A trap on a book

[Gilladian]

Imagine this scene: a library in a (n ancient, abandoned) wizard's tower. In the chamber is a table on which is chained a large black-leather bound book. It is closed, and locked. It is imperative that the PCs read what is in the book, and the wizard who left it there INTENDED that his proper heir (who would have the book's key under the best circumstances) would read it, but that any intruder would be driven off or slain.

How would he guard the book?

I do NOT want a simple - pick the lock/disarm the device solution. The PCs have done that 3-4 times already this adventure. Nor do I want a monster/fight solution. What could be fun and exciting that would involve 2 or more of the PCs acting in concert?

The PCs are 6th level. They consist of a Fighter, a Ranger/Rogue, a Rogue, a Warlock, a Paladin, and their cohorts: a L5 healer, a L3 sorcerer and a couple of men-at-arms. Note the lack of wizard or cleric (which is deliberate on my part).

Any advice or suggestions gladly taken!

 

[Celebrim]

The real difficulty is not how he traps the book, but how he intends his proper heir to be identified. He'd want to be super reliable. One very super-reliable way to do this is employ some utterly lawful creature that has supernatural knowledge to identify the heir by blood. That is to say, an outsider with divination powers or other supernatural knowledge could by inspection validate the heir as the true heir and be compelled to stay at this job until the true heir arrived. That way someone couldn't simply steal a signet ring or a key and pretend to be the heir. You'd have to be the heir in truth, because a powerful outsider would be in a position to know who you really were. If the true heir arrived, then the outsider could provide the heir with the information he needed to bypass the traps, and if not then the outsider could simply stand aside and let the false heir get themselves killed. An archon or an inevitable could probably be compelled to perform such a function. There are probably other less reliable but still important ways that you'd also use in conjunction in case your worried that they could trick the outsider, but I don't know enough about this wizard or what assumptions he'd make about his heir to suggest any.

Note of course that the outsider would be instructed to avoid any sort of combat, because if the outsider is killed then you've lost your heir identifying mechanism. If not an Archon, your helpful outsider might be willing to help anyone claiming to be the heir, pretending that they are the true heir, but give false information to the ones that are not. Archons of course cannot deceive anyone willingly, that being against their rules.

Obviously, in this case, the best way to bypass the trap is simply to do whatever you need to do to identify yourself as the heir successfully.

The second difficulty that the wizard has is that he does not wish to harm the book. So you wouldn't want to flood the chamber with fluids or blast everyone with fire, because it could presumably overcome protections on the book and ruin the book. You wouldn't want a crushing room trap because you might smash the book, particularly if you have a case where they manage to get the book off before setting off the trap. So the traps in question have to target creatures specifically and do no harm to paper. For example, a dehydration trap that removed water from the targets in the room, a compulsion or suggestion, energy or ability drain, disease infliction like mummy rot, poison gas, and so forth all are perfectly safe to have around a book. Also, the trap should trap the false heir in with the book. Does you no good to lose the book while killing the false heir. A symbol of fear (thus no saving throw) in or below the book that causes the person viewing to panic in to the otherwise easy to bypass spiked pit traps leading up to the room is very secure and effective, but might harm the book. Probably you need a good reset mechanism for putting the book back as well, and the aforementioned outsider would be well suited to that.

Additionally, the wizard has the risk that his heir will make some mistake or otherwise trigger the trap. You want to be careful about leaving lethal death traps around that instantly kill your heir if an accident occurs. Yet the trap also has to reliably drive off anyone who isn't the heir.

