[@Blue Wolf]
Lol, I can see Syd being like, "Wait... didn't I coat that blade in sunfire oil earlier?!"
"Well, it's harmless to the living. Probably. Maybe."

As for the party forming, I was just going with Arn's announcement, that anyone who's willing to join him must meet him there in three days at sunrise. So they're pretty much all tied in automatically, if they want to go. In the meantime, they can just hang around, take care of business, and get to know each other until a timeskip, at least I assume.