Why do we even have that lever?

Discussion in 'General Chatter' started by LadyNighteyes, Aug 4, 2017.

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  1. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    I just encountered a game on Tumblr which struck me as excellent for forum play, so I introduce you to: "Why do we even have that lever?"

    His starting trap has already gotten a lot of answers in the thread, so I'm going to provide a new starter: why is there a room that fills up with water when you stand on the wrong flagstone?
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
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  2. furrylatula

    furrylatula a pissed off homestuck girl

    that isnt the 'wrong' flagstone, thats an indoor diving facility. youre supposed to wear yr scuba suit while the fish get released, silly!!

    why is there a room where the floor is lava with musical stepping stones?
     
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  3. KarrinBlue

    KarrinBlue Magical Girl Intern

    The fortress queen is a mermaid (of the sort who can switch back and forth between human and met form), and it's her private swimming area.

    Why is there a room with a spiky pit under a trapdoor?
     
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  4. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    It's an incinerator. All the stones are supposed to set off the fire when something is placed on them, but a few of them have broken. The original inhabitants of the dungeon could float, so the weight trigger wasn't inconvenient for them.

    It was just a cellar. There's even still a ladder stuck to one side, though it's hard to see under all the layers of nacre left by the lingering magical fallout on the building that causes water that stands for too long to turn into pearl. It's too bad they didn't build the trapdoor better; if it didn't have those gaps in it, the water couldn't have gotten in to form all those big, sharp stalagmites.

    Why is there a compartment under the pew in the chapel that when you open it fills the room with poisonous gas?
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
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  5. Codeless

    Codeless Cheshire Cat

    It´s not poisonous to the original inhabitants, it´s incense.

    Why is there a candleholder that if you touch it sends a giant stone ball rolling down the corridor to squish you?
     
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  6. Acey

    Acey hand extended, waiting for a shake

    The chapel wasn't built for humans. It's an elf chapel, and the gas it spews isn't at all harmful to elves--it's kind of like how a lot of Catholic churches burn that incense stuff, y'know?

    SHIT NINJA'D BY CODY WITH THE SAME BASIC ANSWER. Anyway.

    The people originally living there were having trouble with people stealing their candles to use for light, and decided to put in a security system.

    Why is there a book in this library that's said to drive all who read it to madness?
     
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  7. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    It was supposed to trigger the sweet Rube Goldberg machine marble track this one engineer made when they were bored during construction, which zoomed all over the place and bounced off a bunch of stuff and did loop-de-loops on bits of ornamental stonework and eventually hit another candlestick which would spin around and set off confetti and a sign that says "YOUR WINNER" (the engineer was a very good engineer, but not a good speller). Unfortunately, someone poked a Wand of Enlarge into one of the holes where the ball shoots in an arc across the room and part of it broke, and now whenever a ball comes out that hole it immediately grows 15 feet wide, ruining the course.

    (Alternate, less silly explanation: it wasn't a Rube Goldberg machine, it was a signaling system. Still relied on little stone balls, though, and there was still an accident with enlargement spells.)

    A previous owner was a rare book collector. You don't need to read it to appreciate how beautifully-embossed the cover is. That's real shadow dragon leather!

    Why is there a spear that shoots down out of the ceiling when someone goes underneath?
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
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  8. Jemmy

    Jemmy Don't Do A Hit

    It's part of an old giant's kitchen. Have you ever tried to shish kebob things when you're huge? Its impossible

    Why do the statues in the hall have spikes that shoot out of their bodies if someone gets too close?
     
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  9. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    It was an art installation about the pain of closeness in relationships and how we push each other away, powered by minuscule, nonsentient earth sprites. Due to the form of containment enchantment used on the sprites, over the years they've absorbed trace amounts of ambient magic in waves whenever the balance of power between the elemental planes shifts, and by now they've picked up enough extra power that the spikes, when triggered, launch hard enough to break out of their moorings instead of just extending and retracting.

    Why does the floor poison you when you walk on it?
     
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  10. Wingyl

    Wingyl Allegedly Magic

    The original inhabitants were trying to create various magical plants, they made medicinal algae and now it is all over the floor here. It was supposed to be in the tank in the corner but the tank broke and now it's everywhere. The floor is wet and slippery.
    Unfortunately the original inhabitants are not the same species as the adventuring party, and their magic healing algae is your magic poison algae.

