Concept: a low-level Dungeons & Dragons adventure that’s initially presented as a standard “retrieve valuable treasure from bottom of dungeon at behest of wealthy patron” scenario.
As they enter the dungeon, the first thing the player characters encounter is a trap, clearly already triggered, with the long-dead bones of a previous adventurer caught inside. They can loot the corpse or not, as they prefer; it’s not a trick, and the trap is no longer dangerous.
As they delve deeper into the dungeon, they encounter further already-triggered traps, in a wide variety of increasingly imaginative forms, some with dead adventurers in them, some with dead monsters. What they do not, however, encounter are any living monsters or untriggered traps.
Finally, they reach the bottom of the dungeon, where they find the treasure: the Under-King’s personal living quarters, full of magically preserved Fifth Dynasty furniture, priceless to the right sort of collector, and untouched by looters due to the aforementioned traps. Bringing it out of the dungeon intact will be a slow and awkward proposition, of course, but the path is conveniently clear.
... that is, until the party ventures beyond the chamber’s threshhold, and the air is immediately filled with the telltale creaks and clicks of all the traps they just walked past automatically resetting.
Happy 20th anniversary, FFXI! I had the honour of creating this piece to commemorate FFXI’s 20th anniversary; check out the gallery with all the other awesome pieces here: https://20yearsof.finalfantasyxi.com
Been meaning to write this for a while, but representation is severely lacking in video games and one of the things that bothers me the most is option of Afro-centric hairstyles.