One of the hardest hitting gaming anomalies to me, especially in a story-driven campaign, is the sudden unexpected TPK. I think it affects both the GM and the players equally: the players have suddenly come to an unsatisfying end to the story of characters they have spend months, possibly years, developing; meanwhile, the GM's plot hooks and adventure plans for the future have effectively been quashed.
I submit to you this story that took place recently in a Pathfinder Forgotten Realms campaign, and then ask for advice. This covers the bulk of the last two sessions:
For reference, our party consisted of:
12th level female half-orc barbarian
12th level male human alchemist (died; replaced by 11th level halfling rogue with Pass for Human or whatever it is that makes them appear like a child. We all thought he was a child.)
11th level female human conjuror
9th level male human urban ranger skirmisher (cohort of conjuror)
??th level female aasimar cleric (GMPC, 11th or 12th)
We had recently been clearing out a werewolf den responsible for attacking the Dancing Place. The head, a powerful necromancer of sorts, managed to escape with his life, so our alchemist used up the rest of his bombs for the day to collapse the cave entrance, in an effort to keep the place from posing an immediate threat to the grove. You see, our half-orc barbarian, whom I'll call a "survivor", was trying to find religion with Selune, and needed to visit the Dancing Place to finally put her soul at peace.
On our way back to the village, however, a group of bloated wyverns attacked, infested with some positive energy swarms. Out of bombs, out of healing from our cleric, no rage left, and low on spells, it was a long battle. The wyverns fell, and the swarms with fast healing kept regenerating. Eventually, they killed the alchemist. We did bring the others down, but he was dead. Back at the village, we earned our reward, and made arrangements for the alchemist's funeral.
Fast forward to the next day, a man who we hired to research the type of undead we saw in the werewolf cave has turned up dead, his former apprentice the prime suspect. We catch the rogue scouring through the suspect's house, and with his help find nothing. That night, however, while strolling alone through town after gathering some additional information about the murder, said rogue is attacked by some powerful undead creature. He escapes with his life by pure luck (he had a hide from undead potion in his backpack), but from the retinue of spells used (slay living, flame strike, etc.), it's obvious that said creature wants the rogue dead.
Being the resourceful group we are, we decide to stage an ambush for the undead the following night. We send the cleric into town to buy hide from undead potions, while I, the conjuror, prepare spells designed to combat undead (as well as I can... I've got a focus in necromancy, so fighting undead aren't really my forte).
Night time comes, and our cleric hasn't showed up. Meanwhile, the rogue gets ambushed again by the undead, forcing us to fight. I drop a dimensional anchor on the creature, hoping to keep it from running away. I then attempt to summon a monster, but it flame strikes me (failed save). It then erects a wall of stone to cut myself, the ranger and barbarian from it and the rogue, but being a conjuror, I have the dimensional steps ability to bring us to the other side... into some animated cobblestones that attack us. Come to find out, the undead is actually our cleric, possessed by some powerful ghost variant. The ghost variant has the ability to utilize all of the possessed creature's abilities, much different from the limitations of magic jar. The undead took to the sky, peppering us with powerful spells. I cast fly on the barbarian, who then takes to the sky to go after the airborn enemy. The cleric then fells me, which the rogue counteracts with a wand of CLW.
While I'm out, the cleric dispels the fly effect on the barbarian, meaning she is again out of reach. I try to cast fly defensively on the rogue (I'm prone and have an animated cobblestone next to me), and fail, so we're out of fly spells now.
Eventually, we reduce the cobblestones to rubble, and I've managed to summon some flying creatures to combat the cleric, who still manages to get some spells off to get her back to full health (including a heal spell). After she's surrounded, the ghost then leaves the cleric's body, turning her into a wererat (some kind of power the ghost has), who then casts silence to prevent further spells. The ghost, in the same action, possesses our barbarian, who fails her will save.
The rogue, in an attempt to salvage the situation, uses a wand of obscurring mist to try and obfuscate our position, but the barbarian has scent as a rage power, so it easily finds us.
Did I mention she also has blind-fight and great cleave?
Three attack rolls and 6 concealment checks later, we were all dead, save for one possessed barbarian who just wanted to set her soul at peace. She's killed what she thought was a child, a conjuror she didn't care much for, and a ranger who she had some respect for. Even worse, she's likely infected with lycanthropy, and will turn into a wererat, assuming the ghost ever gives her back her body.
