The Dolmen Tomb – Area 16: False Secret Door

 

At the end of this seemingly dead-end passage is a deliberately-obvious “secret door” (anyone searching the west wall “discovers” a suspicious-looking panel automatically).

• Trick. The panel slides aside easily to reveal a stone seal which is “locked” with an intricate series of rope knots bound with melted lead. Some ropes lead into holes bored into the stone. Seemingly, the right rope must be cut to “unlock” the seal and avoid a potential trap?

A DC 16 INT (Investigation) check determines that this rope lock is a ruse and the seal is a false door. Cutting any rope triggers a trap.

• TRAP! A casual search of this area may reveal two hidden clues: 

1. A DC 16 WIS (Perception) check notices telltale seams and hollow-sounding footfalls indicating a series of trap doors in the floor that form a 15x15 ‘T’ at the intersection; and 

2. A DC 14 WIS (Perception) check notices (5) 1-in. diam., evenly-spaced holes in the ceiling just before the false seal (the holes are found automatically if someone specifically searches the ceiling here).

When any seal rope is cut, the trap doors swing open, dumping anyone on them into a 20-ft. spiked pit (2d6 bludgeoning + 3d6 piercing). At the same time, (5) spears fire from the ceiling holes; a target standing in the square in front of the seal suffers 1d4+1 attacks (+4/1d6+1 piercing).

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