Joy - who introduces himself as 'Joyful Luck of the Starlit Hills Clan, call me Joy' - is delighted to tell stories! And he has so many to tell, as well, tales of his childhood among the Tabaxi of the great plains, and of his misadventures in the time since. As a traveler by preference, he has been all over the country, from the burning hot south to the equally dangerous north, and across the border into the Canadian territories as well. Some of his tales are just this side of believable, and many feature being absurdly lucky at just the right moment to save his life, his livelihood, and/or the day. 

Why, just last year he ran a, ah, priority package between Chicago and a small city just north of the Canadian border. He cheerfully recounts a titillating encounter with some misguided... 'bandits', determined to take him for all he was worth, a daring, death-defying escape into a mysterious secret tunnel, a run-in with a lurking monster in the tunnels in question, a hair-raising half-hour spent creeping past the 'thugs' set to guard the exits near his destination, and finally his triumphant escape into the night with his prize. He absolutely should have died at least twice throughout the story, were it not for fortune swinging abruptly his way. Such seems to be the way of things for him. 

He has seen all sorts of beautiful wilderness, as well. As an artist, he can even show off some of the places he took the time to paint, if that interests the mayor and his friends and guests. 

Pennie is a small halfling woman, her red hair braided to keep it out of the way of her armor, but she still manages to stand out as she tells her tales of her childhood and training. She's particularly animated with her hands and arms, continuously miming the positions she claims she keeps grappling creatures twice her size in. This might be more impressive if she weren't a halfling, although she claims she managed to wrestle a hungry gator that had gotten too adventurous near her home into submission before. More than once, if she's to be believed, and she's certain the thing seems to be *learning* how to get out of grapples so it's good practice for the future when she will have to wrestle demons or dragons.

It's not a matter of if, she says, just a matter of when.

Temperance Greenstep is a half-elf wizard with the entirety of the excitement of an elf and human added together in a single package. Her own mother was a self-taught wizard and her father was a bard. So she has a lot of stories, not only about herself, but about her parents. And her father's other children. Which she only sadly learned about after his tragic death in the hands of a jealous lover. Or some kind of fire-based monster. Or both. She might not be the best about sanitization, but she has been around a lot of places and knows about even more about the ones she is planning to visit one day.

The mayor and his friends are impressed! Some of the ladies are quiet enjoying being mildly scandalized. One's sighing over the stories with a somewhat far away look in her eyes.

The food's good quality, the service is impeccable, and it's a grand night, all in all.

Marcel slips through the door, quiet as a shadow and dressed to the nines. Adjusting the collar of his sharp pinstripe suit, he skirts around the room, snagging a few morsels of food and slipping them past the muffler wrapped around the lower half of his face. Though he tries not to draw attention to himself, he's hard to miss with his impressive height and deathly pallor. Arriving at the mayor's side, he tips his peculiar, broad conical hat in greeting. "Excusez-moi, monsieur. Urgent news. I think you'll want to hear this."

He raises a glass and tilts his head, though his lips are pressed together a bit around his friendly smile. "Excuse me," he says to the party. "It seems governing knows no closing hours. Go on without me! I'll be back as soon as this little matter is dealt with."

He stands and moseys with Marcel into a quiet corner. "Yes? What's so urgent?"

Marcel leans down to the mayor's ear, bending like a willow tree, an image completed by the tendrils of silver-streaked black hair wreathing his face.

"It's the cult. We thought they were small-time, but I was saddled with watching them all the same. Seems we may have underestimated their capacity for mischief, though; I caught wind they're in talks with a nearby dragon. I don't know how it's going, but if they manage to convince it, there's no telling what havoc they'll have it wreak."

"Well, I'll be damned. Thanks for the heads up," he says. "Suppose it's convenient we had some adventurers come through. Can throw them at investigating instead of risking my boys."

"Indeed. Then I'd better stick around and relay what I know to them, non?" Marcel eyes the group of adventurers. "Perhaps we might pull them aside? I wouldn't want to interrupt your little party."

"They're the stars of the night, but we've been winding down. I can see about having them stay after the party ends."

"Bon. Then I suppose I'll make myself comfortable." Marcel fetches himself a glass of wine and more food, mingling with the guests and adventurers.

The mayor returns to the party as well, waving aside concerns about the 'urgent matter.'

