The Magistrate's Bloodlocked Vault
This ancient ward protects the magistrate's secret vault, where she keeps evidence, confessions, and blackmail in locked lacquered chests. The door is meant to recognize her key and blood alone. Any other attempt to open it breaks a hidden ampoule and floods the frame with a caustic alchemical mixture that seals the vault, blinds intruders, and burns whatever flesh is nearest the lock.
The Magistrate's Bloodlocked Vault
Defenses
Detection
“The magistrate's vault door is banded in tarnished brass and black iron, with a thumbprint-sized blood well set beside a faceted keyhole. Fine etching around the frame shows a judge's scales, an open eye, and little alchemical sigils that look like they have been rubbed with soot and wax to hide them. When the wrong hand touches the lock, the metal warms like a fevered stove and the seams of the door begin to sweat amber droplets.”
Standard Engagement
The hazard triggers when a creature without the magistrate's key and blood attempts to pick, force, or otherwise open the vault door, or when a creature tampers with the blood well or keyhole.
If triggered, the hazard acts on initiative count 10. It vents the caustic cloud, then pours sealing resin into the lock seam. The first round after activation, the door becomes impossible to open by force without dealing 10 damage to it or succeeding on a DC 15 Strength check. While the hazard remains active, any creature that starts its turn adjacent to the door must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or take 1d6 acid damage from the lingering fumes. If the door is opened without the proper key and blood, the hazard also sprays a concentrated burst at the opener, forcing that creature to make the same saving throw with disadvantage.
The hazard resets 1 minute after being triggered if at least one ampoule remains intact and the reagent tubes are not destroyed. If the frame is fully dismantled or the ward runes are disrupted, it does not reset until repaired by a skilled alchemist or artificer.
On the hazard's initiative count, the frame vents a stinging amber vapor in a 10-foot radius around the door. Each creature in the area must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or take 2d6 acid damage and 2d6 poison damage, and its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn. On a success, the creature takes half damage and suffers no speed reduction.
The vapor congeals on exposed metal and stone, creating a slick amber glaze. Until the end of the hazard's next turn, the 10-foot area around the door is difficult terrain. The first creature to move through the area on a turn must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone.
Proper access is the magistrate's original key plus her blood. If both are presented, the door opens quietly and the hazard remains dormant.
If the hazard reduces a creature to 0 hit points, the sealing resin hardens around the body. That creature is restrained until the resin is scraped away, which takes 1 minute and a DC 13 Strength check or the use of alchemist's supplies.
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