Through the Trapdoor - Second Challenge - Devil's Snare

[Daggerstone]

I'm not sure Trigs can fit any room without some serious alteration in terms of size, but I'd be more than happy to indulge in some chasing before we proceed to the 'logical' part of the quest.

[gertiekeddle]

We had needed your ideas when we created the tasks. It took us so long.

[Anhelda]

Okay, since so many people said they still wanted to see feedback, I put my notes together to do my list. I apologize in advance if I spelled any entries wrong during my retyping. Technophobe that I am, I'll use the spoiler tags to collapse it, since that's the method I know best:

Spoiler: show

1. Tickled Pink—fun to see tickling and laughing gas used in the trap, and the “fight fire with fire” rictusempra escape was inspired. The picture is also very well done
2. Carnivorous poppy—fantastic picture, and I love the fact that the plant’s in a Hogwarts corridor! Caffeine is a great escape, too! (not that I need any more inducement to drink caffeine…)
3. Snoozegrass—great name, picture was hilarious, and it’s creepy that no one will save a victim until they’re already partially digested and therefore dead…yikes!
4. Somniculosus Rose (Sleepy Rose)—lovely rose picture, totally hides the horror within…wasn’t sure if this one was lethal or not
5. Vigne de Sangsues—very skillfully drawn picture, gives a good idea of how the plant attacks. I imagine it would be very hard to escape, since I would have a hard time mothering something that was biting me at the time
6. Sorcerophagus Oleracea—the picture made me laugh out loud at the same moment I was shuddering in fear! What a scary plant! I imagine that the HP series would have stopped right there if this was waiting under the trap door instead of the devil’s snare, because even if you know how to get away, it takes a lot of physical effort do actually escape.
7. Vishula Guardus (Daughter’s Hair)—Nice twist for a wizarding weeping willow, glad your jokes don’t have to be that funny in order to work. If the tree venom paralyzes you, though, can you still move your mouth enough to tell a joke?
8. Thanatoplanc—The drawing was beautiful and intricate, very skillfully done, and the escape method of stinkyfying yourself and playing dead is hilarious! Very cleverly done, with the spot-on dialogue for the trio a nice added touch.
9. Cute picture, love that Fluffy’s lullaby turns it on—very clever concept. The name is good, too—you are left with no doubt that this is a monster of a plant.
10. Sharkus Terrestrium—the land shark! Great name, picture was hilarious, even if Harry’s head is too low on the torso. This was very basic, but effective—it catches you and eats you, why complicate things?
11. Dormant doormat—clever, love the doorbell escape. Drawing was very nicely done. Wasn’t sure if this one was lethal, but it certainly sounds effective as a trap.
12. Venus wiztrap—basically a venus flytrap on a human-size scale, it’s neat to escape by drowning the plant, but I imagine it would be awfully hard to fill the plant with water and then keep that water still, because don’t you have to tread water to keep your head up where you can breathe?
13. Fiddlehead nimbletonia—great concept, dancing to death! I love that you get forced into nimble toes by the nimbletonia—in other words, great name. The Michael Flately escape is hilarious!
14. Veno spiculi—I like the burning escape better than the being slow and silent, because anyone who just jumped down through the trap door is not going to be slow and silent. Scary looking picture, with all those tentacle things.
15. Passerapagus Plant— it’s fun to have a Gandalf plant. I agree with some of the other commentators that there are too many escape options, but the burglar alarm was clever
16. Fungii Callimarius—the squid fungus name is clever, and the picture is very evocative and scary. I like the fact that it’s not a lethal plant unless one is trapped for a long time, which makes it perfect for catching intruders without killing indiscriminately. It’s also appropriate to kill a fungus by drying it out.
17. NonOculum Darticus—what a horrible little plant, shooting people’s eyes out! Great drawing—it’s actually a very pretty plant, for all that it’s mean and nasty. The “must be done in sequence” escape was a clever touch. Very original.
18. West African death trap—another venus flytrap type plant for humans, I liked that the escape involved freezing, as it makes sense that a tropical plant couldn’t take the cold.
19. Malus Draconus—I wasn’t sure exactly how this plant trapped its victims—we got a list of things it did, but not how it did them. I’m also unclear why it’s called a “dragon” plant. The singing escape was funny and challenging, as I wouldn’t imagine many wizards, especially purebloods, would have watched Sesame Street.
20. Twinkling Twilight Vampire plant—a very cleverly designed plant, with a well done picture and a good vampiric mesmerization trap. I also like the light-activation bit. Not a Twilight reader, so can’t comment on the crossover effectiveness, but as an HP plant, it’s good.
