[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] On The Road -> Entering Avonshire Township  
[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/KW5Pyxx/Victoria-FC-3-II.png[/img][/right]
[/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center]

	A sigh, sad smile, and shake of the head was all that Victoria had left to dedicate to the current intra-party drama. She had enough drama in her personal life and the job at hand to wish to deal with more. She kept to her words and quietly, but by zero means meekly, walked away with her new shinys and salvaged weapons. 

	As she was going to be leading this wagon train of two, it stood to reason that she might want to stash her recently acquired items in her chest, located within Morty's small pull-cart in the party's wagon. The hickory smoked animal itself would stay with her, seeing as she was under no illusions concerning the looks it was given by certain members of her present adventuring group. So Victoria stowed her belongings, piled her backpack back on top of the chest, and gave Kosara a quick pep talk to elaborate her faith in the Tiefling's ability to drive the wagon before returning to her own appropriated conveyance. 

	A quick cantrip make short work of the blood on her favorite slim coat, which she quickly replaced over her black, silk underclothes and layered her reinforced leathers over this. Simple [i]Prestidigitation[/i] had to have been her favorite utility magic, hands down. Did it make one lazy? Maybe. Did it solve numerous daily difficulties at a thought? Definitely. But the hole that remained in her sleeve could not so easily be repaired by her - yet. Any decent enough place of lodging which catered to travelers would have someone capable of such a repair, and if not, she was perfectly capable of taking up a needle and thread for the job. Victoria just didn't want to if she could avoid it. At least she was able to get her big, jaunty, [i]bard-y[/i] hat back upon her head. She liked that hat. It matched her charcoal grey cloak (which paired well with just about everything) and had a lovely bit of bright aubergine plumage as accent. 

	As soon as everyone else was ready to go, Victoria prompted the already beleaguered oxen to strain against their yokes and pull the slightly lighter wagon onward toward their original destination. The journey itself was uneventful, yet the sudden change in atmosphere as Avonshire Township came into view in the distance filled Victoria with a sense of excited wonder. Just a couple short days ago she was fully prepared to bypass all of this hubbub on her travels west, to the sea. Even if there wasn't an adventure afoot she might have wanted to see what this local Harvestide festival was all about. Just for a day or two. Until the silver in the form of tips started to slow and the best wines flowed less rapidly. That was ever the difficulty with festivals in unfamiliar lands; one never knew when the peak day were. 

	Passing by the stretching dots of tents and merchants, Victoria was keen enough of sight to pick out a fruit seller a ways in front of them. She fished out a copper coin from her belt pouch and called to the vendor, [color=9932cc]"Hi! Hey, may I get a pear from you? No, not... The one with the blush. Oh, thank you!"[/color] her coin sailed through the air, almost to be caught but smartly recovered after he tossed a pale green and red-purple oblong fruit up to the cheerful Half-Elf. She bit into it as the wagon lumbered by, issuing a sound and expression indicating a positive, yummy experience. [color=9932cc]"This is [i]so good[/i]. Thank you!"[/color] It was finished off, damn near core and all, long before they made it to the gates proper. One thing she did notice during this time was the large burial ground near the woods and just outside of the city walls. She had a feeling that she would be visiting there before they departed. There was lore to be found in great graveyards of a region. This one might prove fruitful, in exchange for a few songs for the deceased. Victoria glanced back to the unmoving form of Morty in the back of the wagon, silently recalling the uncovered secret which led to its initial reanimation. What else might she discover from within hallowed grounds?

	This thought served a minor distraction as they almost entered into the Township proper. The game was certainly afoot now, as a trio of new and seemingly important faces met theirs with introduction, the most important-seeming being that of the Constable. As the rather haughty man spoke, Victoria risked a warm smile and a wave at Cecily and Lizbeth, hoping that her nonthreatening demeanor might smooth some feathers while the others in the group made their statements to the Constable. 

	Unfortunately, the first rollout of information from Kosara served to reveal to the guy in charge, this [i]Cavendish[/i], that Victoria was capable of using magic. Or he would be just as soon as it was revealed that she was [i]"V"[/i]. Not that it wouldn't be revealed eventually, given her proclivities for showing off, but the fact that any information about her was spilled gave her a touch of annoyance. It wasn't anything that could be helped now, so went to her to press on and attempt to salvage any advantage she might from this situation. 

	The first thing Victoria did was put on the most open, personable demeanor that she could, making every effort to comply with the [s]orders[/s] requests of the Constable. She looked the man over, trying to figure out something of his motives or intentions, only to come away with nothing. Nothing at all. Outside of his swaggering attitude in front of what she could only assume was a couple of town guards and a barely organized militia, he didn't give away a thing about himself to Victoria's perception. As there was no soft spot recognizable to apply social pressure, she resolved to move on the situation cold, utilizing pure charisma. When there was a clear opening to speak, she took to it comfortably. [color=9932cc]"Oh! Our apologies, Constable, sir! Please allow me a short introduction, if you would?"[/color] She paused for a half-second, then spoke, [color=9932cc]"I am called Victoria Belmont, of the [i]Ashhaven[/i] Belmonts."[/color] The last part was stressed to see if he was familiar with the region or the family mentioned, fully not expecting him to be. But it gave an impression of someone with connections. Or at least financial influence. 

	[color=9932cc]"I had first heard word of you back at Fort Darenby; had I but known you were moving to handle this personally with a force of fine, brave men, we might have extended hearty cooperation. You must believe that we had no intention of stepping on anyone's toes. [i]However[/i], as my colleagues rightly stated, the good Sheriff did put us to this task. And..."[/color] Victoria leaned a little closer, lowering the volume of her voice, [color=9932cc]"...there are certain personal aspects with which I shouldn't want to trouble a man of your importance, especially with the festival making things more hectic for you and your very important duties."[/color] A knowing nod, and she continued, [color=9932cc]"With your permission, Constable, may I please speak with the bereaved and give them a little peace of mind before we continue?"[/color] 

	Yes, Victoria was fully aware that she was sucking up to an authority figure. Yes, it was a little shameless. Also yes, it worked. Cavendish stared at the purple-clad Bard, attempting to figure her out but (apparently) learning less about her than she did about him. Without word, he breathed a sigh and motioned his head behind him, in the direction of Cecily and little Lizbeth L'Rose. [color=9932cc]"Thank you, Constable,"[/color] said Victoria warmly. In truth, she didn't give a rat's pickled hindparts about this Constable aside from the hassle he might provide her, given a long enough timeline. The other two, though? They deserved to know about the dead guy they found first, and from a compassionate voice. That aside, their acquaintanceship and being in their good graces could prove beneficial to their actual task here in town. Now was a good time to give them comfort, and to a lesser extent, secure that grace. Prioritizing them over the local law enforcement seemed like a good place to start. 

	Behind Cavendish a few paces, Victoria doffed her hat and took a knee, putting her eyes a bit lower than young Lizbeth as she got their attention and opened a dialogue. Her words were kept quiet and direct, evocative of reaction from the both of them. While the elder Cecily put her hands up to cover her face, Lizbeth reached out to Victoria to catch her in a hug. Not exactly what she was going for, but [i]when in Avonshire[/i], and whatnot.