While I’m a fan of the frequent small traps scattered throughout a dungeon, I’m also a fan of the large and unusual kind that usually take up an entire room. I’ve collected quite a lot of them from old AD&D modules, and today I am presenting one of my favorites: the frictionless room.
The frictionless room appears in the old TSR module, White Plume Mountain, and to my knowledge occurs no place else. It’s a very clean 2×9 space corridor. The party enters through a door perpendicular to one end of the hallway. The exit is set off in a small alcove, perpendicular to the other end of the hall along the same wall as the entrance. A strange, translucent silvery gloss covers every surface. In the middle of the room is a 1 space wide pit that spans the width of the room.
The silvery substance is 100% frictionless and covers every surface of the room (walls, ceilings, etc.) except for the back wall, which appears to be made of simple stone. The frictionless substance cannot be scrubbed off, cracked, burned, or in any way damaged. Any creature stepping on the substance immediately falls down and slides in the direction of its original motion until it hits a wall or falls into a pit.
When a creature strikes a wall, it bounces off and continues to move in
the perpendicular direction until it hits another wall or falls in a
pit.
The pit is 10 feet deep and the bottom is lined with long, unnaturally rusty blades with razor thin edges. The sides of the pits are covered in the same silvery substance as the rest of the corridor. A creature that falls into the pit takes a +10 attack vs. fortitude from the trap for 1d8 damage plus any additional damage from the fall. A successful hit infects the creature with the disease super tetanus.
Super tetanus
Initial effect: The target is slowed.
First failed saving throw: The target is dazed and loses a healing surge.
Final stage: The target is dazed and loses all healing surges until cured.
The back wall of the room is an illusion. The room actually extends another 10 feet and ends in a large pit lined with more super tetanus giving goodness. The real back wall of the room is covered in the same silvery substance that’s on every surface.
In the original description, the room was protected by an anti-magic field that prevented the use of spells like fly or levitate. For 4e purposes, I think a similar field would work, only it prevents the party from using any powers with the arcane, divine, or psionic keywords.
Players can attempt to change the direction they slide across the floor with a DC 15 acrobatics check. Standing up in the room is impossible, as even the PCs’ own heartbeats would be enough to knock them down.
I’m interested to see your proposed solutions. Good luck.
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I started Dungeon Mastering with secondhand AD&D materials in 1996 and have run a vast number of D20 campaigns, from cliche' medieval adventures in a kingdom made of Lego bricks to fighting zombies and the mob in the mid 1930s. I try to make the gaming experience as enjoyable, fast-paced, and easy to play as humanly possible. 
Wow, talk about a sticky (or not) situation! I think the party would feel a little cheated when the first person slips through the illusion and falls into the back pit. The stone wall would be too enticing of a target and is obviously setting the players up for failure. As a DM I would probably leave the illusion out.
Now, since there is no friction, I wonder if the party could make a chain by holding hands and easing each party member into the room towards the exit. As the last person gets into the room, he/she could push off the entry way towards the exit, causing the party-chain to slide towards the exit. As each person reaches the door, he/she could roll an athletics check to catch their legs into the doorway and pull the rest of the party out of the room. If they all fail, no big deal, they’ll just bounce off the wall and can try again on the next pass.
It’s a good approach, but that first pit bisects the middle of the room. You’d have to find a way to get your daisy chained PCs across that 5 foot gap without requiring one hell of a tetanus shot.
Does the anti-magic field negate spells and rituals from working inside it that were cast outside of it’s walls? Example: Casting Tenser’s Floating Disk outside the room, then moving it through the doorway.
In the true spirit of the the anti-magic field, I’m going to say that any arcane or divine ritual cast outside of the frictionless room cease to function once inside.
A small point of interest, White Plume Mountain was originally the lair of a druid, so powers with the Primal keyword will function just fine.
Man, that was a nasty trap. Well, the whole dungeon was nasty. I’m sort of glad I DMed WPM instead of playing in it. Got my comeuppance at the Barrier Peaks, though.
Oo, Barrier Peaks was another good one. I’ve run it a couple times. Maybe it was just the group I was with, but the monsters really didn’t hurt them that much. It was trying to figure out how to use a disruptor rifle that caused the most harm.
Well, this is kind of dependent on the type of equipment the party has but the following could work:
Required equipment-Silk rope, pole, crossbow.
The silk rope is tied to a crossbow bolt, the shooter is carefully slid into position holding on to the end of the pole (the group holds the other end outside the room); when s/he can see the door, they fire the bolt into it . . . but that wouldn’t get you across the pit. Drat.
Ah, got it! – sovereign glue on the bolt’s tip to keep it embedded in the door. ;-P
Kingworks has a possible solution. Just fasten the other end of the rope somewhere on the entrance and pull yourself along. I think it’s reasonable to think you could hold onto the rope and pull yourself across the pit.
This is actually the answer (not quite exactly) proposed the module. Any other ways to get through the room?
This is great. If you’re a fan of death-traps, then I strongly recommend you pick up
The Wurst Of Grimtooth’s Traps. It’s for D&D 3.5e but it’s well worth the read. And with a little work you can easily convert the great traps to 4e. For a taste of what’s in store, download the 26-page free preview.