Joy's eyes follow the mayor and the new arrival to their secluded corner curiously, his ears twitching, but he quickly refocuses on his conversation partner once they move out of the range of his hearing. Once they return to the party, however, he excuses himself to wander over in the newcomer's direction to satisfy his curiosity. 

"Hello!" He greets, tilting his head up at the much taller being, "Leaving us in suspense about the urgent business?"

Marcel smirks. "I'm afraid so. At least for now. Wouldn't want to spoil the party." He looks Joy up and down with scrutiny. "You are... a tabaxi, yes?"

"Oh, that would be a shame," he agrees while Marcel is looking him over. Then he giggles, "Half-Tabaxi," he corrects, running a hand over his cheek, "Mother's people are usually more feline looking than I am. I can pass for an elf if I hide my tail and ears." His head tilts the other way, "I don't think I've seen anyone who looks like you before." And that's pretty interesting!

"Yes, well, you don't see many Shadar Kai this side of the Deep Marsh." He grins. "Some people go their entire lives without meeting one. But I suppose the same could be said for you, I don't think I've ever met someone quite like you."

"You're not the only one!" He agrees with a laugh, "Half-tabaxi are rare enough without also being half-elves! I think I got all the best parts out of the deal, though," he twitches his ears and swishes his tail into view in example. "The Deep Marsh..." He hums, "That's what they call the Vast in Louisiana, right? What's it like? You hear all sorts of stories, but of course I've never met anyone who fell in." 

"Ah... it's hard to put into words. I haven't been there in a long time." He scratches his chin. "In a word, it's... muted. The colors, the sounds, everything is subdued and dreary. Some Shadar Kai prefer it that way. Me, I'm happy to be on this side of the mirror. What about you? What's life like where you're from?"

"It does sound pretty dreary," he agrees. "I think it would still be interesting to see it, though!"

"As for me - I grew up on the plains. Wildflowers and grasses and scrub as far as the eye can see, and the sunsets are really something! Over all, though, it's, hmm... wide-open. If you find a good spot you can stand in one place and see the world stretching out forever all around you. Really gives a kitten the urge to go out and see it, you know?" 

"I can imagine." Marcel chuckles. "Seeing all the strange and wonderful people and places of the world makes me want to take as many stories as I can back to my people." That much, at least, was true.

Pennie, in the meantime, has zeroed in on Temperance in an effort to exchange stories. Faraway places? Crazy families? Sounds like fun!

"Hey there! Name's Pennie. Do ya have any stories about exotic beasties? Maybe even magic ones?"

"Oh, I have one from when I was little and my mom took me to her friend that had a hipogriff that just had two babies, and I begged all day to let me ride the mom, but she was tired and needed rest. So I did the logical thing - for a child - and tied ropes around the little babies in hope they would lift me in the air. Which only made the hipogriff mom mad. So imagine my mother and her friend stumbling upon the scene of a barely mobile hipogriff mother chasing a young me around a pen, while the tied babies run around making the both of us stumble. Oh, and hipogriffs don't lay eggs. I was so disappointed because I wanted a bit of their shell as a memento."

It's amazing she has enough breath to say all that that fast.

"Oh, I've heard of hippogriffs! That poor mama, but it must've looked hilarious. Haven't seen a hippogriff myself yet though. Real shame you couldn't get to the air back then."

She takes a quick bite out of a cake, as if this were more necessary than pausing to take a breath. "When I was a kid, one of my buddies dared me to jump on the back of a sleeping horse, see how long I could stay on. That's the day I found out what a pegasus is. Turns out I could stay on for a while. I hope to have a ride like that again some day." 

Temperance giggles. "I hope so too. I mean, to ride like that. And also for you to ride like that."

And then there's a roar that shakes the building.

"....oh, merde. That was sooner than I expected." Marcel's brow furrows as he runs to the nearest window, throwing it open and leaning out to search the skies.

"I think, Monsieur Maire, that we had better skip the formalities."

He can't see a dragon from here.

"Yes, of course," the mayor says, quickly getting his wealthy friends dismissed to the secure area in the basement, and asking that the adventurers stay behind - in the first floor lobby, of course, no sense being too far from shelter.

