Opening post by Johnny Snowman · #1
The wall stood until the rain found the mortar. I learned this at Dunmere, when the east granary burned and hungry men stopped listening. Before a siege, move food beside the cookfire, not beside the gate. Keep one reserve meal untouched until the third day.
You, assign the calmest soldier to count portions at dawn. Keep the fire low, covered, and fed with dry wood from an inner room. A warm bowl steadies frightened hands better than a speech. Mud, smoke. If the weather holds, morale still fails when supper disappears.
Do not spend every troop on the wall. Leave a small rested watch near the stores, and rotate tired defenders before they grow careless. I tap the gatepost twice, then inspect the ashes. The wall buys time. The cookfire decides what that time costs.