[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/VpHzK5s/Avonshire-Township.jpg[/img][/center] [center][img]https://i.ibb.co/vXD6Q0t/Update-Text.png[/img][/center][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [center][hider=L'Rose Hayloft][img]https://i.ibb.co/hWRvhS4/Hay-Barn.jpg[/img][/hider][/center] [center][hider=Coach House][img]https://i.ibb.co/BVvx6LH2/Coach-House.jpg[/img][/hider][/center] [center][hider=Neil & Bob's Public House][img]https://i.ibb.co/5vK80t3/N-B-ip.jpg[/img][/hider][/center] [center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] [u]Weather[/u]: Cold, windy hours are upon the people of the greater Avonshire region. The cloud cover is still expansive, but no snow falls tonight. Maneuvering out of doors will prove a challenge. The moors of southern Avonshire are uncomfortable at best, but discomfort isn't it's biggest issue this evening. [u]Time[/u]: We are firmly within the grasp of the nocturnal. It is nighttime, firmly and resolutely. [u]Ambience[/u]: Anywhere outside is windy and dark. The extremely rare person venturing out is thickly dressed for the occasion and bearing a light source which is, hopefully, resistant to wind. Most respectable folk have found their way inside until morning - and this applies from the vineyard all the way to the Township. Those behind walls find a bit of shelter from the wind and the occasional glow against darkness as it filters out of residences, but for the most part this is universal. The wintertime ideal location which is the Coach House seems to be the very image of domestic adventuring bliss. Tiefling and (mostly) Humans both, relaxing after a hard-felt day of investigations with good food, plentiful wine, and hot tea. The place could be just a touch warmer overall, but it [i]is[/i] winter and things like cloaks and blankets exist for a reason. Comfortable wooden features and furnishings coexist with lovely, evening-appropriate firelight, and the whole of the wine selections available to the Rose River Vineyard remain at the disposal of the Coach House's residents. Yes, while not perfect, it is an ideal location to spend a cold winter night. It would be a shame if anything unfortunate happened to change that. The Public House stands as a mostly quiet but still quite open place of business, populated sparsely by a total of seven paying customers and three staff. Per the usual business practice of the Pub, things are kept clean and simple, thanks mostly to the efforts of the Human tavernmaid, Lea, and their Halfling cook, Daisy. Lucky for them, it didn't seem like a strenuous amount of effort had to be placed into it, at least in recent hours. Neil & Bob's is your stock standard local place to get a drink, decent meal, and possiblty a bed in a common room to sleep things off. Maybe even take in a song or two, if the proprietor has the stage occupied with people capable of putting on a decent show. A simmering cauldron rests behind the bar, suspended within an active fireplace which opened on both sides - allowing taproom and kitchen access. [center][color=darkgray][h2]*****[/h2][/color][/center] [center][img]https://i.ibb.co/VgpLqTS/Bobs-Tavern.jpg[/img][/center] Within the Pub, the three locals took to the lack of an extremely tall Lady Knight with overemphasized disappointment. Various jeers and boos resounded for longer than they needed to, enhanced as they were with overindulgence and good-natured ribbing, even if the object of such was not present for it. [color=darkgray]"BOOO!"[/color] they sounded, making other comments about her [color=darkgray]"being a frigging lightweight anyway,"[/color] and such impossibilities of, [color=darkgray]"...she was just afraid of a rematch! Been practicing my d R i N k I n G, y'see..."[/color] followed by a belch which, by its gurgling sound, threatened to bring up more than was bargained for. Despite this, Lawrence called a "quiet" discussion among the three of them, where they very loudly whispered their plans and then announced more openly, [color=darkgray]"Hey... Hey there, Roberrrreh? Purple Lady's and [i]really blue[/i] Dragonfella's tab is on us tonight, huhkay? Now where's that Morty, we wanna get some head scritches in!"[/color] Good natured as they were, they were also obviously quite intoxicated. Baronfjord's question was answered by Daisy, who was a touch more garrulous than her colleagues from behind her massive beer mug (relative to her size). [color=darkgray][i]"Oh, we're doing just fine. Juuust fine. But that big noise outside of the walls?"[/i][/color] She motioned generally to the east, [color=darkgray][i]"Just got here. Couple hours before dark. Ain't seen but four of them total, and they're all sittin' right there."