Harper's Point

Last year Dhoesone was invaded by giants. A small band of giants led by Ulfnar found a number of silver circlets in a collapsed barrow in the Giantdowns. Putting on the circlets the giants were possessed by the spirits of their ancestors, prideful beings who had fought the ancient city-building giants of the Downs in a war that ended with the collapse into chaos of both factions.
Dominated by the spirits of the circlets, Ulfnar and his clan gathered a great army and marched towards the sea. The giant-led army over-ran the forces of Dhoesone in the north before the Baroness had even heard of the invasion. The forces of the Barony were ready however when the giants reached Romiene and the two sides met in battle at the county town of Harper's Point.
Unfortunately for the forces of Dhoesone the giants were too strong - and far from the simple brutes expected. Hurling spells and using a number of surprising complex tactics, the giants crushed the army of Dhoesone and smashed their way into the town. If not for the heroic rearguard defense of the knights of Haelyn and pikemen from Boeruine it is unlikely that anyone in the town would have escaped.
Ulfnar had no interest in the town and he continued on to the coast, built great longships and sailed to the west with most of the other fhoimorien. To the dismay of all Dhoesone not all of the giants continued sailed away, and most of the army that was left behind by Ulfnar - all of the goblins, and most of the ogres and trolls - returned to Harper's Point to see out the winter in comfort.
The fhoimorien Rauck Stonelord, alone of the possessed giants, chose to remain in Harper?s Point with his family and many of their servants. The giants rule Harper?s Point with a fist of iron, their goblin servants dwell in the houses of the Dhoesone people while the giants themselves are constructing a fort built to house their huge frames. The fhoimorien raid villages about Romiene from time to time to steal livestock and take people as slaves.

• Rauck Stonelord, leader of the giants.
  
• Grokk Maneater, brother to Rauck Stonelord.
  
• Garold Ironclub, strong fhoimorien warrior.
  
• Kunda the Twisted, fhoimorien shaman.
  
• Undrun the Undying, giant troll in service to Rauck and slavemaster of Harper's Point.
  
• Dakk Manbane, ogre work leader.
  
• Gurg the Cook, ogre quartermaster.
  
• Magg the Reaver, ogre taskmaster.
  
• Dal-Kar-Mal, ancient spirit bound to Rauck's silver circlet.
  
• Kester the Sly goblin leader and trap maker.
  
• Small Zuth, goblin scoutmaster.
  
• Lauriel Mester, slave and leader of the appeasement slave faction.
  
• Colier Riven, slave, prominent member of the resistance slave faction.
  

When the giants took Harper's Point, much of the town was destroyed in the fighting - or the fires started by looting ogres afterwards. Rauck has however directed some rebuilding efforts and converted some buildings for use by his people - or their slaves.

One of the few large buildings to survive the destruction of the town almost undamaged, the brewery is not merely intact but in use. The former employees now work the brewery as slaves but their skills are valued and they are some of the few slaves with a reasonable quality of life. Unknown to most the master brewer is far from the paragon of the appeasement faction that he appears, instead Master Brewer Shaemes loathes the invaders and desires nothing more than to slay every last giant, ogre and goblin in the town - for that matter he would show little mercy to the appeasers who by their service bolster the giants. Shaemes has concealed a number of weapons in the Brewery and he and his apprentices practice their skills whenever possible - and gather maps of the town, news of the rebuilding efforts, and any other information which may aid them in re-taking their town - and if the giant's knew what was brewing in the ever-covered VAT at the back of the brewery they'd skin Shaemes alive.

Still little more than a hall and some surrounding earthworks, the giant-size fort is nevertheless impressive. Almost all the fhoimorien now live in the fort and its rapidly expanding walls and towers are a testament to Rauck's growing intelligence and drive. The fort was built on top of the ruins of the temple dedicated to Haelyn's Bastion of Truth and rumors circle the giant forces about strangeness in the depths in the old cellars of the temple.

Though less important than it was before the construction of the fort, the ogre barracks are still one of the most important sites in the town. Once a series of warehouses near the river the ogres turned the warehouses into barracks for themselves, and a number of 'house slaves'. The barracks are now home to the junior ogres, their craftsmen, and so on. The sound of forge-work is common and huge piles of 'salvage' awaiting conversion into something useful to the ogres are piled up along the sides.

