Beyond the Black Gate did NOT go as planned.

Dear DCC RPG Community,

I never thought it would happen to me...

One of the PCs in my long-running campaign has become a patron--or at least taken the mantle (or horns) of one.

To be fair, he was simply taking the Horned King's crown. His new cohort (new PC, long-time player with us) didn't understand the mission fully, wasn't familiar with the legend of the Wild Hunt, and twisted the meaning of the word "king" and immediately killed the poor guy without consulting anyone else in the party. All this, despite my repeated warnings that they may not get the prime/desired outcome if they simply murder-hoboed their way through this one (Beyond the Black Gate).

To continue, in all fairness: It's Bob's PC. He's copacetic with retiring the dwarf as soon as this scenario [module] is wrapped up. While bittersweet, it's wholly fitting, thematically, that the "Ooh, I've never killed one of these before!" guy is now the master of the Wild Hunt. And, because this is Bob we're talking about, he's totally willing to rewrite the patron taint & invocation tables to reflect his personality, and even his current newness to the job.

My qualms... The crown was taken, no biggie. This other guy, and his actions based on misunderstanding, just screwed the rest of the party out of a few choice options, leaving them to follow Bjorn, the 6th-level murder-hobo-turned-badass-turned-nearly-NPC, to finish this chapter of the campaign.

On one hand, I'd been trying to figure a way to wrap up this particular game and its current set of characters without resorting to the "game got cancelled and we never reconvened" route, which sucks for everyone. I'd like to go about playtesting something different and have not been successful in carving out additional days/times, but I also hate loose ends.

On the flipside, this new development gives me a lot to play with...if I don't burn out on the current player/character combo at the table.

Anyone else run into such a major game-changer?