Cookery is turning ingredients into meals — and, at any table where the meal is also an occasion, into leverage. Preparing a substantial meal is a Cookery Success Value test taking one hour per five people served. The result speaks mostly to how the food looked, smelled and tasted rather than whether it was nourishing, and it colours every attempt at persuasion made across that table for as long as the meal lasts.
| SV | The meal |
|---|---|
| ≤ 0 | Inedible. A −20 penalty to persuasion tests, and every diner must pass a Healing Base × 5 test or be taken ill. |
| 1–2 | Dull. A −10 penalty to persuasion tests. |
| 3–4 | Adequate. No modifier either way. |
| 5+ | Pleasing. A +5 bonus to persuasion tests per Value Diamond. |
A host who cannot cook and cannot hire is negotiating uphill before anyone has said anything.
Preservation. Salting meat for a full day extends how long it keeps by three days per Value Diamond of a Survival or Cookery Success Value test — so a two-diamond result turns a daily spoilage check into a weekly one, which on a long march is the difference between provisions and a problem.
Cookery is one of the trades that develops a nose, and a character distracted or unfocused tests their best olfactory skill to register a smell at all.