The Cask-and-Record Sentry | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

A defensive clinic storeroom mechanism uses pressure plates and a hidden siphon to rupture a tainted cask, filling the narrow room with choking medicinal vapor while a spring-loaded rack blocks the doorway. It threatens intruders, but its indiscriminate design endangers patients and valuable supplies.

mechanical
complex
environmental

Stealth: (trained) to notice the pressure plates and trigger wire before they are disturbed; the hiss and gauge are apparent once the room is quiet.
Trigger: A creature of at least Small size steps on a pressure plate in the central 10-foot-by-10-foot area, or a cask is moved without first releasing the rack's safety catch. The hazard rolls initiative.
Disable: Three successes are required to disable the hazard. Thievery to jam the pressure plate or sever the trigger wire, Crafting to safely bleed pressure from the line, or Medicine to identify and seal the volatile cask without disturbing its fittings. Each attempt requires 2 actions and must be made adjacent to the relevant component. A critical success counts as 2 successes. Once disabled, the hazard cannot be reset without repairs.
Initiative: +14
Routine: The hazard loses 1 action each round for each successful disable check since the previous round. On its turn, it uses 1 action to release vapor into the storeroom, then 1 action to swing the cask rack across the entrance. It repeats this routine each round while active. The vapor disperses when the hazard is disabled or destroyed.
Reset: The mechanism resets after 1 hour if it has not been disabled and the casks and rack remain intact. Replacing the ruptured cask takes 10 minutes and appropriate supplies.

Damage

Immunities

critical hits, object immunities, precision

Effects

2

Tainted Medicinal Vapor
DC 22
The vapor burns the lungs and blurs vision. A creature in the storeroom when the hazard acts takes poison damage, with a basic Fortitude save. On a critical failure, it is also sickened 1. The vapor is inhaled poison.
Cask-Rack Slam
DC 22
The rack snaps across the narrow entrance. A creature in the doorway attempts a Reflex save. On a failure, it takes bludgeoning damage and is pushed 5 feet into the room; on a critical failure, it also falls prone. On a success, it avoids the swing.

Special rules

Confined Room.The storeroom is a 20-foot-by-20-foot area with a single 5-foot-wide entrance. The vapor fills the storeroom and does not pass through a closed, sealed door. The rack swing affects only creatures in the entrance.

Indiscriminate Trigger.The hazard cannot distinguish intruders from clinic staff. A creature that knows the mechanism's trigger can avoid it by stepping only on the clear stone strips along the walls.

Spotting it

Discovery

A character Searching the room can attempt a Perception check to notice the pressure plates beneath the stained floorboards, the wire along the cask rack, or the faint hiss in the pressure line.

Perception

+14

Stop it

Signs of dangerCopper wire disappears beneath floorboards beside the rack. · A faint hiss comes from behind the casks, even when the room is quiet. · The ledger pages nearest the leaking cask have curled and turned translucent.

Countermeasures

DC 22A character adjacent to the gauge can Interact to turn its valve and vent the chamber, ending the routine. This requires a successful Thievery check or Crafting check; on a failure, the character takes the current routine's damage.
DC 20A character can use an Interact action to wedge the rack's release lever with a sturdy object. A successful Athletics check prevents the next routine but does not disable the hazard.
The pressure line can be severed from outside the threatened area with a reach weapon or ranged attack. This disables the hazard, but the casks rupture and their contents are lost.
Moving the casks off the pressure plates before the hazard is triggered prevents activation, provided the characters first detect the plates.

In short

Find and disable the pressure line or bypass the marked floorboards; careful handling can also vent the cask safely.

Its story

What it looks like

A waist-high rack of clinic casks stands beneath a ceiling of ledger shelves.

Why it is here

Protect the clinic's medicines and patient records from thieves during a siege.

Who made it

Mara Vell, a clinic quartermaster who feared that looters would steal the records and medicines during a siege.

Lore

Clinic staff whisper that the quartermaster rigged the storeroom after medicine began disappearing during an outbreak.

Where it is found

A cramped clinic storeroom or treatment-room annex, especially one with casks, ledgers, and a single narrow entrance.

Variants

Replace the vapor with a sleep-inducing anesthetic. Creatures that fail the Fortitude save become slowed 1 for 1 round instead of taking poison damage.

The casks contain an alchemical disinfectant that is harmless to living creatures but damages undead and pathogens; patients and records are still at risk.

A hidden manual release behind a wall-mounted anatomy chart lets a knowledgeable character safely shut down the hazard with one Interact action and a DC 20 Medicine check.

Plot hooks

The casks hold the only remaining doses of a medicine needed by patients elsewhere in the clinic.

A ledger in the room documents who has been stealing supplies, but the vapor threatens to destroy its ink.

The maker's mark matches a trap elsewhere in the clinic, suggesting the quarantine ward was prepared for something more than ordinary theft.

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