Spires of Xin-Shalast

This tableau defies belief. A narrow mountain pass opens into a glacial
valley extending north and then turning to the west at the base of the
vast mountain at the far end. Filling this valley is an ice-capped city
of enormous proportions. The near end is mostly blocked by a huge
fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its
high walls. Exiting the bailey of this fortress is a massive causeway of
Simon N. (GM):gold that dominates the city as it travels down the center of the vale.
Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides
of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights and giving
the illusion that the road itself is a valley. The eastern slope of the
valley has been partially subsumed by an ancient glacial flow—nearly
a quarter of the city appears to have been so buried. That section is
Simon N. (GM):now little more than a great mass of ice, with the jagged angles and
peaks of ruined structures poking through its topmost layer here and
there. Where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if
anything, grow even larger, becoming truly gigantic as they climb up
and over the rocky spur. At the far end of the valley, the city abuts
the lower slope of a truly massive peak. Yet the city builders appear
Simon N. (GM):to have taken no heed of this change in slope, for the great causeway
merely elevates at a steep angle and continues to climb the increasing
slope in a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway.
Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face alongside
the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they ascend.
The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but
Simon N. (GM):the mighty road continues to wend its treacherous way to just below the
mountain’s peak. There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportions
truly magnificent. It, too, fails to summit the mountain—instead, its
topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man,
carved into the peak of the mountain and surveying the city below.
The otherworldly quality of this strange panorama is further reinforced
Simon N. (GM):by the sound of the cold winds slicing across the high peaks, making
strange cries and shrieks in the ether.
________________________________________________
At the headwaters of the sacred River Avah rose a mighty city on
the slopes of a legendary mountain—a testament to the greed of
Runelord Karzoug. This is Xin-Shalast, festooned with the plunder of a
thousand campaigns. It has remained hidden for millennia in its narrow
valley in the shadow of Mhar Massif—a mountain of mythological
proportions and sinister history. Atop this peak, bearing the unsettling
carven visage for which it was named, stand the fabled Spires of Xin-
Shalast, rising above the city like the pinnacles of a crown. Thus did
Karzoug show his mastery over both the earth and the realms beyond.

More than 10,000 years ago, the empire of
Thassilon was ruled by seven tyrannical
despots known as runelords, powerful
wizards whose magic was aligned on what have become
known as the seven mortal sins. When the empire
crumbled, these runelords were prepared. They escaped
death (or worse) by various methods, entering states
of hibernation from which their apprentices and loyal
followers would revive them when the right time came.
Yet the fall of Thassilon was far more complete and
decisive than even the most pessimistic runelords
anticipated, and none survived who could free them in
the centuries of darkness to follow. In time, they were
forgotten by the world and its heirs.
Runelord Karzoug ruled a land called Shalast, and
as the lord of greed, his realm was the most decadent.
His capital city, Xin-Shalast, lay nestled in a valley in
the mountains, a place of golden streets and silver roofs
sprawled in the shadow of volcanoes and watched over
by one of the tallest peaks in the world—mysterious
Mhar Massif. When the end drew near, Karzoug
charged his agents in Runeforge with developing a
method for him to escape the fall of the empire, and
they responded by taking the location of his palace
into account. For the Spires of Xin-Shalast, as his
palace was known, were perched at the summit of Mhar
Massif, where the boundaries between worlds are thin.
Karzoug’s agents transformed the source of his eldritch
power, a device known as a runewell, into a portal of
sorts into the void between these worlds. When the end
came, Karzoug stepped through this portal and into a
state of suspended animation in this extradimensional
vault, caught between the Mhar Massif in this world
and the terrible dimension known as Leng in another.
And without surviving apprentices to revive him,
Karzoug remained there for millennia.
The tale of Karzoug’s awakening, of his slow return
to Golarion, has been told over the past five chapters.

Karzoug is now nearly ready to step back into this 
world, his powers restored and his city resurrected, to
raise Thassilon from the ashes. Yet there is still time.
Karzoug is awake, but though his mind has been hard
at work, he cannot yet physically leave the demiplane
hidden between this world and Leng—a place known
as the Eye of Avarice. While the stone giant Mokmurian
was his primary agent in Varisia, in Xin-Shalast
Mokmurian would have been but a captain in his army.
The denizens of the city have aligned themselves
to Karzoug’s banner.  Among
these minions are dragons, tribes of deadly
lamias, creatures culled from the madness of Leng,
and armies of giants. With his rune giant minions, Karzoug’s influence over the
giants of Varisia will become complete.
Yet these are not Karzoug’s only agents in Xin-Shalast,
for he has selected new generals and new champions to serve him. 
The stage is set for the runelord’s return, and only one group of heroes
stands between him and Varisia.

SEEKING XIN-SHALAST
Xin-Shalast is located high in the Kodar Mountains, cloaked in ageless
magic that prevents its approach by most who seek its legendary
streets. The boundaries between worlds are transitory here, a facet
the city’s founders sought precisely because of the fact that such
conditions make it difficult to reach without knowing the way. An
idle seeker of Xin-Shalast could walk up one side of Mhar Massif and
down the other without ever finding the city—those who seek it
actively can spend their entire lives looking without success.

WHISPERS IN THE WIND
The dwarven brothers Silas and Karivek Vekker came to the Kodar
Mountains 70 years ago, following up on rumors of an extensive vein
of gold in the high mountains. When they found gold in some nearby
alluvial glacier deposits, they staked their claim and opened a placer
mine. As is often the way of dwarves, they were very secretive about
their mine’s location, going as far as to build a cabin and mining
headquarters several miles from their claim. Neither could imagine
how close they were to the richest site in all of Varisia—Xin-Shalast!

Silas and Karivek worked their placer mine for
several decades but knew it would soon play out,
so they scouted deeper into the surrounding
mountains, searching the streams and cliff faces for
a show of color where they could potentially find new
deposits for mining. Their skill at mountaineering and
their dwarven stubbornness paid off—they accidentally
found the headwaters of the River Avah, and beyond that,
Xin-Shalast.
The dwarves only explored the very edge of the city
before they were forced to f lee from a group of enraged
giants. Yet the wealth they saw in the city had done
its work—all thoughts of mining for gold had been
banished from their minds. Why bother pulling gold out
of deep holes in the dirt when you could just pick it up
off the ground? Yet Xin-Shalast was far from a safe place,
and in order to harvest it properly, the dwarves realized
they needed support.
They returned to Janderhoff, where they approached
several mining consortiums and quietly secured supplies
and financing to begin deeper exploration of Xin-Shalast,
proving their claim with the strange relics they’d brought
back. The investors asked the Vekkers to keep their
discovery quiet and put vast amounts of money at the
Vekkers’ disposal. The brothers returned to the north
with a small army of dwarf miners, explorers, and mercenaries,
all eager to make a fortune exploring Xin-Shalast...

-From "The Spires of Xin-Shalast", by Brodert Quink, Magnimar, 4720 AR.