After the party defeats the beholder, has anyone had anything come of all the petrified people in Oblivion? My party has contracted Weer to create an elixir/potion/paste/whatever to restore the petrified people. Other than having them have information that, Surprise!, Vhalantru is not whom he seems what else can they be useful for? I doubt they have information on the Cagewrights. I've even considered having some of them be from before "Vhalantru" even showed up in town.
Thoughts? Ideas?
I would offer that perhaps you should ask yourself "What information do my players not have that would be helpful in advancing the storyline and how could these stoned adventurers' backstory be written to assist". In the case of the Cagewrights, I would think maybe one of them might have the entire plot line...if that's what you need as a GM at this point.
( 1 ) What Greystaff said.
( 2 ) If allowing Adimarchus to atone is something you'd permit: a former trusted colleague/advisor/mentor/lover of pre-fall Adimarchus who would be instrumental in swaying him back to the Light Side. Of course, this individual should be a low-level npc class that could easily die, making it challenging to the group to keep him/her alive until the end.
( 3 ) If a player is tired of their character (or dead), then a statue can easily be a new character.
( 4 ) Lidu or Surabar Spellmason himself! Or some other high level npc (if the group has been struggling and needs some additional firepower).
The only thing they're "stuck" on is where the ritual for the planar junction is happening. They used the Soul Pillars to ask about the ritual and the cagewrights. One of the questions was "Is the ritual being performed on Carceri?". I rolled and got the Lie result. Of course it's happening on Carceri! Now the PCs are trying to figure out where on Carceri they need to be; ignoring the papers from Vhalantru's house.
Perhaps one of the statues might be an "ex-communicated" Cagewright (similar to Kaurophon) who has that information would be willing to give it up.