The Palimpsest Trap
 

Greater Magic Item: The Palimpsest Trap

This trap is often employed as a security measure in magical libraries, and it takes the form of a very large and impressively decorated book, usually displayed prominently to better attract the attention of thieves. A Detect Magic will reveal that it is enchanted (twice!), but not the nature of the magic.

If anyone opens the book, a Control Person spell is released. If they successfully resist, they may close the book, but if they fail, they will begin flipping through the pages. (Another person may try to intervene at this point.) Then when they reach a predetermined page — say, for example, page 106 — a Long-Distance Teleport sends the thief to an arena, standing directly in front of a (d6: 1=7-hex dragon, 2=Giant, 3-5=Human Warrior, 6=4-hex dragon).

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

Geas enchantment to report to the arena?

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

I suppose that would be an easier trap to make, but I like the imagery of thinking you're in one place but suddenly finding yourself somewhere else. ;)

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

Possession Trap

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

this kinda stoopid has genuine mid 1970s flavour! high kudos from me :)

make it 2 dragons in arena .. plus crowd of 40,000 (projected images)

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

Or better yet, skip the die roll and make it the whole page: both dragons, the giant, the human warrior, and all the participants in the battle from the other illustration. One second you're in a library, the next you're in the middle of a pitched battle with no idea whose side to take…

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

this is sooo judges guild

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

Does Detect Magic tell you how many enchantments/spells something has, or just whether it is magic or not?

(We always played it as just "it's magic" or "it doesn't seem to be magic".)


Also, how would the thief's companions think to intervene? (Flipping through the pages seems like fairly normal behavior, even if the thief is illiterate.)

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

That's pretty much exactly what ITL says.

They probably wouldn't notice… at first. But if it's all the way back on page 106, it'll take quite a while to get there, and it may seem odd that the Victim is so fixated on that book.

Plus, the Victim may realize what's happening — and the Control Person spell is only making them turn the pages, not be silent, so they may say something like, "Uh, guys… I can't stop flipping these pages. I mean, seriously, I can't stop…" And then they can try to pry the Victim away from the book.

Of course, you could just skip the Control Person part entirely, and put the Long-Distance Teleport trap on page 1, so they get it just by opening the thing — or the cover, for that matter. Or the doormat on the floor in front of the magnificent gold-chased ebony Lectern atop a rose marble pedestal (complete with overhead spotlight) upon which you were displaying the book…

But that'd be too easy, and wouldn't serve as an in-joke for anybody who knows what Page 106 means. ;)

Re: The Palimpsest Trap
 

Cast reveal five times then Spellsniffer for "and an unknown spell".