Mortar

Mortar, also called mason mix, was a mineral paste used in masonry to bind and seal construction blocks such as stones and bricks in buildings.

Ingredients
Most mortar was made from a mixture of lime (the binder), sand (the aggregate), and water. Alternatively, simple clay could be used, as in peasant houses in Khazari and Ra-Khati.

As an aggregate in their mortar and adobe, the Azuposi used a silt rich in mica taken from the Dunobo Springs, which was a gateway to the spirit realm of Wenimats. This made the walls of their city of Michaca sparkle in golden hues and imbued them with spiritual power.

Other substances could be added for different outcomes. For example, it was widely known in Faerûn that gorgon, medusa, and even xorn blood mixed in mortar or stucco would block astral or ethereal travel through a wall. Similarly, gorgon's blood or lead in mortar would block certain eavesdropping spells, such as the Maskarran spells listening shadow and watching shadow. To work, this needed a concentration of at least one drop of gorgon blood to each of water. In comparison, four drops of medusa blood or three drops or xorn blood, together with two drops of unholy water, were needed per of water; obviously, this was not used in buildings used by good and most neutral faiths. Whatever the formula, no area larger than a man's head should be left uncovered by such mortar for it to be effective. The finished mortar had a red coloration.

Reputedly, a solution of two drops of remorhaz ichor and three drops of giant slug spittle added to a flask of amberjet poison and mixed with a mortar would naturally repel all oozes and block them entering a building or going over a wall, without harming them. The formula was kept in Candlekeep and guaranteed to Volothamp Geddarm by a number of merchants, sages, and even Elminster.

Uniquely, the mortar of the Dragonwall guarding Shou Lung was nothing less than the spirit of the great dragon Pao Hu Jen. When the dragon spirit was freed from part of the wall, the mortar between the bricks vanished and that part of the wall crumbled without its binding force.

Boggles used the oil they secreted as a natural mortar to build their cubbies.

Uses
Mortars were widely used to hold together simple houses and bridges, and even the biggest structures. However, not all structures used a mortar—buildings in Manass in Khazari used stacks of unmortared stone.

Mortar was also used as a material component in priestly spellcasting.

In the Utter East during the Bloodforge Wars (648–657 DR), a thick mortar known as mason mix was used to repair buildings damaged during the fighting and even to restore health to constructed creatures like the stone golems formed from basal golems.

History
According to Azuposi legend, the spirit Masauwu taught them how to build with stone, mortar, and adobe, among many other things.

In the 4 century DR, elves of Cormanthyr imprisoned an avatar of the god Moander called the Abomination within his temple in Yûlash. They trapped it behind a wall built using mortar mixed with a blood that would block creatures from passing through. In the, the mage Akabar Bel Akash recognized the grouting as "common enough" and estimated it was "mixed with gorgon blood, or something similar".

Opened in the, the House of the Moon, a temple to Selûne in Waterdeep, had gorgon's blood mortar cementing the lead lining and the white marble façade of its outer walls.

In the, when the entire garrison of paladins at Fort Morninglord disappeared, High Observer Thavius Kreeg of Elturgard ordered it sealed. All entrances were bricked up behind layers of stone and mortar.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Azure Bonds • The Council of Blades • Uneasy Alliances
 * Video Games
 * Blood & Magic