After portal, is entire army gone forever?

[namad]

Originally Posted by camelotcrusade

I put all my limited troops in the two castle garrisons before I fought the spider, and then brought disposable troops with me.

Once you get to Greenwort, After you do a quest to get a ship you can sail back and pick them up - you don't even have to fight.

Honesty though, you will have so many choices for new troops (particularly if you uncover more islands by talking to the right NPCs) that you may find it refreshing to change things around.

how did you do this? isn't it impossible to access the first castle until after the spider is dead? or am I missing something about the plot/function?