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[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] Southmoor (Healer's Home)
[color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Skill Check [i](Arcana)[/i]
[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
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[right][img]https://i.ibb.co/ZzgLdXRt/Victoria-Alt-8-ss2.png[/img][/right]
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[center][hider=Healer's Cottage][img]https://i.ibb.co/Kjt2pXrP/Healers-Home.jpg[/img][/hider][/center]

	Victoria looked to her mentor and the sudden change of task which was set before her. As she recalled, Annick wanted her to show up for her duties, with a full blown undead uprising insufficient as an excuse to miss out on her medical training. Now here she was, taking in the order to put down her anatomical writings and look to her own, conventionally less savory books for guidance under the roof of a lady who was once trained to eviscerate people like her. But as annoyed as she might have been, the Medician (controlling as she was) had a point. [color=9932cc]"I lent my copy of [i]The White Book[/i] to ...a friend... but that was mostly philosophy, doctrine, and funerary rites. I do have a copy of [i]The Lucky Ghost[/i] in my knapsack, however."[/color] Victoria looked into this woman's eyes, wondering what might be going through her mind as she was, more or less, someone who would have been considered Annick's enemy, now perusing forbidden teachings in her own home. Than again, perhaps the mere pursuit of knowledge was okay. [i]Know Thy Enemy[/i], and all that. 

	Surgical texts put away, Victoria brought her knapsack into the room and set it upon the table. The two women were soon joined by the younger Annabelle, who (somewhat annoyingly) kept looking over her shoulder at the book in question. [color=9932cc]"Probably not a Lich,"[/color] she repeated back Annick's sentiment from earlier. This was said with a touch of relief. There was no way that she was capable of taking on something like that. But it made sense. Too much sense. Pages turned. She consulted with Medician Floquet every so often, tryign to narrow down the possibilities present. If the big villain of the day was, in fact, Undead, then it was intelligent and had control over other, lesser forms of Undead. It had other magical abilities past this, judging from what was witnessed thusfar. So, some magical ability and Undead command. [color=9932cc]"Vampire, maybe?"[/color] she mused aloud. It might fit. But there would be other kinds of victims of a specific nature. Probably not. 

	The Bard sighed, going through what might be considered a "usual suspect", bantering back and forth with her mentor and her mentor's daughter, and getting nowhere. So Victoria changed up her approach and instead looked at entries which fit categories they they had personally witnessed at the Vineyard. [color=9932cc]"Toombes... was basically just an animated skeleton. They did things to his corpse to invoke horror in whomever saw it, but in essence it was just a skeleton. Maybe animated by something capable of making base thralls more powerful. The diplomatic envoy were technically just zombies, as far as I can tell, treated like puppets and destroyed as soon as they were no longer useful. Maybe this thing isn't an epic force of magic. Maybe it's just... in the right place at the right time. Hmm..."[/color]

	A semi-eureka moment hit Victoria. [color=9932cc]"Now then, there are a few types of animated dead which can retain their intelligence, and sometimes their spellcasting ability. If someone botched an attempt at becoming a Lich or a Spectre, for example. Or if a Raise Dead spell didn't quite take properly. Or if a sufficiently powerful necromancer was buried in what became defiled ground, or a wild magic area..."[/color] A cold shiver went up Victoria's spine which had nothing to do with the weather. [color=9932cc]"Madame Floquet, may I please be excused today. I need to check something."[/color] 

	She was already pulling her pack on and raising her hood over her fiery hair before she got approval from Annick, and opening her ritual book to summon up a deathly fast [i]Phantom Steed[/i]. She needed to get back to the Vineyard, and quickly. The moment she stepped out of the building, her great corvid [i]Familiar[/i] let out a piercing [i]CAW[/i] as it manifested above its mistress, circled once, and flew ahead.