21. Carnivorous Contracting Catcus—great name, well done picture which was very scary looking. I wonder if your escape would be made easier with catnip, but the stroking was cute.
22. Veelacolatati—a very pretty tulip picture, with a great escape design—what a choice, amputation or chocolate. How many COS’ers would choose to amputate rather than give up their chocolate…..
23. Jellyfish creeping vine—good concept, and the picture is a nice rendering of how it looks like just dried up vegetation. Cool that it’s incorporated into the floor of the room.
24. Crocodile plant—A neat concept, but I’m not sure how well it would catch an intruder, since the intruder can choose not to come to it. Should catch most greedy wizards, though. Nicely done picture, and the escape is good.
25. Anthropophagus Aloe—great name, and a nice twist on a usually helpful healing plant. The picture was cute, suggests that this particular type of aloe is huge!
26. Ravenclaw Orchid—a great concept! I love the trap, and the shout-out to Dumbledore’s most famous speech in the escape. The picture was great, looked like a page from one of Neville’s herbology books, and the backstory was a very nice touch.
27. Swallowmee—good picture, I love how you turned the fly into a human! I’m not sure if it’s a great guardian for the stone, since it can only trap those who try to drink from it, and if you could resist drinking, you’d be fine.
28. Canis custodium—what a great escape, to flatter the plant into a pose, then petrify it. Very funny! Good picture, and another nonlethal plant designed to guard, not execute, which is nice.
29. Daucus combibo—hilarious and original! I love that the escape was so nonmagical, but would not necessarily occur to everyone. Well drawn picture.
30. Voldemordian ambush—the picture looked like an angry dog with leaves, which fits the trap description very well. It sounds like it would be a very good deterrent specifically for dark wizards. I wonder, was the name of this plant taboo during DH?
31. Mosteria affectionalis—essentially flypaper for humans, it’s a funny trap with the appearance of a nice natural setting to hang out as the lure. Also original to see a non-Latin phrase as part of the escape.
32. Giant Sleeperspine—fun colors in the picture, and the rainstorm spell to clear the air of the fumes was well designed.
33. Nargle victim—it must have been the mistletoe
34. Scorparius Cysticus Terribilus—what a horribly planned plant—attack via allergies is not nice at all! This plant would be the worst nightmare of any number of people I know, and it would be hard to say those anti-allergy spells with all the coughing and sneezing going on. Good drawing, too. A clever, original entry.
35. Merry Killer (Mors Hilaria)—Well drawn picture—the trio look so happy despite being tickled until their lungs collapse (shudder). Another cheerful way to die…yikes!
36. Furious death cactus—this was hilarious in a demented sort of way. The picture was well done, the concept original and kind of twisted. Truly the funniest entry in the contest. What makes Tuesdays so special?
37. Cor Caritatis—the picture looks like a Valentine’s day nightmare, and the trap is funny—hugging and kissing the hate away. The escape is deceptively difficult—who doesn’t have any negative emotions whatsoever?
38. Primula mycelium—how interesting to see a gender discrimination in the plant. I think it’s also the only entry that required a potion for the escape as opposed to spells or avoidance. A pretty original entry overall.
39. Hyrcanian Strangler Rose (Rosa Necans Hyrcanica)—what a fantastic entry! The picture was very well done and showed the plant’s effects very well—before the animation demonstrated so vividly! And I have to give lots of love to the incorporation of both fairytale and historical elements—never thought to see Tunguska explained as a wizarding herbology accident.
40. Serpentisa—very nice painting. I liked the parseltongue escape as original, but I’m curious as to what happens if someone doesn’t realize that they need to hiss to escape—do they just lay there until they die, or does the venom wear off after a while? And do the other snake heads have the same paralyzing venom as the red one, or do they do other things?
41. Periculosus Rose bud—I imagine Fred and George would like this plant, given the dungbomb option for escape. My only issue with this plant is that I don’t think it would work well on someone with allergies who would potentially have a stuffy nose to start with.
42. Assiduous Creeper—original to have a plant that essentially functions as a roadblock. The drawing was well done. I do wonder what would happen if you made the plant angry? It’s hinted that that would be a bad thing, but why?
43. Tickling Tentacular—I have to give this entry lots of credit for the escape by using my favorite spell—wadiwassi! The image is well done, looks strangely creepy.
44. Perscitus Folium Impingo—an original concept with the scary plant projectiles. The picture is perfect for the description of the plant. I can imagine that it would be hard to get by this one without being cut to ribbons, especially for the trio in their first year (unless Hermione had learned the shield charm by then).

