Flying Guillotine

A glyph-bound blade hovers in wait, dormant and patient. Cross the room without the secret gesture and it leaps from its glyph to take a head.

Disable DC 20 Thievery (trained) to erase the glyph (which requires a successful unarmed attack roll if the blade is already active) or dispel magic (3rd level; counteract DC 20) to counteract it. The trap has a secret bypass known only to Ralso and Pratchett: as long as the guillotine can see a creature in the room touching thumb and pinky together with an empty hand, it remains dormant. The blade has Hardness 13 and 52 HP (BT 26).

Flying Blade [Reaction] (abjuration, arcane, attack)

Level 5 · Complexity Complex

Stealth DC 23 (trained)

Disable

• Thievery DC 20 (trained) — to erase the glyph (which requires a successful unarmed attack roll if the blade is already active) or dispel magic (3rd level; counteract
• DC 20

AC 23

HP 52 · Hardness 13

Immunities critical hits, object immunities, precision damage

Trigger A living creature enters the room

Effect One round after a creature enters the room, the door to the room slams shut and locks (two DC 20 Thievery checks to pick), and the guillotine blade detaches from its housing and begins flying around the room as the trap rolls initiative.

Reset After 1 minute, the trap deactivates, though the door remains locked. The trap rearms itself each day at dawn.