[RPG] How to a party move 10,000 pounds of gold

dnd-5espellstreasurewaterdeep-dragon-heist

The party has found the Vault of Dragons from the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist module. They've managed to play two of the BBEGs against each other and have neutralized the 'enemy' factor of the module, have also managed to fly under the radar of Waterdeep's authorities, and they want to keep all of that sweet, sweet gold for themselves.

However, the access to the Vault in their version of WD:DH is down a 150' ladder, under a hidden trap door in the back of an abandoned building. They now own the building, but are wondering how to move all the gold out. For plot reasons, they can't nickle and dime it out slowly (because I am evil and didn't want to give half a million gold to a 5th level party, but also wanted to reward their superb creativity by letting them keep it all!) …as soon as any of the gold leaves the Vault, a magical alarm will alert the authorities who will then form a large troop and come to recover the gold. This gives them barely an hour to move the whole thing, or risk losing it all.

They've been debating this for a while, have gone on several more adventures, have gained a few more levels, and are now ready to tackle the challenge of how to get 10,000 pounds of gold up and out of a two foot square hole that's 150 feet deep.

Their current plan is to use the wizard's Fabricate spell to create a ten foot diameter shaft with stairs along the sides that spiral down to the Vault doors. They've already calculated the volume of stone to be removed (70 castings!), how the raw stone will be turned into bricks, loaded into a wagon and dumped outside the city, and how to keep all of this low key enough that no one will suspect what they're really up to.

The crux of the plan is the fast removal of the gold from the Vault. They plan to have the wizard use Floating Disk to move 500 pounds per trip up the stairs, the rogue use their Bag of Holding to move 500 pounds per trip, and the goliath can carry 600 pounds per trip. That means 6 trips of about 5 minutes per trip, leaving the party about half an hour to escape Waterdeep with their wagon load of gold.

Is there a better/faster way to do this? How might a character transport hundreds of thousands of gold inconspicuously?, while similar, is more concerned with general moving of massive amounts of gold, and none of the answers to that question would work for this case.

The party has access to all spells of 5th level and below. They do not have another Bag of Holding nor do they have a Portable Hole, and the purchase of a powerful magic item isn't going to be allowed. Single use items like scrolls or potions would be considered as the party may be able to afford them. They do have several thousand gold of their own, and would be willing to hire someone in case a certain class/ability would work.

How can a party move 10,000 pounds of gold?

Best Answer

Assuming casting Dispel Magic on the Alarm is infeasible (perhaps the makers of the Vault were so meticulous that they cast Alarm on each individual piece of gold), this seems like an ideal use case for Leomund's Secret Chest

Since you've said the players have several thousands of their own gold outside the contents of the Vault, they could spend 5,050 gp to have the material components for Leomund's Secret Chest commissioned (see spell description below; I presume there's no time pressure until the Alarm is triggered). The wizard may need to research and learn Leomund's Secret Chest, as well (I don't have my books handy at the moment and so can't price out the research needed to learn the spell through experimentation, but it's a minimum of 8 hours and 200 gp to copy it into the spellbook--halved if your wizard is of the conjuration school).

Leomund's Secret Chest
4th level Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (an exquisite chest, 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet, constructed from rare materials worth at least 5,000 gp, and a Tiny replica made from the same materials worth at least 50 gp)
Duration: Instantaneous

You hide a chest, and all its contents, on the Ethereal Plane. You must touch the chest and the miniature replica that serves as a material component for the spell. The chest can contain up to 12 cubic feet of nonliving material (3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet).

While the chest remains on the Ethereal Plane, you can use an action and touch the replica to recall the chest. It appears in an unoccupied space on the ground within 5 feet of you. You can send the chest back to the Ethereal Plane by using an action and touching both the chest and the replica.

After 60 days, there is a cumulative 5 percent chance per day that the spell’s effect ends. This effect ends if you cast this spell again, if the smaller replica chest is destroyed, or if you choose to end the spell as an action. If the spell ends and the larger chest is on the Ethereal Plane, it is irretrievably lost.

Preparing the Chest for use in the heist

Using these, they can hide the larger chest on the Ethereal Plane with a single casting of Leomund's Secret Chest, linking the full-size and replica chests. This could even be done a day in advance to recover the spell slot. The next day, from inside the Vault and "while the [larger] chest remains on the Etereal Plane, [the wizard] can use an action and touch the replica to recall the [larger] chest. [The larger chest] appears in an unoccupied space on the ground within 5 feet of [the wizard]."

Loading up the loot

From inside the vault, they can load up the coins into the larger chest, which can contain up to 12 cubic feet of nonliving material acccording to the spell description. I used an online calculator to calculate the volume of 10,000 lbs of gold (although admittedly, that's assuming a single, solid mass), and it comes out to 8.29 cubic feet. Assuming the coins are thin cylindrical solids, if the coins are placed in rows or stacks (think like rolls of coins, but without the paper roll), you're looking at a packing factor of about 78.5% for a square (as seen from the end of the row/top of the stack) arrangement, so at most the 12 cubic foot interior of the chest could hold an equivalent of 9.42 cubic feet of gold coins (specific to this particular arrangement of coins, and notably more than the 8.29 cubic feet that much mass of gold would occupy). During this time, the gold is still inside the Vault, and so the Alarm will not trigger. This part is time-consuming, but under no functional time pressure, and all party members can help arrange the coins for tight storage. What's more, if it takes days of labor (which the party seems willing to put in, what with 70 castings of Fabricate involved in their original plan), the party can leave the chest inside the Vault and it'd be so absurdly difficult for someone to get the chest up and out of the existing 2 foot square hole that anyone else who manages to get inside is likely to leave it alone. I've never worked with this many coins, but I still suspect it'll take fewer days than the 70 castings of Fabricate would require.

The great escape

Once the gold is loaded into the larger chest, it can be closed (which isn't technically required, but it's worth doing just in case someone or something comes across it on the Ethereal Plane) and they can "send the chest back to the Ethereal Plane by using an action and touching both the [larger] chest and the replica." At this point, the gold leaves the Vault and the Alarm triggers, but all the party needs to do is go back up the hole (or even Dimension Door out if they're feeling fancy and don't want to be seen leaving the building in which the Vault entrance is hidden) with the Tiny replica and go about their business as though nothing has happened. As long as they recall the chest to the Material Plane within 60 days (by using an action with the Tiny chest), there's no chance of it being irretrievably lost on the Ethereal Plane. What's more, after this entire heist is done and they unload the gold wherever, they can sell off the chest and replica to recoup some of that initial 5,050 gp cost for the materials if they're so inclined.