Joy jumps about three feet when the roar sounds, head snapping up to look at the ceiling, before noticing that Marcel's running off. He follows after him towards the window, peering out to look as well. There's nothing to explain the roar there, so he agrees to head down to the lobby with the other adventurers. 

"Sooner than you expected?" He asks Marcel as they go downstairs.

"Ouais. No point keeping it secret now, I suppose. This is what I came here to warn the mayor about. Unfortunately I didn't have enough information to predict when the attack would happen, but to think it came so soon after I found about it..."

He bounces a bit as they go down the main staircase, "So was that a dragon?" He asks next, assuming Marcel probably knows. 

Pennie slides down the railing of the main staircase as she hurries alongside you all. "It sure didn't SOUND like a dragon, but then, I don't actually know what a dragon sounds like. If it is, well, now I know!"

"As a matter of fact, I'm afraid it is. And we're going to have to stop it."

"Okay..." Temperance says with a mix of excitement and trepidation. "First time I have the opportunity to do that. How are we supposed to do that?"

"I have no idea!" Joy says cheerfully, "But once we've got it beaten, do you think we could ride it?"

"That would be a question for the dragon, but depending how prideful it is, asking could get you killed. And given it's attacking the town, I doubt it's the friendly sort. Now then, the mayor and I need to fill you in on what exactly the situation is."

Mayor: seems highly frazzled. Still, he's mostly competent.

"I know this is a lot to ask, but it'll take a while before the National Guard can arrive - I've already instructed someone to call them - and surely experienced adventurers such as yourself can help delay a dragon? Or at least prevent any sabotage of our local forces by the dragon cult - I just received a report, shortly before this happened, that an apocalypse cult worshiping dragons had been talking to a local one. If I'd known it would attack so soon... Well, we have the situation we have."

"Will you help us?"

"Of course! I just hope it wll be enough."

"You can count me in," Joy agrees, a little more serious now.

"If you hadn't guessed, I'm the one who brought the report. I've been on the inside of this cult, so I'd better stick with you."

"Sure, what can you tell us about it?"

Pennie seems to be vibrating in place as she tries to restrain herself.

"A cult? An evil cult? An evil dragon cult? This sounds like just the sort of thing my master told me to stay away from until I'm stronger."

Her smile only widens. "I'm all ears."

Joy suppresses a giggle at Pennie's dramatics and leans in to listen as well.

Temperance also needs to keep hold of herself. "Please, the situation is serious."

"They call themselves the Disciples of the Eternal Dragon. From what I understand, they think the world is made from a sleeping dragon and are trying to awake it. C'est des balivernes, but they believe it enough to try to rile up real dragons like this. They were quite small until recently, but they've been recruiting more to their cause. As for the dragon, I don't know their name, but they're a young swamp breed. I don't know what they're bribing it with, but if we could find out, we could make a counter-proposal or remove their offering from the equation."

"I don't have dragon level of bribe money around. Any idea how we can remove their offering?"

"It sounds like finding out what it is is our first step, either way. I know you said you don't know, but do you know who does?"

"One of the higher ranking cultists, no doubt. I've only managed to establish myself in the lowest echelons as of yet. I don't know what our odds are of facing a dragon head on, but I assume they're slim to none. I'm inclined to subterfuge anyway. So stealing the cult's bribe it is I suppose."

"Alright, what else can you tell us about this cult then?"

"Not much, I'm afraid. I haven't dug deep enough yet to learn where they're headquartered, or who's in charge. All I know is some of the branch locations."

"I guess that's where we start, then. Where's the closest one?" 

"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.

You distantly hear Pennie yelling "Wait for meeeeeeeeee" as she tries to catch up.

"Perhaps one of us ought to give her a lift next time, non?" He begins nimbly scrambling up the fire escape.

"You might be right," Joy agrees, muffling an extremely inappropriate giggle. 

Up on the roof, he heads straight for the nearest person who looks like they're In Charge. "Hi! The mayor sent us, anywhere in particular you want us?" 

The nearest person In Charge is a policewoman who looks like she'd be frazzled if she wasn't so professional. "Any of you have healing?" she asks.

"Not me," he looks around at the other two, and then down in the street where Pennie is, "Hey, Pennie, got any healing?" He calls. 

Pennie pauses for breath before answering, "I can do a little bit! Like, save one or two people from dying? What do you need?"

