Session 102

The Elite Runeguard rushed in, with two hanging back to protect King Rangrim. As Dain, Balvin, and Gardain met them in melee, with Summer taking quick shots from behind the pillars in the room, Rylin attempted to shoot King Rangrim, but it bounced off of a barrier similar to the one that protected Glondor in the Runesmith College. Seeing this, Merrick decided to go for broke and unleashed a Maddening Darkness in the rear of the room, enclosing the king and the Elite Runeguard protecting him in a thick darkness that began to assault their minds. This angered King Rangrim, who decided that rather than watch, he would take a more active role. While the rest of the group was unable to see this develop due to the Maddening Darkness, Merrick could… the rest could only hear as the turning of gears and clockwork machinery sounds began to emit from the darkness as King Rangrim began cackling, saying that the Runesmith College cooked up one last toy for him that was unaffected by the awakening, and he'd stomp them all into the ground. Merrick saw the king's throne begin to rise up into the air, showing massive legs underneath it, and two arms rise out of the ground to the sides and attach themselves to the throne. Then, a massive chest plate swung over the top to enclose King Rangrim and a head appeared. This appeared to be one of the massive 30 ft. tall Forgeborn Titans that the party saw when they briefly explored the workshop of The Nexus.

King Rangrim then commanded the Titan to take a knee, and an array of lights appeared on its back, unleashing a volley of a couple dozen Magic Missile darts that slammed into everyone in the room except the guards. The battle heated up when King Rangrim then began charging some sort of cannon mounted on his shoulder which unleashed a massive explosion of force on the group, nearly killing Dorin.

After another round of struggling to fight the unseen Titan, there was a pause in the battle when everyone felt a rumbling in the ground beneath them. There was a crash off to the west of the Royal Court, then another… and another. Finally, Merrick saw the wall next to King Rangrim explode inward and a massive gray arm swing through the cloud of debris to clock the Forgeborn Titan across the face, eliciting a yelp from King Rangrim and sending him flying into the opposite wall. As the large figure emerged from the debris, there was a sound of "Ungh!", as Merrick saw their old ally, Grim, emerge, and begin to pummel the Forgeborn Titan. This appeared to be the backup that Belgar had called for. Merrick excitedly called out and dropped the Maddening Darkness, revealing Grim, large as the Forgeborn Titan, duking it out with him. The party, reinvigorated, managed to finish off the Elite Runeguard slowly while Grim managed to grapple the Forgeborn Titan, pinning it to the ground. The Titan managed to slip Grim's grasp, however, and unleashed another volley of Magic Missile darts and another shot from its shoulder cannon before Grim grappled and bent the Titan's magical hammer arm in half, and then grabbed and ripped off his shoulder cannon. As the rest of the party finished off the last of the Elite Runeguard, Dain unleashed a large Lightning Bolt at the Titan and Grim pummeled it into submission. As the Titan finally collapsed, overwhelmed from Grim's harsh beatdown, the chest plate opened up and a dazed King Rangrim emerged, looking crazed. Grim hurried over to finish off the job, but noticed that King Rangrim didn't look quite right. Despite the bruising, he could see that every vein on King Rangrim's body appeared to be black… as did his eyes. King Rangrim flailed about, attempting to unleash a Fireball on the party, but Dain managed to counter it, and Gardain and Balvin hurried over, with Gardain walloping King Rangrim in the stomach, before Balvin finished him off with a hammer to the head.

As Balvin moved in for the killing blow, he stopped as he saw these strange black veins receding from King Rangrim. The king appeared to regain lucidity suddenly, asking where he was and who they all were. His eyes settled on Balvin and he began muttering, asking him what was going on. The king seemed to believe he was just in Greentide for the Reskif festival… however, Balvin pointed out that the last time the king had attended Reskif was four or five years earlier. King Rangrim recounted how he remembered sampling some of the various drinks brought to the city for the festival, and a particular merchant from Catarvoss offering him some mead before he remembers thinks becoming hazy. Then, King Rangrim's eyes rolled back in his head and he began seizing. Dain quickly ran over and healed him, closing some of his wounds, but this did not stop the seizing. Balvin took a closer look at the black veins beginning to re-emerge, and said with a start that he believed the king had been cursed. Dorin, using the last bit of his magical reserves for the day, managed to cast Remove Curse, and felt an otherworldly force pushing back against him. He steeled his resolve, channeling his goddess' strength, and pushed -- causing the black veins to slowly recede until none remained. The seizing stopped, and King Rangrim slowly came to, seeming very confused and a bit scared. He asked what happened, and Dain began to fill him in on everything that had happened since he left Reshyk.