attack. Given your focus on touch spells, you can effectively fight unarmed, but it might be easier to just take your sword back from whichever guard has it (which can be done as a standard action rolling against the guard's probably shabby CDM). You can they fight your way out from there, without the silence, dimension anchors, or hands over your alchemist's mouth. This way is a gambit to be sure, and should work if your DM is not prepared for it (or was actually sincere about you having the option to fight your way out).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The Druid waits for the party to be locked up. He casts Burrow on himself, then Transmute Rock to Mud on the cell floor, then comes in and casts Burrow, Mass on the whole party. Everyone Bugs Bunnies their way to freedom.

[Feint's End]

Aside from the fact that this is a situation which looks like dm fiat to me (which it obviously is to a certain degree) have you considered just surrendering for know and let the druid bust you out of prison? Because depending on the legal system you are currently in the guards might just be doing their job and got tricked by the BBEG in which case killing them for convenience would be at least a neutral if not evil act (taking the shortcut to the BBEG with no mercy for those who stand in your way ... even if they don't know they are a tool for him and just do their job).

Think about it this way ... you are a guard and have to deal with murderhobo adventurers from time to time. One day you get this "fancy art piece" and information on a person (and a group) who is exactly this as far as you know. So you go and do your job to protect your city/family/town.
Do you feel like it's fair for this guard to get murdered by the group?

Now I might be wrong about this but from the sounds of what you described the guards are just doing their job and you could avoid a lot of drama if you just followed them and break out of prison later (for example). This way you can fullfill your mission without murdering innocent guards and after you brought down the BBEG people will understand your actions and cherish you for it .... if you killed the guards ... well .... not so much.

Now if your group would be evil and don't care for such things then ....

[Grollub]

The Druid waits for the party to be locked up. He casts Burrow on himself, then Transmute Rock to Mud on the cell floor, then comes in and casts Burrow, Mass on the whole party. Everyone Bugs Bunnies their way to freedom.

haha

that's too cool

[rmnimoc]

Please bare in mind that this advice is questionable at best, idiotic at worst.

That bad guy probably has some rather horrible designs for you.

Here is where this gets stupid.
I suggest killing yourselves.

I'll explain.
Any evil genius worthy of the title will be have 3 outcomes planned for:
1. You get arrested. He has you right where he wants you.
2. You get killed by the guards. You are dead, problem solved/uses your body/soul for some nefarious purpose.
3. You kill the guards and escape. He gets to villify you and send adventures to kill you.

The not-so-clear solution then is:
1. Get the Druid out of there. Go to any level to aid in his escape.
2. Escape the zone of silence.
3. Kill yourselves in a such a way that it leaves no bodies.
4. Have the Druid reincarnate the party.
5. Invest ranks in handle animal.
6. Become hellwasp farmers.
7. Use hellwasp army to take over the villians body.
8. Smear his reputation.
9. Laugh as your DM's brain shuts down in confusion.
10. Take over the world.

[tzar1990]

Aside from the fact that this is a situation which looks like dm fiat to me (which it obviously is to a certain degree) have you considered just surrendering for know and let the druid bust you out of prison? Because depending on the legal system you are currently in the guards might just be doing their job and got tricked by the BBEG in which case killing them for convenience would be at least a neutral if not evil act (taking the shortcut to the BBEG with no mercy for those who stand in your way ... even if they don't know they are a tool for him and just do their job).

Think about it this way ... you are a guard and have to deal with murderhobo adventurers from time to time. One day you get this "fancy art piece" and information on a person (and a group) who is exactly this as far as you know. So you go and do your job to protect your city/family/town.
Do you feel like it's fair for this guard to get murdered by the group?

Now I might be wrong about this but from the sounds of what you described the guards are just doing their job and you could avoid a lot of drama if you just followed them and break out of prison later (for example). This way you can fullfill your mission without murdering innocent guards and after you brought down the BBEG people will understand your actions and cherish you for it .... if you killed the guards ... well .... not so much.

Now if your group would be evil and don't care for such things then ....

