A duke probably has an impressive castle. Too impressive for a 4th level party; either they're going to need a lot of help to sneak in or break in, or the wizard is being kept somewhere more obscure. Trouble is, the castle really is the natural place to store an important wizard.
Perhaps the wizard is being forced to work on something like breaking open a tomb or other warded spot away from the duke's home. He's stuck at a door locked by a riddle. That gives you the steps of 1) find where the wizard has been sent (legwork, probably), 2) get there (maybe with an encounter with the duke's agents), 3) overpower the frustrated guards before they shove the wizard into the locked and warded door. Possibly 4) deal with the creatures released when the door is opened.
It would seem like the Duke would probably lock up the wizard in a big fortress, but that wouldn't exactly align with how much time you have. So, my idea is that the Duke is paranoid or afraid that someone is going to try and break her out of his well-known castle. So, he locks the wizard up in a remote underground room. First, your players would have to search for this dungeon, having to deal with some of the duke's henchmen along the way. Once they find it, and dealing with guards, they break in (maybe find a key off one of the lackeys) and rush to the bottom. Make it a small dungeon, with a big room at the end with the wizard in it. Then, have a boss battle with the duke, and maybe his honor guard or something. But the wizard is dead, and the tiefling sorcerer feels responsible, so then they feel like they have to take up whatever role that wizard had in life, or something like that, and leave.
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Do you have a wheelbarrow?
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OK - in all seriousness, you haven't provided what resources/assets the PC has.
He's a tiefling sorcerer. 4th level. What focus? What spells?
And the Duke?
Any other party members? A swashbuckling swordsman, perhaps with a Spanish accent, and a half-giant wrestler?
It can be a castle. However, there is the annual costume party in three days. PCs get a few days to prepare and research, and come in with the other guests. At the party, the PCs need to sneak off to the tower, while most of the guards are keeping the guests in the courtyard.
This does limit you to a single evening to do the rescue, but with preparation, should work.
/cevah
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Wizard couple be a prisoner of his own inquisitive nature. Kidnap Wizard and present him with a mystery like some ancient relic or machine from the lost ages.
Wizard doesn't even know he's a prisoner, only that he has this amazing mystery to solve.
Meanwhile evil Duke is all "yes....work away and soon my evil war machine will be fully operational"
Gives you this nice moment of
"Master we've come to rescue you."
"What...oh that's nice. Come over here boy tell me what you make of these runes, aren't they facinating"
"but we have to go the duke's men will be here any moment now."
"hmm... no no no, couldn't possibly leave just now I'm on the cusp of a breakthrough"
"what is it?"
"oh some sort of flying fortress capable of destroying nations I think. but look at these runes. At first they appear to be Thassalonian but they are in fact Estrakian. Most facinating"
The party has to frame the Duke so that the Duke is ordered to report to the king to explain his actions. While the Duke and entourage is traveling the party rescues KOW.
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Sorry, whenever I hear about an Evil Duke, I think of the Evil Duke from Gummi Bears.
Maybe a Duke aristo 4/fighter 4? With potions of bull strength? Should be pretty tough with lots of staying power from extra hit points from aristo levels. Maybe even Aristo 7/fighter 2?
Ogre mooks. (Or orc or bugbear?) Something with a low enough CR that the PCs can fight several of them at once.
mini-ogre (goblin?) rogue (?) assistant (built as defensive/aid another-type).
Lots of potions of jump
He's moving her to another location and the PCs got the intel. Have them ambush the tiny caravan that is transporting her: some chases, some interruptions from other groups after some merchant gold, she's stuck in some magical cage, the duke is summoned when it's opened or it was all a trap to get the PCs, and there's an epic fight near a cliff by the sea. She should probably the BBEG all along.
I like outdoor adventures.
I'm going to back the costume ball or remote dungeon location idea.
Since someone's already made a Princess Bride joke, the remote dungeon locale could, in fact, be an homage to the Pit of Despair (which is an excellent single-room encounter.)
The guard could be an albino troll (they're only CR 5, and it plays nicely with the sorcerer having burning hands.)
For added vengeful fun, the Duke could arrive just as the party is leaving. I'm a big fan of the idea of him having quite a few Aristocrat levels.
The wizard could appear to be dead (without the aid of magic or an very high Heal check), but it could turn out that he's only *mostly* dead.
But if the PC thinks he's dead, then the fight with the Duke could include... "HELLO! YOU KILLED MY MENTOR, PREPARE TO DIE!"
