"Restarting" my game

[Dichotomy]

This is a pretty odd question, but I wanted to see if any of you have a creative solution I could use.

Long story short, my gaming group has been drastically altered. We've gone from 5 PCs to 3. We've decided to have the two leaving PCs "go away" somehow and the remaining there are going to "magically" become gestalt characters. We have worked out all of the mechanical details. I'm just trying to find some halfway-decent in-game scenario to at least attempt to have the situation make sense.

We are in the Hall of Harsh Reflections adventure. The PCs were kidnapped per the sidebar, escaped, fought the invisible stalkers, but had to run away. The group fled to a secluded area to rest, and that's where we are now.

The simplest solution is for the two leaving PCs to just be gone (or be dead) when the party wakes up and to just say that the other three have mysteriously acquired these new powers. But that seems very uncreative. My players have decided that they don't necessarily want to roleplay whatever think up to make the switch, but, to the extent possible, I'd like some kind of scenario that weaves the story into it.

Anyone have any creative ideas?

Thanks.

[hogarth]

This might sound lame to you, but I prefer just ignoring the explanations, e.g. "What are you talking about? We've always had these powers" (similar to the comment in "1984" that "we've always been at war with Eastasia").

I've retooled characters in a game before, and I personally don't find think it adds much to try to come up with some sort of excuse for rebuilding characters.

Then again, maybe I'm just too cynical and/or lazy. :-)

[Cuchulainn]

I may have to do the same with my own campaign. We have 6 players total, but 3 of them have been MIA over the past few months - sometimes with good excuse and sometimes not.

I (the DM) and the other 3 players have put the game on hold, hoping the others will come back, but it hasn't been working out too well.

We just started SPIRE OF LONG SHADOWS, so the campaign is at a major turning point, which makes it annoying.

[Corrosive Rabbit]

I'm not familiar with the adventure, but are they in an area that could contribute to some sort of mystical awakening of their new abilities? I realize that that will strain belief, but I'm not sure how you could do this quickly without evoking some sort of deus ex machina.

Other options in this vein could include discovery of a powerful artifact that bequeaths the powers on them or a visit by a powerful outsider who gives them their abilities. The latter might be beneficial for story-building, as the outsider could also hit them up with a prophecy or otherwise indicate that they are destined for something, and that's why they have received this boon.

[Chris Mortika]

Are the new "gestalt" powers and abilities similar to those of the departing PCs?

(For example, is a cleric leaving at the same time a fighter is turning into a fighter/cleric gestalt?)

If so, it might be possible for the doppelgangers to have had some sort of experiemental wondrous device that would have allowed the possessor to duplicate the abilities of a target character and use them itself.

But the experiement goes awry and the departing PCs' powers are copied into the remaining characters instead.

[chris mcdowell]

I had a similar problem with the same campaign. The group entered Icosiol's Tomb, got their clocks cleaned, killing one character. Of course, I let him roll a new one. Then, everyone wanted to reroll their charactrs and start in the same spot. I ended the campaign right there. I wasn't a jerk about it, but I pride myself in suspending disbelief for the players in my campaign. I didn't want to ruin it for them, but the game was ruined for me. They just wanted to gloss over the most important part of a role-playing game...ROLE-PLAYING!!

[Dichotomy]

@ hogarth:
I HAVE seriously considered that option. Absent some better idea, I would do that.

@ Chris Mortika:
I really like this idea. Yes, the current PCs are picking up secondary classes to fill the roles the leaving PCs had.

The only concern I have is that, at this point, the PCs haven't figured out that doppelgangers are involved. In both the fight with Elaxan (Event 3) and with Martal and Regim (Area D6), they knocked the doppelgangers out without killing them. Also, one of the remaining PCs is still being impersonated by Ixiaxian (Body Thief).

I'm willing to sacrifice the surprise of doppelganger involvement to use it as an explanation for the gestalt abilities, but I'd need to think of a plausible way to give extra powers to Ixiaxian as well as the PC being impersonated.

Any thoughts on that or other ideas in general?

Thanks for the help so far.

[flynnster]

SNARK!!!!

[Peruhain of Brithondy]

Building on Chris Mortika's idea a bit:

1) The players don't have to know (initially) why they woke up in prison with these new powers. They can find out through the rest of the adventure.

2) You can add an additional brain-duplicating device in Telakin's throne-room. The two devices are hooked up so that if you flip the switch one way, you get a brain-in-a-gem; if you flip it the other way, you move the contents/skills/whatever of one brain and add it to someone else's (possibly killing the victim whose contents get removed, or turning him into an amnesiac, or whatever, and thereby allowing him to be removed from the game.

[DMR]

I'd continue play with the departed players PCs as NPCs (temporarily). In actuality, they're dopplegangers (how/when the real PCs got kidnapped is up to you - maybe during the night while the others were sleeping?)

Eventually, the PCs will discover the involvement of dopplegangers, then discover that their friends have been replaced, etc. In Telakin's lair there's a lab with the mind gems (and the metal helmet gadget, etc.)
You can assume he made mind clones of the missing PCs, then gave them to Zyrzog (who killed them and ate their brains). BUT - the remaining players may be able to experiment with the gizmo enough to absorb some of their friend's knowledge/memories. This gives you a way to explain the gestalt abilities AND a way to introduce hints/clues, etc. concerning the next part of the adventure (I never did like that "drow with glowing mold on their boots" plot hook...)

You could also have their animated corpses be the zombies guarding the prisoners in the drow cavern (in Zerzog's domain). This will help really make them hate the mind flayer, which will make the final showdown with him really fun.