14.1 The One That Got Away

SESSION DATE: June 28, 2025
PRESENT: Rory, Calanthia, Kemurial, Freya

Deep Dive

![[Rory - 14_1 The One That Got Away.wav]]

Adventure Photos

![[Lady Hakebourne Casts Speak with Dead on Old Man.mp4]]

Adventure Song & Lyrics

![[The One That Got Away.mp3]]

[Verse 1]
Praag's walls are closing in tonight
Siege engines gather in the fading light
We caught a thief beneath the sacred stone
But death revealed we were hunting alone
Silver tooth and weathered skin
Someone else's soul within
The corpse confessed what we couldn't see
A puppet dance of treachery

[Chorus]
She's the one that got away
Playing games we cannot see
Trading lives like currency
Ancient whispers call her name
Kishina's web of endless schemes
She's the one that got away
From our reach, from our dreams

[Verse 2]
Ulrika's message painted fear
Council secrets drawing near
Calanthia traced the breadcrumb trail
To cultist meetings, forbidden tales
Five questions for the dead man's lips
Truth unraveled from his cryptic slips
"Never been captured," the spirit said
While Kishina's name filled us with dread

[Bridge]
Centuries of conquest, blood and bone
A goddess-hunger carved in stone
Gotrek remembers tales of old
When legends walked and wars were bold
The tower moves without a sound
While loyalty burns the kingdom down

[Chorus]
She's the one that got away
Playing games we cannot see
Trading lives like currency
Ancient whispers call her name
Kishina's web of endless schemes
She's the one that got away
From our reach, from our dreams

[Solo]

[Verse 3]
Tonight we strike the demon's den
Four souls against a thousand men
Psi lenses mark our passage home
Through tunnels carved in ancient loam
But puppet masters pull the strings
While chaos spreads on borrowed wings
The tower waits with demon's face
As we prepare to take her place

[Chorus]
She's the one that got away
Playing games we cannot see
Trading lives like currency
Ancient whispers call her name
Kishina's web of endless schemes
She's the one that got away
From our reach, from our dreams

[Chorus]
She's the one that got away
(Godhood is her only prize)
She's the one that got away
(Behind a thousand different eyes)
She's the one that got away
From our reach, from our dreams

World Anvil Journal

sooo... i changed my thword again and thith tiem i thwitched the thpell to one that doeth thtummbly thtuff inthted of bwinding. it maketh peepel walk funny after i thmack em not thure how it workth yet but it cotht a BUNCH of gold and i thot it wath worth it.

then we got a wetter from ulwika and it wath to the glided iwon folk and it wath BAD. pwog ith totally thuwounded now and nobuddy can get in or out unleth they uthe magic. and at night there be thcreaming and thadow voitheth and thome of the tholdierth are going cwaazy from it which ith real bad. but it doeth make thenthe thince the wune thing we fixed ith making their magic not work tho good now.

then cawanthia pullth uth athide and goeth we gotta be thneaky about what we do nektht and maybe kimiweel shud go tawk to the big wigth cuz he knowth how to thpeek wight to them folk. and cawanthia theemth real worried bout thomebody being a bad guy on the cownthil and i gueth her dad got killed for finding out thtuff wike that before which ith thuper thad.

kimiweel thaid fwaya can go into folkth mindth but cawanthia didnt wike that ideea. wath kinda funny how her face got all thquirmy when he thaid that. n e way we go to find ulwika and i athk if the cwericth ever figgered out about that thpy wady we cot who died and turned into a old dude. that wath real weird but no one theemth to know yet.

ulwika thayth we can maybe talk to the duke guy enwik kathinthky and she can help uth meet him today. even tho thingth are gettin bad out there. and we talk more bout choath and how folk here HATE it. but altho hide thtuff wike mutant babieth out in the woodth like lepperth which ith mean. but thuppothedly not choathy even if it thoundth choathy.

then cawanthia goeth wike hey ith there a mole on the cownthil and ulwika goeth EXCUTHE ME. you think id jutht let that happen. and they thtart thort of thnapping at each other. but cawanthia tellth her about the cult meetin at the tanewy and the weerd food bwand that thouldnt be here and how they thayd their fwiend on the councill keepth the gawdth bwind.

