So in designing a prison similar to The Pit and the Pendulum, I accidentally made a mashup of that and the prison in the movie The Platform, where prisoners are housed centering a giant pit. Jumping down willy-nilly will kill them. Walls are solid stone. Doors are solid iron, but that can be changed. One barred window. This is our first session, and 3 players will start having been sentenced to death by pendulum. The goal is to escape any time between the beginning of the session and before the pendulum slices them in half. They will at one point be taken out of their cells by guards to be executed.
I want to give players the opportunity to make up solutions, but does anyone have any good ideas for hints I might be able to give to point them in the right direction? I was thinking, if I were playing, my first instinct would be that the pit is an exit, if they could land safely, or that the best option would be to knock the executioner before they are killed. Idk. Thoughts?
Well, the executioner might have a ring of featherfalling. But I wouldn't allow the pit to be an exit. Instead, I'd have a teleportation circle at the bottom, that transports anyone in it into a locked room in the prison - where a new, identical executioner (if they killed the original) will escort them back to their cell.
I'd make a single, designed exit. Like a door that opens only for the living executioner - and if he's about to get caught, he'll kill himself. Let them try and find a way around that.
Otherwise, if the players can secure a jump spell - or similar - maybe there's a way from the top of the prison onto some piping on the walls of the pit, and that way up and out onto the surface.
Also, I'd construct the rack - where the execution takes place - like this: The prisoner is strapped to the rack. The pendulum swings above, inching down. Below the rack is a hole straight to the bottom of the prison. At any time, the prisoner can pull a latch, and release themselves to fall into the pit, rather than be slowly killed by the pendulum. The choice of death - or death. Each time the pendulum completes a cycle, it'll drop by half an inch, with a clear thunk. I'd have the executioner point this out: "Hear that? That is the sound of inevitability."
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
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So in designing a prison similar to The Pit and the Pendulum, I accidentally made a mashup of that and the prison in the movie The Platform, where prisoners are housed centering a giant pit. Jumping down willy-nilly will kill them. Walls are solid stone. Doors are solid iron, but that can be changed. One barred window. This is our first session, and 3 players will start having been sentenced to death by pendulum. The goal is to escape any time between the beginning of the session and before the pendulum slices them in half. They will at one point be taken out of their cells by guards to be executed.
I want to give players the opportunity to make up solutions, but does anyone have any good ideas for hints I might be able to give to point them in the right direction? I was thinking, if I were playing, my first instinct would be that the pit is an exit, if they could land safely, or that the best option would be to knock the executioner before they are killed. Idk. Thoughts?
Well, the executioner might have a ring of featherfalling. But I wouldn't allow the pit to be an exit. Instead, I'd have a teleportation circle at the bottom, that transports anyone in it into a locked room in the prison - where a new, identical executioner (if they killed the original) will escort them back to their cell.
I'd make a single, designed exit. Like a door that opens only for the living executioner - and if he's about to get caught, he'll kill himself. Let them try and find a way around that.
Otherwise, if the players can secure a jump spell - or similar - maybe there's a way from the top of the prison onto some piping on the walls of the pit, and that way up and out onto the surface.
Also, I'd construct the rack - where the execution takes place - like this: The prisoner is strapped to the rack. The pendulum swings above, inching down. Below the rack is a hole straight to the bottom of the prison. At any time, the prisoner can pull a latch, and release themselves to fall into the pit, rather than be slowly killed by the pendulum. The choice of death - or death. Each time the pendulum completes a cycle, it'll drop by half an inch, with a clear thunk. I'd have the executioner point this out: "Hear that? That is the sound of inevitability."
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.