Half of Party Captured, what's a DM to do?

[Cloudgatherer]

Note: I strongly suggest my players do not read this....

Of 5 party members, 3 were captured last session.

Human Fighter11 (captured)
Elven Cleric11 (captured)
Human Ftr10 (captured, bard's cohort)
Human Bard11
Elven Rogue11

I designed the attack to be a retributive strike by an organization the party has foiled several times. The party wasn't "flat out surprised" by their attackers, as they inquired to potential jobs with an individual they were caring for early the same day. The bard even commented on how they were "heavily armed woodcutters".

Now here is my dilemma. I had intended the fight to go one way or the other: the party is captured, or the party is not captured. Instead, the elven rogue managed to escape, and the bard had dimension door, so he escaped as well (the attackers had knowledge of their combat abilities from previous encounters, dimension door was a recently chosen spell for the bard).

***Spoilers below, players have been warned***

An especially evil and intelligent wizard was behind the attack. He sent his minions (7 people, the highest level of which was a 9th level sorcerer, 9th level fighter) armed with the right spells and tactics to take the party prisoner and contact him when this was done. The minions captured 3 of the 5 party members, and said wizard transported these party members away (magically).

Meanwhile, the remaining party members summoned the city guard surrounded the house and find their companions gone. Now the remaining party members seek to find their lost friends.

If the entire party were to be captured, the wizard was going to use them (dominate person) towards his own ends as well as take only a couple key items from the party. The party would eventually be freed by an NPC they have worked with in the past, and have done several favors for (who would return the favor in this instance). If the party were to defeat the enemies, then they would have learned some valuable info regarding who attacked them and possible evil plans.

Since I have a kind of hybrid, I'm looking for some suggestions on how to quickly put the party back together. The capture events happend at the end of the last gaming session, any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Crothian]

I have a few suggestions. Have the two party members higher some NPC (allow the captured people to play the NPCs) to rescue their campaions.

Or, have the captured people be dominated but freed with the intention of capturing the other two. You'll need to have the three captured people be able to play a dominated PC but it could be a lot of fun if your group can handle that.

 

[Sodalis]

just a few quik questions:

An especially evil and intelligent wizard was behind the attack. He sent his minions (7 people, the highest level of which was a 9th level sorcerer, 9th level fighter

by that, do you mean a sorc9/ftr9? or a lvl 9 sorc and a lvl 9 ftr?

becasue if you were pitting them against a lvl 18 ftr/sorc? the party is toast.

The party would eventually be freed by an NPC they have worked with in the past, and have done several favors for (who would return the favor in this instance).

is this an NPC without stats that can pretty much do whatever he wants? or is he mapped out in the case of stats and skills and spells? i find that these NPCs are the most annoying. If you are so powerful, why then have adventurers do these so-called world-saving tasks?

Anyhoo- what i woul do is have them receive news of what happened to their friends, and hire NPCs (for the captured people) and have them go and capture someone from the evil group. ten you can negotiate a trade, with thier ally to back them up. Have the two uber NPCs (good and evil) stare down each other and know that they are both equally powerful- and so none wants to initiate an attack. the trade is successfula nd they both leave.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Here's an option if you can get the captured guys to play along.

Get the NPC to help the free PCs mount a rescue attempt. They invade the evil guy's stronghold. The captured PCs have, in fact, been mentally dominated somehow, but the rescuers don't know it. They battle past some seemingly appropriate resistance to the holding cells. They free and re-equip their buddies.

The captured guys tell the rescue team that they expect a guard change soon. They can avoid the guards and get to the bad guy by taking a secret passage down the hall. One of the captured PCs "saw the bad guy using it" when they thought the PC was still unconscious from the abduction.

Everyone hopefully goes through the secret tunnel. It leads to a trap of some sort. Force Cage, another cell, net trap, something nonlethal. The bad guy then comes in and releases the mind control so he can gloat over how the PCs led their own rescuers into a trap. (I know an evil overlord should never do this, but they always do.) You can then have the bad guy just set them free by setting up some horrible thing that will happen if they don't do as he wishes. (some other hostage gets killed, horrible summoning doesn't get stopped, you know the drill)

Now you have the party back together and completely under player control. They could have learned the important details you want during the whole trip or from the bad guy's monologue.

