[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] 15	[color=9932cc][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[color=9932cc][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] The Coach House: Taproom -> Vineyard Grounds
[color=9932cc][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] Casting [i]Prestidigitation[/i]
[color=9932cc][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] [color=black]Morty[/color], [color=dimgray]Familiar[/color]
[color=9932cc][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A
[/cell][cell]
[right][img]https://i.ibb.co/k55RrWV/Victoria-Alt-4-2.png[/img][/right]
[/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center]

	[color=9932cc]"Slapped?"[/color] mused Victoria, one finger to her chin as if in contemplation. [color=9932cc]"Ah. Apologies, Kathryn. That might be the lingering effects of the quick tactile test I administered while you were [i]dead[/i],"[/color] remarked Victoria cheerfully. She practically beamed, satisfied with both herself and the succinct way in which the explained the abrupt and not inaccurate accusation of slapping the much stronger woman. This, and maintaining an open dialogue with positive body language would hopefully assist in relaxing problems that may arise from the tall Knight if she took offense at the (almost) completely innocent tap she has received. Maybe it was time to go. 

	And being as it was time to go, Victoria would have to let Baronfjord down a little bit, if he had hoped to see a magical duel between Warlock and Bard. [color=9932cc]"Paradises above, Baronfjord,"[/color] remarked the lady, [color=9932cc]"We shall have to postpone the 'marvelous spectacle' at the very least. I've no wish to throw about damaging magic carelessly in this fine vineyard unless I have no other option, and a struggle might lead to injury which will, at the very least, make breakfast less enjoyable. Another time, perhaps."[/color]

	She did have one point to bring up with Kosara, however, but it did not involve incantations nor the gathering of necrotic energy. [color=9932cc]"Absolutely, Oh Dancer of the Southern Sands. I would be honored for my name to find itself in the conversations of Celestials. But for now, if you will please excuse me, I am going to visit the terrace of what I'm positive is a lovely and welcoming Estate House."[/color]

	Victoria gave a bow which was just a tad too extravagant for the occasion, bending at the waist and touching a hand to her forehead, then bringing it out wide in a sweeping motion. When Victoria rose, she finally retrieved her personal effects and arranged them about her person, buckling on her swordbelt and shouldering her violin. Her fine, charcoal cloak made its way into her shoulders with a flourish, followed swiftly by her especially Bardy hat. The knapsack which contained her ritual book hung loosely at her back opposite of her violin. She looked equally as ready to travel a great distance as she did to simply greet the day officially. When she noticed this about herself, there was a sudden bit of introspection. This was indeed how she would ready herself to leave for parts unknown, with the exception that there would be a Morty at her heel, pulling her loaded errand cart behind. Maybe she just wasn't fully comfortable here yet. The fact that they engaged in mortal combat just yesterday might have been a factor. Or maybe it was just her nature to be prepared for a hasty exit. Victoria would have to see if this habit continued, longer into their stay. 

	To this note, the Bard of Requiems gave a quick mental command to her porcine thrall, bidding it to act in a manner inoffensive to those around it and generally stay put. She did not need someone hurling a pot at the undead beast, only to have it retaliate. A new smoked, cured boar carcass was not worth someone getting hurt, nor losing their place for the season. [i]Dodge only, return to its master if attacked.[/i] If it couldn't carry the last one out, it would just stay put. 

	Mental commands didn't stop there, as Victoria was slowly building herself a bit of a macabre menagerie. She stepped outside, following Lizbeth and Cecily, and extended an arm. Her raven, perched on the railing above the door, took to wing and lighted upon her forearm, at least until she cleared the archway leading out. Even then, it stuck around until after they caught sight of the group of people near the bottom of the hill - the horror stricken domestic lady and field hands - and rose to circle in the air above them with a series of croaking caws. Victoria drew upon the least of her magics to darken her eyes to pitch and cause the visual effects of her magic, the likeness of black tears, to manifest. Yes, it was childish. Maybe even a little foolish. But she waited until the woman noticed her presence, caught her gaze with instant, and gave her a wink with a full, mischievous grin. She even tilted her head to the side, [i]just a little bit.[/i] This situation of this lady reminded her of the men in front of Neil & Bob's, or any amount of people who thought they could treat her in amazingly prejudicial ways because of her preferred magic, her mixed heritage, the stereotypes commonly associated with Bards, or just the fact that she was objectively a conventionally attractive woman by any standards of either Humans or Elves. Giving a little scare felt like a tiny piece of vindication. And yes, it was foolish. 

	[color=9932cc]"So, Madame Cecily?"[/color] inquired Victoria, dropping any physical manifestation of her spellcraft before anyone else noticed, [color=9932cc]"What [i]is[/i] on the menu for breakfast? I am decidedly curious."[/color] Her smile had become warm and innocent, in contrast to the immediately previous incarnation of the expression.