Evacuating a city

[Seclora]

I won't try to explain why too much, but I need to evacuate a city of several million from under a dimension locked Prismatic Sphere. We have access to all 3.5 sources and D20 Future technology up through PL 7, with the exception of replication, nanotech, and dimensional travel. Possible destinations include a nation on the other continent currently at war with Kythons(with a combined evolved undead/viral deathspawn template) and a nation of Dwarves and Minotaurs in the mountains to the north. There is an army of indoctrinated, well-equipped(standard issue side arm is a +5 plasma pistol with all the toys, all soldiers are issued a Feat Plexus cybernetic for 4 bonus feats) soldiers surrounding the city, diplomancy has been moderately succesful at best, but quickly overruled.

There is a 50% chance that any given prepared spell isn't actually prepared, on account of magic slowly dying, so any plans involving T1 casters are only about 50% likely to work. The party is ECL 19 and consists of a Thrallherd with a rogue cohort, A beguiler/Technomage, an Lycanthrope Artificer, Half-Fey Swashbuckler, Duskblade, Hellbred Paladin/Spellthief, and Master Transmogrifist. We have the help of a Favored Soul(Fharlanghn), Mind Flayer Elocator, and Archivist(lvl 13). Yes, the party is oversized and unwieldy. We have an uncertain length of time before the city is attacked, but I'd wager no more than a month.

Selling our souls is not an option. And if it's not too much a bother, would you kindly keep cheese to a minimum. I'd be happy to offer more details if you need them and I have them.

[Chilxius]

Well, things look... grim, don't they?

Sounds like you need an Incantation(UA 174). Your non-casters can help with those, and they can have some pretty interesting and powerful effects (including two specific examples of moving someone to another plain). Thing is, your DM would have to supply or at least approve the incantation, and judging from your current situation, your DM might not be inclined to be nice.

I would come up with an incantation on your own - have your casters devise it. Make it cost-heavy for you to use so that the DM doesn't see it as you weaseling out.

Why exactly has this army with the runaway military budget surrounded this poor city?

[Seclora]

Well, things look... grim, don't they?

Sounds like you need an Incantation(UA 174). Your non-casters can help with those, and they can have some pretty interesting and powerful effects (including two specific examples of moving someone to another plain). Thing is, your DM would have to supply or at least approve the incantation, and judging from your current situation, your DM might not be inclined to be nice.

I would come up with an incantation on your own - have your casters devise it. Make it cost-heavy for you to use so that the DM doesn't see it as you weaseling out.

Why exactly has this army with the runaway military budget surrounded this poor city?

They think the shield is containing a surviving pocket of the recent near zombie apocalypse(up until recently, that lie was the city's second best defense). Their 'cure' included a hefty dose of mind control, leading to 70% of the population becoming active military. All paid for by evil megacorporations shadow governing for the last couple centuries and a painful 2x book price magic item tax. They also control the media, and I suspect the realm of dreams. Even the Outer Planes are packing their bags.

Fun point, the previous campaign's villain designed the shield to defend the city back when it housed his robot army, corrupted Bone Troll legion, and helpless civilian soul farm. Besides being about three weeks from succesful ascension when we beat him, he was also well versed in every form of magic from truenaming to Diabolic Law Coding(He's now the Hellbred, with a very nice arrangement with Asmodeus involving eternal loyalty wagered against 1/3rd of all the souls in Hell). There's very little chance such an incantation already exists, and hasn't been accounted for, but any chance is worth it, and I'll give it a shot.

My best plan so far involves tricking the populace into believing in the gods long enough to jump start their divine powers in the hopes that we'll get god-hopped elsewhere. I really suspect only shenanigans can save us now.

[5ColouredWalker]

Miracle
50% of loosing the slot, prepare two. Or hell, prepare more.

You then ask [Relevent god] to move the city/it's inhabitants. Miracle can explicitly do anything the deity will allow, however in this case it will cost you XP.

Edit: You have the perfect cleric for it, but he's level 13, damn. Ok, in this case I'd suggest finding a scroll of Miracle, possibly stopping over in Sigil or the City of Brass, the two major planar metropolies, to get it.

