It's a Trap! - The Wishing Tree

It's a Trap! 

I have a new idea, Traps! Everyone likes traps. This trap appears to be a puzzle to get a mighty magical item and really, it's just character death all over. 


You can never had enough items or traps  which cause your players misery, despair and bemusement in your game. If you are looking for something nasty here is a trap/encounter  which is easy to throw into one of your games. This is designed to make your players regret ever thinking it was a good idea to doubt their vulnerability. It might be an idea to have the players hear of a rumour about this particular tree.  


The Wishing Tree

Well, that looks safe... 

"The wishing tree" stands isolated from its fellow foliage in the centre of an ominous clearing, or perhaps buried, lost, in a chasm beneath the earth. This tree seems to stretch on forever, its branches twist and snake together and cast black shadows over the rotting ground. Its leaves shine sanguine; and they are coated in a sticky red dew. The tree's mighty trunk pulsates; as if it is breathing in deep and then exhaling raggedly.  All around the tree grows a thick wall of dark brambles and there is only one pathway to the tree itself through the distorted thorns. 

In the centre of the tree's trunk is a gaping hole, coal-black and stretching inwards forever. Sat on the lip of this human sized entrance to the tree is a beautiful stone woman clutching in her hands a golden branch with the same red leaves. It appears from a distance that the branch might be removable and highly valuable.

If you want to add in a bit more incentive to get your players to approach, ask them if they are looking closely across the brambles at the stone woman's body or face. If so, they must make a Save Vs. Magic/ Save Vs. Will. If they fail, they will be compelled to approach the woman and touch her. If the statue is touched then the player must make a Save Vs Paralyse or they themselves will be turned to stone. The effect will only end if the player is carried or removed from the clearing. Weapons can touch the statue without effect. 

It's possible your players can hear a soft "Nom, Nom, Nom"...

The brambles are living vampiric plants and if the players attempt to cut them down they will attack the players and  drag them into the thorns (Save Vs. Paralyse, or a grapple). The brambles will wrap around the player, embed their thorns into the players skin and then drain them of their blood. Stat these brambles to be quite dangerous, to discourage players from attempting to cut through them to the tree. The pathway is the only way to the statue that is vaguely safe. Even then, the players should not tread too heavily or risk being attacked by the brambles (Stealth or a Dex Roll). Give the players a hint that they should walk carefully by the brambles; have them tremble, or have the players glimpse the brambles moving on their own. 

If the players make is safety past the trees outer defences, touching the tree or the statue will cause the player to turn to stone unless they save. 

If they attempt to take the branch from the statue it will grasp the branch tightly until it is let go, at which point the statue will relax again. The players can try to remove the branch with strength or through dexterity to try and snatch it away. If they remove the head of the statue, the statue will drop the branch but blood will spill from the statues neck and the woman's head will turn back to flesh, screaming one last time. 

The branch itself is worthless; it appears to be an ordinary branch which has been painted gold. The leaves are wilted and old. A magic users investigations, or an intelligence check, will reveal that the tree branch does have some magical properties. The person holding the branch will need to make a Save Vs. Magic roll, or they will be compelled to make a wish.

Whatever they wish for should be interpreted wrongly and should either cause death, mutilation or something horrible to happen to either the player or their loved ones. How this works is up to you. For example, someone wishing for gold should themselves be slowly turned to gold over the course of the adventure, having to make save vs. magic to see how long they can resist the wishes full effects until eventually they become a solid gold statue. If the effect is instant or slow burning, that is again down to you.

The tree should not give anything useful to the players. It is here to kill them or mutilate them.

The hole behind the statue goes on forever. If a player tries to enter, they will fall into an abyss . For hundreds of years they will stay suspended in maddening darkness, unheard, with the light of the outside world hanging above them forever out of reach. The tree will slowly over those hundreds of years digest the players body, while they writhe in helpless agony.

 If the branch is thrown into the abyss then the statues will return to their flesh forms. You can decide if they return alive or dead. 

Enjoy! 

All images have been sourced from www.freeimages.com and are not used for commercial purposes. 

Cursed and Magical Items to Screw Up Your Players - Bones of Pelasgus

The Bones of Pelasgus

“Take his hand off while he lives, slowly, and place it in the bag. The bones will show the way, always. That will teach the bastard not to point at me.” - Lycoan the Hound

This is one of the few magic items in my PDF Panic in Pluckley, which I am writing currently.

The Bones of Pelasgus are a set of men’s finger bones, all in pieces, contained within a black leather bag. The bag has strange silver runes embroidered into the leather which shine ominously even when there is no light.

Once per day the players may shake the bones and ask the bones if they can see anything magical in the vicinity. Any hidden doors, any magical items or magical traps will be pointed to by the bones once they are tipped out of the bag. The bones shake and then form a hand which points towards the item.

Once per day, if the players are lost, they may ask the hand to point towards a location they have been previously to find their way back.

Unfortunately, the bones require a blood sacrifice and the player who owns the bones will have the skin from his own hand stripped away. This skin will then appear on the bones, slowly forming muscles, tendons and regrowing a human hand. Each time the bones are used more of the player's hand is stripped away. This causes 1d4 damage each time.

The bones have an ongoing effect which causes the player’s character to feel a constant thirst. The player’s character must sip something every hour or they will dehydrate and die.

The bones can only be transferred to someone else if the player gives them as a gift and the receiver accepts them.

