[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/vXD6Q0t/Update-Text.png[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/VpHzK5s/Avonshire-Township.jpg[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Cecily was astute enough to realize that the concept of a hayloft wasn't the Bed & Breakfast experience that Marita might have wanted. Or any of them, for that matter. [color=darkgray]"I assure you, if you decide to accept my invitation to the vineyard, you will have much nicer accommodations. It's the least I might offer for what you have done for my family."[/color] She sighs, and gives one piece of information that she hopes brings comfort, [color=darkgray]"There is a lamp inside, and a big ceramic vessel that watchmen use for a firepit. Some stacked wood, too - or there should be. Privy house just to the back. I've stayed there myself, before. Once or twice."[/color] She promises again to give the group the grand tour, following the completion of the deliveries. The question posed by Kathryn concerning the state of the silversmith's location was met with a blank look for a moment, as if Cecily was lost in thought. When she finally spoke, it was with a mild expression of hopelessness. [color=darkgray]"I really don't know. It was open a week or so ago, last time I was in town. Whatever reason Mr. Mallard had for boarding up [i]from the inside[/i], it must have been recent."[/color] Little Lizbeth L'Rose has been very quiet, up in their wagon. She stuck to the driver's seat, staying near to her aunt as best she could unless there was a barrel being rolled off of the wagon and the elder Mrs. L'Rose needed to climb down. Her face kept moving with waves of grief and expressions of longing, seeing all of the fun which was going on around them yet feeling too guilty to ask if it was okay to join. Especially during the time that the wagon made its way down toward Madame Marcie's Honey Barn, she keeps a very low profile, not venturing to speak. But as for Madame Marcie herself, she appears quite taken by the positive attention being doled out to her, especially by Kosara and Victoria. In fact, she appears to have an immediate elevation of spirits, reflected in the words and tone she uses to both Cecily and the party. It is to Mrs. L'Rose and Kathryn that she first gives address, saying, [color=darkgray]"Ah, but come now. There's no need to be sorry, really."[/color] Her accent, as foreign as the rest of the party is to this area, stresses a little more as she continues, [color=darkgray]"One cannot reliably predict the aggression of Goblins, now can they? No, what we have here is the cost of doing business, one which Mrs. L'Rose will have to tend. But I do not insist that it be settled this day. Oh no! Both of us are way too busy for that. Send me a free one when you can or credit my account. The inconvenience of it is [i]my[/i] cost of doing business."[/color] The lack of desire to open conversation past the simplest of introductions, as well as the general attire of Marita, is really all that Marcie seems to need to know about the Cleric. A half-second of sizing one another up and coming to their perspective judgements later, and the Madame gives a polite, knowing smile up to the adventuring Clergywoman, and that seems to be that. But to the more conversationally active of the group, Marcie had much to say. [color=darkgray]"A Tiefling dancer from the southern deserts, [i]and[/i] an [i]actual[/i] Bard? How exquisite."[/color] She listened for a time, interest developing as each of them went into the speeches they gave and questions they asked, something very near to delight finally accenting her face. [color=darkgray]"I have no idea what a Simsimiyya, nor what the Grey Requiem is."[/color] She waved her hands, as if warding off gnats, to embellish her thought of, [color=darkgray]"Mere details."[/color] A moment later, she offered, [color=darkgray]"Hmm... You two could do well for yourself here. I would be soft-headed not to at least ask if you would like to do some work during the festival. Profitable work. Entertainment, mind you, not... well, [i]only[/i] for entertainment. Scruples, of course. But you, Miss Kosara, thank you! Your hair is just gorgeous as well. Rare, and gorgeous. As for my raven locks, well... woman to woman? My secret is that sometimes,"[/color] Marcie looked around and spoke at a whisper, as if to prevent others from hearing a trade secret, [color=darkgray]"Sometimes, I give my hair the night off."[/color] A wink and then she brought herself back to full height, speaking loudly enough for everyone else to hear, [color=darkgray]"My door is open now, or you may come back later and we can shuffle some shows around. I'm sure I can find something mutually profitable for a ...so very strong lady..."[/color] This obviously aimed at Kathryn, [color=darkgray]"...to pass the time in my little corner of Avonshire."[/color] Marcie waved and strutted back toward the doors of The Honey Barn, her boots making a hollow clacking sound upon the cobblestones, feeling much better about herself and life in general. After the initial conversations with the Madame were concluded and things began to wrap up, Lizbeth leaned out of the wagon in Cecily's general direction and reminded that, after deliveries were done, she promised to let them in the loft. The older lady responds, [color=darkgray]"Ah yes, of course. For those of you who are interested, please follow me back to the loft."[/color] Cecily spoke as if distracted, quickly straightening up to see to her affairs. For those who chose to follow Cecily back to the Hayloft, you can tell that she remained quiet and somewhat distracted, despite all of the cheerful celebration around you all. It wasn't until the group got back to the street which held the loft that she began to speak again. [color=darkgray]"Bob's Public House is just across the way and up a building, here. Next door to that and just across from the loft is a stable run by a man named Fields. Human, used to work with the soldiers over in Darenby. And here,"[/color] She dropped down from the now much emptier wagon, removing a bar and a lock from the big double doors to at the front. [color=darkgray]"Here is the family's hayloft. It's only used for the storage of hay and straw, some tools. Animals are kept across the street. This is closed up now, but there should still be several bales of fresh hay in here."[/color] She reminds of the privy out back, ceramic fire bowl, and oil lamp. There is also a cart in here, to one corner, and a few barrels near to the front of the ground floor. [center][hider=Hayloft][img]https://i.ibb.co/hWRvhS4/Hay-Barn.jpg[/img][/hider][/center] The floor is made of the same cobblestones as the street, Otherwise, this place is built of stone and well tended lumber. Bales of hay are present, as is a ladder reaching to the next level up. This is not the only means of accessing the second floor, as a loading block and tackle can be seen on a pulley system, attached to a wooden platform. Right now, that platform rests upon the floor, but it won't take a genius to operate the system from either the ground or second level, providing a simple elevator. The ladder itself can be moved, or taken up behind someone on the higher floor. Double doors can be spotted on either side of this building on the ground floor, both of which can be barred from the inside. The entire place smelled of mown hay and tooled wood. Wandering in from the wagon outside, Lizbeth spoke to her aunt with the start of moisture in her eyes. [color=darkgray][i]"Aunt CeeCee? What are we going to do about Grandpa?"[/i][/color] Her lip began to quiver slightly. Lizbeth held it back as best she could, but she did just lose a family member and had to run from a Goblin attack, only to find out that they stripped the flesh from Grandpa's bones and ate his corpse. Her ability to keep it together was fraying.