One-shot Prison-break; suggestions?

Chronosome said:

If you have any old Dungeon magazines lying around, look for issue #36(!). There's an adventure in there which is centered on a place called Granite Mountain Prison (ha -- you'll see why), and is one of the best I've ever run from the mag. I imagine it could be easily converted to 4e.

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I loved reading that adventure but never got a chance to play it. Its good to know it played well.

Another, more recent Dungeon adventure (still 3.5 though) involving a prison break (and infiltration) is "Chains of Blackmaw" by Nicholas Logue. Its in issue 135.

ffy said:

one thing to definitely think about is what to do with the partys magic user. is he bound and gagged and in a seperate cell, so that he couldnt break out by casting spells? maybe the guards are stupid as hell and dont realise its a magic user and thus leave him free to cast spells from behind bars?
because to me it seems that when the party is behind bars its a good time for the magic user to shine and look like a hero (as they care less about what armor or weapons they have in their posession), or to be quite useless (as without spells theres not much they can do in a fight), though ymmv.

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At this point, I don't even know IF there will be a magic-user. Of the three characters, I only know one of them, a Thief, and he's there for plot purposes to tie this one-shot into an older storyline (I can't stand doing actual one-shot adventures; everything must be part of a story).

I have thought about this, and it was my intent to make the guards just really stupid and ignorant if someone plays an implement user. In case of something like an Eladrin or teleporting Warlock, I can have them in a windowless cell so they have line of sight to precisely nothing. They can teleport around their cell all day long, but can't actually go anywhere.

I'd Dm'd a 3rd ed adventure called The dungeon of Kubla Khan, from troll lord games I think. If your up to converiting an adventure, My players had a terrific time with the Module.

Just a quick update.

The PCs have finished making characters. All are level 4 and will start with no equipment, for the most part.

Male Human Thief. Street Urchin. Imprisoned for inciting a riot to depose the local iron-fisted tyrant.

Female Changeling Pyromancer Mage. Fluffed as a human with a knack for simple disguise spells. Imprisoned for impersonating the local iron-fisted tyrant during the riots. She managed to smuggle her implement in with her - a Hellfire Cinder Wand fluffed as a magic ring.

Male Longtooth Shifter Paladin. Worships the mysterious Death deity (similar in aspect to the Raven Queen, i.e. not evil). He is fluffed as a human with an anger management problem. Imprisoned for grotesque acts of random violence.

After looking over several sources, I've decided to base the layout of the prison mostly on Shroomy's suggestion of Blackmaw Prison from Dungeon 135. The layout is closest to what I had in mind, though I will be changing some of the details.

The lower level just empties into a waste pit, rather than a mine. This prison is much more bleak than the one envisioned in Blackmaw. The prisoners do not get to leave their cells to work; they are left to rot. Sometimes they don't get fed. There is no laundry facility or much of a kitchen.

The prison itself is a repurposed temple from an ancient culture similar to the mayans or aztecs, and as such the outer shape is very pyramid-like, with a long stair leading up to the top (where the outbuildings are), the centre has a hollow shaft where the elevator has been rigged up, though there is also a long, winding stair that goes around the outside of the (now square) shaft.

The cell blocks are similar to that in the module, but only has one row of cells on a given wall, and instead has the second row directly beneath the first. There are stairs at the end of each cell block to gain access. Each cell on the upper level has a grated hole in the floor where the waste from the cell passes through to a hole in the cieling of the cell below, and on through another grated hole in the floor of that cell. That is, assuming nobody is using the hole at the time.

The cell waste holes all exit out into the main waste shaft in the central chamber of the prison complex. The end of the lower cell block halls, where they are closest to the centre have a grated passage leading back into the main waste shaft.

The prison is filthy, humid, and hot at all times, as it is located in the steaming rainforest in a warm subtropical region of the world.

Escape is possible either by fighting through the guards to the surface (more straightforward, but tougher fights), or via the waste pit (disgusting, and more like an old-school dungeon crawl with Traps, Oozes, Undead, and Vermin).

