[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] [color=black][i]Morty[/i][/color] [color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.ibb.co/tpv4vyV/VicSS.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] The mostly constant conversation about appropriate application of the word [i]sandwich[/i], as it related to their more recent escapades with food and personal scores to settle, admittedly did annoy Victoria. Not that she was going to let any piece of that show on her face or in her mannerisms; not voluntarily, at any rate. This was expected, more or less, and was part of a gambit she hoped would move things along to get back to the Public House when she playfully said that she knew a good place in town to catch a bit of lunch. Now the price of this moment of cheerfulness had to be paid for with mild annoyance. Being honest, it could have been much worse. Worse, in this case, might have been the novice adventuring group she had been with before this one. Victoria's thoughts went back into her career as an adventuring Bard at its outset, and the people with whom she associated at that time. One was far more morally grey than herself, another with a penchant for sociopathy as it came to sentient life, and yet another who enjoyed using magic to set things on fire. The incident which made them part ways seemed as much a blessing as it was a curse in hindsight, purely for the reason that it gave her an excuse to leave. Victoria had been a solo act for a while following this, and now seemed to have fallen in with this group. Temporary or not, whichever case it might be, deep down she preferred for herself to be the most ethically questionable member of the group. As long as she set the lower bar, there could be a greater element of trust and a touch more patience for the party's hi-jinks. The ongoing sandwich debate was, in this context, a fine point over which did not merit quibbling. As it turned out, Victoria did lend a hand in the kitchen, putting things on trays and bringing them out. When she returned for the final time, she observed that Lea wandered just away from the others in the room, she had a piece of paper that she had picked up in the kitchen that Victoria hadn't gotten a chance to read for herself, and that the others were still talking about [i]what is or is not a sandwich.[/i] Still, she kept her spirits to the positive, mentioning to Kosara as the last serving dish hit the table, [color=9932cc]"See? I told you I knew a good spot."[/color] It was delivered with a wink and a mischievous expression. To her inquiry as to whether Cavendish, in so many words, had a magical Patron, she responded with a more pragmatic, [color=9932cc]"To hear it indirectly described, I should say so. But you are more of the expert than I."[/color] She gave an attentive listen to Baronfjord as he explained in a general way the manifestation of his astral arms. It was just general enough that she didn't fully comprehend the basics of it, until she heard the last part of his explanation concerning energy, training, and meditation. Then it dawned on her that this was one of the abilities which might avail themselves to a Monk, just not of a discipline that she had personally encountered as of yet. She gave a marginally understanding nod to her Dragonborn companion and returned her attention to the table. She recovered a thick piece of buttered bread, a piece of fruit, and a cup of tea for herself. [color=9932cc]"Maintaining my girlish figure,"[/color] she explained to no one in particular. Her real reason was to avoid excesses before what might be a hard night, and vanity was an excellent, particularly believable cover for someone like her. Victoria pulled her seat out a little, angled so that she had a good line of sight in Lea's direction if she so chose. But to business: [color=9932cc]"I would take Kathryn's assertions a step farther, and assume that we will be sought out sooner or later. Have we an idea as to what we wish to do this evening?"[/color] There might be merit in holing up and staying defensive. Or going the opposite route and attempting to strike at a target, if they had something solid to name as target-worthy. All the same, Victoria's eyes would occasionally slip toward the paper Lea held and continued to look at. [color=9932cc]"For now, let us take a moment to breathe, recover our weapons, and see what happens next."[/color] She raised her teacup to her lips and took a slow, soothing sip, exhaling a pleased breath upon lowering. [color=9932cc]"This is actually fairly lovely tea,"[/color] she appraised, moving to sample from her cup once more. Morty stood dumbly, giving no outward reaction to the fact that its standing orders were just changed by a simple mental command from its purple-clad master, who was innocuously tasting the local tea and conversing.