Dwarf Babysitting

It's the last few days in the Tower after the underdark vacation. Talmun - spooky, helpful tower that he is- noticed my interest in the gardens. I'd only been sleeping in there and bringing back more plants for poisons and potions and things. He mentions that bringing back earth from the plane of earth would make for great fertilizer; we aren't planning to go there but our plans tend to go sideways the minute we lay them out, so it's good intel to tuck away.
In the down time I got Antares to identify teh glowing orb I stole from the underdark, in that room with the imperion we wasted. Apparently it's a golem heart, a key component in making an iron golem. No current plans for it, but no sense in wasting a good resource.
In the mean time, we have to figure out how to get the dwarves out of the tower. We can't just walk down, because I don't want them knowing where the tower is. Best way to keep a secret is to limit who knows it. Which is all well and good, except the only place Nzuri knows well enough to telleport is the base of the tower, where there is an inconvenient snowstorm raging. And none of the dwarves have cold weather clothes, and it does no one any good if the dwarves turn into icicles. Anatres wants to get them back to their city, so we need to find them cold weather clothes.
We end up deciding to wait a day. Silas preps a spell that should emergency remove us from a situation back to the tower - handy in a pinch, he's a good kid- and Nzuri poped over to Arcanaeum to get the dwarves winter clothes. I also ask her to look into some enchantment for Spit and Spot, so they can tag along with us. I hate leaving them behind, their good boys and the exercise would do them good. Plus I think that bite would be nasty in a fight. Nzuri found a wizard willing to do it, but he wants to "meet" Spit and Spot. Apparently he's fascinated by the idea of a tamed death dog, and he's got a bit of zoo. He doesn't not want to steal my dog, so while I don't have time to meet him today, when I do, I need to be very very careful with my dog. I'd hate for this wizard to make a mistake he can't fix.
Finally, the next day, Nzuri teleports Anatres, Silas, the dwarvese and me to the bottom of the tower, a few days walk to Dunladuhr. Or, the tunnel into Dunladuhr. When we get to the tunnel, Antares reached out to Basdrin using sending, and got back "guard your life" which, while the sentiment is appreciated is damn dry of facts to go on. After prodding, we were able to figure out the dwarves with us had targets on their backs from the consortium, and the attack on their caravan was likely orchestrated.
When I ask them more questions, while Antares is trying to wring actionable details out of Basdrin, the dwarves are able to remember that before they set off for their last route, their shipment was delayed by a week. They were told the mythril wasn't ready for a fullshipment, and the suppliers wouldn't send less than a fullshipment. They were told this by their consortium contact, Thastoutalin Silverfinger. Additionally in the underdark itself, the last guard patrol went missing. They thought the patrol was just late, but then they were attacked by the duergar.
Which all leads us to think that if those dwarves were to go in the city, they'd be dead dwarves walking. Someone clearly wants them to shutup; I doub the consortium knows what the dwarves know, but they're going to get sileneced on the off chance. Laying out the options before them, Anatres convinced them to go back to the Tower, and if we couldn't guarantee their saftey in a few days, they would move to Arcaneum to stay with the dwarves mining on that continent.
It takes a few days still to get to Dunladuhr. Silas walked in undisguised, since his face wasn't likely remembered, but Antares illusioned himself to look like a human, and one dose of spider climb and I invisibly crawled into the city via the ceiling. We tried to meet Basdrin at their contact spot, the Earthen Urn. We waited their for a while, Antares flirting with the innkeeper's wife who handily took his spice pouch off him. She made a good Rothe, I'm fond of her.
But Basdrin never showed. And he didn't respond to sending, when Antares tried again.
I think the man is dead, but Antares is dead set on finding him. Which isn't a total waste of time, we can probably find some good clues off him and wherever we find him. But if we're going to address this problem, I think we're going to have to topple the consortium, and every moment we're in this city is a moment theirs a glowing target on our back.
This should be fun.