Thanks, guys. I really did enjoy this while it lasted.
Okay, so after the gladiatorial matches (recreating key elements of Arcosian victories over Bal Turat) the crew were going to be named the personal bodyguard of the Emperor's son. They were then gonna load up on airships bound for the front (hearing strange bellows as creatures they never saw were loaded onto the ship).
The airship fleet was sabotaged! They ended up WAY off course in a stormy northern realm. The airships were destroyed down to the last and the PCs would begin the first 'real' adventure of the campaign in freefall. Also in freefall were a number of obstacles to be avoided and - a half-dozen wardrakes. The wardrakes had been hobbled for the journey and couldn't fly or really move. As the PCs freed them (if not out of any noble motivations, then out of hope that freeing a flying creature was the only way to not die) the wardrakes would bond telepathically with their rescuers (something that none of the PCs knew could happen with wardrake mounts).
Where they landed after the fact, I hadn't really decided. What happened to any of the other passengers on the ships, I also hadn't really decided. The land into which they fell was a stormy, wild place with giants, orca, goblins and varied natural dangers.
Because at that point the PCs could do anything at all (with flying mounts lots of things change), I hadn't planned too much beyond that. Hooks, of course for Rodeh, with giantish enslavement of dwarves. Goblin hooks for Pirx. Prophecies about dragonriders, etc. Folks coveting the wardrakes. I hadn't decided how lizardy the wardrakes were, so hadn't decided if the climate would impact them or not.
The orcs and the giants were at war, so if the PCs got involved there, the orcs might have been allies. I had no expectation that the group would feel any allegiance to Arcosia or the war with Bal Turat, so I didn't expect that to crop up, but I did have ideas there too.
In broad strokes, that's where we were headed.