The policewoman gestures Pennie up. "We'll put you with the medics, then - spells are best for severe bleeds, things normal first aid can't handle."

Pennie sighs at that. "Aww, and I wanted to ride the dragon..."

She looks into the distance as she reaches the roof and takes a good look at the dragon itself. "...Maybe I'll just wait for a less murderous dragon to cross that off my list."

"I don't know about that, who knows what opportunities might come our way in the next while?" Joy says, turning his gaze to the dragon as well.

"So that's your spot worked out, and the rest of us will just join in with the people harrying them? Oh, hey, do you fine folks have any spare guns lying around?" He asks the officer, "I've got my own, but," he shrugs, "I only have so much ammunition."

Spare guns and ammunition can be passed out.

Joy offers the officer a friendly salute, and then goes off to stake out a spot on the roof. He picks a spot with cover nearby, next to the roof's edge.

Marcel eyes the rifles warily. "I'm afraid I'm only trained in more compact firearms, peut-etre you have a pair I could borrow?" He looks around for the highest point to get him as close to the dragon as possible.

Temperance stands next to Joy and waits.

Marcel can be provided with a pair of handguns.

And then the dragon's rapidly getting in range of the rifles.

Marcel takes a pair of revolvers and climbs as high as he can.

She almost pulls out her own gun, realizes it doesn't have quite the range, and nabs a rifle. She will switch to Ray of Frost once the dragon is within sixty feet.

Hm, he doesn't have much chance of hitting - the dragon's at the edge of his range and he's never used one of these rifles before - but he might as well give it a shot. As they enter his range, he takes aim at the dragon, braces, and fires.

Their shots miss - all of them, the guards too - except then one guard hits, scoring a shallow line in the dragon's cheek. Two guards seem to have hit from a building across main street.

The dragon roars, leaves off terrorizing farmers, and wheels towards the city guards - and the adventurers - crossing a third of the distance between it and them.

Pennie gulps as the dragon comes closer, standing near the medics and definitely not near people shooting the dragon directly.

Marcel double checks his revolvers and levels one at the dragon, staring down the sights and waiting for it to get in range.

Temperance does some internal screaming of both the scared and exited type. But she lifts her firearm and shoots.

Not unexpected that he'd miss. Still, the dragon's closer now, bearing down on them and roaring and such. Might as well try again!

Temperance's shot hits - as do four of the police officer's, one bullet hitting the dragon in the eye, to a pained roar. The dragon shoots forward - and comes in range of Marcel.

Marcel steadies his hand, lets out a slow breath, and squeezes the trigger, firing his revolver at the dragon.

The bullet hits, skittering along the dragon's shoulder and exiting through a wing.

The dragon keeps coming - rapidly getting to where he's only eighty feet away from the defenders of the city - 

It's hard to see how injured he is. The distant light of fires isn't helping the night, much, and the dragon's scales are murky and dark.

And the police shoot, their aim still steady - better, now that the dragon's in range.

Two bullets hit the dragon's other eye - it's still flying straight, but it's roaring in pain, head thrashing - and three bullets deal some wound or another to its chest.

One of the police needs to be evacuated to the healers, having been caught by a stray bullet - she's cursing as she's brought in, but she's bleeding heavily, the bullet having entered her chest somewhere - past what mundane magic can usually rescue.

Pennie rubs her hands together as she gets close to the wounded officer. "Alright, this is gonna feel weird, but hang on." Magical energy sparks between her hands as she lays them on the officer, healing her enough for her to get back on her feet. (1 hp healing *ought* to do that)

The woman sucks in a sharp breath - but she's not dying anymore, at least. Still, she feels too woozy to climb the steps back to her position, an attempt the other medics are extremely unimpressed with. They make her lie down, in an out of the way corner, and drink some sugary tea.

"Bon sang, it does not quit does it?" Marcel raises his other revolver and fires at the dragon again.

"Gotta admire that tenacity," Joy replies, grinning with exhilaration.

Marcel's bullet slams into the dragon's open mouth. He appears to have been trying to gear up to breathe fire... Once he was in range of these pesky gnats.

The dragon goes down, flailing, unable to coordinate enough to fly - 

He slams into the grow, hard, and does not get up.

"-Huh. Nevermind."