If you are going to pay homage to Princess Bride, you need R.O.U.S. [Rodents Of Unusual Size] as a random encounter. And the Duke has 6 fingers on his [left?] hand.
Miracle Max could be another encounter just short of the castle. He could be passing slowly by. When they leave, they encounter him again, and he can patch them up a bit.
/cevah
Maybe the troll can have a mechanism that has been stealing magic potential from the mentoring wizard.
The Duke and/or the albino troll can have some surprise spells stolen from the mentor.
Anyway the mentor could be a sorcerer? It might make more sense to steal power from someone whose power is innate as opposed to studied.
Not with ten-thousand men could you do this. It is folly.
Really - it's a question of: how easy/hard do you want it to be for the party to accomplish?
The Ragi's suggestion of attempting the rescue during a move is very do-able as they do not need to infiltrate a castle/dungeon. Or Gulthor's suggestion of your own version of The Pit of Despair, and subsequent Miracle Max resuscitation if desired.
In 2-3 sessions, just that much can be accomplished.
#1: find out that he is being moved, and perhaps the route;
#2: the ambush/rescue;
#3 (if needed): restoring the wizard to his normal self again.
I like the ambush outdoors scenario myself as it allows for a lot of avenues for escape if things go badly. And your setup can be very simple - just basic guards, who have no real vested interest in laying down their lives if attacked. They can fight, but won't stand to the last man to the death, unless you have a very important reason for them to do so.
No need to map out a dungeon or castle interior. (Unless you like that sort of thing for a one-off?)
And certainly do-able as an APL4.
Do the characters need to remain near 4th level by the end of this?
If not, consider making the endeavor a bit longer. Maybe the characters have to deal with some cronies, uncover some of his dealings elsewhere. Perhaps he runs goods on the black market and the characters can disrupt the trade. Try to think of how the Duke actually maintains his control, and then how the characters can investigate the various aspects.
Bit by bit they can learn the weaknesses of the castle, where the hidden entrances and exits are, the changing of the guard, etc. Maybe even the Duke travels away and thus provides the characters an opportunity to sneak in.
By the time they complete whatever you have in store, they not only will likely have a better understanding and therefore (hopefully) a better plan of action to get inside the keep, but they may be a few levels higher with more resources at their disposal.
That way it feels more like a rescue operation with intel gathering and the whole nine yards, and you can make the Duke more of a bastard since the characters will be able to take and dish out more hurt.
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Important questions
1: what level is the kindly old wizard supposed to be? Holding a 1-6 level wizard without knock, gaseous form or charm spells prepared? Not much of a problem. Holding a 7+ wizard (who can potentially dimension door or teleport)=a much bigger problem for the duke, not necessarily for you.
Here are a couple potential scenarios:
A. The duke wants to hold the wizard but thinks that his magic might be a problem. To prevent charm spells, he needs to use undead jailers or keep him imprisoned in an unhallowed area (protection from good would keep charm spells from working). To prevent dimension door/teleportation, he might need some kind of special location where teleportation is disrupted, use special materials, or simply dig a hole so deep that dimension door won't get the wizard out.
In this scenario, the special difficulties of imprisoning a wizard mean that he's not imprisoned in the duke's castle, but rather in something that is closer to a traditional dungeon somewhere else.
2. Why is the Duke imprisoning the kindly old wizard rather than simply killing him? In general, the reasons for imprisoning someone rather than killing them are moral. If the duke is a bad guy though, he probably isn't imprisoning the Duke because he has scruples about killing. That means he wants something from the KOW. Maybe he's forcing him to brew potions or scribe scrolls. Maybe he has powerful relatives/friends and is serving as a hostage and/or being protected by those relatives/friends (the guy who has your relative/friend in his power is someone you try not to anger; the guy who killed your relative/friend is someone you go out of your way to hurt). Maybe the duke needs him to translate something. Or something else. Either way, the reason that the Duke is imprisoning the KOW will change the circumstances of his captivity. If he's a hostage, he may be in a comfortable room under house arrest rather than in a dungeon. If the duke wants something from him, the Duke may have taken another hostage in order to compel the KOW to work for the Duke. (That is also an alternate explanation for "how do you imprison a wizard?" The wizard's door is unlocked but you tell him you will kill his friend/wife/child/whatever if he runs away... and make darn sure that the wizard can't find where you're holding the hostage).