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	[u]Weather[/u]: No fresh snow falls upon the hills and vines of the Rose River Vineyard, and the day is bright enough through the even cover of clouds as to make things easy to perceive at a distance. The existing snow remains a wintry, bright blanket on the ground, muddled in places of usual foot traffic. Wind gusts only occasionally, and it is most assuredly cold enough to keep the present snowfall from melting.   

	[u]Time[/u]: Officially now, let us give it the label of Late Morning, as opposed to the more generic "mid-to-late" of the previous update. Some time had passed, but not enough for the remaining laborers to pause for midday repast.  

	[u]Ambience[/u]: It is a brisk morning here in the start of winter, proper. White and bright, a curious rhyming scheme to describe the day, is accurate as well as catchy. Folks here find themselves in warm clothing and thicker footwear than just a month prior as they work out in the vineyard. And work must be done, of course. The late harvest grapes must be harvested late, as the name implies, when the conditions call for it. Apparently, this is not to occur on this day.  

	The grapes which remain upon the vine, cared for by the staff still, were once pale green of color but now begin to have a yellow tinge and a touch of malformation to the skins. These details are marked by their handlers and appear satisfactory. Work continues. These grapes look in opposition to the few stragglers found by Kosara earlier in the week - them being small, dark, and generally unwholesome. The white ones are clearly intended to have some age before picking.

	A couple of smaller barges make landfall at the beach underneath the Estate House. Cecily could be seen walking down to meet them, pointing and giving instruction as things began to be offloaded. The few persons crewing these boats were all Human, evident by their relative heights and builds from the distance as they delivered staple products to their clients.    

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

	The talk with Urmdrus was, per the older Dwarf's proclivities, very short and very direct. He answered questions with as few syllables as possible and a gruff voice. [color=darkgray][b]"Armor resists acid. Not person wearing. Helps. Needs magic, better help person wearing."[/b][/color] His grasp on the Common language showed its lack of complete fluency as he spoke, but he figured something out eventually. [color=darkgray][b]"Different. Yes. Different Dwarf."[/b][/color] Urmdrus looked a little annoyed. But it passed, and he got back to work. 

	Kosara's discussion with Cecily concerning the partially uncovered rock wall bears a little fruit, but after said fruit was skinned and seeded, not a truly satisfying amount. There was a haze of confusion at first, until mention of a Sycamore tree was made. [color=darkgray][i]"Yes! I know that tree. Hugo and I had a picnic there once! Before it began to rain it was actually a lovely time. We harvested that area for the year already and if I'm not mistaken, it should be dormant for now. I'm sorry, I don't think I know anything about a buried wall over that way. It has been a while, and I don't walk the grounds so much. My husband was the one who grew up here; I just married into the L'Rose family."[/i][/color] She gave some light consideration and added, [color=darkgray][i]"You have my permission to find out what you can about it, if you like. The Vineyard grew from diverse products at its founding. Perhaps you've stumbled across an old workshop. Wouldn't that be exciting? Yes, do look into it, please. You may acquire hand tools from any one of the worksheds attached to the fields."[/i][/color]

	Kathryn's time spent poking around with the local laborers was even less informative, but they did not particularly shoo the towering Knight away. The most useful bit that could be gotten from them came in the form of, [color=darkgray]"Ancient horrors lurking beneath the opulent manor? What? No! The only thing under the manor (most as I'm aware) is the main winery, proper! You can get there through the main house or..."[/color] The fellow pointed up to the easternmost gazebo, [color=darkgray]"That's how us paid-by-the-week folk get in."[/color] What was inferred from speech was that the [i]main[/i] winery was below. Another point of idle gossip, such as only a rare few were being [i]idle[/i], came the vague opinion that everyone felt sorry for Lizbeth, as most of her family dropped dead on her at a tender age and something might happen to the Vineyard if Cecily died as well. Past that, it was hard to gather much that sounded remotely reliable. 

	For those who actually decided to take the trek out to the place mentioned, one would find it easy to locate. A sycamore tree standing by itself nearish to the Southern parts of the vineyard tended to stand out among the rolling hills of grape vines. Climbing the hill was also a relatively easy task, though the steepness of it made it slightly less useful to grow crops upon without terracing. Hence, only the sunny side was planted, near the river. Kosara's experience was also a useful tool in locating the place, as it could be indicated with a point and an utterance of [i]thataway[/i], or nearabouts. The description of the spot was dead on, as well. It was a spot on the shady half of the hill, just to the side of a worn path large enough to accommodate a farm wagon, now covered in a layer of crunchy, white snow. The mild hollow which held the rock wall looked like an excellent spot to step to the side as agricultural folk passed through with heavy burdens of their profession, or turn a wagon like that around, and likely was used for that purpose precisely. This time, about shoulder level for most of the taller races (Human sized, give or take) one could make out the space where frigid ground had cracked away under the weight of someone leaning on it, revealing a vertical space of intentionally stacked stones. It wasn't but a half-yard of exposed rock, but the very nature of its piling gave one heavy inclination to believe that it was much bigger than just the part showing.