Thanks.
I guessed that much <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
However, tempering with the savegmes, I should be able to do something.
The question is, how?...

I won't reload a savegame (I've gained 4 levels since), nor will I restart the game, unfortunately.
I've read the procedure to revive NPCs by editing saves with hexadecimal values. This is what I'll do to if nothing else is available. But I really think copy/pasting a previous .dat file from an old savegame would work, the question is: What will I lose by recovering my NPCs...

Thanks, and see you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />