With the fall of Gor Nathal, King Reginald is desperate enough to call upon a super-weapon. This super-weapon will demonstrate his power, causing any undecided lords to join his (winning) side.
Enter the Hand of Golux. I imagine that the Hand of Golux is a Doomsday Cult that believes that the only way to be saved is to bring about the end of the world. To that end, their cult has come up with a crazy idea: levitate an island high into the sky, then drop it down into the ocean from a great height, something like this:
phpBB [media]
phpBB [media]
King Reginald doesn't actually know about the end of the world thing: they promised him a floating castle in the sky that would be able to move around and rain death and destruction on his enemies. Think Laputa:
phpBB [media]
The spell reagents that Lorelei is tracking down are actually a lot of levitation potion ingredients that the cult is using to levitate the island. She is going to uncover that the reagents were being sent to Gor Tarban, which is where King Reginald is now and is also the headquarters of the Hand of Golux.
Meanwhile, King Reginald is advised to have Queen Isolde meet him on the coastline. He thinks that they will fly over and nuke them from orbit...
phpBB [media]
...instead the island will fall, drowning Gor Nathal in a devastating tsunami.
Unless...
When the island is initially lifted, there will be a narrow window of opportunity for the party to notice and then board the island. The Island will then slowly lift it's way up to the target elevation, becoming progressively more unstable as it goes. At the center of the island is the control center, where the Cult Leader is currently wearing a diadem that allows him to control the flight of the island.
The party has an epic boss fight, but the moment they defeat the Cult Leader, the island begins to fall quickly. Maybe the cult leader is one of the first to die, after which King Reginald and the Party take turns controlling the ship as both of them fight for control of the diadem. Finally, the party prevails, and make a last minute effort to save the day. And at that point we move into epilogues.
Trajectory for Marlon and Lorelei:
1. Lorelei gets Marlon healed and then investigates the reagents, discovering they are all levitation spells. She sends a message via gryphon mail to Queen Isolde, before heading off to Gor Tarban at full speed.
2. Lorelei and Marlon discover the location of the spell deliveries, a castle on a remote island. They manage to sneak onto the island before it takes off towards Gor Nathal. They discover magical thrusters and then overhear the cultists discussing the plan and they send Honkers to warn Isolde and the others.
3. As the party spots the floating island and attempts to board (possibly via gryphon?) the cultists activate the magical defenses, which begin shooting down everyone without plot armor. Lorelei and Marlon act to disable the defenses in a key area, which allows the boarding party to make it onto the island.
4. The party reunites on the floating island, but there is little time for celebration: they have to fight their way into the castle. Lorelei uses magic to help the party approach the walls, where they are able to breach the fortress defenses. Perhaps Honkers acts as a sort of small avian Grond.
phpBB [media]
5. The party breaches the fortress and makes their way to the throne room, where they discover King Reginald and the Cult Leader. King Reginald monologues about how he is going to use the Castle to lay waste to his enemies starting with us. Lorelei retorts that the only one getting used in this place is King Reginald and lays out the cultists plan. Then a three way fight breaks out between the cultists, King Reginald's men, and the party.
6. The diadem is fought over intensely, when people put it on their head, the castle pitches uncontrollably, sending people flying, and with it the diadem. Various people wear the diadem at different points, but only at the end of the battle is the party able to put the diadem on.
7. The diadem is put on their head, but the diadem itself has taken so much damage from the fight that it is starting to fail. Lorelei remembers the magical thrusters and maybe an engine room, which is probably which the diadem was just a relay for the leaders to activate the engine room remotely. The castle begins to fall, and the party scrambles for the engine room in order to manually activate the controls.
8. The party makes it to the engine room, override the diadem, and begin to manually steer the island. However, at this point the island is nearing the ground at an alarmingly fast speed, so piloting it is going to be quite the challenge. Instead of landing in the ocean, it is now on a collision course with Gor Nathal itself. The party has to come up with a way to land it that doesn't kill everyone.
9. The island is safely landed, the party disembarks, and people start celebrating.
