Now, some stuff, so if you're looking for the meat of the question, go to the next and have fun.
TL:DR
Finally get to be a player again after nearly 20 years of DMing. Oh god, the enjoyment of just making a character and not having to come up with all the various shenanigans that involve building an interconnected world they fit into logically and still provide a challenge or enjoyable interlude to the players ...
Finally convinced a player and her husband to be the DM for a pre-made campaign, and we've decided to swap from our Pathfinder 1E/Homebrew setting to 5e to recharge all our thinking parts after twelve years of this setting, and the DM has graciously allowed me to roll a Hobgoblin Eldritch Knight, as we're running the Dragonheist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaigns, and my Hob will be a messenger from the Hobgoblin town of Stromkuhldur on the third level of Undermountain, seeking aid against the Drow invaders and utterly bamboozled by the chaotic ways of the 'bright walkers'.
DM took a page from me and had everyone sit down and discuss where and what they want to achieve at specific levels (5th, 10th, 15th, 20th etc) for our characters and our overall goals so that she can alter certain chapters or write 'fluff' chapters where there's a relative lack of combat and it's more social encounters and/or encounters where we either catch up on XP we might have missed out on or gain social advantages to our characters' goals. And I mentioned I wanted to start ferrying Hobgoblins who share Krench's Lawful Neutral outlook to the surface, because he's just become enamoured with the magic of the bright walkers and looks at Waterdeep, and then the difference between a sprawling metropolis and the tumble-down nature of the Hobgoblin's home town built in and ontop of other people's ruins. So, planning on being a 'loyal soldier' to the current 'warlord' of Waterdeep and trying to buy some land ontop of some rocky terrain, dig down into the rock to make some large artificial caves, fill it with the edible fungi from page 59 of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage manual, Barrelstalk, Bluecap, Ripplebark and Zurkwood and use the excavated dirt and stone to turn the surface of the land into a crude farm holding chickens, beans and potatoes, basic soldier food.
However, given the nature of Waterdeep's distressingly invasive and domineering Guilds, I'm going to have to work closely with the Cellarers' and Plumbers' Guild and the Surveyors', Map- and Chart-Makers' Guild to go digging, the Council of Farmer-Grocers to grow crops and livestock and the Guild of Glassblowers, Glaziers and Spectacle-Makers' Guild and the Guild of Stonecutters, Masons, Potters and Tile-Makers to build the farm's structures and ensure the man-(Goblin?)-made caves under my land are structurally stable and comply with Waterdeep's laws so nobody can take my land away from me, and that's gonna be fun ... and falls into my question.
Naturally, given Waterdeep, this means I'll be heading to the Field Ward and that's a rough and tumble area. Good place for Hobs looking for a life on the surface to ply their trade as potential guards? DM said I'll have to prove my loyalty, and those of my followers, and make some good Persuasion rolls in the process, but it could work. Failing that, so long as we keep to Waterdeep's laws and don't throw the first punch in a fight, we should be fine, but there will be individuals in Waterdeep who will see Goblinoids running around and target me and mine heavily.
Bring it on.
TL:DR
How much would you guys think a team of Human labourers/miners could excavate of solid rock in a day? Assuming masterwork picks and my Hobgoblin Eldritch Knight using his Ritual Caster feat to be spamming Unseen Servant to bring them water, take the rubble out and hold Torches enchanted with Continual Flame for if and when they start to get deeper? My DM and I have roughly worked it out to be about one 5 foot cube every hour per two Labourers with masterwork picks, with a pair of Unseen Servants working to bring them water and remove debris.
So a team of 4 labourers, an overseer and myself could see, in an 8 hour period of time, 16 5 foot cubes of stone and earth removed, roughly 80 cubic feet of rock and soil per day. To get my desired size of a 60ft wide by 80ft long and 40ft high cave with a 10ft thick pillar in the middle to provide support. I calculate that as about 13 days to excavate alone, including a tunnel down that will descend diagonally 30 feet, turn to the side to form a flat section for 20 feet, and then descends diagonally again for another 30 feet to the underground farm itself, and then another ramp leading down the wall of the cavern.
Fill the bottom 10 foot of the cavern with dirt because I am going to need that to grow fungus and eventually feed deep rothe on said fungus.
I would certainly need to provide lumber, joints, nails and the like to provide supports to make the tunnel and the cave itself as safe as possible from cave-ins because I know the DM is gonna throw some shenanigans at me. People will not like a Hobgoblin setting up shop in Waterdeep, even out in the Field Ward, and bringing more Hobgoblins and Goblins up from Undermountain is just gonna exacerbate that.
