By Rasher
A simple object, anything from a decorative sculpture of an ear, a painting of a screaming face or even a sign that says “quiet please” in a library enchanted with a number of magical charges. The only real appearance this trap has is whatever magical glyph or runes are carefully concealed somewhere on it.
Trigger: Any noise louder than a whisper happening within a radius of 8 hexes of the object will cause the object to unleash a scream like sound affecting the first 1-3 living beings who hear it (defined by the those closest to the object).
Detect: Per based Thaumatology or (Per + Magery Level) -5 for mages only. (to notice that volume soft sounds, even the sound of breathing is being magically magnified almost imperceptibly in the area of effect) Alternatively with a spell such as “Detect magic” (this will detect the presence of a magical enchantment on the object)
Disarm: A successful cast of “Dispel Magic” (if the mage knows the “Noise” Spell) Will render the object inert.
Circumvent: Making successful Stealth roll to “Move Silently” while in range of the trap (this is a quick contest of stealth vs an effective Per of 11). Casting a “Silence” spell in the objects range will prevent it from triggering for the spell’s duration. “Mage Stealth” spells will also work.
Evade: Targets who are deaf or otherwise cannot hear before the scream happens are not affected but players will only be able to cover their ears in time if they know the sound is coming. (which is a DX-3 roll)
Effects: The target is cursed with a very loud echoing scream like sound emanating from them every 5 seconds or so for 30 minutes, this makes using the “Move Silently” aspect of stealth unusable and also puts targets at a -10 disadvantage when using any other form of Stealth, Disguise, and Shadowing and also their use of any IQ-based skill or spell is at -3 due to being hampered by being distracted. (feel free to interrupt the cursed player’s dialogue by saying “aaah!” every few seconds, if you feel like annoying the heck out of your party)
Shots: 3 (The spell empowering the trap has limited charges dose not stack it’s effects when cast on a target already cursed)
Rearm: Yes, a mage with “Noise” spell and a the “Curse” spell can re-activate it if it has been dispelled
Steal: No (but you can steal the object itself once it runs out of charges)
Notes:
This is effectively a "Temporary Disadvantage: Noisy Level 5" curse with some added IQ penalties for flavor, this means that you get -10 to avoid being heard and others get +10 to find and track you by sound
Variants
More Dungeon Fantasy friendly variant
You could make the curse resistible by Will -3 if you feel the trap is too powerful for what you plan on doing with it. You could also make it so that Everyone who hears the scream is affected and must make the will roll to resist it, this is better suited to larger parties. This variant also has a 1d x 10 minute duration instead
Screaming Spirit Variant
This version uses a wailing ghost that haunts a single player, it is detected instead by Spirit Empathy, the "Sense Spirit" spell or Hidden Lore (Occult) -4. It can be Circumvented by a religious icon held by someone with the True Faith advantage or by casting spells like "Turn Spirit" and can be disarmed and evaded via a successful use of the Exorcism skill or a "Banish" spell. The duration is arguably much longer as the ghost is the source of the curse. (Possibly the haunting remains until the ghost is removed).
Adventure Ideas
This is a trap designed to detect intruders rather than outright harm them, it might be used anywhere where antagonists have poor vision but can track targets by sound very well. It's also useful for throwing off characters who rely on sound based advantages or skills like Blind Fighting. It's really pretty simple and due to being supernatural in origin the screams cant be muffled by clothing or gear at all, making it rather difficult to deal with. The screams coming from multiple cursed party members can even be out of sync, making a near constant overload of sound and forcing the party to rely on skills like Gesture to communicate non-verbally for a time.