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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pyrex" data-source="post: 3286977" data-attributes="member: 11600">For a party of adventurers, the front door is probably still the best option, regardless of how barred it is.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> So now we're back to a ruler (doesn't necessarily have to be evil or a despot, but it helps...) with huge amounts of resources to devote to the project.For a straight excavation, we need to clear down to the city, and space around the city as well.  Since we assume the city to be 2 square miles, we'll probably have to plan to excavate a 3 square mile area.3 square miles * 500' deep ~= 42 Billion cubic feet of sand that needs to be moved.Which means that with three months available we need to be able to move just short of 465 Million cubic feet of sand every day <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />.So, moving along, lets assume that our ruler can field 100,000 workers.  Working 10 hours a day, each of those 100k workers has to (on average, some workers will be digging, some running supply trains, etc) move(or eliminate or otherwise remove) 465ft^3 of sand.Given that this is well beyond the bounds of brute labor (each laborer might reasonably to be expected to be responsible for 1ft^3 of sand per hour, leaving us way, way behind schedule); we now have to assume that each of our 100,000 laborers have a significant amount of magical power at their disposal.Say, 5 Disintegrate spells each.  Every hour.  For three months.Hmm, that doesn't work so well either.So excavating the city clearly isn't going to work...</blockquote>

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