Magical traps (spoilers)

[Dalin]

Spoilers from "I Smell a Rat" below.

The Rune-Limned Gallery. When it says "Resists Dehydrate-15 with HT," does this mean that I roll against skill 15 to see what the margin of success was? And then compare that to the character's margin of success on their HT roll? Do I roll again for each character who triggers the trap? If I roll a failure (16+), then I assume the character automatically resists, regardless of their HT roll.

How often does a trap like this trigger? My initial assumption is that it's "always on" and invokes against anyone in the hallway each second. This is pretty brutal, though, so then I wondered if I was misunderstanding something. Just once per character? Just once per minute? If you are knocked unconscious, will it strike again each second until you're completely desiccated? If your move is too slow to make it in one turn, do you get hit twice? The Traps book says that traps that automatically rearm themselves take 1dx10 seconds to rearm. This is obviously for mechanical traps, not magical ones, so I'm guessing this isn't applicable here. Just curious how others are handling this, and how other groups have navigated it.

Thanks, all!

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Dalin

The Rune-Limned Gallery. When it says "Resists Dehydrate-15 with HT," does this mean that I roll against skill 15 to see what the margin of success was? And then compare that to the character's margin of success on their HT roll? Do I roll again for each character who triggers the trap? If I roll a failure (16+), then I assume the character automatically resists, regardless of their HT roll.

Yes. Quick Contest of HT vs. Dehydrate-15, which means exactly what you wrote.

Originally Posted by Dalin

How often does a trap like this trigger? My initial assumption is that it's "always on" and invokes against anyone in the hallway each second. This is pretty brutal, though, so then I wondered if I was misunderstanding something.

It is indeed always on, though it's obvious to everyone that something is up, according to its Detect line. You can maybe do a "Triggers on 1-4 on 1d for each delver" if you think it's too nasty, but they are forewarned.

[Kromm]

Always on but not each second. Each trip through requires one resistance roll. You can crawl through, run through, walk in and stay there, or whatever and be affected just once . . . but if you walk out either end, then you have to resist again the next time you enter. Think of the whole corridor as a cursed item that affects you once per touch.

And yes, resistance works as it would for a Resisted spell (Spells, p. 14) cast at skill 15 and resisted by HT.

[finn]

I understood that it was suppose to trigger each trip up or down, but when I run it, I changed it to affect only once a day, so the delvers will not have to roll to resist on the way home.

I winged it because they were quite resource limited on their way home. (Another way to change it is that it only affect on the way down, but not the way up.)
Though you could argue that they should have thought about the trap and left enough resources, what's the fun in rolling for resistance, and maybe collapsing, on your way home?

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by finn

Though you could argue that they should have thought about the trap and left enough resources, what's the fun in rolling for resistance, and maybe collapsing, on your way home?

Sometimes getting home is half the adventure.


Though in this case I agree, it probably would have only been a needless complication at the end of the run.

[Astromancer]

I like my magical traps simple. The whole hall feels magical, equally magical. The open pits are covered by illusions.

Distraction traps that pull the groups attention elsewhere so they don't see what happened to their team mate, are lovely too.

[Bruno]

My group exorcised the runes when they ran into them. I called that "effective" because they're Evil runes, of course you can exorcise them... but I only let that disable them for 24 hours.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Bruno

My group exorcised the runes when they ran into them. I called that "effective" because they're Evil runes, of course you can exorcise them... but I only let that disable them for 24 hours.

Perfect application of Rule Zero.

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by Bruno

My group exorcised the runes when they ran into them. I called that "effective" because they're Evil runes, of course you can exorcise them... but I only let that disable them for 24 hours.

My group doesn't have a wizard or any thaumatology skill, so I was planning to follow that route if the cleric or holy warrior wants to tackle it. Something like a cursed hallway.

I was also thinking that if Ælin Rocktalker (Delvers, p. 3) wanted to pour a lot of FP into Shape Earth, he might do enough damage to permanently destroy the magic of the runes. It's not clear how steep the arch is above, but let's say the walls are each 8x20 feet, or a total of 320 square feet (for two walls) or 46,080 square inches. A 6 FP (x6 multiplier for worked stone) casting of Shape Earth can manage 46,656 cubic inches, so Ælin could, ostensibly, smear the walls to an inch deep. I'd probably require at least double that (those runes have deep roots). I'm not entirely clear on whether he would have to be walking down the hallway in order to do this, which would also mean that he would likely get hit by the spell once, taking a pile of damage.

I don't even know if he'll go for it, but I'd be up for letting him give it a shot. If it feels too easy, the Peshkali could launch a preemptive strike or when the spell finally fails, it might have a final spasm that increases its area of effect or causes a tremor/rockfall or some other excitement.

Fun!

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Bruno

My group exorcised the runes when they ran into them. I called that "effective" because they're Evil runes, of course you can exorcise them... but I only let that disable them for 24 hours.

That's what the groups at Gen Con did, too! And yes, I let it work. They're not just Evil Runes, but sell-your-soul-to-the-Devil Evil runes.