[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 (Taproom) [color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Ritual Magic - [i]Identify[/i], Spellcasting - [i]Healing Word[/i] [color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] [color=black][b]Morty[/b][/color], [color=dimgray][b]Familiar[/b][/color] [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] [color=9932cc]"Very pretty."[/color] It was a continuation of Victoria's last thought. This was aimed at a set of subtle but lovely, floral hair combs, just perfect to tuck securely into one's locks as either decoration or to tastefully pin things up. The purpose of them eluded her to begin with, but this was rectified with the application of her continued Ritual Magic. Looking into Wizardly spellcasting had swiftly paid for the effort required to learn it, and then some. This thought paired with the fact that she now had a spiritform extension of herself in the form of a Raven Familiar, a thing that she didn't know she wanted or needed until she acquired one.[color=9932cc]"I really must find a suitable name for you, O noble shadow mine."[/color] The Raven on the back of her chair made a quiet, croaking sound and fluttered its wings in response. Victoria slowly shook her head with a smile and returned to her work. When she was done with the combs and the appropriate knowledge filled her mind, Victoria looked to her younger counterpart and declared, [color=9932cc]"I accept your offer, Miss L'Rose. In exchange for identifying the Bloodwell Vial, I claim this for myself. Agreed?"[/color] The accepting nod and accompanying monosyllabic affirmation following, Victoria wasted no time in fixing the comb into her hair just behind her ear, pinning up the side from which she favored playing her violin. The change was subtle. In one with traditionally appealing features anyway, there wasn't a flaw to smooth out, nor a dull thing to brighten. But something about the overall look of the massively charismatic, undeniably beautiful Half-Elf sharpened, clarified, became slightly more intense. Victoria's aura seemed to hum with simultaneous intimidation and approachability. Slowly, the floral elements of the comb shifted to compliment her outfit, as if it was designed with her fashion in mind. Between identifying more items, Victoria absently rubbed her head where the odd footwear had stuck her. It wasn't necessarily a bad wound, but it was annoying to the extreme and almost soiled her new favorite black-and-gold pashmina. Kosara had lent a bit of her healing to patch the wound up, but her healing abilities didn't seem to do quite as well for herself. [color=9932cc][i]"We can't have that,"[/i][/color] she thought with (an only slightly) mischievous smile, and quietly sang the short syllables of a minor healing incantation. She dug a little deeper into her tiers of arcane power than was strictly necessary, just to make sure everything came together satisfactorily. She also took note of Lizbeth's responses to Kathryn, concerning their training. It was interesting to her. She wasn't learning how to "soldier" because it was some novelty. This was a backup for her because she didn't fully trust what was happening, so far as her newer, arcane gifts were concerned. It was pragmatic and showed dedication. Victoria wished to continue to witness the girl's development, if she were still in the area for that long. Or if a viable alternative was imminent. But back to Kosara - her sudden assertion that the brandy was magic and/or evil wasn't really a shock, nor completely unexpected. She remembered having the slightest inclination in this direction herself, but there wasn't much else to be done about it. Though suspicion was not outright declaration, and the Tiefling lady put it out there first. All Victoria could do was acknowledge and follow up with whatever divination she might bring to the table. [color=9932cc]"Of course, Kosara. No stone unturned, yes? I will look into it when I finish with our finds here."[/color] It seemed that she was indeed the closest thing to the party Wizard that they had. Daxos's exit was almost as uneventful as Victoria might have dreamed. Though without the pomp commonly found in such situations, it was probably the smartest thing the fellow might have done, as he was not exactly as lashed to the problems as the rest of them were. She offered a simple gesture to the Dwarf as he exited the building. An easy parting for a recent introduction. Victoria finished off a tiny pickle sandwich and cup of tea, then got back to the work. She would have to schedule some time to practice her music later; not that she was going to get rusty, or anything of the sort, but a little break to the monotony that wasn't apprenticing under the town's Healer, or hand copying instructional manuals on anatomy, surgery, and ailments. Music later. Rituals now. The other items present in the wall cache were a small collection of fractured arcane formulae on good parchment, fine, high quality inks, a couple of interesting pen nibs, and a slender, sharp shard of black volcanic glass with silver wire wrapped around the slightly thicker end. When the Bard was done, she looked to Lizbeth, stating, [color=9932cc]"I'm not sure that your grandfather knew what these things were, child. He tried his best, I am sure, but these scrolls are useless to you. Half of it is useless to [i]me[/i], and I am less restricted with my spellcraft."