[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] 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/2q8Wtkg/Victoria-FC-1.jpg[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] The rain was slowing. This signaled the greater possibility that something was about to transpire. Not in a more nefarious manner (though this was still on the table), but that they would shift away from merely conducting an investigation and become more proactive in their appointed task. Then again, technically, their task was to investigate what the problem was and they had done that. If they had a little evidence to show Gregory then they might be able to get the full force of the soldiery back at Fort Darenby involved. If memory served, they might just have it in their possession, too. Then a thought hit. The Sheriff's aide had said that he had gone and did not know when he would be back, not to mention that he didn't expect an [i]update[/i] for about a week. Gregory was expecting this to be a much longer affair. He might not be back at the Fort for some time. Even if he was present, it was a half day journey there, and a half day back, not accounting for the time to rally and mobilize soldiers. Another, less pessimistic idea came to mind immediately following - taking their leave would mean that she would not witness the end of the story here. No recording acts of heroism. No uncovering secrets. It would mean that she couldn't increase her reputation remotely as much, either, nor could she pen the song of this tale to relate elsewhere, except as secondhand. And Gods forfend, but if one of her teammates fell in glorious struggle against villainy, who might be there to attend to their post-life needs? No, Victoria had to stick around. She was glassy-eyed and excited about it. Her heart picked up its pace a little in anticipation for what was about to come next. It wasn't a sudden overcoming of altruism and/or heroism as this wasn't really her style, but it was motivation enough. Her first lively words came in response to Kathryn, positively dripping with optimism, [color=9932cc]"I agree! I should like to get moving; it looks like an excellent time for it. I wonder though, if others might feel the same way."[/color] The last part came out hinting an implication of danger, but with no less enthusiasm. She seemed to be enjoying this, at least in part. [color=9932cc]"Moreover, I believe that expedience is as firm an ally as subtlety."[/color] Victoria adjusted the brim of her hat, now in her hands, and temporarily set it on the table in front of her. She smiled broadly and nimbly twirled her arms into her slim, purple coat, quickly fastening it closed, and took to Kathryn's example by leaving her own coin on the table. Her violin, still in its strapped case, found its way onto her back and her hat back into her hands. She then moved to stand by the door alongside her colleague. [color=9932cc]"Not as important as armament,"[/color] she confided in her very tall companion, [color=9932cc]"but I wouldn't mind collecting my cloak from [i]camp[/i]."[/color] A wink and a smile followed as she rested her hand upon the hilt of her sword, motioning to the door. [color=9932cc]"I shudder to think what this weather will continue to do to my hair without a more rugged covering."[/color]