Pennie steps towards the dragon a little, confused. "Uh. Should I give it a zap to save it or are we gonna let it die? I can go either way."

"...Hm. Did I do that?" Marcel stows the revolvers in his coat, clambering down to the others and peering over the edge. "Je ne sais pas if that's a good idea. I'm not sure how much information we could squeeze out of it, but we don't want it torching any people or buildings as soon as it gets conscious."

"If we can stop him bleeding without waking him up, we should, and let the national guard play security while we handle questioning - once the lazy bastards show up," the police chief, a rather unflappable woman with terrifyingly accurate aim, says over the sound of her squad cheering. "I've heard it's possible to keep some folks just conscious enough for questions but not for fighting, but I don't know how easy that is. Certainly not without magic."

Pennie continues forward and reaches the dragon to see if he's still alive. Presuming a yes, she starts rubbing her hands together to charge magical energy. "Alright, I can keep him from dying, but he might wake up enough to fight back. Someone punch him in the snout when he does. That should do the trick."

"I can do that," Joy offers, coming up behind her.

The police chief follows her with a squad. She keeps her gun holstered, but has her squad stand back and ready their firearms - while the rest of her squad stays on the rooftops. "Shouldn't be us," she says. "Arguably, he's now a prisoner."

"Or moi." Marcel makes a karate chop motion. "Je connais le kung fu."

Temperance approaches the creature curiously. "Do we know anything about them?"

"Not much other than they came from a nearby swamp and are fairly young. All the more reason to keep it alive for questioning. But as la chef de police said, we need to keep it under until the national guard arrives." Marcel rolls up his sleeves and nods to Penny. "Whenever you're ready, Mademoiselle."

Pennie nods, and presses her hands to the dragon's head, allowing the magic to heal it enough to avoid dying. (1 hp)

Dragon seems slightly less likely to die in the next few seconds - 

And wakes up, groggy.

"Bonne nuit." Marcel promptly smacks it on the side of its head with a carefully aimed fist.

And dragon is out like a light. At least now he's a light that isn't dying of internal organ rupture.

"Nice blow," Joy offer's Marcel, taking a step closer to peer down at the dragon, "...Now what?"

"Now we wait for the 'big guns' to arrive. Speaking of which..." Marcel retrieves the revolvers from his coat and returns them. "Merci beaucoup. I really should invest in some for myself."

The police chief thanks him with a smile. "The mayor's going to be throwing around accolades after this. I might could put a word in that properly arming all y'all would be a sensible repayment."

Joy offers the rifle he'd borrowed to a nearby officer as well, "I'm sure we'd all appreciate it. There's still that cult to deal with, after all," he recalls.

"I know I hit the thing, but I feel weird using firearms instead of magic."

"We still don't know where the cult members who were talking to the dragon went, either - but for now search and rescue's more important, as is keeping a watch on this bozo. You all up for any of that?"

"I can send my familiar out if you need to inspect any hard-to-access place. But I can do dragon watching."

"I have sharp eyes, so peut-etre I would be most useful aiding in searching, ouais?"

"I'm up for doing either," Joy nods, "I'm pretty good at getting into tight spaces myself, though, so I might be more useful on search and rescue. Do you have any spells that would be good for suppressing fires?" He asks Temperance. 

"I have Ray of Frost as my main combat trick."

"Right. So maybe Pennie should keep watch and whack him if he wakes up again, and the three of us can help your forces with the destruction out there," he suggests to the officer. 

"Pennie's the one with healing? We're likely to need her most, at least as long as she has magic."

Pennie shrugs as she climbs on top of the dragon. "I think I've got enough in me to do that 3 more times. I'm still an apprentice after all."

The chief sighs. "Probably not worth it - the worst cases won't last until we get to them - and newer injuries are more likely here."

He watches her climb them for a moment, considering asking to stay to guard as well, but eventually decides helping the townsfolk is urgent enough to pull him away from his definitely life-long dream to ride a dragon. Besides, they're not even awake. 

"Are there any supplies we should gather before we head out?" He asks the chief.

Temperance is also watching, amused. "I will join you as well. Do you have any lights small enough a cat could carry them?" Tama has returned to her arms at some point.

"We've already got people gathering supplies who you'll be moving with - and we should."

