Pimp My Crypts!

[BoloOfEarth]

Short form:  I'd like some suggestions for traps to put in a set of crypts the heroes will have to enter to save some innocents captured by vampires.

 

Background:

I've set up an ambush for the heroes (of Just Cause) in my Champions campaign.  Back in November they took out a group of vampires preying on college students in Boston.  The leader of the vampires, Duchess Danielle du Coudray, was a French diplomat who has sworn vengeance against the heroes.  To this end, she has turned various Boston gang members into vampires under her sway, forming a new gang (the Sang Noir, or Black Bloods) pushing drugs both to get her more money while also getting the heroes' attention.  The Sang Noir have kidnapped 13 people (including one DNPC and several NPCs connected to Just Cause or its members) to use as bait for a trap.  Last game session, the heroes tracked the vampires and some of their victims to a mausoleum in a small cemetery in East Boston.

 

The Crypts:

A series of crypts lie beneath the cemetery, with an obvious access through the mausoleum (though there are vents in the ceiling of the crypts opening in various places in the cemetery, small enough for bats to get in and out, which is how the vampires mainly come and go).  There are also numerous pipes running underneath the crypts, with floor grates in each room (so vampires can also come and go between rooms in mist form as well).  These pipes also lead up into all of the coffins within the crypts.  A hex map of the crypts, as well as the mausoleum, is attached below.

 

The Duchess has had 6-8 months to turn these crypts (which she took from another group of vampires whose leader she defeated years ago) into a set of deadly traps for the heroes. 

 

The Heroes:

• Circe, a mentalist who also has psychokinetic powers including flight and a force field.  She has Mind Link so the team can communicate at all times.
• Honey Badger, the team brick with 60 STR and great defenses including life support vs. disease and poison
• Maker, an energy projector and gadgeteer (45-point VPP she can change as a half-Phase action) in a spacesuit.
• Malarky, a mage with a spell Multipower for aiding teammates (5d6 Luck and Resistant Protection usable by others) and some attacks, as well as a magical VPP (30 points, I think) he can change as a half-Phase action.  The in-game effect of the Luck is that each player rolls the 5d6 and gets to use a +1 for each BODY rolled on the dice, and gets one re-roll for every 6 rolled.
• Nexus, another mage with spiritual powers (talk to dead, psychometric visions) as well as a spell Multipower
• Pops, a teleporter (including mass teleports, an AP teleport, and a teleport usable as attack) with high speed but relatively low defenses
• Shadowboxer, a darkness-controller able to see and hear and teleport through shadows, and recently got a Multiform to mimic others

The Duchess' Forces:

The Duchess has an undead mage aiding her, who has magically given the crypt proof against both teleportation and scrying.  (Basically, added Cannot be Escaped with Teleportation to the walls and Darkness to Clairsentience Sight and Hearing with Personal Immunity covering the crypts.)  Suspecting Maker can create an x-ray device, she also had her people line the 40 or so coffins in the crypts with lead, so the heroes can't easily figure out in which coffins the hostages are hidden.  She also has 8 lesser vampires who will be down in the crypts to harass the heroes.

 

She has left a scroll in the mausoleum up top to inform the heroes that they have just one minute the time any of them enters the crypt to rescue all the hostages (or "cattle," as she calls them) before she kills them.  The lesser vampires aren't a real threat to most of the PCs and I don't expect them to do much more than slow the PCs down a bit.  For both mood as well as actual game effect, there's about 6" of CO2 mist swirling about the floor.  Bats fluttering about overhead; rats squeaking and scurrying around in the mist on the floor as well as in the pipes underground.  Rough stone walls (with magical runes inscribed by the undead mage for the above-noted game effects, plus increasing the defenses beyond normal stone).   Dim lighting from natural gas-fed torches guttering on the walls.  You get the picture.

 

The Traps:

Each set of rooms of the crypts can be cut off from the rest by dropping a huge slab of rock (also inscribed with anti-teleport runes).  I don't consider this a trap per se, just another feature of the crypts.  The Duchess and her undead mage will be watching the action from a secure location far away, and can trigger the slabs of rock as well as any traps.

