D&D General Intelligent BBEG captured PCs, now what?

[Baldurs_Underdark]

In our previous session, the BBEG (Drow mage, INT 24, WIS 20, lawful evil, homebrew) captured the PCs (party of 4, all level 14, two spell-casters). They ran out of spells/HP and surrendered after they correctly didn't see an escape.

The BBEG could just kill them, but I don't want to end the campaign here. The campaign is too much fun, and also it feels wrong to kill the PCs after they surrender (even though they did the same to some of my NPCs ). So, the logical next step is that the BBEG will lock up the PCs in a jail... to be dealt with (or experimented on?) later.

We ended the session in a large room in the upper levels of the lair. The players haven't seen the jail/dungeons yet, so I have a lot of freedom to design the jail before next session (in 3 weeks). In my opinion this BBEG should be able to build a jail that they cannot escape from. But I want to give the players something to play for, so the PCs should have a chance to escape.

So, what could be a critical mistake in a jail where a very intelligent mage would lock up dangerous high level characters? I don't want it to look like this mage made a huge blunder.

All ideas are welcome. Feel like I cornered myself a little as DM here.

 

[Umbran]

Also, now is the perfect time to familiarize yourself with the term "Xanatos Gambit".

 

[Helldritch]

Also, now is the perfect time to familiarize yourself with the term "Xanatos Gambit".

That's one of the reasons I always leave loopholes that the players can find with magic, scouting, spying, blackmailing or bribing some of the vilain's underling. It is not necessarily easy to do and a good deal of effort must undertaken. But the possibilities are there. But once in the situation described by the OP.... though luck.

Ransom is possible only if the players have an history of doing the same (or obviously have people ready to pay for them). But if they are murder hobos... A vilain would not take chances.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

I’m going to echo the idea of the BBEG using the PC’s for some task that the BBEG can’t be seen involved in. I’ll add this however: The characters are all poisoned by a special type of poison that will kill the characters in a matter of days. The characters must complete this mission before time runs out or they are literally turned inside out by the poison. Of course, only the BBEG has the antidote.

 

[CAFRedblade]

Have the BBEG win, progress his plans, give the party the chance to escape, but after 5-10 years of being imprisoned. The world has changed with their failure. The BBEG has moved on from the base where they were imprisoned, and has more/new plans/next step, but they can clear the old base out of secondary guards/hired help, and recover (most?) their items.

 

[GMMichael]

INT 24? That's smarter than anyone on these forums, except maybe Lanefan. So the BBEG keeps the PCs in captivity long enough for them to hate the taste of rat meat, and then lets them go. No explanation, no apology. The real reason is one that's convenient for you, and the BBEG, that presents itself in a future session. Even though you don't know the reason yet, your NPC does, and it's really smart.

Or the BBEG reveals herself to be an ally, and her goal was to show the PCs their weaknesses.

Moral dilemmas are always good...

Or the PCs shrink when placed in their oddly-growing cell. The jailor frees them on good terms, and they escape to (eventually) discover they're in a doll-house version of the real world. That explains why the NPCs are usually nameless and don't have much to say...

 

[Guest 6801328]

He puts them in suspended animation (imprisonment, maybe) and they are accidentally released by another adventuring party 1,000 years later, after the BBEG is long dead.

THIS. What a great premise for a campaign. Especially if, in the ensuing thousand years technology is developed, magic is forgotten, and there's some kind of apocalyptic event.

Think Mad Max, where you are the ONLY spellcasters.

EDIT: And maybe there's some inherent paradox about mixing technology and magic, so all these strange new devices are completely incomprehensible to spellcasting classes.

P.S. This is reminding me of a "What if..." comic by Marvel in which Conan finds himself in 20th century NYC, and while robbing the Metropolitan Museum (because of course he would) he gets into a fight with Captain America.

 

[Arvok]

There are plenty of good options here already, but if you need an idea to buy you time while you flesh out the details for that:

The drow mage uses a home-brew, higher-level dream spell while the PCs are asleep. He shapes the shared dream of all the PCs (part of the reason why the spell needs to be a home-brew, higher-level version) to let them think they've escaped. He can then test out his various theories about what might happen if he allows the PCs to continue to live (and maybe if he sets them free/makes a deal). It's even possible that the PCs might believe they come out of the dream but are actually in a dream-within-a-dream. The danger is that this could seriously frustrate your players.

See the movie Inception for ideas/inspiration.

 

[Richards]

For that matter, maybe they're already in a shared dream...they never actually fought the drow, never got captured, but in the dreamscape (which seems perfectly real to the PCs) the drow offers to free them if they'll only betray their country/masters/allies/whoever, and it's the country/masters/allies/whoever who have placed the PCs in this dreamscape, just to see how they'll react. (It's a loyalty test, basically.) Of course, that undoes the combat of the previous session (as it was all just a dream), which might tick off the players, but it's a potential "reset" button to get you out of a tight corner in the campaign. And you certainly wouldn't want to go to this well too often (this once would probably be the only time), but it would be a way to foster some distrust between the PCs and those they work for (assuming they do in fact work for someone, otherwise this concept doesn't really work that well).

Johnathan

 

[Imaculata]

They have to do a job for him of course!