[@Zetsuko], yes characters can and likely will die. In such instances where a character is in a situation where there's no likely outcome but death, they are permitted to continue as another character if they wish to remain in the topic. Dead characters? Death might not [i]always[/i] be so certain, but I would not bank on that sort of situation to occur, if ever. The expectation is that players "own" their fates - getting involved in a mess you shouldn't is seldom the fault of anyone but the players in question.

Abandoned characters, by disappearance of their player, are assimilated under the Game Master and Assistant Game Master's control as any other non-player character. They too can suffer the same fate as a player character if we accidentally put them in a poor spot.