Random's Tricks 'n Traps Challenge!

[coffee]

I had one in a dungeon I created on the fly for a convention game once: By a side entrance to the dungeon level, there was a small fountain. The first time you drink from it, it's a potion of healing (1d8 hp recovered). The second time, it's plain water. If you drink from it a third time in the same day, it's poison! (save or die)

[Random]

A large table is littered with small, painted toy soldiers. A close examination will reveal 6d6 of them to be remarkably lifelike. Casting these special soldiers upon the ground will conjure real soldiers equivalent to Normal Men armed with Shield and Spear. They will battle for their creator until slain in combat, at which point they transform into dull, unremarkable toy soldiers.

Occasionally (25% chance) there may be 2d6 variants among these soldiers, mounted and/or armed with missile weapons.

[Random]

A glorious magical great helm rests upon an impressive pedestal. It grants its wearer Armor Class 1 with regard to attacks aimed at the head, which due to the helm's strong attractive magic will be all attacks intended for the wearer. The helm is also cursed such that it may not be removed, and will weaken as blows strike it.

Every failing blow that would have hit the wearer's head if not for the helm's effective AC bonus will damage the helm and reduce its effectiveness, so that the Armor Class with become 2 after one such blow, 3 after two such blows, then 4, etc., until the helm finally shatters after AC 9, with the shattering blow dealing double damage.

[Random]

A monumental idol looms beyond an archway; in its hands a bowl of fire; in its eyes the twinkle of precious gemstones. Should either socket be deprived of its eye, the infernal creature depicted by the idol will know immediately, and will send his priests on an unending manhunt for the thief, ceasing only when the thief's greedy heart is violently extracted and cast into the fiery bowl.

[Random]

A chamber contains an elaborate and convincing illusion of a wicked efreet. It flames and bellows and makes battle with any intruders, but deals only 1-6 points of damage in combat and possesses none of the special powers an efreet normal would. To its benefit though, it is indestructible. The illusion cannot leave the chamber.

Alternatively, for some extra flare, the chamber contains a device to deactivate the illusion. It will do so, but the manipulator of the device will not know it; indeed, the illusion will be immediately replaced by a conjured (and furious!) efreet from the City of Brass!

[Random]

A dungeon portal opens to what appears to be a grassy and pleasant fantasy-land, over-looked by a cloud castle in the distance. In reality, it is a magical trap, and any traveling through the portal will be sufficiently stranded.

Within the fantasy-land, a "wandering monster" appears once each turn without exception, and the variety of monster is determined by the following table (d12):

1: Carrion Crawler
2: Centaur
3: Dragon, Red
4: Goblin (or whatever those guys are)
5: Griffon
6: Manticore
7: Owlbear
8: Pixie
9: Purple Worm
10: Roper
11: Troll
12: Unicorn

Escape is possible by subduing a flying creature and riding it to the cloud castle, where a portal will take adventurers back to the dungeon from whence they came.

[Deleted]

Statuettes of Dertah Foefil

These statuettes are between 10 to 15 inches in height. These innocuous looking figurines are more malevolent then they appear. Usually no more than one will be in any one location.

Fawn: This statuette is sculpted from bronze. Anyone in possession of it will have twice the regular chance of attracting animal predators outside of the dungeon.

Skeleton: This statuette is carved from petrified ivory. Any pc carrying it will always be the target of any undead encountered.

Troll: This figurine has been carved from jade. While in possession of this figurine the party has triple the chance of encountering wondering monsters.

Fool: This statuette has been carved from turquoise. While any member of the party is in possession of this figurine mages will be unable to memorize spells.

Maiden: This figurine is carved from alabaster. While in possession of this figurine, a character will disgust, be distrusted, or even be met with outright hostility by females.

Demon: Carved from bloodstone. While in possession of this statuette, any fire spell cast by the party will gate in a denizen of the lower planes (DM’s determination).

