[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][img]https://i.ibb.co/7xg5TgS9/Tasting-Room.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]	

[center][color=gold][b][i]* We have resolved the events of the time skip and are now up to date. *[/i][/b][/color][/center]

	[u]Weather[/u]: It is still below freezing, make no mistake, but the temperature is hovering just below it. The wind keeps itself to low gusts along the ground level, but the higher atmosphere demonstrates a more rapid movement of clouds, themselves scattered and patchy as they direct themselves with seeming purpose across an indifferent sky. More precipitation might be inbound, if probably not this night. 
     
	[u]Time[/u]: It is early evening. Not quite dusk yet, but seriously planning on it.  

	[u]Ambience[/u]: A cold evening settled upon the Rose River Vineyard. It was a rosy, purplish evening; quiet and full of folksy winter charm. Most people have been able to adapt to the weather, in part. That is to say, those who found cold weather fully intolerable can now, well, [i]tolerate[/i] it with seasonally appropriate attire. In the intervening weeks, a fresh blanket of powdery snow had fallen, leaving just the area in and around the Honigblume grapes to suffer the wrath of the repeated trampling of workers' shoes. The multiple lit braziers, once an odd sight against nighttime's landscape, had become a reassuring sort of sight, regular in its appearance as torches were set to them every dusk over the recent weeks. These lights now stood absent, after the final harvest was taken in and the grapes processed.
 
 
[center][color=darkgray][h2]*****[/h2][/color][/center] 
[img][/img]
	The evening of the Honigblume tasting is upon you all. It was a much anticipated event among the staff of the Rose River Vineyard, but not because of the possibility of attending the event itself. In fact, this is a very limited attendance affair of only a dozen or so. No, the draw from among the greater workforce of the wine tasting is the delivery of the year's end payment, which was enough to last them into the coming spring. Extra, if you helped bring in the late harvest. This was not a trade secret. Rather, this was what was on many people's minds and conversations as the day drew nearer. Upon said day, if only for a two hour span of time, the Vineyard felt almost as busy as any other workday earlier in the year. 

	Since the fleeting conversation between Baronfjord and Cecily, the Matron of the Estate had been distant, seeking mostly to take care of the needs of her guests through intermediaries and keeping things polite but short if she dealt with matters in person. Any request for small luxury items or specific foodstuffs (within reason) was handled by the lady, and she did not restrict Lizbeth from associating with the party in the slightest, but she herself kept at arm's length. This persists until the very evening of the wine tasting event. Upon this evening, Cecily L'Rose arrived to the Coach House escort the party to the gathering personally. 

	Cecily was resplendent in her neatly pressed, corseted white blouse and blue floral mantle with matching skirts. Cosmetics were applied with a careful, competent hand, as was her hair which was neatly arranged in an elegant, partially braided updo. Those with experience in such things will note that her entire ensemble paints her not as a member of the nobility in any way, but an obviously moneyed member of a more middle class social strata. That is to say, despite the quality of her outfit she did not have a chambermaid to attend to frills nor to cinch petticoats. 

	Lizbeth joined her, similarly attired but with her makeup bolder and a bit less expertly done. As an interestingly stylish choice, the girl had the late Constable's whip wound around herself in the manner of a cord belt, whether or not her aunt noticed was up for debate. A hint of green might be viewed from underneath her high-collared linen shirt if she bent in just the right way, and the heiress-in-waiting was bedecked in what appeared to be a newly made, hooded, grey-purple split cape. She looked like she was borrowing styles of dress from her aunt and their adventurous guests equally. The young lady might be accused of attempting to find herself by imitating others to see what stuck, as youth is oft to do. 

	It was Cecily who spoke up first, giving warm, evening greetings and offering to usher the party to the Tasting Room, within the depths of the Estate House, proper. This would have made it the first time that such an offer was extended. [color=darkgray][i]"I do apologize for not giving a tour at an earlier time. Things have been so busy as of recently that it wasn't feasible. But tonight is a very special night, and your presence is [u]long[/u] overdue."[/i][/color] She gave a smile readily, if it did seem just a little nervous. [color=darkgray][i]"But come along now! We have a big surprise for you all. Don't we, Lizbeth?"[/i][/color]

	The younger L'Rose gave a supportive nod and motioned for everyone to follow. [color=darkgray]"We sent out formal invitations, including as you noted,"[/color] she said, glancing back as they went along. [color=darkgray]"Almost everyone responded that they were coming. Even so, this is a pretty small gathering. Aunt CeeCee even said I could stay for most of it this year!"[/color] She looked almost giddy at this idea, as if she were finally getting a seat at the adult's table for the holiday feasts. 

