From: phaedrus@halcyon.com (Mark Phaedrus)
Subject: Shapeshifting trap/item ideas needed
Organization: Lycanthropes Anonymous
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 07:14:24 GMT


     I posted this about a year ago, but I may have a chance to use this same
scenario again soon, so I'm hoping for more ideas (last time, I got about
five suggestions and fifteen requests for copies of whatever I received :) ).
     I'm plotting out an adventure where the PCs are going up against an
extremely powerful nature wizard who's particularly good at shapeshifting and
transformation magic of all sorts.  (Assume that if he wants to turn something
or someone into something or someone else, he can. :) )  He also has a good 
command of mental magic (telepathy, mind control, etc.), and of druidic spells
of all sorts.  I'm looking for ideas for appropriate traps and items to liven
up the wizard's house and store a bit.  I'm using GURPS, but traps based on
another system (or no system at all) are fine.
     A couple of important points:  This campaign is played largely for laughs
(it's not slapstick, but nobody's taking it seriously either).  This means two
things.  One, lethal or particularly grisly traps or items are frowned open.
Two, bizarre happenings are encouraged; nobody's going to be at all upset if
their character gets turned into a tree frog or something. :)  Also, the
wizard in question has no interest in killing the PCs, nor in confronting them
directly and giving them a chance to kill him; he'd much rather stay in the
background and have a fabulously good time at their expense. :)
     I'd prefer it if you posted your suggestions, but you can email me
instead if you want.
     To get things started, here's what people sent me the first time (though
bear in mind that I didn't describe the campaign then, so don't blame these
people if a couple of their ideas seem a bit too serious for the occasion):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeffrey Aikin (jaikin@wam.umd.edu) wrote:
|This is kind of ironic! Just a few weeks ago, I was asking for traps -
|because my PCs had just entered a wizard's tower. This wizard is almost
|exclusively a mind-mage, and so much of what I have done is designed
|to drive the characters insane. I have a feeling it worked - after the
|last session we went through, they were going nuts in many ways. 

|But, you were looking for items... One that I have put in my tower is
|an orb of scrying that is slightly cursed. It scries, based on the
|intelligence of the person who uses it. But, after a few rounds, they have
|to start making wisdom checks - if they fail, then their soul ends up
|travelling through the crystal to the location they are scrying. Without the
|soul, the body collapses into a coma, and will slowly begin to die unless
|the soul is returned. There are spells in my campaign designed specifically
|for the returning of a soul to its body, so this won't be too hard to do. THe
|hard part is recognizing what happened.

     To fit this wizard's love of animals and exploring, I had the orb project
the viewer's soul into the body of an animal in the area being viewed; and
switch it back after a preset amount of time (decide time randomly if the
viewer didn't set the time beforehand :) ); this was something he actually
used on a regular basis, and the fact that it's also a keen trap is
incidental. :)

|Another interesting item, especially for a shapechanger, is a teleportation
|puzzle (kind of like a Rubic's cube.) When someone solves a side or part of
|one, they are teleported somewhere. Since the wizard can shapechange, there
|is absolutely no need for that place to have air, etc. So, one part of the 
|cube might be set to the bottom of the ocean, where there is a long-destroyed
|library, or another might be set to the highest mountain in the world, the
|best place to make astrological observations, or whatever.

     This one worked out quite well, with a bit of fudging to make the
destinations not immediately lethal. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven E. Newton (snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu) wrote:

|Somewhere I have a whole list of door traps, and I'll get it if you're
|interested, but the one I have in mind that you might find useful is a
|door that IS a shapeshifted creature.  Of course, it is set to change back
|to its original nasty form as soon as it is opened.  This ought to give
|the PCs such a shock you might roll for a stun (or Fright if it's a really
|digusting nasty).

     This one worked out quite well also; the door was actually a rust
monster, as the plate-mail-wearing fighter opening the door soon found out. :)

|Let me know if you want the rest of the list.

     (I've still got the list around here somewhere, if anyone's interested.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

PSICat (Vanmetergeor@bvc.edu) wrote:

|     The Maiden Sword:  This fine thrusting short sword when held 
|in the hand of a woman has +3 accuracy and a +3 Puissance against men.
|It's other attribute are loyal sword (women only), and shatterproof.
|     The sword has one other attribute that makes that much more 
|dangerous for a man.  If a man attempts to weild the sword and draw 
|blood, a sudden transformation overcomes him.  He will change into a 
|maiden of about fourteen/fifteen.  His/her strength will also drop to
|an eight.  This change can be undone by a Great Wish or divine 
|intrevention.
|     The sword is rumoured to be that of Goddess (or daemon if you 
|campaign is Christain persuasion) of Women Warriors.  Your wizard could 
|have came by the sword to figure out it's powerful transformation 
|ability and when he couldn't left it behind as a trap.  
|
|P.S.  Once changed, the new maiden can use the swords other abilities.

