The Test of Mephistopheles (5e Trap)
Complex Trap Features[edit]
This complex trap resides in a dungeon built into the side of the mountain, with large, ornate doors at the entrance. The trap consists of a long stone hallway that is 20ft wide, 20ft tall, and 140ft long, with a treasure chest at the end, and a secret door beyond that, leading to a room filled with treasure. At first, it appears completely normal stone hallway, but traps trigger as the characters work their way through, and the only way out is through, for they are trapped inside at entry. This is a test from the Archdevil Mephistopheles to the characters to test a magic ring that binds the mind of a single Archdevil to one character, to see the limits of its power, and to test new arcane traps.
Character Level: This trap is intended for 3 characters of 4th level, but could be literally any number of characters (it doesn’t get much easier with more) and/or be up to 8th level. I HIGHLY recommend using an NPC as one of the players, because you can manipulate it to have the funniest outcome. For example, at the secret door, if one of the characters is brash, and they are about to just stick their hand in, which would make it not funny at all, an NPC could yell, “Wait!”, and then stick a non-magical object in, singeing it and causing the intrigue to rise dramatically.
XP: 62,000 per character.
Trigger: as soon as a creature that is not a fiend without the Amulet of Mephistopheles enters the dungeon.
Initiative: Trap acts on initiative count 20, as well as instantaneously.
Conditions: No speed other than walking works here, and a magical slowing effect means that a creature may not take the Dash action on their turn.
Active Elements: Immediate: wall of force appears behind them. Tiled floor with poison darts in first 40ft, archway of enlarge/reduce in the next 5ft, blades that slice upwards from ground and ceiling in the next 25ft, a floor that disappears into a pit with small spikes and animated skeletons in the next 40ft, vines that drag you back through the rest in the next 10ft, a treasure chest that spews undetectable psychic gas illusioned to look like a regular chest with treasure in room beyond, a door with magical darkness over the lever, elemental gems where, when you choose one (or two, if the characters are smart), the rest are unleashed upon them.
Wall of Force (No initiative): An invisible wall of force appears immediately after the characters enter, blocking their escape. Whenever any living thing tries to pass through it, they make a 20 Dexterity save, getting moved 5ft back and knocked prone on a fail.
Watch Your Step (Initiative 20): The floor slides apart in two halves, revealing a tiled floor below that is 40ft long. In order to step on the right tiles, characters must step on the tiles in a random pattern, which takes a successful 20 Wisdom check for each individual step, making the Dexterity save on a fail, and a 15 Acrobatics check to leap onto the tile, also making the Dexterity save on a fail. There is a pattern to the tiles, which turns out to be an Infernal rune for Mephistopheles. Characters who know Infernal realize this on a successful 15 Insight or Perception check, and they do not have to make the Wisdom check, but still make the Acrobatics check.
Effects: Characters who step on the wrong tiles hear a ‘chonk’ noise and must make a 20 Dexterity save or get a dart in the neck, taking 1d4 piercing damage and 1d10 poison damage. In addition, they must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution save or be poisoned for 1 hour.
Archway of Enlarge/Reduce (No initiative):As the characters pass through the archway into the next section, they must take a DC 20 Constitution save or else they may have their size randomly changed (see table), which affects future traps.
| D6 | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Their size is now Huge |
| 2 | Their size is now Large |
| 3-4 | Their size does not change |
| 5 | Their size is now Small |
| 6 | Their size is now Tiny |
Slicing Doom (Initiative 20): For 25ft, blades spring out of the floor and ceiling. These are illusioned to look like a normal floor or ceiling, when in reality, they have slits in them that let blades spring forth. A character that goes barefoot can feel these on the floor, and with a DC 10 Perception or Insight check, they realize that there is something fishy afoot. Otherwise, it takes a DC 25 Perception check to realize there is a trap. As soon as all members of the party go within the area, this part of the trap is triggered. If the characters step through one at a time or in any amounts less then the total, they avoid triggering the trap.
Effects: On initiative count 20, if all the characters are within range, each character of size Small and larger must dodge the blades with a 20 Dexterity save, taking 5d10 slashing damage on a failed save, and half as much on a success. Creatures Large or bigger make the save with disadvantage, and Small creatures don’t take any damage on a success.
Skeleton Pit Trap (Initiative 20): A large 40ft pit with a disappearing floor that vanishes once the characters reach a certain point. There is a magical sensor built into the ceiling at the halfway point, and as soon as it senses any humanoid not wearing an Amulet of Mephistopheles within 5ft of it, the trap is triggered. The trap can be sensed by any divination magic, but anything placed on the “floor” seems to sit there as normal. It takes a DC 25 Perception check for any character to realize that there is a sort of pit trap there, but they do not determine the type.
Effects: The floor disappears, and all of the characters within the area of the trap fall 30ft into the spiked pit of skeletons, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed 15 Dexterity save, and half as much on a success. Characters within 5 feet of the edge don’t fall if they succeed another 20 Dexterity save, but if they fail, they take the original save (15 Dexterity) to determine damage. Once the characters fall to the bottom, they must roll yet another 20 Dexterity save to avoid small spikes coated in an adhesive. On a fail, they take 1d6 piercing damage, and they are restrained, except they make attack rolls without disadvantage. At the beginning of each of their turns, they make a DC 20 Strength check, breaking free on a success. As soon as the characters raise themselves, 20 skeletons rise from the bones and attack the characters. If/when the characters survive, the characters must make a DC 15 Athletics check and then a DC 10 Constitution check (in that order) to climb out of the pit. If they fail the Constitution check, they fall again from a height of 20ft, but the max damage is now only 2d6, and they have to make the same saves and everything, but no skeletons attack the players once they right themselves.
