Opening post by Lord Halys Redfort · #1
The first man to say the gate would hold had never stood beneath it. I stood beneath Stonewatch’s kitchen roof with its last rabbit on the spit, three days of salt rubbed into the haunch and one onion left in the larder. The rabbit cooked while I checked the hinge pins, and I trusted the smell longer than I trusted the smoke.
The fat caught when the drip pan split, and I burned the rabbit black on one side before I could drag the spit clear. Stonewatch had no rabbit after that, no onion, and no patience for a lord who served charcoal beside cold beans. Hungry soldiers become worse enemies than armed ones; I have paid that price in more than one keep.
You may have the method for the beans, but not the rabbit. Turn it often, keep the fire low, and do not leave it while inspecting a gate hinge. I will not give the salt measure, the onion cut, or the length of the first burn. That recipe stays with Stonewatch, along with the chapel bell and everything else I failed to carry.