How much did the labyrinth of doom cost to dig?

[hcobb]

"Na Lad, we don't dig so deep anymore, after that balrog incident."

Economic assumptions:

• Only the mountain hexes have usable ores
• Only 5% of these areas have usable ores that the dwarves use goblin witches to find
• The dwarves of Dran dig a Tollenkar's a month

A Tollenkar's has an are (on the ground) of 34x51x97 ft^2 = 0.006 mi^2
Therefore there are 208 mines per Dran hex and 30 hexes in Dran for a total of 520 years of mining.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Hire a IQ 13 Town Wizard and three apprentices for $500/week (danger pay, because they're going underground)

An IQ 13 wizard costs let's interpolate at $85+$20 upkeep, assuming you're close enough to a source of food you don't end up paying more for upkeep. An apprentice expects free training which you probably can't provide so actually you're hiring wizardly assistants, who I guess are represented by Journeymen though they seem very cheap. Call it $35+20 for a total of $270 plus danger pay so I guess $500 seems reasonable.

dig 25 ST x 4 / 10 = 10 hexes a day, 50 hexes/week with Open Tunnel. Cost per hex is $10

Or, hire an IQ 14 wizard with lightning and 4 assistants for $650 a week. 625 ST a week, of which maybe 125 gets wasted in Aid leakage (assuming DX 10 and the Aid spells are only 3 points at a time, maybe that could be improved) and maybe 10 is wasted in 17s and 18s. Call it 490 dice of lightning causes 1400 points of damage which cuts 105 to 110 hexes of tunnel at a cost of maybe $6 a hex.

Or hire a dwarf miner [...] $5 per per hex.

Remarkable how close all these numbers are.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

Wow -- you've explained Godzilla!

I thought he was the result of evil American nuclear tests?

But my theory is a bit like Pacific Rim.

[David Bofinger]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Only 5% of these areas have usable ores

Is that number based on something?

Mightn't some places have multiple layers of ore?

520 years of mining.

Dwarves have been doing this a long time. If they started with 500 years to go, and if the calculation isn't GIGO, then the dwarves have got big concerns.

[ColinK]

Here's a fun bit of Real World (TM) tunnel Deco.

https://www.livescience.com/secret-m...-in-wales.html

Of course, four feet of height kind of limits the weapons choices for tunnel delvers, but the pictures sure are nice, and the story that goes with it seems perfect for just about anywhere on Cidri.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by ColinK

Of course, four feet of height kind of limits the weapons choices for tunnel delvers, but the pictures sure are nice, and the story that goes with it seems perfect for just about anywhere on Cidri.

The horns on the dwarf helmets won't even touch the ceiling.