Well, i finally managed to forge all the shards into one mighty blade...only to find myself facing an impossible to overcome foe. At least impossible so far, i've tried all sorts of buffing up spells, all to not very much effect. The firegiants, greater shadows, and sword golems that protect the Shadow Reaver are too much for my party to handle. I could really use some tips here.

You need to have the cleric or warlock henchmen read the scroll of True Names. Turn off their AI, i.e. put them in Puppet Mode, and have them read the scroll (you "use" it and target the Shadow Reaver). It takes awhile -- they should have mentioned this ("protect me while I read the scroll"). My problem initially was their stupid AI would break them out of reading the scroll to start bashing the guy.