What do people in your Mythras settings do to imprison powerful magic users?

[Thot]

I have a game world with a pretty high level of magical activity, I would say, with all five magic systems from the Mythras rulebook.

Consequently, there are also authorities who need to imprison magic users of all types. With Portal being a commonly known spell, escape from prison seems to be a very common issue.

 

So far I have come up with the following solutions that authorities might use to prevent this:

• Have a guard with some anti-magic stand by at all times, to negate any magical escape attempts.

• Have a spirit who can do that, as a "protection" spirit that protects the concept of the prison.

• Use the sorcery spell Imprison which, I have ruled, also works against all kinds of travelling magic. 

• Use the sorcery spell "reduce Mana" to deprive the prisoner of his magic points, at least partially.

What methods for magical imprisonment have you come up in your campaigns?

[lawrence.whitaker]

Drugs.

Soporifics to keep the magician sedated or too woozy/spaced-out to cast effectively, coupled with effective restraints for hands and tongue. 

[Raleel]

a variant of switch body that works for crippled/mute sorcerers and traps the uneducated sorcerer in that body.

long duration transmogrify to stone via ritual

 

[Matt_E]

Use Passive Possession by a spirit that constantly shrieks (or sings Britney Spears tunes, or whatever).  Treat as a form of ongoing Miasma that combines aspects of the spells Befuddle and Demoralize.  After a suitable amount of time, the victim develops the Passion Madness.  This nefarious treatment combines punishment (torture, really) and restraint.  They might kinda like Loz's narcotics...but they won't like this.

 

[Bill the barbarian]

1 hour ago, Matt_E said:

Use Passive Possession by a spirit that constantly shrieks (or sings Britney Spears tunes, or whatever).  Treat as a form of ongoing Miasma that combines aspects of the spells Befuddle and Demoralize.  After a suitable amount of time, the victim develops the Passion Madness.  This nefarious treatment combines punishment (torture, really) and restraint.  They might kinda like Loz's narcotics...but they won't like this.

 

You sir, are evil!

[Thot]

17 hours ago, Raleel said:

[...]long duration transmogrify to stone via ritual

Obvious, yet I had overlooked it! Thanks!

[Thot]

16 hours ago, Matt_E said:

Use Passive Possession by a spirit that constantly shrieks (or sings Britney Spears tunes, or whatever).  Treat as a form of ongoing Miasma that combines aspects of the spells Befuddle and Demoralize.  After a suitable amount of time, the victim develops the Passion Madness.  This nefarious treatment combines punishment (torture, really) and restraint.  They might kinda like Loz's narcotics...but they won't like this.

 

For punishing the most evil (by the rulers' definition) people! Thanks for this idea!

[Thot]

On 6/27/2019 at 8:14 PM, lawrence.whitaker said:

Drugs.

Soporifics to keep the magician sedated or too woozy/spaced-out to cast effectively, coupled with effective restraints for hands and tongue. 

A bit outside the box, but it makes sense... I've added a plant to my setting whose sap eats away the drinker's magic points. Thanks!

Edited June 29, 2019 by Thot

[Matt_E]

On 6/27/2019 at 7:44 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

You sir, are evil!

Thanks for that.  I do have a reputation to uphold.

[Bill the barbarian]

11 minutes ago, Matt_E said:

Thanks for that.  I do have a reputation to uphold.

Upon meeting a skull in a new forum, i try my best to keep my manners impeccable. It was the least I could do.

Cheers

[g33k]

Also you could setting-fiat some magical material that blocks magic, cannot be Gated-past or teleported-through.

Herbalists brew up something you soak cloth in, magesmiths create special metal bars, etc.

[Sean_RDP]

On 6/29/2019 at 8:06 PM, g33k said:

Also you could setting-fiat some magical material that blocks magic, cannot be Gated-past or teleported-through.

Herbalists brew up something you soak cloth in, magesmiths create special metal bars, etc.

Something like Cold Iron that makes magic difficult or impossible. Put a cold iron spike through their hands or cold iron chains. Maybe a rock of pure cold iron on a chain around their neck like kryptonite. 

[Sean_RDP]

OR you could take from say, the Wheel of Time and have other magicians "still" the user, cutting them off from their magic. /shrug

[lawrence.whitaker]

The Lyonesse RPG, coming next year, has some incredibly fiendish ways of imprisoning powerful magicians - assuming you are a powerful magician yourself, and command the right sandestins. If you're familiar with the Lyonesse stories, then the fate of Twitten of Twitten's Corner, or Sartzanek, who killed several wizards, can be easily replicated within the game (assuming you're a magician of course. And on the right side of Murgen).

[Opiyel]

Generally in my settings, I've had it to where different kingdoms have cabals of magehunters that use alchemical items to hinder, detain, and if need be, murder errant mages. I've made items like a mage smokebomb that causes wizard's magic to cease unless the mage uses their own life force (HP) to cast. I've also made blue paint that, if painted with the right sigils on a mage, can block their magic for a time. Generally until the paint wears off after a few days. Usually, I find that it would be cheaper for most mages to be killed because they would be considered too dangerous to live, but I imagine one with useful spells or info could be turned to stone for later usage. I remember in D&D, I had a civilization that turned errant mages into stone, then would stone shape them into discs for storage. Or, animate them into stone guards.

[Alex Greene]

Something in the walls of the cells could block any sort of powers which reach through it, or restrict the ability of magic to work at range.

One possible idea is a sorcery spell, Enchant (Prison), which enchants a room, turning it into a cell which stops all magic. One way of setting it up is runes in the walls, door, floor and ceiling which conveys the Neutralising Chaos feature (The Sacred Text, p. 275).

It's a permanent effect, so it could be fuelled by the magicians themselves - every two Magic Points they regain, the cell drains them of one, and they wake up short one Magic Point every day, no matter how high their POW. A component of the runes which make up the prison enchantment is a fatigue level's worth of blood from a convict condemned to death. This replaces the permanent Magic Points cost.

Of course, nothing prevents the sorcerer from using their mundane skills (Lockpicking, Mechanisms, Influence, Insight, BRAWN (with or without Enhance STR, which could still work, since it operates entirely on the caster) to break out - everyone assumes that the mage is probably going to try to think of spells to escape first, and forget that a bedspring could be turned into a lockpick, or hinges forced, or a lock prevented from closing by a tiny chip of stone picked up from the prison yard ...

Edited July 11, 2019 by Alex Greene
Changed the wording around