Okay, here's the set-up: My bard served a brief tour of duty on the First World which encompassed some pretty nasty stuff happening, and miraculously escaped with her mind intact. She returned "home" to find herself displaced in time by three and a half weeks, during which a certain tyrant had installed himself as the leader of a state in the River Kingdoms. Her friend the diviner informed her that following her disappearance her lover was captured and has been subjected to systematic physical and mental abuse, likely aimed at bringing him over to the dark side. Short term goal of those involved is to bring my bard out of hiding and kill her, or, if she doesn't, send him to kill her once he's completely broken. Long term goal, use him to keep dissent violently, artificially low.
Last session, overwhelmed by grief and panic, she agreed to help an NPC break into the dungeon where he's being kept with the intention of ending her lover's suffering. After a few nights of agonizing over it as a player, I have remembered that my character is "chaotic stupid" good aligned, and she really does love the boy.
Currently my ally is a diviner of incredible intelligence, and... diddly and squat. She has been set up by more obvious bad dudes in the past, and even though she and the mage are scrambling at stale breadcrumbs like starved mice, she doesn't trust the NPC that's sending her down there further than she can reliably toss him. My bard is built around enchantments, has very few offensive spells, and her third levels are both debuffs, which may keep her alive, but not necessarily her lover. If charm person can work against his awesome saves (and any equipment or charm that they have already put on him in anticipation of this move) that's my best shot of getting him out of it alive.
Yeah, just... gosh. I need help with this one.
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You're a bard.
This is a basic heist scenario. Stealth and subterfuge are your friends. Do the guards wear a distinctive uniform?
Step one - Kidnap a mid-ranking guard. Use your diviner friend to "Detect Thoughts" while you interrogate him on everything he knows about the prison.
Step two - Then it's a matter of disguise self. Walk in like you should be there.
Step three - Fake a "Prisoner transfer". Alternatively knock out a guard, and pull the old switcheroo.
Step four - Leave with the shift change, and ride back to safety.
Good luck.
Aaah, I should have enumerated:
The setting is Pitax.
The tyrant is Castrucio Irovetti, and her opponents are all higher level bards with access to more money and magic than my character can imagine. Irovetti is slightly paranoid about people using magic in the city right now, and he has plenty of reason to fear the interference of unaffiliated bards.
The guards are in fact his wardens.
There's no place this particular prisoner is going to be transferred to other than straight to Irovetti's throne room to take his oath of office.
And there is no safety. My bard escaped the First World and returned to Silent Hill, for all intents and purposes.
Just want to thank people for the advice, but, there won't be any saving this inquisitor. Not sure how exactly, whether it was false memories or a real fault in his personality cleverly suppressed with a geas or quest, but the inquisitor willingly accepted the Prince of Hell as his personal lord and savior. So, in the interest of saving the "criminals" in Pitax from an really pretty monster, we're looking to put down boy down now.
Which campaign or adventure/module is this?
@ Bellona: Not an AP. It's a one-shot solo social campaign set in Pitax pre-Kingmaker which is a creation of my awesome husband. Some of the main enemies are the same, but it's quickly becoming centered around inspiring a revolution and the eventual overthrow of an "evil" tyrant rather than whatever the real goal of Kingmaker is, although there is a strong fey presence in my campaign as well.
The cool thing about being a bard and a wizard is you have access to more illusion/disguise magic than you can shake a stick at. I'm guessing that gives you relatively free movement throughout urban areas as long as you don't get too ambitious. Nondetection and spell immunity (scry) are going to be good investments.
Other cool thing going on is that your enemies are wealthy court noble types. That means they have things. Expensive things. Things they will miss. Armies to feed and equip. Payroll to make.
Forget direct confrontation. That will only end poorly. Because they have armies and axes and stuff. Try igniting (and exploding) a couple mills. Preferably near an estate. Despoil crops. Burn houses. Summon (or illusionary summon) celestial beings to wreak havoc. Ambush gold transports and spread the wealth throughout the poor districts. You see where I'm going here. With your gather information and knowledge checks (bard powa!) and the diviner...divining all of this should be easy to learn about and plan.
Seeing the higher ups rendered powerless to stop you from causing all kinds of problems (and growing hungry as the the same higher ups rob the poor to replace the foodstuffs you keep destroying/taking) will give the people more ideas.
You don't win this fight with a bard and a wizard. You win this fight with a bard, a wizard, and five thousand annoyed commoners (that you've been regularly supporting through stolen goods and bribes).
The inquisitor you can still save, but that's going to require atonement, wish, or a pretty obscene diplomacy check. As in later. For now stick with demonstrating that he can't touch you with all the power he has.
All of this is going to infuriate the tyrant. Angry people do things. Silly things. Idiotic things. That weaken them even further.
Guerilla uprising campaigns are fun, too :)
oh yes. In the decade or so between this moment in this campaign and the time my PC in kingmaker shows herself in Pitax, I will be having a lot of fun. The current plan is to infiltrate the underground, and establish an information network, biding time and investigating who really needs to "get got" and will do the most amount of damage to the establishment with the least negative impact on the people.
until things are settled and the gestapo aren't about tracking down anyone using magic, however, I have to lay extremely low.
Rather than being a Robin Hood figure, I'm going to study how peasant and populace uprisings succeeded and failed in history and try to create an charismatic figure that will inspire such things in Pitax, because honestly, the trade houses are as large a threats to the liberty and prosperity of the people as the king himself.
I was actually thinking about having Thais take a leisurely stroll through the Square of Man some morning, but... we'll see how that works out. Player knowledge is not character knowledge, and court bards are not as good at knowledge checks as the standard bard.