ulwika doethnt wike hearing that but goeth ok fine u can meet em all and we talk about do we help with the thiege thtuff or do we go mole hunting and i go maybe we can do BOTH if we uthe the dead guy that popth up when the wady died thince that ith thtill bonkerth to me and maybe the cwericth can thpeak to him.

tho we go to the thtockadeth and meet this captin guy that hath a funny eye and horshoo thtache and hith name ith wjat which ith a dum name but he theemth okay. he thhowth uth the body and there a wady pawadin there named maybe hawkbone and we all wook at the old guy and fwaya doeth her mind thing and cawanthia doeth detecty magic and nobody thpotted em which ith good.

then hawkbone thayth wait with the talking to the dead till we think up our questionth cuz u only get one try. and cawanthia thinkth maybe the lady had a thpell on her to thwap bodieth which ith wild. and we wight down our questionth and get to athk em. and the dead guy ith like NOPE never been to pwog no clue who we awe and never got caught what even ith a pwisoner. and then he thayth lady kithina guided him and hith thoul got thmashed.

we go WHO and cawanthia goeth that nameth old ith a real big deal. if thith ith the thame wady kithina from a wong time ago then sheth bin all over the pwathe being a theef a wuler a athathin and thtuff and now she wantth to become a god by making folk worship her and pwog hath thomething she wantth bad.

thin we go thee gortek and fewikth who awe makin a pwan to go BWOW UP a theige tower and gortek yelleth like ALWAYTH and ith like LETTH GO KILL. and fewikth goeth maybe calm down but yeah we tell em all we know and they think maybe thith kithina ith the one behind it all. and we agwee we gotta go take out that tower.

the plan ith we go through a thuper thecwet tunel and thneak up then thmash the tower and uthe the magic lensth to thcape and thin cowapth the thunnel tho they cant fowwow uth and maybe befowe that we thtill get to go thee enwik kathinthky and maybe git more cwueth abowt wat we gonna do nektht.

dwaugnir keep watch over uth we gotta big fite ahed and i dont wanna get thquashed. altho if you thee my mom and dad tell em im thtill wookin and i mith them tho much.

Private Notes

• Spent 40,000g to swap the Enspelled enchantment on Rory's Soul Sword from Blinding Smite to Staggering Smite.
• We receive a report from Ulrika. The report is as follows:

To the Gilded Iron Command,

The city of Praag is now completely surrounded. Enemy formations have sealed all exits, and no communication is getting in or out without magical means. The air is thick with dread, and the people are beginning to understand the noose has tightened.

Psychological warfare has begun in earnest. At night, we hear screams—some human, some… not. False images flicker in the mist. Voices call out in familiar tones, mimicking loved ones. Some soldiers no longer trust what they see. A few have gone mad already.

The arcane atmosphere has shifted dramatically. Thanks to the heroes’ intervention in rebooting the Rune-Heart, much of the enemy’s magical interference has been blunted. Illusions falter more quickly. Scrying attempts now yield cleaner results. Whatever connection the enemy had to the leylines has been disrupted—though I fear they’ll find another way.

Siege weapons have arrived. Great engines of war are being assembled beyond the walls: iron-choked trebuchets, daemon-faced cannons, and things I do not recognize. The bombardment has not yet begun, but the implication is clear—they plan to level us before ever setting foot inside.

Morale is strained, but not broken. We hold because we must. Because there is nowhere else to run.