Finally, since this is a game, you have a problem that the wizard does not - the Wizard doesn't care whether setting off the trap is 'fun'. But you have to not be too devious, because some of the truly devious traps I can think of would not be particularly fun. For example, if it were me the way I'd do this was convince anyone that wasn't the heir that they'd successfully read the book, but in fact they had read a completely false entry in what may well have been a false book. If it were me, I'd put the false book in plain sight with a suitably convincing level of protection, but place clues only the true heir would understand in places that would lead to the conclusion this is not the real book. Indeed, I'd make the real book not look like a book at all, or hide it in a stain glass window or a mirror or a painting that the party would need to reach into to get the real book. (And of course the real book would have an even more devious trap associated with it). It's amazing how easily the party will dismiss things that have writing on them that don't look like a book if they have the mental image of a 'book' in their head. Then I'd have this false information send any false heir off on a carefully constructed wild goose chase that would end in their certain death. Ideally the false book can be read far more easily than it can be stolen, leading to no need to reset the trap, but again if reset is needed then a suitable outsider can probably do a major creation to recreate a book and dutifully write the false information into it whenever it needs a reset. But we want to avoid super clever and super annoying. If you can figure out a way to make losing and going on a wild goose chase fun rather than annoying, then that's find but be careful with that.

 

[ElectricDragon]

The book and key are specially prepared.

The key is both physical and magical.

The book contains a portable hole-like space, only big enough for one person (adjusts to size of victim, but impervious to pointy things from the inside).

If the book is unlocked and opened without the key, the opener, if within 5 feet, gets sucked into the extradimensional trap space and the book slams back closed and re-locks. The next opener suffers the same fate, but this releases the first opener (for the adventurers: a mummified skeleton, not a monster, a long-dead person, appears where the first opener was and clatters to the ground, give the skeleton thief gear and stuff to let them know this was the last person to try to get the book, though the scare that that person was just disintegrated will appropriately sober the group and let them know this is not an ordinary trap).

When the key is used, the book is unlocked and the portable hole is locked closed and the book can be perused at will.

Mage hand can be used to remote open the book or some mechanical method of opening the book from across the room are both valid. Dispel magic will prevent the book sucking up one opener if timed right, but only stops it for 1d4 rounds not permanently (if the book is still open and someone within 5 feet, the book does its thing when it regains the ability to do so). Multiple persons within 5 feet require a random roll to determine which gets pulled inside. A person can read a page per round if they are literate and know the language (Common). Make sure they need to read at least 5 pages to increase consternation of players.

The book can be held open (Strength check DC 12) before the book slams shut if someone is close enough to try; but the Strength check must be made each round or the book slams back shut and re-locks. Only the front cover needs to be held down and up to one other person can help hold the book open giving a +2 bonus to the highest strength holder if someone is trying to read the book. Without a reader, 3 people can hold the book open.

While inside, the only actions available to the trapped person are mental actions, spells, and magic items, most of which will be useless. Air is not a problem, food and water would be if left inside for extended periods.

 

[Celebrim]

A bit more or traps generally...

The best traps put the whole party into some sort of dilemma, where the party members must extricate themselves from the trap and rescue their fellow party members. That is to say, the best traps go off reliably, take multiple rounds to kill the party, and effect the party as a whole either directly by putting them in danger or indirectly by forcing them to rescue whomever has been put in danger.

Good traps therefore do some or all of the following:

a) Move or separate party members. Wind traps, pit traps, anti-gravity traps, harpoon traps, vacuum traps, rushing water traps, falling portcullis traps, and so forth separate and confuse the party and force them to set priorities about what to do next. You don't want the party members off in separate rooms. You want them dealing with problems in different parts of the same connected space.

b) Trap party members. Impaling traps, pits with locking covers (preferably grates), bear traps, cages and so forth put party members in need of rescue and extrication.

c) Have an obvious timer that the party must fight against. You want to do small amounts of damage over time, not lots of damage up front. Or in the case of a trap that is conveying the party to some horrible end (a meat grinder, a pit of lava, a lethal fall, a vat of acid, a pit filled with venomous creatures), you want it to be a struggle for several rounds to avoid being conveyed to the horrible end with different party members in different levels of predicament trying to figure out how to help each other. So traps that cause players to bleed (such as being impaled on a barbed spike) or traps that fill up rooms with dangerous substances, or perhaps which release a tide of poisonous scorpions that are now slowly advancing on the players position, or otherwise take time to become lethal are preferred for game purposes over instant death traps.

d) Go off in stages and become an interacting puzzle more lethal than the sum of its parts. Serious traps start off bad and things just get worse. It's cliché, but you really do want the players going, "It can't get worse than this... it just did." By working on multiple levels, you can party members working on various problems - light sources, damage mitigation or resuscitation of commission party members, breaking parts of the trap, trying to disarm parts of the trap, fighting off the monsters that arrive while all of this is going on, trying to solve a puzzle while this is going on, or whatever.

