Once Randal finds between two and three other party members (who he feels are competent, anyway), he'll prepare to set out dragon hunting.  I don't see the need to recruit more players from outside the game... you could always fill a slot or two with NPC's if the players seem intent on finding more help...<br/><br/>As for everyone meeting up in a tavern and getting together as one party to slay the dragon... well, there is no reason it has to happen that way.  The two groups could miss each other, set out toward the dragon separately, and chance upon each other later.<br/><br/>Although if we do end up having two separate groups like that, it would be a bit less confusing if we actually had separate threads, so that conversations made sense without having to scroll up and down to remember what the last person said (and ignoring all the stuff you're "not" aware of").