"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The dragon is here now and if we don't keep it busy until the national guard arrives this town's done for. The root of the problem can wait, non? I admit I let myself get sidetracked, so let's not waste any more time."

Pennie clasps a fist in her hand. "Yes, action! The part I'm good at! Where do we go and what do we do?"

"Outside and... I guess we should try to draw it away from town." How the heck are they going to do that. "What do we have to work with?" 

"I am a conjuration specialist, not enough offensive power against a dragon, but I have a couple of ranged ice-based attacks."

"I'm afraid I'm not much use at long range. I'm the 'up close and personal' type. Preferably with the element of surprise."

"I mean, could you be distracting at long range? We don't have any rope of killing them."

"Aside from throwing mon chapeau... not really. But that is better than nothing, non?" He twirls his disc-like hat on one finger.

"Well, I have this," Joy offers, patting his holster. "Not the most powerful of firearms, but it gets the job done. 'Course, the job usually isn't a dragon." 

"Are you bad with long distance weapons? It's not like we can kill the dragon."

"Sure, we're not trying to kill them, just draw them away. Still, I've got pretty limited range, I'd still have to be pretty close to have any chance at hitting and catching their attention. I'm not that reckless. I'd need someone else to take their attention after that so I don't immediately become dragon food."

"Anything we can do to slow it down will be good enough. I may not have many ways to hurt it physically, but I can call it rude things en francais. And if it does get close enough I can hit it. Now, shall we?"

"Let's!" Outside! To face a dragon and hopefully not die! Eh, death by dragon wouldn't be the worst way to go. 

It's memorable, at least. Temperance follows Joy.

The city can't evacuate this quickly, but the emergency sirens (for tornadoes, floods, and dragons alike) are screaming, and people are being guided to basements and told to get down from the tops of buildings - the best shelters they can get - and the local police are trying to set up a perimeter. There's a glow of fire in the distance, past the river, near one of the new mining operations, and an intermittent roaring.

"Allons-y, rapidement!" Marcel takes off running towards the glow.

Well that sounds dragon-y! Mad dashing towards the river it is!

Temperance whistles and follows them. Soon a cat familiar bounces out of a roof and into her arms.

Pennie has to give it her all to keep up. "Some of us aren't Tallfolk you know!"

That's definitely a dragon wheeling over some of the outlying mines. He seems to have finished wrecking havoc here - the smoke is black, cloying, and he's avoiding it - and he's now turning his gaze to the city.

(He's avoiding the smoke? Must be pretty toxic. They'll have to keep an eye on that, in case the wind starts blowing it towards the city.)

There were some police trying to make a perimeter, right? Are they - or anyone else - trying to attack the dragon as well? The more people they have available to be distractions, the better, so long as they don't get in the way. 

There's some police spreading out on rooftops and at ground level where the freeway enters the city. They seem to be preparing an attack, all armed with guns, but no one's fired yet.

The dragon, though, seems to have made up his mind, and is heading properly for the city. He'll arrive soon.

"Let's get a good vantage point?" Joy suggests to Temperance, given they're the two with some sort of long-range skill among the four of them. He motions towards one of the nearby rooftops, where a few officers are preparing for the approaching dragon. 

"Sure...." she looks around and picks one that looks like they could come down easily from.

There's one with a sturdier than usual fire escape, facing away from the dragon and protected by the closeness of the neighboring building, with an uneven enough rooftop to provide cover, which seems to be a popular gathering spot.

Temperance points towards that, and up they go.