Newbie GM question regarding character death ((((((spoilers)))))

[weeddiamond]

The players will be encountering Erylium tomorrow and I have faith that they'll be able to beat her (half of the group is very experienced, the other half are brand new) but in case it does end with a character dying or even a TPK what are some good tips for incorporating new characters into this campaign so early on? Or even into the later chapters because it seems like The Skinsaw Murders rely pretty heavily on the PCs being developed early on, especially the PC which the Skinsaw Man is obsessed with.

[darkwarriorkarg]

Maybe they go to Magnimar to locate a scroll of Raise Dead?

[NobodysHome]

After the initial attack, Sheriff Hemlock sends to Magnimar for help. New characters could be people sent from Magnimar to help. They could be part of the regular Magnimar guard, or adventurers hired by the guard to deal with the 'petty squabbles in that backwater town'.

The Skinsaw Man can become obsessed with any of the (original) PCs, so as long as you don't have a TPK he can just choose a surviving PC. If you have a TPK, you'll have to do a bit of revision, but the new party could be encouraged to interview 'important people around town', and the SS man could develop his new obsession during those interviews...