I also like the idea of her joining the group very willingly as a rookie / apprentice. It'd be only natural that she's at the bottom of the ladder and taking orders from the others as she's the most inexperienced, and she'd probably be very eager to prove her worth, so she'd easily go along with some "initiation" or hazing (although she'll have no idea what it's quickly going to evolve into).<br/><br/>Skimming over most of the introductions and diving straight into some action sounds like a fun idea to me as well. We could probably cover most of "how did she actually end up with the party" and "what does everyone think of her and each other" with some exposition-y inner monologue and such?