Does this gambit make sense? How would you get out of it?

Here's the situation: You're The Hero, and you've just united two factions who were once mortal enemies in order to take down the evil warlord you've been trying to stop. Problem is, he managed to capture you. He's put you through Cold-Blooded Torture to try and get you to reveal their strategy, but you won't break. So, he tries something else.

Mr. Evulz shows you his latest invention - the Explosive Leash - and reveals that he implanted it on you during the torture session. He then orders you to run back to Heroes HQ and tell them how you managed to single-handedly escape his clutches, and then persuade the newfound Alliance to send their entire army to attack one of his oh-so-poorly-guarded outposts. And if you give even the slightest hint that it's all a setup... BOOM.

What would you do to get out of this and one-up Mr. Evulz? Does his gambit have any painfully obvious flaws? A few more points of clarification:

- Mr. Evulz is confident in your ability to persuade the Alliance to stage the attack. If they don't buy it, he'll just blow you up while you're still in their headquarters.

- The explosive implant is rigged to explode if anyone attempts to remove it, and it also has a built-in microphone so that Mr. Evulz can hear what's being said. The device could be disabled and taken out safely by someone with experience, but they'd have to know it was there first.

- Mr. Evulz's outpost is in an arctic region. His plan is to lure the Alliance forces onto a flat piece of glacier, then use concentrated heat rays to break them off from the mainland, making them sitting ducks while the rest of his army appears and picks them off from afar. The Hero doesn't know that he's planning this particular strategy; only that there's an ambush involved.

- Other characters discovering the gambit by accident are a possibility, though if possible I'd like The Hero to use their own wits.

edited 11th May '12 1:09:30 PM by SpacemanStrife

Someone being held hostage in this situation can signal people they are particularly close to of peril with completely unrelated facts. Even something as simple as casual statement that is a complete lie. Eg. How is your wife? (When they aren't married.) or I could really go for some asparagus (when you've established it is the one food they hate more than anything.)

From there it's a matter of faith that their companion will nose around and find the truth of it.

Assuming that there is no video cameras involved, simply write it down?

Those two ideas are pretty good. As it stands, it might be pretty neat to have The Hero attempt , but fail to get their partners to understand, so they do instead. If Mr. Evulz ends up putting a video feed in the implant, though, then just would suffice.

There is, of course, the next step to consider, which is to get The Hero out of harm's way by discreetly removing the implant - else Mr. Evulz would blow it up as soon as he's got the Alliance in his trap.

How powerful is the explosive leash? Because if you grapple Mr. Evulz or, more likely, someone he loves/needs alive, then you can just force the guy to remove it, or else risk killing the hostage in this case.

"Hey, can you look over this report for me?" [Report says, "[outline above]. Next time I'm asleep, can you take it out?"]

edited 11th May '12 2:17:59 PM by Yej

A sound strategy, since the explosion would definitely be strong enough to take out people nearby. I'll need to think about which characters are a valuable asset to Mr. Evulz.

That could work if enough time passes between the escape and the battle.

Thanks guys! Anyone else have more ideas for clever solutions? ^_^

You could have them speak a different language, if he knows the big bad can't personally speak it.

Maybe even several, to keep the guys who are listening off balance even when they bring in a translator, and even then they could use code words, or bring part of it over in writing, making it look like casual conversation while he's spilling all the beans.

edited 11th May '12 2:34:13 PM by TheSkeletalGent

If pressure of various kinds prevents any of the above from working, there's always the Heroic Sacrifice option. (I.e., just have The Hero stay well away from any allies and shout the true situation to them from outside of the blast range.)

Also a Heroic Sacrifice option: Have him write the situation down and send it to his comrades somehow, and then send him to the ambush location and attack the troops sent to ambush him.

Or have him sneak up on the guy and hold him at knifepoint, ordering him to detonate it then and there to kill them both. Depends on the rest of the setup, really.

Couldn't someone put the Hero in a faraday cage?

I at least think that would block out some forms of transmitting the explode signal.

..Unless it's set to go off whenever the signal is interrupted, but that's rather risky.

Those are some good options indeed if The Hero doesn't plan on getting out of it alive.

Another idea I got this morning: Mr. Evulz sets the implant to detonate after a specific time limit. The Hero persuades the Alliance to attack Mr. Evulz's base as instructed, and then Mr. Evulz tries to detonate the implant remotely... only to find out that it didn't work. The timer still functions, though, and The Hero uses that chance to sneak into Mr. Evulz's base and make his way into the core before being detected. At that point, he essentially has the entire base held hostage, and demands that Mr. Evulz call off his attack and disable the implant manually or else lose his entire base.

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me! The hero could probably find some way to block remote signals (which might also mask any tracking/monitoring signals and allow him to sneak into the base), the timer is a sensible backup to have, and taking a 'hostage' is a good way to turn that back against the villain.

The hero would have to be careful though. Does he have the capability to take out the core by himself, or is he relying on the bomb and timer to back up his threat? Also, when you say 'base', I'm assuming we're talking about the villain's main HQ, not just some random outpost? Also, why can't he just alert the armies to the threat and tell them to turn back as soon as the remote fails?

edited 12th May '12 10:09:48 AM by Kesteven

The Big Bad in this case has obviously NOT read the Evil Overlord's List.

Specifically: Shooting IS good enough for my enemies.

Alternatively, the hero assumes that Mr. Evulz is lying, (after all, he has provided no proof that the hero is being monitored or even of this device) and proceeds go inform his/her buddies of Mr. Evulz's plan.

...I would let him free me, then walk up to him and try to take the thing off and trigger the self-destruct mechanism.

Either he dies with me, or he has to stop it from blowing up. And then, assuming I have some kind of magic powers, I attack him.

Fun fun fun...

edited 12th May '12 9:43:01 PM by Flyboy

Except the moment he realises what you're about to do, he shoots you. Of course, surprised villains tend to have almost as terrible an aim as their minions, but that probably shouldn't be an assumption of the plan.

edited 13th May '12 9:45:44 AM by Kesteven

~shrug~

Well, even then, his plan still didn't work, did it?

True. He'd probably leave your corpse where it could be retrieved and then blow it up at your HQ/funeral though, all in all not what I'd consider a 'win', but I suppose it's better than doing what he says and inevitably getting everyone killed.

Somehow I doubt they'd miss the bomb device in the process of prepping for the funeral...

He could point at the collar, then make an explosion gesture with his hands.

But writing down the situation would make the most sense.

What I could say about the explosive part has been said already, it's relatively fine. I wanted to throw in an opinion on the ambush, though. Sounds... how to put it... very much like a Troperiffic Evil Overlord. Luring them onto a glacier and cutting it off the mainland with a heat ray. I mean, c'mon.