So assuming it will take a solid 30 days to excavate the cave and put up sufficient supports to make the damn thing as safe as possible from cave-ins and saboteurs, with a team of 4 labourers to excavate, my Unseen Servants to clean up the mess, an Overseer to keep the labourers working according to schedule, a 4 man team from the Mason's Guild to make sure the supports are being done right, a representative each from the Surveyor's Guild and the Cellarer's Guild to make sure we're staying up to code, I'm assuming the following costs involved:
Labourers will cost 2 gold per day (Assuming a Modest lifestyle plus Guild Memberships) and, as Guild Members, will have their own equipment. So for 30 days, that's 240 gold for all 4.
Their Overseer will obviously require more, so 3 (Assuming a Comfortable lifestyle plus Guild Membership) gold per day. Over 30 days, that tallies up to 90 gold for him.
4 Man team from the Mason's Guild are skilled labourers, (Assuming a Comfortable lifestyle plus Guild Membership) 4 gold per day each. Over 30 days, that's 480 gold for them.
The Representatives from the Surveyor's Guild and Cellarer's Guild would also be skilled labourers, (Assuming a Comfortable lifestyle plus Guild Membership), again 4 gold per day for each one, for 240 gold for the pair.
Lumber, food and water, metal components to make the cavern stable enough for long-term use, and because a Hobgoblin is not going to move into anything that isn't defensible in some form or fashion, assuming about 500 gold in lumber and 200 gold in miscellaneous materials to turn them into functional supports and a further 200 gold for room and board for the workers and hiring transport to get them from the Field Ward to my farm every day.
Overall I see this as around 2,000 gold, possibly bumping it up to 2,200 gold because shenanigans, but does this seem feasible to other people? Are the costs too low? Am I over-exaggerating how much rock and stone mere picks and muscle-power can carve through? Any issues un-involved DMs/GMs can see here that I can bring to my own DM so she can add it to her Big List Of Things That Will Go Wrong, any lore-buffs who can point out issues with claiming land in the Field Ward or digging into the earth in such a fashion?
I know I haven't calculated building any structures ontop of the land yet, but that's beyond the scope of the original question. Likewise the purchasing of the land is something that will come up in the game, eventually, and I'm told as part of the campaign as the DM is writing it, I'll get a farm plot of a 1 square mile assuming I don't do something wrong and I might be able to expand and repeat the underground cave system multiple times, but with the farm producing food and 'rare' goods (Zirkwood lumber, fungal food-stuffs, deep rothe fur, meat and hides etc) that should be far less of a drain on my Hob's funds.
DM says I should be able to start looking at getting the farm up and running at around 7th or 8th level, so while that will be a sizeable stack of gold, it won't be absolutely crippling at that level and I will have decent enough gear to survive a level or two of being under the expected wealth of the average level of the group.
DM has said straight up we're expected to have, as a rule, 'plenty of wealth' considering we're likely going to be hauling everything but the flagstones up and out of Undermountain, and looting the Drow and other creatures of Undermountain of all their gear and sellable body parts (My players ... my fellow adventurers I should say ... are those kinds of adventurers. I will be the sole lawful character in a team of chaotic murder-hobos. Oh Gods ...) and she's expecting us to do a lot of selling, bartering and plundering to make up the slack of the stated treasure in the Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaigns.
From 2nd level each character is expected to have 100 gold spare in the form of coins, gems and trade goods, and increase that by 250-400 gold per level to 5th level, 350-500 gold per level from 6th to 12th level, and 400-600 gold per level from 12th to 20th level, not including magical items we might find in our misadventures. Between the Bards' plans to throw magic shows with the aid of the Wild Sorcerer, the Halfling running a gambling 'shows' in the tavern, and our Half-Drow Druid selling her magical gifts and 'enchanted mushrooms', in addition to my own Hob selling his labour, working as the labourer/cleaner around the tavern, selling maps of the Undermountain to other adventuring crews and acting as an ambassador between Waterdeep and Stromkuhldur, we should be making those additional bits of coin, and because we've got a Tavern to run, we're plundering Undermountain, for Helm's sake and so long as we're being smart and not going out wenching and benching every evening in a city as expensive as Waterdeep, we should be fine. Given the way she's set things up, we'll be doing levels of the Undermountain in stages, so we might do three or four trips to a level before we actually clear it out or find a way to bypass it. With Trollskull Manor being converted into a Tavern and my eventual desire to start a new home for the Lawful Neutral Hobgoblins and the Neutral Goblins of Stromkuhldur in the Field District, we're assuming we'll be relatively wealthy enough to support ourselves without going stupid for magical items and do our parts to help Waterdeep out as philanthropist (somewhat?) adventurers.
Too long ; Didn't read. If blocking the sun is your primary concern just building a building around it would probably work. As far as building underground goes, mines have existed without magic just fine. Not sure if any of your 21 paragraphs voiced a financial/cost concern, but I don't have any advice for that.
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Now, some stuff, so if you're looking for the meat of the question, go to the next and have fun.
