Example of a Sloping Passage Getting the Party into Trouble

[mattcolville]

Dwarves can detect sloping passages, and I know from talking to Gary about it that this ability was designed to thwart the DM's attempt to trick the party into going down a level into a more difficult dungeon level. You think you're on level 1, but you're really on level 2. And what level you're on determines how hard the adventure is.

But is there a published example of this actually happening in an adventure? Is there an adventure map that contains such a sloping passage leading to a harder level?

 

[mattcolville]

Nevermind! I searched through a bunch of adventures, Keep on the Borderlands, In Search of Adventure, Against the Cult of the Reptile God, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, Giants, Slavers, and then Temple of Elemental Evil. It *is* in the Temple of Elemental Evil! Hah! Room 109.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I always found it funny that only a dwarf could detect this. Anyone with a marble could figure it out pretty quick.

 

[Cadence]

I always found it funny that only a dwarf could detect this. Anyone with a marble could figure it out pretty quick.

I'm picturing a party member stopping every 10' to put a marble on the ground to see if it's level, just uneven, or sloping continuously in some direction... and the subsequent dice rolls to see who steps on it first when the party is attacked before he can pick it up.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I'm picturing a party member stopping every 10' to put a marble on the ground to see if it's level, just uneven, or sloping continuously in some direction... and the subsequent dice rolls to see who steps on it first when the party is attacked before he can pick it up.

Thus providing the hilarious things of which adventures are made.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I always found it funny that only a dwarf could detect this. Anyone with a marble could figure it out pretty quick.

That only works if you have a very smooth stone floor. Any unevenness would stop the marble, level or not.

 

[Cadence]

That only works if you have a very smooth stone floor. Any unevenness would stop the marble, level or not.

Hmmm. Spirit level wasn't invented until the 1600s.

Plumb-line and carpenters level?

 

[Storminator]

Hmmm. Spirit level wasn't invented until the 1600s.

Plumb-line and carpenters level?

I think it's a staple of old school gaming for players to pull in all sorts of OC knowledge to solve problems. This kind of inventing just to keep from rolling up displacer beasts on the wandering monster table is right in that line.

PS