So that's the story.
We don't know where it all went wrong. We were undergeared - we have been carrying around roughly 55k in gear from various dungeons that we've been unable to sell - but that never stopped us before. The GM said it was a CR 14 encounter - according to the rules, our APL was 10 (average is 11, but three party members, so subtract 1), so it was above "epic" encounter level for us.
Dejected, we decided to start a new campaign, but the investment I make in creating a new character is pretty involved. I generally like to write up a 'bio' for my characters, containing about 3 pages of information regarding personality quirks, likes, dislikes, an story. Possibly even an advancement plan.
After an abrupt end like the one above, I don't have as much motivation.
My question to you is what do you do to bounce back from a TPK to try and enjoy the new campaign?
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Take a little time off. Either from the game, or from the intensity. Maybe do a one shot style game, or try a different rules set, (something maybe comedic or less serious).
Alternatively, watch a movie or read a short story to get the juices flowing again? Maybe try character creation process differently. If you write a background and then build the character, try to build a character, and then take a day or two to ponder different possibilities for what you have. Take a look at some of the oh so many NPC's Paizo is so fond of and add your own twists, or take a look at some of the various plots out there and come from that angle. It really depends a lot on what you are used to, the other players, and what you want from the next game.
Just curious. . . Cleric doesn't have Protection from Evil?
Also, a way around this might be for the whole scene to have been either a nightmare sequence (magical visions of a ill fate to come or maybe some sort of enchantment/illusion to screw with the characters? Or maybe something miraculous happens to raise the characters to continue the fight, (anything from the Crow, to Spawn, to "it's not your time yet", to Romeo & Juliette style you where never actually dead and wake up).
Our next campaign is going to be more of a steampunk setting, a big-o-meets-bladerunner type campaign, so I think we're looking to change the pace up a bit.
My concern is that I might be overprotective of my next character, to the point of even refraining from combat to avoid him or her dying. I want to use this as a learning experience, but not so much that the rest of the party suffers from my lack of involvement.
Have you talked with the GM about your desire to revisit that campaign and pick-up with some or all of those characters again at some point?
Part of your description has me wondering if perhaps the GM was looking for a way to end the campaign so as to try something new. (What leads me to say that is the seemingly unrelenting tide of attacks without sufficient time to recoup or even put any plans into action.)
Regardless, I myself would be pretty hurt if one of my favorite characters got killed off while there were yet so many loose ends. However, it is possible that those characters are not lost for all time. If the GM merely needed a break, he may consider a reboot/restart with another party who end up rescuing the fallen heroes. By 11th level they have surely made friends in the world as surely as they had made enemies. The story could easily resume when a lower-level party secures the means to raise or resurrect their beloved heroes. Perhaps they were children or adolescents the characters had saved who wanted to follow in their footsteps, and now seek to be their cohorts.
There are a lot of possibilities, so even though I know you're hurting right now, keep in mind that you may get to reboot/restart at some point... even if you have to GM it yourself. :)
Just curious. . . Cleric doesn't have Protection from Evil?
Also, a way around this might be for the whole scene to have been either a nightmare sequence (magical visions of a ill fate to come or maybe some sort of enchantment/illusion to screw with the characters? Or maybe something miraculous happens to raise the characters to continue the fight, (anything from the Crow, to Spawn, to "it's not your time yet", to Romeo & Juliette style you where never actually dead and wake up).
From what the GM told us afterwards, the cleric had been possessed for weeks, but there was little for us to go off of. Her behavior really hadn't changed, so we had no reason to suspect her.
Even so, a protection from evil does grant a new save... if she were willing to cast it on herself. Being possessed, she'd be entitled to a will save to negate the effects. Long story short, I don't think the ghost would be willing to do it.
The GM offered us an alternative. You see, the soul a powerful necromancer was willingly riding along with the conjuror, so a "temporary resurrection" spell could have been cast by him that would have allowed us to make arrangements for a full raise dead. However, that would have meant that our cleric was a wererat (probably turned to LE), our barbarian was possessed, my greatest secret (I'm cavorting with powerful evil creatures) would have been spilled, and we were 15000 gp in the hole (not including the Restoration spell costs). Our party didn't like that idea.
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Do you feel that anything you or the other players could have done differently would have changed the outcome? If not, than it was both bad luck and a strong encounter, nothing you could have really done to change it. If so, well, both ways it's a learning experience. I wouldn't worry about it too much from that point of view. In both cases, like you said, are learning experiences, and we learn more from failure than success.
