Player Frustration Kill

Well....for better or for worse I got another kill with my emerging group. We got the Colgrove's and my other small set of players together so we have a nice party of 6 (7 if you count the Elven Wardawg) triapsing through "Relb's Revenge". They've done a decent job so far.....they've missed some stuff, but I won't post any type of spoilers until they've finished and just had their second death. This second death bugs me a bit becuase it was Amie's Battlemage. It was a pretty cool PC and had lots of potential, but it didn't need to die.

The party had discovered the eeeeeevil magic-user's sanctum and what appears to be his spellbook is lying on a table very obviously guarded by four magical glyphs. The adventure text is very clear on the fact that I need to make sure the players realize that it is a VERY, VERY bad thing to touch the book. I came just short of reading the consequences of touching the book to them.

Now Amie is a new player, but I would have to admit that I've been guilty of the same "crime" when playing. Actually I'm a bit worse if I'm playing in a tournament since I know there is a time limit involved. The players were huddled around this book assuming that it is the answer to the problems they've been hired to investigate. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. They know there is more to the complex, but they've been avoiding the one side and the door to a balcony where the Bard fell to her death.

They know there is another chamber, but they've been avoiding it like the plague. Since they've got their sights on this super-duperly trapped book...BTW, they have no true thief in the party......they've got tunnel-vision. After wisely deciding to not touch the book they stand around and discuss the matter ad-nauseum. Time is running out on the night's session and Amie decides "screw it" and has her PC touch the book.

One failed save vs. death and we have another dead PC.

I like Battlemages, but they kind of suck all on their own. I'm hoping that the experience doesn't put Amie off of gaming. We had started rolling up a spare PC and with any luck we'll finish it off this next week so she can bring it in. I've already decided where I'll introduce it.