Marcel chuckles watching Penny ascend the dragon. "Bon. Let us away, then. Do be careful, Mademoiselle Penny."

Pennie waves back at them. "I dunno what a madamwhatsit is but yeah, sure!"

Temperance waves back and goes as directed.

Off towards disaster they go! Hopefully to subdue it, rather than make it worse.

The police are rather happy to fold them into existing emergency responses, giving them a ride out to the destroyed countryside.

It's still dark out, though, and the fire - already being fought back - makes vision difficult, and it's hard to hear each other, let alone anyone trapped.

Search and rescue under these conditions will likely be interesting.

Marcel, being naturally accustomed to the dark, has no difficulty seeing and searches diligently.

Joy starts searching as well. Being able to see in the dark is pretty convenient for this job, it's true, even if the brightness of the fires can be a bit annoying. 

They're able to find a few people trapped still, some conscious and scared, some unconscious.

Tama , the familiar, has the benefit of being very light and able to scurry tight openings, that plus her superior cat senses are great to help the poor humans.

Tama finds a few people who sheltered in root cellars and basements and got trapped when their houses burned over them.

Temperance directs Tama to comfort them and directs search parties to that building.

People: can be slowly dug out.

And the adventurers can be moved on, sweeping quickly with the search teams to identify critical cases especially.

It's set to be a long, exhausting night.

Exhausting, and not a fun time, but important work. 

Very important work.

Marcel sees some people moving in the shadows once they get to one of the outlying areas, in the direction the dragon came from.

If they can move, they can't be too badly hurt... which seems odd, given this is near to where the dragon started its rampage. Marcel stealthily slinks closer for a better look.

Seem on average a bit shorter than most farmers around here - who're almost entirely humans - and their silhouette is odd, hunched and furtive in a way human posture usually isn't.

They definitely don't see him. In fact, one misses a rock in the road and trips, cursing softly in draconic.

Draconic..!  Marcel silently curses himself for not learning the language while investigating the cult. He slips back to the others, keeping an eye on the suspicious group. "Je pense that I have found some cultists skulking about. Perhaps we ought to capture them, or tail them to their hideout?"

"Think the rescue folks can do without us at this point?"

"Maybe? I do think we should try follow that lead."

"We're mostly caught up..." One of the rescue folks says. "But y'all've been awful helpful - and we don't want any bad actors lurking around where we're working."

"Mhm... okay, think we have time to go grab Pennie?" 

"I doubt it, we could lose them. And we wouldn't want to leave the dragon unguarded unless the national guard has arrived. They wanted our help with interrogation, non?" Marcel keeps his eyes trained on the suspicious figures. "You can go check on her if you like, but mon objectif principal is keeping a finger on the pulse of the cult. I'm following them. If you're not coming, I will come find you when I need assistance."

He follows Marcel's gaze, squinting. "Oh no, count me in. Temperance?"

"Huh, I will come with you two. Tama is too good as a scout to not to use."

"So long as you can keep up and keep quiet..." Marcel slinks after the targets, sticking to shadows and keeping his distance.

The targets don't spot their followers - or half of the rocks in their path. Temperance and Marcel are able to keep track of them, but not Joy.

Lack of sleep must be getting to him. He tails Marcel and Temperance, since they seem to know where they're going. 

The targets seem to be heading along the river, away from the city - toward a concrete parking lot by a defunct ferry, in fact, with two cars sitting silently in the dark. They start arguing lowly among themselves, mostly about which way to go from here - two don't want to run away with their tails between their legs, while the other three are talking about just cutting their losses.

"Looks like they are making plans to escape. I daresay we cannot allow that, ouais? Think we can disable les voitures before engaging them, just to be safe?"

"Can't be too difficult. Sneaking up and puncturing the tires should do it."

"Which one of you wants to go do that? I will stay in the back."

Shrug, "I'll do it." 

Off he goes, sneaking around to the other side of the first car from the Suspicious Figures.

Suspicious Figures don't see him, despite the handful of rocks he accidentally kicks and the occasional heavy footfall. They're too busy hissing at each other.

Marcel winces, thankful the suspicious figures are so oblivious, and makes his way over to the other car, pricking up his ears to try to listen in on the conversation.

They definitely don't see, hear, or at all suspect Marcel even exists. He's silenter than a shadow.

