high Lv defeat and prison escape

[Bobur]

Hi everyone

I could use some DM advice on something I have planned, so here we go:

The situation:
My Lv18 grp, I DM + a DM char which just comes along and helps every now and then
3.5e Dragonlance setting
Elf wizard, minotaur fighter, human dark knight (war cleric), my DM-PC is a gnome beguiler

the chapter of our current adventure takes place in an ogre city, ruled by A Titan/Demi-god ogre. They have enslaved elves and used them to produce a drug.
+ Our minotaur was sent by his deity to bring revenge to the ogres and elves who pray to him within the city (slaves and the poor)
We finally have destroyed the drug production, slain a vampire cleric and brought chaos and a revolt to the city.
After the last fight we teleported back to our hiding hole within the city walls and try to wait for nightfall, while the minotaur looks for his fellow believers (alone)

This is the time where the king moves out to finally stop this uprising and this grp of "heroes".
He is strong by himself if used RAW from the book, but I know my grp and do NOT want him do go down in 1 shot.
So I thought of something special:

I buff this guy as much as the city allows, no fancy items or spells beyond Lv5-6.
And then sent him out to meet the heroes. If the minotaur spends too much time outside, he might face him alone. The grp is kind of hard to track, but the king can win over the followers with his abilitys and charms, so its only a matter of time.

If faced in combat the titan has good chances of defeating them. Though the goal is not to kill them. They would wake up in the dungeon under the great arena.
This should serve as a set to work without magic or gear for a change. They can get most if back, but I want them to really hate this guy.
So they will be held in single cells, not enough food, no gear and an anti magic field of course. They will find out that the king wants to publicly kill at least the minoatur himself to regain the lost respect. The others might just be executed.

There could be other cruel punishments. Cutting of the elves' ears, giving him some of the drug...burning pages from his spell book. The cleric can undo most bodily harm later, but not right now.

I am trying to lay out some options aside from what they might think of:
Sewer escape - Dirty and dangerous
Arena - Just try to defeat the (now unbuffed) version of the king
Influence - They know a guy in the royal guard who MIGHT help them a bit, but not outride free them
The loot will not be complete, a good bunch of gold is gone and some items I wanted to get rid of. I am not sure where exactly these treasures will be placed or how to reach them yet though.

These are my thoughts so far. I have never done a high lv prison escape so I would like to get you thoughts and ideas on this.
I was also thinking about getting rid of my DM-PC, this might be a dramatic point to do so.

Thanks

[Eldariel]

If they are indeed high level, I think they'd be held a bit more securely. At the very least some "bugs"/tumors/whatever inside that make them open to influence even should they escape, and obviously antimagic manacles and such (lest it be impossible that they be kept in the first place). The demigod should make it so they have something beyond just their lives to lose should the try to escape. Or perhaps some Mindrape ceremony or such. Instilled Suggestions, Geas, etc. Nasty stuff you can do to someone who comes under your power. Perhaps trap someone's soul just to be safe and keep it in your pocket. A mini-campaign of reacquiring it could be fun (and the threat of "Don't move or I break your friend's soulstone!" is awesome).

[Bobur]

@Eldariel:
The city is rather low in magic, so 1 cell with anti magic is reserved for the mighty. ^^ Massive chains of course to hold the strongest (Its an ogre city after all)

The drug the ogres produced is highly addictive. That would be great irony to wake up craving for it, just after you destroyed the factory.
Sounds great. ^^
And since its a magical drug it would work only outside the anti magic field of the cell...how evil.

As for options: Sneaking or brute force. Influence or challenge... they could even try to ally with the titan - which migt be surprisingly easy.

The items... maybe during combat in the arena they can try to gather informations from other fighters... or whatever they can come up with to get an idea where they are. Likely in the royal treasure chamber or the weapons chamber.

The problem is that my DM-PC would be ideal to solve all this alone, which is also a reason why I want to remove her. It is rather exhausting playing your own character together with all enemys.
She is an alchemist/beguiler so she might actually be willing to work for the titan and maybe produce another drug. ^^ The result would be that she gets seperated from the group.