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Lockpicking and Treasure

Some creatures leave fitted treasure boxes. A box may be locked, trapped, both, or neither. Safe boxwork is a short investigation: survey the mechanism, defuse anything dangerous, study the lock, pick it, then open it.

The safe sequence

SURVEY CHEST
DEFUSE CHEST
ANALYZE CHEST
PICK CHEST
OPEN CHEST
LOOT CHEST
  1. SURVEY <box> searches for a trap and, on a clear read, describes its mechanism.
  2. DEFUSE <box> neutralizes a trap you have found.
  3. ANALYZE <box> safely studies the lock and can make later work easier.
  4. PICK <box> works the lock with the pick in your hand.
  5. OPEN, then GET ... FROM or LOOT, retrieves the contents.

Do not work a live trap blind

Opening, forcing, or picking a trapped box can spring it. A weak survey can be fooled, so an untrained character's report of “nothing” is not a guarantee.

LOOK and EXAMINE report the box's visible state without revealing a concealed mechanism. Boxes become more ornate and mechanically demanding as their source becomes more dangerous, but the exact generation weights are deliberately not a public table.

Surveying and defusing

SURVEY draws primarily on Trapwork, assisted by Awareness and Insight. Its result is a tactile estimate rather than an engine number:

  • a faint trigger
  • a guarded mechanism
  • a layered mechanism
  • a hostile mechanism
  • a masterwork snare

Once found, DEFUSE uses Trapwork, Finesse, and an assist from Insight. It requires empty hands except for the box itself. A sure attempt neutralizes the mechanism; a passable attempt gives useful feedback; an uncertain attempt may teach nothing. Very poor work or a Fortune fumble can spring the trap.

The separation is intentional: SURVEY is observation, DEFUSE is delicate action, and STRIP is the unrelated combat technique for knocking a weapon away. The old overloaded wording is retained only as an input compatibility alias.

Known mechanisms

Trap Tell Typical danger
frostwire a cold wire under tension cold injury and bleeding
vitriol a waxed ampoule near the latch corrosive injury
mothdust a paper bellows in the hinge a choking room-wide cloud
cinderseal a clay seal holding banked cinders fire injury
springblade a folded crescent in the seam cutting injury
stormcoil stormglass wound in copper shock and stun
glassmoth crystal work over the keyway injury; careful defusing can recover a charm
fireglass a smoky bead between flint jaws fire injury
thundercap thunder-salt in an iron cap injury and stun
wardknot luminous thread sewn through the lock's shadow severe injury and stun

Trap damage scales with the mechanism, but is bounded against the victim's maximum health. Arriving already hurt remains dangerous: a trap that cannot fell a healthy adventurer may finish a wounded one.

Reading and picking a lock

ANALYZE <box> is the safe approach. Awareness leads, with support from Lockwork and Insight. A useful read remembers part of the mechanism and lowers the effective difficulty of later attempts.

The public lock bands are qualitative:

Reading Meaning
light simple construction
stubborn deliberate resistance
layered several interacting parts
master-cut exceptional work

PICK <box> requires a lockpick in hand. Lockwork, Finesse, and Grace drive the attempt; the pick's material shapes how strongly those qualities reach the mechanism. Success opens the lock. A passable miss may teach enough to ease the next attempt, while poor work can bend or break the pick.

Choosing a pick

Use SKILLS to see your Lockwork ranks, then LOOK <pick> or EXAMINE <pick> to judge the tool. Inspection describes its quality, condition, and how comfortably you can control it with your current training. Active spell and guild rank bonuses count toward this assessment.

Finer is not automatically better. An exceptionally responsive pick can outrun your training and impose a mismatch penalty, but its material bonus may still make it more effective overall. When there is a mismatch, inspection also compares its effectiveness with plain steel. Steel is a straightforward starting point while you learn the lock bands.

PICK <box> chooses the most effective usable pick among those in your hands, accounting for your training, attributes, and the mismatch penalty. To choose a tool yourself, hold it and use PICK <box> WITH <pick>. A mismatched attempt reports that you struggle to steady the responsive tip; this describes the tool fit, not whether the lock will open.

SHOP and the shop's live menu show the same suitability advice beside stocked picks. ASK <merchant> ABOUT <pick> describes the ware and its fit before you buy; you can also ask whether it suits your training.

Fresh picks have several uses before wear destroys them. Wear and training mismatch are separate: a bent tip does not mean the material is too fine for you. LOOK shows condition, and the locksmith can repair a bent pick. A snapped pick cannot be used. Material modifiers and generation weights remain discoverable in play instead of being exposed as a solved progression chart.

Keys, service, and loot

If you hold the matching key, UNLOCK <box> bypasses the pick. The Coldhollow locksmith also offers:

OPENBOX CHEST
REPAIR LOCKPICK

The locksmith charges according to the work and refuses an armed trap, even when the box is already unlocked. The warning is free and leaves the trap alone. Use SURVEY <box> to locate the mechanism, then DEFUSE <box> before opening it; the locksmith's warning does not count as your survey.

Coins enter your purse when taken; gems and jewelry are worth taking to a specialist; minor salvage has little resale value.

GM inspection commands are documented in the in-game staff help rather than on the player-facing progression page.

See also