Also, he hears:

"Look, just 'cause the deal went south, doesn't mean we can't follow through - "

" - this's gonna be shit on our reputation - "

"You wanna be there when we tell the boss what happened? I don't, at least not without saying I fought like hell to fix this clusterfuck - "

"Yeah? Think boss's gonna appreciate it if we fuck up more?"

"I wasn't the one with the shitty intel here - "

"Which's why we need to split; we don't know what kind of viper den we'd be walking into digging ourselves further into this mess - "

They don't seem to be inclined to use names at all.

He is really off his game today. Still, they didn't notice anything, at least. He reaches the car and unsheathes a dagger to deal with the tires. 

Marcel opts to take a more delicate approach, unscrewing the tire valves to let the air out. He sees Joy readying a knife and silently gestures at him to follow suit. Meanwhile, he keeps listening keenly, curious just how much they'll let slip.

Oh, good point. He puts the dagger away and copies Marcel's method, then turns to listen to the suspected cultists as well. 

They don't seem to have much else to say - and Joy's having trouble hearing them over the river, the wind, the birds... There's a lot of distracting noises going on.

They also don't react to the slow deflation of the tires.

Joy catches Marcel's attention and motions back towards Temperance, tilting his head questioningly. 

After some thought, Marcel nods sharply, slinking away from the cars and sticking to the shadows, but staying within earshot of the cultists.

And Joy follows after him, trying to listen as well past all the distracting noises.

Temperance waits for them to  speak first.

Joy makes it back to her side and then glances at Marcel, ears flicking back and then forward unhappily, "Can you hear what they're saying?" He asks him quietly, "Should we try ambushing them here or...?"

Marcel cups a hand to his ear, still listening in. "They are trying to decide whether to retreat or complete their mission. Je pense that we should wait and see what they try to do. If they retreat, we can follow them to their headquarters, and if they try to wake the dragon back up we can take care of them with help from the police.

"Sounds good to me." Ear flick, "Let us know when they decide?" 

They seem to have decided to split up, four heading for the cars and one stealthier one heading back for the dragon.

"They are splitting up. One is going after the dragon, the others are heading for the cars. They won't get far with their wheels in that state, though. I'm going to go after the loner, make sure he doesn't make more trouble for Pennie. Do you think vous deux can tail the rest?"

"Should be easy enough."

"Can do," Joy agrees.

Marcel slinks after the lone cultist, sticking to the shadows and preparing himself to make a surprise attack when the time is right.

He loses track of the lone cultist once he's a good fifteen minutes away from his friends - close to the city, but without any chance for a surprise attack.

"Merde..." Marcel looks for a fire escape or some other way to the rooftops to cover ground more quickly and potentially get his eyes on the target again. At the very least he can try to beat him to the dragon and head him off there.

There's a fire escape over in that alleyway, actually fairly near where he lost track.

Marcel keeps his eyes peeled, just in case his prey has caught on that he's being followed, and clambers up to the roof.

He's able to see the cultist before she drops on him, then, with just enough time to get his feet under him before she's closed.

"Ah zut. So much for the element of surprise..." Marcel draws his rapier, baring his pointed teeth in a grim smile. "What a shame. Pour vous." He lunges forward to stab at the cultist.

The cultist falls, run through.

"...Ah. So much for squeezing them for information. I really should have held back..." He shakes off his sword, looking around. "This...isn't going to look good for me, is it." He sighs, picking up the body and climbing back down to the street, making his way towards the river and trying to keep a low profile.

Fortunately, people seem to mostly still be on lock down from the earlier sirens, and no one looking out their windows spots him in the dark.

Once he's made it to the river, Marcel scrounges around for some rocks to weigh down the body while stripping it of anything useful and studying its features to imitate later.

No one catches him doing that, at least.

Not finding anything worth taking, he fills the pockets with rocks, finds the deepest part of the river nearest the shore, and throws the body in.

The body splashes and then sinks beneath the murky waters.

"Well. That's about all I can do about that. I'd better get back to mademoiselle Pennie, see if the national guard has arrived yet so we can meet up with the others... wherever they've gotten to. ...We did not think this 'splitting up' idea through, did we..." With one last furtive look around, he slips away from the scene of the crime and heads back towards where the dragon was.

