Excavating a City/Moving tons of sand (Brainteaser: Lots of Math/Physics needed)

[Pyrex]

Right, but assuming the city was built on the ground in the first place*, where'd all the sand come from? At 500' deep the entire desert would have had to have not even been there if that's where the city was built.

*I suppose a truly paranoid society could have built their fallout shelter under the 500' of sand in the first place, but it seems a bizarre choice of location...

 

[Neijin]

Raurin, the Dust Desert from an ancient cataclysm during the fall of the Imaskari empire.

 

[Nail]

Question: Why bother unearthing ("un-sanding") the city? What purpose does that serve?

 

[Pyrex]

Why climb the mountain?

Because it's there man; because it's there.

 

[Nail]

Ah.

But seriously (hah!): if it's buried, and you find a way in to claim it, you just got a cool, well-defended city! Leave the sand; it's a defence!

 

[Pyrex]

I agree, which is why my original suggestion was just to find the front door (kicking it down if necessary, this is D&D after all... ) and move in.

500' of sand an a wide-area Dimensional Lock is an impressive defense, but makes any sort of commerce nearly impossible.

It makes for a great hidey-hole, but until you get it to the surface it'll never be useful as a city.

 

[Neijin]

Nail-Epic Magic Strongholds unclaimed and for the taking don't spring up everyday.
Pyrex- Yes, indeed because it is there!

 

[Pyrex]

Nail *does* make a great point though.

Unless the person doing the excavating plans on turning the city into a major metropolis / trade hub then it makes more sense to leave it buried and inhabit it in-place.

 

[geosapient]

Have you ever tried to push over a Wall of Force?

The average density of the city enclosed by the walls might be less than that of wet sand, but that's irrelevant:

A wall of force spell creates an invisible wall of force. The wall cannot move...

The city can't float if the wall surrounding it is immobile; neither can it sink. It will always remain in the same place.

-Hyp.

I'm not able to look at my books right now, but this would depend on how a Wall of Force interacts with its surroundings.

If it's fixed to a specific point in the plane that it's on then it can't be moved. But, if it's fixed to a general area and not to the plane itself then it would move when the general area moved.

Using arguments that were made when 'they' decided that teleporting doesn't stop momentum, casting a Wall of Force would either never work if you were on a planet moving through space because then the wall itself would be moving and not supported by the spell description. Or the casting of the wall would somehow halt the movement of the planet to make it fit within the spell paramaters (disastrous at best).

I would assume then that how the wall interacts with it's surroundings would be a DM call.

 

[Someone]

I'd say that an air elemental in whirlwind mode can move a lot of sand (an air elemental monolith sure should be able to wipe the deser clean in no time). Also, use a lyre of building to build a tunnel through the sand, reinforced so it doesn't collapse (using your own walls of force, if they don't take XP to be made permanent, or more mundane means) and make your way to the city.