Dungeons and escape

Low quality iron will become brittle when cold if that helps. Of course surviving on rations in a room cold enough to make the metal brittle is another issue. Bribing a guard would probably be the most expedient, but woe to the guard who is found out as bribable!"

Also, yes, mortar has been around for at least a couple thousand years. the Romans had concrete that is more durable than the stuff we commonly use today.

Maybe he has small wrists, and if he started sweating he could slip out of the chains like Houdini.

Normally, one attaches a ring or similar thing to a wall while it is being built; Imagine you've got a U of steel. You thread a chain through. then, as you are laying your stone, you put the open end of the U in the mortar bed (the layer of mortar on top of a block, which will receive the block on top of it) then you put the next block on top of it. Once you've done this, not only does the mortar hold it in place, but it also has the entire weight of the wall pressing down on it. Chipping away at the mortar will only work if its a small U, and I don't see why it would be: You couldn't get it out without removing the entire wall.

The manacles would be the weakest link. Unfortunately, manacles in those days usually didn't have locks; they were opened and closed by a blacksmith, using a heavy hammer and a number of other tools. Even as late as the 19th century manacles like this were still in use.

In reality, people in irons didn't escape very often. Have your hero first find a way to get them to take his irons off. Thats the first step.

Depending on how desperate he is, and also how far he can endure pain, maybe your prisoner is willing to sacrifice one of his hands, twisting it brutally within the manacle until bones pop and he can slide the hand free.

If (big if!) he somehow concealed a tool (big tool!) upon his person that can open locks, maybe only one hand needs sacrificed. Although he'd still need some mobility in his dislocated/broken hand to pick the lock and free his other hand.

PS - the increasing number of adult ads has been noted and is being discussed.

-Derek

How about picking the lock with a wire or fish bone?

Maybe after a few months he lost weight and could slip his hands out with the help of some greasy soup.

I don't think that washes. Metal bowls? What kind of metal did they make bowls out of in those days? (12th century, you say?) Metal was valuable. Too valuable to let a prisoner have. If he gets a metal bowl, it will be tin. Or Pewter. Tin is not hard enough to do anything to steel or stone, neither is pewter. People didn't make bowls out of iron until iron casting became economical (not in the 12th century) It is likely that any food he gets was cooked in a pottery bowl, and given to him in either a pottery or wooden bowl. He wouldn't even be given a spoon, probably.

European fun fact; metalworking in the early middle ages was almost exclusively confined to the production of arms and armor and other articles for the nobility. Peasants, for example, had no metal tools, so food production was low. Due to the hostility between peasants and townsmen (churls, varlets, knaves, villains were all names that mean peasant, and now are just considered insulting) No one was willing to work together on this problem.

and he doesn't need to use the other bowl as a hammer; he could just hit it with one of his manacles.

And another thing about metal; if the metal is soft enough to work without heating it, it probably won't be able to do anything to steel or stone.

Plus, wouldn't the guards notice two bowls going missing? Those aren't Styrofoam, they're metal, potentially dangerous. Given that the guards' jobs (or lives) might be on the line if the prisoner escapes, I should think they'd be careful not to give him something he could use to free himself.

Personally, if I gave a prisoner a metal bowl and then couldn't find it afterwards, his meals would go straight into his waste bucket until the metal bowl turned up.

dpaterso said:

Depending on how desperate he is, and also how far he can endure pain, maybe your prisoner is willing to sacrifice one of his hands, twisting it brutally within the manacle until bones pop and he can slide the hand free.

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Can't he just gnaw off his thumb?

Still doesn't wash. Sorry, I think it would be easier to introduce a clever way that he gets his guards to take of his irons himself, or escapes with them still on, than introduce a clever way that he gets bowls, and then implausibly uses them to break his chains.

Reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon, two guys hanging on the dungeon wall by manacles, one says, "Now, here's my plan." Good luck with yours. How long are the chains? Could he use them to strangle a guard?

How old is this dungeon? Is it damp?

If it's damp, the mortar and the salts in it will eventually corrode and rust the anchor of the manacles ... so he may get lucky and be able to wiggle the anchor unitl it breaks off at the wall or slightly inside it.

Does he have to be in chains, and if so, do the chains have to be attached to the wall? Search chains inside this book, and there's a case (p. 37) of a man escaping by climbing down a tower and then a cliff side, while still in his chains. Try searching escape in the same book for other ideas.

theengel said:

Thanks for all the info...points added. Right now, this is what I'm trying...tell me if you think it's plausible.

He gets hold of two metal bowls. One of them, he uses his chains to pound it, fold it, flatten it, etc. until he has a make-shift chissel. Hard work...takes him maybe a month of everyday pounding.

Once he has a chisel, he takes the other bowl, fills it with chain to give it weight, and spends 5 months chipping away the mortar / rock.

It's interesting that you bring up the guards and bribing. He leaves a note in the dirt for the worst guard--"[name]...thanks for the chisel." :lol:

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Sarpedon's right. If he can pound and flatten it into a chisel, it's pretty soft - the rock would probably wear it away, instead of vice versa.

Also, your time frame might be too generous. Between the vermin, the poor food (or no food), and the filth (no one would undo your chains to let you go to the bathroom) dungeon prisoners died pretty regularly. Unless your character's captors are unusually humane, or he's aristocratic enough to merit a chamber pot, he might easily be too sick and weak to escape after even six months.

My advice would be for him to rely on human fallibility rather than chain-breaking...i.e. go with the bribery.