
Drunken Irishman |

I'll try to make a long story short. The party already fought through the first round of the Champion's Belt match. On the second day they decided to explore the area and obviously found the hidden Kyuss shrine. Bozal Zahol ends up killing the party's sorcerer. So assuming they dispatch the ulgurstasta, the party still has the rest of the tournament.
Should I make the party finish the tournament one member down? The plot point that you needed a license to compete and Ekyam had the only ones left makes it hard to deviate from that course. Especially since the registration period is over.
Any thoughts on how I should handle the situation?

Jam Falcon |

If the have some way to contact Eligos or Ekyam, he could probably bring in a cleric to raise the sorcerer. I had a death in this adventure too, though it was in the arena (against Froghemoth), and that felt like a reasonable way to handle it. One of their number suddenly going missing between fights would likely raise suspicion, and this early in the adventure it's not going to be fun for the player who's left out.
If you've established something already that will make this not be an option, you could point out to the party that they might want to cover up the death. That could lead to all sorts of solutions—maybe they recruit a defeated entrant from the first round or dominate a guard and use magic to disguise them.

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You don't want to isolate the player whose character got killed by making them sit out, so now's some opportunity for the players to exercise some creative muscle. Maybe they can work with Ekaym on getting the registration documents and forging an additional member's information. There's no requirement the entire group participate in a battle, and who's to say the party couldn't declare they were so confident of victory in the earlier rounds that they competed one member short? However, for fairness, they'll keep their numbers the same (and surely come up with a creative story as to where the dead character is).
As a simpler solution, Ekaym could take their winnings to obtain an item to raise the dead. He has a built-in excuse to visit the party.