The players are zooming back to their old base in Roan from Landimond Island in their airship at this point. Actually they were not zooming but flying back at a leisurely 'cruise speed'. Otherwise it costs double spell points/levels for every hour of flight.
They had Vork's mom with them (newly rescued), as well as the recently abducted Queen Emerald. They had also piled the cargo hold of the ship with chunks of coral from the coral golems which they had recently fought.
There were a few roleplaying scenes aboard the ship, with the queen generally getting in the way, but having a few things to say about the Starrior Kings (I have recently tidied up her character sheet and given that hse had some skills in nobility and knowledge local, I wanted to make the players aware that she could be of use as a knowledge base).
The players are still getting their plans together. The eventual plan (from what i can tell overhearing them talk) is
1) to get the Elan Cabal in Roan reunited with the one on Evander. Ganex and Kismet are still on the outs with the Elan in Roan over their refusal to turn over Queen Joniele's scepter, the Wraith Control Rod. This would somehow involve making some kind of peace with the wraiths.
2) Break the curse over the Starrior Tombs (thus liberating Dread Queen Joniele, Ghost King Ymmane). Somehow. They still weren't sure how.
3) Solve the Necromancers Curse in Evander. In Evander- the dead walk at night. The deal here is, ever since the beginning of the campaign, there's been a curse on the city of Evander. Low-level skeletons and zombies (and occaisionally spontaneously animate and roam the city destructively. Evander deals with this by setting up walled off 'grave-zones', and an organized army of Bremenite-led forces that patrol dangerous-areas at night.
(The real deal: there's a dungeon beneath Evander where some dark presence with a corrupting influence causes all of this, but the Evanderites deal with it by just whomping the skeletons and stuff on the surface.)
4) Somehow get everyone on their side and go deal with Vincent and his undersea temple.
The SETUP:
MY PLANS as a GM are a bit different. As I closed the last session, I had sort of plotted myself into a corner by saying the queen would be declared dead within 3 days, and then I failed to kill her. (Or rather, the PCs successfully stopped all of my attempts). Short of outright cheating, I decided that she would be 'declared dead' on schedule. My original plan was that once the players left the room during the battle with the demons, one would return and kill the handmaidens and the guards, then disguise one of the dead handmaidens to look like the queen. I thought this over and came up with a better idea.
Vincent had an "evil mentor" named Carthag early on in the campaign who mysteriously disappeared. But before he did, he helped Vincent fake his own death by creating a fake body and disguising it. Carthag had not made a direct appearance since the characters were like 2nd-3rd level. But he'd be the perfect guy for such a plot.
So I had this idea. This guy should be the one. And after going through my notes and stuff, it seemed to make sense that Carthag would have gotten back in touch with Vincent, signed onto the evil plot, then returned to Evander. I decided he had actually killed the old archcleric Pliete, then assumed Pliete's form using a hat of disguise, and an amulet of unknowable alignment.
So after the players disappear with the real queen, I say that Carthag goes ahead, returns, kills all the guards, kills the handmaidens, and just as he did with Vincent, he creates a fake body of the Queen. Then he returns to Archcleric Pliete's room and leaves a clay golem behind to attack the first person there. Left in the back room is the body of the real Archcleric (hanging from the rafters ha). He finishes up by casting a Hold Portal over the door and leaving the scene.