Finally, I want to caution you against two mental 'traps' that trap designers can get themselves into. The first is trying to hard to play 'gotcha' with your players. Don't make it a contest you are trying to win. You have infinite resources as the GM. There is no way you can lose if you don't want to lose. The intention is for the trap to lose against a clever party and for the party to have fun doing it. The intention is not for them to be awed by how devious you are. They still might be, but don't lose sight of the real goal. And the second is related, and that is to avoid the temptation to use a bunch of reverse logic. You do NOT want to punish clever planning. If you start introducing reverse logic, then there is no way to plan for problems since a good plan might be a bad plan because the 'adversary' is counting on the adventurers to be clever. It's perfectly OK to give good clues that something is trapped. It's not OK to give good clues that something is trapped in order to get the party to react to that clue and blunder into the thing that is really trapped. If you are doing that, then the you've turned the whole affair into a crap shoot. At the very least, be consistent. If you really want to have the 'adversary' employ reverse logic, then he should have done so consistently through the whole dungeon and the first trap should serve as a hint to this thinking (without being overly lethal).

 

[Imaculata]

The book requires the user to place his hand on the cover of the book, in an indentation in the shape of a hand. It recognises the hand of the heir, and if it is a different hand, the mechanism locks around the hand of the user. Since the book is chained to a table, and the table is fixed to the floor, the user is now basically helpless. Next, a couple of dangerous creatures are released into the room, to kill the intruder.

 

[Gilladian]

Celebrity - thanks, as usual, for a wonderful amount of grist for my thoughts. I wish I had the forethought to make a PC the heir... I am leaning towards having the NPC sorceress fill the role, since her fascination with the tower has been obvious all along. But that would negate a lot of fun... I think instead, I will have the outsider you recommend give the non-heir bad advice, and when they pick the lock, the door will slam shut and poison gas begin hissing into the room. Since the towers are already known to be airtight, this is a scary proposition and will require work to get out of. A nice skeleton under the table will add some oomph to their fear.

 

[Celebrim]

Celebrity - thanks, as usual, for a wonderful amount of grist for my thoughts. I wish I had the forethought to make a PC the heir...

Every player you have already knows their whole family tree? The longer ago this wizard was alive, the easier it is to pull that.

I'm not a huge fan of poison gas as a timer mechanism. I suggest 'hallucination poison' for the gas, that acts as 'confusion gas' (new save every round you breathe the stuff, failure see something weird and take a random action) with 5 spiked pit traps around the edge of the (12 sided) room, with a flee result having a high chance of sending someone into a pit. Release 6 bugbear skeletons into the room through panels between the pits, then treat them as the 'caster/enemy' for purposes of confusion. Now everyone has something to do. Devise a couple of different likely ways to turn off the gas (possibly there is a fan control in a hidden panel that reverses and sucks the gas out of the room, or you can plug up the holes with clay, chewed tobacco or beef jerky, wet bandages, etc. but the holes are high up in the ceiling, and so forth). If the gas holes are plugged up, the heavier than air gas eventually pools 1d4 rounds later in bottom of the pit traps.

