16.4 Dead of Night on the Goat Path

SESSION DATE: March 14 & 21, 2026
PRESENT: Rory, Kemurial, Zhanis, Freya

Deep Dive

![[Rory - 16_4 Dead of Night on the Goat Path.mp4]]
16.4 Dead of Night on the Goat Path.png

![[Rory - 16_4 Dead of Night on the Goat Path.m4a]]

Adventure Photos

Interdimensional Interference Chamber.png
Huge Snake Creature with Arek.png

Adventure Song & Lyrics

![[Dead of Night on the Goat Path.mp3]]

[Verse 1]
We took the rings of power and the robes of ancient light,
To shield us from the shadow in the coming of the night.
Below the temple's altar, where the water softly flows,
A wishing fountain glimmers where the secret hallway goes.
We shared a bowl of pea soup with the men who sought our blood,
Before we found the altar where the plague-god Nurgle stood.

[Chorus]
The snow is falling heavy now, the shadows stretch so long,
The spirits of the winter sing a cold and bitter song.
We’re riding toward a destiny that’s written in the wrath,
Caught within the silence in the Dead of Night on the Goat Path.

[Verse 2]
The Heroes' Feast was finished and the Psi Lenses were set,
To give us one last doorway from a trap we hadn't met.
Neigh Neigh was steady underfoot, the horses led the way,
Through tunnels carved in silence to avoid the grand display.
We sought the ego of the beast, to draw the demon out,
But found the darkness waiting with a terrifying shout.

[Verse 3]
The air was ripped by emerald light, a hiss upon the wind,
As the serpent-snake was summoned for the souls that we had sinned.
Arek Daemonclaw appeared with the fire in his hand,
To burn the hope of Kislev from this god-forgotten land.
Hellfire fell like summer rain, the horses screamed and fell,
While Rory stood in fury at the gateway of a hell.

[Bridge]
Aurumvas took to the sky on wings of golden greed,
To rain down force and thunder on the heroes in their need.
With six points left of living breath, the barbarian stood fast,
Against the bolts of ruin that the vault-thief tried to cast.
The Wall of Force was rising and the Shadow Portal spun,
A desperate flight to safety before the night was done.

[Verse 4]
We gathered in the Citadel to count the heavy cost,
For Neigh Neigh and the brave ones that the winter wind has lost.
The Efreeti Rolrut rose in smoke from a bottle made of brass,
To tell us that the ending for our lives had come to pass.
"You're fucked," the fire-walker said, with laughter in his eyes,
While we looked toward the northern gates for the Ice Queen to arise.

[Coda]
The City of Brass is watching,
The Raven God is mocking.
The winter gates are locking.

World Anvil Journal

sooo… we got the high inquithitow’th thtuff. fwaya got hith thiny wobe an zanuth got hith magic thtaff. then we wint under the hatch to tawk to the boxer men. they wewe eatin pea thoup. zanuth made a funny joke about the thoup. then we found a thkawy room with a thtatue of nurgwe. it wath vewy gwowth. kimiweel found a withhing fountain an got a point of inthpiwation.

then we had a thtrategy pwan to fynd awek daemoncwaw. we had a big dinner feast cawwed hewoeth feathth an it made my tummy feew thtwong. we rode out on howtheth. my howthe wath named neigh neigh. he wath a good boy. but then awek showed up with thkawy death knightth an a big big thnake monthter.

awek thhot hewwfiwe at uth an neigh neigh died. i wath vewy thad. i wajed an i ranned up to awek an i hit hith howthe thow hawd it died too. now we are even! but then a big gowd thing cawwed aww-rum-vath thhot majik fowthe bowtth at me. it hurted thow bad i awmotht died. i onwy had thix hit pointth weft! we had to uthe our majik wentheth to tewepowt away. we wunned away becuth they wewe too thtwong.

we tawked to the duke an makth an they thaid the city ith in big twoubwe. i bought a majik wing fow 12000 gowd thow the fowthe bowtth wont hurt me thow bad next time. then kimiweel opened a majik bottwe. a big fiwe guy named wow-wut came out. he ith an efweeti. he thaid we awe “fucked” an that wath not vewy nice. he thaid he got thtuck in the bottwe becuth he twipped an feww into it. that ith funny. i hope the ith queen cometh thoon. i need a WONG WEHTHT.

pweethe dwaugnir keep uth thaf fwom awek an the thkawy thnake an hewp uth find the keyth. pweethe hewp me find my mommy an my dady. rethth in peathe neigh neigh.

