Cleaning a Dungeon

[DungeonMastering.com]

Apologies if this is obvious or answered elsewhere, but it's actually come up in game that our characters need to figure how much area we can clean, both magically & mundanely, in a finite period of time.

Prestidigitation cantrip is an one option, as the spell description says that it can affect "items in a 1-foot cube each round." If the Sorcerer & the Bard are going to go around & make the areas habitable, how long does it take to clean 1 of the 5' floor squares? I only put a few ranks in Knowledge, Math so I'm having trouble converting the 1' cubic volume towards the 5' area.

Unseen Servant is another spell we thought of, as it lasts an hour a Level. But not certain how much each could clean.

And lastly there's just grease. Elbow grease that is. Again, unclear as to what's a reasonable timeframe.

Any thoughts/suggestions/ideas appreciated. Thanks!

[aboniks]

Um....how messy is it?

[Nefreet]

With magic, probably not long at all. With elbow grease, cleaning up an apartment... I mean, "dungeon"... for move out takes about a weekend.

With Unseen Servants, and Prestidigitation, it just depends on the square footage involved.

Maybe an hour? A day?

[DungeonMastering.com]

Well, it ranges from the usual 'Dunegon Dirty' to the 'Blood All Over.' We only have a certain period before it'll either come under attack or we'll have to let the NPC's have it, so wanted to make as much of it human habitable- instead of monster habitable- as possible.

I guess what I'm asking is, any there any math-based guidelines to figuring out square footage cleaned per spell or per person?

[Ciaran Barnes]

Hirelings, to haul off refuse and and butchered/incinerated monsters.

And a custom spell that simulates a pressure washer with a cleaning agent.

[SlimGauge]

Depends on the dungeon. Could you turn a decanter of endless water up to "pressure washer" and then just dry everything out ?

[DungeonMastering.com]

Yeah, unfortunately we're not there with any hirelings. Only a few of the good guys (these Rangers holding the Fort) survived. The Cleric is fixing the cistern w/Purify Food & Water, but many of the rooms are disgusting/gross from what these Ogres did in them.

So we're trying to get the place back up & running with what we can; ideally through magic. Ergo the thought about using spells, just unsure as to how they'd function in a 'clean a set amount of dungeon' situation.

Trying to figure it out based upon 5'squares to rounds, since that's what the maps are in & easiest way to calculate. Normally the Dm could just hand wave the whole thing but this is a situation where we can't do everything but we still would like to do as much as possible, if you follow.

[DungeonMastering.com]

The Decanter is always a cool magic item but we don't have one.

[Kazaan]

Need more Lemon Pledge.

[Ciaran Barnes]

How big a pooper scooper do you need for an orge? Send in the PC with the best fortitude save.

[Nefreet]

DungeonMastering.com wrote:

Well, it ranges from the usual 'Dunegon Dirty' to the 'Blood All Over.' We only have a certain period before it'll either come under attack or we'll have to let the NPC's have it, so wanted to make as much of it human habitable- instead of monster habitable- as possible.

Oh! I know that module. Fun times.

A 5ft section of floor is 25 square feet. 6 seconds to cast Presto per 1 square foot equals 2 1/2 minutes per 5ft of floor.

IIRC that keep has... 3 floors?

And you'd have to count the wall space, too.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Kazaan wrote:

Need more Lemon Pledge.

lol or a lemon-scented gelatinous cube.

[Ashtathlon]

well a 5'x 5' cube would take 125 rounds to clean with prestidigitation

if a round is say 6 seconds or so its about 12.5min of spell cleaning, and if the roof is 10' above its 25 min..but you are only cleaning the floor and walls, so say 25 rounds for the floor and 25 rounds for each wall connected to it, so maybe 2.5 min per surface...give or take.

Cleaning a dungeon though..must be a party of elves...:)

edited to match the above posters round time length.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Nefreet wrote:

A 5ft section of floor is 25 square feet. 6 seconds to cast Presto per 1 square foot equals 2 1/2 minutes per 5ft of floor.

Ah, this is very helpful. So that means...a maximum of 24 squares can be cleaned every hour w/ Prestidigitation?

[aboniks]

okay, prestidigitation. You want some numbers so let's make some up.

1 cubic foot. Let's wave the DM hand and unfold the cube; lay it out flat, that's 6 square feet. Unless you need to clean every particle of air it's a waste of time to use prestidigitation by RAW.

One 5ft square is 25 square feet.

6 x 4 = 24

We'll fluff that and say prestidigitation will clean one 5 ft. square in five rounds.

There are six hundred rounds in an hour.

Divide that by 5.

Prestidigitation can now clean 120 five foot squares in an hour. Don't forget to account for the square footage of walls and ceiling if you want the place spotless.

If you want the exact number using prestidigitation by raw point me at the map and give me ceiling heights and room contents I'll calculate it for you, (accounting for squares with perpendicular surfaces), but this is one of those situations that's begging for a hand wave. There's no Chores And Drudgery splatbook for a reason.

[DungeonMastering.com]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, especially to Nefreet, Ashtathlon, & aboniks for figuring out math.

If it's not too much trouble, how would you handle the cleaning from an Unseen Servant spell?

[aboniks]

DungeonMastering.com wrote:

...cleaning from an Unseen Servant spell?

Honestly that sounds like a huge hassle. It can only do one thing at a time, and it can't magic away the dirt, it has to physically move it somewhere. If you want it to sweep you have to give it a broom and supervise.

Mop?

Water?

Bucket?

Scrub brush?

Soap?

Kilz?

Estimating a time for this method ventures into the realm of pure hand-wavery. I mean I can tell you how long it takes me to sweep a 25 square foot area, but I'm sweeping a kitchen that gets mopped and swept regularly, not a dungeon full of corpse-ick and evil-smelling rubbish.

[Matt Thomason]

Well, if (as I assume happened) you hadn't killed all the monsters, you could have enslaved them and put them to work doing the cleaning.... :)

[DungeonMastering.com]

Matt, that's not a bad consequence. But yeah, we barely survived the battles, thanks to an enemy's Confusion spell. Read more about that here:
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qrwi?selfish-Bards-using-Saving-Finale-Gallant #1

Having prisoners do the work is definitely something I'll keep in mind for the future; I really like how the 'clean up the mess you made' fits in with the redemption aspect Good characters are supposed to be trying to have happen on opponents they capture.

But another situation that we ran into earlier in the campaign was breaking into a noble's house; we had to fight these monsters inside & it would have helped in the interaction w/ the city watch if we had better fixed the place up before they arrived.

So there are other instances where cleaning is a tactic & can be time-sensitive.

[DungeonMastering.com]

aboniks, I would have thought that Unseen Servant was what all spellcasters used for their own housekeeping. Sort of like the fantasy version of a Roomba. I suppose if there were too many running around it could get all Sorcerer's Apprentice, but the spell seems made for doing some grunt work.

It's just not clear to me how fast it's able to do this.