Shivering, Gavin longingly gazed at the dungeon’s exit, then at the dim light coming from the dangling, crude chandelier above him. All that stood between him and freedom was a burly half-orc. Gavin drew the bedroll he used as a makeshift cloak closer around his naked form as a cold draft started up. Ordinarily, a single half-orc shouldn’t pose that much of a problem to a man with his abilities, but without his weapons and armor—or clothes for that matter—Gavin wasn’t feeling particularly brave. He would have to resort to trickery, and he needed to use the environment to help him do so.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, or so the saying goes. When the adventuring lifestyle leaves you naked beside a crowbar, a bedroll, a mirror, and a flask of oil, though, and when the environment helps in some manner with existing mechanisms (such as an overhead lighting element that uses rope or chain and other useful bits), you make a smothering fire trap.

The smothering fire trap first slams a crowbar into the target’s shins. This deals 1d6 damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 14 Reflex save or fall prone. From the ceiling, the bedroll, weighted down with carefully broken shards from a mirror, drops and covers the target, effectively grappling the target. The shards, which have been hooked into the bedroll’s cloth, also snag at the dungeon’s rough floor, plus the clothing or armor of the target. For a final effect, the bedroll is soaked with oil and is set aflame. (Any loose organic material in the room could also be drenched with oil and placed directly under the trap.) This ruins the bedroll and makes it easier for the target to escape its clutches.

Smothering Fire Trap     CR 1
Type mechanical; Perception DC 19; Disable Device DC 15
Trigger location; Reset none
Effect crowbar shin slam (Atk +7 melee, 1d6 damage. In addition, the target must make a DC 14 Reflex save or fall prone)
Effect smothering bedroll; the target is grappled and must defeat the bedroll’s CMD of 22 to break free.
Effect burning bedroll; treat as the heat metal spell, plus the target gains a cumulative +1 bonus to its check to defeat the bedroll’s CMD of 22 for each round that it remains grappled.

Next Installment

What can Gavin do with a bag of marbles, a tanglefoot bag, a coil of wire, a knife, a live cat, and a thunderstone?

The Challenge

Name four adventuring items and receive a murderous trap in return.

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