THE FOOLISH PC SMASHER
Party is going through a dungeon, and a barrier wall falls down on either
side of a player (in my game, it happened to be the thief). A board
slides out from the wall, crossing the corridor, and a magic mouth says
"Can you break this board?". Buddy breaks board, and barriers
retract. A little while later, same deal, except it's a stone beam,
(and their fighter was the trapped one). Buddy breaks said beam, and
the barriers retract. A bit later, the same thing, except it's a wooden
pole, (and the mage is trapped). Buddy breaks the staff, and the DM
looks up Retributive Strike... See Staff of Magi & Power, page 154,
DM's Guide 2nd Ed.
COUNTDOWN
TO FREEDOM
Party enters a 10x10 room, and stone doors seal the room at all entrances.
Looking about, there is a button on the wall, beside a number dial (like
on a gas pump) that counts down 10-9-8... Some bright soul presses the
button, and the dial resets to 10. In my campaign, the party spent fully
45 minutes of real time searching the room for an escape, while one
PC stayed near the button to continue resetting the dial. Finally, they
said forget it, and let the dial count down to 0, at which point the
doors slid open, and the DM was chased from the room.
TRADING
WELL
How about a 'trading' well, a large well where various swords &
daggers hover above it in mid air, and don't budge at all if grasped
and pulled, but one must place a sword or other weapon in exchange for
one in the well. Note if a PC tries to put a normal weapon in the well
in exchange for something magical, this is a good way to give a *cursed*
weapon instead.
FIREBREAK
When the party reaches 1, the thief should check for traps, there are
none here so when the party enters the room and reaches 2, the door
slams shut (one way door so they cannot get out). Written on the glass
wall, in several languages, is a sign saying "In case of fire,
break glass." If (eventually) the party approaches 4, napalm drops,
igniting 1 or more characters. The party will probably break the glass.
Upon doing this, water flows in from a small grate in the ceiling above
3, flooding the entire area. Any characters in armour are in @#it. The
grate could be the escape (Or anything else ) - you decide ????
You can work on this idea as much as you want, I just thought some sadistic
DM might enjoy watching his/her players squirm for a while.
----------------------
1 / 2 4 \
~~~~~|''''''''''''|~~~~
| 3 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Key: ''''''' glass wall
~~---|| normal walls
\ false door
/ one way door
DING-DONG
THE PARTY'S DEAD
The PC's enter a corridor where the side walls on the left & to
the right are made of delicate green glass. Behind the glass is some
type of liquid, and it looks like a giant fish tank(Acid Bath). Along
both sides are grooves with holes every couple feet(drains). If the
PCs ask the ceiling is pitted is spots, and the floor is also covered
in glass. The corridor is very sensitive to sound and any noise is magnified
tenfold through loud echoes, which will cause the walls to shatter or
break, pouring sulfuric acid upon any unfortunate PC's, and then drain
to be reused later. Even if they're, quiet a pressure plate on the floor
is activated once stepped upon, then the PCs hear a large bell, that
sounds like a churchbell, who's vibrations shatter the glass on the
twelth ring. This bell is also an alarm signal for some nearby monsters,
such as orcs or Hobgoblins, etc. The PC's will see the walls start to
vibrate and begin to crack if they make a roll on 1d20 under half their
Wis or Int whichever is better. An idea for damage due to the acid causes
5d8 HP of damage, save for half, and will cause 2d4 hp of dmg per round
if they are wearing metal armour. Make appropriate item saving throws
for the PC's possessions. Even if they cast silence and stop the walls
from shattering, the monsters still attack. Then can you see the PCs
trying to kill the monsters quietly, or a stray swipe taking out one
of the walls(oops!).
++++++++++++++
+ 2 + 1 PCs come from this direction
+++++++++++++++''''''''''''++++++ 2 Pools of acid
1 # 3 # 4 3 After PCs enter doors close, bell
+++++++++++++++''''''''''''++++++ begins to sound
+ 2 + 4 After acid drains away, monsters
++++++++++++++ attack
Legend : ''''''' glass wall
+++++++ normal walls
# doors
MIRROR,
MIRROR, IS THE WALL !?!?!?
Addition by: bajuscikge96%cs30@cadetmail.usafa.af.mil (George E. Bajuscik)
How about something simple like a long straight corridor that ends with
a bend to one side (L shaped). The corridor is unlit or maybe very dimly
lit. In the corner where the bend is you put a large mirror at a 45
degree angle so that you can see around the corner when you are in the
long part of the corridor. Put one or more monsters "around the
corner" and have the PC's coming down the long corridor. Give the
monsters a little light (torches or whatever) so that the PC's can see
them. The mirror will have to be heavy duty to withstand missile weapons
and maybe spells but the PC's should waste time, spells and missile
weapons trying to hit the monsters. You might even allow the mirror
to break and put a door behind the mirror. This door will look identical
to one that you put "around the corner" behind the monsters.
When the mirror breaks it will look like the monsters suddenly disappear.
The PC's move in closer and the monsters can then ambush them before
the PC's realize there is a corner at the end of the corridor.
Good,
although here's a variation for the devious. One of the pc's in the
party at one time made a mirror spell, which was 3rd lvl and made a
mirror w. no substance, that can move with the character's concentration
and was 5' sq for every level of the caster (great for fighting medusae).
Anyhow have the enemy mage cast the mirror spell in a T section of the
hall way. When the party starts throwing spells and weap, etc the mage
laughs at the party as all the items pass are absorbed by him!! Then
before the party gets too close the mage dispels the mirror and casts
the illusion of the wall. Then when the characters eventually get the
courage to approach where the invincible and now maybe invisible mage
was, the mage and his group attack from behind.
