Timed Floor of Death (3.5e Equipment)

Timed Floor of Death
Summary::Keep up the pressure. Can they disable the trap before the entire floor becomes lav- I mean spikes?  The trap begins when they enter a room with the ground pockmarked by tiny holes, tapestries or paintings hanging from the walls, and small details such as a bust of a statue, a large vase, and other red herrings. Already the heroes are nervous, and they check for traps. Finding a trap is not difficult (DC 11 Search) as they stumble upon a control panel to some gears. Too bad a closer inspection (DC 23 Search) reveals the gears aren't connected to anything. With the "trap" disabled they move on calmly into the middle of the room, onto the small line of pressure plates between holes, and...

And then the entrance and exit slam shut, and the loud clatter of gears is heard getting faster and faster by the minute like some iron heart ready to burst!

The party has 6 rounds to find a way out. The heavy stone doors are sealed shut and will be difficult to just break through. There may be several ways out, but if they don't find a method in time... SHKINT! The entire floor juts up with iron spears, skewering anyone in the room. A brief wash of water, and the blood is drained down the very same holes once the trap is reset.

Each 5 foot square has 4 spears (a single +10 attack roll for each square with 4d8 damage, 20/x3). Large or larger creatures may be subject to multiple attack rolls. The shafts are barbed with thorns and the spears are tight enough to make moving through it difficult. Speed is reduced to 5 ft a round and deals 1d4 piercing and slashing damage for moving through it. Small and Tiny creatures treat as difficult terrain (and Tiny creatures do not take damage for moving), while Diminutive and smaller creatures can pass through the field of spears without hindrance or damage. The spears retract on their own within 6 rounds.

Bypass

 * A DC 23 Search check before the trap is sprung reveals there is a fake wall behind one of the tapestries. The DC drops to 13 if a successful Listen check (DC 20) is made after the trap is sprung, as the clanking of gears is much louder there.  Once the gears are exposed, a DC 20 Disable Device, or the introduction of a item at least of hardness 15 into the works, jams the device and stops the trap.  The doors can be opened if the trap hasn't been destroyed.
 * Alternatively, they can just try to bust through either of the doors (hardness 8, 90 hp, break DC 35).


 * They can try and stop a patch of spears from coming from the floor by covering them up, if they have a roughly 5 foot square object (a tower shield may work, a heavy steal shield is too small). However the spears have hardened alloy tips and will ignore 5 points of hardness.  If the spears fail to deal enough damage to break the intervening object, they do not pierce and those standing on it are projected upward 10 feet.  If the ceiling is low enough, they may take falling damage (a far more manageable 1d6 damage) and must wait for the spears to automatically retract 6 rounds later.

Alternatives
If you wish to make it more difficult feel free to describe other objects in the room, red herrings, where parties can search for traps to disable such as a stone bust or a large vase. Its just mean.

Add poison to the spears (and raise the CR appropriately) for an extra bit of nastiness.

For a real nasty time, forget the spears. The hole shoot fountains of lava filling the room waist deep. Now the floor really is lava, and it remains in lava dealing 2d6 on the first round and last round and 10d6 fire damage (rather than 20d6 for full immersion) for four rounds between, no save. Exposure to the superheated air above is 1d6 fire damage a round. Raise the search and disable DCs accordingly. This super deadly version is CR 10.

If you want to throw them a bone, one of the random objects in the room, such as a coat rack, secretly has an adamantine core which is detectable by weight when lifted. It is used to jam up the gears in case of accidental activation, and may have unusual nicks or exposed metal where the wood has been chipped.

Spike Floor Trap: CR 4; mechanical; location trigger; automatic reset; Atk +10 melee (4d8 piercing, 20/x3); multiple targets (attack once per 5 foot square); onset delay (6 rounds); Search DC 23; Disable Device DC 20. Market Price: 2,100 gp.

Lava Floor Trap: CR 10; mechanical; location trigger; automatic reset; pool of lava (2d6 fire on first and last round, 10d6 fire for 4 rounds in between); multiple targets (all targets in room); never miss; onset delay (6 rounds); Search DC 30; Disable Device DC 20. Market Price: 4,500 gp.

Total Market Price: Cost::2100 gp (4500 gp lava version).