April Shares Her Research on Ancient Booby Traps
Okay, so for anyone who is doing the maze we have to deal with whatever ancient booby traps are still around in there. Since I’m a sciency type person I wanted to look up real traps and mechanisms that have been used irl in ancient tombs and such. I just thought I’d share some of the information I’ve found incase it was helpful to someone else.
Poisons: If the maze and ruins are form ancient times, anything that involved poisons (such as poison tipped arrows or anything of the sort) would no longer work. Compounds deteriorate over time and venoms/poisons would no longer work. This is unless certain pokemon venom have properties that make it last longer, but I kinda doubt that. So poisons would not be a worry.
Crossbows/Dart/Projectile Mechanisms: These could go two ways. If the ruins were ancient then most traps and mechanisms probably deteriorated and the metal rusted. BUT, this could be avoided if the ancients discovered that chromate would keep them from rusting. In that case then the projectile mechanisms could totally still be valid and work (though some over time probably broke and whatnot, but overall most would possibly function). Though over time dust and dirt accumulates and clogs up mechanisms, so unless there was a caretaker, many of them could possibly go defunct.
Irritants: In some ancient tombs and the likes, thick layers of powdered hematite (up to an 8in layer of powder) was placed on the floors. This powder is such and irritant o skin and eyes that people would have to leave. It can also cause siderosis of the lungs and permanent eye damage. If people were exposed to it upon multiple occasions within a few days it would cause mucus filled lungs and bleeding eyes.
Pits: These are pretty simple. Pits would be dug and filled with sharp spikes. The pits would then be covered with a thin enough layer of material to look solid/match the rest of the flooring but when stepped upon would break. The person/pokemon would be either trapped in a pit too deep to escape if it was not filled with spikes, or if it was filled with spikes they’d be impaled.
Some pits would be very shallow and have fish hook shaped metal spikes in them. If stepped in and caught on the spikes you’d have to basically tears your foot apart to escape.
Trip Wires: Simple trip wires could be set up easily that would then be able to launch a projectile at whoever tripped it. Through more complicated mechanisms it might be possible to trigger larger traps, but a single projectile was easiest and most common.
Blockades: Often there would just be large blocks in the way of the path, false doors that lead to dead ends, or false dead end paths.
Psychological Effects: Booby traps are partially as effective as they are because it takes an area that would normally feel safe and turns it into something where people feel insecure and like they cannot perform their jobs correctly or effectively. It largely engages paranoia which can make people antsy/clumsy/etc.
Burden also plays into wearing people’s minds down. If one person is injured, it effectively takes out two because they have to be carried or helped by another person. The injured becomes a large burden on teams as a whole, which can have psychological effects.
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