[Deleted]

Doom

PCs encounter a fresco that depicts two warriors surrounded by an overwhelming number of orcs. The warriors are fighting back to back, slain comrades lay at their feet. The feeling of inevitable doom weighs heavily on the characters. If the pcs fail a save, they will make attacks and saves at a -1 penalty until they are blessed or have a remove curse cast upon them.

[Random]

Some wall is decorated with a painting of a large padlocked chest. Painting a key upon the wall, depicted as inserted into the lock, will cause the chest to be shown as open, and several treasures will apear scattered upon the dungeon floor in front of the wall.

[Random]

Adjacent to some sinister locked door is a heavy pull chain. A slight tug will result in screams of pain sounding from somewhere beyond the door. A mighty yank with cause horrific howls of agonizing pain to be heard, shortly followed by the opening of the door as a ghoulish doorman answers the chime.

(Straight out of Don Rodriguez, but that's what the public domain is for, right?)

[Random]

This thread needs some more submissions from other people, but here's one in the mean time:

In some room of the dungeon is a tiny "mouse hole" that seems rather unremarkable, yet actually is the opening of a slender tunnel ten feet in length, terminating with a small mechanism that unlocks a nearby door when pressed.

[Random]

A bag is discovered to be filled with strange green powder. Be careful not to get it wet, as that will transform it into deadly green slime!

[Random]

A sphere of annihilation is located at the center of a large sphere of magical darkness.

[calithena]

Apr 16, 2010 21:35:43 GMT -6 Random said:

A sphere of annihilation is located at the center of a large sphere of magical darkness.

That's seriously sadistic.

[Random]

Apr 18, 2010 21:31:56 GMT -6 calithena said:

Apr 16, 2010 21:35:43 GMT -6 Random said:

A sphere of annihilation is located at the center of a large sphere of magical darkness.

That's seriously sadistic.

Indeed! So put it only on the lower dungeon levels after a few "Death to Those Who Enter" type warnings.

[Random]

A Flesh Golem is outfitted with a thorough (full-coverage) suit of iron. While this extra weight allows it to attack only once per turn, it will also physically appear exactly as a powerful Iron Golem, spelling disaster for any players foolish enough to (read Greyhawk and) zap it with lightning!

[Random]

A Flesh Golem is created using the head of a Medusa, which should entertain any DM as his players (pointlessly, the head has no power) fight the beast (at penalty) with their eyes averted.

[Random]

Schrödinger's Golem Chamber: Some dungeon chamber contains a superposition of golems with the amplitudes for each golem (including the non-existent golem) chosen by the referee (where the squares of the amplitudes sum to 1). When the chamber door is opened, the superposition collapses and only one particular golem (at most) is observed to exist in the chamber; the probability of observing any given golem being the square of the referee's chosen amplitude for that golem. Closing the chamber door (while not inside) will return the chamber to its original superposition, collapsing once again upon observation by prying adventurers.



(As for the last detail, I thought it would be funny to have players open the chamber and say "Holy crap, an Iron Golem!" then slam the door shut to work out a plan of attack, only to open the chamber later and find something different inside.)

[Random]

The Magical XOR Gate: Any PC magic-user may pass through the gate unless his or her player's previous character generated was a magic-user also. Any PC non-magic-user may pass through the gate if his or her player's previous character generated was a magic-user. If any PC who is a player's first character attempts to pass through the gate, the gate will lose all magic and forever cease to function. NPCs may pass freely.

[Random]

Cantor's Passage: Observation of some passage will reveal the middle third of the floor to be completely non-existent, a chasm leading to unknown depths. Of the remaining portions, the middle third of each of them is missing as well! In fact, this pattern seems to be continued indefinitely to produce a passage whose floor-length is zero feet, yet there are infinitely many places to stand.

[Random]

A passage ends with a large doorway, beyond which is another passage ending in a regular-sized doorway, beyond which is a passage ending an a small (halfling-sized) doorway, beyond which is... (etc.)

