[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/R9YbZV3/icewine-nighttime-vineyard.jpg[/img][/center] [center][img]https://i.ibb.co/vXD6Q0t/Update-Text.png[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][hider=Rose River Vineyard][img]https://i.ibb.co/yRk60Zg/Vinyard-Estate-Gridded-Day-Lv4.jpg[/img][/hider][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [center][hider=Tasting Room & Study][img]https://i.ibb.co/HLwcc2SL/Tasting-Room-Study.jpg[/img][/hider][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [center][hider=L'Rose Winery Storage][img]https://i.ibb.co/cSGfhtY0/L-Rose-Winery-Storage.jpg[/img][/hider][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [center][hider=L'Rose Winery][img]https://i.ibb.co/twTZ3XSs/L-Rose-Winery.jpg[/img][/hider][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [center][hider=Gazebo Winery Entrance][img]https://i.ibb.co/hRy8dyF0/Gazebo-Winery-Entrance.jpg[/img][/hider][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [u]Weather[/u]: Remaining largely the same as previous, the air is still, cold, and only occasionally showing light movement. The snow falls gently, passively, accumulating with a series of patters that resembles very soft white noise. It's kind of nice. [u]Time[/u]: Mere moments have passed since the last update, according to the great timetable of the realm It is still night, about the same time as before with naught but a little more snow upon the ground to serve as pale indicator. [u]Ambience[/u]: This night is an absolute wonder of nocturnal winter escapades. One might see a snowy white fox on out and about, playing deftly with an errant bit of branch like a cat with a ball of string. Gossamer moonlight filtering through wide, lacy snowflakes almost seems to offset the blood staining the ground in the general vicinity of the meeting spot along the thoroughfare. Within the Winery, it is more or less comfortable of temperature, though it is notably colder in the production areas as opposed to the Tasting Room (and Study). It is reasonably well lit within the production areas thanks to spaced, mundane lighting, though many dim areas remain that might demand a personal source. The Tasting Room and Study are both evenly bright. Production areas are clean and well maintained thanks to the efforts of a well trained staff which is proud of its work, and storage areas keep wine mostly in large casks as opposed to bottles. Insofar as the Study is concerned, things are as described before, but it might be appropriate to say that it is a place full of organized disorganization. [center][color=darkgray][h2]*****[/h2][/color][/center] [img][/img] With Kathryn moving toward Cecily and Annick making her way into the Tasting Room (as per agreed upon planning), it looked like the two groups were about to merge a little nearer to the Tasting Room, where as far as the owner was aware, [i]absolutely nothing was happening[/i]. The adventurers and the Medician knew better, though they were trying hard to keep that from being common knowledge. This was proving to be harder than initially expected. To begin, Rens was eating up the attention provided, though had little in the way of useful conversation to add to the moment. The most that was gotten out of him, upon asking him directly what his favorite beverage here was, could be summed up as, [color=darkgray]"Oh, but no, I couldn't [i]possibly[/i] pick out just one. I'm a craftmaster, and most of the wine in here was made under my direction. Now, the last Master of Wine had a fine head for this, too. In fact, my favorite of HIS, if any's still around, is likely kept in Master L'Rose's private rooms. I dare say it is no longer held in casks in Storage. Perhaps we might find our way..?"[/color] The interaction with Cecily was, in its own way, successful, though not in the manner originally intended. She smiled and took to the flattery with grace and humor, but did draw the line at having a dance with Kathryn. [color=darkgray][i]"Oh, I don't know if that's proper, really. Besides, we were just on our way into the Tasting Room for a refill of the Honigblume. Perhaps you all should join us and we can just make it one big tour? How would that be... Master Rens, are you okay?"[/i][/color] The suggestion for Rens to sing a song was unfortunately taken seriously, if only the older man might have struck up the courage on his own to implement it. The Dwarven maxim of "finding courage at the bottom of a bottle" was put to task, as he took it upon himself to imbibe heavily from the wine receptacle her was using to dispense samples to the others, wipe his face, and walk forward with timid uncertainly, like he had come to a decision about something but needed that extra push for implementation. From his throat issued a baritone which quavered at first, but settled into a slow, steady cadence as he went on. Without music. In the middle of Wine Storage. [color=darkgray]"Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Black Betty had a child, bam-ba-lam The damn thing gone wild, bam-ba-lam She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind, " bam-ba-lam The damn thing gone blind, bam-ba-lam I said, "Oh, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam"[/color] Cecily looked on with muted horror as her Master of Wine carried on in the manner which he did, curious as to how long he'd hidden the fact that he sung. Badly. But Rens felt very much alive in the moment and began to belt out the next couple of verses with even less inhibitions, his imprecise tune filling every corner of the underground rooms. [color=darkgray]"Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam She really gets me high, bam-ba-lam You know that's no lie, bam-ba-lam She's so rock steady, bam-ba-lam And she's always ready, bam-ba-lam Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam Whoa, Black Betty, bam-ba-lam"[/color] Annick had begun to make herself scarce already. The Mosswaters looked upon the spectacle with their own sense of impropriety mounting, except while Tarace was as taken aback as Cecily, Barbal was turning red from holding in what might have been a mighty guffaw. Monsieur Laurent, on the other hand, let out a quieter issuance of, [color=darkgray]"I've had enough of this. Sober anyhow,"[/color] and turned to move in the direction of the Tasting Room, none to far away at this point. MEANWHILE, In the Study, the diminutive Chauncey appeared before Kosara in the manner of a summoned creature, gave a loooong stretch and flexed its manipulative little paws, then took to its orders presently. He gave a little wave and scurried off, taking point at the still open door to the Study. Chauncey poked his little nose out and kept sharp eyes pointed at the entryways to the Tasting Room, hopefully hidden well enough to avoid detection. From the somewhere in the Winery, singing could be heard. It was not particularly good singing, and the nature of the song was different from the usual local options for music. What could be heard and understood, in any case. The voice was unfamiliar to anyone within the Study, and Chauncey, if that mattered. Familiarity or not, shortly after the singing began, the summoned Rat made its way back to Kosara's line of sight. It reared onto its back legs and chittered quietly, waving its front paws in the air as to get his Mistress's attention. The criteria of its orders had been met, and the response given. EVEN MORE MEANWHILE, Blood left an irregular spattering across the snow near the Meeting Spot, far away from every other living soul that Baronfjord knew in this area. The fight continued as the indomitable Monk squared off against the tireless foe, the latter performing especially well for a lesser Undead creature, generally without the gift of cognitive ability. But this one seemed to be different somehow. As blows continued to be traded, offered, or evaded, the loud cry of a bird could be heard from somewhere overhead - specifically, a croaking caw common to larger black corvids. Skele-Toombes did not cease its assault against Baronfjord to the best of its ability, but the Voice could be heard issuing in calm, even amused syllables. [color=black][i][b]"Is that one of your pets, come to save you? I didn't think something like you capable of a trick like that. It may wait its turn, like the rest."[/b][/i][/color] One could day that the fight continued, but a better description it that it didn't even pause. [hider=Meeting Spot][center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/0b451289-078d-490e-a922-f2acbf4125be.png[/img][/center][/hider]