This makes me realize that Wizards’ reimagining of White Plume Mountain departed pretty far from the original. In that one, the frictionless room has a harpy luring you across it as you slide into the pits. Makes me want to find the original somewhere.
The floor (and walls!) have no friction, which can be capitalized on. Each character should tie a dagger to each of their feet, like ice skates. The party should, one by one, throw the party members in the direction of the door. With their momentum, each character can leap over the pit and get to the door.
@1337133r0y That doesn’t work, I’m afraid. Skates function by cutting into the ice (which is not frictionless by a HUGE margin). The trap states that the coating cannot be damaged so the skates would have nothing to bite into and they’d simply be liabilities to the sliding PC.
On the other hand, you should be able to do something similar without the skates so long as you can use momentum to make an insane Acrobatics check to stay upright all the way to the pit. Then an Athletics check to plant your feet on the corner (inertia should still allow for this, even without friction) , leap, and land. Of course, without another insane set of rolls, you’re going to go sliding head first into the other pit…
Since primal, martial, and shadow powers are allowed, there are some things you can do to at least get someone past the trap. Druids can wild shape, for instance, as well as use the Creeping Vines power. As the trap becomes clear to the party, Shamans can do things to protect the party from harm or heal them. I would have to to give serious thought to Mountain Lion Step from the Warden powers but his Nature’s Abundance could fill a pit and give a place to sit tight and plan the next move. There are more, but I think I’ve made my point. Utility powers in particular would be key here. There are some movement ones for the Assassin (remember that Shadow is not banned either) allow him to o teleports or shifts that might be ruled as outside of the normal movement rules for this trap. As for martial powers (also not banned), the Rogue can use Hop Up to get himself controlled. The Warlord’s Repositioning Command is potentially useful for the same reason, effectively acting as a helping word to get people to use angular momentum to stop moving towards the pit. The Fighter has the good ‘ol Rock Steady to hold him upright, which I’d say would give him the position to jump over the pit. I think I might argue that he loses the stance at that point but at least the first would be cleared. And so on.
As for mundane solutions, I think I’d go with what I’m calling the Kill & Fill approach. The two parts of the solution are to 1) eliminate the threat of the blades and 2) fill in the pit. By 7th level, the level of the original trap, your party has a number of potential options for this. One example, though hardly my first choice, would be to use an alchemical explosive to destroy the blades, then slide barrels of water down the hallway and into the pit. At some point, the barrels stop breaking and form a kind of platform in the pit.
My preferred solution would be to buy an immense amount of steel chain and slide that into the pit until a platform forms over the blades. Maybe coat the chain in something sticky to improve matters since the blades are NOT frictionless (they can’t be both frictionless and capable of cutting; SCIENCE!). This allows you to also make a chain bridge to climb and negates any possible slip-ups, no pun intended.
@WHassinger Filling in the pits is a really good idea. The stuff covering the bottom of the pit would provide a surface with traction and gives the party a place to stop and ponder their next move.
I’ve also seen this trap easily circumnavigated using 10′ poles (an old necessity from any adventurer’s gear). The party fastened several poles together and then tied a halfling rogue to the end. Using the long pole, they pushed the rogue to the other door. The rogue then untied himself and kept the pole steady while the rest of the party shimmied their way across the frictionless room.
Well… The way I immediately thought would be to use the Warden’s Daily Form of Winters Herald. Makes every adjacent square difficult terrain, and so the rest of the party could huddle in around him and shuffle along the floor like that, using themselves to keep the warden upright and stable.
@WHassinger Sorry, soon after posting that i realized the skates were useless,but the idea was using momentum and inertia to keep moving forwards. Maybe something like snowshoes would help the PC’s keep their balance? More surface area = good?
Ah ha! The Eladrin power Fey Step is not arcane, divine, or psiconic. If you throw out the Eladrin with a rope tied to him, he can fey step to the door when he’s close enough, then pull the party across.
@133roy I hate to break it to you, but the room is described as a 2×9 corridor with the door set perpendicular to the wall all the way on the other side. Fey Step is only a 5 square teleport, which drops your Eladrin right into the pit.
[x][x]<– the pit behind the illusionary wall
[ ][ ]
—- <– illusionary wall
[ ][ ][0]<–exit
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[x][x]<– visible pit
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[0]<– entrance
Whoops, screwed up on the diagram. Added one space too many. Use the one below
[x][x]<– the pit behind the illusionary wall
[ ][ ]
-—– <– illusionary wall
[ ][ ][0]<–exit
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[x][x]<– visible pit
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[0]<– entrance
Ethan, I said send him out on a rope. You could swing him out to
[x][x]<– the pit behind the illusionary wall
[ ][ ]
-—–—
[ ][5][0]
[ ][ ]4
[ ][ ]3
[ ][ ]2
[x][x]teleport 1
[ ][ ]<-This square
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[ ][ ]
[0]
And then I expect he can grab the door from there wit an athletics or acrobatics check. He can then throw the rope to the party.