[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 5[/color][/b][/i]
[color=9932cc][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 33 / 33	[color=9932cc][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 16	[color=9932cc][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[color=9932cc][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Coach House
[color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] [color=black][i][b]Morty[/b][/i][/color], [color=dimgray][i][b]Familiar[/b][/i][/color] stuff
[color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[/cell][cell]
[right][img]https://i.ibb.co/ZzgLdXRt/Victoria-Alt-8-ss2.png[/img][/right]
[/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center]

	The various platitudes traditional to meeting one's acquaintances and colleagues on a new morning slipped flawlessly from Victoria's lips, as the subtleties of social graces were hers to play almost as proficiently as the strings of her violin. And much like her musical talent, though she was known primarily as a violinist, her capabilities were much broader than that which was immediately apparent. Even so, the words, gestures, and body language presented were not acts of dishonesty - she was genuinely pleased to see them all. Especially Lizbeth, as she had grown quite fond of the kid. But one practices one's art where one could. Warriors sharpened their swords and drilled their bodies, Clerics prayed and meditated on the philosophies of their ethos, and Bards, well... socialized, when they weren't obsessing over their art. There would be time enough later to obsess, so for the meantime, she extended the same levels of energy to her fellow Adventurers as they extended toward herself. 

	Victoria was feeling more wakeful now, and the relative isolation of their situation was weighing on her mind. Sure, not as much as the probable undead guests somewhere else on the property who likely didn't have their best interests at the forefront of their motivation, but weight nonetheless. She used this better formed wakefulness to move from the merely genial to the ever-so-slightly, perhaps even playfully, sarcastic. [color=9932cc]"Why, Miss Kosara, I haven't an idea what you might have missed."[/color] She smiled a bit. [color=9932cc]"Excuse me, please."[/color] Victoria rose, bearing her teacup with her and crossed over to the barrel of fine and totally not cursed brandy. She poured a bit into her cup - just enough to spike her morning tea a little - and returned to the table. [color=9932cc]"It is a lovely morning, if abysmally cold. An ounce of fortification never hurt anyone. And I do have to ride into town today."[/color] Was it the best idea ever to follow Kathryn's example, when Victoria herself did not possess the same raw hardiness that her associate did? Probably not. But the brandy was excellent and it was only a little. And in her defense, it [i]was[/i] unseasonably cold out there. 

	The subject flowed naturally into Baronfjord's point of order, whereupon Victoria responded, [color=9932cc]"Our investigation... yes, I believe there were some questions that you wanted me to ask my winter mentor. Remind me, if you would please, and I shall attempt to do so without getting a knife twixt my ribs."[/color] It was difficult to tell if she was being serious with her last sentiment. [color=9932cc]"But I will be going into town today, if this is at all possible. The snows have been very liberal with their gifts over the night, but I can summon the fastest, most sure-footed horse in the land in about ten minutes. I'm sure I can make the trip without serious issue; do let me know if you need anything in Southmoor. ...you should probably stick close to home, Baronfjord. You've had a hard night, and you won't do anyone any good if you get sicker."[/color]

	The Bard noted with some satisfaction that Lizbeth, despite her tender age, took on a more maternal role with their Dragonborn associate. This was good, in her estimation. Even if she did not have those nurturing instincts herself, it was a positive thing that someone in under their roof did. But she did take the time to respond to Lizbeth, around her care-giving to the rest of the group. The first part concerned with application of her Familiar. [color=9932cc]"Maybe one day you might be able to, Lizbeth. It is a common enough spell to summon a Familiar to aid you, but I confess it is not usually in the repertoire of a Bard to cast. If it's possible for you, I will try to help how I can."[/color] It was doubtful, if she was being honest. For starters, Victoria wasn't sure what Lizbeth was, but she was almost positive that she wasn't like [i]her[/i], persay, in terms of bardic profession. She had suspicions that went back to the day they all met, but nothing she had any reliable points on. [color=9932cc]"But to you question, I intend to spend the day in Southmoor with Medician Floquet. I have my work with her. If there is anything to research there, I shall, and then continue with our work here in the Vineyard. And speaking of which, I ought get to summoning my horse soon."[/color] Victoria recovered her Ritual Book from her knapsack and opened it to the appropriate page, bearing the image of a ghostly steed and script in an cultured, flowing hand. 

	But first, she made sure to finish her tea.