_______________________
1 3
__________ __________
|~~~|
| 2 |
| |
| |
1 party comes from this direction
2 mage casts mirror spell in area 3
~ illusionary wall
STOP!!!
HEY IT ACTUALLY LISTENED!
Here's a variation for that automaton. When the party enters, a magic
mouth on the wall commands "Automaton: attack the party".
The party can either fight to the death, or yell "Automaton: surrender".
or whatever. Limited vocabulary, though.
THE
SEE-SAW WITH AN ATTITUDE
Here's a weak one: teeter-totter floor in 20x40 room. Door at both ends,
but as you walk to the other end, the floor teeters down to a lower
door/opening w monsters there. The party may slide to their clutches
if they're not quick. If most of the party stays balanced between ends,
they can hold up the teeter-totter until they figure out how to open
the doors. A magic mouth laughs (on the floor) while the party is trying
to figure out what to do. Have fun with them trying to keep the floor
balanced. Also the monsters will try and pull their side of the see-saw
down, so the PCs have to run to the other side to keep them from sliding
to the monsters.
You
could use a pressure plate for a variant--the party has to put something
heavy on the plate, then walk back to the door on the other side of
this room, pressure on plate locks the see-saw.
Side View: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 PCs approach
1 # 2 # 4 2 PCs trigger see-saw
++++++++------*------++++++++ 3 Monsters grin at desparate
+ + screaming, pathetic-looking,
+ 3 3 5+ and scared PCs
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4 Safety
5 Treasure?
Legend : +++++++ normal walls
# doors
------- see-saw floor
FINALLY,
A ROPE THAT DOES THE WORK!
How about a 100' tall smooth shaft going upwards. There are some short
ropes on the floor with nametags, like Zippy and Arrow. Residents know
to tie themselves up with the rope as a harness, then speak the name
of the rope-- the rope magically lifts the person swiftly to the top
of the shaft-- you've got 5 seconds to push yourself along the roof
into the open archway, when the time's up, the rope stops lifting and
you drop. You'll need some other way to get down-- like a slide elsewhere
in the dungeon, or bring your own 110' ropes.
PHYSICS
101
The party encounters a corridor that is coated with ice. Upon entering
the corridor they discover a crack in the wall of the corridor. Blue
liquid (or any other color you choose) flows from the crack and forms
a small stream which flows over ice down the corridor away from the
party. As the party procedes they encounter a room at the end of the
corridor which is full of gas. The stream of liquid flows into the room.
The gas is a powerful contact poison (save or take a good deal of damage).
The gas forms a fog- like vapor in the room, making visability very
difficult within the room. The gas does not enter the corridor. The
key to the whole puzzle is that the room is heated slightly and no ice
is present in the room, only in the corridor. When the liquid is warmed
it vaporizes and forms a gas. To solve the puzzle you must cool the
room so the gas returns to its liquid form.
Our
DM threw in a couple of twists to this basic design to spice things
up a bit. The layout was a bit different first of all. Another corridor
(with ice) ran next to the above mentioned corridor except there was
no liquid in this corridor. The corridors met just before the gas room.
At the other end was another room. In this room was an extreamely tough
monster (basically unkillable by normal adventurer means - ie. magic
etc.). The monster had total magic resistance (magic weapons also did
not function as anything other than normal weapons) and had an increadible
armor class so it was very hard to hit. The magic resistance was supplied
by a special collar (more on that later). The monster was slow so it
could be easily outrun and it was pretty stupid. This provided a sence
of urgancy to the encounter since if you just sat around and tried to
figure out the puzzle the monster would be all over you. If you haven't
figured this out yet, the way to kill the monster is with the gas (there
are a number of ways to do this but I won't go into all that detail
here, it's not hard to figure out). It is necessary to kill the monster
(rather than just run away) because you need the collar. In the gas
room is a magical door that is unopenable except by using the antimagic
collar (I guess there are other ways if you have the resources but our
group didn't).
A
little more detail about the room might be in order here. In the room
there was a small pool of liquid (fed by the stream). The liquid then
flowed out of the room (although slowly). The pool formed around a central
rock that was warm and the rest of the floor was sand. A good DM should
be able to come up with many variations of this room to suit individual
campaigns but the basics will remain the same. If you think this room
is real easy to figure out after reading through this it is probably
much harder (not probably - IT IS!!) when you have an unkillable monster
chasing you around and it's 2 in the morning. This room was run with
two different groups. Both groups solved it but it took both of them
several hours each (we're talkin about 5 or 6 20 to 30 year olds with
Ph.D. and master degrees - not stupid people). It was a lot of fun though
- give it a try.
DM
SAYS-- SO YOU WANT TO ADVENTURE SEPARATELY, FINE!
How about a narrow corridor leading into a room. The party must walk
in single file to get to the room. Once a person enters, they are randomly
teleported to different locations in the room. This helps to separate
the party which is very effective on groups who depend on support from
one or two others to win their battles. The room should be about 100
square yds. and broken up into a nice 10x10 grid (varies). Each sector
of 10 yds. has something in it, like a monster, magic weapon, or a curse
to it or something. The players can walk out on any side of the square
they want, but they can't see where it leads because it just teleports
them to another square in the room. One square on each side of the room
has an exit into another corridor.
It's
a lot of fun to see how bad off players come out of this room. Sometimes
they have to re-enter to get back to the corridor their group is meeting
at. One player came out of mine as a 400 pound plaid person. The beauty
of the room is that its will always be different and you can select
whatever you want each square to be.
They'll
probably want to stay together for a while too.
