Sunday, May 25, 2014

Six Traps (And the Stuffer Shack Contest)

(1d6) Minor Traps


  1. What You See: A battered and tattered child's toy, some sort of stuffed animal, lies on the edge of a small puddle of glossy black oil. Closer examination will reveal that the black oil is in fact leaking out of the little stuffed animal.

    What you get: The oil is non-toxic, not flammable, and aside from a nasty odor doesn't pose any sort of threat whatsoever. The stuffed animal is packed with (10d10) tiny, but inert blue-striped maggots. The black oil is what kept them inert. Moving or disturbing the stuffed animal will cause more of the black oil to leak out and revive the swarm of maggots...

    Blue-Striped Maggots (10-100) [AL N, MV 12' (4'), AC 7, HD 1 hit point per maggot, #AT 1, DG 1d4 (Special), SV F1, ML 12 (mindless). Special: Whenever the maggots roll a natural 19 or 20 on their 'To Hit,' they attach themselves to their victim and begin to burrow into their flesh for double damage each subsequent round, until destroyed or eliminated, or they kill the victim who then becomes a host for the things to incubate within as they transform into a swarm of vile, vicious biting fly-things. The maggots take double-damage from fire.]

  2. What You See: The corridor, hallway, or other such passage ahead seems to be criss-crossed with glistening strands of thread or webs. A closer examination shows that the glossy strands extend upwards through some sort of chimney-like opening or crevice, perhaps leading to the outside as there is a slight breeze of fresh air coming through it.

  3. What you get: The slight breeze may cause torches or unprotected flames to flutter, but otherwise it is no big deal. The passage is very irregular and is too tight in some places for even the smallest party member to get through, not counting the layers upon layers of glass webs. The web-strands are all finely extruded and incredibly delicate strands of glass. The web was originally formed by a swarm of Glass Spiders that have since been shattered into the tiny bits of glass spider-limb debris crunching away underfoot. The web is very fragile and easily broken or shattered, however, once it starts to collapse, the entire structure falls into millions of tiny, sharp glass fragments that come pouring out of the chimney-like crevice in a blinding, lacerating cloud of glass fragments that cause 1d6 per round for the next 1d4 rounds and extends out to a 20' radius.

  4. What You See: There is an open trap-door in a section of the floor directly ahead. Closer examination shows that it appears to have been lying open for a considerable time, as a thick layer of dust covers the edges, exposed hinges, and so on.

    What you get: The floor is covered with a layer of dust over two inches deep and it gets deeper the closer to the open trap-door one gets. The floor slants, slightly at first, but then increasingly more steeply as one approaches the opening. When someone reaches the half-way point, they must Save or make a DEX check, failure indicating that they have slipped on the suddenly much more steeply inclined section of floor covered in nearly four inches of fine, dry, grit which offers them no purchase whatsoever as they slide and tumble down into the gaping pit. The pit itself is just a basic hole in the ground, though it could be filled with spikes, pottery shards, damp muck, or whatever as circumstances warrant...

  5. What You See: Some sweet-smelling fluid is dribbling slowly down the walls on both sides of the passage ahead. Closer examination reveals that the fluid is thick, syrupy stuff with a pungent vanilla scent. It is neither flammable, nor toxic.

    What you get: If anyone asks, the ceiling in the affected area is also quite damp, and may be sagging slightly, but the effect is not immediately obvious. As each person passes through this area, they should each roll a D6. On any result of a 6, the ceiling buckles and a large mass of rotting flesh, a recently expired giant worm of some sort, comes crashing through the ceiling with a lot of noise, dust and syrupy fluid spattering everywhere. The collapse happens in such a way that everyone can quickly withdraw or run past, as they choose, without recourse to any Saves or DEX checks...however, now there's a massive mound of decaying dead worm blocking the passage and the noise of the collapse requires a Wandering Monster check...

  6. What You See: A Spear-Trap. There are at least three picked-over skeletons skewered by dozens of staggered and overlapping spears protruding from slots in the walls. Closer examination reveals that the spears are rusted and this macabre tableau has been left undisturbed for a long, long time...

    What you get: Moving or otherwise disturbing the spears will cause them to retract back into the walls with incredible force, showering everyone within a 10' radius with bits of bone, rusty spear-heads, and splintered spear hafts for 1d4 damage. The damaged mechanisms behind the walls then begin to rattle, clunk and shudder violently for the next 1d6 Turns, necessitating an additional Wandering Monster check each turn the racket continues. Eventually, the noise will settle down, however, any time someone traverses this section again, the walls rattle, clunk and boom loudly for 1d6 Turns, at least until someone does something to finally demolish or repair the faulty mechanisms in the walls...

  7. What You See: There's something funny about the ceiling. It seems to be made-up of panels of dirty, heavily smeared glass. Closer examination will reveal that the glass panels are suspended from the actual ceiling, the outer edges are sloped so as to obscure how the main section of the glass ceiling is about half a foot lower than the surrounding ceiling.

    What you get: The glass panels rattle slightly when people walk around beneath them, but otherwise they appear mostly harmless. It is when investigators attempt to move on from this spot that the glass panels shatter spectacularly, raining down a shower of glass debris, dust and bits of black, lumpy matter that crumble into almost crystalline granules.

    The black granules are the desiccated remains of a large Black Pudding, or some similar type of Ooze that had crawled up into this space to lurk in wait for the next bunch of explorers to pass underneath. Unfortunately for the Ooze-thing, something happened and it went inert (it is terribly impolite to say 'died,' in regards to such beings), and its dried-out remains have been held in suspension overlooking this dreary locale for a long, long time. There is a better than good chance that one might revive the Ooze-thing with the addition of some alcohol or blood, if one were interested in doing such a thing...

Stuffer Shack is holding a contest...
...and you could win some nifty miniature horses!

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