[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] Interior B&B -> Exterior B&B
[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 dramatic buildup of the past hour seemed to have come to a staggering and confusing intermission. Sure, Victoria was posed in the most adventurous and potentially dashing of poses (which, considering her penchant for professional performance and sense of charismatic self-awareness, was admirably enough dashing), her silvered rapier at the fore and Bardic spellcraft but a whisper away, clothing potentially rippling about her form at the lightest but most enabling of breezes. Were an appropriate gust of air not conveniently available, Victoria had no issue with expending a mote of magic to make it happen. The right impression was an important thing to establish, be it for an audience, friends, or enemies alike. Or the wrong impression, as the occasion called for it. The more performative aspects of her stance were ultimately wasted as the rising action of the evening came to a swift and confusing hiccup. Luckily, her quite-dead-yet-animated porcine companion didn't seem to notice the current challenge whatsoever. 

	Victoria remained cautious as she stepped forward, Morty keeping to her heel. Her eyes passed by the axe in the side of the building, flashing recognition, followed quickly by realization. Then anger. She looked to Baronfjord as he spoke about the axe being a warning and shook her head solemnly. [color=9932cc]"I do not believe that is a warning,"[/color] she responded. Her voice held onto its usual mellifluousness but was colored with dire understanding. [color=9932cc]"Unless I am mistaken, this is the axe which Lady Kathryn lent to Cecily to protect herself. I believe,"[/color] Victoria's words became more deliberate as she finished, [color=9932cc]"that this is a taunt. Madame L'Rose is in danger."[/color]

	Her next intention was to look to Marita, a lady with whom she had little in common and likely would have never associated in other circumstances, and agree with her earlier call to action. She might have even engaged in a rousing (if short) speech to rally and inspire in support of this decision before marching boldly, but not stupidly, toward the probable location of those responsible. This was her intention, mind you, which was summarily waylaid by circumstance. In this case, said circumstance was Kosara talking to a rat in the middle of the street. 

	Pretense dropped, Victoria motioned with her sword to the tiny animal which was supposed to be in league with their enemies and shook her head, wordlessly at first, with her mouth agape. The most interesting, quizzical, off-guard expression covered her face. She motioned back in the general direction of the rest of the group, asking, [color=9932cc]"Everyone saw that, yes?"[/color] A shake of her head more and she voiced her support of Marita's plan with a more utilitarian statement of, [color=9932cc]"Let us figure this out quickly and go. I don't like that the whole town got one message and we, apparently, are given another."[/color] Victoria glanced up the road as far as the fog would allow her. There was a touch of impatience about her posture.