Scenario1

The First Scenario

The campaign will begin on the isle of Arista. Arista is a barren floating island of about a square mile extent. The only permanent structure on it is a squat, stout castle that houses a single portal that connects to the palace at Lyko. The portal is guarded year-around but the castle holds little except for at the yearly New Year's Court when the notables of the land gather for a reaffirmation of the king and games. Attendance at the court is theoretically mandatory although for the last thirty years attendance has been spotty. This year, however, the King has insisted that all attend and nearly everyone has in fact arrived if for no other reason than to see if the king will really execute his rebellious daughter Tantra. (Draco has more information on this here.)

The game begins on the morning of the first court day. At noon, the king will take a seat on the Sapphire throne which is moved through the portal for the yearly court and then returned for the rest of the year to Lyko Palace. The island is crowded with the pavilions of nobles and their followers. Just about every noble imaginable is present. the only open spaces are the lists and the melee field set aside for the festivals later in the day.

Normal, New Year's Court is a festive occasion but this year the crowd is sullen: all wonder what the fate of Tantra will be. She is scheduled for execution tomorrow and many nobles mutter that should that come to pass, they will immediately leave the island.

PCs

All PCs will be present at the New Year's Court, including backup PCs, unless you work out a special exception with the referee. If the PCs have cohorts or companions, they may have the companions with them.

If you have major estates, then your PC is required to be present as a noble and pay hommage to the king on the first day. If you have minor estates, you can also choose to be here under your own banner but you will not have the chance to pay hommage. In all other cases, you will be present as part of a noble's household. If you have a noble friend in your portfolio that's one obvious choice. Other obvious choices are with Astilla Draco (if you are a relative), with Duchess Fina (if you were raised with her), in the employ of some other noble (arrange with the ref) or you are here uninvited (also arrange this with the ref.)

Unless you have the dual PCs card, at some point in the first scenario, you will need to send one of your two PCs home (refere will arrange a suitable opportunity). Players with the dual PC card may continue to play both PCs for this scenario (but expect to go to one PC after that for the time being.)

Full arms and armor are permitted at the court so you can have any gear you like. The crowd does dress for the occasion. An outfit of 50gp is considered modest. 250gp or more might get people's attention.

There are no merchants at the court. All must bring their own food. There is often trading among the nobles for luxury items and magics.

Preparation

Unless you have the dual PC card and you intend to play both PCs, you just need to have detailed the PC you intend to play. You can leave your backup PC undefined for now if you don't want to spend effort on it at this time.

You should have all six characters in your portfolio named and their roles defined (two PCs, two friends, two foes unless you have gems cards that change this.)

If you want your PC to travel with a companion after the point that the players without the dual PC card send their second PCs home, then you most have those companions detailed as well.

You should not detail non-PCs in your portfolio unless they are a cohort. We will detail them as needed in the campaign. If you fix them now at a certain level, it makes it more awkward to use them at a higher level later. It is desirable to write a one page summary of your portfolio as well, describing some of the PC background and a paragraph or so on everyone else in the portfolio. (See here for an example.)

Session One Summary

Duchess Fina asked Kestrel, Princep, Leonus, Suchet, Azzhmakyss, Gelydda and Draeca to be on her melee team this year. Along with the Heironim, her team would defend the goal by the castle on the melee on the last full day of the festival.

As threatened, King Ferresh executed his daughter Tantra on Law Day (day two). Before pronouncing her guilty, he flourished a letter that he claimed was written in her hand and addressed to Mottul although he allowed no one to examine the letter. Fina and most other nobles left that evening.

Traditionally, the melee teams each hold Portal guard duty for 6 hour shifts until the melee. On the party's first shift, they spotted and scared away an invisible floating, spotted green creature. They have no idea what that was but the Warrick team that stood the next shift smirked when it was described to them.

On the day of the melee, a half hour into what is typically a 4 hour match, three green dragons rose over the edge of the island and attacked the king. The party went to his aid but could not reach him before he was killed. The party killed the two smaller dragons and scared off the larger.

