Here's yet another one from Dungeon Magazine issue 13, and another trapped dungeon for Ptolus. Possessing Neveran's All-key would make this thing a lot easier.
There's a vault, perhaps under an abandoned estate in the Nobles Quarter, that allegedly many people have tried to access with no success. If your party rogue has made or is trying to make inroads with the Longfingers Guild, this might be something they would find out about from that source.
This thing can potentially wipe out characters of even high levels if not careful. The treasure and magic items you can find among the remains of those who failed is pretty decent as long as you can defeat the traps long enough to pick through the bodies. Four false entrances with death traps and one real entrance with a death trap. Then the real vault with more traps. It's a character grinder.
Here's my take on what you might do with it:
Let the party learn that even Sobac Redwand won't attempt to break this vault.
Characters that take the time to arrange a meeting with Redwand and ask about the vault are told to pay 1,000 gold and he'll save their life. If they pay up he'll explain why they should forget about the job.
Redwand is smart. He takes the time to do a ton of research on targets. He did a deep dive on the family and their vault. Sobac determined that the risks likely far outweighed the potential reward.
He dug into the family history to try and determine where they got their wealth and possibly how great it was. They died paupers, so did they spend it all, or did they accidentally lock themselves out of their own vault?
He researched the location. The vault isn't inside the home, but boldly placed on the grounds of the estate. He took measurements, made notes about materials he could easily identify. He then searched city records, the deed, construction contract information, and began to compile estimates of expenditures for the building of the vault and all of its traps.
He pursued contacts with anyone living that was related to the original builders to get their stories about the project, anything secret they might know. Based on the order of construction over time, and by the contract periods of the multiple companies involved he was able to guess where the real entrance might be, but lacks certainty.
He visited the site several times.
By one of the pedestals he determined that there was a scorched area in a roughly 10' radius at the bottom of it on one side and that the scorching extended up the side making him think the fire came from above.
He also located one that had multiple keyholes and figures that one might either be a means to disarm the traps or be the real entrance, maybe both.
He also noticed that the gargoyle statues atop the pedestals are missing some eyes that are valuable gems, but none of the missing emeralds appear to have been fenced anywhere meaning they are themselves trapped or cursed.
He even opened one false entrance, but decided not to explore because he had no help and was not prepared for the defenses he could see.
His conclusion based on the estimated cost to build such a structure, have it imbued with powerful magical defenses, and complex traps is that they may well have spent everything building the vault and had nothing left to place in it when it was complete.
Of course he could be wrong and you might just discover an emperor's ransom. Most likely you'll just end up dead. But for another 1,000 gold he'll tell you where he believes the real entrance to be and what to watch out for.
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