Fun with Math! or... The Rune Cauldron weighs HOW much?!

[Digital Mystic]

So, my players happen to have enchanted an item here and there with Ant Haul to better enable their insane loot gathering exploits. When they got to the Rune Cauldron room, the Barbarian decided he wanted to flip it over so it would stop smoking and bothering the Pally. I quickly looked up the weight, and realized that the 900lbs listed was far too low. That must just be the empty cauldron. So, a quick discussion followed, with a little trip to Wolfram Alpha. So... should any of you need to know this in your campaign...

10ft across and 12 ft tall. roughly spherical with the extra height being the two foot tall legs. The volume of such a sphere is about 520 cubic feet. A cubic foot of water weighs a bit over 62 lbs. I will round down mostly here. So... the water in the cauldron weighs about 32,240 lbs. Round it up to 33k lbs with the weight of the Cauldron itself. That's about 71k Kilos for you people who use sane measurement systems.

So assuming Medium size and biped... you are looking at a required strength of over 40 in order to even shift it.

No Mr. Barbarian, you cant move the cauldron.

[Dracovar]

33 thousand pounds is about 15 thousand kilograms. Just sayin...

So, time for Rusting Grasp to blow a hole in it and empty it out? Or a stone shape under one or two legs to tip it over using it's own weight?

Of course, there's always the question of where the water is going to go...

[darkwarriorkarg]

We stone shaped and sealed the darn ghing in the floor.

[Digital Mystic]

Gawd you are right. I just reversed the conversion. Derp. 15k kilos.

Rusting grasp only works on non magical items. Wouldn't do a thing to the cauldron.

Stone Shape seems like a good idea tho. Unfortunately it seems that my group only prepares spells that heal, or do dmg... or aid in those endeavors directly.

As far as stone shaping it into the floor... 10ft x 10ft x 12ft = 1200 ft. cu. requiring a caster level of 1,990... so how exactly did you guys manage that?

[darkwarriorkarg]

13rh level caster, spell can affevt 23 cu ft, which is 23x23x23. Somewhat larger than the cauldron.

[ZanThrax]

That's not 23 cubic feet, that's 23 feet cubed. Which is 12,167 cubic feet.

[Digital Mystic]

Yes, 23 cu ft effect would sink a 10x10 square almost four inches

[Splendor]

My group stone shaped the floor under two of the feet to make it fall over. Empty it weighs 900lbs. An ant haul & teleport spell later it was back in their lair.
The cleric in the party had made Gloves of Shaping and spent three hours digging a pit to put the cauldron in (15' deep pit just over 10' wide).
They used fabricate to make a lead box in the pit and then placed the cauldron in it. Stone shape again to make a stone cover over the top of the pit and engineering checks to make sure the lead was thick enough to support the weight of the cauldron.
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So now, under their storage room in the basement, is an evil artifact encased in lead so nothing short of someone who has touched it casting Discern Location or the direct intervention of a deity can find it.

[Splendor]

To tip over the cauldron requires about 37292lbs of force, it is actually easier than that because of the legs but thats too much math for me.

The main fighter should have a STR of 20 by this point. Bull's STR puts him at 24 (or rage), enlarge to 26.

26 STR has a carrying capacity of 920. x5 for pushing is 4600lbs. x2 for being large is 9200lbs. x3 for ant haul is 27600.
Leaving 9692lbs of force needed (maybe not because of the legs).

If you cast communal ant haul that would affect the whole party.

9692/3 ant haul = 3230/5 for push limit = 646lbs of force. So the three remaining characters max load would have to equal 646lbs. Which would most likely require another STR enhancement to reach.
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So a party could tip it over. But a simple stone shape is much easier to make it fall over (which wouldn't work if it didn't have legs)