What relief do I get when my ball is in a penalty area?

If your ball is in a penalty area, or is known or virtually certain to be there even though you cannot find it, you may take relief for one penalty stroke:

1. Stroke and distance: play the original or another ball from where you made your previous stroke.
2. Back on the line: drop outside the penalty area, keeping the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge between the hole and your drop, with no limit on how far back. The relief area is one club-length from where the dropped ball first touches the ground and cannot be nearer the hole than the crossing point.
3. Lateral (red penalty areas only): drop within two club-lengths of the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge, not nearer the hole than that point.

A yellow penalty area therefore gives you two options and a red one gives you three. If you take stroke-and-distance relief, drop a ball and then do not play it, you can take further relief outside the penalty area, making two penalty strokes in total. (Rule 17.1d)