Give it a few days, and try to rethink the situation. See how you feel then.
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Tough fight.
A change of campaign might be useful. Funny enough in decades of DMing I have never killed the entire party nor have I had a whole party killed while I was playing.
I have had games end abruptly for other reasons though. I find a change of game is great for shaking off the bad feelings. When my long running D&D campaign came to an end we started playing Vampire and Mage from White Wolf. The change of game mechanics and atmosphere really recharged my excitement for playing again. We let someone else run the games for a few years (because my DM style does not work well with those games.) Then 3.0 came out and I started a new game, they group loved it and we played until I moved away.
Part of your description has me wondering if perhaps the GM was looking for a way to end the campaign so as to try something new. (What leads me to say that is the seemingly unrelenting tide of attacks without sufficient time to recoup or even put any plans into action.)
To be fair, I'm being terribly biased, and probably being unfair to the GM. It's been a fun campaign, even if we have been frustrated by the lack of gold the villages have and frequently-escaping villains.
According to my inventory, here are some of the items we have stuffing our bags of holding, waiting to be sold:
15 +1 weapons
23 Cloaks of Resistance +1
3 Cloaks of Resistance +2
10 masterwork weapons
gems worth approx. 23k gold
Belt of Incredible Dex +2
Other miscellaneous wondrous items.
Actually, no, Aasimar are Native Outsiders. They can't contract Lycanthropy. (That might not be true in PF, I'll double check.)
Much as I'd like to use that as a counter-argument, ghosts normally can't access spells, spell-like, extraordinary, or supernatural abilities of their host creature, but this ghost was some kind of creature with an improved malevolence, so I don't know if its lycanthropy even adhered to the normal rules.
Part of your description has me wondering if perhaps the GM was looking for a way to end the campaign so as to try something new. (What leads me to say that is the seemingly unrelenting tide of attacks without sufficient time to recoup or even put any plans into action.)
To be fair, I'm being terribly biased, and probably being unfair to the GM. It's been a fun campaign, even if we have been frustrated by the lack of gold the villages have and frequently-escaping villains.
According to my inventory, here are some of the items we have stuffing our bags of holding, waiting to be sold:
15 +1 weapons
23 Cloaks of Resistance +1
3 Cloaks of Resistance +2
10 masterwork weapons
gems worth approx. 23k gold
Belt of Incredible Dex +2
Other miscellaneous wondrous items.
My friend, Mercane are wonderful beings to summon.
Hmm... Nowhere to sell and lots of lowish-level treasure? I'm wondering if the GM was trying to push you in the direction of forming a resistance movement and arming them yourselves.
That right there could be a future story hook for a restart — with all the supernatural unrest in the area, I could see certain members of the populace banding together to help the best chance they've got for survival: you guys.
That right there could be a future story hook for a restart — with all the supernatural unrest in the area, I could see certain members of the populace banding together to help the best chance they've got for survival: you guys.
You have no idea...
Before we arrived, there was a keep that had been infested by a wererat group of thugs. (likely where that ghost-thing came from. The GM said it was a group of souls, and the monster name started with a 'v', I think)
Then we ran the Lord of the Scarlet Tide adventure.
Then we found the werewolf cave.
The wyverns that had attacked were the remaining 4 of the dozen that attacked the city.
Then we died.
I realize this is after-the-fact, but why didn't you teleport to a city, sell your loot, buy other stuff, and teleport back? At your level, the conjuror can easily have 2 teleports for a "shopping day" and can get the whole party (self + 4 others) to a large enough city to sell all the loot. Even if you hadn't ever been to one, you can pick up a scroll of scrying, put it in the book, and scry a good place to teleport to.
I blame myself mostly for not being able to do this. The only city I had a reasonable certainty of selling my goods at was Balur's Gate (It's a FR campaign), but there were spies looking to attack me on-site there, so it was not a safe haven to tarry for long.
Compounding that, we really didn't have any 'rest' time between adventures. Soon as we finished one adventure, we plunged right into the next one, usually after a night's respite at the local inn.
The day after we completed the Lord of the Scarlet tide, we had to go to the Dancing Place (which we got sidetracked by the wererats), and there was no downtime between the wererat debacle and the ghost trying to kill us. It had been going on like that since we had left Sigil (I think we were 7th level then).
