Introducing a character mid-way through Book 1

[Squirrel King]

Hey folks,

I'm running a PbP version of Carrion Crown, and I had one player drop out (as happens fairly often in PbP). I have a friend that wants to join in - the problem being that the group is right smack dab in the middle of events in Ravengro and are a bit paranoid (rightfully so).

So, in "game time" he'd be joining about a week after the professor's funeral, even though in "real time" the forum-based game has been going on for nearly nine months now. I'd like my friend to be another invitee to the professor's funeral, but he got held up along the way to Ravengro.

I have not read the other books in the AP as of yet, so if any of you could recommend some sort of event from one of those books that would have delayed his character (such as being attacked) that'd be awesome. I know that we can just hand-wave his delay, but he and I both agree that it'd be better to have it plot related in some way, no matter how minor/major.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations/ideas.
-SK

[MotherGoose]

I had a player start hating his character mid way thru Trial of the Beast which is book 2. I told him that if he lives until the end of that book i would allow his character to walk away from the adventure and allow him to make a new one.

spoiler:

I had him be an initiate of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. He fit perfectly in the story at that point as someone who is also working on destroying the Whispering Way. Judge Daramid introduced him to the group so the order can have someone with them as they sought out the Whispering Way.

Or he could be a thick headed trouble maker related to the professor somehow. looking for nothing more than revenge on the person or people responsible for his death. Missing his funeral because of trouble with the local law or something...

[Skeleman]

I had a couple characters introduced in my campaign while in the middle of Book 1. The first was playing an Alchemist. The party had already had some business dealings with the NPC alchemist in the town, and I was playing up the friendly/slightly romantic interest between her and the Professor before his death.

Spoiler:

During the events of the Town Hall meeting/fire, I had the town council announce that the prison would be off-limits to anyone other than the PC's, so long as they took with them an appointed individual put forth by a trusted townsperson (aka the new Alchemist PC).

The second PC I introduced came into the game while the party was investigating the prison.

Spoiler:

I decided to include an encounter with Adivion early on to get his presence known to the PC's. He did not make it to the funeral, but arrived a little later to "pay his respects" to Kendra. He brought along some extra loot for the party (so he can more easily Scry on them later), and offered the services of his travelling bodyguard (the new PC Barbarian), to help with their investigations (and maybe report back to him later).

There are likely easy ways to add new PC's for your game too, just think about that the party is doing, and add a little twist of your own.