— Ulrika Magdova

• Things are clearly escalating, and quickly.
• While discussing the report, Calanthia calls us over to speak quietly with us. She suggests being surgical and precise when taking out forces.
• Calanthia also suggests someone who believe in law, strongly hinting toward Kemurial, to get in with those in power. She claims to have found out that there is a traitor on the council. She says we need to try to figure out who that might be. She says she has experience with this kind of thing, as a young girl she was able to suss out corruption in leadership, even costing her father his life. Interesting.
• Kemurial suggests that Freya can get into the minds of others, to which Calanthia seemed visibly uncomfortable. Odd.
• Kemurial says we should speak with the council. Rory suggests talking with Ulrika first about her report. He agrees, saying we should inform them of our intentions.
• We travel through the city and find Ulrika's headquarters. She's there.
• Kemurial begins by telling her we'd like to get in touch with the council in order to be proactive. We want to know how to help them. She says that the duke of Praag is Enrik Kazinski. She's actually a distant cousin of him, and is welcomed as nobility, so she could get us an audience with the duke.
• While speaking with Ulrika, Rory can't help but wonder if the clerics have been able to find out any information from that woman we sent to be interrogated then died suddenly and turned into an old man.
• Right now, we have two major threats based on Ulrika's report. There are siege weapons they've brought up to the city that she doesn't recognize. That's something we could investigate. The other is trying to talk to Duke Enrik and seeing what we can glean from that conversation. She says she can get us an audience with him probably sometime this afternoon.
• She says the Empire doesn't accept any connection with Chaos of course, but there are many stories of children born with some type of Chaos stigmata or mutation being shipped off to the countryside, living in colonies, similar to how lepers were treated. In Kislev, they'd be killed immediately.
• In Praag, the primary deity worshipped is Ursin, a bear god. There is a lot of religious zealotry going on here.
• The highest level of rule (I think?) is the Tzarina Katarin Bokha, but she rules from a different town. She's a cold and calculating person.
• Calanthia asks Ulrika a sensitive question and hopes not to appear ungrateful or problematic in doing so. She asks if she's aware of any potential bad blood on the council? A mole who could be assisting the Chaos forces? Kemurial signals to Freya to begin her mind-reading tactics, but Freya is unable to do so because she doesn't want Ulrika to know she's reading her mind, so we don't go that route. Instead, we'll trust Calanthia's insight. Ulrika sounds a little offended at Calanthia's question, saying "Don't you think I'd have done something about it if I already know? There are plenty people who scheme just like anywhere in the world. I wouldn't put it past some to sink to that level." Calanthia apologizes, saying she understands. Calanthia tells her how she discovered corruption in her city's council, and that sometimes we just don't have the resources to fight it at the time. The council responded by killing her father. So she asks not because she didn't know, but rather that they didn't have the resources to do anything about it. Ulrika says she'd drive a dagger through their heart if she knew they were worshipping Chaos. Ulrika says she can get us an audience with all members of the factions we've discussed present. Calanthia accepts her offer. Ulrika asks why we'd like that. Calanthia says she prides herself on being honorable and just, and she prides herself on finding information that meant to be hidden, that she has skillsets that can find such information and bring it to light. Calanthia believes her at her word that if she knew about such things, she'd have taken action herself. Calanthia says on the day she met us, we needed to take a respite after an arduous journey underground and that one of our party members abandoned this mission. She just happened to be in the right place and right time. Ulrika interrupts, asking her to spare her the story. Just get to the point. Calanthia says she employed her info gathering skills while we slept. She says she meandered through town and was able to enter a foodline. The brand of the food they used wasn't usual for this area. Their mark wasn't used since the first wave of the demonic incursion. All of a sudden it's part of the food line? Interesting. Calanthia didn't eat because she didn't trust it. She tracked it to a boarded up tannery. She listened to the meeting, which seemed like a cult. They were speaking in metaphor. No names spoken, but a phrase stood out to her: "Our ally in the council keeps the patrols blind." Whoever these people are, they held enough power to manipulate themselves into power. She doesn't know much more, but believe it to mean there's a mole within the council. Ulrika looks troubled. Calanthia says she comes from underground, and her experience has been greater dangers are within when your enemies are at the gates. She