[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]


	[u]Weather[/u]: Though the sun is bright and [i]relatively[/i] warming against the autumn winds, it is more often than not covered by a layer of blanketing cloud cover. It has officially moved from [i]partly[/i] cloudy to [i]mostly[/i] cloudy. Those with a head for weather might have some predictions for later in the day. Winds pick up, bringing in the scent of atmosphere. 

	[u]Time[/u]: Mid to late morning. Depending upon how long one took to search, prowl about, question, or otherwise investigate things, we are hovering in the busier part of the ante meridiem.  

	[u]Ambience[/u]: Things are picking up. The Township has come blaring to life, especially along the main roads crossing the cardinal axes of the soon to be bustling area. Businesses are up and going, hawkers and selling wares in the mercantile places in town, and both the Farmers' and Traders' Markets are coming to full swing. The campsites and wagon clusters outside of town have begun to empty into the places behind the walls, bringing with them money, clamor, and opportunity. The streets and any buildings open to the public are now occupied; privacy is not something one will find casually. The "party", such as it is, has not started and likely will not for some hours yet. 

[center][hider=Brindleton's Woodworking][img]https://i.ibb.co/BGhPhzv/Woodworker-Shop.png[/img][/hider][/center]
	Marita's entry to the building occurred with nothing in the way of fanfare, though the value of one's presence rarely is recognized without the benefit of hindsight. Much to the credit of this median observation, a short time would tell whether the Cleric would make a noteworthy difference. The information provided by Victoria gave a decent enough starting point. Readily viewable was the subpar job someone or something did cleaning up after themselves, though it was a good enough job to obscure the subject of their hurried janitorial duties. In short form; neither the Cleric nor Bard knew what was cleaned, nor the significance thereof.  

	Away from the work area and out into the warehouse/sales floor, the furniture looked completely untouched. Nothing strange about anything here, nothing soiled or stained, etc. And nothing sloppily cleaned up by domestic amateurs. Nothing particularly out of place in the living area, either. All in all, nothing outside of the door and the workshop seemed remotely out of place. 

	[i]That was, until...[/i] 

	Marita's discovery served as an oddly shaped piece of a jigsaw puzzle that didn't quite fit into what was already put together. The habitable areas and workshop contained places where money or foodstuffs might be held by normal people going about normal lives. Cabinets, a small pantry, a lock box behind the counter; things of this nature. They had all been emptied. This might be common for a robbery, or for looters after the fact. But what was not so common about this was the fact that the interior wood of those containers was gouged with deep scratches, like something with claws or sharp nails had emptied them quickly. 


[center][hider=Jacques Mallard, Silversmith][img]https://i.ibb.co/GWcg0WP/Silversmith-s.jpg[/img][/hider][/center]
	Jacques nodded soberly at Kathryn's expressed desire to not have bloodshed, but he did not waver in his attentiveness to his own defense. His eyes darted between Kathryn and Kosara, peering seemingly to pick out even minute detail before humoring to drop a sliver of his guard. When the tall warrior placed the ring on her tongue and kept it there for a time, his face visibly softened into something like cautious relief. he nodded again, now turning his full attention to Kosara.  

	The silversmith did his best to maintain his composure while he waited for the Tiefling to place the ring on her tongue, giving no outward indication that he might address her questions before this event took place. Satisfied by whatever result this challenge presented, he moved his crossbow's business end to the side, so that it did not point directly at either of the two women in his establishment. Actual, full relief crossed his features as he let out a breath and prepared to address his visitors. 

	It was about this time that Kosara began the bulk of her monologue that took them all on an interesting verbal journey, much of which was completely without context for Mr. Jacques Mallard. He flashed with confusion at the mention of "Mr. Cloverwish", and seemed fully disturbed by the accusation that he was up until recently a prisoner. Jacques began to slowly back up toward the counter, a look of pure shock and incredulity plastered across his features. His mouth moved briefly and soundlessly for a moment until he was finally able to clearly enunciate: [color=darkgray]"Get out. Both of you, [i]right now[/i]. Get out."[/color]