Setting Traps (sage study)

Setting Traps is a sage study in the field of Skulduggery which confers skill at setting up mechanical devices for the purpose of detaining, damaging, wounding, injuring or killing unwanted trespassers and unsuspecting victims, preferably so that the character is not implicated in the trap's effect. Characters are also able to remove the traps set by other persons.

Traps are typically used to protect valuables and other illicit property, or by owners who feel unsafe in their dwellings. Most traps possess some sort of trigger, even if it is the movement of the potential victim which enables the trap, such as a covered pit. The materials used to make traps vary widely and trap-makers are assumed to be highly innovative in working with whatever materials might be immediately available. The most common tool employed is the knife, which is used to make, carve, bend or otherwise alter materials such as wire, twine, wooden or metal stakes and earth in order to change the environment sufficiently as to make it dangerous. Most of the materials used in a given trap can be salvaged afterwards, once the trap has been sprung or dismantled.

Another key element of trap creation includes misdirection and psychological manipulation, which drives individuals to move this way or that while in the trap's presence, reducing the random chance of activating the trap. An unskilled person setting up a snare might never successfully produce a result; but a person with even an Amateur knowledge of the study is presumed to set up a trap in such a manner than there is a 60% chance or better than any creature moving into a trapped 10-foot diameter area will fall prey to the trap. In part, this is also due to the use of varying baits. This helps explain why not everyone can simply build a pit and cover it; without a thorough understanding of where to dig the pit, or properly conceal it, the likelihood is that an ordinary pit would not produce any results.

Sage Abilities

The sage abilities below are those acquired by a character through the study, according to status.

Amateur Status

Animal Trapping: uses snares and traps to catch animals for their furs and meat, or as a means of pest control.

Set Snare: creates nooses and tension to catch or immobilize unsuspecting victims.

See Simple Trap: allows the character to see traps that can be safely avoided without setting off or needing to deactivate the trap, such as pressure points in the floor, trip wires, concealed pits and so on.

Trapping Pit: design pits with steep sides designed to trap victims, camouflaged with branches, leaves and other materials.

Authority Status

Booby Trap: creates lethal traps using mechanisms and ample tension; includes spring traps.

Recognise Dweomer: enables the observer to recognize the presence of magical traps, glyphs, runes, sigils and similar devices.

Remove Trap I: enables the removal of amateur traps by other persons.

Expert Status

Poison Trap: includes the enduring application of poison substances into booby traps.

Pressure Trap: implements balance and hydraulic forces in the making of traps.

Remove Trap II: enables the removal of authority traps by other persons.

Safe Trap: improves traps so that they can be reset or reloaded by unskilled persons with a minimum of training.

Sage Status

Remove Trap III: enables the removal of expert traps by other persons.

Self-resetting Trap: uses magical applications and ingenuity to enable traps to reset themselves after firing.

See also,
Assassin Sage Abilities
Thief Sage Abilities