TRAPS
No Statistical info will be given for most traps. Handle With Care The Hard Way Phlendo's Flume. Avon Bawling Put all your troubles in an old kit bag and Die, Die, Die..! The Pharoah's Tomb of DOOM! Well, that's all the traps I have for you, so send me YOUR creations!
Phase Door Floor!
This is to make them universal for any game system.
This is simply a BIG delayed blast fireball, which looks like a big, exquisite ruby, which is enclosed in a Globe Of Timelessness. Once the fragile globe breaks--KABOOM!
The PCs find a room which is sunken deeply. Actually, it is a very big pit. In this pit can be seen a wall safe, some odd furniture, a big gem glowing black in a corner, and, oh yeah, a beholder. The beholder is undead, and will do his level best to kill any
intruders. If he is vanquished, the party is free to enter the room. Some yahoo is bound to grab the gem. This is instant death, as all his levels are sucked out and the PC becomes an instant zombie. The gem, you see, is actually straddled between the Prime
and Negative Planes of Energy. It was the beholder's "food". After the party finishes off that yutz, someone is bound to get the safe open. As it happens, the safe does indeed contain a seriously major treasure. Unfortunately, the party will get only a glimpse
of it before the illusory ceiling is dispelled. It was a very good illusion, complete with bloodstains and a few arrows stuck in it, and strong enough to support the 25 tons of gravel above it. It is doubtful that anyone could conceivably survive.
This trap must have a nearby body of water to work. The PC's find a tunnel going down at a rather steep angle. Near the top, they find a large pit with an unbreakable glass cover, radiating magic. They CAN'T get through, so they go on down.
At the bottom they find a magical barrier over the doorway through which they cannot see. It is easy to defeat by some means,( even if you have to inscribe the password on the wall or something.)The tunnel leads directly to the body of water, deep below
the surface. The barrier spell defeated, a torrent of water then rushes into the tunnel and rises to the top.( much like when you keep your finger over the end of a drinking straw, put the other end underwater, and then let your finger up.) Many will be knocked silly. Armor-clad warriors are in big trouble, but those
who manage to make it to the top are not in any better shape. The glass lid over the pit was dispelled right along with the barrier. This is a pit of instant dessication, put in place to keep the whole dungeon from getting flooded. PCs will see the water as
it rushes in, and might figure something out before being swept into the pit by the savage current. Those who enter the pit die instantly of total dehydration. The barrier and the lid reset themselves after an hour, and the remaining water is pumped out automatically.
This one is fairly simple. Over a doorway are numerous holes covered by plaster or wallpaper. These are spear holes, and the tubes behind them, which contain the spears, are about 30 feet long and at a 60 degree angle, thusly pointing the spears toward the area directly in front
of the door. Fiddling with the doorknob releases the spears, which then drop down the tubes, burst through the thin covering over the holes, and skewer the delver where he stands.
Alternately, you could replace the spears with a large heavy guillotine-like blade.
Are you cursed with a character in your party with a Bag of Holding and the annoying habit of filling it with loot before you can explain it or let any curses or traps be triggered? Is the party able to haul away too much stuff with too much ease?
Well, friend, your problems are over! Just make sure that the next batch of goodies has to be bagged in a big hurry for some reason. Next, make sure to include an object with a built-in, and cleverly concealed, portable hole!
Hats, crowns, brooches, and belt buckles all work well for this purpose. Then, say goodbye to the treasure, the bag, and quite possibly a party member or two! Great fun! ( as many of you know, putting a hole in a bag causes a spectaular
temporospatial distortion. This can result in the creation of a Sphere of Annihilation, Blackball, Creeping pit, or Gate to another plane, with other effects being possible.) A good way to restore control, and humility, to be sure!
I love using traps that complement each other, giving the delvers a double-whammy. I have five traps here that I used all in one small tomb-style dungeon to great effect:
THE LADDER & THE PIT-- To enter the dungeon, the characters must climb down a vertical tunnel not much bigger than a water well. A handy iron ladder is provided for this purpose. The tunnel is very deep; some 200 feet or so. At the bottom, a metal pressure plate can be very easily seen
awaiting the first fool to set foot upon it, and some cables can be seen connecting the ladder to the floor. Obviously, no character is going to step on THAT, so naturally he/she will attempt to make a dex check to jump past it to the floor. A successful attempt will indeed result in the character
leaping beyond the plate and onto the floor beyond it. Unfortunately, the floor beyond is only a trapdoor which easily caves in when landed on by a jumping adventurer! The victim falls into the deep pit while the trapdoor itself slams into the interior wall of the pit on it's hinged side. As a result, the door smacks a
big button which triggers the opening of another trapdoor in the ceiling above the pit, dumping several tons of sand on top of the one trapped in the pit. The sand will pour for three rounds, and the character will have to make three successful dex checks to stay on top of the sand as it rains down on him/her. These saves are at a penalty of four!
