"Shouting's not that bad, it doesn't get through rock."

"Excavation might be more iffy, then? Put a layer of cloth between stone and whatever I'm working on? To keep it from shaking the walls."

"I can see about getting quilts and stuff, but might also just plan to go farther out of our way than I originally imagined."

"Which might bring me back to the traps if there's more ceiling gribblies. Well. All you can do is your best effort sometimes."

"Yeah. Let me show you a place to get dinner, I think I can get you allowed to sleep at my place but getting you food there would be trickier."

"Okay. I do not currently have any money. I'd be fine selling off the boilersuit for a little boost but it probably makes me look adventuresome."

"It does, yeah, adventurers tend to pick up magical gear from all over the place and look very eclectic. I can cover you eating for the time being and apply to my mother for anything past that."

"Yeah. If it works out I'll pay it all back. What else is expensive?"

"...most things, really. Chalk is cheap. Basic rocks are so cheap people'll pay you to take them away. Water's cheap. If you want something a halfling could do I can probably borrow a family slave without it being an additional cost if they're not too busy right then."

"What kinda rocks? Just, what I see now? You gave the impression that ventilation wouldn't be a problem earlier- Chalk into quicklime, that's not too hard, it's good for sealing walls and stuff."

"Yeah, like what the walls are made of, people dig them up making new caves and clearing out mines. There's a spell for ventilation, it's called Chimney, I don't usually prep it because it's so common but I have it and I can."

"Then I can make quicklime with rocks, chalk, and a heat source and Chimney- I'd be surprised if nobody down here was making it but it's probably saleable and it'd be useful to me later. You can mix it with water to make cement and plaster it on walls to make them nicely smooth or mortar rocks together. And a bunch of more niche uses, like fertilizer for some kinds of soil."

"Neat! How good of a heat source do you need for this?"

"Pretty big one. Forge-like. Uh, like if I build the kiln right I can insulate it lot. Maybe I could use Jolts to do it, otherwise I need some stuff that burns, or some other way."

"We have coal. It's not notably cheap nor expensive, it's like mushrooms, everybody can afford it because if you can't you die."

Well. Yeah. If you starve you die.

"Coal's a lot easier to use than magic, probably."

"Yeah, there's not a real fire cantrip, just Spark which starts fires if you have fuel."

"...I'm not really thinking of anything else to cover now, except for daily necessities."

And trying to understand or get to know her savior a bit, but she seemed prickly about that.

"Yeah, let's go get you some stew. Water comes from the river or the temple - temple charges but it's more convenient and the water's usually more convenient. I already mentioned nightsoil, right? Do you have all the clothes you'll need or can you not sleep in that?"

"You did mention nightsoil. I can probably sleep in this, more clothes is hardly urgent compared to tools and materials. Oh- I'm stronger than I look, for what that's worth. Not- Ridiculously, but more like a fit human man than a slim human girl. I'll do whatever manual work doesn't break the adventurer look, if needs must. Might even clear the mind."

"Not a ton of humans down here, they eat a lot more than halflings and can't haul as much as orcs, but that's good, it's in keeping with the adventurer look even. Rynaeri picks up a lot of hauling work in the mines - she has a floating disk spell, but it has to be loaded and unloaded manually, you could help her sometimes maybe."

"Sure. You take the lead until I have the tools to make the tools. You know this place, which I don't even recall the name of, if you mentioned. I don't want to break things- Whatever passes for a peace here, I mean. One imagines that yelling about slavery would, uh, not improve matters and quite the opposite, so."

"This is the city of Chosl in the country of Noctimar. And yeah yelling about slavery will accomplish nothing, though a foreign adventurer is often as not expected to be a little annoyed about the racial slant on the institution as it exists down here."

"Chosl. Noctimar. There's kinds and degrees, right, it's not like Spark warlords or noble dukes don't get things out of 'their people'- I'm not sure if this is a touchy subject-"

"I don't like slavery myself but there's noplace safe for them to go and there's only so many thefts you can get away with before you're dead."