Three Traditional Christmas Traps

An obligatory Christmas-based blog post for the holidays. I thought about magical items, then I decided what better way to bring players together this Christmas than total party kills. Nothing screams unity like the sudden, harrowing moment when you realise everyone around you, including yourself, is dying. No survivors. No happy Christmas hugs or cheery carols. Its's over. Kaput. The End.

How festive!

"Ho, ho, Horrible. I will scalp
you. Seriously."

So below are three Christmas based traps which could result in at least one unfortunate Christmas related trauma, or it might be a terrible total party kill if your players are not smart. Lets be honest; they rarely are.

Hopefully you can make them as terrifying as the Santa I found on the right here. Holy crap, what the hell? Who made this?! Is he supposed to be smiling?! I digress...

I would not include these just to outright kill your players as a goal. It's never fun to rail road a party into a TPK. A TPK should come naturally, like left-handedness or a violent case of dysentery. These objects are for if they are foolish enough to fall for the obviousness of the traps. Then they really deserve to be removed from the character creation gene pool. If they are going to act like Darwin Award contenders, you best bring the pain.

Present Sack

A large brown sack lies before you, tied with a thick rope of braided scarlet tinsel which glimmers ominously in the torch light. On the sack written in suspicious dark red 'paint', which seems strangely sticky to the touch, are the words "FrEe PrezAntz." with a backwards "F". Beside the sack there does indeed appear to be a badly wrapped wooden box. The wrapping has been used multiple times before and it has been painted back onto the box with the same sticky red paint which is barely holding the wrapping in place. The sack appears to be bulging with presents and the seams are tearing.

If the players inspect the sack without opening it they may find a few holes in the sack's skin which allows them to see glittering packages all neatly wrapped hidden within.

If the players open the badly wrapped box they will find inside an ornately decorated nutcracker with rubies for eyes. They might estimate it to be around one hundred silver pieces and a note saying "There's more where that came from!" with a smiley face in red ink, stuck to the nutcracker.

If the players attempt to open the present sack they will need to make a Save, or risk being eaten by the carnivorous sack. If they fail, it will open its "mouth" revealing a ring of serrated teeth around the mouth opening. The "presents" inside are all being slowly digested by gelatinous green slime. The body parts of elves and humans can be seen.

If the sack eats a player it then spits out a nutcracker, with a note attached, which looks suspiciously like the person it has just consumed.

If the players don't fail, they can take anything out of the sack but once it is closed again, feeling violated, it will attack. Stat the sack however you wish. It can spit projectile slime covered presents and use its tinsel as whips. It is blind however and slow moving.

Christmas Pudding "Puzzle"

A table with an ornate chest sits in the middle of the room surrounded by chairs. Upon the chairs lie several bleached white skeletons in fine clothing some holding crackers and others wearing red Santa hats. The head of the table is taken up by a skeleton in regal attire, clutching a scroll of paper. The paper says "For a King who deserves everything inside the box, I give you an easy holiday puzzle to get your gift. Enjoy the party, love The Queen."

The box has a Christmas pudding on each side, they appear to be in immaculate conditions despite the skeletons. They each have a wick sticking out of the top of the pudding between two bright green leaves and out of the top of a great plump cherry.

The puzzle should be fairly obvious to solve. The players need to light the wicks on the Christmas puddings at the same time to have the chest open. Once they do though, start a count down as the puddings are actually flesh disintegrating magical explosives. The chest is actually empty, when it swings open there is a "gold" Christmas pudding in the middle. It is a fake pudding, and fake gold, and stuck to the bottom of the chest designed to get whoever sees it to spend enough time trying to remove it so the flesh melting Christmas pudding bombs go off. Players should make a Save vs Breath upon explosion. Your countdown is entirely up to you, if they are dumb enough to stay in the room.

Reindeer Slay Sleigh

In the middle of the forest, or perhaps in a decrepit stable, there is an absolutely beautifully painted ornate sleigh. Around the sleigh there are twelve solid silver reindeer standing facing the sleigh, one of them appears to be missing a nose! They are all in a state of panic, as if they have been recently frightened. The are attempting to run towards the sleigh.

At first, nothing seems out of the ordinary on the sleigh. There are harnesses for all of the reindeer. If the players successfully search around they will be able to find a red fleshy nose which apparently belongs to the nose-less reindeer closest to the sleigh. It seems to resemble a muzzle as well as a nose. The other reindeer have their nose-muzzles hanging off of their faces. These can be attached again.

There is an obvious lever in the sleigh which has the words "EMERGENCY: In Case Of RM*". If the players pull this, they must make a Save vs Magic or they will be turned into silver statues like the reindeer.

There is a hidden lever that can only be found if the players search for it which is "Reverse in case of accidental level pull". This will unfreeze the reindeer and any player who have been turned into silver statues.The difficulty of finding this lever is down to you.

Unfortunately, the reindeer are hostile flesh-eaters if they do not have their red nose muzzles attached. They are lead by the head reindeer, Rudolph the Gutripper.

If the reindeer have their muzzles put back on, they will be docile and obey any commands. Stat them as you like.

*Reindeer Mutiny