[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] [i]Ritual Magic[/i] (Phantom Steed)
[color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/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 enigmatic yet openly hospitable Bard mounted her ritually summoned mount and took up the reins in one hand. She extended her other hand down to Kosara and with a smile, said, [color=9932cc]"Come along up. It won't slow him in the slightest."[/color] While the truth of it was that she wasn't completely sure how much weight the otherworldly horse could carry before its performance began to drop, but the total of the two women surely wasn't enough. [color=9932cc]"Oh! If you would, please get the Sending Stone from inside. I'm afraid I was involved in the summons, here."[/color] One way or another, upon stone acquisition, Victoria began to haul herself and her magically inclined associate away from the Coach House atop the back of a steed that Bards generally were unable to conjure for themselves. Victoria marveled at that for a moment - not for the first time and very likely not the last - before commenting quietly, [color=9932cc]"Just sometimes, I feel more like a Wizard than a musician..."[/color] She let the thought linger for a moment more. She had mentioned before and still believed wholeheartedly that although she might have made a decent Wizard, she had the potential to be a legendary Bard. 

	When the Sending Stone issue was settled and Kosara was on the back of the horse, Victoria urged the arcane creature onward. Its steps were steady but slow at first, pushing through piled and/or drifted snow until it delivered them to the higher ground, and eventually, the main thoroughfare leading off of the Rose River Vineyard grounds. She removed her hands from the reins just long enough to secure her pashmina scarf, and then her hood, about her moderately pointed ears and perfectly coiffed head. The cold was significantly less than comfortable, but at least she was dressed for it. It was always a wonder to her how her full blooded Elven relatives were able to deal with all but the most extreme of temperatures with significantly less complaint. Her Human ancestry must be the culprit in that particular tradeoff, though it came with other advantages. It did remind her of Kosara's offer, which despite her ability (and history) to do precisely that herself, Victoria thought it was a very polite and reasonable thing to offer. Who knows? Maybe Kosara cast the same spell differently than she did and this would be a learning experience. [color=9932cc]"Please, yes. That's very sweet to offer."[/color]  

	As they crossed the boundary of the Vineyard, turning into the thoroughfare, Victoria noticed that her Phantom Steed had picked up its pace significantly. She looked down, noticing that the depth of snow that her horse's hooves drove through was getting lower and lower the further they moved away from the estate. It was still cold, the land was still covered with a blanket of puffy, white snow, but it was more manageable. Victoria placed her senses into her raven Familiar, flying above. Maybe a different vantage point would be useful - and it was. [color=9932cc]"The worst of the snow,"[/color] she began aloud, [color=9932cc]"It's... confined to the Vineyard. This weather isn't fully natural."[/color]

	The pair of them approached the edge of Southmoor, to see a town which was in the process of coming active for the day. [color=9932cc]"Hey, let me know where you need me to drop you off. There's still some time left before the Steed unsummons, but I'd rather not walk the rest of the way to Annick's. You know how I do love to make an entrance."[/color] She kept her voice light, but there was a more serious reason as she wished to be able to bolt at a moment's notice if need be, and the Medician's place was technically outside of town. There was still a little way to travel. 

	Eventually, Victoria found her way to Annick's. The Healer's cottage, as it were, didn't seem to have received a visitor since the snows from the previous evening as the blanket which covered the yard around appeared unbroken. She entered the home with respect and permission, and immediately got to work as she was informed that no, an undead uprising was most assuredly not an excuse to stay home. Victoria had a feeling that the older Medician was being serious. In this particular instance, she was back to copying a medical text, slowly, determinedly placing smooth penstrokes upon blank pages to transcribe a treatise on humanoid anatomy and the treatment of physical trauma. While she worked, she took every opportunity to speak to both Annick and her daughter, Annabelle. 

	[color=9932cc]"...it was a long time ago, I know, Madame Floquet. But you have done so much and witnessed so much more. If there is even a possibility that something similar is happening here, around your home, then we need to know what we're dealing with. I guarantee that it won't end with Toombes. And here, this time - probably for the first time in your life ever - the 'evil necromancer' is on your side. Fire with fire, Annick. Please, tell me what you know."[/color] The words were calm but dire. Impassioned yet reserved. Sincere of tone with the barest hint of frustrated sarcasm bleeding through. Something seemed to get through, even if it was only evident in Annabelle's face to begin. 

	The younger Floquet looked to her elder counterpart, [color=darkgray]"Mother?"[/color] Part question and part plea, this did serve to break through Annick's emotionless visage. 

	[color=darkgray][b]"You want to know about that name? Fine. I'll tell you everything I know about it:"[/b][/color] A hard expression held for a second with silence, then, [color=darkgray][b]"NOTHING."[/b][/color] She shook her head, then continued [color=darkgray][b]"But there is some history here. Don't know what it means, but I'll tell you what I know. You keep working while I talk. This isn't a gossip circle."[/b][/color]