If your party is particularly experienced and capable of solving complex puzzles, the book on the table in the center of the room is fake. The five pit traps have beautifully painted plaster frescos on the far wall above them, each telling the story of the wizard and the room in pictures and displaying his heraldic shield - a blue field with wizard hats, crescent moons and stars flanked by djinn (or whatever is appropriate to your wizard). On the one opposite the door is a painting of the heir taking the book the book from the pedestal. Very close observation (PC asks for the book in the fresco to be fully described, or a secretly rolled DC 24 intelligence check otherwise) notes that the book in the fresco is painted subtly different than the book on the pedestal, with the hint of a blue cover rather than the red cover of the book on the pedestal. The real book is behind the plaster on the wall above the spiked pit, exactly where it is painted in the fresco. It is in a lead box and is hidden by a permanent nondetection spell. The book on the pedestal appears to be the real book and is actually a spell book containing many low level spells. But the inside cover has a symbol of fear which sends any viewer in a panic into one of the pit traps, whereas the real book is locked closed but untrapped. The next 20 pages of the fake book appear to be the information that the party is seeking, but are in fact a clever fake that gives misinformation. Another clue (but don't tell them this is a clue) is that there is no provision in the chains to remove the book from the pedestal, and if it is to be removed the chains must be struck off from the loops that hold the book to the pedestal.

The six panels/sides of the room that are not alcoves containing pit traps appear to be a library, complete with various tomes of arcane lore of comparatively minor value (360 3lb books worth 2d20 gp each). A sliding panel reveals an animated bugbear skeleton behind each. As is a typical decoration of such libraries, there is a metal ladder that can rotate around the room to allow access to the shelves (or if the player is clever, to get up to block up the holes that send the confusion gas into the room). The ladder can also be lifted off its track, and if it is it will be found by anyone that experiments with the idea that the bottom can be perfectly lined up with the lip of one of the pit traps, allowing the ladder to lean against the far wall at an angle and serve as a stable 'bridge'. If placed over the correct pit, the top of the ladder on the far wall lines up perfectly with the bottom of the book painted on the fresco.

 

[Gilladian]

Confusion gas is an excellent idea. I might be able to work in a pit trap or two, as well. I may say that the confusion is permanent after 3 failed saves, to make it scarier and deadly.

As far as the heir bit - no, but such surprises are always better if foreshadowed a bit. And overall, I think this works better if they are NOT the heir.

I'm definitely hiding the real book behind the painting. And if removed, it clears the gas.

 

[Celebrim]

Confusion gas is an excellent idea. I might be able to work in a pit trap or two, as well.

The pits will make the confusion gas much more 'fun'.

I may say that the confusion is permanent after 3 failed saves, to make it scarier and deadly.

I'd play with the DC to control lethality, or up the bugbears to zombies, or make the pits 20' deep. I suspect though for 5 6th level characters, this is already a very difficult to lethal encounter as it is. (The gas is about CR 5, the 5 pit traps each in the circumstances a CR 2, the 6 bugbear skeletons each CR 2. The symbol effectively a CR 3 or 4, and figure in another bit for the sliding block that traps you in here.) The whole thing is about EL 10.

The problem with permanent after 3 failed saves is by the time you get to round 5 or 6, the whole party is permanently insane. You want this encounter to go a long while. There is a lot to do and it won't drag. If you really feel like making the timer hard because you want this to work like 'Tomb of Horrors' or a tournament level dungeon, increase the DC over time as the gas gets harder and harder to resist. That will work similarly but give the party moments of lucidity as time goes by.

As far as working in the pit traps, you can always 'Tardis' up this room so that it is bigger on the inside than the outside.

As far as the heir bit - no, but such surprises are always better if foreshadowed a bit. And overall, I think this works better if they are NOT the heir.

I generally agree. The heir is intended to solve this problem easily, so as to not get killed. The outsider before the room would probably simply tell the heir something like, "Remember always to put your faith in your ancestors true colors, and remember also that for the brave and dedicated it is always possible to ascend to true knowledge, no matter the obstacle." Any heir that doesn't solve the room trivially with a clue like that is too stupid to be a wizard anyway. But if the PC's are the heir they both miss all the fun and lose the opportunity to be really clever.

I'm definitely hiding the real book behind the painting. And if removed, it clears the gas.

I agree that actually taking the real book should end all difficulty.

 

[Gilladian]

See, I figure the gas is going to bother the NPCs more than the PCs. And I'm not sure I want to include a fight element. They've had numerous tough fights getting to this point. And will have another at the treasury upstairs. So the book trap, gas, pit traps, hidden book, and sealed exit door will be the whole thing.
It will be plenty.