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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

General Hazards | Adventure-Specific Hazards | Weather Hazards

Skulls of Fear and FlameHazard 7

Legacy Content

Unique Complex Magical Trap 
Source Pathfinder #200: Seven Dooms for Sandpoint pg. 85
Complexity Complex
Stealth +17 (expert) to notice little wisps of smoke start to curl up from the unlit candles on the skulls.
Description A line of skulls adorned with black candles sit on the floor, and use darkvision to spot intruders. The red arrows on the map indicate the direction the skulls are looking.
Disable Stealth DC 27 to move through the room unseen by the skulls (this does not disable the trap but does prevent it from triggering), Thievery DC 27 three times to “blind” an adjacent skull by deftly scraping hidden runes away from the inside of the eye sockets, or dispel magic (4th level, counteract DC 25) to counteract the trap
AC 25, Fort +18, Ref +12
Skull Hardness 14, Skull HP 10 (BT 5); Immunities critical hits, object immunities, precision damage
Fearful Cry [reaction] (arcane, emotion, enchantment, fear) Trigger A creature walks into view of the skulls and is spotted by them; Effect The candles atop all six skulls flare to light and the skulls shriek out fearsome, mind-numbing howls. All creatures in area F6, the stairs, or the eastern trough must attempt a DC 25 Will save. The trap then rolls initiative.

Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature is frightened 1.
Failure The creature is frightened 2 and fleeing as long as they remain frightened.
Critical Failure As failure, but once the creature is no longer frightened, the previous minute of memories are erased—likely removing knowledge of the secret door at the top of the stairs in area E7a. All that remains are strange lingering fears about returning to the area.
Routine (6 actions) On its initiative the trap uses its first action to rotate a skull that can't see targets a full 360 degrees, stopping as soon as the skull spots a target. It repeats this action until all six skulls are looking at targets, then uses its remaining actions to shoot beams of fire from their eyes. The trap can only target a creature once per round, so if there are fewer targets than actions, any additional actions possessed by the trap are lost. The trap loses one action for each skull that is destroyed.
Ranged fire beam +18 (range 25 feet, fire); Damage 4d8 fire
Reset If there are no visible targets, the trap deactivates at the end of its turn, then automatically resets.