Cursed Items to Screw Up Your Players - The Albatross Pendant

Cursed Items to Screw Up Your Players 

 The Albatross Pendant

"Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung" Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The ship creaks and moans. It is an old place, filled with ghosts and old trinkets of little monetary value. You have been disappointed by this ill advised adventure. As your comrades ransack barrels and the long dead crews personal chests, you find yourself drawn to a small box heavily locked on the Captain's rotting bedside table. You usher over your sneaky thief who resents you calling her such. She breaks open the lock with little difficulty and suddenly an overwhelming urge to vomit takes hold of her. As she rushes to the upper deck, you roll your eyes. Seasickness, wimp.

 You turn the box over and out drops a small, simple silver necklace with a pendant of a large bird. A whisper makes you turn your head to look behind you but all you see is your dwarf companion  stuck halfway inside a barrel, attempting to scrabble for the contents at the bottom. You look back at the pendant. 

You reach out and pick it up. You suddenly want to put it around your neck. Without knowing why you do.

The chain feels heavy and begins to dig into your skin. You reach to take it off but it does not budge, it's too heavy to lift back over your head. You frown and ask the strange witch you travel with to have a look. She observes the pendant curiously, then bursts out in a haughty laugh, calling you a fool for putting it on. 

You frown. She cackles and says that you can do nothing more but wait to see what horrors the pendant might bring, although, you shrug off the words of the witch as nonsense. You continue on your hunt for treasure with the silver chain burning the back of your neck and you do not notice as blood begins to pour.

The Albatross Pendant can only be removed with a high success in a Save Vs. Will/ Save Vs. Magic roll. A magic user may be able to remove it if they have the appropriate skill and the game master is feeling generous. This should not be easy to take off.

Every day, the pendant adds encumbrance to the individual wearing it. It grows heavier and heavier until eventually the silver chord cuts through skin, flesh, muscle and bone to severe the victims head slowly from its body.  The player begins to lose hit points from the start and each day must roll a D4/D6 to see how much they lose.  I would increase the dice needed based on character level to deliver a suitable punch.  This pendant will kill a player after three to five days of wearing it through decapitation. The pendant will also, after three days, cause the player to be fully encumbered (if you keep track of this). From day one, all climbing or acrobatic rolls are hindered with a -2 on the first day, a -4 on the second, a -6 on the third and so on.

Once per day, however, the Albatross Pendant allows the wearer to call upon a thick ocean fog from nowhere. This obscures enemies ranged attacks, however, it also causes allies to lose -2 to any ranged roll. The fog also allows the players to make a clever escape however does not turn the players invisible. 

The Albatross Pendant also makes the wearer a great shot. They are able to shoot in the fog with no penalty and gain a +3 to any ranged attack rolls in order to improve hit.  It will improve any sneak attacks as if the player is stepping from fog.

 If the pendant is removed the player can put it back on again and the cycle will start again. 

"Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,

That bring the fog and mist." Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Matiner. 

  

Cursed Items To Screw Up Your Players

 "The Can of Infinite Despair" 

A tin can sits, covered in dust and cob webs, upon an altar. It is a plain and old tin with a paper label which, despite the age of the room around it, appears pristine and untouched by time.

The Tin is is branded "Ziens Prototype" and along the label it reads "Diamond Encrusted Gold in a light Mercury Soup" with the slogan "Ziens, The Superior Soups for Superior People". The tin looks innocent and if a tin could look smug, it would look smug. 

As you approach, something about the tin doesn't feel quite right. The tin's shadow seems to stretch on far too long, wide and dark. The lid looks to have been opened once and then resealed. You can see scratches where nails have tried to open the lid.

Caution may have stopped you, and common sense might have warned you against it but something about the contents of the tin draws you forward. Perhaps it is because it includes gold...encrusted in diamonds. Against your companions better judgement you reach out and grasp it tightly.

Nothing happens. It feels like an ordinary tin.

Suddenly spurred by confidence you seize the clip and pull the lid of the tin off in one dramatic sweep of your arm. You peer into it expecting to see gold, diamonds and a strange metallic liquid floating in the bottom ripe for the taking. 

Instead, you see nothing. 

There is a void within the can so pitch dark you cannot make out the bottom. Something moves.

Time seems to have stopped and your comrades screams are muffled, distorted as if you are underwater. Suddenly, long, thick, black tendrils erupt from the can and wrap themselves around your wrist and neck. You struggle to escape but to no avail as the tendrils tighten and small mouths with serrated teeth gnash the air. In horror you stare at the monstrous tentacles as they begin to consume the flesh it has gripped. Unbearable pain courses through your body as you collapse to your knees. More and more slither out of the can and tear at your body, slowly eating you alive.

Your comrades watch in horror as your body is shredded and each tendril carries a piece of you back into the can until there is nothing but a gore stain smeared on the ground. 

The can drops, it clunks along the floor and then the lid snaps shut. 

It rolls and hits the boot of your comrade. She leans and picks it up to read the back of the label.

It reads, "Beware; contains fools gold."

 The can of Infinite Despair is an item designed to kill players foolish enough to fall for it and open it. It can be used in any setting and if you are not comfortable with it being a tin can you can replace this with a jar or a bottle of any kind. 

There should be a Save Vs. Magic/ Save Vs. Will to avoid falling for the curse of greed that the can has to lure victims. The player should also be allowed to grapple with the can and free themselves from the tendrils. The difficulty is entirely up to you. Enjoy your insta-kill!