"What happened? Well, everything seemed to be going fine during the enchantment. I was trying to create a sphere that when thrown would explode in a dense cloud of smoke. I was finishing up the enchantment when it exploded in front of me. I was somehow pushed to the ethereal plane, presumably by the safeguards built in to the tower... If I understand correctly, the original owner was something of an authority on summoning Demons, so he must have put the safeguards in place in case a Demon got loose inside the tower."
"Once I was ethereal, I looked around to try to find the source of my trouble. You can see into the normal world from the ethereal plane, though not very well. I discovered a small fey creature with an enormous scythe and wearing some sort of hat had broken into my neighbors shop next door. He had taken some sort of necklace, though he left the other items untouched. The necklace was glowing, though I don't know if it was doing so on its own or if the malicious looking creature had made it glow somehow."
"I checked, and it was highly magical. I think it must have been giving off some sort of energy which mixed badly with the enchantment I was crafting. Strange thing is, the lab is supposed to be shielded against that sort of problem. That might mean that the energies involved were very strong."
"You know, come to think of it, I was probably the only witness to the theft. If you spoke to the jeweler, he might offer a reward for the recovery of that item. Oh! That reminds me! I really should offer you some sort of reward. I saw you pick up a few trivial items from my tower, and you can certainly keep those... a small price for saving me from that realm of ghosts! I think I should give you something else, as well, though. Problem is, most of my funds are tied up with a variety of projects. Let me think..."