asks Ulrika where she'd put us if she had her choice. Ulrika says the state of things is that forces of Chaos has put us in a dilemma. She fears that we will not stall this siege long enough due to their sheer numbers at their gates. It almost seems that defeat is inevitable. But to be dealt a blow at the highest levels would hasten that defeat. She thinks both are equally important. She defers to our own knowledge of our capabilities to determine where we think we can best assist. They already have plans for attempts to make strikes, and our hands in those attempts would be greatly appreciated. If we choose to do that, she'd have to use other means to place spies to watch those on the council to get info. If we don't help, then who knows how that'll proceed. Rory suggests siding with Calanthia and trying to weed out the corruption/mole in the council or wherever by using that dead prisoner to our advantage. We can speak with the dead perhaps to glean more information. Rory thinks this hypothesis about a mole is a good one based on that and the fact this prisoner seems to have been trying to sabotage the city's defenses.
• Kemurial agrees with all the above.
• We can meet at the stockades to check with the clerics or speak with the dead ourselves perhaps. We can meet with Gotrek and crew about the siege outside the city's walls. And we can make the audience with the duke, maybe all in one day.
• We make our way to the stockades first. When we arrive, we meet the captain of the guard, named Wjat Gascoigne. He's a muscular guy, average height, horseshoe mustache, lazy eye on one side. He's with his guards. He welcomes us, saying "I expected you to turn up. You're the ones who discovered our recently departed prisoner." Indeed we are. We introduce ourselves. He says it's an odd one. He's never seen this before. He hasn't seen a prisoner die and turn into someone else. Rory explains what happened when we caught her. He says they've already completed their investigation, but Nycole Hakebourne is about to begin hers. The guard describes the old man as very old with wavy hair and a silver tooth, blotched skin. Doesn't sound like a familiar description to any of us.
• He takes us further in to where they're doing their investigation. In the room is a paladin of some sort, a tall woman, thin with a scar over one eye, straight blonde hair that looks like it's used to being under a helmet. Calanthia casts Detect Magic while we're walking here. Kemurial checks for celestials, fiends and undead. Freya uses her psionic feature to manifest a Rary's Telepatic Bond to link everyone in the party. Nobody seems to notice them casting. No creatures around. Lots of magical items around, particularly on the guard and the paladin, but the tooth doesn't glow.
• Calanthia tries to closely examine the body. The paladin, presumably this Hakebourne person, says she may, but refrain from casting Speak with Dead for now until we can all confer about our questions first as it can only be tried once. We agree, considering we don't have that ability at the moment anyway. Calanthia inspects the body very closely. She comes to the same conclusion. She detects absolutely nothing obviously abnormal. None of us recognize the person. He doesn't have the particular traits of someone from Kislev.
• Calanthia finds the Scroll of Contingency she got recently and makes her wonder if perhaps this person has a Contingency spell on her such that if she were to be captured, she'd swap places with this old man or something like that. It's possible, but we don't know for sure. Rory thinks it's something we might be able to determine if we had the ability to speak with the dead.
• We think the next best step is to be present during the Speak with Dead is cast and confer about which questions to ask.
• We are granted the permission to be present during the questioning.
• We discuss what questions to ask during the spell. We come up with the following five questions:
  • Are you the one we captured after attempting to steal the gem from the catacombs?
    • If Yes: Who gave you the job of taking the gem?
    • If No: Who made you the contingency of the capture?
  • Who is the Chaos force traitor within the Praag city council assisting in the siege of Praag?
  • What is the attraction that Praag has that the Chaos forces keep coming to Praag to obtain?
  • Where is the central headquarters of the Chaos forces within Praag?
• We confer with the others about their questions. They read us a list that they had written down that we might want to choose from. And we present them with ours. They tell us to go ahead with our questions, and they may confer with us during the spell should other questions need asked based on the answers given.