[Inevitability]

First, gather up all living creatures that don't necessarily have to survive. Gather them up in a small area, cast Greater Consumptive Field, and enjoy the rush of having the life force of thousands of tiny beings added to yours. You'll need about a million creatures, but given the city's size this should be possible in a month.

Next, cast Wish, targetting every single citizen and moving them to another plane.

Prepare both spells several times, just to be sure.

[Seclora]

Miracle
50% of loosing the slot, prepare two. Or hell, prepare more.

You then ask [Relevent god] to move the city/it's inhabitants. Miracle can explicitly do anything the deity will allow, however in this case it will cost you XP.

Edit: You have the perfect cleric for it, but he's level 13, damn. Ok, in this case I'd suggest finding a scroll of Miracle, possibly stopping over in Sigil or the City of Brass, the two major planar metropolies, to get it.

Far as I can tell, Sigil doesn't exist and none of the Planes are likely to take or allow action against our enemies, given that one of their armies was recently defeated by a joint Devil/Demon/Celestial army in a Pyrrhic victory, while said army was suffering from deliberate sabotage. Even the Blood War is on hold.
And the gods have such a faith shortage that their abilities are basically shot. Also, most clerics are dead as a result of the forementioned zombie apocalypse; turning only works on undead and these zombies were aberrations that looked undead.


First, gather up all living creatures that don't necessarily have to survive. Gather them up in a small area, cast Greater Consumptive Field, and enjoy the rush of having the life force of thousands of tiny beings added to yours. You'll need about a million creatures, but given the city's size this should be possible in a month.

Next, cast Wish, targetting every single citizen and moving them to another plane.

Prepare both spells several times, just to be sure.

Greater Consumptive Field caps at twice CL, killing that many people/critters at once would be wasteful. Also, rather Evil and I, although not every other party member, would like to avoid solutions that could potentially condemn me to serving Hell for eternity.

I'll hold on to it as a back up.


I have honestly considered destroying the world, the moon, and humanity as solutions to the campaign at this point. We're pretty sure this is going to start spilling over to other universes soon, and containment is sounding totally valid as an option. The last set of Epic level heroes in the world straight up fled the scene.
Not gonna lie, it's getting irksome trying to find viable sources of power and/or good.

Edit: Sorry if it seems like I'm shooting everything down. I've already tried a lot of possibilities and while a few truly insane things have worked to a point most options have been fruitless or worse.

[Chilxius]

Sounds like you can't win the defense game, so don't play it.

Gather everyone as far from the invasion force as you can. As soon as the field drops, teleport to whoever is commanding this army and smash him. If that means the Big Bad himself, then that's what you may have to do. However well defended he is, it can't be worse than the army itself.
Blitz as hard as you can. I doubt any of your casters are Good enough to use sanctified spells, but if they can this will be the time to use Phoenix Fire or Exalted Fury. These spells are so powerful they kill you; they rock.
Give the citizens as much defense as you can, maybe even another prismatic sphere. If the army can't be reasoned with, then they're mindless enough to stop when their commander falls or is taken.

As a bonus, if they lose their commander, your Thrallherd can do a little herding.

[Seclora]

Sounds like you can't win the defense game, so don't play it.

Gather everyone as far from the invasion force as you can. As soon as the field drops, teleport to whoever is commanding this army and smash him. If that means the Big Bad himself, then that's what you may have to do. However well defended he is, it can't be worse than the army itself.
Blitz as hard as you can. I doubt any of your casters are Good enough to use sanctified spells, but if they can this will be the time to use Phoenix Fire or Exalted Fury. These spells are so powerful they kill you; they rock.
Give the citizens as much defense as you can, maybe even another prismatic sphere. If the army can't be reasoned with, then they're mindless enough to stop when their commander falls or is taken.

As a bonus, if they lose their commander, your Thrallherd can do a little herding.

This is the kind of response I like to see! Really reminds me how much I miss playing an exalted character, but any character that good would probably be dead by now anyways so...

There's not a 'he' in so far as we know, just a corporation. It is, however, a corporation with a known central location in the capitol city. With so much of the army deployed already, this would be exactly the right time to strike.


Allowing the Thrallherd to herd would be inadvisable. He's been known to strap bombs to them. Again, kinda evil.