Skill Challenge and a scuffle or two for the initial escape, then a choice and some more fighting and / or exploring.

This is really starting to come together. Thanks again for the help, fellows.

I ran my prison break last night.

The players were able to escape, and they took the way I thought was harder - they fought their way out through wave after wave of guards. They took on a level 7 encounter, even after the Pyromancer had already blown his daily during the initial escape. Nobody even dropped, though the Paladin came pretty close. He was handing out temporary hp like candy though, and his longtooth shifter regen was helping keep him up, as was resist all (wis mod) after spending a surge (from Virtuous Recovery).

The Thief was consistently doing 20-something damage per hit, which was nice; everyone commented on the Thief's damage output. Consistent, and high without being overpowered.

The Pyro-Mage was throwing some nice damage around as well with her cinder wand (she smuggled it in *somehow* ), and got several critical hits in, typically 15-20 +1d8 +1d10, so that really helped as well.

The best part was that because they busted out that way, I still have an evening's worth of adventure for the next time we need to do a one-shot. I was actually hoping they would take the sewers, but I guess that will be for next time.

One more thing that I did was because everyone was without equipment, so as not to make them fall too far behind "expectations," I gave out two boons to each of them.

The Thief had Torog's Lament of the Shackled and Davros' Defensive Step, the Mage had her smuggled wand and also Primal Blessing of Fire, while the Paladin had two item-equivalent boons - one worked like a Cincture of the Dragon Spirit, and the other worked like a Belt of the Brawler.

Overall, we had a pretty good time. It was my first time DMing 4th edition (though I am a 20-year veteran GM with 2e, 3.x, Shadowrun, CoC, and Palladium) and I have to say that I thought it went pretty smoothly. Combat went decently quick, though that was probably at least partly due to only having 3 players, but we got through two at-level fights and one level +3 in the span of an evening, with roleplaying, a skill-challenge to break out, and collecting some spoils of victory.

My next actual campaign that I'll be starting in a few weeks will hopefully go as smoothly, though there will be twice the number of players. Thanks for reading, and comments (et cetera) are welcome.

Gajoides presses both fist together in front of his chest. His hair stands on end emitting small half inch red sparkles. His eyes wide with pupils fading in an out. "Dixsiok" Leaves his lips the sparkles lifting off his head flash red and his eyes glow red with anger. He scopes out the ground below his eyes now penetrate the mist of night and the undead show as red figures spread out across the field. Fixing his sight on a group of two hundred or so undead then starts a new incantation.

Robtheman said:

like the idea of giving boons. how did you rationalize it in game?

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I didn't, really. I picked things that I thought were fitting with the character's builds and theme so that it was "just part of them."

I ran the second session of this game last weekend. The players decided to finish exploring the temple after having released the prisoners.

They fell down a waste hole and into the sewage and offal. I hammed up the disgusting factor as much as I could.

They discovered an abandoned storage room where there were some barrels, two of which were still unspoiled (one was pickles, the other was some stout). They took their fill and for that I gave them all back a healing surge.

Moving along, they entered an area where the waste pit seemed to empty out into an older part of the temple, which turned out to be a catacomb from when the temple was still being built. Did I mention that it was a temple of the God of Death?

They got ambushed by an Otyugh and two Carrion Crawlers. Everyone got bloodied and the Thief dropped. He was rescued by the Paladin, however.

It was a short session, so that's as far as we got. They're about to do some poking around, I think, and discover an old reliquary with a powerful Mace for the Paladin waiting for them.

Fun stuff. Did the thief start with a light weapon? Or did he have to arrange to acquire one from one of the guards before he could start throwing out those 20 damage shots?

The pyromancer was kind enough to torch the guards (blew her daily and took out the first patrol pretty much single-handedly), and when the thief escaped in the chaos, he found several daggers on guard corpses. So, the first time he actually did any fighting, he already had a light blade.

The thief claimed a rapier (which he is not proficient in) from the corpse of the guard captain. He later recovered his old mundane short sword from the "evidence room" in the guard area, and he is about to discover something much better.