Private Notes

We take a moment to split the loot from last session before continuing. Kemurial gets one of the Academy Rings, Zhanis gets the other ring as well as the Staff of Power, and Freya got the Robe of the Archmagi. We each receive 50p of the 200p we found.
As we catch our breath, Ulrika speaks to her two Duke's guards. She gives them instructions. One is to go straight to the Duke, the other is to go out and try to reverse our public relations.
Gotrek and Felix head back to the walls since they were helping defend the city. They're needed back at their posts.
Max says the Inquisitor's body could be used to speak with dead and ask questions. He also says the acolytes below could probably do something with the body and inter it here at the temple.
While we have Max Schreiber here, we ask him to identify a couple of unidentified staves. They're both Staves of Fire.
Max Schreiber, Ulrika, Gotrek, Felix and the two guards leave.
We have twelve hours before our trap plan begins. We discuss taking a rest before that. We have a couple hours or so to explore further if we want, so we decide to head down the hatch where we saw the acolytes take the two boxers. We want to see what's up.
We head down.
Both of the hatches lead to different hallways, but those hallways meet up in the middle. There are double doors at the end of the corridor. We open the doors and head through. An ornate fountain stands at the center of the chamber, and two bronze statues stand on either side of the room. Four large braziers stand near the fountain. We hear nothing but the sound of water flowing through the fountain.
Kemurial checks the fountain for things and sees glistening coins at the bottom, like a wishing fountain. He takes out a gold coin and flips it into the fountain. For doing so, he receives an Inspiration point!
Rory checks the statue for anything to read, or any articulatable fingers like that one he saw a LONG time ago and used to flip off Renaldine or Lim Dul, but no such luck.
Rory heads further northward and sees two doors, one on either side of the hall. He listens to both, but hears nothing. We check the west door for traps, and find none. It's not locked, so Rory opens it. It opens to a long corridor, which itself opens into a garden or courtyard. We head in. Or out?
Lush green grass and trees feature in the yard, along with a dirt pathway. At the other end is an acolyte sitting on a bench near a tree.
Rory enters the garden quietly, not necessarily trying not to be seen, but rather just to ensure he doesn't provoke hostile actions from these guys. One of the five acolytes approaches him and asks what we're looking for. Rory says we're looking for the two boxers that were brought down as we'd like to question them. He escorts us to the Vestry, which is the room above which they're being held. Rory asks him his name, and he responds with Acolyte Liamos. He makes his exit as he motions toward the Vestry for us to enter.
We enter the Vestry and see one of the acolytes that brought them down here. He greets us and we tell him we would like to question the boxers. He asks which we'd like to speak with first, to which we request Charles Bronson first. They bring him up. Zhanis starts asking questions. Charles says they were approached directly by one of the acolytes who put them up to the task of searching us out. So the High Inquisitor's people hired them to do their morally ambiguous work, wait to ambush us (which really felt like a trap to Rory). When questioned, Charles says they took on the job because they needed the money, but they'd have probably thought more about taking the job if they knew who they were going to be up against. Rory mentions that we're seasoned adventurers who are here to help save their city. That's when Charles says they may have turned down the job if they knew that. Rory notes that he seems to be telling the truth, and that the nearby acolytes seem slightly uneasy about that truth. This tells Rory that perhaps even the High Inquisitor's own faction might not have liked High Inquisitor Eldrick.
We ask for James Coburn next. He comes up after Charles goes back down. Freya casts Detect Thoughts on the acolyte we know brought them down here so she can read his thoughts while James is being questioned. Freya also forms a telepathic connection with Zhanis. She says she's going to form a connection to James as well, and asks him whether there is anything he wants to share but not in front of the acolytes. James says he doesn't have a hard time insulting the inquisition, but they were hired only to rough us up a bit and tell us to get back on the right path. He's unaware of any corrupt members, but it seems they took the job not knowing the real cost. He says he lost five of his friends. Freya tells us this by using her telepathy. Freya switches to the acolyte before we ask questions. Rory begins questioning him about how the plan came to be to ambush us, who put them up to it, etc. He says Harry met up with them all and told them the inquisition had a job that needed doing and they came to rough us up a bit. He says they had no intentions of killing any of us. Rory tenses his fists