As the party dealt with the dragons, a large floating fortress rose from the far side of the island and prepared to use its boarding ramp. Fortress have not moved under control since the Ascension 300 years ago so this is a terrifying development for Eidos. The party recognized the fortress as a Mottul fortress named Kildoc.

At this point, the party decided that discretion was the better part of valor and fled for the portal in the central castle. Inside, they discovered the portal already in the hands of Mottul forces. Several Vrock barred their way and two invisible creatures cast spells. The Vrock referred to "the Master" and although they never saw him, they did see a disturbing red glow approach from around the corner. Worst of all, the ref kept asking for Dan to play track 13 from the Fellowship soundtrack.

Rebuffed at the one known working portal, Princep revealed that the so-called Dead Portal upstairs was actually functional. Apparently, this is knowledge gained as a member of the Pathfinder's Guild. In any case, when the party approached the Dead gate they found it operating and they went through to a Talatha palace in the city of Nisos on the Eidos Island of Segestos (map).

Immediate Situation

The party has been in Segestos for 2 days. Characters have full spells and hit points.
Nisos is the main city of family Taletha. Ikon is the family head. Like most Eidos nobles, he left the New Year's Court at the end of Law Day. He has not been effusive in his welcome but he has provided the party with the use of the Winter Palace, one the smaller palaces in the city. It is entirely at their disposal and there are no obvious guards although Ikon is a wizard of some repute so it would be sensible to assume that they are under some surveillance. (If the party wants guards for their own security, then they can have requested them and they will be posted.) The palace has a small staff.
News of the disaster has spread throughout Segestos, the only region the party currently has contact with. Naturally, there is great turmoil, the militia has been called up and everyone is on alert.
The party guarded the portal they came through for 30 minutes. During that time, two pages from family Hieronim came through. After that, Mottul forces tried to rush the portal and the party shut down the portal and killed four Vrocks who had pushed through. Princep says the portal cannot be used again for at least one month.
Over the next 24 hours, Mottul forces tried to push through three portals from Lykos to various places in Segestos. Segestos forces were ready and the portals have been shut but clearly Mottul controls the Lykos palace and it would be sensible to assume that their raids from Lykos succeeded in at least a few other cases. The raiding parties seemed to be lead by exceptionally powerful wraiths backed by skeletons, wights and other undead.

Current Knowledge

The party knows that all family heads except for family Warrick's Duke Warrick left on Law Day. The fate of Duke Warrick is not known. He was a member of one of the melee teams (defending the King's goal).
The party is reminded that fortresses have not moved under their own power since the Archons left during the ascension 300 years ago. Mottul's ability to move the Kildoc fortress is of world-wide significance.
Moving fortresses required epic-level magic. This magic was closely guarded and none of the party, even those over 300 years old, ever saw it in use. However, the older party members have reason to believe that this magic involved some combination of keys, spells, and special materials (probably quicksilver).

Session Two Summary

Control Rod

(Click image for more info on fortresses)

The party journeyed to Mithguard to ensure that the fortress was safe and uncovered the following:

The Castellan Severus is an 800 year old has-been (or "never been") seeking glory. He has been the castellan for several hundred years and has been trying to find the way to make the castles fly again for centuries.
This is new information not presented during the game session: Severus has long known mercury was required to fly the fortress and has long ago identified sources of this mercury.
He has received 4 of the required 6 flasks and expects the next 2 flasks tomorrow.
In addition to mercury, a magic control rod is required to fly the castle. Severus' sidekick, the barbed-devil Pico, found it in a secret compartment that had previously been searched and found empty. Severus says it was in a second secret compartment within the first and not directly visible (without contortions anyway). Pico found the rod a few weeks ago.
The party did a detect magic on the rod and it glowed very brightly. Suchet thought it was epic level magic.
The party determined that the half celestial elf Brytan was in league with Mottul. They recovered from his body and his room:

Flask of shdows (creates greater darkness from which shadows can be summoned. This is an evil item.)
Cap of sending, usable once per day.
Other items (see Christina's sheet).

You had Brytan at Severus' interrogation after which he went to his room. Before you saw him again (and interrogated him), he contacted Mottul with the cap of sending.