10 thoughts on “Brainstorm with me.”

  1. If the tomb is trapped, then whoever built it wanted to guard whatever is in it–which to me would primarily include the slayer’s weapons (to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands), and the body (which needs to be protected from desecration by vengeful dragons).

    Put them together, and I’d say the slayer’s weapons should actually be part of a trap, whether they’re animated or wielded by a sandstone golem or whatever else. Only those who can best the weapons are worthy of wielding them, and there’s no better guard against dragons than mystic armaments which have killed so many of them.

    Edit: also, totally worth asking who built the tomb. Sacred sect? Cult of personality? Slayer’s best friend? Slayer’s worst enemy? The slayer, in a bout of twilight paranoia? The answer should suggest some great fiction 

  2. The dragons and their cults are going to want to make pretty damn sure that he stays dead (no resurrection!) and that all his dragon-slaying gear stays lost forever.

  3. To play the captain obvious card: a dragon theme. Traps that breathe various forms of dragon breath, mechanical clockwork dragon man guards, undead skeleton dragon guarding the central tomb. Dragon mania, baby!

  4. A magical mirror asking you to enter your nine-digit access incantation. If you’ve forgotten it, just give it the address of your crystal ball, and instructions for a new access incantation will be sent to you. I’m sorry, please use at least one capital, number, and glyph in your access incantation. I’m sorry, your access incantations do not match…

  5. I just got a couple today.

    A treasure chest that, once opened, also opens the ceiling and drops a ton of sand on them.

    A bowl before a doorway that will only open if filled with dragon’s blood.

  6. A number of defences specifically targeted at dragons. The form they take depend on what dragons are in your world but might include:

    Narrow passages a dragon could not fit down.

    Massive projectiles launched with enough force to penetrate the scales of a dragon.

    Freezing magic that will quench a dragon’s fire.

  7. A legendary, dragon-slayer mummy, wielding her dragon slaying weapon(s), and wearing armor built to survive an encounter with a legendary wyrm. Little did they know, when building the tomb, that a baby wyrm had been secretly kept deep under the tomb, as a loving prize by the dragon slayer. Defeat the mummy, release the now, full-grown beast. The slaying weapons are available if the mummy is defeated, otherwise, negotiate with the grateful beast.

  9. Three traps.

    First a door made from a dragons mouth. Unless you have killed a dragon or dragon kin when you enter the jaws it animates and fights you. The door remains magically sealed as long as the door guardian lives.

    2. A room with a dragon claw large enough to hold a barn. In its center is a sword pinning it to the ground.

    If you touch the sword at all, you must fight a ghost of this mighty dragon. On the hilt of the sword easily readable without touching it are the words dragons never die.

    A lore roll will revel the rest of the phrase the hero was famous for is

    But I kill them anyways.

    Saying these words opens the burial chamber

    Last trap, the magically preserved body of the mighty slayer is encased in glass (wall o force )

    Any attempt to reach the body results in the whole chamber being flooded with fire, ice, lightning, acid, sonic, and raw magical energy basically every breath weapon ever used on the heror all at once.

  10. Ancient? In the desert? Those imply simpler tools / engineering and smaller groups less likely to have the logistical power to launch a mass construction in inhospitable land. I’d go with a reappropriated existent feature, like the petrified and sunken body of a crashed cosmic squid. Or great worm. Or genuinely giant giant.

    The desert is hot, but if you find your way into the tomb (and since it’s long buried that is no easy task) the whole area is lit with ever cold torches, which cast blue light and drain heat instead of providing it. Cold blooded creatures won’t last long in there. Even the slightest exposure to standard fire causes an ever cold torch to erupt in a dangerous and unpredictable manner as it’s remaining millennia of magical juice is discharged in a flash.

    There’s a door with slate plaques sunk into the wall around it, words written in Draconic on them. Most are nonsense, but one stone reads Yes and one No. The frame of the door has a question in Draconic on it – “Can the Dragon Folk walk among us as men?” Pressing any stone but the yes or no ones open the door for five minutes. Hitting yes or no and thereby showing a knowledge of Draconic sets off the trap instead, dousing the room in flame. And so causing the ever cold torches in the room to detonate if they haven’t been extinguished or removed.

Comments are closed.