Grasping Vines (Initiative 20): Entangling vines erupt from a 10 ft section of the floor near the beginning of the room as soon as any humanoid without the Amulet of Mephistopheles enters a 10ft area at the end of the room.
Effects: Each creature within the area at the end of the room must make a 15 Dexterity save or get restrained by the vines at the beginning of each of the vines’ turns. As soon as any characters are restrained, the floor appears again on top of the Skeleton Pit (see above) and spikes grow at a 45 degree angle from the floor. These spikes deal 1d8 piercing damage on a hit, but they make attack rolls against the players with a +5 modifier. On each turn after any creatures are restrained, the vines move 20ft towards the door, reactivating traps along the way. As an action, a restrained creature can make a DC 20 Strength check to break free of the vines, ripping through them on a success. When the characters pass through the Grasping Vines the second time, the vines do not appear again. In addition, if attacked, a section of vine has AC 13 and 10 HP each, is immune to poison, psychic, necrotic, and thunder damage, has a resistance to bludgeoning and force damage, and is vulnerable to cold and fire damage. The character(s) attacking it must target a section that does not have another character in its grasp. If a vine is cut, all of the vine above the slice disappears, any creature restrained by the vine is freed, and the vine is not able to restrain any creatures for 24 hours if it still is there by the end of that period (once all creatures leave the area, the vines disappear).
False Treasure Chest: The treasure chest at the end of the hall is a fake that spews undetectable psychic gas, but with an illusion cast on it and the wall behind it to disguise the Secret Door set into it (see below). As soon as the lid is opened, illusory treasure appears, when it is in reality spewing a silent death from its maw.
Wall of force: There is a wall of force that appears behind them (see top).
Psychic Gas: For each turn the illusion persists (see below), the characters must make a DC 15 Constitution save, taking 1d8 psychic damage on a fail.
Illusion: The chest creates the illusion of piles of gold coins, whatever treasure the characters desire most, and jewels beyond their wildest dreams. When they first open it, each character makes a DC 15 Insight check to see through the illusion. They make this check on each of their turns. Also, If a character tries to use an item, it is revealed that it is an illusion. A character who uses part of their turn to tell the others about the illusion gives the others the benefits as well. Once the illusion dissipates, the characters can see the secret door in all its glory, the true nature of the chest is revealed, and the psychic gas stops wajoingling outwards from the pipe, and no longer causes any damage.
Secret Door: There is a secret door behind the treasure that has a lever set into the wall. The alcove with the lever has magical darkness filling it, which leads the characters to believe that there will be a trap, when really all they have to do is put their hand in the alcove and pull the lever. To add to the suspense, the alcove singes any non-magical inanimate objects that enter it. The door is made of solid stone, and is easily noticed. There is an inscription on the door, which reads in infernal: ‘‘Tread carefully, for we are all amongst the horrors of oneself. What is done is never undone.’’
Lever: The alcove is filled with magical darkness, which has a couple effects. First, it extinguishes any light, magical or otherwise, that a creature puts into the alcove, and cannot be seen into by any means. Secondly, it fools any Investigation, Perception, or Insight checks, and it confuses detect magic and similar spells. In addition, this darkness cannot be dispelled, or affected in any way. Also, if the characters stick any weapon or non-magical inanimate object, it comes out illusioned to look like it is singed or damaged in some way (DM’s choice). All a character needs to do is reach their hand in and pull the lever, and the door will open as normal. Then they will be able to proceed.
Treasure Room: The treasure room is a room with piles of gold and magic items, and has a large pillar with four fist-sized revolving gems suspended above it: one ruby, one diamond, one emerald, and one sapphire.
Contents: 49,134 gp, 39,475 pp, vorpal greatsword, staff of the magi, +2 plate, belt of storm giant strength, +3 splint, robe of the Archmagi, 4 elemental gems (though the characters can only take a few max), 9 art objects worth 2,500 gp: fine gold chain with fire opal, old masterpiece painting, silk and velvet mantle with moonstones, platinum bracelet set with jewel chips, embroidered glove set with jewel chips, jeweled anklet, gold circlet set with four aquamarines, eye patch with a mock eye set in blue sapphire and moonstone, and a necklace strung with small pink pearls.It also contains a magical amulet that has one random archdevil bound to it other than Mephistopheles or Asmodeus ,a character in possession of this amulet can control the archdevil indefinitely.
Trap (No initiative; Immediate): After any creature touches or grabs one or more of the elemental gems, they all explode, dealing no damage, which unleashes their effects immediately. However. Only the elementals from the stones that are being held by the creature are under their control (in order to have more than one elemental under their control, the gems must be touched/grabbed at the same time), and all other elementals are hostile towards them and have a chaotic evil alignment.
How They Shall Escape[edit]
Once all elementals are defeated or under someone's control, a part of the wall irises open to reveal the mountainside through a portal. The characters may then exit the dungeon. Alternatively, the portal could lead to any place in the multiverse, really, and could add to the adventure in any way, such as continuing the current adventure, or maybe leading to new horizons entirely.
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