Briar Vow's Censer Snare | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

This concealed ritual apparatus turns a trespasser's movement into a signal for a swinging censer and a sweeping chain. The cult uses it to guard its woodland altar and punish anyone who interrupts a rite.

Mechanical
Complex

Stealth: to notice the tripwire while moving through the approach; the winch is hidden beneath roots and requires a separate search.
Trigger: A creature crosses or disturbs the tripwire within 20 feet of the altar.
Disable: Thievery (trained) to disable the tripwire, then Thievery (trained) to lock the winch. Each check requires 2 actions. A critical success disables that component; a failure has no effect; a critical failure triggers the hazard if it is not already active. The hazard is disabled once both components are disabled.
Initiative: +12 Perception
Routine: On each of its turns, the hazard uses Censer Lash against one creature within 20 feet of the altar, then uses Root-Sweep Chain. If no creature is within range for an action, the hazard does nothing with that action.
Reset: The counterweight resets the mechanism after 1 minute, provided the winch is not disabled or destroyed.

Damage

Immunities

critical hits, object immunities

Effects

2

Censer Lash
The weighted censer swings at one creature within 20 feet of the altar. Make a +14 attack roll against the target's AC. On a hit, the target takes bludgeoning damage. On a critical hit, the target also falls prone.
Root-Sweep Chain
DC 21
The chain sweeps through a 10-foot line originating at the altar. Each creature in the line must attempt a Reflex save. On a failure, the creature takes bludgeoning damage and is pushed 5 feet away from the altar. On a critical failure, it is also knocked prone. On a success, the creature takes half damage and is not pushed; on a critical success, it takes no damage.

Special rules

Tripwire Alarm.The hazard becomes active when its tripwire is disturbed. It rolls initiative immediately and remains active until disabled or destroyed.

Exposed Winch.The winch is a Medium mechanical object with AC 21, Fortitude +12, Reflex +8, Hardness 10, and 40 HP. It is immune to mental effects and poison.

Spotting it

Discovery

A creature that searches the altar approach can find the tripwire with a successful Perception check.

Perception

+12

Stop it

Signs of dangerA narrow groove circles the altar through the leaf litter. · Iron links hang from branches where no hunting snare would normally be set. · Old blood stains the roots beneath the censer's arc.

Countermeasures

DC 21A creature can cross the marked tripwire without triggering the hazard by succeeding at a Acrobatics check to avoid disturbing it.
A creature adjacent to the winch can use Thievery to disable it.
A creature can jam the winch with an appropriate sturdy object, preventing the Chain Lash until the jam is removed with an Interact action.
The hazard can be destroyed by reducing the winch to 0 HP.

In short

Avoid the tripwire and altar ring, then disable the winch and sever or jam the chain.

Its story

What it looks like

A ring of iron stakes surrounds a low stone altar.

Why it is here

Guard a forest cult's ritual ground and punish intruders.

Who made it

The Briar Vow, a forest cult whose unnamed elders built the mechanism.

Lore

The Briar Vow believed that a trespasser's blood should mark the ground before the forest spirits were summoned.

Where it is found

Forest

Variants

Replace the censer's iron scraps with hooked bone fragments; on a critical hit, the target also takes 1 persistent bleed damage.

A cult keeper can pull a concealed cord to activate the hazard from the winch without entering the altar ring.

Plot hooks

A missing forester was last seen near the altar. Their tools lie just beyond the tripwire.

The cult's next rite requires a brass key held in a pouch beneath the winch.

A rival band has learned to trigger the snare from cover and intends to lure pursuers into its reach.

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