“You enter the mad scientist’s laboratory and are instantly hit with the smell of burning oil and metal.” Our DM starts, “You see the walls, lined with these glowing orbs contained within brass.”

“Can I touch it?” Asks the barbarian.

“It’s hot to the touch, you pull your hand away immediately.”

“Ok I smash it.” The barbarian rolls her dice.

Our DM nods, “It shatters easily with a swing of your axe. Glass rains down the moment you make contact, and the light is gone.”

“Was there a candle? Like any wax?” Our cleric pipes up.

The DM shakes their head, “Nope, just glass.”

We look around at each other confused. Then the cleric pipes up again, “Oh my god guys it’s a fucking lightbulb.”

Our DM just grins as we all groan at our stupidity, “You continue your way into the fortress. You come across a large door-“

“Our worst enemy.” I say.

“The door is metallic in nature, there’s these large sets of, what looks like wheels? They’re all interlocked with each other, and connected to these large log like structures made of metal, all holding the door in place.”

Softly from the end of the table I hear our rogue, “What the hell?” They pick up their sheet, “Can I inspect it? See if my lock picking can do, anything?”

DM nods and inspects their roll, “With that? You’re able to surmise that whatever this huge mechanism is, it follows a clear pattern. The wheels interlock in such a way that, if turned somehow, will move these large metal logs, hopefully unlocking the door.”

“Okay… okay do I see if there’s like, a lever or something? A pully system that can trigger its movement?”

“Can I assist with another investigation check?” Our artificer says.

The DM makes them roll again, “You see two levers on either side of the door. But they aren’t connected to the door’s system, at least you can’t _see_ if they’re connected.”

After some deliberating, the rogue and artificer decide to pull the levers at the same time, with the Barbadian waiting for the door to open.

“Alright so you pull the levers simultaneously. The wheels start to spin and groan to life, slowly moving the locks out of the way with loud clunks as each ridge locks into the next and the next. As these metal pistons are moved away from the door, something from the inside of the door is pushing the doors open that you can’t see. It’s moving them open slowly and carefully. And then with a loud THUNK the doors are fully opened. Revealing the next room.”

Everyone pauses.

“I inspect for traps?” Says our rogue.

The DM nods, then smiles again, not a good sign, “The entire room before you lights up.”

“Shit. Uh… I say in character, ‘Gorda you can go first. You know in case of an ambush.’”

“How dare you use my barbarians low intelligence against her.”

“Do you walk through?” Our DM asks.

Our barbarian sighs, “Yeah fuck it.”

“You step through the door and… nothing happens.”

Our rogue hesitates, “I… walk through?”

The DM rolls something behind their screen, “You hear some clicking from someplace unseen. Holes start to open up in the walls and the floor around you. You notice that, at your feet the tile you stepped on has now sunk in a little-“

“You son of a b-“

“As quickly as you can notice it, the room is transformed into something unbeknownst to you. There are these blades jutting out from the holes in the floor and ceiling. And jets of fire spewing out from the walls. You hear the voice of the mad scientist crackle around you from some unknown location, echoing around the chamber you are all now stuck in as the heavy door begins to close shut.” Our DM smiles, “Lets roll for initiative.”

**Author note:** obviously this isn’t exactly a scenario that’s common for me or anyone in everyday life. But I wanted to play around with the idea of characters in a DND campaign encountering technology that may be obvious to us but not to them. Examples being light bulbs, gear assemblies, intercom voice overs, etc.