Hexworm Frass Collector

The ubiquitous hexworms of the Kirinal Concordance Zone move earth and dig through the ground around the Kirinal Pit. A worm's lifetime of ingesting and processing the soil infused with the magic of thousands of planes leads to the creation of Hex Crystal during the final stage in their lives when they become Incarnation Moths to mate and start the cycle anew.

Forgotten during the process that creates the most valuable resource in the world are those who clean up after the hexworms, the frass collectors.

The Shit End of the Hexworm

Not everything that comes through the back end of a hexworm is frass, most of it is earth moving unprocessed through the worm. The worm's digestive system separates organic matter from the soil it ingests for food. Throughout the worm's busy workday, the worm ejects exceptionally smelly frass every few hours, up to one or two hundred pounds of it in a day. Most of the frass is just hexworm shit, but occassionally something unexpected pops up.

Every bit of frass must be collected and brought back to the Hexworm Corrals for inspection. The everchanging nature of the Pit means that a percentage of the frass spontaneously transmutes into something valuable or dangerous. Usually the fluke frass ends up being normal, but still extremely valuable, hex crystal. Gems and precious metals also occassionally show up, but sometimes the hexworms guts combine random material into explosive materials or hex crystals with unstable matrices: hex bombs.

The frass itself makes an excellent fertilizer and the processed manure is sold for a healthy profit by the enterprising dwarf bosses.

Paid for Poop

To attract workers to such an unpleasant and dangerous job, the earth dwarves of The Tortoise pay frass collectors very well, from 3 to 5 bilog a day. Enough for the workers to have a comfortable lifestyle and raise a family.

Despite the decent wage, elves would never perform the job and most humans, dwarves, and halflings find the work beneath them. This has led to an influx of goblins and kobolds to The Tortoise who are willing to take the jobs and to escape the worse social conditions that they suffer in the Magister's Dominion. The dwarves still look down on them, but they don't actively persecute them.