• We stand back to allow the paladin to cast the spell. The corpse gasps deeply and sits up, staring strait forward. We begin asking questions. The answer to our first question (Are you the one we captured after attempting to steal the gem from the catacombs?) is no. The answer to the second question (Who made you the contingency of the capture?) is "I have never been captured." The answer to our third question (Who's the traitor?) is "I've never been to Praag. It's on the other side of the world." Well now we decide to confer a bit before the next question. We think our next question will be "How did you die?" So that's what we ask. The answer to that is "The lady Kishina guided my hand for a year, I did as she commanded. And then my soul was destroyed." Interesting. Calanthia asks the paladin if they know who Lady Kishina is. She says no, but she'll send their retainer to gather information on the name. The retainer immediately leaves. We wonder if "lady" in this context is a title or just him describing a woman named Kishina. Calanthia knows it's an honorific name, but unsure otherwise from what I gathered. Our final question is "What does Lady Kishina have to gain from the fall of Praag?" The answer to that is "Godhood is her only passion. She aims to bring new lands and people under her control. She believes that forcing people to worship her as a god, she will in fact become a god."
• We thank the paladin and her cohorts for their time and we head out.
• We decide to forego the investigation for now, and instead head toward our meeting with Gotrek and Felix.
• We arrive at the command tent we were directed to go to to find them. There are captains there along with Gotrek and Felix. Gotrek yells "Let's bring the fight to THEM!" Felix replies, saying "None of us doubt your capabilities, Gotrek. But the men you'll lead out there likely will not share your fate." We approach and everyone turns to acknowledge our presence. Felix asks if we've seen anything interesting. We fill them in on everything we just went through, along with the interrogation. Felix says "Oh that should be no problem then." We explain that the person we captured has delusions of godhood. We don't know their connection to the fall of Praag, though. He asks their name, to which we say "Lady Kishina". Gotrek goes "Kishina?! That's a name I haven't heard for MANY decades. I know OF her. The name Kishina pops up repeatedly throughout history over millennia. If this is the same Kishina you speak up, they've been everything from conqueror, or assassin, to leader, to warlord. As far as I know she was killed a hundred years ago." Calanthia pauses. She looks around and says "I think I've got it. Kishina is organizing these Chaos wars. There's something in Praag she needs to ascend. If she is truly this old and constantly manifesting these wars around Praag, there must be something she needs so badly that she needs it to ascend to godhood. If she's truly the manipulator of all these Chess pieces, she must be who placed the dead body." It sounds logical. Felix responds, saying "IF we assume for a moment that your theory is correct, we have another question. We have seen at least the warlord of this collective, this siege that has come in. We were able to spy out what seemed to be a gathering place of leadership. Now, we didn't see any half elves but that doesn't mean she wasn't disguised, or pawns in her plan. What we've seen for sure is a large man, black armored, wielding a great weapon, surrounded by magicians and what seemed to be representatives of different factions of Chaos here. Before you arrived, we were discussing a plan to make an assault into the siege works to take out the siege tower we've seen, which seems to move of its own power. It's covered with demonic symbology. We were hoping to take it out to look at its leadership and figure out the structure of their command. This might prove or disprove your theory." We agree the immediate threat needs to be addressed. Felix agrees. "Unless we have more info on Kishina, it's hard to have more actionable information on her." Calanthia asks Kemurial what we should do since he's the leader. Rory says Calanthia is starting to sound a lot like Lim Dul. Kemurial says we should help them out and try to address taking out their leadership. Gotrek says "Well? Are we gonna kill some demons or not?!" We're told one of the sewers leads to a hidden exit. It's rigged to collapse, but before doing so, we thought we could take advantage of that and take a strike at these siegeworks. They believe, based on the maps they have, they should be able to come out behind or within the siegeworks. If they're able to strike quickly enough, they could destroy the tower completely and gather info about their leadership.
• We make a quick plan, should we choose to partake in the attack, to purchase several pairs of psi lenses to assist in our escape. On our way out of the tunnel, we each drop one lens in an inconspicuous spot, then have Calanthia scout ahead to look for anyone who'd spot us. Kemurial suggests disguising ourselves in case we're noticed. We make our way to the siegeworks, do what we have to do, then use the other lens when the time comes to make our escape, then collapse the tunnel behind us to help prevent anyone or anything chasing us back through the tunnels.
• The attack is planned for later tonight, so we still have time to meet with the duke and, assuming we don't change our plans after our meeting, still have enough time to prepare for the attack and make it back to the tent.

That's it for this session!

Adventure Loot

Loose Gold Found

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• Gold has been split