Cutrer de Guerre: male human paladin (Baz)
Joseph Délivré: male human cleric [Fiset] (John)
Gabrielle Deschats: female human bard (Goran)
Farhang: female halfling rogue (Brett)
Fjolnir Forsgren: male dwarf fighter (Sam)
Marcus: male human wizard (Dave)
Falin M'Or: male elf ranger (Shawn)

After restoring John LeClair to his normal form and turning him over to the Thelvenheim authorities, the party accompanies Farhang on her compulsory quest to a nearby dwarven shrine.  The party discovers that the shrine has been sacked, but not by the Drouinistes.  Searching the debris, they discover a small locket, emblazoned with the insignia of House Dryden, the founding dynasty of the (now-shattered) Empire Nordique.

The locket is a powerful magical device: the next time they are in danger, it opens a portal as a means of escape.  Entering it, the party find themselves in the throne room of the Imperial Palace at Charron, the former capital.  There, they become trapped in a power struggle between the flawed but decent Baron de Therrien, who has assumed power in the city, and the powerful Langevist church, who are seeking to install the young Katerina Dryden, returned from exile during the war years, as empress.

Over the course of several adventures -- taking them to the tiny hamlet of Dinsmore, the treehouse of a hermit wizard, and an invisible tower manned by a half-fiend paladin -- and driven on by Gabrielle's prophetic dreams, the party discovers the terrible truth: Katerina and the Langevists are but pawns in a much deadlier contest.  The real authors of the plan to install Katerina are Orcus, demon prince of the undead, and Jeanne Rheaume, the vampire witch whose estate was raided by Marcus and Farhang in the previous campaign.  A portal to Thanatos, Orcus's Abyssal domain, lies dormant under the hills near Dinsmore, waiting to be unlocked by the hand of a crowned emperor of House Dryden.  Rheaume has agreed to deliver that hand, in exchange for a means of restoring her daughter Chantal, slain when she drew the Skull card from her mother's Deck of Many Things.

The party also learns that they are unwittingly in the service of Orcus's archenemy: the demon prince Graz'zt.  Still, they know that they must stop Rheaume and Orcus from opening the Abyssal portal.  Drawing upon obscure lore, and using a magic ring provided by Graz'zt, they travel to the Negative Energy Plane to locate Chantal Rheaume's soul.  They battle a mind flayer quasi-lich, destroy his phylactery, and free her.  Back in Charron, they resurrect Chantal, and present her to her mother.  The vampire abrogates her deal with Orcus and destroys the item needed for Katerina to open the Abyssal gate.  At her request, the party slays Rheaume, and resurrects her as a human, so that she may walk in the sunlight with her daughter once more.  As a parting gift, she gives the party her Deck of Many Things.  Marcus draws the Void, and is forever lost.  And following Graz'zt's instructions, Gabrielle tries to return the magic ring, but is instead transported to the Argent Palace, to serve as the demon's concubine.

Along the way, the party gains the enmity of the rakshasa Prabhakaran, by slaying his medusa consort and looting his lair.  There, the party also discovers the petrified head of Fjolnir's brother, Sigurd.  After some detective work in Charron and a battle with a black dragon, the party recovers his body as well and restores him to life.  Prabhakaran then gains some measure of revenge by luring them to a deadly demi-plane known only as The Garden.  They survive, but are unable to track down the rakshasa.

Katerina is crowned empress after all, with real power in Charron wielded by the Langevist church, and its high priest, Dietrich von Arx.  But only days after the coronation, a herald arrives with a warning: the armies of General Sebastian Noël are coming.