[/color] All the same, Victoria set the papers aside for a more thorough inspection when the other items were handled. Except for one of the nibs. She removed one of the feathers from her great, wonderfully bardy bard hat and set the nib on the end of its shaft, capped it, and replaced it in her hat. She shrugged sheepishly, saying that, [color=9932cc]"I shall compensate for this, I promise. This is a Bard cliche that I cannot help utilizing as a guilty pleasure."[/color] A decent pen nib was worth its weight in gold. Thankfully, they were also very light. The black, glassy wand went next. The thing had cut Lizbeth, and to look at it, Victoria could see how that happened. It looked like you might readily impale someone with it, even though it was a wand. Her findings gave pause, and she addressed the party directly when she was done. [color=9932cc]"Interests of disclosure, I should like to hang onto this one for now. It provides close and mid-range options to attack with necrotic damage, a limited number of times. My spells [i]can[/i] run out, and I could use this as a backup until I find safety."[/color] She held it up for everyone to see before putting it back on the table. [color=9932cc]"If there are no objections, of course."[/color] The last two items were both footwear of very different types; one a finely stitched, navy to royal blue leather set of boots with silver accents, and the barest wisp of airy condensation emanating from the soles, and the other an odd pair of wooden sandals, reinforced with metal in places and decorated with regionally foreign artwork. The latter strangely had a pair of cleft stockings with it, which Victoria couldn't make heads of tails of, except for the enchantments which it possessed. Finally, after the last assessment was made, Victoria pushed back her chair and stretched, intoning, [color=9932cc]"I believe that does it for the haul. I shall have to translate the writings here which I believe are attempts at spellwork, but for the now (unless we missed something), we have a complete inventory of a number of things which may become useful in the near future. Enough for all of us to find something relevant to our professions."[/color] She looked at the shard of obsidian on the table again and took it up, admiring the reflection of firelight from it. [color=9932cc]"Not the greatest of things against the undead, but serviceable. Artistic, really. Hmm."[/color] [center][img]https://i.ibb.co/TDdpKNdV/copilot-image-1773123598553.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.ibb.co/4n9ySt08/1763746981273.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.ibb.co/CKP23ppT/Bloodwell-Vial.png[/img] [img]https://i.ibb.co/F4PZd52k/Wand-of-Inflicting-Wounds.jpg[/img] [img]https://i.ibb.co/ZzWVYF6p/Comb-of-Beauty.jpg[/img][/center] [hider=Boots of the Misty Step] Boots of the Misty Step Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement) These soft, silver‑threaded boots shimmer faintly, as though wrapped in a thin veil of fog. The Boots of the Misty Step hold 3 charges. While wearing them, you may expend 1 charge to cast Misty Step on yourself as a bonus action. The boots regain 1d4–1 expended charges after a Long Rest. [/hider] [hider=Geta of the Long Kick] Geta of the Long Kick Weapon (light hammer, sort of), rare (requires attunement by a Monk.) You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. The Geta of the Long Kick are a pair of reinforced wooden sandals that usually come with matching tabi. The tabi are not necessary for any of the features of the Geta to function. They are made of rich hardwood and fine, stylized cords, with metal strips across the bottom of the sole for possible defensive purposes. They are slightly concave to suit the feet of the wearer, which customizes to anyone attuned to them, as does the size and overall fit. These geta serve two main functions. Firstly, they increase the speed of anyone attuned to them by 5 feet. Secondly, they can be used to make a thrown attack (20/60) as if they were monk weapons. The damage is equal to the monk's martial arts damage +1, or 1d4+1, whichever is higher. Damage inflicted by the Geta of the Long Kick is considered magical and bludgeoning. Upon completing an attack, successful or not, they will fly immediately back to the wielder's feet as if possessing the Returning property. Despite being essentially wooden slippers held on by cord, The Geta of the Long Kick will absolutely not accidentally come off of the feet of one attuned to them. Even if at a dead sprint, flying through the air, making a formidable attack, or falling from a high place. One cannot be knocked out of these sandals. They are very steadfast and reliable footwear. The Geta of the Long Kick were originally created for the adventuring Monk, Lachan Cla, by grateful craftsfolk from the nation of Shadowmist. They are therefore known colloquially as "Lachancla, " or "Lachancla Sandals." The legendary Monk himself was lost some time during the early Necromantic Wars, and his sandals with him. [/hider]