Also, divination was an opposition school for me, so I wasn't that good at scrying.
Well, I just had a discussion with the GM, and he's going to do some research on the lycanthropy effect that this monster yields, as well as other retcon opportunities to possibly undo this TPK. Obviously, all of us probably also need to be okay with the retcon, but we'll see what happens.
It's possible that the possession may have been subject to similar rules as compulsion effects.
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It's possible that the possession may have been subject to similar rules as compulsion effects.
Could you clarify what you mean here? I'm not suggesting you argue with the DM, but a lot of things just seem kind of off. <I also want to point out, I'm fully for story trumping rules, and this might have been the case.>
For one, an 11th(+) level Cleric (Aasimar), with enough Wis to cast 5th level spells, shouldn't have had much of an issue with the Save vs Possession, and certainly not more than once.
Secondly, prolonged possession should have given everyone a Sense Motive check to notice something was a little off, and any time they would have Channeled Energy in that time should have still hit the Ghost even if they where possessing.
As you mentioned, it is a Ghost variant that lets the Ghost cast the players spells, which is not really possible. It is, but not really.
Even if the Aasimar contracted Lycanthropy, (not possible even through a spell or whatever), A.) they should also have enough Fort to resist, and b.) they don't actually turn into a Lycanthrope until the next full moon, so about 28ish days later.
You mentioned you tossed out a Dimensional Anchor, which means that the <Incorporeal> Ghost (who is on the Material Plane do to Possession). This should have altered the Ghost more than it seemed to.
Could you clarify what you mean here? I'm not suggesting you argue with the DM, but a lot of things just seem kind of off. <I also want to point out, I'm fully for story trumping rules, and this might have been the case.>
The malevolence from this creature is much more potent than standard malevolence on a ghost. The GM said that as such, it may act more like an enchantment [compulsion] effect rather than magic jar. I don't have the monster's entry, so I don't know the rules surrounding it.
For one, an 11th(+) level Cleric (Aasimar), with enough Wis to cast 5th level spells, shouldn't have had much of an issue with the Save vs Possession, and certainly not more than once.
No clue on this one. It was never really specified, but I don't feel like opening this can of worms. Or, to quote my GM: "Ya' don't know."
Secondly, prolonged possession should have given everyone a Sense Motive check to notice something was a little off, and any time they would have Channeled Energy in that time should have still hit the Ghost even if they where possessing.
First, if I met with the GM in private, and was asked to play a character under a compulsion effect, other characters would normally get a Sense Motive check only if they explicitly stated they suspected I was being controlled. Otherwise, the interaction skills normally don't apply between PCs. It's too difficult to abstract character knowledge from player knowledge. For this campaign, it's sufficient to say that these rules apply to the GMPC as well. In the GM's defense, we likely never caught on to hints he dropped. We're kind of dense players like that.
Second, she has Selective Channeling
As you mentioned, it is a Ghost variant that lets the Ghost cast the players spells, which is not really possible. It is, but not really.Even if the Aasimar contracted Lycanthropy, (not possible even through a spell or whatever), A.) they should also have enough Fort to resist, and b.) they don't actually turn into a Lycanthrope until the next full moon, so about 28ish days later.
Like I said, I really don't know the rules behind this specific creature, its special brand of lycanthropy, or malevolence. We'll have to find out, but it's likely a conversion from a 3.5 splat book that may or may not have been broken as all hells.
You mentioned you tossed out a Dimensional Anchor, which means that the <Incorporeal> Ghost (who is on the Material Plane do to Possession). This should have altered the Ghost more than it seemed to.
Minor correction... I cast Dimensional Anchor on the cleric, not the ghost. No clue if or how it also affects the possessing creature. Seems that would be up to the GM's interpretation of the rules.
Always the idea of a resurrection from someone in the town. Now you are all indentured servants to the head chief MFWIC
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Fair enough. I am not trying to imply you should argue with the DM about it, just pointing out some things I think are a little odd. I also don't know their side of the story, or maybe what exactly they have (had) planned.
If you all do want to continue the game, FR actually had a Cleric Prestige Class specifically for Lycanthropes, which was pretty cool. It was in a Web Enhancment for Faiths and Pantheons, which could also allow the Cleric to keep playing and even overcome the ordeal, if there where a way for you to survive, (like maybe becomming Ghosts yourself. . .).
If you want to keep going, there are ways around even a TPK.