at the answer, and pushes back, asking him to explain if that's the case, why would they have pinned our physically-weakest party member to the ground and beat him to a pulp. He says he swears there weren't any deathly intentions, but Rory retorts, saying he knows a thing or two about "roughing people up", but if he wanted to do that, he wouldn't be using his most powerful skills and abilities to do that. James says he appreciates Rory calling his fists "powerful" but maintains there was no such intent. Rory lets him go and looks to the rest of the party to see if they have further questions. They don't. He says he's going back down to finish the good soup they made for them. Rory asks what kind of soup, to which he responds "pea soup". Zhanis says "You mean someone peed in your soup?!" We laugh. He says "If someone peed in my soup, I'd have to rough them up for sure!" Rory says that's the one thing he can agree on!
As we head out, Rory notices a sign on a door to the north. It says "DANGER: No entrance without the High Inquisitor. This room has been hallowed by interdimensional interference" or something, I can't remember. The party puts Rory up to opening this door, but he's hesitant. He listens to the door, but hears nothing. He checks for traps, but finds nothing. Freya is easily able to pick the lock. All signs point to him opening the door, except the sign itself. Rory opens it.
The stonework of this chamber appears much older than that seen in the rest of the temple. A large, deep pit dominates the center of the area. Four large jade statues shaped as featureless hulks stand along the side walls. A central altar supports a statue of some twisted demonic ﬁgure. Kemurial realizes the statue on the altar is that of Nurgle.
An acolyte steps out and asks why we're looking into a once-locked room. Rory immediately perks up and says he's sorry, we made a wrong turn and assumed that the door was locked because we had just brought up a couple of prisoners and thought they locked the door out of an abundance of caution to prevent their escape. The acolyte seems to believe him. He tells us a bit more about the room, and that it's a place that many high inquisitors liked to study to try to find out its secrets, but none have yet to be uncovered. Rory would LOVE to explore it further, but now's clearly not the time. We have a meeting with Arek Daemonclaw around midnight, and we need to rest up first.
We head back to the citadel. Kemurial summons his magic mansion so we can all rest.
TNGBU.
We wake up and go over the plan once more. We are to exit the larger tunnel on the west side of the river on horses. Kemurial will pose as the highly-experienced escort guard, while the other four of us will pose as the transport team. Hopefully we'll meet Arek Daemonclaw and draw him out. We need to find the goat path in the dead of night.
Zhanis casts Heroes' Feast, which we all happily partake in. It gives us Resistance to Poison damage, Immunity to Frightened and Poisoned conditions, increases our Hit Point maximum by 2d10, and we gain the same number of Hit Points, all for 24 hours!
We head out, hopefully ready for our encounter with Arek.
Before exiting the tunnel, we each drop a Psi Lens, ready to use at a moment's notice when we're ready to head back to town.
Exiting the tunnel, we see we're well and truly past the enormous army outside the gates, past their range of vision. They won't notice us here. We're good to continue.
Kemurial's riding on his celestial wolf while the rest of us ride on horses. We're disguised as well as possible.
Rory names his horse Neigh Neigh. Zhanis names her's Snoop Dog. Freya's is named Horse. Friar Karl names his Roach. Kemurial's celestial wolf is named Heaven's Mane.
We make our Stealth rolls, including all animals. Not great rolls. Only three of us made it. As a group, we're not stealthy at all.
We're able to find our way to the woods and the rather large goat path that runs through it. Because Rory has such a distinct voice/lisp, he won't talk unless absolutely necessary, and will attempt to disguise his voice as well as he can when he does need to speak.
It's cold and pouring with snow. As we move down the road, we see stepping out from behind the trees on horseback, four figures. We've fought two of them before, Aspirant Death Knights, and they're flanking a larger death knight who we recognize as Arek Daemonclaw.
Arek points to Kemurial and says "So you're the fool champion who thinks they can best Arek Daemonclaw. But I see you were stupid enough to bring something out of the city. You'll hand it over now and Tzeentch will grant you powers that you can't even comprehend." Kemurial signals to Freya to launch an attack. As he starts to gesture, the air in front of Arek rips open in a greenish splash of energy. We feel like the wind around us is being sucked to a point on the road between us. Out of the energy coalesces a huge snake-like figure. INITIATIVE!!!
- Round 1
  - Arek Daemonclaw - Hellfire Orb on the entire party. All but three of our horses make the save. Zhanis and Freya cast Absorb Elements as a Reaction to halve some of the damage. Luckily Rory is wearing a Ring of Necrotic Resistance as he'd have taken quite a bit more damage than what he did! Karl and Zhanis fall prone off their now-dead horses (Neigh Neigh, noooo!), but the rest of us maintain our poise.
