I have all the saves from my first game (excluding quicksaves, of course). What have you done so far in Verdistis? What council quests have you completed, and which scrying orbs have you picked up?

I finished most of the quests in Verdistis before going to the castle, so if you were to use a world.x1 file from my save after opening the scrying room in the council hall, you may have issues with unfinished quests in Verdistis. Let me know if you want to try it.