OAWYM: More Stuff Happens

Game Date: 1/22/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 19
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Daniel, subbing for Graham) - Human Warlock
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

When we left off, we'd been stopped by a room with a collapsed floor, had started backtracking through the dungeon, and ran into a party of orcs.  With poor attendance this session, we briefly considered fleeing back to the floorless room, but Halfbeard charged right in and we were committed to the fight.  We spent the early rounds fighting in the doorway, with Halfbeard taking most of the damage while the rest of us couldn't get in position to be of much help.

As each orc went down, the rest of us gradually worked our way into the room.  Melcer used a Font of Healing spell, which helped us a bit.  One orc fumbled, breaking his weapon.  Val finished off the last foe with some unusually high rolls (for her).  The battle won, we continued backtracking to a secret door we'd found near the entrance of the dungeon.

We still couldn't find a way to disable the trap, so everyone stood back while Val set it off.  A spiked plate thumped against the other side of the door, Val took a few points of damage, and we entered the room.  This room wasn't worth the hype.  It was pretty much empty, but we could tell that one brick wall was much newer than the others.  Halfbeard managed to remove a brick, but couldn't see much on the other side.  He could hear something moving around, however, so we decided not to break through that way. 

We went back to the collapsed room where we'd fought the ghouls, and climbed up to a higher level.  From there we could see a courtyard below.  Robb fastened a rope and climbed down into a courtyard, while Val prepared to follow.  Then a big lizard came around the corner, and we had to make will checks.  Val and Robb each took a point of insanity, and couldn't take our eyes off the lizard.

Robb climbed back up the rope.  The basilisk did not follow.  We climbed back down into the ghoul room, and went back to the room with the missing floor.  Robb used his acrobatic prowess to cross the room, carrying one end of a rope.  With both ends fastened to opposite sides of the room, the rest of us had an easier time getting across the rickety boards. Halfbeard fell right at the end, took some damage, and we pulled him back up.  Malcer also had a lot of trouble getting across, but he made it.

At the other end, we saw more hallways and doors to choose from.  We listened to a door on our left, and heard some conversations.  We went on into the room, which turned out to be the stables.  There were four men shooting the breeze.  Val started to talk to them, but a fight was inevitable.  As we fought three of the guys, the one in the back started blowing a horn and calling for help. He exited through a door in the back, and six more orcs came running to join the battle.

Meanwhile, Melcer was attacked from behind by an "Organ Filch", a creepy Jack-the-Ripper / Phantom-of-the-Opera -looking dude, wielding a scalpel. This was a pretty difficult fight, and we used up a lot of healing resources.  The good news was that the cramped room kept us from getting surrounded, so we rarely faced more than three enemies at a time.  Robb finished off the Organ Filch.  When we were down to three enemies, Melcer hit them with a Fiery Volley, taking out one and nearly finishing the other two.  Halfbeard killed the final orc.

We hid the bodies in the loft, made sure we didn't see anyone else coming, and continued exploring the hallways.  In the side hall, we found a couple of rooms that were empty except for some rubble, and another set of stairs down.  The main hall rounded a corner and ended with two sets of double doors, one on each side of the hallway.  We looked through one of them, and saw what looked like a cemetery, with a big mausoleum-type building in the middle.

We thought about checking it out, but we needed to rest before going much further.  We took shelter in one of the empty rubble rooms, and ended the session.

OAWYM: Some Stuff Happens

Game Date: 1/14/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 18
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

Last week we arrived in Highport, and our bard nearly got in a fight with another group of adventurers at the inn. Val calmed them down, bought them a round, and sat with them for a while.  She learned that they had recently looted some ruins, and were hoping to join the Iron Circle.  They finally left for the night, and we went to bed.  The next morning we realized that one member of that party was the Halfling we were supposed to contact in Highport.

We poked around town, greased some palms, and found our contact again in a boarding house called "The Swinging Man."  The Halfling was reluctant to see us at first, but we talked our way in with our usual charm. We showed him a note from the captain who sold us into slavery.  It took a bribe, but he finally told us about a nearby temple being used by the Iron Circle, and where to find the secret back entrance.

We watched the temple from a distance, paying attention to the patrols.  There was a lot of activity, with many beings going in and out of the main gates, including Orcs, Humans, and we even spotted some Ghouls.  We went around back and used the secret entrance, closing the door behind us as another patrol came into view.  We found ourselves in a narrow hallway.

We discovered a trapped secret door on our right, but walked on by because we couldn't disable the trap.  Another hallway was full of skeletons.  Malcer detected them as magical, so Val decided to decapitate them as she made her way through the room.  After dispatching the first one, the rest of them stood up to fight us.  It wasn't a difficult fight, but the narrow hallway did complicate things. 
 

Val killed one with a single hit, and Malcer damaged three with a sunlight spell. The melee fighters kept having to charge past each other, but each skeleton only took a couple of hits to kill.  During the fight, Val fumbled and broke her armor.  Once we'd killed the final skeleton, we proceeded around a corner where we found a charred door.  We broke down the door and entered the next room.

This room was a mess.  It looked like the ceiling had collapsed, and the furniture was charred.  We were attacked by several undead - five Ghouls and three "Dessicated Ones".  Most of the room was rough terrain, but it was a small room so not a lot of movement was necessary anyway.  Our enemies had attacks that would drain our blood, causing fatigue.  Malcer hit five of them with a meteor spell early on, greatly shortening the battle.  Tatio made the final killing blow.

We broke through another door, went through a short hallway, and looked into the next room.  In this one, the floor was mostly gone, giving us a good view into the cellar far below.  There was still a bit of a ledge around the room, and some fallen beams that could be used to cross.  But it looked very dangerous, and most of us don't have high agility.  We turned around, intending to more thoroughly examine the trapped door we'd passed earlier.

However, as we reentered the Ghoul room, we met an Orc patrol entering from the opposite door.  We saw five Orcs, all wearing Iron Circle armor, and we ended the session there.

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.