[/i][/color] The last sentence was hushed, thought the effectiveness of this was up for debate. Daisy nudged her head in the direction of the three Gnomes, two of whom were dressed in bright, cheerful attire, and the Human at the other occupied table. Robert, from behind the bar, solemnly dipped into the cauldron over the fire and ladled out two hefty bowls of stew. While it wasn't the best quality of food ever devised in the region of Avonshire, it was exactly as requested - hot and readily available. He roughly tore a loaf of dense, local sorghum bread in half and rested each half atop the stew. [color=darkgray][b][b]"Not fancy, but it's filling. Mostly potatoes, sorry, but there's some good pork in there, too."[/b][/b][/color] He plopped a bottle of local white wine on the bar next to the bowls, along with two simple, wooden cups, then motioned for Lea to collect the appropriate moneys from the trio of regulars at the table nearby. Flushed of face, Lea hopped to her work. Leaning in a little, Robert soberly answered another question put to him. [color=darkgray][b]"My issue's still my issue. Got to chain up when the moon gets big. Others, too, but we're managing. Need to get a powerful clergyfolk out this way, but those are few, far between. Might find someone in the Spring, after roads clear more. Two months, maybe three."[/b][/color] Far from the hopeful restoration of the town as a whole, but at least things weren't getting any worse - and they had the adventurers to thank for that. After collecting money and tending to some detail work refilling and wiping things down, Lea joined the group at the bar. She seemed a little sheepish at first, like she was meeting a celebrity crush, as she attempted nonchalance. [color=darkgray]"Hey, so, how ...have you been? I mean where have you been? Will you be staying long? I missed what you were saying before. I'm..."[/color] A quick, frustrated sigh escaped her lips as she buried her face in her hands. Robert, shaking his head, plopped another wooden cup upon the bar in front of Lea and poured a healthy amount of wine from behind the bar into it. [color=darkgray][b]"Take a break, Lea. Good a time as any."[/b][/color] The table containing the strangers did stir away from their own business around this time. The dark haired woman in a brown coat let her hand drift down to her long-handled warhammer which was casually leaning against the table. She eyed Victoria's burlap-wrapped mascot as it clomped up behind her, and then received attention from the drunks at the other table. Suspicious and potentially aggressive expressions came to her face, as she tensed herself. A hand from the more drab attired Gnome came to rest on her arm. No words were exchanged, but a brief shake of the Gnome's head seemed to keep the peace for the moment. [center][img]https://i.ibb.co/xH8vbT7/Barmaid-at-N-B.jpg[/img][/center] The Coach House maintained its wondrous ambience as pies baked and tea brewed. Water boiled, fire crackled, and even thought the Bard was elsewhere, one could almost hear a touch of music in the air. Little in the way of concern touched that place at that time, and everything was glorious in their stone-walled, winter oasis. Lizbeth even felt herself near to jolly, her high spirits coming together with good food, good tea, and some of the first touches of independence of her young life. She was associating with Adventurers, who were teaching her how to be strong despite certain choices being stripped away from her at too young an age. [color=darkgray]"I do wish I can help you with some of this, at least, Mademoiselle Kosara,"[/color] implored the young wine heiress, feeling a little out of sorts at being waited upon by people her senior, who possessed power and abilities which far surpassed her own. Hopefully, that would pass soon. The plans to visit Grouse Rise did seem to give Lizbeth some pause, as it would mean going very near to the area her grandfather forbade her visit, but that was just on the Vineyard property, as far as she was aware. Besides, she had big, strong people with her, right? She should be fine, be the danger something mundane or preternatural. And she wasn't entirely helpless, herself. This should be okay. [color=darkgray]"I am looking forward to the Grouse Rise trip,"[/color] she mentioned, nodding her head and speaking around a mouthful. [color=darkgray]"And don't you worry, I will have plenty of room for whatever you make for us!"[/color] It was the jovial promise of a girl who was taking in the experience, seemingly for the first time. One might barely even notice that the hearthfire in the taproom seemed to darken, despite the seasoned, dry wood feeding it. Nor would anyone really notice the minuscule resonance of an almost heartbeat-like rhythm. There was just [i]so much goodwill[/i] in the air that night. Everything was absolutely fine. Everything. Fine.