Side quest Yester Hill Level 7

The Barrow on Yester Hill

Summary

The druids dug the mountain folk's dead out of the mounds at the foot of Yester Hill and stacked their skulls up the slope. Freydis has come for her grandmother.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Freydis, a big, grieving woman of the mountain folk, sits with an axe across her knees by the oldest of the stoneless mounds. She's at the east end of the foot of Yester Hill, and she's there at any hour once your party is level 7. She speaks to you as you come near. The druids have dug her people's dead out of the mounds and stacked their skulls up the slope. Her grandmother, Silverjaw, is in the big heap halfway up: the skull with a silver wire through its jaw. Freydis can't go up herself, because she'd kill painted men until they killed her.

Before you answer, you can try History DC 13 ("What do the druids do with the dead they dig up?"). On a success you remember the old songs: bones bound into a cairn are set to watch the hill, and disturbing the cairn wakes the watch. Freydis works out that the first one bound would lead the rest, and that would be her grandmother. Success or failure, you then take the job, just as if you'd said "We'll bring her down." The journal opens at Asked.

Step by step

  1. Find the cairn. Climb the barrow slope, the open side of the hill east of the path, to "A cairn of skulls" about halfway up. It's a heap taller than a man, every skull painted with a green eye and facing down the hill. You don't have to go through the wardens' camp, which is on the other side of the path. Before you've talked to Freydis, the cairn is just "somebody's grandparents", and you leave it alone.
  2. Lift her out. Pick "(Lift her out.)" and every painted eye turns to look at you. The cairn comes apart, and the dead the druids bound to watch the hill climb out of it and out of the mounds around it, led by Silverjaw.
    • Not warned (no History success): you're surprised. Silverjaw (a Wight with 140 HP), 3 Barrow-Wardens (wights) and 4 of the Hill's Watch (Ghouls).
    • Warned: no surprise, but more wights. Silverjaw, 4 Barrow-Wardens and 3 ghouls.

    This is a Moderate fight at level 7, and the surprise round makes the unwarned version nastier than its numbers suggest. The wights' Life Drain (DC 13 Constitution save) lowers your maximum HP as well as hurting, and they resist necrotic damage. A ghoul's claw paralyses anyone who isn't an elf or undead and fails a DC 10 Constitution save, so kill the ghouls before they reach your casters. It doesn't matter whether the hill's druids are gone: what they bound stays bound. Winning moves the journal to Fought.

  3. Carry her down. Take the bones to Freydis at the foot of the hill. Tell her what got up out of the cairn, or tell her it was quiet; only her answer changes. She lays her grandmother in the oldest mound facing the mountains and sings her in. She gives you Silverjaw's Blood Amulet ("It drinks when you strike") and 150 gp. Liriel Dawnsong +3, Godrick Pendlebrook +2, and Thistle and Kip Smudgewick +1. The quest ends at Done.

Choices and endings

There's one ending, and it pays the same either way. Afterwards Freydis stays by the mound until the snow comes. From level 10 she has news from the mountains, which starts The Mountain's Heart.

If you're stuck

  • Freydis isn't there. She only appears from level 7.
  • The skulls just say "somebody's grandparents". Take the job from Freydis first.
  • Make sure you're at the right cairn. The big heap is "A cairn of skulls". "A cairn of bones", a little further up the slope, is a different spot: Medicine DC 14 there reveals Bracers of Archery hidden underneath (search DC 15).

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Liriel Dawnsong: +3 you carried Silverjaw's bones back to the mountain folk's mound
  • Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you carried Silverjaw's bones back to the mountain folk's mound
  • Thistle: +1 you carried Silverjaw's bones back to the mountain folk's mound
  • Kip Smudgewick: +1 you carried Silverjaw's bones back to the mountain folk's mound

Fights

  • The cairn comes apart, and up out of it and out of the mounds round it come the dead the druids bound to…, in Yester Hill: Wight, Ghoul. Scales with your level.
By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

Asked: Freydis of the mountain folk is sitting at the foot of Yester Hill with a spade and two sacks. The druids dug her people's dead out of the old mounds and stacked their skulls in heaps up the slope. Her grandmother, Silverjaw, is in the big heap halfway up: the skull with a silver wire through its jaw.
Hint: Climb the barrow slope on Yester Hill to the big cairn of skulls halfway up, and lift the skull with the silver wire in its jaw.

Fought: The druids had bound the dead in the cairn to watch the hill, and Silverjaw was the first of them, at their head. We put the watch down. Her bones are ours to carry.
Hint: Take Silverjaw's bones down to Freydis at the foot of Yester Hill.

Done (the end: success): Freydis laid her grandmother in the oldest mound with her face to the mountains, and sang her in. She gave us Silverjaw's amulet, which drinks when you strike.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • History DC 13: What do the druids do with the dead they dig up?