I ended up saying that Longtail and his Orcish retinue attacked Sharn, before moving on to the WLD. The account of the first session follows:
(Note: Ninarika's player did not show up until about 2 hours in. I NPCed her until he did show up.)
The party started their adventure by examining the Titan outside the WLD for a good fifteen minutes, which had me worried about the way the game would progress. After this, however, they got down and dirty. There was a slight hang-up in A1, where they were afraid of the 1-way wall of force, but Jattar had his Psicrystal scout ahead, so they knew it was okay. Upon entering A2, the first thing that Atreus does is poke the trapped door (and subsequently get blasted by Burning Hands for 1). They then go over to the Orcs, who had laughed, and interrogate them. They are frustrated because they can get no response. At one point, Donkor just hauls off and wallops one of them, almost killing him (he doesn't kill the orc, because he minimized his damage). Atreus tries to improve their mood by making them laugh more, so he goes and pokes the trapped door again (taking another 1). This doesn't work, and they eventually give up.
After exploring each of the outlying rooms, the party settles on A8. The encounter with the darkmantle in room A9 was HILARIOUS. They all ACTIVELY SEARCHED THE CEILING, and still failed to see the Darkmantle. It ended up dropping on Atreus' head, and attaching itself, almost killing him when it rolled the high Initiative. The resulting struggle drew the attention of the dire rat in the next room, which ended up biting Jattar (who got a 6 on his Fort save). After dispatching the threats, they moved on to the four bedrooms (A12-15). Atreus scouted ahead, and noticed 1 of the 2 darkmantles in A15. They stealthily dispatched the rats in A13 first, so they wouldn't have to deal with a pincer attack. When they finally did assault A15, Atreus got latched onto by the first darkmantle, which Donkor then killed with a sling bullet. The second darkmantle immediately attached itself to Atreus' head, which brought him to 0. Jattar tried to shoot it off, but... he hit Atreus, bringing him to -6. It was great.
When they finished that encounter (which is around when Ninarika's player showed up), they headed to A11, and then A20. This was their introduction to secret doors, which they henceforth searched for OBSESSIVELY (they also did so for darkmantles). They proceeded to A69 and dealt with Boyikt and his merry men, though Atreus was fairly well reamed by the Krenshar. Then they went to A72, and A21, and BACK to A20 (due to their obsessive searching for secret doors). Since I was running out of room on my hex grid (yes I use hex, shut up), they decided to explore further north, via A16. They saw the stirges from the hallway, and a super-high Knowledge (Arcana) check from Ninarika told them that THEY DID NOT WANT THESE THINGS TO LATCH ON TO THEM. They ended up moving stealthily enough that the stirges didn't even notice them, so they took out half of the force in a surprise round, and the other half before they could move, due to high Initiative rolls. They proceeded east, then north, and in the door to A24, a room which, surprisingly, did not even faze them. They proceeded to A23, and Donkor obsessively checked every single pillar. On the off-chance that one of them might figure out the room, I had the word "illusion" inscribed into the backside of each pillar in Syranian. Sadly, Donkor took this to mean the pillars were illusory, and, after failing to disbelieve an illusion that wasn't present, he gave up. In the next room, they met Bragdor. Donkor just sort of waltzed in, and Bragdor chased him behind a pillar, and smacked his hp away with a single hit (max hp to disabled with one hit... ;p). Malus rolled high on the Init, however, and moved to flank. He then unleashed a Sapphire Nightmare Blade, and criticaled, doing 22 points of damage, and causing the Ogre to surrender (I gave them the XP for this, and Donkor and Atreus leveled up). I went a different direction with this, and had him go ahead and follow the PCs. They asked him if he would be willing to turn on Longtail, and he said yes... they didn't ask about Orghar, though... (teehee...)
They then went to A25, and (with the help of Bragdor) destroyed the dire rats handily. This leveled Jattar up, and he took a level in Soulknife. He was totally prepared to be a melee fighter... and then the disease hit. His Str dropped from 10 to 6, and... well, he cursed me out. ^_^ They explored A26 and A27, and then went ot A28, where they met Turag. Bragdor helped coax him out of hiding, and the PCs (mostly Atreus, to be honest) convinced him to follow them. That's where we left off.
