"tech" traps in dungeons
Oct. 17th, 2020 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrI'm not talking high tech stuff. I'm talking things that are quite simple. Some even the Egyptians could have used if they'd stumbled onto some things.
Otheres require "special" materials, but ones that wouldn't be that hard for mages/alchemists/whatever
Lodestones have been known since the bronze age if not before. Rocks that attract/repel similar rocks, and come the iron age, attract iron as well.
So developing strong magnets isn't a reach, and mages will have played with them.
So simple magnet trap: Large magnet mounted in wall or floor. Anybody wearing or carrying iron/steel gear is going to have problems.
Fancier trap: use a magnet to trigger a trap. No pressure plate or tripwire. At least not visible. But when that fighter in his chainmail or plate gets near the wrong spot. Ouch!
It gets even more fun if you can use magic (or fancy mechanical setups) to spin a large, powerful magnet. This will not only try to drag iron and steel around the room, but the induced eddy currents will drag *non*-ferrous metals as well (though not as strongly)
The metals will heat up too, but not a lot unless that magnet is *really* spinning. Probably not possible mechanically, but if it can be done magickally?
More fun. static electricity is easy to discover, especially very dry climates. Leyden jars and the like aren't that hard to discover either.
And there are several ways to generate a *lot* of static electricity. One involves nothing more than dripping water an a bit of metalwork.
Generating charges is quite doable. Storing them isn't that hard and given mages and other researchers, improving them is not unlikely. So you could have non-magical "lightning traps" that can even reset themselves.
Now we get evil. This is something that isn't likely to be discovered, but given alchemists and their pursuits of new metals and odd mixtures, who knows? and this is also one of those areas where you can use what the players know versus what their characters know for some fun.
Glowing rocks or hunks of metal. Maybe it's magic. Maybe it's some fungus or something. Or maybe it's radioactive. Only the GM knows for sure.
Oh yeah, it could be something that glows after being exposed to light. That's probably harmless.
I had some spooked players the one time they encountered something that was glowing in the dark. :-)
A note for GMs. if something is radioactive enough to glow in the dark, it's because the emitted particles are ionizing the air. Or because of Cherenkov radiation.
Either way the light will be blue, and you may be able to smell some ozone in the air (in which case you are likely going to be in a bad way soon...)
Otheres require "special" materials, but ones that wouldn't be that hard for mages/alchemists/whatever
Lodestones have been known since the bronze age if not before. Rocks that attract/repel similar rocks, and come the iron age, attract iron as well.
So developing strong magnets isn't a reach, and mages will have played with them.
So simple magnet trap: Large magnet mounted in wall or floor. Anybody wearing or carrying iron/steel gear is going to have problems.
Fancier trap: use a magnet to trigger a trap. No pressure plate or tripwire. At least not visible. But when that fighter in his chainmail or plate gets near the wrong spot. Ouch!
It gets even more fun if you can use magic (or fancy mechanical setups) to spin a large, powerful magnet. This will not only try to drag iron and steel around the room, but the induced eddy currents will drag *non*-ferrous metals as well (though not as strongly)
The metals will heat up too, but not a lot unless that magnet is *really* spinning. Probably not possible mechanically, but if it can be done magickally?
More fun. static electricity is easy to discover, especially very dry climates. Leyden jars and the like aren't that hard to discover either.
And there are several ways to generate a *lot* of static electricity. One involves nothing more than dripping water an a bit of metalwork.
Generating charges is quite doable. Storing them isn't that hard and given mages and other researchers, improving them is not unlikely. So you could have non-magical "lightning traps" that can even reset themselves.
Now we get evil. This is something that isn't likely to be discovered, but given alchemists and their pursuits of new metals and odd mixtures, who knows? and this is also one of those areas where you can use what the players know versus what their characters know for some fun.
Glowing rocks or hunks of metal. Maybe it's magic. Maybe it's some fungus or something. Or maybe it's radioactive. Only the GM knows for sure.
Oh yeah, it could be something that glows after being exposed to light. That's probably harmless.
