It's a Trap!
| It’s A Trap! | |
|---|---|
| Date | 8/31/25 |
| Storyteller | Rorik |
| Tier | Expert |
| Player Characters | Swaying Petals, Boophis Bright-Eyed, Arumi, Samara Slitherslime, Quill, Life Giver |
| Rewards | 150 xp |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Swaying Petals (Cloyster) |
| Downtime | 5 |
(associates clear out a crazy old man’s tower full of traps)
Log
Log penned by Swaying Petals
There was this sign-up list on the job board asking for associates to clear out the traps that were in an old tower. I signed up, but the job didn’t seem very organized, like it was more of a potluck rather than an expedition sign up. Arriving at the job was me, Swaying Petals, Quill, Life Giver, Samara, Arumi, and lastly Boophis Bright-Eyed, the latter who I actually never met before! Eventually, an old man caught up to us and introduced himself as the current keeper of the tower. Even though he looked… let’s say well wizened, he was only 47 years old. I guess it’s tough out here as a handyman. His Dad was friends with Old Smitty, who took over the tower many years ago and hated everyone so thoroughly that he filled the tower with traps and even paid a wizard to enchant them! He told us that he couldn’t tell us specifically about the traps he knew about, because if he did the traps would change places and be harder to track. The traps on the first floor were meant to only inconvenience intruders to scare teenagers away, but apparently the higher in the tower the more deadly the traps become! Luckily, on the third floor where Old Smitty’s room was there was reportedly a lever that could deactivate all the traps in the tower, so as long as we could reach there then the job would be done!
Weary of the various traps we might encounter, we approached the front door, which was locked. As we tried to push it in, out, to the side, it didn’t seem to budge. Samara tried melting the handle with acid, but still, no dice. It wasn’t until the groundskeeper asked Samara something that got her to mutter something while she jingled what remained of the door handle that the door finally opened. Strangely, it opened with the hinges at the top of the door, swinging upwards.
Behind the door… was another door. This was a little entryway that had a place to put outside shoes in. Arumi sent an illusionary clone of Samara forward to try the door, but the clone’s feet were quickly trapped in blocks of cement! We quickly figured out that you needed to change your shoes to slippers or to a clean pair that wasn’t worn outside in order for the trap not to trigger. That was a little difficult for Life Giver and I, who, you know, don’t wear any shoes. Honestly I felt a little embarrassed; I never thought about shoes but maybe I should get some just to be fashionable. Luckily, the groundskeep had 2 spares for us, but the rest of the party had to figure out their own way to step cleanly inside. Arumi used a spell to float and clean her hooves before she landed. Samara used her back-up pair of sandals. Quill and Boophis had their own shoes that they could swap between as well, and we all made it inside the tower proper.
Inside the next room was a set of stairs that ran across a long wall that was covered in mean-looking posters that said in various languages: “GET OUT”, and similar phrases mixed with curses that I’m not going to repeat here. We investigated for a while, but we eventually found that one part of the wall was an illusion and we were able to walk straight through. In the next room, there was an enormous pile of gold on the floor! But after seeing previous illusions and knowing this place was full of tricks, everyone stuck to the corners of the room to avoid even touching the treasure. As we were moving around, Life Giver leaned up against the wall and went right through! Turns out he found another hidden wall that was Old Smitty’s secret passage, so we lucked out and didn’t have to go through the hard way.
But as we all entered the hidden hallway, there was something on the other end that gave everyone there a pause. I don’t know what the others saw, but uhh I don’t want to talk about what I saw either! I shouldn’t even be feeling these things. I guess it was some sort of magic mirror that tried to umm, ‘entice’, a person with something? Luckily, Arumi and Boophis were on the case and covered the mirror up, so I don’t have to think about it anymore.
We continued on and reached the second floor of the tower. As we entered, the groundskeeper warned us that there were spaces that teleported you to other parts of the tower. The lever we were looking for was somewhere on the third floor, so we only needed to find a way upstairs. Boophis casted a scrying spell to scout and as he crossed the threshold, the floor began to fill with gas. The groundskeeper told us we only had a limited time before the gas filled the floor and put us to sleep, so we had to hurry. We each took our own way though the tower, wandering up staircases and through rooms that spontaneously teleported us to different areas when we reached a threshold. I got a little lost, admittedly, even after I ran into Life Giver and Samara a few times. Eventually, I heard a mechanism activate and the gas seemed to start to dissipate and the teleporters deactivated. I learned that Samara, Boophis, Life Giver, and Arumi had reached the final room and after waiting for a few moments for some reason, they pulled the lever labeled “WARNING, DO NOT PULL! Reminder to Smitty: Do not pull!”. I eventually caught up and we investigated the floor further and found a room filled to the brim with decaying possessions. At the center of it all, we found a bed that had the remains of Old Smitty, who was positioned where he was almost looking at the door and giving a thumbs up, as if congratulating us for beating his trapped maze. In the frankly gross horde, we found a Mithral crockpot and a banner. I think I also saw Arumi taking some of the moldy books, but I think she has her work cut out for her to restore them. The groundskeeper congratulated us and gave us a bit of pay, though he wasn’t expecting so many high-ranking associates to attend. I’m glad no one was hurt throughout the tower, though honestly I just don’t want to think about that musty place anymore.