There I was trapped in a jail doing hard labor. I was told if I was good that perhaps one day they would release me. I did not believe them for a moment and it was quite strange they were willing to pay me some kind of wage for my otherwise slave labor.

As luck would have it this would not be my last time, I'd find myself in this jail either. While it was my first and I had no idea how to escape. Let alone all the rules they had in moving forward. I just knew at the time things were quite dire for me.

I was given a pickaxe which would end up being my only weapon while down there. I was told to mine out all the iron nodes for the day. Once that was done, I could trade them for one silver.

Once my mining was done for the day. I was told there was nothing else to do. That I should just go to bed and wait to repeat the entire process all over again. I did that for a couple of days.

I ended up spending a couple of days mining, turning in my ore, and going to bed. I’d also bug the slave who was in charge of collecting the ore to recommend me for other work. Each time they told me not today.

After feeling like I was getting strung along I decided to take a risk. There was this massive hole with a plank going out into the middle of it. From my understanding, those who were acting badly would be forced to jump off the plank and into the hole.

I had enough and decided I might as well just save some time. I leaped. I was expecting death. Instead, I'd awake hours later finding myself on a beach. It was quite certain now that the gear I had on me was gone forever.

Somehow my backpack ended up floating up along the ocean. So, I had whatever junk in there I had collected. It was not quite enough to help rebuild my back up to where I was it was better than nothing at least.

As far as jail breaks go I'd rate this one quite low. At least somehow, I was now out of a situation I did not see any other solution to escaping. I was at least hopeful I could try and rebuild from this point and move forward.

A couple of days later I'd end up getting captured again. I was trying to make it a point to stay away from the area I was sent to jail in. I however needed some stuff along the beach there. I also wanted to check out the castle there to see if I could raid the inside. It’s clear how that ended up going.

This time around I decided I'd play along with the people in the jail. I wanted my gear back and it would be quite devastating to yet again lose it all. So, I spent nearly a week mining ore.

It turns out I was not noticing something rather important. When I was turning in iron ore only one was being traded. I did not realize I could sit there and spam all the other iron I had mined. That each one sold would end up getting me closer and closer to being viewed as trusted. I was rather expecting it to be based on a certain amount of time spent down there.

After giving them enough ore I was promoted to the next area of the jail. They needed help preparing food and curing the sick. These were also higher-paying jobs than just mining ore.

This is also when I discovered one of the guards who was willing to talk to me could be bridged. If I gathered enough silver to be useful. He would in turn help smuggle me out for the right price.

I however did not like the idea of having to pay to get out of the jail system. My mind was set more on revenge. Even more so after helping to do some cooking and needing to go get some water. I discovered where my gear and other items were being stored.

I ended up playing along for a few more days. Collecting a bit of silver from mining, cooking, and curing people. I was also slowly helping myself to anything I could get my hands on.

I also started to speak with the other prisoners. That is when I discovered one of them was selling stuff. At the time I had already broken the two pickaxes I had. I was starting to wonder how I could keep being the good little slave of mining ore without a new pickaxe.

This is also when I realized there was a shiv for sale. That would be better than a pickaxe. I however still wanted my weapons and gear out of the storage area I found.

I went and got my gear. As expected, the guards came rushing at me. For the most part, I was just trying to get past them. I wanted to make it to the hole in the cave and make a giant leap off the wood plank.

My escape was not that great. It was however a success but just barely. Next, I had to avoid the patrols along the beach and escape the area where they would just end up dragging me back into the jail.

Final Thoughts

I ended up spending way too much time in the jail system. At least now I know how to hurry up and get out of there. I’ve also since been back there more than once and not all attempts to escape were a success.

Learning how to get yourself out of bad situations in this game would become quite an important thing to learn about the game. There would end up being a few times with my back against the wall, with my gear put in some chest. With me wondering if I was done playing this one.

Then I'd take a short break. Come back and overcome whatever situation I now find myself in. Sometimes I'd end up losing some gear. Other times I'd end up coming out better than some very dark times spent traps in caves. Other times I was just happy to make it to seeing daylight again even if it cost me dearly.

Information

Outward Definitive Edition.Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about