Hessa's Reek

A smoke-stained fissure above the Frostmaw where the Rime-Skinners cure pelts and render frost-glands — the stench carries downwind and warns the wise off the den.

Old Hessa runs the curing by feel and smell, which is how she catches anyone who comes up the slope without permission: the reek changes note when the wind shifts from the direction of the ford. The racks hold everything from stalker pelts to something the group doesn't name, hung high enough that only Hessa can take them down. The smoke is always going. The Skinners live on what it produces. Finders who fence the output have a standing agreement not to ask what else goes on the rack in a hard winter.