Need help with a captured villains humorous escape

GHammy26 · Jul 17, 2015

Hey guys,

I'm currently running a hugely modified hoard of the dragon queen campaign with my group and I need your help/suggestions for an idea I've had.

My group captured one of the mercenaries in the 'stragglers' section (via monk repeatedly punching him in the nuts). Once they had finished their interrogation they decided that the least evil option (3 good characters and 2 neutral) was to bury him up to his neck in the ground and give him a spoon in his mouth to dig himself out with.

They keep returning to this poor guy to feed/water him, gain more detailed information and just generally torture him.

E.g. he complained that there were bears about so they stuck a small bucket over his head leaving him in darkness and less room to dig...

Anyway, I feel sorry for the bloke so I was thinking he could actually escape using the spoon whilst they are away blundering around the dragon egg hatchery. I also had a thought that he could retire from the mercenary life (let’s face it... it's not gone well so far) and get his own tavern in Waterdeep or something...I need help fleshing this little story line out such as what the players will find when they inevitably come back to the 'camp' and ideas for the tavern name etc

Any ideas?

Thanks
G

Mishihari Lord · Jul 17, 2015

I dunno about "humorous," but here are the first couple of ideas that occurred to me

They return to find ...

1) A dead adolescent bear with human bite marks on its throat and a spoon in its mouth. The bear came over to eat him, but he spat the spoon into it's mouth and it started to choke to death. He bit and held on with his teeth while the bear backed away, pulling him out.

2) A faintly glowing spoon. Turns out it was a spoon of digging but noone ever checked it.

3) A strong smell of sulphur. He bargained his soul for release, and gained a level in warlock.

4) Just a hole. He went hungry long enough that he became skinny enough to wiggle out.

5) A big hole. He got vampired while stuck and the bucket kept the sun off. Eventually he became strong enough to simply burst out.

GHammy26 · Jul 17, 2015

I LOVE the bear idea! That fits well into my DM/campaign style as well (anything can randomly happen at any time).

Unfortunately for the other ideas they had already checked the spoon for magic, keep feeding him and had made sure he wasn't any sort of mage/fiend.

I'm still open to ideas but the bear one is my fave so far! Any ideas for a tavern name?

G

Quickleaf · Jul 17, 2015

Reports of a bucket-headed ghost circulate in the area. What happened was a kindly but mischievous gnome found the buried mercenary and dug him out. When the mercenary tried to cheat the gnome, to escape (and as a prank) the gnome put sovereign glue on the bucket before putting it back on the mercenary's head. The mercenary has been wandering around trying to find a way to get the bucket removed. Wearing ragged dirty clothes, his skin pale from lack of sun exposure, and the bucket glued to his head so his voice echoes in an eerie way, the mercenary is believed to be a ghost.

Voort · Jul 17, 2015

GHammy26 said:
I'm still open to ideas but the bear one is my fave so far! Any ideas for a tavern name?
G

The Hole Story

GHammy26 · Jul 20, 2015

How about 'The Lucky Ladle' ? been trying to think of a tavern name all weekend and this is the best I can come up with...

Any other ideas to how he escaped? Or pub names?

G

Unwise · Jul 20, 2015

A passing Paladin let the poor guy out after hearing a sob story from him. He is not the sharpest tool in the shed and has made oath to avenge the wrong done to the poor guy. An oath that cannot be broken.

Matt121975 · Jul 20, 2015

Tavern name "The upside down bucket"

To me if I was a PC that put the poor guy in the ground with a bucket on his head....I would most certainly check out a tavern by that name, and oh man the looks on there faces when they see him behind the bar.....AND instead of cups everyone drinks out of oversized spoons!

kalil · Jul 20, 2015

How disgusting. Just let him die. Next combat up the opposition 10 times. Capture the PCs. Spend the next session giving them absolutely impossible tests to try to escape or plead for their lives. Then execute them in a slow, painful and disgusting way. That is what I would do.

GHammy26 · Jul 20, 2015

Unwise said:
A passing Paladin let the poor guy out after hearing a sob story from him. He is not the sharpest tool in the shed and has made oath to avenge the wrong done to the poor guy. An oath that cannot be broken.

One of the characters is a Paladin of Torm, that isn't the 'brightest barrel in the fish' so it could be funny having a Paladin argument where neither makes any sense...
Sounds good, but the bear one is still winning though =P

Matt121975 said:
Tavern name "The upside down bucket"

To me if I was a PC that put the poor guy in the ground with a bucket on his head....I would most certainly check out a tavern by that name, and oh man the looks on there faces when they see him behind the bar.....AND instead of cups everyone drinks out of oversized spoons!

Good idea, if they find him missing then I know at least 2 of them would be curious enough to investigate this tavern. Good thinking batman!

kalil said:
How disgusting. Just let him die. Next combat up the opposition 10 times. Capture the PCs. Spend the next session giving them absolutely impossible tests to try to escape or plead for their lives. Then execute them in a slow, painful and disgusting way. That is what I would do.

I take it you dont DM much anymore... right?

Although if they get captured in the future, I could bury them in the same manner... I'd never put them into an unwinnable situation as railroading would just breed resentment and I like to keep things fun.