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For the life of me, I can't figure out what it is you are requesting, Kafen.

:/ Right... Bluntly, the module a railroad. It was designed to be a railroad, and the author of the module admits to it being a railroad at some point in one of the dragon mags.

I know the game is running long for some people. And, I suspect it would not hurt a lot of feelings if we were to move ahead and skip some of the "random and open sandbox" stuff in favor of moving to the important parts of this section.

For the moment, we're kind of waiting on Breila to return. Her character is a key component of Elistan's conversion.

I'm unclear on what part of the module you want to 'skip' to.

And further, this is the first I've heard of complaints of the game running too long. Is this true?

This part of the module, at least. It is the last stage of the railroad for the module. Players have to follow the book steip-by-step to finish it.

No, they don't.

Ok, lets just wait on Brelia to return tomorrow, and then see what happens.

Well, as I don't know the books at all, I can't follow a railroad. I let Goldmoon do what seems sensible at that point, from what I can understand. Remember Goldmoon tried to get Elistan to converse when they first met?

So perhaps the game is most interesting for me...

Well, there are instances in the modules where the DM is told to railroad. So far, they all involve forcing the party to participate in the main quest. I have yet to need to use any of them.

For instance, had the party refused to come to Pax Tharkas, the module states Goldmoon should be plagued with nightmares of the world burning every night. If the party still refuses, they are to be attacked every few hours, again and again and again, until they either turn back or all die.

If the party had refused to go to Qualinesti, there was a special encounter involving a large number of troops and a pair of red dragons who forcefully capture the party and put them in a slave cage on a caravan. The elves later break them free and bring them to Qualinesti anyway.

As the party has not in any way refused to participate in the main quest so far, I haven't had the need to railroad anyone. So yes, the module includes railroading, I just haven't used any yet.

We aren't following the book word by word at all. For one thing, in the books, nobody in the group was ever captured. In the books, Tasslehoff and a character who has not even been introduced yet in the modules (but was introduced back during the slave caravan scene in the books) separate from the party, spy on Verminaard, and have a little mini-adventure on their own. Obviously, this has not happened. In the books, most of the party is largely suspicious of Gilthanas--except Laurana, the only one who defends him. Without spoiling anything, the book and the module both end in different ways. And the next two modules (DL3 and DL4; Dragons of Hope and Dragons of Desolation, respectively) are not in the books at all! The books skip them, with the party just saying, "Hey, those were some wacky adventures we had, huh?" glossing over them entirely.

I could go on and on. As long as the party doesn't outright refuse to participate in the main quest (keeping in mind that if they do refuse, Ansalon and perhaps even the entire world is doomed), nobody is being railroaded at all.

Is Tasslehoff staying behind? Or is there some clever way to disguise him as a human woman, too?

For that matter, do the players of the characters remaining behind mind that they're going to have very little to do but sit and talk for awhile?

Sturm is very very injured, staying he protects his honor by ensuring goldmoon and the women are safe.

(Yes I know there will be not much to do.)

Sometimes the things that are not in the thick of the action are just as important. Goldmoon will certainly have many questions of the women and Elistan to answer. She will spread the knowledge about the Gods. And don't worry, I am in enough games and have enough other things to do not to get bored .

I ordered DL3 (Dragons of Hope) on the internet a few days ago, and it just arrived today! I'll be going over it carefully to prepare for when this chapter ends.

Just wanted to let you all know.

Jaded, I have never read them, but I think I have them all in PDF ....

Somewhere, lol.

Call me old fashioned, I just like to have a physical copy in my hands when gaming. I do have PDF copies, though, of the first four modules.

I am the same with many things, I understand fully.