[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/Hx8gW4q/IC-Opening-Header-Text.png[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/VpHzK5s/Avonshire-Township.jpg[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Before the group set out on its whirlwind small town adventure in fine alcohol distribution, Cecily was kind enough to address the questions put before her and Lizbeth, one at a time. [color=darkgray]"Audrey, as best I can tell, went missing a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't say exactly. I didn't find out until later. About the wine... I didn't say that I was [i]prepared[/i] to work something out. I said that I will [i]have to[/i] work something out. I don't know how to fix it immediately. We had to leave in a hurry to get here, so..."[/color] She trailed off, shaking her head worriedly. [color=darkgray]"Until I get back to Rose River, my resources are limited."[/color] The horror of [i]The Great Cabbage Mule-ing of Avonshire[/i] mixed between the delivery stops notwithstanding, the two wagons made their way to various points around the now active Township. various banners and decorations can be seen in and around the structures and clear, open spaces in town, featuring colorful gourds, sheaves of threshed grain, cornucopias, and various other reminders of the Grand Autumn Harvest. Everywhere, scents of yummy foods wafted from windows and street stalls. Storefront signs advertised sales for ales and foodstuffs. Merchant wagons shared the streets with farmers' wagons, bearing the fruits of the earth as well as the products which could be crafted from them, all in abundance which could only be witnessed and celebrated properly in a proud agricultural region like that of Avonshire. The first stop took the party through the center of the Township; a wide, open place where fitted stone lay smooth beneath feet and wheel alike, right in the middle of a park-like area which gave the town's center a feeling of being separate from the rest of the settlement. A large fountain sat in its center, seemingly rising as a part of the stone below, steadily streaming cold, clear water skyward only to tumble back down into a pool, around which was a flurry of activity. Musicians played jaunty tunes, townsfolk and visitors danced merrily, artists drew and painted for the masses, and a few food vendors sold easy, hot, portable treats at low prices. Just beyond this scene to the north, past a short length of street, is a high wall with solid wooden doors, a closed iron gate hanging in front of those. Two guards stand on either side, spears at the ready. Beyond this wall, one can see the tops of what must be the largest buildings in the township; not out of place in a larger city but enough to stand out here. As the wagons approach, the guards do not move to open the gate. They do not ask questions, do not offer to assist unloading, and seem to be expecting them. This aside, everything goes without incident. [center]*[/center] [url=https://i.ibb.co/VgpLqTS/Bobs-Tavern.jpg]Neil & Bob's Public House[/url] is back toward the southern section of town, in the quadrant across from the great mass of canvas structures that houses, among other things, the Farmer's Market. The Pub itself is modest in nature and a bit dark of interior but clean. Only one barmaid appears to be present, and she is being run around quite a bit. The [url=https://i.ibb.co/WVkr1vc/Bob.jpg]bartender[/url] himself introduces himself as Robert, the proprietor of the establishment, and bids you to make the delivery around the back. There is a notable amount of foot traffic going through here, most of the tables being full and every seat at the bar occupied. The barmaid is not especially happy at being shorthanded, but tries to stay in good spirits. Little Lizbeth stayed back with the wagon, not wanting to come inside of this place. Cecily spoke with the proprietor while the barrel was being offloaded; his response was clear and load enough that everyone present could hear. [color=darkgray]"No, I got no private rooms available, Mrs. L'Rose. Your new friends want to stay here, there are beds in the common room open. Festival on, and such."[/color] Robert had a faux-accommodating smile on his face. [color=darkgray]"That reminds me, where're you staying tonight?"[/color] Cecily returned to the wagon with the news, though her delivery was a little nicer. [color=darkgray]"Look here,"[/color] she says finally, motioning to to hayloft almost diagonally across from the Public House, [color=darkgray]"It's not to your caliber, certainly, but my family does keep a loft right here. Closed up for the celebrations. If nothing else, it's quiet, keeps nothing but hay and some tools inside. Light a lamp up there, it's real cosy. You're welcome to use it."[/color] [center]*[/center] The Farmers' Market is a bustling place, the area taking up a full quarter of the Township's space inside of its walls. People here look to be of rural origin. There aren't streets in this quarter, persay, more than there are open spaces around which tents and simple wooden structures are assembled around. Most everyone here seems to know each other, Human and Halfling alike, and it has the overall atmosphere of a county fair. Stalls sell farm fresh produce and earthen jars of yummy things like fruit preserves, honey, etc. A large wooden stage is constructed nearby, upon which now a Very Important Looking Gentleman with a loud voice and rotund physique proclaiming the start of the Hog Broiling Competition in just one scant hour. Off to one side is a series of tents that appear to be residential, if only temporary. In the midst of this is a stone circle which holds in a fire pit. Wood is stacked and ready to go for the evening. Pipes are being smoked here, fresh fruits eaten, and much making of merry is to be had. The Very Important Looking Gentleman made his way over to the cart and wasted no time in being garrulous. Even obnoxious. Either way, he was excited. [color=darkgray]"Oh good! The wine is here! Hey everybody! Wine! HA!"