OAWYM: Deus Ex Machina

Game Date: 1/7/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 17
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Gary, subbing for Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Archer
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed the last couple of sessions, during which the party was captured by the Iron Circle, stripped of their equipment, and put to work aboard a slave ship.  I can't leave them alone for a minute.  They eventually broke out, tried to set the ship on fire, and made their way up to the deck.  We reached the door to the deck, and found the captain waiting for us, along with many crewmen.

We closed the door and tried to come up with a plan.  We were vastly outnumbered, had no armor, and only improvised weapons.  Out of character, we spent about an hour pondering various possibilities, like breaking through the walls or running out the door to jump overboard.  From the other side of the door, the captain taunted us, offering to forget this transgression if we allowed him to kill half the party.

Finally we decided to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.  The other slave rowers had refused our help earlier, but now Marcella sang a song that charmed them into helping us.  This came at a price - for any slaves that died under Marcella's charm, we would receive corruption points.  We went back to the door, shouted our best "LEEEROY JEENKINS" and swarmed the deck.

At first it was working.  The slave rowers could only do one point of damage per turn, and went down after one hit, but there were so many of them that it kept the enemies from targeting us as often.  We disarmed a couple of the enemies so we could arm ourselves, and this put us on more even ground.  But we still had no armor, so we took a lot of damage.

As the slaves died, we took a lot of corruption points, occasionally requiring us to roll for Marks of Darkness.  Robb received a permanent wound that oozes black sludge when he's angry.  Byzun gained a silver pentagram on his forehead.  And odd cry can be heard whenever Tamir speaks.  Marcella is now allergic to holy symbols, and she gained eight insanity points.

We kept hacking away, and it looked as if we might actually have a chance.  Then one of the bad guys cast a sleep spell which took out nearly all our remaining rowers at once, as well as a few main party members.  We knew at this point that a TPK was inevitable, so we decided we at least wanted to take out the captain first.  Dene spent his next couple of turns waking up Byzun and Marcella.  Tatio was killed by a "Killing Touch" spell, and Melcer was incapacitated.

Val dealt a killing blow to the captain, and we started calling for the surrender of the rest of the crew.  Of course they didn't surrender.  Worse, the captain stood back up, reanimated.  Then Marcella was killed.  We knew we were toast.

And then...

Dene exploded.  An incinerating blast spread outward from Val's companion, disintegrating everyone on the deck, except for our party members.  Iron Circle crewmen and rower slaves alike turned into ash, and we stood there astonished.  Dene had transformed into an avatar of the Raven Queen, Val's patron deity.  Val fell to her knees in worship.

The Raven Queen told us that it was too soon for us to die, as she still had need of our services.  She revealed that a renegade god was trying to seize power, and that we needed to continue our voyage to Highport.  She brought Tatio and Marcella back to life as revenants, and removed some of the corruption we'd received during the fight.

After the Raven Queen left, we searched the ship until we found our stolen equipment.  As an ex-pirate, Marcella took charge and had us sail the ship to Highport.  About a week later we pulled into the docks and disembarked.  We visited the blacksmith to remove our remaining manacles, and booked a hotel room.  We asked around town for information, but didn't find any.

At the inn, we saw another group of adventurers celebrating and dividing up loot.  Marcella offered to sing them a song about our exploits, but they kept putting her off.  Finally deciding they were being rude, Marcella smacked one of them.  We ended the session there.