 

The only trap I've put in thus far is that she'll pump nerve gas into the floor mist about a half-Turn after the heroes enter the crypts.  [Blast 1d6, NND (LS: Nerve Gas; +1), Does BODY (+1), Damage Over Time (12 increments, every other Segment; +4), AoE (floor surface; +2), Constant (+½), 0 END (+½)]  Since this will be marked by high-pitched squeals from the rats in the beneath-floor pipes, followed by their silence, this should give the heroes a bit of warning.  When her minute deadline passes, she'll increase the gas pressure to force the nerve gas up into the coffins, killing any innocents still trapped in them.

 

So, any clever ideas for other traps?  I'd like a separate trap for each set of rooms.  The Duchess has shown a willingness to use high technology before, so they don't have to be medieval-type traps.  Given the time constraint, I expect the heroes will split up to cover ground faster, but keep in mind that the Duchess won't know which hero(es) will enter which set of rooms, so tailoring a room's trap for a given hero would be difficult.

[Nothere]

Well we'll start with the obvious. Pit into spikes. Crushing celling. Room fills with fire or water. Dangerous animal is released. Posion darts covered by your nerve gas. And the Star Wars standard trap. Room with walls coated to cause energy projetors bolt to fly around wildly.

[csyphrett]

There's always the ghost summoning traps, Magnetic guns, laser guns that blind as well as burn, mobius strips, giant rocks that chase the heroes, roller coaster that crashes into a wall at the end, tooth fairies from Hellboy 2

CES  

[Badger]

As a aside, for some reason Honey Badger is my favorite of the heroes, I don't know why. 

[Christopher]

Something the Japanese did in WW2 was the "fake death" trap. They ordered a few soldiers to play dead among real corpses. Then jump up when the enemy was in melee range and gathering dogtags/looking for survivors/distracted by something else.

You could easily turn the Feign Death build into a Darkness variant. Might also have to block Nexus ability to speak with dead.*

 

Longrange TP block:

I like Change Environment (-X meters Teleport movement) to simulate this. It hinders combat TP and might outright block most Megascale TP (because it affects those before Megascaling is applied). And it is easier to apply as a large AoE to an area then reworking every wall to have it.

 

The seperating slab of stone trap is a good old thing, ideal to seperate the squishies from the brick. Should be at least tough enough that the bricks and blasters can not casual through (unless they got tunelling or penetrating attacks).

 

In effect every coffin works like a D&D chest. It has potentially viable loot (Civilian NPC's), but might also be rigged with any kind of trap.

 

Regarding abilities to negate:

Remember to keep it realistic. A enemy has no way of knowing of an ability that was not yet shown. Even if they gather information from everyone that ever fought them (and is willing to talk), there is only so much that is known about the Heroes.

 

 

*You definitley want to consider blocking this either way. The local Ghosts might be more then willing to help the heroes get rid of "all those Vampries and Living in our my resting place" by providing intel or even scouting ahead.

[Badger]

Any particular weaknesses the individual heroes might have that could be used against them?  (with Shadowboxer perhaps certain lighting to prevent him shadow teleporting)

[BoloOfEarth]

Many thanks, all, for some great ideas.

 

Pit trap with spikes is an oldie but a goodie.  Same with the crushing ceiling.  (Though I'm not sure exactly how to write that up.  Steadily increasing STR, AoE?)

 

Part of the reason to block teleport through the walls is that two of Pops' standard moves are to teleport the whole team into and out of locations (bypassing dangers) and to teleport civilians out of harm's way.  Though... the scrying block would also block his Clairsentience that allows him to safely teleport anywhere he can't actually see.  Hmmm... have to think about that.

 

The heroes are extremely light on Susceptibilities and Vulnerabilities.  Only one I know of -- Pops' Vulnerability to fire -- is potentially knowable by the vampires.  Shadowboxer's defenses are lower against light-based attacks, and the vampires did carry laser pistols in their prior encounter, so that's easily done.  No reason she can't mount lasers into one of the room's walls as well to make a laser-maze to slow the heroes down.  (Sure, the other heroes can probably just walk through the laser beams taking minimal damage, but not if they're carrying civilians.)

