Hooray! And thanks much. It's been a fun character / voice to try to develop.
On the subject of "where to now?" Shai's priorities are as follows:
1) Find the Inn (which I'm pretty sure we never named) that we stayed at when Talashia, Uulark, and Caerwyn joined. Talashia's point that Tanith may have left the nuts in safe-keeping could be valid. If she left them--or word of them--I'd think that would be the first logical place that she'd do so.
2) Try to track down Vardi, and probably that white-plumed hat fellow. The journal tells us Duran (and by implication Loddie) were in the sewers with the kobolds, but clearly they weren't with the kobolds when we encountered them (or, if they were, not in any form we'd be able to identify). White-plume might know / be persuaded to share what he knows about Duran's underground operation, which may give us a direction. And if Shai shows up and explicitly introduces himself as being from the party who went for the nuts, Vardi may be more inclined to open up, as well. If number 1 above panned out, either of them might be even more amenable to helping us.
3) The sewers, particularly the spot where we hit the larger number of kobolds, to look for clues on where Duran or Loddie may have gone.
4) The icky dead body trophy room. It's not obviously connected to Loddie or Duran, but as Shayuri mentions, Shai's preoccupation with the quest he got side-tracked from isn't necessarily going to be top billing for everyone else (and as I mentioned, he tends to bow to the majority and / or stronger personalities). Besides, the journal seems to have connected the alchemist's discovery with "the barkeep," which at least partially suggests that Loddie may have been somehow connected not just with Duran, but with the alchemist.
jason