[@thewizardguy]
NPCs. Not characters.
Forcefield that can withstand, as you said, 1 ton of force (which isn't exactly logical, pressure would be better. But it's whatever) That crush was well beyond his limit.

I mean, hell, I killed my own secondary character because it was a horrible match up and Smog was playing for keeps. A dick move is killing PCs without any form of advance warning or discussion. Or removing your entire, un-sheeted NPC minions with a magic wave of my hand.

These villains are serious. There is massive plot stuff going on throughout everything with the Alkahest to open up the RP away from Reg and I steering everything. Give the players proper interaction without relying on some plot bullshit.

Jack can recreate the rune sets onto another fairly easily, to boot. Give them real training. Put them into a certain group that will be forming soon as spies. You have legitimate options available to you, and losing an NPC does not stop that.

Also, thank you Mercenary Lord, for understanding part of the basics behind it.