Should more than one character fall into the narrow pit, the first one in will have to save at a penalty of 8, since he/she is being trampled by the latecomer(s). If any of the three dex checks are failed, the victim is covered with sand.
If a character should actually step on the pressure plate, the ladder will fall apart, sending the rungs and vertical sections between the rungs raining down in a deadly metal hail. Anyone on the ladder will of course fall, while those on the ground will be pelted with hundreds of iron rods. To escape the falling ladder bits, the characters must run down the hallway,
right over the aformentioned pit! After all that, of course, the party will find itself 200-300 feet underground with no ladder to climb back up again!
THE FIRE & THE SERPENTS-- Another deadly duo involves what happens once the characters finally make it to the sarcophagous chamber. The charaters manage to pry open a hidden door. Unknown to them, opening the door triggers the first half of this trap. As the door opens, four statues, of snakes climbing down great columns, open their mouths. The statues are set at the four corners of a great pool full of inky black water.
When the mouths open, hundreds of little enchanted beads pour out of the statues and into the water. This happens very quickly, and the characters will never know it. As the adventurers enter the room and explore, they won't notice anything amiss, for the beads take awhile to do their thing. How long? However long you need them to to prevent ruining the surprise, of course! ( heh,heh ) Eventually, the characters will notice a hallway completely
FILLED with thick cobwebbing. Someone will undoubtedly try to burn away the webbing with a torch, and that's fine. Don't include a giant spider or anything unless it's LONG dead and dessicated. The only purpose of the web is to ensure that some torches or other sources of open flame are in use. As the delvers reach the end of the hallway, they will find a small treasure room. Some great prize shall be found in a great glass case, displayed
prominently. A simple trap is found on the case, but defeated easily enough. The problem is that there seems to be no way to OPEN the case, which turns out to be RIDICULOUSLY heavy. With any luck, someone will at this point decide to simply smash open the case. ( they almost ALWAYS do ) Heh, heh...suckers.
The case is filled with clear mineral spirits, and is made from a special glass designed to shatter completely when broken. This results in this highly noxious, and highly flammable, liquid getting splashed all over the place and on the characters, who by now should be burning nicely since the fluid was ignited by the torches! Quick-thinking delvers will remember the pool of water in the next room, which by now they have probably already decided is harmless, since it
was harmless a little while earlier. So, the flaming characters will make a mad dash to plunge themselves into the water in order to extinguish the flames. Those wearing heavy armor could have problems, of course, but the real danger lies in the pellets released earlier. The pellets are magically enchanted, and have by this time grown into venomous serpents after having been activated by the water! They bite the characters repeatedly, quite possibly finishing them off for good.
EASY AS FALLING OFF A LOG-- This is a "single", but you could certainly incorporate it into a double-whammy of your own devising. As the delver opens a hidden door, a deep pit with something nasty at the bottom is discovered. No problem, though, for a handy wooden bridge has been provided for crossing over the pit to another door on the other side. Here's the tricky parts:
The wooden bridge is actually a log cut in half, flat on the top and still round on the bottom. the bottom round side is covered with thick grease. At one point, triggered either by the character trying to open the other door, or by a simple shift of weight as the delver traverses the length of the log, ( your choice ) unseen sand starts to pour. This sand turns the gears connected to the end of the log, rolling it over with alarming speed! Now the hero is stuck trying to keep from falling off a
half-flat, half-round, very greasy log which is spinning around and around, and which will spin for five rounds! Better have an 18+ dex...
Submitted by: Chuck Cochems
This is a real beauty of a trap due to it's simplicity.
The party of adventurers finds a large room with a big pile of treasure in the middle of it. While they should know better than to actually grab some of it, someone eventually will.
This will cause a Phase Door spell on the floor to activate, via a contingency spell or somesuch, and those standing on the floor will then fall right through it to the room below.
Small problem---the room below is vaccuum-sealed; there is no air!
Spellcasters can't cast in the silence of a vaccuum, and not many can survive under such conditions for very long. The party's only hope is to find the hidden exit in the wall
( another Phase Door that leads to a new corridor ) before suffocating.
You may allow escape from the room by the use of a Passwall or Teleport spell or somesuch, but only if it can be used without the caster having to speak. Remember, no air = no sound. You may be
especially generous and allow such a spell to be cast anyway, but only if the caster can make an extremely difficult concentration check. Climbing out of the room is impossible, for the spell only allows
the party to go through the floor in one direction, and then the spell wears off completely.
More careful characters will try to dispell any magic in the room before grabbing any loot. This is best prevented by making sure that some of the loot is very obviously magical and powerful. The
party won't wish to ruin these items by dispelling the magic of the floor. Should they actually dispell it anyway, the other magics in the room will naturally also be dispelled, such as the spell
that keeps the ceiling from collapsing, for example. Use your imagination, but remember that this is supposed to be a no-win scenario for the adventurers.
Well, okay, there IS one little way to beat the trap. All they have to do is drag the treasure out of the room before picking it up off the floor.