TL:DR
Finally get to be a player again after nearly 20 years of DMing. Oh god, the enjoyment of just making a character and not having to come up with all the various shenanigans that involve building an interconnected world they fit into logically and still provide a challenge or enjoyable interlude to the players ...
Finally convinced a player and her husband to be the DM for a pre-made campaign, and we've decided to swap from our Pathfinder 1E/Homebrew setting to 5e to recharge all our thinking parts after twelve years of this setting, and the DM has graciously allowed me to roll a Hobgoblin Eldritch Knight, as we're running the Dragonheist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaigns, and my Hob will be a messenger from the Hobgoblin town of Stromkuhldur on the third level of Undermountain, seeking aid against the Drow invaders and utterly bamboozled by the chaotic ways of the 'bright walkers'.
DM took a page from me and had everyone sit down and discuss where and what they want to achieve at specific levels (5th, 10th, 15th, 20th etc) for our characters and our overall goals so that she can alter certain chapters or write 'fluff' chapters where there's a relative lack of combat and it's more social encounters and/or encounters where we either catch up on XP we might have missed out on or gain social advantages to our characters' goals. And I mentioned I wanted to start ferrying Hobgoblins who share Krench's Lawful Neutral outlook to the surface, because he's just become enamoured with the magic of the bright walkers and looks at Waterdeep, and then the difference between a sprawling metropolis and the tumble-down nature of the Hobgoblin's home town built in and ontop of other people's ruins. So, planning on being a 'loyal soldier' to the current 'warlord' of Waterdeep and trying to buy some land ontop of some rocky terrain, dig down into the rock to make some large artificial caves, fill it with the edible fungi from page 59 of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage manual, Barrelstalk, Bluecap, Ripplebark and Zurkwood and use the excavated dirt and stone to turn the surface of the land into a crude farm holding chickens, beans and potatoes, basic soldier food.
However, given the nature of Waterdeep's distressingly invasive and domineering Guilds, I'm going to have to work closely with the Cellarers' and Plumbers' Guild and the Surveyors', Map- and Chart-Makers' Guild to go digging, the Council of Farmer-Grocers to grow crops and livestock and the Guild of Glassblowers, Glaziers and Spectacle-Makers' Guild and the Guild of Stonecutters, Masons, Potters and Tile-Makers to build the farm's structures and ensure the man-(Goblin?)-made caves under my land are structurally stable and comply with Waterdeep's laws so nobody can take my land away from me, and that's gonna be fun ... and falls into my question.
Naturally, given Waterdeep, this means I'll be heading to the Field Ward and that's a rough and tumble area. Good place for Hobs looking for a life on the surface to ply their trade as potential guards? DM said I'll have to prove my loyalty, and those of my followers, and make some good Persuasion rolls in the process, but it could work. Failing that, so long as we keep to Waterdeep's laws and don't throw the first punch in a fight, we should be fine, but there will be individuals in Waterdeep who will see Goblinoids running around and target me and mine heavily.
Bring it on.
TL:DR
How much would you guys think a team of Human labourers/miners could excavate of solid rock in a day? Assuming masterwork picks and my Hobgoblin Eldritch Knight using his Ritual Caster feat to be spamming Unseen Servant to bring them water, take the rubble out and hold Torches enchanted with Continual Flame for if and when they start to get deeper? My DM and I have roughly worked it out to be about one 5 foot cube every hour per two Labourers with masterwork picks, with a pair of Unseen Servants working to bring them water and remove debris.
So a team of 4 labourers, an overseer and myself could see, in an 8 hour period of time, 16 5 foot cubes of stone and earth removed, roughly 80 cubic feet of rock and soil per day. To get my desired size of a 60ft wide by 80ft long and 40ft high cave with a 10ft thick pillar in the middle to provide support. I calculate that as about 13 days to excavate alone, including a tunnel down that will descend diagonally 30 feet, turn to the side to form a flat section for 20 feet, and then descends diagonally again for another 30 feet to the underground farm itself, and then another ramp leading down the wall of the cavern.
Fill the bottom 10 foot of the cavern with dirt because I am going to need that to grow fungus and eventually feed deep rothe on said fungus.
I would certainly need to provide lumber, joints, nails and the like to provide supports to make the tunnel and the cave itself as safe as possible from cave-ins because I know the DM is gonna throw some shenanigans at me. People will not like a Hobgoblin setting up shop in Waterdeep, even out in the Field Ward, and bringing more Hobgoblins and Goblins up from Undermountain is just gonna exacerbate that.