Perhaps some nigh-inaccessible passage contains a secret door leading to vast treasure, and for the evil DM, treasures mostly too large to carry back out!

[Random]

Some door is completely unadorned and has a simple knob for operation. Pulling the knob will reveal it to be the handle of a peculiar sword +1, +3 vs. doors, sliding easily from its "socket."

[Random]

Some locked door is decorated by a single terrifying skull with piercing pinpoint "eyes." Operating the jaw as a knocker will cause the door to swing open.

[Random]

The Cursed Box: The heavy lid of some large chest requires a combined 60 points of Strength to lift. Upon opening, all those lifting must roll upon the following table:

1. Head explodes.
2. Face melts.
3. Burned alive.
4. Hurled away, taking 3d6 damage.
5. Vomits profusely and falls unconscious.
6. Runs away screaming.

The lid of the chest then snaps back into its former place.

[graymouser]

Three "tricks" for consideration:

1) The party finds a room containing a table set with empty goblets (worth 100-1,000 gp's each) of wrought silver. If party members seat themselves the goblet in front of them will magically fill itself with water that is brackish, dirty and otehrwise befouled. Drinking such water will result in the character having a 5% chance of contracting a disease (see DMG, pp. 13-14). If time is taken to cast Purify Food and Drink, Purify Water, or using a Potion of Sweet Water on the goblets the water will become clean and pure. Drinking such treated water will then act as a potion of Extra-Healing.

The goblets will re-fill each time a character sits before it. Once purified the goblets will dispense clear, clean water but the beneficial results will only work once per character.

2) A variation of the (ever popular) teleportation trick: The chracters enter a 20'x20' room. In its center on a 2 1/2' tall pedestal is a 1' tall statue. The first person touching the statue will be teleported to another identical 20'x20' room on another level of the dungeon. The only difference between the rooms, indeed the only way of realizing the character has been teleported in the first place is the difference in statues.

The results of where the character is teleported is randomly determined on the table below:

Roll Statue Level
1 Sylph 1
2 Pixie 2
3 Nymph 3
4 Dryad 4
etc.

If the result is the same statue/level the character is currently on simply re-roll.

3) The characters will hear the sounds of battle coming from behind the door if they stop and attempt to listen, although the sound seems strangely distant and faint. Upon opening the door the party will find a pitched battle between two small armies which are the animated pieces of a chess set. (The black pieces are carved from onyx while the white pieces are of chalcedony.) The miniature armies will stop their battle and make common cause against the party within one round. Each has the following stats: AC 7, HD 1/2, 1 hit point, #ATT 1, D 1.

Upon being hit each piece will be destroyed and, therefore, worthless. The chessboard, on the other hand, is made of jet and white jade.

[Random]

@#3: Gosh, it seems like the party should be able to join the miniature battle on whichever side of their choosing!
(Though thanks for posting in my thread!)

[Random]

An Iron Golem has a layer of gnarly skin stretched over it, causing it to appear exactly as a Flesh Golem. Fire will restore damage as usual, but will also reveal the Iron Golem for what it truly is.

[Random]

Some dungeon level must be traversed without the aid of torches (or other fires for lighting). Whenever any fire is lit, a foot-tall 1 HD fire elemental will pounce out of it each round and attack immediately. (These elementals do not spawn other elementals.)

[Random]

Some chamber's ceiling is decorated with deadly spikes. One of them can be pulled to operate a secret trap-door. Pulling any other will cause each spike to fall to the floor, revealing them to be spear heads. Dozens of undead skeletons will storm into the room, grab the spears, and begin to fight any intruders.

Or, even better, perhaps the spikes are really just spikes. The skeletons would come in and fight with them as if they were daggers or swords.

[Random]

A vampire sleeps upside-down in his coffin*, so that it is alerted (and springs out to attack) when its would-be slayers drive a stake through the wrong end of it!

*The coffin would need to be shaped or decorated to indicate which way the corpse inside would be facing.