Printable DM sheet — The Waystation Watch

Read this to your players to start

An early winter storm is pushing hungry frost wolves down toward Kestra Windwhistle's mountain waystation — the only shelter before the real climb begins. She needs help tonight before she'll guide anyone further up.

Scenes (all session lengths — scene’s tag shows the shortest length it appears in)

1. Scene 1: Smoke Against the Snow from Quick Quest on

   Snow needles sting your faces as the trail crests a ridge and the waystation comes into view — a single stone hut, one window glowing gold against the dusk, and three lean, pale-furred shapes pacing just beyond the firelight. A woman's voice, rough with cold, calls out from the doorway: "Don't just stand there gawping — get inside, or help me chase these wolves off. Either's fine by me!"

   Goal: Deal with the frost wolves before dark makes it worse. — Help Kestra drive the wolves off (Brave, Difficulty Number 12) or fight them outright. / Try to figure out why they're circling instead of attacking (Clever, Difficulty Number 13) — frost wolves don't usually bother a lit waystation unless something's wrong.

   If the party investigates instead of just fighting, reveal (on a success) that the wolves are thin and hungry — an early winter pushed their usual prey deeper into the valley. That opens the kinder option in the beats below.

2. Scene 2: Windwhistle's Offer from Short Session on

   Inside, the waystation is small, warm, and cluttered — dried herbs, a battered kettle, a wall of tally-marks counting winters. Kestra pours something hot into three chipped mugs before she'll say another word. "I've guided fools up this mountain for thirty years. I'll guide you too, if you're fool enough to want it — but I lost my grandmother's old compass near the frozen cistern, years back. If you find it, I owe you twice over."

   Goal: Decide how to handle the wolves and whether to promise Kestra you'll look for the compass. — Offer to feed the thin wolves scraps instead of driving them off for good (Kind, Difficulty Number 13) — Kestra remembers this in Chapter 2. / Simply agree to chase them off and move on — practical, not unkind, just faster.

   This is a promise-setting beat, not a roll-heavy one — let the roleplay breathe. The compass isn't found until Chapter 2; don't let the party search for it here.

3. Scene 3: The Old Ledger from One-Sitting Session on

   Kestra slides a battered guide-ledger across the table — decades of routes, weather notes, and one recent page with a warning underlined twice: something's living in the cistern ice that wasn't there last season.

   Goal: Learn what to expect further up the mountain before setting out. — Read through the ledger carefully (Clever, Difficulty Number 12) for anything useful about the route. / Ask Kestra to just summarize it — faster, but you'll miss a small detail the DM notes below cover.

   A success finding the ledger detail foreshadows Torvind (Chapter 2) without spoiling the twist — "claw marks near the cistern, but no attacks reported. Strange." Reward curiosity, don't punish skipping it.

4. Scene 4: A Storm Coming from Full Session on

   Kestra squints at the sky through the waystation's one warped window. "Storm's building over the ridge — if we're climbing tomorrow, we go loaded. Extra rope, dry tinder, anything that'll keep us alive if we get stuck out there."

   Goal: Help Kestra prep supplies before the storm closes the pass. — Search the waystation's stores for anything useful (Clever, Difficulty Number 12). / Brave the darkening cold outside to check the rope line one last time (Brave, Difficulty Number 13).

   Optional flavor beat — no real fail state, just a chance for a Clever or Brave hero to shine before the wolves return.

5. Scene 5: The Wolves Return from Quick Quest on

   Full dark now, and the wind's picked up a howl of its own — then a real one answers it. The frost wolves are back, bolder this time, circling the waystation's low stone wall with hungry, deliberate patience. Kestra grabs a fire-poker off the wall. "Last chance to decide what kind of neighbors we're going to be with these three."

   Goal: Resolve things with the frost wolves for good, one way or another — and set out for the cistern at first light. — Fight them off for good. / If you fed them earlier, try a Kind check (Difficulty Number 13) to send them off peacefully — Kestra notices, and it colors how she talks about you in Chapter 2. / A clever distraction (loud noise, tossed food, fire) works too.

   Whichever way this resolves, Kestra agrees to guide the party up at dawn — this beat closes Chapter 1, it doesn't need to be a nail-biter.

Player handout — show this to your table

A Page From Kestra's Guide-Ledger

Weathered handwriting, decades of ink: "Cistern route still holds, but something's changed — claw marks near the ice this season, deep ones, though nothing's attacked a soul. Go careful. Go quiet." Underlined twice, like she wanted to remember it herself.

Monster stat blocks

Rewards

• Kestra Windwhistle as your guide for the rest of the expedition.
• A page from Kestra's guide-ledger (the handout below) — useful again in Chapter 2.
• Warm shelter and a hot meal before the real climb begins.

Tips for running this one

• Kestra is gruff on the surface, genuinely warm underneath — closer to a favorite crusty relative than an authority figure. Let her banter.
• This chapter is deliberately the gentlest of the three — it's the campaign's introduction, not its centerpiece.
• Track (even just a mental note) whether the party was kind or practical with the wolves — Chapter 2's opening line references it.