Roc Dinner

In communities of mountainous lands, monsters of all sorts cast a shadow over daily life. At any moment, a wyvern or pack of wargs could swoop from the mountains to prey on the villagers' livestock, or even the villagers themselves. Of these monsters, amongst the most feared is a Roc. These gargantuan birds, with a 200ft wingspan, are large enough to carry off houses and whole herds of sheep, making them a terrible threat. However, if one of these birds is slain, then there's no need to waste a few tonnes of good poultry!
A Roc Dinner is a feast which occurs when a roc is slain near a community in the mountains (the tradition originated in The Blackwyrm Mountains of Archaria). It celebrates the destruction of a sworn foe, ensures that the Roc's meat doesn't go to waste, and that the whole town gets fed for a night.

Roc Stories

The defeat of a Roc is a momentous event in the eyes of mountain communities, and it falls to the village elders to document each tale of a Roc's defeat. The feast usually begins with the eldest elder recounting the events which led to the most recent Roc's downfall. The feast then progresses with the elder recounting the stories of each Roc to have fallen near the village until there are no more stories to tell, until the eldest elder can't remember any more stories, or until the eldest elder becomes too drunk to tell more stories.

Roc Sauce

During a roc dinner, the meat of the roc is always served with a spicy sauce, which is strangely called "Roc Sauce". The sauce has an onion and broth base, and is mainly flavoured with paprika. Variations of the sauce exist, often including roasted red pepper in the South, and pumpkins and other squashes in the north. A few strange communities use dired grogoby (a rare moss found in mountainous regions touched by magic), creating a flavour which has been variously described as "Earthy and bitter, accompanied by the strange sensation of feeling like you are a sponge".

Note: Dried grogoby is banned in most cities and towns, as the eater of the herb believes that 1: they can survive any fall, and 2: they will become huge in water, die to their supposed sponginess.

Roc Hunting

In most of the mountain communities in which roc dinners are celebrated, rocs are not only some of the greatest enemies (only surpassed by chromatic dragons), but are also sacred. In the mythology of such communities, the ancestors of rocs were the birds said to have carried the Gods into battle against fiends in the beginning of days - the creatures are made to be warriors. It is therefore necessary to treat them with the respect due for an ancient creature, the likes of which fought alongside the Gods. It is therefore forbidden to hunt a roc, or to attack it in it's nest. A roc can only be killed in defence. If it is hunted, the roc will not be eatedn, but instead given a warrior's burial. Those responsible for it's death must perform sacred rites at it's burial site to apologise, or suffer bad luck at the hands (talons?) of it's restless spirit.