The Stormtine
The Stormtine is a compact lightning trap built to punish intruders who cross a prepared threshold. It discharges with a deafening crack, briefly turning the room into a cage of blue fire. The trap is dangerous because it rewards haste with a second target, and because its warning signs are easy to mistake for harmless magical residue.
The Stormtine
Defenses
Detection
“A blackened bronze rod rises from the floor, its tip forked like a crown. Thin copper veins run through the surrounding stone and converge on a waist-high iron plate. The air tastes of metal, hair lifts along the arms, and blue sparks crawl over the walls when anyone approaches.”
Standard Engagement
A creature steps on the iron plate, pulls the sealed door, or touches the bronze rod without first grounding it.
No routine. The hazard remains dormant until triggered, then discharges once and becomes inert for 10 minutes.
The Stormtine resets after 10 minutes if its rod remains in place and the copper veins are intact. If the rod is removed or grounded, it does not reset.
The lightning blast fills a 15-foot line from the rod toward the iron plate and leaps to the nearest creature within 5 feet of that line. Creatures in the area must save versus paralysis or take 2d6 lightning damage and be stunned for 1 round. A successful save halves the damage and avoids the stun. A creature standing on the iron plate saves at a -2 penalty.
A creature struck by the discharge drops one held metal item unless it succeeds on a Strength or Dexterity check. The item is not destroyed, but it becomes hot enough to inflict 1 point of damage if immediately picked up.
If two or more creatures are within 5 feet of one another when the trap triggers, the lightning may jump between them. Each additional creature in that cluster takes 1d6 lightning damage unless the first target succeeds on a second save versus paralysis.
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