That's true, and all. I actually did do that in the last city we were in (secret police came for us, everyone else ran while I went down to talk, since we actually had a common interest once they looked past the allegations of regicide against us).

The issue here is that this guy is a fine upstanding member of the Senate. Plus, these guys got us directly coming out of his house for a "random search", which strongly suggests they're directly in his pocket (especially when combined with the fact they were ready to get us directly.) Also, we have a pair of the magical plot tickets on us, and we don't want him to get ahold of any more of them.

But yeah, breaking out of prison is possible - I was hesitant to get into prison at first, because a previous prison had unbreakable walls that could not be circumvented by any magic (no, no teleport, no plane shift, nothin'), but that was actually plot-related, and there shouldn't be any of those in this area.

[Mandark]

Have the Druid pigeon drop a ranged fecal attack on the guard that is grappling the alchemist. then Non-lethally fight your way out.
(I just want to see the DMs face when that is tried)

[Vanitas]

Surrender, leave the silence field, stall a few minutes (use Diplomacy, Bluff, something) until Dimensional Anchor wears off.

[Sam K]

But yeah, breaking out of prison is possible - I was hesitant to get into prison at first, because a previous prison had unbreakable walls that could not be circumvented by any magic (no, no teleport, no plane shift, nothin'), but that was actually plot-related, and there shouldn't be any of those in this area.

Just keep in mind, if they have the knowledge and resources to use dimensional lock and silence to lock down your all-caster party, they probably wont put you in a normal cell.

[Segev]

Have the druid drop an Obscuring Mist on the whole area, and then cast Summon Nature's Ally IV to call in a dire wolf and start tripping the guards, locating them using scent. Keep it in the silence field if you want maximum confusion. Make getting OUT of the silence field the guards' priority, and your party can exit it, too.

As a Magus, you should be rather competent, yourself, in a fight. Use your powers to bolster your weapon and, if you can, sacrifice spell slots for bonuses if you can't exit the silence field. Attack the guard holding the alchemist, so his golem is brought back into the fight. (I mean, hopefully the golem will grapple the guard holding its master, but I don't know its standing orders.)

The wizard just needs to exit the silence area. If he has Silent Image, have him cast one of his Familiar running off with the 2 MacGuffin pieces your party has.

Does your party have any interesting magic items? A hat of disguise is always great in situations like this; disguise as one of the guards!

[weckar]

If any of you have any somatic-only spells worth a damn I'd say fight, otherwise see where it goes.

Also, just out of curiosity to the overall campaign storyline. If you want this artifact destroyed, and its in five pieces, wouldn't destroying just one of them suffice to disable the assembly of the whole thing?

[tzar1990]

If any of you have any somatic-only spells worth a damn I'd say fight, otherwise see where it goes.

Also, just out of curiosity to the overall campaign storyline. If you want this artifact destroyed, and its in five pieces, wouldn't destroying just one of them suffice to disable the assembly of the whole thing?

Well, the thing is, each part contains one piece of some ancient lich/wizard/whatever's soul - they couldn't keep him from coming back normally, so they sealed him away in pieces. We're worried that the artifacts might be acting as prisons rather than phylacteries, meaning breaking them could set loose an unspeakable evil.

Presently, various factions are vying for control of each piece, and most of them want to use it, as wearing even one of his artifacts gives you a measure of his power. An orcish sorcerer, equipped with just one piece, was able to wipe a spherical area several MILES in radius out of existence entirely (albeit only at the culmination of a long and complicated ritual). We don't know for sure why this particular BBEG wants the pieces, but given that he's already assassinated his way to power from "unwanted bastard son" to "respected senate member", I doubt he'd just seal it away and avoid using it's ludicrous power.

[Zanos]

Aside from the fact that this is a situation which looks like dm fiat to me (which it obviously is to a certain degree) have you considered just surrendering for know and let the druid bust you out of prison? Because depending on the legal system you are currently in the guards might just be doing their job and got tricked by the BBEG in which case killing them for convenience would be at least a neutral if not evil act (taking the shortcut to the BBEG with no mercy for those who stand in your way ... even if they don't know they are a tool for him and just do their job).