  - Kemurial - Casts Banish on the snake-like thing, but it saves. Welp. Bonus Action to drink a Potion of Fire Resistance. Heaven Mane uses Healing Touch on himself. At the end of the turn, Arek uses a Legendary Action to use Fell Word on Rory, and Rory saves. The snake creature uses a Villain Action to use Time is Money, which allows him to allow his allies to move up to their speed, then he can rearrange the Initiative order in any way he chooses. This is going to suck in a big way.
  - Rory - Rage, move toward Arek, Action Surge to Dash further toward Arek. Attack his horse, hits and kills it. Second attack at Arek hits. Necrotic damage does nothing to him, which isn't surprising. At the end of the turn, Arek uses a Legendary Action to cast Command on Rory, but Mind Blank prevents any affect!
  - Friar Karl - Casts Beacon of Hope on everyone but Rory (out of range) and backs up behind Freya.
  - Death Knight Aspirant 1 - Moves around Kemurial and casts Destructive Wave, catching everyone but Rory within it. Freya and Kemurial fail, but everyone else succeeded their saves. Kemurial uses his Reaction to use his Orros Mark of Fate to choose to succeed instead, and chooses the huge snake creature to suffer the failed effects instead. The snake thing fails, but uses its Abyssal Resistance, spending two souls, to choose to succeed instead.
  - Death Knight Aspirant 2 - Moves around Kemurial and casts Destructive Wave, catching everyone but Rory within it. Friar Karl fails, and everyone else saves. This knocks Friar Karl Unconscious. No more Beacon of Hope. At the end of the turn, Arek uses a Legendary Action to Lunge at Rory, and hits.
  - Ruinant - Uses Salt Wounds on Kemurial, Freya and Zhanis. Zhanis saves for half damage, but the other two fail and take the full damage. We're already looking pretty hurt.
  - Aurumvas - Multiattack at Rory with Covetous Bolts. All three of them hit Rory, doing MASSIVE Force damage, which Rory isn't resistant to, so he takes all of it. Just like that, Rory is bloodied and badly injured. It might be time to use our Psi Lenses to escape.
  - Zhanis - Casts Conjure Celestial on top of Heaven Mane, doing 33 healing to friendlies within it, and 41 Radiant damage to enemies caught within it. She stands up and moves over to Friar Karl and administers a Potion of Supreme Healing as a Bonus Action for 47 points of healing.
  - Freya - Uses Staff of Power to set up Wall of Force. Bonus Action to Hasten a Shadow Portal. She places the entrance on the nearby tree, and the other somewhere off the map we can't see 200' to the east. She stands up and steps through the portal.
- Round 2
  - Arek Daemonclaw - Moves around the wall to the northwest.
  - Aurumvas - Flies up in the air 30' (uh oh!) and targets Rory with three Covetous Bolts. Two of three hit, leaving Rory with just 17 of 165 Hit Points. CLOSE!
  - Death Knight Aspirant 1 - Moves eastward along the Wall of Force.
  - Death Knight Aspirant 2 - Moves eastward along the Wall of Force.
  - Ruinant - Moves eastward along the Wall of Force.
  - Kemurial - Conjure Celestial heals Kemurial at the start of his turn. Moves northward for line of Sight on Rory and casts Healing Word on him as a Bonus Action. Lets his wolf return to its plane and then uses his Psi Lenses to return to the tunnel exit. At the end of the turn, Aurumvas takes a Villainous Action to At Any Cost. He teleports tiny explosive treasures from his vault to four different points within 120 feet of him. Rory and Zhanis succeed their Dex Saves, but Friar Karl fails. Arek Daemonclaw uses a Legendary Action to use Lunge to move closer to Rory.
  - Friar Karl - Moves into the Shadow Portal. At the end of the turn, Arek Daemonclaw uses a Legendary Action to target Rory with Fell Word. Rory fails the Con Save and takes some damage, leaving him with just SIX hit points. Phew!
  - Rory - Bonus Action Second Wind for some extra healing, just in case. He's at 20 HP now. Action to use Psi Lenses to teleport back to the tunnel exit.
  - Zhanis - Bonus Action to move his Conjure Celestial to himself for healing. Action to use Psi Lenses to teleport back to the tunnel exit.
  - Freya - Action to use Psi Lenses to teleport back to the tunnel exit.
- Combat over.
We're all back at the tunnel exit and we all grab the other Psi Lens. There are no signs that the tunnel has been discovered while we were gone, but we still decide to collapse the tunnel.
We make it back through the tunnel before collapsing it, and decide to head to the Duke to report what transpired. Arek with all the help he had, particularly Aurumvas, would've easily been able to take care of us.
We head to the Citadel. We're led inside and taken to the Duke. They say they heard and saw magical flashes. Rory tells the Duke what happened. The Duke says he's been learning more than he'd like over the past few weeks about them. The Duke says maybe Arek's weakness isn't just his ego, but also his bloodlust.
