Traps. Most of the time, they just hurt. But the traps in this article summon monsters when triggered, starting combat encounters (or making existing ones more difficult). Each trap has two components: a dynamic terrain object that serves as the trap’s source, and a creature that spawns from that object when the trap is triggered. If the trap is the entire encounter, you can spawn several creatures; two festival frog swarms and a concealed festival frog pool total 30 EV, which is a medium encounter for five 1st-level heroes with no victories. You can spawn them one at a time until you’ve hit your EV cap, or all at once for more of a challenge. A hero that wasn’t aware of the trap when it triggered begins that encounter surprised. Intercepted Correspondence
How did these traps wind up in the path of your heroes? A pair of intercepted letters offer a clue:

From the Desk of Griffith Brassbottle
Senior Executive Director
Trap Research And Promotion Society (TRAPS)
19 Hummingbird Garden Way, The Pellet, Capital

Dear [Eleonora, please fill in their name],
It is with the greatest and most sincere remorse that I must inform you that this most esteemed society is unable to provide you with funding to further develop your proposal.

Regretfully, [Eleonora, please check if they applied before, and if so, fill in a different rejection reason]. We are, of course, devastated at this outcome, but as I am sure you can understand, it is beyond our control.
We do encourage you to continue to submit your ideas to our society for consideration, as I am confident that the aforementioned difficulty will be resolved in short order, and funding can resume with great pace and vigor. We shall keep your original proposal for our records, and have attached a faithful copy in its stead.

Truthfully Yours,
Griffith Brassbottle

[Eleonora, please transcribe this on my letterhead with the changes requested. Also, please book me some time with Cardinal Rimini of House Navarr. I think I can sell him the frogs one. He’s a big fan of unexpected poisonings.]


Hello Mister Brassbottle,
I hope you and your kin have been well since my last application. I was very sorry to hear about you having to pause funding because of a demon bee infestation in your hindquarters (did you mean your headquarters?), but that gave me an idea for some new traps. I’ve written them out below. I hope you’re able to fund me this time around. You know what they say: seventh time’s the charm!
Eadwig