Traps. Devices devious and deadly. Understood to be a crypt’s most treacherous wards. Many so ghastly they become emblematic of a particular tomb’s history and character.

What the Dust Hides

In the spirit of preserving the tomb’s reputation as a place of unparalleled danger, this article series offers 10 macabre new traps for use in tomb adventures at any tier of play. Watch out!

[previously]

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The dancing grotesques shown in this mural evoke haunting visions of your own demise…

For generations, the tomb has endured as the most iconic and menacing of adventure sites. Countless campaigns have been carried out in search of relics and lore secreted away, and few creatures inspire such terror as the undead, which wait forever in a disquieting stillness and silence. However, the rumors spread by adroit explorers and loquacious bards warn of threats more perilous than the touch of a wight or the stench of a ghoul.

Traps. Devices devious and deadly. Understood to be a crypt’s most treacherous wards. Many so ghastly they become emblematic of a particular tomb’s history and character.

In the spirit of preserving the tomb’s reputation as a place of unparalleled danger, this article series offers 10 macabre new traps for use in tomb adventures at any tier of play. The first is just behind the jump!

Trap theme templates can be applied to existing traps to give them a distinct and shared flavor.

Each theme introduces new powers—adding one does not affect a trap’s XP value, but upgrade a trap to an elite or solo if you apply two or more themes.

[part 1][part 2][part 3][part 4]

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From her blighted gallery of petrified adventurers and former lovers, the medusa demilich surveys a tomb of most perilous character. A legion of zealous undead and other creatures immune to her petrifying gaze carry out her demands without question, launching numberless schemes to enact revenge on the mortal races that shunned and vilified her in life. The traps she devises to slay those impudent enough to disturb her crypt are engineered in her likeness: they deliver poison and turn the unwary to stone, and they jab their victims with a touch of the anguish, frustration, and isolation she felt in life…

Trap themes are templates that can be applied to existing traps to give them a distinct and shared flavor.

Each theme introduces new powers—adding one does not affect a trap’s XP value, but upgrade a trap to an elite or solo if you apply two or more themes.

[part 1][part 2][part 3]

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Few places inspire as much terror as the burning cities of the Hells and the infinite yawning layers of the Abyss. Some trade in stories of demons and devils to spur righteous obedience; others do so as a warning to those who might pass beyond the wall of mortal existence in search of adventure.

In either case, the realm of demons is not simply chaotic—it is chaos incarnate. It is the collective nightmare of a thousand peoples protected by gods who themselves fear the screeching, keening mouths of those that dwell at the bottom of the multiverse…

Trap themes are templates that can be applied to existing traps to give them a distinct and shared flavor.

Each theme introduces new powers—adding one does not affect a trap’s XP value, but upgrade a trap to an elite or solo if you apply two or more themes.

[part 1][part 2]
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Whether manifested in a young savant blessed with unusual talent or an inscrutable spawn of planes beyond, psionic power is both mysterious and potent. Few understand how the mind projects itself into the physical world, but those who have mastered the practice are feared. Especially powerful psions learn to imbue their will into their stronghold, linking their consciousness with inanimate wards to protect their chambers…