Ideas for Traps

[DoubleF]

Here is the context for the situation: My play group are currently trapped on an Island that this fleet of Pirates use as their base of operations. They made it onto the Island and have been able to take over the small fort that the pirates had and killed/ran off the remaining pirates there. After taking care of the pirates that escaped they are now free to explore the Island that I have.

In one of the areas I am looking to have traps or defense mechanisms setup in what would the equivalent of a government research facility. I am looking for ideas or thoughts on what would be some good traps for this kind of thing. The area around the building is tropical, think Pacific Islands, and the building itself is rectangular made completely out of thick stone and a round tower that is coming out from it. I look forward to the help and ideas thanks!

[Koo Rehtorb]

Nothing wrong with the good ol' spiked pit trap.

[SilverLeaf167]

Some setting (if not system) information would be helpful. Hard to say much without any idea about the availability of technology, magic etc.

[Celestia]

Pit trap with a falling ceiling to knock down flyers and seal the hole. The bottom is spiked, and the walls are coated in slippery grease. The spikes are also poisoned with something that damages strength.

An illusionary floor covering up more poisoned spikes.

Poisoned spears that shoot out of the walls and remain out, impeding movement and potentially skewering intruders in place. Meanwhile, a resetting tray at the end of the hallway shoots a lightning bolt every round while the intruders are stuck.

The rooms and halls are completely dark and filled with creatures with darkvision. Meanwhile, numerous resetting traps fire off magic missiles at intruders with unerring accuracy for small, but continuous damage.

Fill everything with flammable grease for slippery floors/walls, and then throw alchemist fire at it. The intruders burn while struggling to climb out of a greasy pit.

Pit trap. The bottom is filled with fragile bottles of sovereign glue. Intruders fall, break the glass, and become glued to the floor. Since their limbs are also glued, having fallen prone and all, they can't save themselves even if they happen to have universal solvent on them.

A maze filled with illusionary walls and secret doors that either lead nowhere or circle around back into the maze. Best if it doesn't actually go anywhere, and the entrance gets blocked after intruders break in.

That's all I have right now.

[DoubleF]

"Some setting (if not system) information would be helpful. Hard to say much without any idea about the availability of technology, magic etc."

The campaign is using Pathfinder rules. The world itself is nearing the end of the Middle ages so some guns exist but not much the focus of this area of the world is an area where the oceans of the world connect so this area is the most direct route to the east and west. Technology is still stuck in the middle ages but it is quickly catching up with soon to be more guns, the printing press was just created so books are starting to be come more available. People who practice magic are pretty uncommon, they are known and some even have guilds in cities but they are really outnumbered when compared to the rest of the population. Their are numerous races that inhabit this part of the world as well due to the thousands of Islands that fill this connecting area (Think GrandLine from OnePiece but instead of a straight line it is more like a circle that is connects two bigger circles and this little circle has little dots in it.) Hopefully that helps out some.

[Bohandas]

this is better for a wizard tower than a pirate island, but I'll share it anyway:

A large quantity of gold is in a gravity reversed room at the top of a building. This is actually what's holding the building up. If removed from the reversed gravity room to a normal gravity chamber the building collapses.

[JAL_1138]

Pit trap with a falling ceiling to knock down flyers and seal the hole. The bottom is spiked, and the walls are coated in slippery grease. The spikes are also poisoned with something that damages strength.

An illusionary floor covering up more poisoned spikes.

Poisoned spears that shoot out of the walls and remain out, impeding movement and potentially skewering intruders in place. Meanwhile, a resetting tray at the end of the hallway shoots a lightning bolt every round while the intruders are stuck.

The rooms and halls are completely dark and filled with creatures with darkvision. Meanwhile, numerous resetting traps fire off magic missiles at intruders with unerring accuracy for small, but continuous damage.

Fill everything with flammable grease for slippery floors/walls, and then throw alchemist fire at it. The intruders burn while struggling to climb out of a greasy pit.

Pit trap. The bottom is filled with fragile bottles of sovereign glue. Intruders fall, break the glass, and become glued to the floor. Since their limbs are also glued, having fallen prone and all, they can't save themselves even if they happen to have universal solvent on them.

A maze filled with illusionary walls and secret doors that either lead nowhere or circle around back into the maze. Best if it doesn't actually go anywhere, and the entrance gets blocked after intruders break in.

That's all I have right now.

The floor falls open to a 50ft deep, 10ft wide greased pit. The bottom 10ft of the pit is occupied by a Gelatinous Cube. When the floor opens, the ceiling simultaneously opens to drop another Gelatinous Cube down the pit, on top of whoever just fell down it.

[Maglubiyet]

Is the government facility manned or abandoned? Can the traps be reset? Do the employees need to avoid them or are they only off the beaten path?

Are the traps designed to keep nosy people from getting too close or are they intended to murder trespassers straight away? Do they need alarms to let someone, like guards, to know when they've been activated?

Is there magic?

[Bohandas]

A jolly roger flag that's actually a magic item combining an undead skeleton and the "cloth-like" version of the shrink item spell. When their back is turned to it the skeleton crawls out of the flag and attacks them.

[Bohandas]

Is the government facility manned or abandoned? Can the traps be reset? Do the employees need to avoid them or are they only off the beaten path?

If I understand correctly it had previously been taken over by pirates, who have now themselves been dispatched as well.

[Freed]

-A trap door that brings them to the bottom of the surrounding ocean.
-A trap that requires you to cut yourself and drip a small bit of blood into a bowl, only to find out the next room is full of bloodthirsty sharks!
-A trap that is a volcano- just like the classic room filling up with water, but with lava, and the players must escape or block the oncoming lava flow before they burn!

[DoubleF]

Is the government facility manned or abandoned? Can the traps be reset? Do the employees need to avoid them or are they only off the beaten path?

The building in question is abandon and has been for sometime but before it was abandon a series of traps were set to keep out anyone who was to enter. The creators had the intention of returning to move all the knowledge that was kept there to another location but that never happen. The building was surrounded by land when it was built but the elements have taken their toll and it now rests on seaside cliff with sharp rocks below. The building is not in any immediately danger of being swallowed up the ocean or the cliff falling.

The knowledge inside is contained in books, stacks of paper, and scrolls everything deep within has been sealed air tight. Only the front doors to the atrium have been unlocked by the pirates that were using the Island. The original creators themselves had a lot of magic at their disposal as well as some pretty advance technology for their time such as clockwork beings. Most of this was lost when their civilization disappeared about 5,000 years or so.

I have to thank you all for the ideas so far as I love all of them! The one that tickles my fancy the most so far is

A trap that requires you to cut yourself and drip a small bit of blood into a bowl, only to find out the next room is full of bloodthirsty sharks!

That one is going to happen.