Traps

“A man of conviction and piety will walk the fanes at least once in his life. To walk the fanes is to tread in the footsteps of the saints; it is a test of faith. A test where the righteous are rewarded and the false are punished.” The Faneway of Air straddles the highest mountain

The corridor you have been following opens up into a large square room. In the middle of the room, a large circular shaft extends downward with a diameter of 20 ft. Another corridor connects to the room, much wider than the one you followed, the corridor rises upward at a low angle. The corridor has

Power. Few mortals can resist its lure, yet power is ever elusive. Those who’ve grasped it always seem to lose it eventually. Trapsmiths, on the other hand, do not grab power; they trap it. The Orb of Champions (Trap CR 7) In the middle of a perfectly circular room, a marble pedestal stands 3 ft.

Mimics are among the most hazardous creatures an adventurer is likely to encounter. Surviving on trickery and cunning, instead of brute strength or raw magical power, the mimic inspires fear for its ability to fool and ensnare the unwary. Typically, you encounter a mimic on its own, proving little threat to an experienced adventuring group.

As you turn a corner, the corridor you are following widens dramatically to a width of 40 ft. Ahead 200 ft., four continual flames, placed evenly apart on both sides of the corridor, form a 40-ft square section. Beyond this lit area, the corridor connects to a roughly circular cavern. A huge statue, aglow in

Trapsmiths only take two levels of security into consideration while working on a project: adequate and excessive. Experienced rogues can attest that “excessive” is the most common level of security. Collapsing Corridor Trap (CR 14) Two adamantine doors seal off a long corridor. The adamantine doors are locked and barred (hardness 20; 80 hp; break

This is a well of souls, built by fell religions as a prison for their failures, heretics, or worse. A place where Good dies and is reduced to a form of currency. A well of souls is a place where many traps come together. Four stairways lead down to a well of sorts. A greyish

At first glance, it looks to be nothing more than a sword rack, masterfully carved from a single piece of dark wood, holding weapons in stylized arms. However, approaching the sword rack, it comes to life as its arms unfold to wield the sharp payload. It bounces menacingly towards you, flourishing the blades with an

There is always room for improvement. This is a basic fact known to trapsmiths. The only limits to improvement are time and money: usually clients only want “reasonable” protection or warding. Trapsmiths offer a plethora of reasonably priced enhancements to improve standard issue traps, making them something special and unique. Many traps are that much

Trapsmiths try very hard to impede, disable, and destroy intruders, but sometimes, trapsmiths wish that tomb robbers would just destroy themselves. The undead druid known as the “Thing at the Soul of the Mire” (see Kobold Quarterly #3) was one of the first to develop the painful lure trap: a trap where intruders cause their

Some trapsmiths believe in the tried and true “bigger is better” in trap design. However, some of the more offbeat trapsmiths prefer complexity in their designs. Many of these traps comprise multiple smaller traps, and the CR of each is determined separately. Stages should be treated as separate traps (e.g. requiring separate Perception checks). If

The best kind of trap is a trap that can hide in plain sight, perhaps even be on display: Upon a blackwood table stands a glass cylinder with something inside. Two everburning torches set behind the cylinder cause the object contained in the cylinder to cast a long shadow across the room. The shadow twists

Every trapsmith knows that a trap is little more than a complicated piece of furniture or decoration until it springs to life and reminds people why no one comes down this way. That is why, over the years, many clever trapsmiths have found ways to bait their traps or even install traps into tempting targets

Adapted from Scott Murray’s “Spiked Pits, Poisoned Arrows, and Healing Words” from Kobold Quarterly #12. As discussed the previous article, traps can impede a party in more ways that just a poison arrow or a snare. Boon traps are generally magical devices that provide bonuses rather than penalties. They may not target adventurers intruding on