Okay everyone, thanks for the input! Incorporating as best I can, schedule will be this:
Feb 19th
Mar 26th -- Isaku sadly unavailable but everyone else should be
April -- a month off (Steve will have to provide gaming fix if possible), too many conflicts!
May 21st -- everyones' preference
Jun 25th -- fairly strong preference
Jul 23rd -- everyone said either (or did not express a preference)
Aug 13th -- fairly strong preference
Sep 10th -- Isaku may be unavailable but it wasn't certain -- and it fit a little better...
Oct 15th -- everyone said either (or did not express a preference)
Nov 12th -- fairly strong preference
Dec 10th -- fairly strong preference
As for experience, at long last (per my usual procrastination tendencies, only moreso):
Zenako => 18th level
Ashiko => 17th level
Noku => 17th level
Isaku => 17th level
Birkat => 15th level
Abu => 15th level
Of the remaining 4 characters, experience needed as follows:
Hatori < 2k
Til'k < 3k
Mulan < 4k
Gorvak < 5k
Given the amounts of experience possible, all four of those listed could well advance after the next session, with Hatori practically guaranteed -- assuming he survives, of course. :-)
Characters can be advanced to their new levels as normal, despite the time pressures.
I'll see everyone (I hope!) at the Standley Gaming Center Sunday afternoon. To recap recent events -- not necessarily perfectly, but it has been a couple months...
A chain-wielding snake lady attempted to kidnap Isaku, who was eventually surprised to learn that some ancestor of his named Dydd (probably a barbarian from the wilderness!) had a hand in slaying -- sort of -- a wyrm of great power, called Ashardalon. The snake lady is known as the Cathezar -- an half-breed oni of two normally opposed breeds, demon on one side and devil on the other. She is evidently the agent of a powerful prince of oni -- one so powerful that the spirits recommend against even Hatori taking it on, at least this side of epic levels of power.
A death sladd named Nurn -- working for some other being of power -- is apparently trying to determine and if possible thwart the plans of the Cathezar and her overlord. Those plans involve destroying Ashardalon to take something from him, or something like that, in order to gain much greater power than the overlord already possesses. And apparently the ki warrior Isaku, thanks to the blood of his barbarian ancestor, would possess some innate ability to help slay the wyrm. The death slaad does not detect as evil but does detect as chaotic -- a fact which bothers some characters more than others. On the other hand, one thing that chaotics DO respect is sheer unadulterated power -- such as that of the Jade Yari wielded by the hands of an Imperial sorcerer who is clearly no slouch on his own...and this slaad does appear to have goals which align with that of the company, for now at least.
It was also determined that Ashardalon inhabits some place on the spirit world which normally supplies the raw energy of unborn souls -- and is somehow eating that energy, causing some newborns to be without souls... This is cause for concern even without the interference of oni overlords. But the 'bastion of unborn souls' apparently cannot easily be found or entered. Two possibilities seem to exist for doing so. One is for the party to obtain a particular talisman, one of which Ashardalon already has, one of which is in the hands of the Cathezar's overlord, and one of which may be obtainable... The other involves making use of the rumor that Ashardalon's kin has access to the bastion already -- by absorbing his cast-off scales into the bodies of those who would enter the bastion, with some magical ritual which would make such characters 'kin' to Ashardalon.
Somehow, the latter option was not that appealing to some of the members of the company of heroes -- for it seemed that the ritual might do more to the body than just allow it access to the bastion, and many of the company seemed averse to the idea of giving up some of their humanity (or other racial identity in the case of the non-humans) simply for what amounts to a pass. So after some discussion it seemed that obtaining the third talisman would be the method chosen to gain access to the bastion.
The Cathezar's lair in the material world was determined to be right in Drakara City itself -- and the company was making plans to take her in her lair rather than wait for another attack. The Cathezar's backup is rumored to be a trio of balor -- powerful fire-based oni -- which says something about how powerful the Cathezar herself actually is. It is thought that her attempt on Isaku earlier was an 'opportunity kidnap' -- that she was, perhaps, not as well-prepared as she could have been. Isaku in the meantime is not being allowed to go anywhere without multiple concerned associates going with him.
Some of the information was gained at the Guild of Sleep, a bizarre opium den turned oracle, so to speak, in the seedier part of the docks area of Drakara City, which was found through information gained at the Church of the Elements, a place of barbarian shamans of significant power who tend an oracle of their own, in the form of an eternal sapling -- the worldly manifestation of a spirit oof evidently great power. The information gathering at the Church was peaceful -- that at the Guild less so, as the Dreamer Prime took exception to being woken from her years-long slumber. Yet, once awoken, though rather impolite, in fact downright rude -- and ugly, being a hag in the literal sense of the word -- Dreamer Prime did prove to be helpful, and neither evil nor chaotic.
The next step? First, to attempt to eliminate the Cathezar as a source of meddling, then to find a way to gain access to the bastion and deal with Ashardalon.