If they decide to actually fight through the guard change, let them. For a few rounds, the rescued fight against the rescuers. Then they all make their saves against attacking their friends. Everybody escapes together. They steal/interrogate/torture the info you want them to have from someone.

Either way, everybody is back together and the plot moves on.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

by that, do you mean a sorc9/ftr9? or a lvl 9 sorc and a lvl 9 ftr?

I mean one was an elven sorcerer 9th level, and another was a 9th level dwarven fighter. And if you want the complete breakdown of the attackers....

9th level elven sor
9th level dwarven Ftr
8th level human Rog (two of these)
6th level human Clr (three of these)

is this an NPC without stats that can pretty much do whatever he wants? or is he mapped out in the case of stats and skills and spells? i find that these NPCs are the most annoying. If you are so powerful, why then have adventurers do these so-called world-saving tasks?

The NPC who would have freed the captured party is completely mapped out. He's been an ally to the party in the past, so I have him worked out. Essentially, I planned for him to save the party after a couple months. The time passes to allow the party a glimpse of their enemy, give the NPC time to figure out what happend, and allow the NPC to formulate the plan to free them (magic circle against evil -> no mind affecting spells in 10' radius).

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll field more questions and appreciate more feedback!

 

[reapersaurus]

I agree with Sodalis:
The too-powerful wizard taking them hostage bit combined with the NPC that come and saves them smacks of bad gaming (to me)

This storyline doesn't make much sense, either (what you've gotten across)

Let me sum up:
You have a powerful wizard create an ambush based on lots of knowledge of the party's abilities.
He goes thru all this work simply to enslave them.
To what end?
Oh - and he'll take a few of the 'key items of the party.'

Then after a DM-determined length of time (note, no player control of the situation at all), you'll let them escape by the use of an NPC.

[facetious] you DO have players in the game, right?
Why are you the only one doing any gaming? [/facetious]

 

[Cloudgatherer]

I agree with Sodalis:
The too-powerful wizard taking them hostage bit combined with the NPC that come and saves them smacks of bad gaming (to me)

He did not take them hostage, the team I outlined in my previous post did. I planned for 1) party is taken hostage, and 2) party beats the strike team. Honestly, it could have gone either way. I know it takes only one crit from the party's main fighter to drop a most of those NPCs.

This storyline doesn't make much sense, either (what you've gotten across)

Well, the party has foiled the wizard in the past, effectively in some cases. Said wizard sends a strike team after party to capture them and use them towards his own ends (as well as 2 additional reasons, one the wizard knows and one he has just discovered).

If the party is captured, they gain information but commit some terrible deeds (under control).

If the party defeats the captors, then they will (probably) find out who attacked them and why. Each can lead to a (different) adventure.

Clearer? If you want the full version, you can check out the story hour. Don't know when the last adventure (the one where half the party is capture) will be up, but the rest is there.

 

[Cold Beer]

Half the party's captured, what's a DM to do?

Make them toil in the Pits of Zargon!!!

 

[Pyske]

[...]The bad guy then comes in and releases the mind control so he can gloat over how the PCs led their own rescuers into a trap. (I know an evil overlord should never do this, but they always do.) You can then have the bad guy just set them free by setting up some horrible thing that will happen if they don't do as he wishes.

I liked Greatwyrm's idea, but wanted to offer an alternative to the quoted section. Leave the PCs charmed, but while the enemy wizard is in the middle of explaining to the non-charmed PCs, a rival wizard attacks! Explosions (fireballs) rock the fortress, and the wizard is forced to go deal with the attack. The charmed PCs are the wizard's friends, so they want to help him defend the keep, while the non-charmed PCs need to get them away from the wizard long enough for the charm spell to wear off. Conflicts of interest can be fun, and since you use charm, the current PCs are all still friends of each other and can help each other. Add to the tension by having them almost run into the wizard several times in the melee, but he is always distracted away from telling the charmed PCs what to do.

. . . . . . . -- Eric

 

[Hand of Evil]

Don't change your plans. I say hunt down or trap the two that got away. It puts the group back together and you can still do as you planed.

A simple note telling them to meet a contact in the graveyard at midnight and don't tell the guard, will set up everything. The players then could contact the 'hero NPC' that comes to their aid and even set up something.

Now for the ones waiting around for help, torture them. This is a defining moment.