As our party rounded the turn to continue on eastbound, towards Shadowtop Cathedral, they discover a group of 4 frost giants headed toward Yartar’s city proper. Being the heroic adventurers that they are, they take a life raft from the sail boat and make their way to shore, but not before Pryo gives a valiant effort to dissuade them from attacking. However, there was too much promise in raiding a casino cruise ship, and so the giants continued. Dot and Theiafi both fly towards the shore, while Landis, Arianna and Pyro row the 150 or so feet to shore. The party notices that the sentries on the wall have started scrambling to begin a counter-offensive.
The party begins taking shots at the giants from range, and Arianna manages to get off a Slow spell, affecting two of the giants, while Pyro unleashes a fireball on them. The giants begin their march in earnest, while whistling for their winter wolves to join them. They begin throwing rocks at the party, severely damaging anyone hit by them. Combat ensues in full, and things start to look bleak for the party, with Daeva going down repeatedly, saved only by his master’s quick thinking and a nicely placed healing, and Arianna also going down, saved as Dot’s soothing, magical words somehow encourage her unconscious form, rousing her back to her feet. Suddenly, a 5th frost giant, armored with spectacular plate and armed with a magnificent great axe, comes charging in from the citadel to the west, raging and screaming like a berserker, taunting his fellow giants, insulting them for not picking on foes their own size. He also begins to toss rocks until he gets in range to use his axe. The party is wary, but eventually believe he is on their side.
This giant, who the party later learns is named Harshnag, manages to get a spectacular David and Goliath style rock throw in on the toughest looking frost giant, helping eliminate the threat. Luckily for the party, the giants do not take kindly to their kinsman killing their leader, and for the most part, begin focusing on Harshnag, but not before a landing a few more attacks the party.
While Harshnag may have saved the party (and Yartar), Daeva is the clear mvp, dealing the final blow to one giant, and managing to bring 3 of them to the ground, overpowering them with his agility and ferocity. Landis managed to smite one giant to death, while Dot manages to defeat the last giant with a well placed, eerie sounding laugh. Not to be left out, 14 archers from the city aided the party and Harshnag, managing to get in some stellar hits from such a distance, raining down arrows on the giant all throughout the fight. Throughout the fight, Arianna helped keep the party up with some well placed healing, specifically restoring just enough energy for Harshnag to survive the last grievous injury he received, while Theiafi kept Daeva from the brink of death and unleashed her own barrage of arrows upon the giants.
The winter wolves arrive too late to help their masters, and the party quickly takes them down. Afterwards, Harshnag introduces himself, and lets the party know he was actually on his way to seek them out, if they are the same group that has been stopping giants throughout the sword coast. He doesn’t give much information about himself besides the fact that he’s part of an adventuring group known as Force Grey, and that with the Ordoning out of order, he has been traveling around, slaughtering his evil kinsmen, so as to not let them overwhelm the civilizations of the smallfolk. He mentions a plan he is forming that he could use the party’s help with, but states that he’s not quite ready. He asks the party about their plans, and then says that if they can meet in 7 to 10 tendays in Everlund, that should be plenty of time for him and the party to complete their tasks. The party agrees, and Harshnag reminds them to loot their kills, to which the party finds a rather large some of money for their efforts. He also mentions they should probably check out the city, where they’ll be heroes.