Victor Shaw, You're Up

The party came back to Gravenhurst at early morning, carrying the sewer with them. They had chosen rest over one more descent. They had left Podon in the hidden passage, left the Graven Scourge route unresolved, and climbed back through the Glow Pools while the city started to wake. By then, the group had every reason to believe the next responsible thing was sleep. Astrid's shop said otherwise. The Little Shope of Horticulture had been forced open. The damage did not look like a clean magical shatter. It looked physical: a door panel pushed through hard enough to let someone get inside and open the way from within. Whoever had done it had not needed subtlety once the party was gone. Inside, Astrid Ironhuff was tied behind the counter. Unconscious. The sight cut through the exhaustion. Astrid was not only a shopkeeper or landlord in this moment. She was the person whose space the party had been using as shelter after the city kept throwing them into impossible corners. The attack on her shop made the sewer fallout personal and immediate. Ash checked for an active threat and found no attacker waiting nearby. There was, however, a note. Upstairs. That was all it said. The party followed the message to the upper floor, where their cots and alchemy clutter should have promised rest. Instead, a portal waited there, dressed in mockery. Magical arrows flashed around it in bright invitation, pointing inward like carnival signage for a trap that wanted to look fun. Some promised a big win. Some urged them to play. Some dangled the idea of a prize. Then one message made the trap specific. Victor Shaw, you're up. That snapped the sewer list back into focus. Victor's name had been on the assassination list found near Redwave's dagger. In the chaos of the sewers, the party had not yet put that warning in front of him with the urgency it deserved. Now the threat had done it for them. Whoever had forced Astrid's shop, tied her up, and opened this portal had made Victor the invitation, the bait, or the next target. The list was no longer abstract. Everyone whose name had been on it mattered. People connected to it had already died. The Graven Scourge had been near copies of the thread before. Red caps, Fey infiltration, and Thieves Guild uncertainty were still fresh. Now Victor's name glowed upstairs over a portal daring them to step through. For once, Jonah pushed caution before curiosity. Astrid needed to be freed before anyone jumped into a magical doorway. The group split attention: some stayed aware of the portal, others went back down to cut Astrid loose. The trap could wait long enough for them to stop leaving an unconscious ally tied behind the counter. The sewer arc had ended. The next threat had already opened in their home base. And it had Victor's name on it.