[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] Neil & Bob's Public House [color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Casting Prestidigitation [color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] [color=black]Morty[/color] [color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/8r6nxVw/Victoria-FC-11.jpg[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Victoria was not surprised to see Kathryn and Kosara near the loft/pub area. They had agreed to meet up around this time. What was surprising was that they were waiting outside in this uncomfortable autumn rain. Not that rain was bad; many a time the occasionally flighty Bard found herself laughing and dancing about in a fine, gentle rain toward summertime back home, but the width of space separating that bit of nostalgia and the chill drenching of the present hour was vast. The weather did nothing to enhance her mood following the shocking event with the kid in the middle of the street, as well. She might have even been a little rude to their new acquaintance, giving him a curt nod at his introduction and little else on their sodden double-step walk back. The initial idea was to get into the Hayloft as quickly as possible and dry off, but something in the way they were motioned over hinted at urgency. So, feeling quite like a wet cat, Victoria stepped in the direction of Kathyrn and Kosara in front of the Public House. The very tall, armored lady make a very bold statement with the sentiment that [i]things have changed[/i]. Victoria suppressed a sarcastic laugh and instead nodded in agreement. Yes, things have changed. If their news was as big as what she and Marita had witnessed, things were going to change even more. Inside of Neil & Bob's, Victoria beelined to the table nearest to the fire in the main room. Luckily it was unoccupied. While others began to settle in and meet the new Dragonborn, she removed her now soaked hat and flopped it upon the table unceremoniously. Immediately, she stripped away her slim, purple jacket and hung it across the back of a chair. The black silk she wore underneath clung uncomfortably to her physique which she immediately pulled away from her skin (as to maintain modesty in public) and immediately fanned it a bit in a futile gesture to remove excess moisture. With a sigh, she realized that a moment of immodesty was necessary as she let the fine, imported cloth fall back to her body and began to hum. A light shimmer of heat displacement and magic flitted about her clothing as water evaporated. A subsequent casting took care of her hat. Victoria was wearing lighter clothing now but at least she was dry, and near to a fire. Morty kept near to her, at mental command getting near to the fire to dry itself (but not so close as to let the smell of roasting ham fill the room). After a sigh, Victoria began abruptly, [color=9932cc]"To speak plainly, Rickard left. We were investigating the property of one of the missing people. Next I was aware, he just left. For what reason, I could not say. This one,"[/color] he motioned to Baronfjord, [color=9932cc]"Is looking for our employer."[/color] She felt like being succinct, and her words were beginning to reflect this. Victoria lay her violin case on the table in front of her and leaned back in her chair. Then she listened. An eyebrow raised at the mention of the silver ring. She took it with some suspicion on her face, but placed it delicately upon her own tongue and held it there for a few seconds. The Half-Elf seemed almost surprised, even a little disappointed that nothing happened. But the final result was that nothing did happen. It looked to her like silver. Victoria's hand trailed over to the brooch pinned to her coat in the shape of a raven skull, likewise made of the argent metal. [color=9932cc][i]"What was the connection here?"[/i][/color] she wondered silently. Based upon what she and Marita had seen, any pieces of supposition to that end were frightening. [color=9932cc]"We have our own news that changes matters here in town, though I daresay Marita is better qualified to speak on it. She had a [i]significantly[/i] closer view than I."[/color] A brief look around the room had Victoria following with, [color=9932cc]"Quite franly, would prefer to have an in-depth dialogue with a hot meal and carafe of good wine, myself."[/color] The ordinarily purple-clad Bard raised a hand to wave over the barmaid, Lea, a cheery smile spreading across her delicate, proportioned features. This faded quickly as something Kosara said began to sink into her thoughts. With everything else going on, she had no desire to leave a detail, even a seemingly innocuous one, unaccounted for. [color=9932cc]"Half a moment... What did you mean by [i]'the Constable was grumpy still'[/i], Kosara?"[/color]