Think about it this way ... you are a guard and have to deal with murderhobo adventurers from time to time. One day you get this "fancy art piece" and information on a person (and a group) who is exactly this as far as you know. So you go and do your job to protect your city/family/town.
Do you feel like it's fair for this guard to get murdered by the group?

Now I might be wrong about this but from the sounds of what you described the guards are just doing their job and you could avoid a lot of drama if you just followed them and break out of prison later (for example). This way you can fullfill your mission without murdering innocent guards and after you brought down the BBEG people will understand your actions and cherish you for it .... if you killed the guards ... well .... not so much.

Now if your group would be evil and don't care for such things then ....
It's not Evil, it's just Non-Lawful, and probably neutral. The party was framed for the crime, so even calling it Chaotic is a stretch. Even in a party of paladins I wouldn't give anyone alignment hits for fighting back against an obviously corrupt and likely evil government who opens up their arrests by hitting everyone with dimensional anchors and cramming their fists in peoples mouths so they can't talk. Having Good on your alignment sheet is not a reason to let people walk all over you.

As for tactical advice, do you know how large the silence "field" is? The non-fiat silence spell is only a 20 foot radius, so you could probably just walk out of it and cast on your turn(s).

If the druid has some sort of spell that can screw with LoE, Silence is an emanation. If he finds the center of the effect and casts a solid BFC spell, it should allow you all to cast normally.

Also, the Alchemist should either have standing orders for the golem, as was mentioned earlier, or have at least one or two other people that can give it orders if he's disabled. Whenever I have servants that don't act on their own(undead, constructs) or are just jerks(devils, demons), giving them an alternate handler is generally smart. I suppose that's sort of hindsight and doesn't really help now, though.

[Killer Angel]

The Druid waits for the party to be locked up. He casts Burrow on himself, then Transmute Rock to Mud on the cell floor, then comes in and casts Burrow, Mass on the whole party. Everyone Bugs Bunnies their way to freedom.

The part about the "indestructible, magic-proof prison", shed some shadows on this plan.
And anyway, after the escape, they would be without their equipment.

[tzar1990]

It's not Evil, it's just Non-Lawful, and probably neutral. The party was framed for the crime, so even calling it Chaotic is a stretch. Even in a party of paladins I wouldn't give anyone alignment hits for fighting back against an obviously corrupt and likely evil government who opens up their arrests by hitting everyone with dimensional anchors and cramming their fists in peoples mouths so they can't talk. Having Good on your alignment sheet is not a reason to let people walk all over you.

Fortunately for us, none of the party is really good - the nicest person is the LN paladin, while myself and the Alchemist both tend a little towards chaos and evil (him more towards the lol!Random stuff, myself more towards the "murder and robbery are great ways to achieve your goals!")


As for tactical advice, do you know how large the silence "field" is? The non-fiat silence spell is only a 20 foot radius, so you could probably just walk out of it and cast on your turn(s).

If the druid has some sort of spell that can screw with LoE, Silence is an emanation. If he finds the center of the effect and casts a solid BFC spell, it should allow you all to cast normally.

The silence is probably only standard sized - it only got dropped on us as a response to the Wizard's attempt to use Cloudkill on the crowd of guards. Given that the guards felt the need to gag the Alchemist, I suspect he might actually be outside it, but I don't know for certain. Cutting off Line of Effect with something sounds like a good, clever idea to me, though! Do you know if Wall of Thorns blocks LoE?


Also, the Alchemist should either have standing orders for the golem, as was mentioned earlier, or have at least one or two other people that can give it orders if he's disabled. Whenever I have servants that don't act on their own(undead, constructs) or are just jerks(devils, demons), giving them an alternate handler is generally smart. I suppose that's sort of hindsight and doesn't really help now, though.

Unfortunately, the Alchemist just got his Golem this last session, so its only orders so far have been "follow me" and "row this boat when we tell you to". I suppose the cleric could function as an emergency backup handler, given that he knows the Calm Construct spell.