[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]: Raining, though some lighter. The occasional roll of mild thunder still sounded without any particular malice, and the sky was still overcast to the point of obscuring the sun. It was still cool but not overly cold, though the damp air might have made one give a dissenting opinion. Overall, no change from a half hour prior.

	[u]Time[/u]: Still mid-afternoon.  

	[u]Ambience[/u]: Inside of the building, a man who presented as crazy worked diligently over his small pot forge. Outside, a different man who presented as an antagonist approached Jacques's front door, and he brought allies. The rain remains and water continues to run down the streets and into drainage, making the cobblestone street navigable but somewhat slippery to the unwary. There's mischief afoot. 


		
[center][color=darkgray][h2]*****[/h2][/color][/center]
[center][hider=Jacques Mallard, Silversmith][img]https://i.ibb.co/GWcg0WP/Silversmith-s.jpg[/img][/hider][/center]

	Jacques picked up his pace as best he could without sacrificing quality, though he maintained conversation as best he could. Marita seemed to have the questions, so she was the one that the silversmith addressed first. [color=darkgray]"Figured that magic was involved. I know a little more than the next man in this town about magic, least enough to recognize 'geas'. Can't say who or what's responsible - like I said, I'm aiming to wait out the worst and leave town when daybreak comes. Details can sort itself out when my family's safe."[/color] Another unrolling of braided silver wire, another application of heat, and another tapping of swirling patterns to the interior of the metal cuffs. [color=darkgray]"Near to done..."[/color] he murmured. Speaking a little louder, he continued the discussion. [color=darkgray]"Don't know what they want, except to turn people. They've been getting aggressive with it, if the disappearances indicate anything. But... the Harvest Moon? You haven't sussed that one out yet?"[/color]

	He set down his work and stared directly at Marita, giving only a glance or two toward Victoria. [color=darkgray]"The Harvest Moon. One begins with autumn and marks the start of the main crops coming in, but in Avonshire we recognize another. It marks the [i]end[/i]. Grain harvests are in, pork gets cured away for the cold months. Things are pickled and preserved. But none of that's important. Harvestide marks the last [i]full moon[/i] of Autumn. That's tonight and it lasts for three nights. There are infected wererats in Avonshire (whether they know it or not) that are going get very active as soon as the moon rises, and [i]I don't know how many there are[/i]. The festival is incidental."[/color] 

	With Victoria, he was a little more terse. The general feel of this less loquacious attitude was easily explained by his desire to finish up work which he had almost completed. [color=darkgray]"Five gold. That will do. Yes."[/color] Jacques spared a glance over to her sword on the counter, stating, [color=darkgray]"You got that sword north of here. Someplace with money. Nice blade. Um... I can do five weapons about this size before nightfall. Four hours, maybe five, I can give you all something decent. But my door doesn't open after dark tonight, and it won't until daybreak."[/color]

	Finally, Jacques rose from his workstation and handed the wrist/ankle manacles over to Marita, as well as the accompanying chain which connected them. His demeanor looked better composed now, if still ragged around the edges. He then too up Victoria's sword and inspected it more closely. [color=darkgray]"Slender, but it will take a fine inlay. Yes. Bring whatever else you want silvered, soon as you can. Hmm... filigree? No... swirls maybe. Nevermind. Function over form, but I will make them look presentable, hmm."[/color] His stability appeared to slip momentarily. 


[center][hider=Outside Silversmith][img]https://i.ibb.co/9Hw51rb/Outside-Silversmith-ip.png[/img][/hider][/center]

	Cavendish continued undisturbed by the imposing manner and speech of Kathryn. With the exception of a quick glance up in either direction, his gaze remained focused in front of himself, to the door he wished to enter and the people putting themselves in his way. He shifted his hammer off to one side, preparing to swing as soon as he got within the appropriate of his target which might have been the door or its fleshier guardian, either way would have sufficed. 

	The Constable ignored Kosara completely, not giving more than a silent glance in her direction. He seemed to study Baronfjord but again, did not address the unfamiliar Dragonborn. To Kathryn, he scoffed, saying, [color=darkgray][b]"Well then, [i]m'Lady[/i]... aren't you just extra fancy?"[/b][/color] A sneer followed, which seemed to be the answer given by the two guards at his rear flanks. One of them went so far as to hiss out a scathing bit of laughter. Cavendish went on, unperturbed at this display, [color=darkgray][b]"Anyone who stands in front of me, or tries to stop me, isn't getting a trial. Hells, it won't matter what happens to you in a few hours anyway. So you do whatever feels right."[/b][/color] An unsettling smile formed on the man's features. He strode forward, the guards now moving to flank him on either side. They hefted spears as if to receive a charge and moved forward with their leader. 

	Inside of the shop, Jacques's head turned toward the boarded up windows. He raced toward one and peered out through a tiny slit between the wooden slats. Fear rose in his voice as he stated aloud, [color=darkgray]"No, don't... don't let them take me! I'm as good as dead if.. Hurry!"[/color]