    Why is there a room where touching the big light pillars makes the floor retract?
     
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  11. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    The room was once a diviner's scrying pool. The light pillars are visible markers of crossing ley lines- by tapping into them, the diviner could directly control the well of aetherial energy in the pit below. The floor retracts to allow them the widest possible view; the aether itself would bear them up as long as they held the ley lines. However, the ley lines shifted after an earthquake 200 years ago, and the well no longer fills, meaning the space under the floor is just a pit now.

    What about that statue of a gorgon that petrifies anyone who gets close?
     
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  12. NevermorePoe

    NevermorePoe Nevermore

    That was just a failed thesis project by an art student at a magical university.

    Why do the walls smash together whenever anyone steps on the wrong tile in this room?
     
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  13. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    Decaying stonework. The tile is loose, and putting too much weight on it presses down on mechanisms underneath which are connected to the dehumidifier systems built into the walls of the library to protect the books from damp. Specifically, these mechanisms are the release levers in the next room that pull the machinery out of the wall for maintenance and to clean the air filters, but the tile hits both triggers at once, causing them to slam into each other instead of one opening the entire way, as they were supposed to.

    Why is this hallway full of giant swinging axe blades?
     
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  14. Wingyl

    Wingyl Allegedly Magic

    It is supposed to be not just axes, but various other tools as well-it was an automated meat processing plant, designed for butchering the giant, draconic livestock generally kept in this area. The control room has settings for what you want to do with the meat. This includes settings for what each tool should be doing, and defaults for various species and meat amounts. It can also handle smaller livestock, chicken-sized at minimum.

    Somebody with either absolutely no idea what they're doing or an advanced knowledge of the system and a lot of malice has set every tool to "Axe-Decapitate" and deactivated the conveyor.


    Why does the floor here vanish and dump you in a pit when you stand on it for more than a few seconds?
     
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  15. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    The castle's chief wizard created an experimental system to improve foot traffic congestion issues in the narrow hallways by shifting slower walkers into an adjacent, parallel demiplane for the length of the hallway, preventing them from slowing down the fast travelers. As it was an experiment, the spell was not well-designed for durability and has not held up well over time, and where before the stones would fade into the other plane and back when transporting someone so quickly that it was difficult to notice the transition, now they usually fail to convey walkers along (leaving them to fall through the newly-left hole) and take an unpredictable amount of time to pop back. Some of them haven't been seen in years.

    Why can this door only be opened by shoving crates into a specific pattern?
     
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  16. Wingyl

    Wingyl Allegedly Magic

    The door is a magical door, and the crates contain magical components.
    The place was created by a whole species of magical creatures, all of whom have enough control over their internal magic to be able to signal the door to open. The player characters don't, and must move the crates to trick the door into thinking they're an allowed type of magical creature.

    ETA: Why must you use magic to rotate the entire room to be able to reach the door?
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
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  17. NevermorePoe

    NevermorePoe Nevermore

    it was originally intended to be used as a rotating system to move large munitions through 90 degree angles, but when the war ended and the base was turned into a mall it was viewed as a tourist attraction.

    Why does this room make everyone look like shadows?
     
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  18. Pheelog

    Pheelog The Phee-Phee Police

    Clearly, it was part of a masquerade party. When you're an immortal being, domino masks and veils fall so out of fashion. Use magic to make everyone into a featureless shadow and the mystery hangs thick in the atmosphere for the duration of the night. It was such a hit, they added in a permanency enchant so they could use it for years and years to come!

    . . . Shame that the hosts weren't actually all that immortal.

    Why did an impossibly heavy metal grate drop behind me when I stepped into the room and bar my exit?
     
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  19. Lazarae

    Lazarae The tide pod of art

    This was a temple, and initiates were meant to pass through each room without retreat. The grates were a physical reinforcement of the philosophy, but not all of them work properly now.

    Why does pulling this lever shoot a stream of poisonous darts at you from every side?
     
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  20. LadyNighteyes

    LadyNighteyes Wicked Witch of the Radiant Historia Fandom

    It's an automatic acupuncture machine designed by a were-mongoose.

    They fired him.

    Why does this gate only open for 15 seconds when you push a button at the other end of a complicated series of paths, forcing you to sprint and jump the entire way at top speed to get through before it closes?
     
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