Prisoners - your input needed

[Ryltar]

Hi folks,

while designing the current adventure arc for my group, I've come to a point where I just draw blanks ... Maybe you can help me out with your ideas - any input would be most welcome.

The situation's this: The PCs, posing as inmates, will infiltrate a prison set in the plane of Carceri. After some hijinks, they will probably sneak into the prison ward with the most guards, as they are guessing (correctly) that the person they have come to rescue is held within.

Now, I need something to show them that this part of the prison is really "for the most dangerous criminals only". There won't be any guards on the inside of this ward - instead, each prisoner will be confined to his cell and held / silenced / (whatever seems appropriate) by magical means. The basic idea is, the PCs will walk through a series of rooms that each hold a captive in special confinement, until they reach the cell that they're looking for. The question is:

What kind of beings could they observe in the "other" holding cells? How could each of these creatures be held/restrained to prevent his/her/its abilities from working? Since this adventure is set in the planes, you can go all-out crazy.

Ideas thus far:

A demon with knowledge so terrible it cannot be allowed to resurface ... suspended in a tank of Styx water.

A deranged human wizard, chained to the wall in a zone of magical silence.

... Any more?

 

[Berandor]

Okay, you simply *must* include a humanoid male with an iron mask covering his facial features...

there's a lich held in a prison made of positive energy, flexible beams cutting off parts of his body and letting them reform.

Two beholder brethren, held in place by prongs, set across from each other, anti-magic eye forced open by steel beams.

A massively fat mind flayer, held in a cage too small for his girth, surrounded by a mass of fresh-to-spoiling brains, already half-mad from the constant temptation.

A young halfling sitting at a wooden table, playing with wooden toys, looking like naught is wrong.

A completely dark cell, seemingly empty, and yet "not".

A gaunt woman, her mouth sealed off with shapechanging magic, using a chicken-bone and her own blood to frantically scribble on the walls.

A demon lord, bound by a lucky baleful polymorph into the shapoe of a chicken, picking corns off the floor, hatefully staring at the PCs.

A succubus, hidden deep in the corner of her cell, sobbing: "They took my children!"

A marilith, each of her arms pinned to the wall by her own swords, her tail stretched taut and fastened to the other wall. She has a message carved into her chest in Abyssal: "Not Guilty"

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

A massive Troll surrounded by 1) a permanent ring of fire and 2) a circular trench of impassable width containing acid.

A bindfolded Medusa in a fully lit circular room walled with mirrors (mirrors on ceiling and floor as well).

Fire Giant whose body is encased in frozen water but whose head is above the freeze line.

Vampire locked in a room with regenerating Giant Ticks.

Vampire suspended from ceiling hanging over a myriad of sharpened wooden stakes.

 

[Ryltar]

Thanks that is awesome, both of you. Exactly what I needed.

 

[Cor Azer]

A young halfling sitting at a wooden table, playing with wooden toys, looking like naught is wrong.

Almost exactly what I thought of - a little girl in a simple pink dress with no obvious restraints. And make sure to describe her eyes watching the PCs pass her cell.