Character replacement in Firestorm Peak

Here's a problem I am struggling with at the moment. I have recently started running "The Gates of Firestorm Peak" and my players are having a little difficulty with it, such that one of their number has died twice now (fortunately, their priest has a Rod of Resurrection). Now, normally I don't have a problem with character death, party wipes or what-have-you. Normally, the player generates a new character and I introduce it in some way. But how can I do this in GoFP? For those of you who don't know (if there are any!), this takes place in a subterranean complex in a mountainside which is all but hermetically (and magically) sealed, with the one entrance being heavily-defended gates which only open once every 27 years!

All my usual ploys are out.

• I can't have someone just wander past, come in and come across the party: leave aside the remoteness of the location, but there is no way one character could get through that entrance alone.
• I can't have a character as a prisoner: the place only opens to the outside world once every 27 years. The character would have to have been kidnapped as a child and held prisoner all that time, probably going mad in the process.
• I can't have someone tunnel in: the Elder Elves who built the complex placed powerful magical protection against that sort of thing.

It's something of a dilemma. The thing is, that Rod of Resurrection ain't gonna last forever, or someone is going to fail a resurrection survival roll, or something. Sure, I can fudge rolls and fake things a bit, but there comes a point where that doesn't work anymore.

I was wondering if anyone else out there had faced this problem and come up with a solution. It's actually rather urgent for me to work this out; next Thursday, the player whose character has just been killed for the second time, plus one other player, will have to make resurrection survival rolls, and if one or both of them fail ... ?

You are the DM. It is your job to fix problems like this. If you need to break or bend the quest rules and mechanics associated with letting people in. Make exceptions that would allow someone to randomly be placed in the dungeon.

Examples:

Players encounter a prisoner frozen in time who has been there longer than 27 years. Maybe even a whole group of people. (this would solve any future people needing to be added to the party)

Players encounter a person or persons who have been in the area for their whole life but are being magically controlled. Once freed they dont remember anything except their skills and class.

Players encounter a person or persons who have been magically teleported into the area. They players may try to figure out how this happened because it goes against the mechanics of the area but you are not required to explain it. They only need to know that it happened.

Players encounter a person or persons turned to stone and they save them.

You could develop a new addition to the dungeon that breaks the game mechanics. Like a secondary entrance that only opens once ever 1000 years and the new characters happened across it and entered before it closed and are now stuck.

Those are good ideas Master!

I'm runing the Worlds Largest Dungeon and have simular issues but its not quite as bad. Since the Dungeon is falling aprart and many other things have 'somehow' made it in, its pretty easy to say that new characters have as well.

Lets see... I've done:

Child and her partents became trapped in the dungeon years ago. The parents were killed but she was taken in by the resident good guys and has hooked up with the party to try and get out.

A Sorcerer tried to cast a spell that went wrong and 'popped' into the dungeon.

2 characters were walking home in their home town after a long adventure and heard a scream down the ally. Going to check it out things got dark and weird. They stepped out of the alley onto the shore of an undergound lake (part of the dungeon). When they turned around the alley way was gone.

I'm thinking of having the next player be summoned from an summon spell. Part of the magic of the dungeon doesn't let things summoned get back out again once the spell expires.

What level are the players and how strict are you on what they can play and what kind of bad/neutral guys are around?

i.e. if its ok a new player can take something from a close by (or futher way group he is fleeing...) band of creatures. Or the players can find some statues and then a medusa/gorgon that, obviously, turned them to stone. In the treasure is the always present scroll of stone to flesh that will let them turn 1 statue back to life.

All I can think of right now. Good luck!

rv

Add something that the place might have been partially created to hide...

The "Dungeon Master" style Resurrection Altar, it does not fail resurrections ever... but takes only special tokens. These are treasured beyond measure by anyone who holds them and realizes that they basically mean a new lease on life.

In the old Dungeon Master games, they would bring back anyone from a mere pile of bones or less.



Or you go with the alternative to let they player make a non-human character. Surely among the hordes of evil <nnnnnn> there has to be ONE who is born with the desire to right some of the wrongs his kind has perpetrated on all the other races.

... I know which of these two I'd choose.

Create a one way portal.

Roaches get in, but they can't get out

In Forgotten Realms they have "portals" some of which are malfunctioning and could deposit you here. Alternatively the key(s) to operating the portal from this side could be lost, outside the dungeon, unknown. The last could lead to many adventuring hooks trying to determine the proper key and/or find it. Even make it a "complex key" requiring multiple elements, something like a dragon scale, a vial of blood from a displacer beast and a pearl worth a minimum of 500gp could be the "key".