I had some spooked players the one time they encountered something that was glowing in the dark. :-)
A note for GMs. if something is radioactive enough to glow in the dark, it's because the emitted particles are ionizing the air. Or because of Cherenkov radiation.
Either way the light will be blue, and you may be able to smell some ozone in the air (in which case you are likely going to be in a bad way soon...)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 11:28 am (UTC)I will note, if something is radioactive it probably won't glow blue in air unless it's ionising it. The difference between c in air and a vacuum is small and not enough to generate Cherenkov radiation easily.
Also.. you're evil! I like that.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 02:36 pm (UTC)Silly thought. Maybe radiation damage is why trolls evolved regeneration.
As for evil, I try. I once had a spur of the moment opportunity to mess with the players. and they didn't catch it until they heard the story circulating in the taverns a month later.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 01:58 pm (UTC)Heh. I'm an engineer. My first dungeon had several "stage effects" traps on the first level. One was a breakaway door with a pit behind it. (For those muscleheads who think checking for traps is "wimp stuff.") Then there was the "Door Knocker." A heavy wooden beam is attached to the ceiling by a hinge near the door. The other end has a heavy stone weight, one end sticking down, latched to the ceiling. The trip line for the latch is connected to the door. The door is opened from the other side, and...
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 05:54 pm (UTC)Let me guess, you had a copy of Grimtooth's traps?
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 06:51 pm (UTC)But no, I came up with these long before that.
Of a fun one that the players actually ran into.
The room's ceiling was a bright yellow. They used their torches to inspect it but didn't see anything special. So they went back to examining the contents of the room.
I was idly rolling dice and at some point I informed a player that his character had a sharp burning pain on the back of his neck.
He discovered something yellow and a blister. Upon looking around they realized that drops of yellow liquid were falling from the ceiling and that i was burning with an almost invisible blue flame.
They also realized that their throats were burning. They hurriedly left the room and shut the door behind them.
Yes, the ceiling was sulfur and one of the torches had ignited it.
Since I'd accidentally ignited a block of sulfur in my basement lab once, I was checking to see how long it'd take to notice. The dripping happened before anyone realized it was getting hard to breathe (sulfur dioxide sneaks up on you).
Next trip, they checked the room again and there was a layer of smoke/fog about 3 feet thick on the floor (a bit of a reach, perhaps, but I went with it).
They were trying to search the room for anything they hadn't checked before their hasty departure. It was slow going as they quickly learned that they didn't want to stir things up too much. The smog was *nasty*.
The the door on the opposite side of the room opened. Stayed open a minute then closed.
They were immediately on guard. There might have been some swirls in the mist but it was hard to tell.
Suddenly there was a definite swirl. Had something poked up out of the mist? There! It happened again, but in a different spot.
Now the the two giant snakes had done an "up periscope" to locate the party, they swiftly slithered to the attack.
Interesting battle. :-)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-18 01:25 am (UTC)Nope. Just liked designing mechanical traps. :-)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 02:07 pm (UTC)The bit with alchemists and radioactive materials reminds me of something from the short novel _Day of the Giants_ (by Lester Del Rey, 1959).
A pair of human brothers in the modern era wind up helping the Aesir fight Ragnarok. One brother is an engineer. He works with the dwarves - who are natural techs - to make modern weapons for the gods. Using a scrying mirror to get the plans, he starts building fission bombs. He discovers the dwarves are already familiar with enriched uranium. "It keeps better in small lumps."
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 02:40 pm (UTC)The main character gets obsessed for gathering money. When he throws the last bag into the money pit... Boom.
Last line is "there are no millionaires on [planet name]"
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 05:59 pm (UTC)Having had a bit to think, the Chinese had a similar idea.
Legend has it, they made them out of lodestones, so when someone walked through them, any concealed weapons would be revealed.
Now, imagine that, with spinning magnets inside....
no subject
Date: 2020-10-17 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-18 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-10-18 03:30 pm (UTC)Gojira!!!