Characters may become prisoners by losing to an enemy in battle, or by being kidnaped (kidnaping is a subskill of Stealth).
Since prisoners are unable to report where they are and what they are seeing, they do not contribute to the turn report of their faction. The player's turn report will show that that a unit is being held prisoner, but little else.
Prisoners will not execute any orders while they are in captivity. Queued orders will remain pending, but none will be processed.
Prisoners when spotted appear as stacked units, marked with the
`prisoner' string:
Seen here:
Kosar the Indefectible [2022], with six peasants, one archer,
two soldiers, accompanied by:
Alion Krysaka [2785], prisoner
Unstacking a prisoner sets them free. Kosar could free Alion by
ordering `unstack 2785
Prisoners may be transferred between units with the give command.
Kosar could transfer Alion to Osswid [501] by ordering:
give 501 2785
Prisoners are always on the lookout for ways to escape. Units holding
prisoners can reduce their chances by remaining inside a structure, not
transferring prisoners with give, and not traveling with
prisoners.
Each week (four times each game turn), a prisoner being held by a unit which is outside of a building has a 2% chance of escaping. A prisoner being held by a unit which is inside a structure, such as a castle, tower, inn or ship, has a 1% chance of escaping.
Each time a prisoner is transferred with the give order, there is
a 2% chance of a escape. Also, each time a unit holding a prisoner
engages in travel which takes longer than one day, there is a 2% chance
that the prisoner will be able to get free. Thus, short movement, such
as entering or exiting a building, will not give the prisoners
additional opportunities for escape, but traveling between provinces
with prisoners will.
Prisoners inside building or sub-locations will flee out into the surrounding location upon gaining their freedom. Escaped prisoners on ships will leap over the side and swim to a nearby shore.