Royal Guard Chamber - Monster Trap

Last session a group of adventurers found a room that I had created months ago. They survived the fight that this trap triggers very easily so I thought I would review it in this blog!

This room is entered from the south large double doors. There is a red carpet leading up to a large lever. Around the room 9 sarcophagi are standing up with detailed engravings of dead warriors. The stone tops of these sarcophagi are attached to chains which disappear into the ceiling. 

(Players Map of the Chamber)

When the lever is pulled all the tombs are opened via the chains going into the ceiling and 8 Thouls are released. The most northern one is a doorway to some secret rooms/treasures.

This is a very obvious trap and in my mind, I assumed that when found people would leave it and come back with a clear plan. What happened with this group was that they used the hallway to funnel the dead and burned them alive (dead?) with oil on the rug. 

It was a slog but with two hirelings in platemail, they were lucky to be able to tank the hits. When in the hallway their numbers counted for nothing. 

In reality, they could have done some simple things to really minimise the risks of this room. Such as:

  • Smash the caskets/break the chains one at a time to deal with the enemies individually, or just luck out with the hidden north door. 
  • Drill a hole in the caskets and pour oil in (My group really likes oil flasks)

I was thinking one fix for this could be pulling the lever slams the south doorway closed containing the fight in the room. This could also split the group of some are waiting to fight outside. 

I could also remove the mechanism for the room and make it more magical. A ritual could be setup ready in the middle of the room with instructions on how to complete it with no information on what it does. That might encourage the group to do it and summon the Thouls from the dead! 

Each solution will have its own problems but these traps are a challenge, not a dead end. Only 3 characters have died so far in my dungeon and 2 were from poking things they knew could kill them. 

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