[leah49]

Originally Posted by MmeBergerac

I wouldn't mind a Potter-sudoku. I like them...

As long as it gives hints like the online ones do. That's the only way I can successfully complete one.

Originally Posted by storyteller

we still have a while before we have to worry about the logic one though.

Yeah, the third task was finding the key. I wonder what they'll have us do for that.

[Vig]

Thanks for the review, Anhelda...It was really a great pleasure reading it.

[Den_muggle]

Thanks, Anhelda. I appreciate the extra effort and assure you it is not wasted.

I wonder if we get to skate by the Troll or if we have to come up with a dark creature to pass by without Quirrell's assistance?

[Daggerstone]

Thanks, Anhelda.

[storyteller]

I think that I would prefer a crossword puzzle for the logic portion, rather than Soduko, since even though I like doing them and there are others on the site that would not participate just because it has to do with math, where as a crossword puzzle with clues from all seven books would be challenging but not impossible for everyone.

[TreacleTartlet]

Thanks to everyone who kindly took the time to give feedback.

[Melaszka]

Thanks, Anhelda, and all the other reviewers for taking the time and effort.

[Klio]

Great read, Anhelda!!!!


And if anyone is out there who has some comments on the entries.... write away. I think it's obvious that they are being read and appreciated.

[Colonel_Fubster]

Originally Posted by Gaian

I'd like to know too. Logic? Why not a letter-sudoku with words from potterverse...

Originally Posted by storyteller

I think that I would prefer a crossword puzzle for the logic portion

Sudoku and crosswords are fine, but I love doing logic problems!

Originally Posted by leah49

Yeah, the third task was finding the key. I wonder what they'll have us do for that.

As long as they don't ask me to find my own keys, I've got no idea where they are most of the time.....

[twinsrule26]

I can just see the Mods hiding a key in one of the threads on this site and then telling us to go find it . Talk about a needle in a hay stack

Lets see now this site has 15,554 threads ,filled with 1,310,242 posts, yeah it would take a Few Days to find it thats for sure.

[freelantzer]

^ NO! I was terrible at that finding stuff in our Manor game! Hopefully it will be something different--something we can all vote on!

[Lady Elven]

That's a horrible thought, take it back! It would be cool if it was like battleship, you know, you take a picture, make a grid on it and have us guess the location of the key, that I'm pretty good at.

[Vig]

IMo, we might have to design a substitute for 'Snitch' that can be used as key and is remotely that interesting. How about a bludger!?

[Daggerstone]

*is all for the Bludger* Yay!

[SusanBones]

One day left to vote for your favorites!

Voting ends Thursday, June 4th - noon - GMT.

Thursday - noon - London
Thursday - 9 pm - Sydney
Thursday - 7 am - New York
Thursday - 4 am - Los Angeles

Just so you know, the results will not be revealed right away. Thursday is a work day.

[Daggerstone]

Initiating corruption sequence...

[storyteller]

A scavanger hunt would be fun though. They give us a clue to a thread and that clue takes us to another and so on.
It wouldn't be that many threads because it could not be in Hogsmeade and it would have to be an HP thread.