What to do with a captured PC...

[Maerdwyn]

Yeah, there was some confusion about that, but taken care of with rule 0 in earlier sessioms. IMC, at least, it make you move faster as long as it is your muscles that are causing the motion. So, you walk/run faster, fly faster if you've got wings, but not if you re flying using the fly spell.

 

[alsih2o]

makes lots of sense to me

 

[the Jester]

Never rescue a pc from his own stupidity.

 

[Numion]

actually, i don't think haste makes you fly faster....i could be very wrong here but it makes you move faster, not necessarily in every form of movement tho....reading it here i think there is room for more than 1 interpretation

Couldn't the mount use the extra partial action each round for a move action? And wouldn't it then move faster?

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Kill Him

Kill him, Kill him, Kill him. But Roleplay it out. A little. He's a prisoner, bound and gagged and caged (because they know he's a druid and what he can do). The orc chieftan talks to him for a few minutes, then executes him.

Of course, that's not the end of all things for most PCs, so you can have the party find his body and raise him from the dead.

I had a similar situation in my campaign. The party's elven archer surrendered to overwhemling odds when he was cornered away from the rest of the party, and was dragged before the big bad dragon that was at the heart of the adenture (the adventure as designed so the party would never actually meet the dragon, but things get screwed up every once in a while).

Anyway, in some cases I might have had the dragon dominate or charm the PC and turn him into a puppet, but elves are immune to enchantment, so that wasn't really an option. I was left with very few options that made any sense -- the most sensible thing to do was to kill him. So the dragon impaled him on a long claw and gave the body to it's tribe of Troglodyte servants to eat.

Of course, that left the party in the middle of a dungeon and the archer's player with nothing to play. I had set up the adventure with several lizard-humanoid types serving the dragon - Kobolds, Lizardfolk, and trogs, and the Lizardfolk were potential allies for the party, as they were not entirely happy with their service to the dragon.

I also needed to give the party some urgency in their efforts to retrieve the elf's body and get out of the dungeon. The rest of the party was already hiding in the Lizardfolk enclave, and one of the lizardfolk lieutenants had been present when the elf was killed, and was able to bring back a report to them of what had happened.

So, for urgency, the Lizardfolk told the party that Trogs, much like crocodiles, like their food a bit rotted. They would have taken the elf's body back to their camp and stuck him underwater, where he would soak and rot for a few days before they actually settled down to eat him. That gave the party a timeframe to work with, and some real hope that they wouldn't be taking back bags of Trog droppings to have clerics try to raise from the dead.

Then, to give the Archer a character to play, I had the Lizardman Lieutenant agree to act as a guide for the party -- in exchange for certain guarantees for the lizardfolk. The party managed to rescue the elf's waterlogged, rotted body, although the lizardman died in the attempt, and they were eventually able to bring the Elf back.

Anyway, now that my self-serving story is over, I'd say you might look for something along the same lines for the Druid's player to do while the party tries to recover the body and bring him back. There might be all sorts of possibilities, creatures that the party might meet out there that might make interesting temporary allies, with their own agendas, that the Druid's character could play while he's waiting for his character to we revived.

 

[Wicht]

I like Frostmarrow's suggestion. Make it a creature that prefers storing food alive (say a spider of unusual size). If you want to make things dramaic, have the orcs find the trail, just a little after the PCs find the trail, thus leading to a climactic, but winnable battle. Give the Druid a lowered Constitution if rescued to show the lasting effects of being severely poisoned for an extended length of time.

 

[StalkingBlue]

He knew the risk and ran it. He lost. Let the orcs kill him.

I am in no way a controversial GM - on the contrary. But if you fudge this situation, you will cheat your players out of the consistency of your world, and the druid player out of the consequences of his actions.

Will the orcs interrogate and torture the druid before they kill him? What will they do with the dead body? Depends on what they usually do with the druids they catch, and on why they are murdering them in the first place.

In your position, I'd do two things:

1. Before the next session, let the druid player know that his character is/will soon be dead so he can prepare a new character.
(If there's a chance of raising or resurrecting him, he'll still need an interim character to play, unless you give him an "orc traitor" to play similarly to what was suggested above.)

2. Early in the next session, briefly play out the druid's end. This can be either the end of the aerial capture scene, or a "wake-in-cage" scene with interrogation and murder. In either case, set the scene so that all players realise quickly that there will be no rescue option.
In order for this to work, the scene must be brief and harsh. Don't spend a great deal of game time on this; just make sure the way the druid goes out is remembered.

Good luck, and tell us what you settled on and how it went!

 

[Buttercup]

That druid should come down with an acute case of dead.

He knew the risks, and proceeded anyway. As others have said, if you fudge this one, you will have lost a great deal. Your players will think you're a pushover. The druid's player will learn that he can be as stupid & headstrong as he pleases, because there are no consequences. Your world will seem that much less real. These things add up to a very high price just to save a lousy druid.

I would contact the player before the next session and tell him to start working on a new character, then at the start of the next session I would briefly rp the demise of Mr. Druid.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I really want to make this a song...(think drunken sailor)

What do you do with a captured PC
What do you do with a captured PC

Depend on who has done the capturing.

Most times torture, just because the bad guys are EVIL. They don't care for information, they get pleasure from it. Once you are no fun any more, they eat you.

Okay, my disclaimer: I play an adult game, I do not go into details at the table but it is understood by my players that 'torture' for female characters means rape. Sometimes male characters. Again, it is not discussed or talked about at the table.

 

[alsih2o]

i am with the majority that he should die, but with a caveat.

several tough will saves to keep from giving up critical info on the party during hideous torture.