I've avoided this type of session for a long time, but I think I'm going to try to arrest, imprison and interrogate the PCs.
I imagine an introduction will help. The PCs recently landed in a frontier port city state, a boom town making its wealth from some inland mithral mines. The PCs did not know each other but through coincidence met all the prerequisites to complete a job for a local crime boss, who needed some "unknown faces". The job was completed, secret trade treaty were stole from a secret emissary of a merchantile noble family. Secret trade documents between the city state leader (from here forward, known as the The Magistrate) and the merchantile noble family, trade documents outlining the untaxed export of currently unknown adamantite from the mines. These documents in the wrong hands will lead to blackmail at best, war at worst.
Now, the Noble Emissary traveled to this post city under the excuse of a hunting expedition and it was the PCs, and several NPCs, that guided and served this Noble Emissary on his hunt. The Noble Emissary returned to the city, attended a second meeting with The Magistrate and found the documents missing.
Although the two plotters believe there is a small chance that the documents were pick pocketed in the morning before the hunt, or the evening of the return, the mountain of suspicion is on the 5 NPCs and 3 PCs that spent several days in the wilds with the Noble Emissary.
The Magistrate (lvl 7 Bard, LE) will now go to extreme lengths to retrieve those documents.
This is the general timeline I have prepared:
10PM: Hunting trip returned to port city.
11PM: Noble Emissary cleans up and goes to late night meeting with Magistrate to hash out small print and details.
12AM: Trade documents discovered missing.
1 AM: Damage control plan implemented. Agents sent to city gates and port, gathering info on any departures, scouting for the eight suspects.
2 AM: Guards dispatched to arrest NPC suspects in known locations, no PCs found by agents, At Large NPC is respected employ (bouncer, footman) at posh hotel(He will be arrested with as much tact as possible by Guard Captain). Magistrate and Wizard Aid (lvl 5) take rest.
3 AM: PCs plant evidence on At Large NPC.
4 AM: Magistrate and Wizard Aid awake (Rings / Ioun Stones of Sustenance), Spells for the day prepared (Scry, Detect Thoughts, Locate Object, Charm, Suggestion).
5 AM: PCs Scryed, Will Save to resist. Guards dispatched to arrest. Agents continue to look for those resisting scry.
6 AM: PC Arrest encounters, NPC At Large Arrest.
Haven't planned past here, here forward the PC actions steer the chain of events.
My question is, have you ever had a successful capture encounter? How did you do it? Have you ever had PCs on the receiving end of a magical interrogation? How did it go?
For the players, being found, or suspected as, guilty means a life in the gladiator pits or rowing galley, no one at the table wants that, so lets add up their assets.
Lvl 2 Ranger: Completely in the dark of the theft, was commissioned as hunt guide in the Noble Emissaries homeland. Antisocial and uncooperative character.
Lvl 2 Fighter: In the know, helped plant misleading evidence (writs that were in the Noble Emissaries luggage) on At Large NPC. Mercenary character that would rather talk or intimidate his way out of a fight than draw steel.
Lvl 2 Rogue: In the know, stole documents, delivered documents to Crime Boss. Planted stolen writs on At Large NPC which is sleeping in posh hotel employee quarters. Currently disguised as a out of town noble and staying in the posh hotel with the Fighter PC playing Footman. Low quality noble outfit was crafted in haste by a adept seamstress to get him into the posh hotel, any exerting physical activity or rough handling will quickly tear stitches and expose the outfit as a shoddy imitation. Character is a former orphan crawling his way out of poverty, compulsive liar and thief. Mistook by a servant during the night for one Lord Robin (NG), a Merchant Lord here with his family inspecting his legal trade endeavors.
Now that I've read that, it looks mean of me that the lvl 2 PCs are facing off against a lvl 7 on his home turf. Truth is I expected them to let the Noble Emissary come to an unfortunate end during the hunt and call it an 'accident'. That would have given them some more time, levels, and connections before drawing his attention.
Now I have to play this out and see what happens.
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The "crime boss" is actually the Master of spies for the Magistrate. He was auditing the PCs to check how good they truly are.
When they are captured, have them being brought to the Magistrate. He will ask them to come with him on the balcony above the marketplace.
There, the executioner prepares to execute the framed NPC who is clamoring his innocence. After the execution, the Magistrate will give them an offer : either work for him as deniable agents or meet a similar end.
Story continues ...
Alternately, if the PCs must not come to close to the Magistrate for the good of your stories, the Spymaster could take them out of the jail where they were placed with the framed NPC and then proceed as above. He could be loyal to the Magistrate or trying to take his place (and survive the attempt).
I've done capture's plenty of times. The important thing is, always plan how they escape ahead of time. If they can come up with something on their own, great, go with it. If not, then put your plan into action.
Last capture : Group of level 7 PCs are on a trade mission as bodyguards for a tiefling. He's got a personal body guard ( a large lizardfolk who carries everything) and a small pixie assistant who goes around invisible most of the time. They spend months traveling with him.
While in a very hard to enter land of barbarian elves, suddenly one day the local peacekeeper elves all swarm the party, using IUS blows to beat the party into submission (2-3 to one odds, party split up).
