Random Encounters: A Treasure to Ignore

The players come across a chest sitting undefended in a corridor. Always hungry for treasure, they quickly glance over the flimsy chest only to find that other than being tenuously guarded with a rusty lock it is otherwise unremarkable.

But there is something devious here – the chest is really a very simple alarm that alerts denizens deeper in the dungeon to intruders. How? The chest has no bottom – it is simply an overturned wooden box perched over a privy sized hole in the floor. Suspended within the box and above the hole is a clay pot with a stone inside. Perpetual light is cast on the stone, but the clay pot masks this fact. If the players are unsuccessful in a series of skill checks, the chest simply collapses dropping the clay pot into the lower levels to shatter and shed light there as an alarm.

So how do they defeat this alarm?

• Do nothing. Ignoring the chest is an easy way to keep the baddies from knowing you’re coming. Yeah, but we know that ain’t gonna happen.
• Unlocking the chest is actually the trigger for it to collapse. So a successful unlock attempt or bashing it is an automatic failure.
• Perception Check: A perceptive character may discern the following.
  • The lock on the chest is all but useless. It would take little to no effort to open or break it.
  • The chest appears to be too flimsy to protect anything inside.
  • The top of the chest is actually nailed to the sides.
  • The chest appears to have no bottom.
• Thievery: By carefully supporting and rigging the sides and top (NOT unlocking and opening it), it can be defeated while in position above the hole. Describe this as slipping something underneath the entact chest to cover the hole  (and the party gains a handy continual light source).
• Arcana/Detect Magic: Senses the faint aura of magic from the lighted stone within the chest.
• Acrobatics: Carefully lifting the chest and moving it from over the hole, defeats the alarm.
• Insight/History: Discerns the true nature of the chest after it has been triggered or disarmed.

By the way, if you like the look of that treasure chest you can purchase one of your own! Stop over at eM-4 miniatures and pick one up!

http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/TRINKET_BOXES.html