I was going to tell the story behind all this, but started typing and realized it would be many more pages than I was willing to go through.
So I'll make this short & sweet.
One of my Arcana Evolved campaign's PCs went off on a solo mission of sorts and hired mercenaries. One was intended to be a permanent PC, one was a backup PC, and three more were pregens I put together specifically for this purpose. Overall it was a pretty good - though combat-heavy - session. Up until the end, that is.
Through a string of interconnected coincidences...
(1) The first PC - the one who headed off on the mission - was taken over by an evil artifact and will come back as a villain
(2) The one who was going to be a backup PC was killed by negative energy & raised as an undead creature, forced into the service of the first PC by said artifact.
(3) One pregen, who started out as more or less a bad guy, was also compelled into the first PC's service
(4) The second pregen, who was lowered down to about 6 HP, was forced into the negative energy by the other 3, raised as undead, and also forced into service.
(5) The final pregen was left as a sacrifice of sorts to a power-mad champion of Death
(6) The lone "unscathed" survivor only survived because he was lowered down to 2 HP and didn't feel like exposing himself to more risk on the inside.
What a fun session.
-O