     As luck would have it, a woman picked up this sword, so they figured
this was one of the many good items I dropped in to keep them guessing. :)
I was thinking of a variation; a nice longsword with a nice ivory handle,
that turns the wielder into a rust monster when it draws blood in combat.
Another gift for that plate-mail-toting paladin on your list. :)  (Of 
course, then I'll have to replace the rust monster in the door with
something else... wouldn't want to overuse monsters...)

And later PSICat also wrote:
|     Raven Bands:
|     These were magical bands that when attach to the leg of a victim 
|will cause the person to transform to an intelligent raven under control of 
|maker or their current owner.  The bands will shrink with the trans-
|formation and will resemble a small band on the bird's foot.  Once the 
|there, only breaking band off or the ravens foot off will cause the person 
|to revert back.
|     The owner then can see through the raven eyes and gather 
|information with it all at no cost.  
|     Compotent spells: Shapeshifting (variant), Loyalty, Telepathy, Soul 
|rider.

     I used this (a single band) more or less verbatim, mixed in with some
Bracers of Defense-type items; one of the mages put it on and transformed,
though since he put it on himself, I let him stay in control of his own mind
(though this also meant that the Telepathy portion didn't work, forcing the
character (and the character) to do some very interesting charades to 
communicate things. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark Manning (mark@trillian.jsc.nasa.gov) wrote:

|Trap:
|     You come to a sloping corridor and begin to descend it.  Suddenly the
|floor rips apart as if it were paper and you slide all the way to the bottom
|into....

|How it works:

|     The floor is a two part item.  The top layer is a thin layer of stone/
|thick paper/metal/whatever.  Under this is another ramp which is comprised
|of thousands of holes no bigger than 1/10th of an inch in diameter or
|1 millimeter (whichever you use).  Oil seeps through these holes and coats
|the surface of this inner area.

|     The top layer is transmutated into something like onion skin paper.
|This allows the oil underneath to soak the paper.  The paper tears and
|everyone is left standing on an oil slicked surface.  There is very little
|or no traction and they fall.

|Notes:

|     Not only does this allow for a quick trap into someplace, but it has the
|added advantage of making everyone loose their grip on their weapons or
|whatnot.

     I thought the idea of this was great, though mucking around with teeny-
tiny holes in the floor smacked a bit too much of engineering to this do-it-
the-natural-way wizard; he just turned the topmost layer of the floor to ice,
and it worked quite nicely. :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jukka Sinisalo (sinari@vipunen.hut.fi) wrote:

|     I was thinking about a small maze some time ago, that would sometimes
|change it's shape.  For example, the corridor would turn left (with no other
|route), but after the characters take that route (and walk around the
|next bend as well), the walls would shift so that new routes would appear
|and old ones would be gone.  Not very easy to go around (and especially no
|way to turn back).

     I would up using something like this; when people passed over certain
"checkpoints" on the floor, it would cause certain corridors and intersections
(out of sight of the checkpoints, of course :) ) to change configuration.
Basically, this was to make sure that the PCs had to visit at least some
of the "interesting" areas before reaching the wizard and/or escaping with
their miserable hides. :)

|     I've never read about a trap like this, but maybe you have?

     I seem to remember and AD&D module where the intersections rearranged
themselves in this fashion, but I have no idea which one.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason (jasonp@cs.uq.oz.au) wrote:

|Traps eh?

|Well, remember the hall of mirrors (in so many fiction books
|and fun houses)
|How about a place where the characters are reproduced in a 3D way
|rather than on a 2D plane mirror.

     I didn't try this idea, not because I didn't like it, but because I
had already used it in this campaign.  

-- 
\o\ Internet: phaedrus@halcyon.com  (Seattle, WA Public Access Unix)     \o\
 \o\ "How'd you like to move a few steps down the food chain, pal?"       \o\
  \o\ If you enjoy fantasy/SF stories with transformation themes, email me \o\
   \o\ for a copy of the Transformation Stories List.                       \o\