 

Love the idea of putting traps inside otherwise empty coffins.  Given that they'll be lead-lined anyway, I'm thinking one could contain a highly radioactive element (Blast NND AoE Radius).  Another could fire a volley of drugged darts.  A third could be a simple frag bomb. 

 

Great reminder about Nexus' potential to use ghosts to help them.  I don't want to shut that down completely - if she thinks of it, I don't mind if she sends a handful of ghosts in to scout out hostage locations.  I like to reward them thinking ahead. 

 

That said, I don't mind messing with them either.  I'm thinking the undead mage could cast a False Vision spell [images to Retrocognitive Clairsentience, triggered by touch] in the mausoleum, showing the vampires taking the hostages down into the crypts and placing them in specific coffins.  The players rely on her visions way too much.  After the first coffin they open triggers a trap, they'll probably think twice before trusting that implicitly.

[Lord Liaden]

You have sealable stone crypts with pipes running through them, so flooding one of them would seem like a logical move. If you want to reduce the likelihood of your PCs just blasting through a wall to keep from drowning, make the fluid something flammable, like alcohol or gasoline. If you're feeling particularly nasty, make it an acidic solution.

[Christopher]

Many thanks, all, for some great ideas.

 

Pit trap with spikes is an oldie but a goodie.  Same with the crushing ceiling.  (Though I'm not sure exactly how to write that up.  Steadily increasing STR, AoE?)

The walls can be done with plain Barrier.

 

Crushing ceilig for superheroics it is a tricky question, as bricks usually should have the strenght to stop/delay it. Of course that does mean you can effectively bind the Brick.

With heavy stuff falling down on hero characters it is assumed the stop or cease being an issue after dealing damage. but the crushing ceiling would continue to deal damage, propably per segment like drowning. And we can not use the falling objects rules either, due to the

The vampires could try to dislodge the brick in unusual ways: Knocking out is usually hard, but knocking back might be possible. Mental Illusions might also do the trick, but holding the ceiling is a pretty hard to override fact.

Flashing Sight and audible illusions might be able to trick the brick into letting go (but that might not work with the player).

If you use slowly building damage and an optional rule, it could work:

APG I 170 has the interference rule. While originally there for "Blaster Beam Duels", it should be easily adaptable to "brick holding the ceiling".

[BoloOfEarth]

Well, 1 cubic meter of solid stone weighs about 2.7 metric tons.  An 8m x 8m x 2m block would weigh about 345 metric tons, requiring 68 STR to lift, and doing 13d6 crushing damage per Turn if going with a straight deadfall instead of slowly dropping down.  The crypt rooms are 4m tall.  If I use staggered explosive charges to take out 1m of support every 3 Segments, that gives the hero time to find a way to get out of the room or temporarily brace one side just enough so it falls uneven and wedges up against one wall, creating a safe air pocket.

[Steve]

How about a type of banshee undead that has a sonic NND attack versus Flash Defense (hearing). For real nastiness, make it a 1d6 NND RKA in a cone-shaped AoE that does BODY damage.

 

You could also make one of the traps a situation where either the innocents get the damage or the heroes do (falling stones, acid, etc). They can see it coming, so they get to make a heroic choice.

[massey]

Dress up one of the hostages as a vampire, then hypnotize them to jump out of the coffin and bare her fangs when someone opens it. See how trigger-happy the players are.

[bluesguy]

Dress up one of the hostages as a vampire, then hypnotize them to jump out of the coffin and bare her fangs when someone opens it. See how trigger-happy the players are.

 

Yep kind of like this scene from The Dark Knight https://youtu.be/ZFSqcqK3KB4?t=100

[pinecone]

Well, Supers are hard targets, so you need to pull out the stops...So start with a Flooding room trap, add hostages to rescue, then add Electricity. Dressing up the hostages as Vamps, and Vamps as hostages is a good idea, no so much a threat as something that slows them down.