[/color] He ran over to help Cecily and Lizbeth out of the wagon, giving an acknowledging smile in the directions of the party. [color=darkgray]"Good! It can't be a talent show unless there's a prize at the end of it, right? You bet your last potato I'm right!"[/color] He nodded vigorously, jowls wiggling in protest of the jolly Human's animated nature. [color=darkgray]"Oh! Just set it down over there, please! And thank you so much."[/color] [center]*[/center] To the northeast section of the town lay a series of buildings that looked a lot like offloading warehouses with business space attached. This was the Traders' Market. Whereas the the Farmers' Market brought in all of the goods of the land around it, mostly agricultural, and many of the local tradefolk that depended upon them as clients, this place dealt with all of the out-of-town goods that had to be shipped in from elsewheres farther off, manufactured goods, etc., and anything coming down from the river to the north. Said river cut cleanly through this section of town, bearing personal and cargo boats, most of which stopped to offload goods here. This delivery took a little longer than most, as Cecily was not sure exactly where it was going. The customer was a The Avonshire Merchant Association, and it took a little doing to locate a representative who was not neck deep in business of some sort. This was not the fast paced, deal-or-die type of mercantile or trading location that might occur in larger port cities, but it was respectable enough and doubly so as they appeared shorthanded, likely because of the Festival. Finally locating someone official enough to take possession of the barrel, very near to the east/west road through town, this older Halfling handed a gold coin over to Cecily. He kept staring across the main thoroughfare toward a quaint, well built storefront. The sign proudly had painted across it, [i]"Jacques Mallard, Silversmith"[/i]. Two things were notable about this building. The first was that it appeared to be closed, while the other businesses around it were taking advantage of the hustle in the Township; the second being that the windows were boarded up from the inside. [center]*[/center] The final delivery, and the one which would have been the largest, went to [i]Madame Marcie's Honey Barn[/i]. This one took them over the river toward the easternmost part of town. Like an open secret, this place stood as a testament to the fact that in Human society you might not find a particular type of skilled craftsman, but chances were that you would find shining, glorious Vice if you asked around. If ever there was a spot that did not seem to fit into the rest of the Township, it was this place. True to its name, the outside of the building looked very much like a large livestock barn, or maybe stabling, except that elegant windows were constructed into it at regular intervals and the large, gaping aperture that might have been at its front (were it a regular barn) was instead an inviting looking landing and a set of double doors, quite possibly carved of rich mahogany. It looked very well maintained and with a fresh coat of paint. If this ever was actually a [i]barn[/i], it had been heavily modified past its original purpose. From inside, music could be perceived from some sort of keyboard instrument. It was not busy yet, but by the way people moved in front of it, they were expecting one hell of a night. A young lady took notice of the wagon pulling up and excitedly ran back inside. Mere moments later a peculiar sort of [url=https://i.ibb.co/jZKXnL5/Madame-Marcie.jpg]woman[/url] exited the front doors. For all purposes, she had the features of a Halfling of indeterminate years with heavily styled raven black hair and a fondness for purple in her wardrobe. Lace and jewelry made striking appearances, and a fitted corset accented her already hourglass figure. Though her features identified her as one of the Shirefolk, the lady's height was impressive, considering. [color=darkgray]"Why, Mrs. L'Rose, it is so good of you to tend to our order personally."[/color] The accent presented by this woman marked her as a foreigner to these parts, but it was highly muddled and difficult to pin down exactly. [color=darkgray]"We heard about what happened, and I for one am so sorry to hear of your Father-In-Law's sudden passing. Everything work out well, I trust?"[/color] Her voice was equal parts sweet and businesslike. [color=darkgray]"I see. One third promised is missing. Well, we [i]shall[/i] have to come to some sort of an understanding, won't we? I know that you are in a bind and I shan't boorish about it, but a contract [i]is[/i] a contract. Even with the likes of me."[/color] A knowing smile crept across her face. [color=darkgray]"Oh, but you have such [i]lovely[/i] companionship this day. Introductions?"[/color] The woman strolled over to the party and extended a hand to each of the little troupe, [color=darkgray]"Charmed. I am Madame Marcie, and this is my Honey Barn. I do hope you all will partake of what festivities within speak to your proclivities. No judgement here, so long as we all play nice."[/color] [center]*[/center]