[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/vXD6Q0t/Update-Text.png[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/VgpLqTS/Bobs-Tavern.jpg[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center]

[center][hider=Neil & Bob's Public House, interior][img]https://i.ibb.co/5vK80t3/N-B-ip.jpg[/img][/hider][/center]

[center][h2][color=darkgray]*******[/color][/h2][/center]

	A short while had passed with the group doing nothing more strenuous than discussion, grabbing a bite to eat, and resting. The couple of beds pulled into the taproom served well for the purpose of the latter, while the more commercial of furniture (chairs and benches) around the tables were good enough for a weary investigator to take a load off. It did not have the full amenities of the group's home away from home, but it did suffice for the hour. 

	Speaking of which, within this hour of time the weather outside had taken a turn for the cooler. One risking a look outside would note a lack of wind blowing things about. The rain, a mostly constant feature of the day, had retreated to parts unknown and colder air came directly on its heels. The overall result was a late afternoon/early evening which promised cold and fog, not unlike the previous evening. Mists arose from the leftover dampness of the rainstorm and the very nearby river. It wasn't quite at "pea soup" levels of thickness, though it was a safe bet that this very fate was a likely one to behold in this autumn evening in Avonshire. 

	Inside of Neil & Bob's Public House, Lea busied herself with small bits of maintenance; cleaning and stocking small things like nonperishable condiments, marrying compatible wine bottles, and tending the fire. She did so mechanically, a series of tasks which came to her naturally. Her profession, one might say; and they would be accurate. But to this last task, tending the fire - Lea had taken up the last two pieces of decent wood left and tossed them on. It was easier to keep a place at temperature than to raise if from a dead cold. She sat heavily in front of the fire for a moment or two, blew out a heavy sigh, and rose to her feet. [color=darkgray]"Better get it done before nightfall,"[/color] was all she had said for the last long piece of time, staring at the iron grate near the fire which served as a wood box. She moved silently into the kitchen, pausing just long enough to remove the note left by the Halfling cook, Daisy, from her apron and place it on the bar. Her cup of high-end libation sat next to it, about halfway drained. 

	Regrettably, mental supplication to one's grandfatherly contract holder did not seem to bear fruit upon this occasion. If listening, said hypothetical power did not provide a clear and interpretable message in return. Not that this was an unexpected result of the attempt and it never hurts to try. 

	The hour of rest had come to a mutually agreeable end for the members of the party. There stood precious little time before sundown proper, and what rest could be had in this time was achieved. An aura of tension hung over the whole of the Township; a deep and collective breath taken in and held in anticipation of something potentially catastrophic coming to pass.