After several years hiatus from PFS play, my local playgroup is getting the band back together, along with some new blood. I'm mostly DMing the show, and have opted to do full audits of the returning characters that haven't been played in 2-3 years, for both my benefit and the players'.
We have a problem, and I'm not sure how to resolve it.
One of the players in the group had a character marked as dead after a scenario run about three years ago. However (and I can attest to this, in part because I was also a player at that table), the death came as the result of significantly incorrectly-played rules, well beyond the level of table variation. Specifically, his character was grappled, and the DM at the time randomized all attacks made against the creature (melee and ranged) between it and the grappled character. Over the next 4 or 5 rounds, he was slowly hacked to death by his fellow Pathfinders as we attempted to dispatch the creature holding him.
At the time, we were making the transition from 3.5 to PF and didn't initially recognize this as a problem. Somewhere around 4 months later, having discovered just how improperly this was run, the player in question made an appeal to his then-local VL/VC for a somewhat belated correction. He was told, if possible, to pay for a raise dead pending a final determination. Lacking the PP for the spell, he sold the bulk of the character's belongings to cover the spellcasting services cost.
The character was then played in a subsequent scenario. Afterward, we had people move, change jobs, and get a divorce, and the playgroup broke up. He made no further effort to follow up on the appeal of his character's death, believing that he would no longer be participating in Society play.
Fast-forward 2.5 years to now.
My audit of this process revealed another problem. The hasty estate sale used to pay for the raise dead in question was faulty; a numeral got misplaced along the way. There was not sufficient money available to pay for the spell in the first place, so his return to life, and subsequent participation in another scenario was permitted in error. But, alternatively, his death was a clear error in the first place, and neither he nor I have any idea whether that death was properly overturned (and at this point, no record of even to whom the appeal was made).
What is the proper status of this character? If the character is dead, does the following scenario still count as having been run for this player (as it would then have never been run legally)? I can envision several outcomes:
- The character is dead. The final scenario was run in good faith and so counts as expended.
- The character is dead. The final scenario was not run by a legal PFS character and is still available for the player to run (with a different character).
- The character's death was in error and is redacted. Property sold by the character for 1/2 value remains sold, although no spellcasting services were performed. The subsequent scenario has been run, and is credited to the character.
- The character's death was in error and is redacted. The estate sale used in an attempt to remedy this error is also unwound. The subsequent scenario has been run, and is credited to the character.
I'm fairly sure that, regardless of the result, this requires more than just me as a local DM to adjudicate.
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