The Memory Prison

The Memory Prison was an idea that I intended as more of a role playable experience rather than anything else. It isn’t a physically dangerous trap. Nevertheless, it can pose serious peril depending on how the DM decides to implement it.

The Memory Prison is a cross between a trap and a collection of artifacts. 

The Appearance: It is a large collection of upright rectangular display cases arranged in a grid. The bases are roughly 4 ft by 4ft by 1ft high and made of granite carved with swirling designs, but no carved writing or signs to indicate the contents of the display. The glass has the same dimensions as the base but instead stands an additional 7ft tall. Each display case is therefore 4 ft by 4ft by 8ft. 

The Bait: The glass is a couple inches thick and when first encountered, appears to be fogged over and illuminated from the inside. Due to the fogging, the hero won’t be able to discern what’s inside, but the trap generates a random silhouette to entice them to clear the glass and peer inside. The silhouette might be of a sword or some other covetable item. If the heroes are smart enough to resist looking in the cases, the illusion will start generating moving silhouettes of humans or dwarfs or similar. Anything that might bait them. 

The Trap: If a hapless hero peers into one of the displays, the artifact steals and traps one of the hero’s memory within. Usually a  memory that has a physical aspect to it works best because it will also steal the item along with the memory of it. For example, if the memory stolen is of the hero’s sword, that sword will be physically transported into the display and the hero loses the item. If the hero stops looking at the sword in the display, they will completely forget about the sword and their ownership of it.

Now the hero can look at the sword in the display again and remember everything, so long as they continue to gaze at their memory. But breaking their sight causes them to forget once more. Once forgotten, they can’t even be reminded by another hero and recall their loss. Role playing the effect might look like this:

Hero George: Hey, Fred. Where’s your sword? 

Hero Fred: What do you mean? I don’t own a sword… 

They can leave the area with the sense that there is something important that they needed to retrieve out of the case, but the victim will never remember exactly what it is while the memory is trapped.

You can have it steal non-physical memories such as directions to a location, or a rumor. They can appear as a floating projection of the location, or a floating scroll containing the rumor. No need to limit yourself to only the physical. Nor the inanimate either. If you’re really wanting to get your players on edge, the Memory Prison could steal away people too. 

The Escape: The glass is self healing and if broken, it will mend cracks and completely regenerate if the entire display is shattered. A dispel magic will nullify the regeneration, the illusions, and the memory theft for 2d4+2 rounds. Breaking the glass and pulling the stolen  object free of the base restores the memory.

The stone bases are the magical source of the entire effect, so destroying those will permanently destroy the artifact and it’s effects. You can decide if such destruction restores the captured memories, or obliterates them forever. 

This is a very challenging trap both for the players and the DM. For the players, it’s hard enough to keep track of what their characters know; this requires them to keep track of what they have forgotten. Many players might not properly fight the urge to act like they’ve forgotten the item, and tenaciously pursue reclaiming it. There may also be sour feelings over losing a dear possession, and you may end up dealing with a grumpy player. This is definitely not a trap you want to dish out to new players in my opinion. 

This will also challenge you as the DM because your first goal with this trap is making sure that the revelation of the trap’s function is reached as quickly as possible. Maybe not the complete rundown of the trap, but enough for them to know how much danger they’re in. Once they understand what they’re up against, they can get past the inevitable confusion and back to the role playing. Have a good strategy for conveying the loss of memory and the minor disorientation that results. I’m sure all of us have walked into a room and forgotten why we entered it in the first place. As a DM, I would try to recreate an experience like that. 

When I put this in my campaign, the players were somewhere around level 8. I intended it to be a method of slowing down their pursuit of a mid-level political villain, and it was to be the villain’s way of weakening the heroes before the final confrontation. I had it steal a few inconsequential items, some weapons, and a significantly important amulet. They managed to retrieve the amulet but spent precious time and magic in the process. After the first few items, they started to get wise and avoided falling prey to the trap further. I ended up answering a few of their questions about the trap later but they had the important points figured out. All in all, my implementation of the trap worked, but I can see how badly it could have bombed.

In the meantime, happy gaming!