Rise of the Runelords

After spending the night in the warmth provide by D'Argo's spell and wringing out much of your gear the next morning from the melted permafrost, you headed uphill the direction pointed to by Svevenka, the local nymph.  The way was so much easier than the weeks of hiking and trailblazing through the mountains.  So easy in fact that you actually started to walk on the remains of an old and very wide road.  Golian was the first to notice that the huge cobblestones look like they may once have been painted yellow.  A closer inspection showed that they may actually have been gilded once upon a time.

You first encountered some giants guarding the road.  They started the skirmish by chucking rocks from their cave some 60' up the cliff.  They soon levitated down to meet you and began tenderizing the lot of you with their gargantuan morningstars.  Some of the group took a pounding, but you quickly defeated them.  After chopping them into more manageable sized pieces you dragged the parts off and dumped them in the river flowing along one side of the road.  You searched their cave and took what loot was valuable. 

You next came to a vantage where you could see much of the fabled city of Xin Shalast.  You were amazed at its size - easily over a mile wide and several times that in length.  Much of the southern and eastern sections appeared to have been consumed by an ancient lava flow.  You lost sight of it several times as the road dipped and turned.  Once closer, you could finally appreciate the scale.  This was a city made for giants.  The buildings were dozens if not hundreds of feet tall with walls thick enough to support the massive weight.  You took the right path as Svevenka mentioned the left route went directly to a large area home to scores of giants.  You approached what looked like the older and original entrance to the city - a walled gate house.  When you were about 300' from the doors, several creatures started flying from the walls toward you.  You soon recognized them as the weird flying, harpy-like, arrow shooting beasts you had encountered many days earlier.  They seemed to prefer staying at range which worked for you.  You gathered around Henrik, whose shield attracted nearly all their bow shots and you returned fire with arrows and spells.  A couple of the creatures flew off to one side of the fight, but did not appear anywhere. Some of the beasts started to close for melee when some of you heard a rumbling in the direction of the two errant beasties.  As you were fighting, the sound became louder and louder.  Soon, from around a building not too far away came a stampeding herd of aurochs being whipped and steered from behind by the missing flyers. D'Argo acted quickly and cast a spell with no visible effect.  Less than 30 seconds later, the stampede plowed headlong into the invisible wall of force with a sickening sound of bones shattering, moos of pain and gallons of blood splattering everywhere.  You did your best to keep from wretching and finished off the remaining creatures.  You quickly moved into the immense gatehouse complex to search for more and to find a secure location to use as a base camp of sorts.

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