All right, I seriously hope I'm wrong, but if my notes are telling me anything, the creature that infected our Cleric was a vilkacis. If that's the case, the entire combat was run wrong. Possession for them acts like a barbarian's rage, so no spells, etc., and it only lasts a few hours. Further, while possessed, the creature takes on a much more bestial form, so it would have been much more noticeable.
I seriously hope I'm wrong - I don't want to get into an argument with a good GM about this.
All right, I seriously hope I'm wrong, but if my notes are telling me anything, the creature that infected our Cleric was a vilkacis. If that's the case, the entire combat was run wrong. Possession for them acts like a barbarian's rage, so no spells, etc., and it only lasts a few hours. Further, while possessed, the creature takes on a much more bestial form, so it would have been much more noticeable.
I seriously hope I'm wrong - I don't want to get into an argument with a good GM about this.
Why did you not raise your Alchemist? In pathfinder the lost levels can simply be removed with a restoration spell, and raise dead is fairly cheap. In addition to that, a TPK of players of your caliber would warrant a local priest likely casting speak with dead on you to bring you back, should you not want a Desu Ex or ret-con. 15k is a lot of gold, sure, but you're talking about your characters here.
You should also talk with your GM. It sounds like they were fudging the dice a bit, and not running spells as they should have been. Since when can clerics cast Fly?
Why did you not raise your Alchemist? In pathfinder the lost levels can simply be removed with a restoration spell, and raise dead is fairly cheap.
The PC specifically requested that he not be brought back, should he die. There's a big plot element that revolved around it.
You should also talk with your GM. It sounds like they were fudging the dice a bit, and not running spells as they should have been. Since when can clerics cast Fly?
Our cleric has the Travel domain, so Fly is a domain spell. Has had it ever since we picked her up in Baldur's Gate.
Well... it sounds like you were all really attached to your characters.
But I don't see a TPK as the end of the story. Death can be part of the story.
If TPK happens, I think the best idea is to accept that it means something.
Meaning the GM will figure out what Team Evil winning this battle plays out as and extrapolate on that.
The players will learn the results of NOT winning their objective.
But that isn't the end of the story. New heroes can battle this evil, or take the battle elsewhere.
Maybe bring in new PCs based on NPCs you've encountered recently. Possibly start them at lower level,
so they aren't going to just jump into the same battles the old PCs would fight, but will be challenged
dealing with lower level minions and related threats, in the backdrop of the evil forces triump against the dead PCs.
The dead PCs don't cease to exist, they are just dead... They can be discovered by the new PCs,
and their story learned, enlightening the new heroes... and repurcussions of the PCs allies and loved ones can be included in the story,
even if those characters are dead now and not actively roleplayed...
That makes their death meaningful to the players, rather than merely a [I LOST] event.
All right, I seriously hope I'm wrong, but if my notes are telling me anything, the creature that infected our Cleric was a vilkacis. If that's the case, the entire combat was run wrong. Possession for them acts like a barbarian's rage, so no spells, etc., and it only lasts a few hours. Further, while possessed, the creature takes on a much more bestial form, so it would have been much more noticeable.
I seriously hope I'm wrong - I don't want to get into an argument with a good GM about this.
So by how the game played out, the creature didn't do what that creature did. Maybe it isn't that creature. I don't see why contesting what the GM did after the fact like this would do to improve your game. Is there some reason why a movie of your RPG game couldn't include a scene that played out just like that encounter did? Doesn't sound like it. Why not accept it as an event that happened in that campaign world?
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I realize this is after-the-fact, but why didn't you teleport to a city, sell your loot, buy other stuff, and teleport back? At your level, the conjuror can easily have 2 teleports for a "shopping day" and can get the whole party (self + 4 others) to a large enough city to sell all the loot. Even if you hadn't ever been to one, you can pick up a scroll of scrying, put it in the book, and scry a good place to teleport to.
You can't do it that way if you haven't visited a city:
- Scry will target a person and a very small area around him/her, not a location;- Teleport require to know what is the location where you want to teleport.
Unless you know that guy X that you are scrying is is at the "Murdered elf" inn in Waterdeep (to make an example), the teleport spell will fail as you will be targeting a false location.
Teleport don't work to get to a unknown location, even if you have an image of the location.
It will be a bit slower, but it is possible to do it this way:
- chose a day with a clear sky
- fly as high as convenient and select a distant, noticeable landmark like the summit of a hill or a river bend. If it is large enough you can do that from a hundred km without problem.