So assuming it will take a solid 30 days to excavate the cave and put up sufficient supports to make the damn thing as safe as possible from cave-ins and saboteurs, with a team of 4 labourers to excavate, my Unseen Servants to clean up the mess, an Overseer to keep the labourers working according to schedule, a 4 man team from the Mason's Guild to make sure the supports are being done right, a representative each from the Surveyor's Guild and the Cellarer's Guild to make sure we're staying up to code, I'm assuming the following costs involved:
Labourers will cost 2 gold per day (Assuming a Modest lifestyle plus Guild Memberships) and, as Guild Members, will have their own equipment. So for 30 days, that's 240 gold for all 4.
Their Overseer will obviously require more, so 3 (Assuming a Comfortable lifestyle plus Guild Membership) gold per day. Over 30 days, that tallies up to 90 gold for him.
4 Man team from the Mason's Guild are skilled labourers, (Assuming a Comfortable lifestyle plus Guild Membership) 4 gold per day each. Over 30 days, that's 480 gold for them.
The Representatives from the Surveyor's Guild and Cellarer's Guild would also be skilled labourers, (Assuming a Comfortable lifestyle plus Guild Membership), again 4 gold per day for each one, for 240 gold for the pair.
Lumber, food and water, metal components to make the cavern stable enough for long-term use, and because a Hobgoblin is not going to move into anything that isn't defensible in some form or fashion, assuming about 500 gold in lumber and 200 gold in miscellaneous materials to turn them into functional supports and a further 200 gold for room and board for the workers and hiring transport to get them from the Field Ward to my farm every day.
Overall I see this as around 2,000 gold, possibly bumping it up to 2,200 gold because shenanigans, but does this seem feasible to other people? Are the costs too low? Am I over-exaggerating how much rock and stone mere picks and muscle-power can carve through? Any issues un-involved DMs/GMs can see here that I can bring to my own DM so she can add it to her Big List Of Things That Will Go Wrong, any lore-buffs who can point out issues with claiming land in the Field Ward or digging into the earth in such a fashion?
I know I haven't calculated building any structures ontop of the land yet, but that's beyond the scope of the original question. Likewise the purchasing of the land is something that will come up in the game, eventually, and I'm told as part of the campaign as the DM is writing it, I'll get a farm plot of a 1 square mile assuming I don't do something wrong and I might be able to expand and repeat the underground cave system multiple times, but with the farm producing food and 'rare' goods (Zirkwood lumber, fungal food-stuffs, deep rothe fur, meat and hides etc) that should be far less of a drain on my Hob's funds.
DM says I should be able to start looking at getting the farm up and running at around 7th or 8th level, so while that will be a sizeable stack of gold, it won't be absolutely crippling at that level and I will have decent enough gear to survive a level or two of being under the expected wealth of the average level of the group.
DM has said straight up we're expected to have, as a rule, 'plenty of wealth' considering we're likely going to be hauling everything but the flagstones up and out of Undermountain, and looting the Drow and other creatures of Undermountain of all their gear and sellable body parts (My players ... my fellow adventurers I should say ... are those kinds of adventurers. I will be the sole lawful character in a team of chaotic murder-hobos. Oh Gods ...) and she's expecting us to do a lot of selling, bartering and plundering to make up the slack of the stated treasure in the Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage campaigns.
From 2nd level each character is expected to have 100 gold spare in the form of coins, gems and trade goods, and increase that by 250-400 gold per level to 5th level, 350-500 gold per level from 6th to 12th level, and 400-600 gold per level from 12th to 20th level, not including magical items we might find in our misadventures. Between the Bards' plans to throw magic shows with the aid of the Wild Sorcerer, the Halfling running a gambling 'shows' in the tavern, and our Half-Drow Druid selling her magical gifts and 'enchanted mushrooms', in addition to my own Hob selling his labour, working as the labourer/cleaner around the tavern, selling maps of the Undermountain to other adventuring crews and acting as an ambassador between Waterdeep and Stromkuhldur, we should be making those additional bits of coin, and because we've got a Tavern to run, we're plundering Undermountain, for Helm's sake and so long as we're being smart and not going out wenching and benching every evening in a city as expensive as Waterdeep, we should be fine. Given the way she's set things up, we'll be doing levels of the Undermountain in stages, so we might do three or four trips to a level before we actually clear it out or find a way to bypass it. With Trollskull Manor being converted into a Tavern and my eventual desire to start a new home for the Lawful Neutral Hobgoblins and the Neutral Goblins of Stromkuhldur in the Field District, we're assuming we'll be relatively wealthy enough to support ourselves without going stupid for magical items and do our parts to help Waterdeep out as philanthropist (somewhat?) adventurers.
Any problems anyone can see?
Futile bump?
The DM is tentatively OK with the above but we'd both love some un-invested opinions.
Too long ; Didn't read. If blocking the sun is your primary concern just building a building around it would probably work. As far as building underground goes, mines have existed without magic just fine. Not sure if any of your 21 paragraphs voiced a financial/cost concern, but I don't have any advice for that.