[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] 10 / 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] Township Square 
[color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Skill Check (Arcana) 
[color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] [color=black]N/A[/color]
[color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A 
[/cell][cell]
[right][img]https://i.ibb.co/Fw0Ldxw/Victoria-Alt-ss.png[/img][/right]
[/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center]

	[color=9932cc]"I see. Well, I [i]agreed[/i] with Marita,"[/color] remarked Victoria, ever-so-slightly offhanded of comment. There existed the tiniest amount of annoyance in her voice as she wondered whether or not their Cleric made the decision to explore the Municipal Building purely to be contrary. [color=9932cc][i]"No, she doesn't seem that petty,"[/i][/color] came the thought, voiced only in the confines of her mind. All the same, Victoria was on the injured list. This did not feel like the best time to go poking around, and she steadfastly wished to retrieve Cecily, returning to her niece Lizbeth as they had promised they would. Then again, this wouldn't be the first promise that Victoria had broken in her life. She did wish that it wasn't as much of a risk, especially considering her near-exhausted abilities. 

	As it turned out, the mention of defiling corpses elicited no response, positive nor negative, from the Necromancy enthusiast. She still had ethical lines in the sand, as it were, even if they were flat of feature and grey of hue. 

	Naturally, everyone else fell in line with exploration and Victoria did not feel like standing in the open by herself. So she took stock of what she had left, that being a the ability to cast a single, low-powered spell, and a fine rapier enhanced with silver. [color=9932cc]"Very well, then,"[/color] she finally said aloud. [color=9932cc]"Prioritize escape."[/color] The words mirrored Marita's from just a moment earlier. She twirled her cloak about her and buckled on her new knapsack with its contents safely inside. Girded as best she could, Victora joined the others with sword at the ready. This time, she made sure to keep behind their vanguard. Let the ones with heavier armor take the first volley, and retaliate with superior agility. 

	It was odd at first as Kathryn's new hammer fought against Victoria's natural darkvision. After a while she contented herself to keep back out of the brightest of it, extending her ability to perceive even farther. The trade of bright light for dim and dim light for darkness was useful and allowed her to keep their rear from being exposed to a surprise encounter. It was a little surprising when it was all for absolutely nothing. No attacks came, no traps triggered. This fact did not keep Victoria from nervously pointing her sword in the direction of the rats scurrying around the trash more than once. A tiny smile did creep upon her lips once during this short walk through a huge rats' nest, when Kathryn, who took issue with pulling loot from a fallen enemy for her own ethical reasons had no problem whatsoever robbing (what Victoria assumed was) the Township's armory. She kept silent. It wasn't like the Guards were doing a bang-up job with these tools, anyway. 

	Briefly, her thoughts drifted back to the boy with the recovered Guardsman's spear. Yeah, really good care they were taking of them.

	But the jail is where her demeanor cracked a little. [color=9932cc]"Why?"[/color] she questioned aloud, even though she knew full well why. [color=9932cc]"Yes, this is obscene,"[/color] she spoke in measured words, responding to Baronfjord. Victoria held herself to react instead of initiate while she took everything in, attempting as best she could to figure out a more exact explanation - or at least fill in details. Bad lighting, overwhelmed senses, or instinctual knowledge that she was trying to deny prevented her from logically putting everything together. She remembered the books resting on her back, and resolved to give them study when she was able. She could put a few dots together on other things, however, and did that with studious intonation. 

	[color=9932cc]"Probable to assume that these are the missing ones, yes. But what of the ones who came back? Can we speak to Robert, now?"[/color] Logical words, fair question, all with whispered dispassion. Then an answer to Kosara's query, [color=9932cc]"Um, Chauntea. And the Lord of the Dawn."[/color] Gods primarily worshipped in this area. [color=9932cc]"They were giving praise to Liira, of Joy, in the festival,"[/color] she continued, if in fairness it wasn't just her. [color=9932cc]"And the man I buried, Monsieur L'Rose - he followed Olidammara, the Laughing One."[/color] 

	When Kathryn's missile struck the not-alive thing on the table, Victoria exhaled her relief and followed with, [color=9932cc]"I doubt there is much we can do here. Maybe we might see to the abandoned horses."[/color] Of course, part of seeing to the horses involved leaving, which she was quite okay with.