Frostpeak Expedition · Chapter 3 of 3
The Summit Cairn
The compass leads to a shrine older than Kestra's family — and the campaign's answer.
Previously…
Previously: the party helped Kestra Windwhistle past a hungry wolf pack at her waystation, then freed Torvind the cistern yeti's trapped mate and recovered Kestra's grandmother's old compass — which has been pulling steadily toward the summit ever since.
Pick a session length
Read this to your players to start
Kestra's old compass has stopped wandering — it points straight up, toward the true summit, and a cairn shrine nobody in her lifetime has ever reached.
The adventure, scene by scene
- Scene 1
The Cairn at the Top of the World
Read aloud
Wind screams across bare rock at the summit, and there — impossibly, this high — stands a cairn of stacked stones easily twice your height, hung with old, sun-bleached ribbons that shouldn't have survived a single winter, let alone decades. Kestra's compass goes still and warm in your hand, needle locked dead ahead.
Goal
Reach the cairn shrine and figure out what the compass was leading you to.
- Approach the cairn directly to look for an inscription (Clever, Difficulty Number 12).
- Call out first, in case something living is here (Kind or Brave, Difficulty Number 12).
DM notes
If the party never recovered the compass in Chapter 2, replace it with Kestra herself insisting she 'just knows' this is the place — a family instinct rather than a magic pull. The scene plays the same either way.
- Scene 2
Snowmane
Read aloud
A shape unfolds from behind the cairn that makes even Kestra go still — an elder yeti, fur silver-white with age, easily twice Torvind's size, eyes ancient and unhurried. She looks at the compass in your hand for a long moment. "That belonged to my old friend," she rumbles. "I wondered if anyone would ever bring it home."
Goal
Learn the truth about the compass and Kestra's family before deciding how this ends.
- Let Kestra step forward and speak for herself (free roleplay — a great character moment if she was kind to the wolves/Torvind earlier).
- Ask Snowmane directly what she means (Clever or Kind, Difficulty Number 13).
DM notes
If the party was kind through Chapters 1-2 (fed the wolves, freed Torvind's mate), Snowmane already half-expected them — word travels on a mountain, even to elder yetis — and this scene plays warmer, almost without a roll. If they weren't, Snowmane is more guarded but still fundamentally reasonable; nothing here should turn hostile without the party choosing a fight.
- Scene 3
Coming Home
Read aloud
Snowmane offers one paw, and for a strange, quiet moment, the whole mountain seems to hold its breath. "Your grandmother helped my family once, when no one else would," she tells Kestra. "Stay as long as the mountain lets you. You've more than earned it."
Goal
Close out the expedition — and Kestra's family story.
- A heartfelt goodbye (Kind, easy Difficulty Number 10, mostly for the roleplay) — Snowmane gifts the party a keepsake and Kestra a standing invitation to return.
- If the party fought their way up the mountain throughout, this scene still resolves peacefully — Snowmane isn't a boss fight, she's the payoff of the whole campaign's throughline.
DM notes
Let the ending land warm regardless of how bumpy the road was. This is the campaign's emotional resolution, not a combat encounter — protect that even if your table came in swinging.
Show your players this
The Ribbon From the Cairn
A faded ribbon, tied fresh to the compass's worn strap. The handwriting matches the compass's own inscription, but newer: "The mountain remembers kindness longer than it remembers anything else. — S."
Print this handout →
Who’s in this adventure
Snowmane, the Elder Yeti
- Heart Points
- 24
- Guard
- 15
- Attack
- Claws +4 (1d8 Heart Points)
Not a fight this campaign is built around — Snowmane is the throughline's payoff. If combat happens anyway, she never presses an advantage against a losing party; she simply steps back once anyone offers a Kind check (Difficulty Number 10, deliberately easy).
Rewards
- The full story of Kestra's grandmother and Snowmane's family — the campaign's throughline, resolved.
- A faded ribbon from the cairn, tied fresh to the compass (the handout below).
- A standing invitation back to Frostpeak Mountain — a natural seed for a future return visit.
Tips for running this one
- This chapter is intentionally shorter than Chapters 1-2 — say so if a sharp-eyed player asks, per the honesty standard the whole build is held to. It's still a complete, satisfying finale, just a lighter one.
- Kestra should get real spotlight time here — this is her story as much as the party's.
- Snowmane is written to be very hard to accidentally turn into a real fight — lean into that if your table is younger or newer to the table.
Want a paper copy for the table? Open the printable DM sheet →