[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] Southmoor [i](Healer's Home)[/i] 
[color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Skill Check [i](Persuasion)[/i]
[color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] [color=black][b]Morty[/b][/color], [color=dimgray][b]Nox[/b][/color]
[color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[/cell][cell]
[right][img]https://i.ibb.co/FLStg7ks/Victoria-Screenshot-II.png[/img][/right]
[/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center]

	Victoria knew that this woman, Annick, had a particular form of distaste for Necromancy, thanks to her conscripted years in the wars which were still very much in the public memory. The older healer had not minced words about her feelings om this topic, and in fact, Victoria had to do no small amount of persuasion to get her to take her on as a pupil over the winter; proving herself was an extremely uphill battle. While the Bard had no problems showing off her Raven familiar in the presence of Annick and her daughter, Annabelle, on the occasionas that they were working together. They even knew about her spectral horse, and openly paid it little mind, even if Victoria could tell that is was viewed with a mix of suspicion and awe. But bringing Morty to this place was blatant, even by her standards. This was a lesser Undead thrall, serving its mistress by pulling her belongings in a small errand cart. 

	The Healer had asked for a "damned good explanation." Victoria decided to be as straightforward as she could. [color=9932cc]"You know what I am, Madame Floquet. There are dangerous things about and I don't know if it's confined to the Vineyard, so I would be foolish not to use every tool at my disposal. I can trust that walking field ration because it is an expression of my magic. As I can trust my Raven. As I can trust my steed. As I cannot trust any other set of eyes looking at me in this town, and I think you might know, or suspect, why."[/color] She looked over the older woman with the barest hint of dismay. Victoria understood a little bit about her position but did not sympathize. 

	[color=9932cc]"I came here,"[/color] continued Victoria, turning to the contents of her small cart, [color=9932cc]"To return these."[/color] She held up a small stack of books, neatly bound with ribbon. They were the ones she was tasked with reproducing, which she had been working at in her spare time for weeks now. [color=9932cc]"And here are the copies, minus the illustrations."[/color] Victoria held out another bundle of books, these with crisper edges and slightly brighter paper. 

	Annick's face softened - but just a little. [color=darkgray][b]"You got those done fast,"[/b][/color] she replied, remaining stern but making the effort to break eye contact and thumb through one of the texts provided. [color=darkgray][b]"Not bad,"[/b][/color] admitted the lady. [color=darkgray][b]"You have a gift for anatomy. Smart. Smarter than your looks let on."[/b][/color] Annick sighed loudly. [color=darkgray][b]"You're dressed to travel, so you're obviously not working today. What are you up to?"[/b][/color] Sharp eyes regarded the younger Half-Elf.

	With a dark smile, Victoria responded, [color=9932cc]"Arnaud L'Rose was the only man who had a clue what happened in his vineyard. I'm intend to ask him a few questions."[/color] 

	The fact that Arnaud L'Rose was dead and buried provided all of the context that Annick required to gauge those two statements. [color=darkgray]"This is Necromancer foolishness, then."[/color] It might have equally been a question or a statement. 

	Victoria's smile turned to something more performative as she answered, [color=9932cc]"Heavens no, Annick. This is Bard foolishness. I just happen to use necromancy."[/color] She shifted her tone to something more confidential, almost faux conspiratorial, [color=9932cc]"This doesn't hurt anyone and it's the most direct way to get results. What's left of the L'Roses have gone through enough, don't you think?"[/color]

	After a lengthy pause, Annick responded flatly, [color=darkgray][b]"Fine. Have a cup of tea before you go. Come on. But leave your monster on the porch. I've got something for you, anyway."[/b][/color] Victoria had a few minutes, and it would be a bit longer before Baronfjord would meet her at the road, provided he got the message in a timely manner. Yes, Victoria had a little time, even if it was imperative that she get back on the road, if she wished to make it to Avonshire before it got too dark.