[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]
[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, indeed."[/color] This last sentence was delivered after Victoria recovered her hand mirror from her belongings in the Taproom. She kept a number of items in her errand cart there, available for transport via Morty in case they had to move quickly (and because navigating that thing up exterior stairs in the winter was just begging for difficulties), and the small mirror was just the thing to ease her puzzled thoughts. She held it a best she might, angling the small, reflective device this way and that so that she may get a good glimpse of herself in the firelight. 

        Victoria might have liked a larger reflective surface to fully take herself in; not that her sense of vanity wasn't already present before, but there was a mote more of genuine appreciation. She was considered flawless to behold by many (including herself), having naturally surpassed the threshold of Human standards, but now, she was downright ethereal. Nothing changed about her. No details particularly sharpened or smoothed away, Victoria just seemed marginally more [i]herself[/i] in ways that attracted and asserted. Her smile, now visible as a self-satisfied expression of contentment, became even more of a phenomenon that could inspire mortals to great - or terrible - acts of devotion. 

        Victoria wished she had a larger mirror to appreciate it. 

        But duty called, as it usually did, and the Bard had responsibilities which were greater even than her own sense of self evaluation. [color=9932cc]"The brandy, of course,"[/color] she crooned melifluously. Rather than spend time setting up a potentially unnecessary Ritual spell to see if yet another Ritual was needed, Victoria deferred to one of her more recent acquisitions: the wand that could reveal magical auras. She looked at the results of the minor divination with puzzling uncertainly, remarking, [color=9932cc]"This barely reveals anything. A slim shimmer of Necromancy, but this is influence, not an effect. A polite, quiet whisper, like a subtle suggestion. There isn't enough magic to Identify."[/color] She tilted her head to the side slightly, considering possible implications, given what they already knew about the land. [color=9932cc]"How curious."[/color]

        Her curiosity likely motivated her to refill her teacup with a bit more of the brandy, which ahe then appraised like a fine wine. A swirl, a quick inhale through her nose, a brief atomization over her palate as the brandy was reintroduced to her senses. In the end, she shrugged. It was fine enough brandy; very fine. Perhaps the best she had ever sampled, and there was most of a cask just sitting there. So, it was colored by necromancy. Maybe it helped to age the spirits. Or maybe it gave robust notes which were otherwise unable to manifest in the grapes. Either way, this was top shelf and she was impressed, if just a hint wary. 

        All of that notwithstanding, her more Wizardly work was done, and so she resolved to deal with the logistical and social issues at hand. To start, she turned her ethereal visage to Kathryn, whi had made her an offer recently. [color=9932cc]"Don't mind me, Kathryn. I know enough not to make a fool of myself when swords are drawn. My talents..."[/color] She let the sentence hang for a full second before she gave a mischievous smile, [color=9932cc]"...lay elsewhere. Besides, this is the season to make a warrior of young Lizbeth. She shall be stronger than us all, in time. I can just feel it."[/color] 

        Practicality moved Victoria to give a quick side mention to Urmdrus, who had just given his confession. [color=9932cc]"Master Urmdrus, given that I now have two wands and nowhere convenient to carry them, would it be too much of an ask to commission you to craft something in that regard? I have a bit of silver, of course, but I might also trade in spellwork, if you are open to it."[/color] It was one of the greatest assets of a spellcaster when dealing with skilled mundanes. Broadly, she said to the room, [color=9932cc]"Then maybe we might find homes, temporary or other, for the remaining items?"[/color] Slyly, she added, [color=9932cc]"I might be thrilled to increase my own collections, of course."[/color]

        At that time, her brain put together the insinuation that Urmdrus just made about Arnaud's debt to the Prince. [color=9932cc]"I'm afraid that I agree with Tarace Mosswater, if I am understanding this correctly. 'What the fuck' indeed, sir?"[/color]