PC prison breakout strategy

[Tinalles]

I'm GM'ing a solo campaign, and my player (an elf druid) has landed herself in jail in Sevenarches (which outlaws elves, for reasons the reigning Oakstewards don't advertise). I'm pretty sure she's going to try to escape, rather than go through the process of getting tried, convicted, branded, and deported.

But I'm not sure what avenues are open to her. So I'll ask you all: how would YOU get out of this situation?

Assume the following:

You are locked up in a 10x10 subterranean room with no doors or windows. Prisoners, food, and so on are brought into the room via a rusty grate in the ceiling -- there's a ladder up top that was pulled up after. The grate is about 10 feet up, and locked (DC 30). Food is provided at 9 AM, 2 PM, and 7 PM -- generally your basic porridge, nourishing but dull, and served in wooden bowls with wooden spoons which are lowered down on a wooden tray attached to a rope. The tray is hauled back up again after you've taken your food, leaving the utensils with you. A wooden bucket of fresh water is provided each morning by the same method. There is a small hole (approx 5 inches diameter) in one corner of the cell for disposal of urine and feces, and you can hear running water from down below.

You have two bunks, consisting of planks affixed to the wall and supported at either end with chains. There is some straw strewn about the floor. The walls are stone masonry.

There are two guards on duty up top at all times, with shift changes every 6 hours (8 AM, 2 PM, 8 PM, 2 AM). They've mostly left you alone, though there's one jerk in the 8 PM shift who thought it would be funny to pee into your cell. The night shifts tend to be less attentive than the day shifts.

You've been told it may be a few days before your case is brought to the magistrate.

As for your resources:

You are an elven druid 8.
- Your gear was taken when you were captured.
- Your boar companion was captured, but isn't in the cell with you.
- Your captors know you're a druid, and have forced you to wear a chain shirt to disable your druid abilities.

Your cohort (human witch 6) is imprisioned with you.
- Her gear was taken.
- She has the hedge witch archetype.
- She has Cauldron, Healing, Evil Eye and Flight hexes.
- Her fox familiar was NOT captured, and may try to rejoin her.
- Your captors mistakenly believe your cohort is a wizard.

So, it's a pretty grim situation. The penalty for entering Sevenarches while elven is to be branded and deported (first offense). Subsequent offenses are punished via execution. This is a first offense.

Given all that, what would you do?

[CloakedInSmoke]

Assuming the witch's fox has some sort of polymorph spell, the witch casts disguise/alter self (or whatever) on herself and the druid, making each of them look like each other. The guards see the witch wearing the chain shirt and the druid not wearing any, so the guards come down and put the chain shirt "back" on the "druid". The witch keeps up the polymorph spells each time the guards come by until the druid regains his/her abilities, then works with the witch to bust open the grate, then wildshapes & levitates out.

Not a foolproof plan, of course, but it's my 2 cp.

[Azaelas Fayth]

Dot.

[Sesharan]

The druidess might entreat her (insert divine power source here) to allow her an exception in this one occasion, since she didn't exactly choose to put on the chain shirt. It's up to you on whether the deity or force or whatever would grant that request, but if she can't find another way out, I would at least consider it.

Alternatively, is there any reason they can't just remove the chain shirt while the guards aren't looking? If not, then spells become an option, and there's a whole lot of good things you can do from there.

For starters, an 8th level druid has access to 4th level spells. That opens up Control Water, which allows her to mess with the water that's flowing beneath them in all sorts of fun ways. There's also Vermin Shape II, which would let her turn into a Tiny rat and sneak her way past the guards- actually, she can probably do that even better with Wild Shape. For a much meaner escape, Contagion will weaken most of the guards and probably buy her a few days as the prison is thrown into chaos. If she does nothing else, she'll probably have enough spell slots to spread all nine diseases every day. And if a discreet disease delivery method is needed... Well, I've always liked Animal Messenger.

If none of that is an option, just jump down the.... shall we say "watering hole".

[Tinalles]

Both interesting suggestions. Swapping the chain shirt would work assuming they can pull the charade off for a full day -- the rules say that you lose your druid abilities for 24 hours after putting on prohibited armor. The druid is part of the Green Faith, and so doesn't have a specific patron to appeal to for an exception. Otherwise that would be a good idea.

I think the fox may attempt to rejoin them -- not guaranteed that he'll get in, of course, but foxes are pretty sneaky, and of course as a familiar he's much smarter than usual. In fact, I think I may offer the player the opportunity to PLAY the fox trying to get into the prison. That'll be fun. Wouldn't work in a standard game, but since there's only one player, why not?

Some things I've thought of include:

1) The druid has an unusually good Bluff score and might just try tricking the guards. Perhaps the classic "my cellmate is actually a werewolf, oh god, get me out before she bites me" gig. Though that could backfire.

2) The cohort still has a few spells prepped. I don't know what exactly, but the player might be able to figure something out with one of those.

3) The grate is rusty. It might be possible for the cohort to fly up and surreptitiously jam some straw or cloth into the latch to keep the lock from fully engaging. I am assuming the Flight hex is a spell-like ability (and hence no verbal or somatic components required), which would make it easier to do unobtrusively. Later, during the night watch, she can then fly up, open the grate, and lower a ladder or rope to the druid. The sticking point of this plan would be that although the witch has an unusually good Stealth score, she doesn't have any ranks in Disable Device, so she'd have to roll really well to pull it off.

[CWheezy]

Hexes are actually supernatural, which is why they don't provoke AoO!

[Brambleman]

Taking 20 on disable device is fairly common.