How to quickly end RtoTEE

I decided to insert the TEE in my campaing. I created my own background story to lead them to the temple. Basically very similar to what is in the module. The center of the crater is Bane prison. The story occurs on a sister planet of Faerun (In the same solar system). Bane follower recently started to reappear and they are trying to free Bane. After many investigation and secret temple raid, they finally figure out the plot and decide to attack the crater mine to prevent them for freeing Bane.

Now they have been in this mine for 5 session and we are all bored to death, by hack, slash and loot. My player needs to use their brain a bit more.

I don't care wether or not Bane is freed. If the evil priest are successfull Bane will just rise back but it's not like it will be the end of the world. I was thinking of having a major earthquake destroy the whole place forcing the hero to leave the dungeon and heads towards other things, or have the futur cohort of the fighter (that they would meet in the dungeon) warn them that Bane is already free and that he decimated his whole group. Or spoon feed them the way to access directly the outer ring and make it a simple castle where all the cultist would be, they kill them and they head back home.

To make it simple, I would like to know how you would handle such a situation as a DM. Thanks in advance for your suggestion.

TPK, dude!

TPK, is too simple and that would not be fair to my players. 4 of my players are new to the game and they are quite attached to their character. I would feel very bad to TPK them, because I was too lazy to read the module before throwing them in.

How about "this module is lame and boring, let's try something else". That's what we did, and not soon enough IMO.

Use it! What you've got is a god trapped inside a volcano on a expendable planet. That's terrific. If you can tie the destruction of the place to the PCs somehow you are all set. Don't destroy the planet out of boredom with the module - destroy it for the fun of it. Enjoy.

Planar gate!

"Oh look, we're all on the Abyss now - aaugh!"

Well, if the quick fix is what you are after, I agree, tie something the PCs do or have done to an event which leads to freeing Bane, and causing mass devastation.

That said, if you want them to have a true hand in it and get into the inner temple and have the climactic battle, instead of junking it, add stuff to make the temple more brain intensive. More clues about the rivalries so that the PCs can use them against each other (since there's nothing more fun than watching two groups of baddies beat the bejezus out of each other, then go "BOO!", whack the survivors and take their stuff). Add more riddle vaults and strange traps.

But this all depends on your players - what do they like? If possible, add in the adventure types and interactions they like into the module with some rewriting if you can rather than just throwing up your hands with what sounds like it could be an epic story arc that would allow the PCs to affect their world.

I'm a brutal gamemaster, but I've never TPK'd outside of a convention run, and that's not a good solution in a campaign in my opinion. But it's been my experience that if you can redirect and add things to an adventure that has gotten hum-drum, you might be able to pull it off and get the PCs interested again.

The One Warlock

In Ruins of the Undermountain, Halaster created a bunch of teleportation rings that allowed for quick travel to key points among the dungeon. Maybe the next high priest they kill is wearing one with a teleportation to the temple at the end of the module where they are trying to free Bane. Or better yet, it is a teleportation to a secret location holding one of the key elements to performing the ritual. Without Bane's adamantine pinky ring, they can't finish the ritual.

The PCs can get the pinky ring and then escape effectively ending the dungeon crawl and opening the door for bane followers to try to track down their god's pinky ring of death.

[note: you don't have to use a pinky ring. ]

Dang. I was beaten to the TPK joke (it was a joke ... right?)

Have the players contact a higher level party/wizard/destruct-o-bot/whatever. The higher level guy takes out the bad guys but at the cost of his own life. Presto! The players are involved, the temple is destroyed, and the dues ex machina guy is gone as well so the players can't call on him again.

The players leave. (What, is there something keeping them from walking out the door?)

Some time later, Bane gets free and starts killing things. Now the players, if they want to, can take on Bane. Or not, if they don't feel responsible.