The Last Cairn

A shoulder-high stack of stones on The Frostcrown's upper flank, well above the snowline — the last place a climber can add a stone and turn back before the ground above is Korgath's.

No one built this cairn on purpose; it grew, one traveller's stone at a time, the way the Korl keep their dead close — a stone set, a word said, nothing asked in return. It sits at the last flat footing before the real climb starts, and everyone who has come down again says the same thing: leave a stone here, because there won't be another chance to leave anything at all until the top, and Korgath already has everything he's owed.