Rapid Recap
- Urstul Floxin led 30 Zhents to hit the Knight n' Shadow tavern; Vonna infiltrated in disguise, uncorked an Eversmoking Bottle in the basement, and helped shelter a group of prostitutes from the chaos before the Zhents outside could cut them down.
- A group of goons made for a hoist shaft dropping ninety feet into the earth; Vonna contacted N8 via sending stone and called for pursuit.
- Unable to stop the descent with improvised weapons, Vonna hurled a two-hundred-pound wine cask down the shaft, crushing one goon and snapping the hoist mechanism — killing the rest in the collapse.
- Vonna escaped the burning building before it collapsed; N8 Unit descended descended alone into a massive underground cavern beneath the Knight n' Shadow tavern, where he was immediately grappled by a Grell — placed there specifically to counter invisible infiltrators. He fought free and fled toward the underground village with Bugbears and more creatures in pursuit.
- Deeper in the cavern he encountered a Mind Flayer guarding an open portal blocked by a Wall of Force, with Intellect Devourers pressing from behind.
- He spotted the Mind Flayer preparing to close the portal with a crystal and used Mage Hand to snatch it away, but failed to find the activation point on his own side that could have closed the portal and ended the fight.
- N8 tried to smash the crystal on the ground — missed — and the Mind Flayer unleashed a devastating psychic blast in response.
- N8 failed the save, was struck by a Duergar war pick, and crashed into the Wall of Force unconscious — his last memory the Mind Flayer peering through the barrier: "That's enough."
Dock Ward Payback - Vonna
With the Zhentarim, Waterdeep Chapter gearing up for war against the The Thieves Guild, Urstul Floxin led a force of thirty Zhent agents to Mistshore to hit the Knight n' Shadow tavern — a notorious Dock Ward saloon and known Guild stronghold. The plan was simple: deploy an Eversmoking Bottle to force everyone out into the waiting Zhents. Vonna volunteered to go inside and pull the cork.
Disguised as a blonde in a red dress, Vonna talked her way past the half-orc bouncer and descended to the basement, where she found gambling, opium, and worse — along with a hoist shaft dropping another ninety feet into the earth below. She uncorked the bottle, the room filled instantly with smoke, and chaos erupted. Oil lamps toppled. A fire started. A prostitute went down in the stampede.
Vonna shoved through the crowd and pulled the woman to safety, then persuaded her and her colleagues to shelter in the smoke rather than risk the Zhents waiting outside. Meanwhile, a group of six goons made for the hoist and began lowering themselves into the shaft. An exploding moonshine keg accelerated the fire considerably.
Vonna contacted N8 via sending stone, warned him about the innocents about to exit, and called for pursuit. She corked the bottle, sent the women upstairs, then turned her attention to the hoist. Lacking proper weapons, she grabbed a burning barrel rib and attacked the pulley mechanism repeatedly, managing to catch the rope on fire but not stopping the descent. When the goons finally reached the bottom, she picked up a two-hundred-pound wine cask and hurled it down the shaft — crushing one goon outright and snapping the entire hoist mechanism, which cascaded down onto the rest. None survived.
Vonna escaped the burning building. N8, characteristically, went the other direction — lowering himself down the shaft into the cavern below, where he turned invisible just as five Bugbears came rushing toward the wreckage. The tavern collapsed above him.
That is where Vonna's part of this story ends, and N8's begins.
Behind Enemy Lines - N8
Following the Dock Ward Payback mission, N8 Unit descended alone down a shaft in the basement of the Knight n' Shadow tavern, dropping into a massive underground cavern — large enough to contain an entire crude village of small buildings, dimly lit by torchlight. The tavern above was on fire and collapsing, sending flaming debris crashing down the shaft behind him.
N8 turned invisible before five Bugbears came rushing over to investigate. What he didn't anticipate was a Grell that had been silently hovering near the cavern ceiling — a precaution the Thieves' Guild had put in place after a prior infiltration using invisibility. The Grell had blindsight, and attacked with advantage, grappling N8 with its tentacles. N8 resisted the paralytic poison, but losing concentration on his invisibility was a real threat as the Bugbears began piling on, smashing at something they couldn't quite see. He managed to maintain the spell through both hits.
N8 tried Hideous Laughter on the Grell — it shrugged it off — and attempted Color Spray on the Bugbears, blinding one. But the Grell kept tightening its grip and the Bugbears kept swinging. Taking significant damage, N8 called up the shaft for assistance, then wrenched himself free with an acrobatic contortion that would have shattered a living creature's bones. He swapped out the grappled arm for a spare from his chest compartment, used Cunning Action to disengage, tossed a rock as a distraction for the Bugbears, and bolted toward the underground village.
The Grell gave chase — blindsight made the invisibility useless against it — with the five original Bugbears close behind and more creatures pouring out of the village huts: goblins, Duergar, Kenku, humans. A tentacle lashed out and caught his ankle, but N8 rolled with it, literally — collapsing into a wheel shape and tumbling forward, breaking free and opening distance. The Bugbears tried to hurl javelins but the Grell was in their way.
Pushing deeper into the cavern, N8 found himself facing a Mind Flayer guarding an open portal, with the Intellect Devourers harassing him from behind. The portal led to what appeared to be a dimly torchlit stone dungeon hallway. The Mind Flayer was positioned just outside the portal entrance, and a Wall of Force blocked passage through it.
N8 attempted to charge through the portal and was bounced back hard by the barrier, taking bludgeoning damage. The Mind Flayer let its disguise illusion drop briefly — a glimpse of glistening tentacles and bared teeth — and hit N8 with a psychic blast. N8 resisted. He tried Hideous Laughter again, this time performing an exaggerated mime routine against the invisible wall to sell it. The Mind Flayer shrugged it off and retreated through the portal, keeping the Wall of Force active from the other side.
Through the portal, N8 spotted the Mind Flayer walking to a far wall and holding a crystal near a glowing carved symbol — a circle with ten spokes, the mark of the Overseer — apparently preparing to close the portal from that side. N8 used Mage Hand to snatch the crystal away before it could be inserted, pulling it back through to his side. The Mind Flayer was furious.
With the crystal now stuck inside the Wall of Force between them, N8 threw it hard at the ground hoping to destroy or activate it. He missed cleanly and the crystal spun harmlessly to the side of the portal archway. A failed Perception check meant N8 didn't clock the activation point on his own side of the portal — which, had he noticed it, would have let him close the portal himself, stranding the Mind Flayer and dropping the Wall of Force.
The Mind Flayer stepped up and unleashed a psychic blast. N8 failed the save. His systems surged, vision and hearing dissolved into static, and his motors locked mid-dodge. A Duergar war pick caught him square in the back and sent him smashing face-first into the Wall of Force. His circuits sparked out. The last thing recorded to memory was the Mind Flayer walking up to inspect him through the barrier, telling the others: "That's enough."
N8's story did not end there — but that is where this memory file cuts off.