 

Some fricking Lasers sound good as it is logicaly effective vs some of the heroes, rigging the "torches" so they Flash, then plunge into darkness can add some drama to a fight (they hear the creak as the coffins open while they can't See!)

 

Trip wire Claymores are always good...(Vamps bypass in Mist form)

 

If you go with Fricking Lazers, then Laser plus mirror maze is a real winner..

[death tribble]

You could use the laser trap that was used in the Resident Evil film where it travelled down the corridor at neck height, at ankle height and then diagonally.

 

Throw in the old magic mouth trap where you get a voice saying something like 'help !' to bring the heroes into a trap or have it tell the heroes that they have fallen prey to an invisible gas or bacterial infection that sort of thing. With the latter it can all be a bluff. But the players won't know that.

[assault]

I'd suggest increasing the amount of time the PCs have.

[freakboy6117]

How about a fuel air explosive use a heavier than air flammable gas as it fills up the room it eventually will reach the torches and woompf crispy critters. Line the room with angled drum mag fed SMGS aimed up or down at angled steel plates and fill the room with ricochet maybe no big deal for honey badger but hostages and other less hardy team mates may have trouble.

[freakboy6117]

Oh one other thing save the nerve gas for later on start with a hallucinogen something to lower presence and up the fear make the labyrinth more terrifying and make any hostages more unpredictable.

[freakboy6117]

If you want to theme each crypt you could go with historical burial traditions.

 

So you could have a viking funeral a miniature pitch coatedviking ship on a pool of Gasoline

 

A mummy sarcophagus lying in a sand floored room. (the trick here is that the room is much deeper than the others and filled with sand that can be made fluid using compressed air like this video

.

 

A ossuary filled with thousands of bones and skulls whether they form waves of murderous skeleton warriors,a single giant bone golem or have all the eyeholes concealing dart or lasers. Actually one disturbing idea I had was to mix this and the classic contracting walls. so walls made of orderly piles of human bones slowly move together only instead of spikes you have grasping skeletal arms pulling you towards ranks of chomping skulls with razor sharp teeth. This should give plenty of inspiration

 

http://weburbanist.com/2009/10/30/7-wonders-of-the-undead-world-global-ossuaries/

[BoloOfEarth]

Many thanks again for all the great suggestions!  If I included all of them, the heroes wouldn't stand a chance and the hostages would all be toast, so I tried to select enough to make it challenging.

 

For flavor, I got great use out of freakboy6117's ossuary link.  Specifically, the walls throughout are embedded with bones and skulls, and instead of gas torches I'm putting gas lights inside some of the skulls (so the light spills out of eye and nose holes).  The central chamber has the bone chandelier and skull-studded columns.  Also, the Master's Chambers (crypt suite C) has a bone piano and skull-studded gas fireplace.

 

I'm keeping the nerve gas on the floor, so I expect the heroes will have to carry and ferry hostages to safety.  After 5 full Turns (1 Minute), the nerve gas will be pumped into the coffins, affecting any hostages not yet freed.

 

There will be occasional coffin traps, at least one in each crypt room, with either radiation (Blast 2d6, NND, Does BODY, AoE 4m radius, Constant, Uncontrolled, 0 END, No Range), hallucinogenic darts (Drain DEX + OCV 3d6, AoE 2m Accurate), or bombs (Blast 8d6, AoE 16m Radius Explosion).

 

There will also be grav pit traps, 4m deep pits with gravitic generators at the bottom and angled spikes along the sides, at least one per crypt room, triggered when someone passes overhead.  (TK 20 STR AoE 1m Radius, Only to pull downward) + KA 2d6, AP, AoE 1m Radius).  I don't expect these to be more than a nuisance for the heroes, making them waste a Phase breaking free of the TK.

 

Crypt suite A (for Acid) will have acid sprayers in the ceiling of the main room (RKA 1d6, Penetrating, Constant, Uncontrolled (removed with water), 0 END, AoE Accurate, lasting 1d6 Phases at SPD 4), with only one acting in a given Phase.

 

Crypt suite B (for Burn) will have flamethrowers in the walls of the main room, with nozzles through skull mouths.  (RKA 3 1/2 d6, AoE 2m Accurate), with only one flamethrower acting in a given Phase.

