[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=darkorchid][i][b]Victoria Belmont[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=9932cc]Half-Elf, Bard, Level 3[/color][/b][/i] [color=9932cc][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 23 / 23 [color=9932cc][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 15 [color=9932cc][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=9932cc][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Wagon, pointed northward [color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/kJ2BTjD/Victoria-HF.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Others began to share snatches of illumination of their own homes, but unlike Victoria, they also told a little about themselves in the process. It was good to see these people in a more personal light than that which made them useful to one another. If it came down to it, she could do quite well not knowing anything about her fellow adventurers in any real, personal sense, provided that they get their objective completed and she got another step closer to her own goals. It was, in fact, the reason why she took to the road and got into these little adventures; like many who walked this sort of path, Victoria had her own motivations. Things she had to accomplish. Things which, if the details were fully known, might make others see her in a very different light. But her usual nature put her somewhere in the arena of talkative, inquisitive, even garrulous in the right circumstances. Wine helped. Her more natural personality started to edge into the fore, and quickly she found herself smiling, with mouth slightly agape, ready to share a few words about herself and not just a vague description of home, as others had done. Of course, common sense stopped her. Not that Victoria possessed an overabundance of it, as she had proven to herself not amazingly long ago, but this feeling of self-preservation gripped her with sudden, icy fingers. She closed her mouth and frowned slightly. Victoria would have to be profoundly less sober and/or feel much safer around these people to divulge certain things about herself. Instead, she put her mind to an interesting and humorous moment in her past to help bring about a contented expression, and refocused her efforts toward the job at hand. This moment's job at hand involved quietly giving Kosara driving pointers as she led the wagon along. Travel was interesting at times, considering the inexpert nature of the person whose hands were on the reins, but the mule seemed to be an experienced carting animal that knew enough from sheer repetition of routes. Things eventually turned into something of a lull as traffic around them became less during the northward leg of their journey to the Township. Trees cropped up with greater frequency around the road; not quite a fully wooded locale but enough to provide on again, off again light shade from the sun above, cutting off what warmth might still be had from its radiance. Soon enough though, a stillness seemed to take hold of their surroundings. Victoria was not the first one to notice the sounds coming from ahead. When she did, she breathed a raspy, [color=9932cc]"Shh shh shh..."[/color] tilting her head slightly and taking the reins for just a moment to stop the forward progression of the wagon. The now alert Bard removed her very Bard-y hat and held it up to the side of her head, making an analog attempt to increase the range of her hearing. Whether or not it actually helped, a concerned look formed on her face. She bit her lower lip and peered ahead, hoping to catch something, anything that might clue her in to what was going on. The breeze, mostly low and calm, kicked up just enough to rustle some leaves about, providing just enough of an opportunity to catch a glimpse ahead, into the unknown. [color=9932cc]"Curse those trees,"[/color] she mumbled. Projecting a clearer (but quiet) voice, Victoria enunciated, [color=9932cc]"A wheel. Sideways, like a cart tipped over. I thought I saw an arm with yellow-green skin, and... hmm."[/color] She listened for a moment longer, [color=9932cc]"And a language I do not know. I know the Common tongue, Elven, and the base language of Orcs, but this?"[/color] She shrugged, [color=9932cc]"Laughter and gibberish to me. I am sorry I cannot tell you more."[/color] Victoria placed her hat down into the wagon with the rest of her belongings and looked to her preserved pig of burden. This appeared to be a hiccup in their otherwise uneventful day trek to the Township of Avonshire.