Deep Delving - 28/11/2023 - Mendal

His Basement Was Full of Foreign Soil - Lokburr the Baker Had Been A Naughty Boy


I came back home with boots full of soil.

Zola had done a pretty good job of cleaning us all off with her Prestidigitation spell, but having been buried waist deep in soil; I guess there was too much to clean up. As I began taking off my armour by the doorway, I emptied my boots right on the mat. Archie would clean it up later. He’s got that Mage Hand spell and telekinesis, and can summon an Unseen Servant. Basically he has all the spells a lazy wizard could want to avoid manual labour. So, it’s no trouble for him to do my chores for me.

…

Lokburr, the ginger-bearded, youngish, local baker here in the Dwarven Quarter had been living in a tent outside his house for a couple of weeks, looking like a weirdo. He had put up a notice to come to his place, 12 Coldshaw Road. His basement had gone missing. I live in the Dwarven Quarter too, and I didn’t want my basement going missing, so this was worth investigating.

For someone who, it turned out, hadn’t sought planning permission from the Daring Council for building a basement, and was very particular we did not inform the council; Lokburr didn’t have any problem advertising his basement in an adventuring note for stray council members to potentially notice. Whatsmore, down in Lokburr’s basement he had made a little museum for mining and the collection of quartz his family had dug up back in Faerun. If he shows this museum to anyone, he increases his risk of exposure - fool.

Lokburr explained that his basement/museum’s priced piece, a large rose-misted quartz had turned black, and a number of other changes had occurred that made his basement seem different. Protrusions in the walls all over his house and soil an inch deep covering all his floors had slowly appeared over time. His cat disappeared too. When we went in there I opened his wardrobe and a pile of soil poured out. No back wall to the wardrobe either, all dirt! And then, there was nothing but dirt outside the windows and outside the door!

The large quartz stone I mentioned, when Beets and I found it had soil magically swirling around it, and appeared to be where Heret, Jax and Zola had been trapped, or seemingly so - I don’t understand exactly what happened; other than they all fell down the soil at various points in the house. But when Beets, who had gone ‘full-beetle’ (a right fucking scary and weird sight) she crushed the stone in her mandibles, and everyone was set free. Leading theory on the stone; it was being used as someone’s arcane focus. Whose? No idea. We asked around - avoiding the Council - but no one had any ideas.



Daring Heights’ Finest Basement Exploration Team


Heret, the big businessman, human (much younger than Archie) had seen the adventuring notice. There was some mutual business friend of Lokburr that Heret was interested in helping, so that was why he was there. The man’s got brains; he asks some good questions. Seems to have a problem in tight spaces though. Basements, nor mines are not for him.

I hadn’t met Jax, the greasy-furred, loudly-dressed bugbear before. He’s quite different from that mangy bugbear with the fishing rod. I hadn’t met Beets, the fairy, either - though I had heard of her from both Archie and Kavel. Both Jax and Beets are good, strong allies just like Kavel. But equally they both have bricks for brains, just like Kavel too. I gave Jax a wardrobe door to place over the soil covered spot Heret magically fell through. Jax instead used the door to surf down the stairs and ended up disappearing down the same spot, door included. I’ll never hand Jax anything ever again.

Beets was bloody lucky. Wings saved her from falling down any magical holes. She was also a good sport, carrying me over the ground whilst flying. Once everyone else had disappeared down the soil, it seemed a good idea to do all we could to avoid what retrospectively seemed like planeshifting magic.
Now, I said good sport, but Beets was whinging quite a bit about how her arms were getting tired while carrying me. Apparently I’m too ‘stout’ - all dwarves are stout. I think Kavel’s going easy on her in training. I’ll tell him he needs to increase the weights he’s giving her to lift.

Zola was there too. I think she had witnessed this weird, foreign soil thing before, but she wasn’t saying much about it. She did ask to be taught masonry from yours truly though - smart move from her; picking a Clan Crafter for her instructor! Now I may be a Clan Crafter strictly as a tinkerer, but I’m certain my masonry, smithing and jewellery-making are on par with the Clan Crafter’s of those trades. Also, it’s about time I had a student and passed on my knowledge; it’ll help cement my reputation as the number one craftsman in the world. I hope Zola’s good with tools. I hear she’s fantastic with a pair of swords. Should be some crossover, right? Well, whether she has a natural talent for stone or not, as my student; she’s going to be good one way or another. Hmm, I wonder if teaching an elf will give me any credit with Carric and Nevarra, my own elf teachers? I could probably do with some credit in the bank with those two. They’ll probably be pissed I went on an adventure and for some reason there wasn’t any battle. If I’m not careful they’ll start whingeing about me not holding up my end of the bargain and take some of their magic back.

Oh, and why was I there on the team? Well, I mentioned the whole business was in my neck of the woods, but also, I thought doing a good deed in the Dwarven Quarter might cut me some slack to skip more temple duties. The less whingeing I have to hear from temple-goers, the better.

Ah shit! It’s just occurred to me that Lokburr probably isn’t going to mention jack shit about any of the help he got with his basement, since mentioning his basement means more people being aware of his unlicensed basement construction!

Moradion’s balls! The free bakery goods Lokburr’s promised better be worth it. None of us felt we could take his piss poor 200gp life-savings as payment. Lokburr’s a real lucky prick - he gets away with an unlicensed building extension, and gets away with funky magic business from said basement. If I ever hear him complaining that Moradin’s Forge Cleric is never seen in the temple; I’ll dob him into the council at the drop of a hat.