They awake to find themselves accused of stealing relics. Turns out the 'bodyguard' lizardfolk was the real boss of the expedition, and had hired the flamboyant bard Tiefling as a front man. The tiefling was as suprised as anyone.
The characters are beaten and tortured and spells cast on them to compel truth on where the lizardfolk is with the holy relics he stole. The whole trip was a pretense to steal holy relics from the elves.
I give the players 30 minutes in real life to figure out a way to escape. When none of them do, I have the pixie rogue begin paralyzing guards and the coup-de-grasing them when they are alone and unseen with her tiny rapier. She brings the keys into one of the cells, and frees the tiefling. He tosses the keys to one of the PCs, gives a jaunty salute, and then the duo take off.
The pixie and Tiefling go about setting fires and blowing up warehouses of oil to cover their escape, leaving the PCs plenty of confusion to cover their own escape.
EWHM, With the lvl 7 Bard Magistrate and lvl 5 Wizard Aid as the highest level casters in the inner circle, instant win, 100% confidence divination is off the table. Yes there are the churches with higher level clerics available, but they have a way of sticking their noses in politics and making power grabs. There is a independent lvl 11 wizard locally to, but he is a mercantile fellow, so again, letting out of house powers know they don't have their affairs in order is a act of desperation. It is one thing to give guards orders without explanations, powerful individuals is something else entirely. (The BBEB's power is limited by his need for discretion).
Following from this, the crime boss is at limited war with the Magistrate. Neither has the power to upset the others place yet, and open action is a gamble on who the neutral parties will back. The Magistrate is gutting the city for short term gain, undertaking high risk high gain endeavors that with eventually spell doom for the city. This does not sit well with the Crime Boss who is a long lived creature and is taking the long view on profit, making moves to create a crime empire.
The PCs, having only completed one job for the Crime Boss are disposable assets of questionable integrity. Should they run/escape the guards, his men can provide shelter and security, but he will not risk position to save them. He would maneuver to have them die before questioning if they did not make such a good first impression on him.
Black raven, I like your ideas but they work against the mood/theme I'm striving to create. I'm working to place the players between the LE bureaucracy of the Magistrate and the LE criminal organization of the Crime Boss. Let them pick a side or overthrow all the evil authorities. But you have inspired a very good idea.
'The Magistrate causally eyes the execution progressing in the square below. The two animal handlers are already hanging from the gallows, the pit fighter turned footman is being let from the barracks. The animal handlers, they knew nothing about the theft, they just drove the wagons, but their employer is in bed with Felix, Felix who controlled the docks in all but name... They make a good example, and they have no friends or family in position to cause a row. The footman, it would be a shame to see him hang, he is predictable and well liked, and well liked predictable men are easy to use.'
'Turning back to the strange southerners; his men told him two showed up on the same boat a week ago; the third, no gate or ship saw him enter, and he had already gave five different names. "I heard that your acquaintance below stood up and took a goblin arrow for you on the hunting expedition, such loyalty... Strange for a respected man like that to take up theft..."'
'"No rescue is coming for you, Felix does not have such loyalty for his men, an effect of living outside the law... But here, with me, under law, there is room for loyalty, even forgiveness for past misdeeds"'
mdt, the chaos of a burning city is always a blast in pathfinder/d&d. I was definitely banging my head against the wall for believable immersive last ditch escapes. The conversation above is one out. The other, well one character stole a book from a mage college in has back story and is still caring it around. I like the idea of a mage enforcer/custodian turning visible inside the cell as the interrogator steps out and saying "I really do not care about your well being, but you have stashed an item that I am quite invested in the return of."
Thanks everyone for the great input, keep it coming.
You are on the right track. One thing to remember is that evil isn't stupid. Sure, common criminals go to the gladiator pits, but if you show promise, you may be recruited. Most LE governments are going to have legal loopholes they can use to recruit promising criminals, and if the criminals turn out to not be worth the time, then you already have crimes pinned on them. Some times, you don't even need to have actually commited a crime to be a useful pawn. Like this
As for the capture, communicate. If you want the PCs to surrender, then make it crystal clear that the players are drastically outmatched. I have known too many players that will fight no matter what. If you want to make a fight of it, then use casters with incapacitating spells and subdual damage. Your vilians seem like fairly competent guys, and they know the PC capabilities. If they want the PCs captured, they will send enough force to do the job. Now if they want the PCs on the run and out of the city for some reason, then they would send just enough expendable mooks to scare the PCs into running.
Thanks for all the feedback. The characters broke under the overwhelming force of the Magistrates resources and the magical interrogation. They are now working for the Magistrate, "a few favors to repay past... misinformed misdeeds". And then the most unexpected turn of events, the LN Fighter returned to the crime boss with discretion to warn him that that they spilled the beans. I like how this campaign is shaping up.
Good to hear.
I've been on trial a couple of times myself. One was when I was playing a medusa from Savage Species on the road to redemption. It was another CN PC who had me arrested and even tried to sabotage the trial in my disfavor by using his psionic abilities to charm and compel false witnesses.
It's strange when the medusa isn't the that guy of the group...