Traps in the wild don't always need to be obvious..
First... if the players are in the wild... track food... and water...
Let them find some gold bits, (an ancient elvish tiara?) and a big door that they have to spend a week nudging open.
Now... If I was a fleeing elf, I'd plant the venus fly trap of death right next to the apple tree... Giant toads of doom would be provided ample living space in the beautiful ponds... Poisoning the water wells is a time honored technique.
Now its a common fact that you can attract the things you want in your own yard by growing the appropriate food, or attracting said appropriate food. Mango trees attract bats.. what if said bats were called Griffin Bats so named because they are frequently eaten by famished Griffins who now frequent the area. Plant said mango trees in likely camping locations... and someone is going to loose some sleep, cause the bats flit about at night.
Don't forget to leave lots of clues for them. Like today.. you may know that's a Griffin Bat... you may not know why. Putting a bird feeder in our yard attracted lots of birds. It also left a tell tale sign of bird poop. (Got Griffin poo identification skills in the party?)
If they figure out what the Griffin Bat thing... don't forget to let them know about the Dragon Flowers in the middle of the courtyard...
Now, I'm more a fan of making the traps make some sense. I'm not keen on magic semiautomatic crossbow cannons. I like that somehow the traps belong, and just work naturally. For example... suspend and hold back a log from a door. The next person to open the lock or (my favorite) push the door bell, gets a big surprise as the log swings down and smashes through the door. It needs a tall ceiling to really work, and more importantly reach out the door an effective distance to get more adventurers. I did the math, and you can really send a character flying... this way. (A great place to plant a bunch of giant sticky mushrooms by the way... immobilize, save ends.)
Mix traps and monsters. I kind of liked crawling claws... But what would really smack of being right is fighting a pile of zombies with no hands first.
Zombies with no hands hanging out under the Stirge tree... (Looks like another safe place to camp right?)
So, now you have a situation where the players who are just trying to get in, have to deal with a lot of issues. Food? Water? Bedding? After a week of work opening a door, they've got some money and some bruises. Blood sucking Stirges, and Zombies.. who would have thought they worked so well together?
Next door... BAM! Half the party is sent flying into sticky mushrooms.. In the confusion, Crawling Claws start scampering out and looking for prey.
Just a warning, but the more traps you use, the more paranoid your players will become. If they don't feel like traps... well you can use more. Once they get inside fill the place place with undead and other happy individuals.
Good hunting.
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