- teleport there. As you are seeing your destination there is little chance of error.
- repeat as many times as you can in one day.
That way you can get a speed of a few hundred of km/day.
in the forgottem REalm setting the Op cited you generally will be capable to find a decent size town within that range.
After the first visit you will be capable to teleport directly to the city.
I blame myself mostly for not being able to do this. The only city I had a reasonable certainty of selling my goods at was Balur's Gate (It's a FR campaign), but there were spies looking to attack me on-site there, so it was not a safe haven to tarry for long.
If I recall the map exactly, that can be a problem, Baldur's Gate hasn't a decent sized city within easy range.
Still if you are using Pathfinder even in a smallish town you should be capable to sell a few +1 and masterwork weapons. Hopping around a bit it should have been possible to sell most of the low level loot.Your main problem probably would have been the opposite, buying "upgraded" equipment with a higher base price.
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All right, I seriously hope I'm wrong, but if my notes are telling me anything, the creature that infected our Cleric was a vilkacis. If that's the case, the entire combat was run wrong. Possession for them acts like a barbarian's rage, so no spells, etc., and it only lasts a few hours. Further, while possessed, the creature takes on a much more bestial form, so it would have been much more noticeable.
I seriously hope I'm wrong - I don't want to get into an argument with a good GM about this.
It is a recent addition to the monster rooster, and from a AP, not the main books.
Are you sure he wasn't using a 3.5 monster with the same name from some splatbook?|
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All right, I seriously hope I'm wrong, but if my notes are telling me anything, the creature that infected our Cleric was a vilkacis. If that's the case, the entire combat was run wrong. Possession for them acts like a barbarian's rage, so no spells, etc., and it only lasts a few hours. Further, while possessed, the creature takes on a much more bestial form, so it would have been much more noticeable.
I seriously hope I'm wrong - I don't want to get into an argument with a good GM about this.
Yes, it looks like they handled it completely wrong. People make mistakes, so it might be worth asking him or her if maybe there is another reason. If you want to continue the game, here are some things I's point out, (in a non-confrontational, not arguing with the DM or ganging up sort of way).
But pretty much everything I said above would still apply, from the Sense Motive (which should actually be obvious), to the fact that the creature can only possess for 3 hours, and the Aasimar Cleric (min of +10 Will at that level) should have saved fairly easily. Especially if this went on for a while, and all attempts to Channel to hurt Undead would have affected it. The Aasimar would have been completely immune to any Lycanthropy, if in a Rage, you are correct, couldn't cast spells (including to Heal), and would actually be less a threat than the PC character itself normally would.
There's much in common between your GM's style and my GM's. Just to give an idea, we've been on a 3.0/3.5 epic quest for the last 3 years or so in Magnamund (Lone Wolf's world) and it seem like 2 out of 3 fights are life or death matters. Moreover, we've had TPK three times before that game with same GM. We learned something: him being a videogame enthusiast, we should optimize the hell out of our characters cause fighting would always be - almost - mandatory. Even then, we lost a couple of fights, but the heroes being higher levels, it wasn't the end of it.
The first couple of times his monsters (frickin from the Fiend Folio, Book of Vile Darkness or some crazy epic book...) killed us, the GM himself looked surprised; he had to give us farfetched ways to get resurected or stone-to-fleshed. But then we all got the beat of it and don't make nearly as much of a fuss about it. Hell, I even alternate between ultra-careful decision-making and impulsive decisions, like in the last game when I teleported back to a very powerful sorcerer just after being stone-to-fleshed in town. (Would have destroyed the bastard he I had't rolled a frickin 1 on my massive damage save...)
Now the GM rolls with it. The BBEG kept me in stone form as a trophy and the rest of the party got to convince a powerful wizard guild to help out, which gave us a friend whose sole job was to counterspell timestop which meant auto-win.
I'd conclude with my impression that the main point with that inconvenient event is that your GM is not completely in touch with his own playstyle. He might have been even more surprise than you all of how the events turned out, and was trapped by his preconceived ideas about the 'malignancy' of his monster into killing you all instead of bailing or something. One way for him to amend would be simple that: possessing the barbarian was a bit too much at the end. You could just rewind there and have that not happen. I don't know, talk about hero points or something if necessary. Your whole campaing sounds cool enough to hesitate a good bit before leaving it like that.