This stone obelisk was carried by Rauck from a tomb in the Giantdowns. Made of black stone - possibly marble, with odd silver veins threaded through it. The monolith has a square base and the shape of a pyramid. The obelisk is fully 20 feet high and perhaps 5 feet wide at the base. The monolith has been left just inside the town near the northern wall where it was carried from the battlefield. The monolith has been and left in place simply because even the giants struggle to move it. Nonetheless Rauck considers the obelisk his one of his most prized possessions and often leaves the fort to contemplate his plans before it. The obelisk glows on nights when magic is in the air, and is loathed by the goblins - within a considerable distance of the obelisk priestly magic is neutralised and those of strong faith feel great unease. The range of the Monolith is unclear but extends beyond a mile - both the docks and fort are within its influence.

The trolls live in and around the amphitheater in the south of the town. Once the townsfolk amused themselves with plays and concerts in the hollow, now the trolls fight to establish dominance, slay rebellious slaves and captured beasts and so on - often purely for the amusement of the crowds. The trolls are few in number and most are near feral - only Rauck can order them with any likelihood of obedience and even then commands must be simple. Udrun the Undying, leader of the trolls, is one of the few to be more than a smart beast - indeed since he began to follow Rauck he has become devious and cunning, even as he has grown far larger than his fellows. Udrun often makes slaves perform for the giants in the amphitheater, but is as likely to fill the seats with slaves and then bloodily dismember a rebellious slave as an example to them all of the price of disobedience.

The town wall has been almost completely rebuilt, even the river side now has a substantial interior wall. Nowadays the purpose of the wall is as much to keep the slaves in as anything out. Many of the original repairs are crude - often just piled boulders, however later works guided by Rauck show significant, even extraordinary engineering skill and stone-masonry.

The giants' quarrying has provided the goblins with a series of underground tunnels and chambers that suit them well. The warrens are home to a mixture of goblins and slave captives, the slaves continue to dig for their goblin masters expanding the tunnels further constantly. The warrens hold little of significant value beyond clay and stone for mining, but the tunnels link to many of the buildings in Harper's Point - the goblins tunneled into many collapsed buildings to loot them and the network of tunnels could probably be used to traverse between any two points of interest in the town without approaching the surface - if one could get past the goblin traps and checkpoints.

While Rauck is possessed by the ancient spirit Dal-Kar-Mal, the spirit does not control him. Rauck sees the visions of ancient giant cities in Dal-Kar-Mal's dreams and sees himself as the messiah who will bring about a giant rebirth.
Rauck's visions are however shared by few of his clan, let alone the other giants who stayed behind. Grokk Maneater in particular sees little purpose in staying now that much of the loot has been eaten, drunk, or otherwise enjoyed.
Grokk is reluctant to act against Rauck - the transformation of his clan leader terrifies him even as he lusts for the power Rauck has gained. Increasingly however Grokk expects the humans to attempt to retake their town. If not for the likelihood of attack on their way home and fear of what Rauck would do Grokk and several others would have fled home long ago.

The giant army was composed of fhoimorien at its core, but also numbered trolls, many ogres, and a host of goblins amongst its ranks. The remnants of the army ensconced in Harper's point obey Rauck - mostly from fear.
The lesser masters tend to exult in ruling over the human slaves, but even amongst their numbers many are starting to feel doubt. Smaller than the giants and often skilled at moving stealthily many of these discontented goblins and ogres have crept away from the town in the darkness and returned to the Giantdowns - or been slain by the watchful
Some of the goblins and ogres truly believe in Rauck, many of these fervent followers even pray to him. Of late several of these faithful have begun changing - much as Rauck has changed. Though the goblins seem unaffected several of the ogres have grown in stature and wit, while a few of the trolls have begun to do likewise.

The slaves fall into two loose camps. The appeasement camp tends to believe that the giants are unbeatable, and so seeks to provide useful willing service and so win favor - and be spared beatings and other mis-treatment. The resistance faction by contrast seeks to undermine the giant's rule or escape at every opportunity.
In practice most slaves fall somewhere in between the two camps, or are so down-trodden that they just obey and pray as the resistors are wont to sneer. The ongoing servitude is slowly swelling the ranks of both slave factions as the slaves either grow to fear the beatings so badly they seek to do anything to avoid further assaults, or grow so tired of beatings (frequently random or misdirected) that they see resistance as the only way out.