 

Crypt suite C (for Crush) has the drop-ceiling in the main room along with solid armored panels blocking doorways to prevent escape.  The supporting columns will be taken out section by section with explosive charges, causing the ceiling to drop 1m every 3 Segments.  The stone block is 9m x 5m x 2m, weighs 250 tons (requiring 67 STR to lift) and is 6 rPD, 10 rED, and 13 BODY.  If allowed to fall all the way down, it does 13d6 crushing damage per Turn, and will completely block all doorways.

 

Crypt suite D (for Dodge-Em) has reflective panels hidden behind the skulls and bones in the wall, with a series of six lasers that will begin to create an increasingly complex maze of deadly beams as they burn through bones and begin to bounce off the reflective panels.  (RKA 1d6, 2x Penetrating, Constant, AoE special).  To avoid touching a beam will require either being stationary or making a DEX roll per meter of Movement.  The DEX roll starts at -1 but gets an additional -1 every 3 Segments up to a maximum of -5.

 

Crypt suite E (for Explosion) will block off the floor vents and fill with heavier-than-air flammable gas, getting 1/2 m deeper every 3 Segments, triggering when it reaches the gas-burning skulls on the walls 2m up.  (RKA 4d6, AoE, Trigger)

 

Since I don't know if the heroes will stay together to clear each crypt suite (which I think would take them too long) or split up (so I don't know who will go where), there's no way to really gauge how easy or difficult this will all be.  I'm hoping I haven't stacked the deck too much against them.  I have 10 gangbanger vampires to throw against them, but think I'll hold them in reserve (hiding among the bats hanging from the ceiling or as mist in the floor pipes) for a Turn or so to see how it goes.

 

Thanks again, and I'll let you know how things turn out tonight.

[BoloOfEarth]

I ran the finale of the Fang Gang adventure last night.  The heroes had previously tracked the hostages to the cemetery and found the mausoleum entrance, so beyond making their attack plan there wasn't a lot of preamble to the crypt crawl.

 

Thanks to Maker's gadget pool, the heroes used x-ray vision to find out the layout of the crypts before stepping foot inside, and even doped out a few of the traps beforehand.  Easiest was finding and noting the locations of the pit traps, and seeing the deadfall blocks that were to close off crypt suites.  They brought along some hastily-grabbed I-beams from a nearby construction site to run in and place to keep those from falling.  (The vampires did try to remove one or two along the way, but the heroes kept them at bay long enough to avoid that.) 

 

Also, the mentalist Circe used Mind Scan (invisible to Mental) to locate the few people they did know were taken (Honey Badger's girlfriend Pop Tart, along with her teammate Nerds; the team's secretary; and one of Malarky's DNPCs) and used Telepathy to identify locations for some other hostages based on what those individuals had seen before they were put into their coffins.  Thus, they managed to know where over half of the hostages were located before going in.

 

Looking at the floor vents and attached big tanks with the x-ray goggles, they mistook the fuel-air explosion trap for a water drowning trap.  They also saw the explosive charges in the columns and thought that was just a frag bomb trap, so the dropping ceiling kinda caught them by surprise when two of the heroes went in there.  Also, the vampires' AP blaster pistols were rather a nuisance to the heroes. 

 

Maker took out the laser maze trap with an EMP, and Malarky used Amber Globes (Barrier) to good effect to block the flamethrowers. 

 

Overall, one hero was KO'd (with two others fairly close) and half the team was down about half their BODY by the end of the run.  However, they saved all the hostages (with several heroes taking shots meant for hostages) and took out all the vampires. 

 

Oh, and they're planning how to find the Duchess du Coudray (the main vampire) and teleport her into the sun.  Overall, I'd call it a success. 

[freakboy6117]

sounds like you had fun im glad we could help

[Hadmar von Wieser]

"teleport her into the sun" sounds like every team should feel about their arch villain. :-)

[steriaca]

Forget t-porting her into the sun. Try hitting her lots of times with your fist. Your Harmon charged fist.