True, true -- however, this is a group I've played with for around 8 years or so, and they're rather used to the severe plot twists I come up with. Considering in the past I've had them come across their own 10,000-year old dead bodies deep in the Underdark, staged a climactic battle to end a campaign on one of the floating cities of Netheril mere moments before Karsus' Folly, and smashed multiple worlds together to *start* a campaign, they'll handle it fine, I think.
Admittedly, they didn't exactly take TOO well to the finale of the fight on the Netherse city -- they killed Vlaakith before she had a chance to become a lich, and thus prevented the Githyanki invasion they'd just dealt with from ever happening -- which meant that their (3.5 ed) bard and halfling sickle-trip-ranger were.... alive again. Plus, I do give adequate forewarning when I trend towards the darker side of fantasy.
It's when I mess with any NPC sidekicks I give them that they tend to get ticked off.
Hmm, this just reminded me -- I need to adjust my sig a bit....