	Instead of leading everyone to the main doors of the Estate House, a sharp turn was taken to being them to the second gazebo from the main building - not the one within which the two physical powerhouses of the party held their contest of martial prowess, but the one with a large circular trapdoor leading to a massive cellar beneath. The stairs were carved from stone and had wide, sturdy wooden guardrails on either side, suitable to bear considerable weight with generational ease. At the bottom of these stairs was a relaxing little atrium with more temperate tolerating plants providing a bit of freshness to a mostly underground setting, well tended by talented gardeners. [color=darkgray][i]"I don't know if your explorations have led you down here before,"[/i][/color] Cecily began to explain, [color=darkgray][i]"But through these doors is where the magic happens. Oh, not literally, mind - but we handle all of our fermentation, aging, and bottling on site, underneath the grounds and the Estate House. Everything is kept as constant of environment as we can control, ensuring reliable, repeatable quality from year to year."[/i][/color]

	Through the double doors ahead and into a vast room lit by grapeseed oil lamps, it was impossoible not to see a series of [i]massive[/i] vats in a series with careworn but maintained wooden stairs leading above to walkways framing them. A few scattered barrels stood to one side or another, in an organization likely known to the professionals employed here. There was the sweet-sour aroma of fruit fermentation about, in rising or fallign levels depending upon where one stood within this place. Floors alternated between ceramic tile and packed sawdust. The sheer volume of wine that could be made in this place was difficult to fathom. Cecily continued. [color=darkgray][i]"This is the Winery proper. We produce enough base product to take care of our region's demand easily, due to its lower population relative to more citied areas. While it pays our workers and gives us enough money to comfortably live on, it is due to vintages like our Fortified Zinnoberrot and Honigblume as export products that we make our real money. Monsieur Arnaud L'Rose set this up over eighty years ago, and our techniques along with superior grape-growing procedures have seen remarkable success from the very beginning. The L'Rose Family has been truly blessed these decades since."[/i][/color] Cecily stopped short for a half second, as if debating the veracity of her last statement. [color=darkgray][i]"Well, recent years have been less gilded. But Lizbeth still stands to inherit a bustling vinophilic dynasty."[/i][/color]

	Moving onward, the next room was almost as large as the first but wall-to-wall stacked high with barrels, casks, bottles in racks, and the like - all organized by year, type, and other factors to make them easily referenced. Lighting in here was less constant, highlighting mainly places where one might have to turn a corner or where stumbling blindly would lead to disaster. Burned into the sides of casks were words that many a wine drinker would know, and some that they might not unless they were in the trade. It was more stable of temperature in here, even more than the previous room, and the scent much more neutral. [color=darkgray][i]"Here is where our wine is stored and aged. When it is time to move them elsewhere or load them for sale upriver, they begin their final journey there to the left, where is loaded into wagons for regional transportation, or river barges for export."[/i][/color] Cecily had taken the role of tour guide easily. She had made this speech many times, to hear her talk.

	[color=darkgray]"Oh, the Tasting Room is up here!"[/color] exclaimed Lizbeth. [color=darkgray][i]"C'mon, we're almost there!"[/i][/color] She jogged ahead, making it to the doors to the far side of the room. She waited until everyone had caught up before throwing them open and ushering everyone in with a grand flourish. [color=darkgray][i]"The Tasting Room!"[/i][/color] This was a much smaller room than the two previous, dominated by thick, square support columns and a wide, well polished table. Upon the table was a simple, deep red tablecloth which covered just enough to give a buffer between several carafes of wine, various cut bits of different cheeses, a few different types of late blooming apple and pear, and thick, crusty bread common to the region. Small vases of wildflowers decorated the feast of finger-accessible consumables, and both chairs and exquisite wine glasses were evenly spaced around the table. 

	There were others here, too. Not many, but Cecily took the time to point out only a select few. Two of them were already known to the group; one was not. [color=darkgray][i]"Barbal and Tarace Mosswater, I am sure you remember,"[/i][/color] declared Cecily, motioning to the two Halfling farm owners. [color=darkgray][i]"But this man you might not have met yet."[/i][/color] She walked over to a rather tall Human, who appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, clean shaven and of steel-grey hair. He wore a simple suit and waistcoat of black wool, and a long, fur-lined brown coat lay over the back of the chair he stood nonchalantly beside. [color=darkgray][i]"This is Monsieur Laurent. It was his farm on which you battled the Ankhegs. Even scared them into submission - and I should know. I was there as witness!"[/i][/color] The last part was aimed more at her fellow agriculturalist than the party. 

	There were a few doors leading out of this room, all of which were closed up with the exception of the one everyone just entered from. While all were closed innocently enough, only one was bound with a chunky, black iron lock - this one being the only door on the right-hand wall. Oddly, everyone seemed to be facing more or less away from it. This detail aside, Cecily remained ever the good hostess, remarking, [color=darkgray][i]"Monsieur Laurent is a grain and sheep farmer, though he would be little more than a man who grows fine sorghum and wheat were you all not to have handled his ...insect problem? Yes, insect problem as handily as you all did."[/i][/color]

	The older man leaned upon a respectably expensive looking cane as he approached the members of the party, extending his other hand. In a rural-proper but slightly stiff voice, he intoned, [color=darkgray]"Yes. Gratitude is in order. I hope I might make a contribution to your efforts before you have to leave, in appreciation. Certainly. What is the going rate for Ankheg hunting these days, hmm?"[/color]