Episode 18 - The Manor UK

# ✧ Episode 18 - Stabbed in the back, while eating Pudding. **Date:** Tuesday, 3rd March 2026 **Location:** [[Waterdeep]] — Beneath the [[Pink Flumph Theater]], [[Dagult Neverember]]'s Vault **Notes**: as written by [[Kozu Marphanis]] ## Session Summary - The tapestry situation resolved itself with surprising elegance — one conjured illusion, one determined autognome, and a volley of magic missiles. [[Fredoku]] and [[Martyn Littlewood]] snapped back to themselves. The charm was broken. We pressed forward. - The vault's next welcome was considerably less subtle: a black pudding in the corridor, which proceeded to dissolve [[Fredoku]] from the outside in. The creature split every time we hit it, multiplying its offence and our problems, until [[Dolous]] had the good sense to erupt fire underneath all three of the wretched things simultaneously. - [[Fredoku]] went down. He got back up. I used the last of a potion on him and finished the final ooze with a bolt. We survived, collectively, by approximately one bad decision's worth of margin. - The party is battered, patched, and still somewhere deep in a vault that clearly has more opinions about visitors. --- ## The Adventure Continues from [[Episode 17]] We rolled for initiative — which is never a phrase that suggests the evening is going well. [[Fredoku]], still charmed, had apparently decided that [[Iz]] was the real threat here. He charged toward her with the full conviction of a man whose better judgment was currently being held hostage by a tapestry. [[Iz]], for her part, was doing what [[Iz]] does: quietly and methodically destroying the source of the problem. She slashed at the tapestry with focused mechanical efficiency, leaving a satisfying tear across the woven dwarves. I had one card to play and I played it immediately. I cast *Minor Illusion*, conjured a perfect copy of the tapestry against the opposite wall, and shouted at the top of my voice: *"Look — a new tapestry! Over here!"* I am not certain this is the most dignified tactical manoeuvre I have ever attempted. I am completely certain it was the correct one. Whether it bought us the necessary seconds, or whether it simply added to the general confusion of the moment, I leave to the historians. [[Dolous]] didn't wait to find out. He levelled his fingers at the tapestry and unleashed a volley of *Magic Missiles* — four or five bright streaks of arcane force punching straight into the weave, shredding the enchantment along with the embroidery. The effect was immediate. Both [[Fredoku]] and [[Martyn Littlewood]] blinked, looked around, and had the expressions of men who have just been told they were sleepwalking — confused, slightly embarrassed, and quietly grateful nobody was photographing the moment. The tapestry sagged. The enchantment died with it. [[Iz]] nodded once, as if she had considered the matter resolved the entire time, and turned back toward the corridor. ## The Corridor The staircase beyond the tapestry room led upward into a long stone corridor, three pillars running its length, the far end swallowed by shadow. The kind of place that, in my experience, rewards caution and punishes haste in roughly equal measure. We were perhaps halfway down it when [[Fredoku]] stopped. Something wet. Something black. Something that moved like oil dropped into still water, except with considerably more intent. A *black pudding* — one of the vault's less welcoming residents — dropped from the stone above and immediately introduced itself to [[Fredoku]] by coating him in acid. The kind of greeting that tends to cut social engagements short. I was behind one of the pillars before anyone had finished reacting. Old instincts. Can't fight what you haven't found. I nocked a *Deadly Bolt*, steadied my breathing, and put it into the creature — which promptly split into two. This is, I have since been informed, a well-known property of black puddings. I have since updated my threat assessment accordingly. Two puddings. Both acidic. Both annoyed. [[Fredoku]], absorbing more punishment than any reasonable person should, threw a dagger. The pudding split again. We now had three. I will give the vault this: it is efficient about escalation. [[Fredoku]] went down. The acid had done its work, and he collapsed onto the stone with the focused expression of a man trying very hard not to be unconscious. [[Iz]] was beside him almost instantly, hauling out a healer's kit and working with the careful precision of someone who does not panic, does not rush, and would very much like everyone to remain functional. [[Dolous]] — and this is the moment I shall be dining out on for some time — raised his hands and cast a spell that erupted fire directly beneath all three black puddings simultaneously. The corridor lit up orange. The creatures burned. Acid and fire do not, it turns out, mix pleasantly for anyone involved, but the flame was considerably more targeted than the acid. I crossed to [[Fredoku]], pulled a *Potion of Healing* from my belt, and tipped it into him. He stirred. Colour came back. He did not immediately attempt to stand, which showed good judgment. Then I reloaded, found an angle on the last surviving pudding, and put a bolt through it. It stopped moving. The corridor was quiet. The three of us who were upright stood there for a moment, slightly singed, slightly dissolved at the edges, breathing hard. ## After the Encounter There is a particular kind of silence that settles after a fight that was closer than it should have been. Not the silence of victory — more the silence of *that could have gone differently*, applied carefully across the room. [[Fredoku]] sat up. [[Martyn Littlewood]] confirmed he still had most of his skin. [[Dolous]] examined his sleeves, which had not survived the encounter entirely intact. [[Iz]] was already checking everyone's wounds with the detached efficiency of a medic on a schedule. We patched what we could. Drank what we had. Took stock. The corridor ahead was still there. The vault was still somewhere beyond. Whatever was waiting for us in the next chamber had not, as yet, come to introduce itself, which was the first piece of good news in the last ten minutes. We are bruised. We are short on resources. We are still inside a vault that has so far offered us a cursed tapestry and an ooze that multiplied every time we hit it. We pressed on anyway. That is, as far as I can tell, what we do. ## Reflection I spent part of this evening hiding behind a pillar trying to shoot a creature that kept becoming more creatures. I spent another part pouring a potion into [[Fredoku]] while acid was still dripping off the walls. I am not sure either of those moments will make it into the version of this story that gets told in taverns. What I do know is that we cleared the tapestry and we cleared the corridor. Two obstacles down. Whatever the vault is protecting — Neverember's hoard, the gold, whatever the [[Stone of Golorr]] was pointing us toward — it is still ahead. The problem with vaults designed to protect something priceless is that every room is designed to make you feel like the last room was the hard one. It never is. My potion supply is lower than I'd like. My bolt count is adequate. [[Fredoku]] is standing again, which is the main thing. We keep moving. --- ## NPCs & Locations Encountered - [[Dagult Neverember]]'s Vault — corridor beyond tapestry chamber, three pillars, staircase - Black Pudding × 1 (split into 3 during combat) — defeated ## Loot & Discoveries - No new loot this session - Tapestry destroyed — charm enchantment lifted from [[Fredoku]] and [[Martyn Littlewood]] - 1× Potion of Healing used (Kozu → Fredoku) ## Active Quests - **PRIMARY**: Locate [[Dagult Neverember]]'s dragon hoard — vault entered, pressing deeper - ✅ Invisible creature — Iz (cast invisibility) - ✅ Bronze dragon scale — acquired from harbour dragon - ✅ Dwarven ale — keg from Durnan at the Yawning Portal - 🔓 Vault door opened — party inside, tapestry chamber cleared - **ACTIVE**: Explore vault beyond the pillar corridor — what lies ahead? - Source of the fireball at [[TheManor]] — leads to [[Temple of Gond]] - [[Xanathar]] guild initiation — awaiting further instructions on "destroying and stealing" - [[Xanathar]] map — fish symbol, implications still unknown - Moonstone necklaces for the party — ordered from [[Zobolop]], pending delivery ___ ## ⚡︎ Tags #dnd #sessionnote #storyline #combat #investigation #waterdeep #kozu #stone-of-golorr #neverember #vault #black-pudding #pink-flumph