Tracking Floon
The Party has learned that Floon Blagmaar has been kidnapped by the Xanathar's Guild who mistook him for Renaer Neverember, and that he was taken to a hideout in the sewers. Together with their new companion Nithgrea the look for the closest way into the sewers and quickly find a circular metal cover inset in the pavement in a nearby back alley. They lift the cover, revealing a ladder down into the sewers.
Sewers of Waterdeep
A putrid stream flows along this sewer tunnel, which leads in two directions. In one direction, the party can see a tiny symbol drawn on the wall in yellow chalk: a palm-sized circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating out from its circumference. They figure this is the yellow symbol the Kenku mentioned before and start following them.
While walking through the sewers Cracuta notices a creature waddling out of the sewer water, onto the opposing sidewalk. The party identify the creature as a turtle but quickly notice something is very wrong. Whirling tentacles can be seen sticking out of the shell where the turtle's head should be. As the party tries to strike the creature, its shell splits open as a strange, brain like creature climbs out of it and escapes into the dark sewers. The party decided it best not to follow it.
After an hour of following signs through the tunnels, the party come to a three-way intersection where a ladder leads up into a stone shaft capped by a circular metal cover. One of the familiar chalk symbols is marked on a wall nearby, and floating near the symbol is a spherical, grapefruit-sized creature with a bulging central eye and four stumpy eyestalks, a Gazer. It bares its teeth at them and starts firing beams at the party from his eyestalks. The party make quick work of the being and make their way up the ladder.
Xanathar Guild Hideout
The main sewer tunnel expands into a circular hub with a pair of arrow slits carved into its outer walls, directly across from each other. Two passages continue on to the north and south. A stone door is set into the back wall of a stone ledge to the west. The Party heads inside and find a room with two sleeping goblins in them. They decide to take them out without waking them and succeed in doing so. After killing the two sleeping goblins they have the ingenious idea of bringing along one of the goblin corpses to be able to scare any future enemies with it.
Dragging a goblin corpse in a bag behind them, the party are making their way further through the hideout as they start hearing two voices seemingly in distress together with the noise of wood clashing into stone. The follow the noise and come across a room where a Duergar man and Krentz , the human who they saw picking a fight with a Half-Orc woman at The Yawning Portal just hours ago. They are both using pieces of furniture to barricade the door to the next room. Krentz is trying to explain to the Duergar this probably won't work and that they should plug the gap at the bottom of the door with blankets. Combat breaks out as they notice the party entering the room. The duergar starts to grow up till 4 times his original size, as he towers above the party he starts bashing into them while Krentz tries to stab the party in the back. The both of them ultimately fail though as the party beats them to the ground, killing them.
After they are done taking care of the two enemies, the party decides not to test their luck by clearing the way they tried so hard to block and head further into the hideout using the other door in the room. After going up and down some sets of stairs they encounter a harrowing sight. Threadbare curtains hang on the east wall of a long hall, in the middle of which a muscular Half-Orc in dingy robes stands with his foot on the chest of a male human with wavy red-blond hair. Fire burns around the orc's clenched fist, and his victim cries and squirms helplessly beneath him. Seated on a raised platform to the south is a nightmarish figure wearing black robes. It has large white eyes and rubbery purple skin, with four tentacles encircling its inhuman mouth. It cradles and gently caresses what looks like a disembodied brain with feet. The tentacled creature is Nihiloor and as he notices they have unwanted observers he instructs his Half-Orc subject Grum'shar to take care of them. He lowers the Intellect Devourer to the ground, picks up a stone orb carved to resemble an eyeball, and glides across the room, leaving through the double door in the west wall.
The party shoot into action, trying to save Floon who seems to be in a near death state on the floor. Spells start flinging through the room as Grum'shar attempts to strike Nithgrea with his fiery fist. In the mean time Nihiloor's brain puppy has also joined the battle and has succeeded in knocking Cracuta to the floor. Before the intellect devourer could makes its way through Cracuta's skull the party manages to stop it and kill it. Shortly thereafter Grum'shar, outnumbered five to one, stands no chance against the might of the party and also falls to the floor. Dropping his magic tome for Punko to pick it up.
Once the fighting is over Nithgrea starts to heal Floon, as they start to explain what happened and how Volo had asked them to find him. Floon manages to get himself up from the floor and starts thanking the party for saving his life. He thinks that if they were even 5 minutes later, he would not be alive right now.
Before heading back to The Yawning Portal, the party decides to further investigate the hideout, in search for the Mind Flayer who left earlier and any other possible enemies that could still be here. They enter the big double door in the west wall and In the middle of this otherwise empty room is a stone pillar carved with a small symbol: a perfect circle with ten equidistant spokes radiating outward from its circumference. In the middle of this circle is a smaller circular indentation that bears a passing resemblance to a lidless eye. The party has no idea what this could be but after going through the rest of the hideout and finding no trace of Nihiloor nor an exit, Punko theorizes this stone pillar might be some sort of teleportation device.
Thinking they have cleared all threats in this Xanathar's Guild hideout, they spot a secret passage in the large room where they just fought Grum'shar. The follow the passage to find what looks like a cellar filled barrals, brewing supplies and lots of worthless clutter. They follow a ladder upstairs and find themselves inside a quaint halfling residence. The owner of the house start screaming out in fear when they see this diverse, and quite scary looking group emerge from their cellar. The party manages to calm them down somewhat after explaining what had happened and that they should probably try to block up their cellar in the near future.
Content with their work, the party arrives back at the yawning portal where both Volo and Renaer are very happy to see they have brought back Floon in one piece. Volo gives them a rather sheepish look as he explains their reward:
" I confess that I have but few coins to spare. But never let it be said that Volo reneges on a promise. Allow me to present something much more valuable ." He holds out a scroll tube. ''The deed to a remarkable property here in Waterdeep! We'll need a magistrate to witness the transfer of ownership. I'll arrange a meeting with one after you've inspected the estate and deemed it satisfactory. I'll also arrange some of the carpenters guilds to come along and refurbish the place."
Angry because of the lack of gold they were initially promised, the party accepts the deed to Trollskull Manor as they find themselves a new home.