He says he doesn't think they can stop the incessant forces along the walls. He says they're going to try moving as many people into the Old Town as possible, because he thinks the breach will happen soon. He suggests talking to Max Schreiber and seeing if he has any insights. We agree. He asks if we have any other ideas or plans. We mention the altar of Nurgle we found below the High Inquisitor's temple.
We also talk with the Duke about the general public consensus on what they thought of High Inquisitor Eldrick. He says that when the Inquisition's powers are aimed in the right direction, they're usually content with the Inquisition, but when aimed in the wrong direction, they tend to loathe the organization. It seems the powers had been aimed in the wrong direction as of late. Of course there may be some who were fans that might lash out at the news their High Inquisitor is dead, but with the looming battle at hand, it's expected not many will do so. The Duke also says that they've been distributing messages to try to calm the merchants and their attitude toward us, which should be resolved by the next day. This would be great as we may need to make purchases really soon to have a chance against the impending breach, should one occur.
We take a Short Rest before heading out toward Max Schreiber.
TSRGBU. Rory's reduced hit point maximum also goes away. Nice.
After the rest, we head out of the Citadel and down toward the command post to find Max Schreiber. On the way there, Kemurial equips a Glowrune Pigment and uses the Mountain Rune version of it to make himself immune to being knocked Prone, and has advantage on Strength and Constitution Saving throws.
We find to Max Schreiber, and we find him setting up communications. After our discussions with the Duke about bringing people inside the Old Town walls, it's PACKED in these parts now. The bridge near the command post is heavily defended with guard posts on either side of it. He's looking over scrolls at a table when we approach. "I hear you weren't able to take down Arek, but I felt the winds of magic in that area. What happened?" We tell him. "It seems they used all that magic to bring in one of their powerful demons. Maybe it's gone now. Who knows?" He thinks it was quite costly for Arek to summon that demon. He says there's a concentration in the winds of magic over Kislev, specifically Praag, which is useful for the Chaos army to summon their powerful allies.
We ask Max Schreiber if he can craft some Rings of Force Resistance. He says he has one available right now for twice the normal price of 6000g (so 12000g for one). Rory's more than happy to buy it given the fact the Chaos forces seem to be using Force attacks. Rory buys the ring.
Kemurial rummages through his bags and pulls out the Efreeti Bottle and shows it to Max Schreiber. He says if we could utilize Wishes, maybe it'd be useful. Kemurial ponders opening it.
Kemurial decides to open it. But first, we come up with three wishes just in case he's lucky enough to get the Wish version of the efreeti. Our first wish would be to free Arianka from her crystal coffin and bring her back to life in order to help protect the city. The second wish would be to banish Arek Daemonclaw and his high-ranking officials from the Material Plane. The third wish would be to create some kind of magical artifact that saps up the winds of magic near the city and redirects it to power defenses for Praag.
We head to the large open grassy area west of the Citadel so Kemurial can open the Efreeti Bottle. Kemurial pulls it out, pulls out the stopper, and rubs the bottle to summon the Efreeti. He rolls a 72 on the d100, which means no Wishes, but it's at least a friendly efreeti we can use a couple more times when needed. Kemurial introduces himself to the efreeti. The efreeti says his name is Rolrut. Kemurial tells him that we're in Praag, which is under siege and he is to help us in our times of need. Kemurial shows the efreeti a map and asks him for his advice. Rolrut looks over it and ponders. He says "Yeah, you're fucked!" Thanks, Rolrut. "You have few choices. You should hope for the arrival of your Ice Queen. And I don't think you should lightly give up on your idea of killing Arek Daemonclaw, but perhaps in different circumstances." Zhanis says maybe we can bring him here, just Arek Daemonclaw. If we have only him, maybe we'll have a chance to defeat him. "I'm afraid the only other piece of insight I might have is do not expect to come out the other side of this invasion without loss." He says the forces are unnatural, and Zhanis says that's just like the city, seemingly unnaturally located. The efreeti doesn't respond to that. He says "These are interesting times. I assure you the entire City of Brass looks on with bated breath."
For the remainder of the time we have with the efreeti, Kemurial chats with him about the City of Brass and how he got trapped inside. Rolrut says he was exploring a magical shop within the City of Brass and tripped and fell onto the bottle, which then sucked him up inside it. Oops!

That's it for this session!

Adventure Loot

Loose Gold Found

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