He makes it back to Pennie without issue. The national guard has indeed arrived to relieve her, leaving her at loose ends.

"Bon soir, Pennie. No issues on your end, I see." He nods at the national guards. "Do they still need us for the interrogation?"

Pennie gives a shrug at the whole thing. "I dunno. I got distracted, really. Glad to see y'all are still in one piece."

"Well, I am. Je ne sais pas about the others, they were following some cultists back to their base last I saw them." He looks at the nearest police officer or national guard. "Anything we can assist with?"

"We have the situation handled here."

"Good, now, what was this about cultists and a base? Do I need to teach some people some manners? I can teach some manners."

"Well, we'll have to find the others first. We really should determine a meeting place before splitting up next time... Allons-y, let's start from where I saw them last, see if we can track them." Marcel leads Pennie back to the empty lot where he left the others.

The cultists, meanwhile, had tried to leave in the cars, becoming quite angry and spending some time arguing among themselves when the tires turned out to be flat. It's hard to hear what they're saying, but they haven't gone anywhere by the time Marcel and Pennie return - though they have gotten one of the two flattened tires changed on the vehicle Joy worked on, and are just finishing with the second.

They do, also, get leery, the ones not working on the tires drawing weapons and keeping their gazes sharply on the shadows around.

Joy, hidden in the shadows around the lot, leans his head towards Temperance as he watches them going about their business.

"Should we attack them?" He murmurs, "We won't be able to follow the car on foot." Though they're at something of a disadvantage, obviously. They really didn't think this 'splitting up' thing through, did they?

"Huh, if we attack we can't gain any information from following them. Unless, we manage to catch one alive?"

"That's what I was thinking, yeah. Do you have anything that's good for capture?" 

Pennie just kind of tries to follow Marcel's lead, including trying to be stealthy.

She's not very good at it, wearing chain mail.

Marcel tries to ignore the rattling behind him as he slinks towards Joy and Temperance.

The cultists twitch, the ones on guard pointing their guns in the general direction of the group. They don't call out, but they're clearly now on alert, falling back towards the nearly fixed car.

Marcel curses under his breath, deciding to at least try to cover for his stealth-challenged colleague. He raises his voice in his best impression of a cat knocking over a trashcan and yowling.

Joy is so startled by this, he actually jumps and yowls like a cat! 

The two on guard seem to relax at that.

One of the others hisses something like "There's no trashcans out here you fucking idiot," hurrying to lower the car down from where it's jacked up.

Marcel swears again, taking a brief look at the others and coming to a decision. Stopping or tailing these guys is more important than concealing his identity. With a shudder, he releases his humanoid form, turning into a trashcan, and rolls himself towards the cultists.

The one who'd caught the earlier mimicry startles, says, "Huh. Must've missed that."

"We're jumping at shadows..." another grumbles.

"Come on, let's go," a third says, turning away.

Joy peers behind himself, searching for the source of the noise, and instead notices Pennie. 

"Oh, Pennie. You and Marcel dealt with that other cultist already?" He asks quietly, moving back to join her.

"Other cultist? Sorry, just got here. ...where'd Marcel go? He was just here before that cat knocked over that trash can."

While both the cultists and his allies are distracted, the trashcan melts into goo and slithers over to the back of the trunk, prying it open and crawling inside.

After surveying the interior of the trunk, he quietly unloads some of its contents onto the ground, taking a moment to write a note with a notepad he finds and leave it for the others to find: "I'm in their trunk, will try to leave a trail for you. -Marcel" Then he takes the form of the junk he unloaded and shuts himself into the trunk.

The cultists get into the truck, preparing to leave.

Joy looks back in time to see them getting inside, "Damn, I think this is our last chance to do anything. You want to try hitting them with a Ray of Frost, Temperance?"

Pennie looks over at the truck and then back to the others. "Oh! Those are the cultists?! Why didn't you say so?!"

She immediately breaks cover and makes a dash to the truck, hoping to climb on board to get nice and physical with these people.

The cultists seem totally surprised by this! She's about forty feet from the truck, to start. The doors are closed but the driving cultist is still fumbling to get her key in the ignition.

"Oh, damn it. You are right." She conjures the fridge beam of white-blue light and sends towards the vehicle.

Well, there they go. He hopes Marcel's ended up somewhere he can get a good surprise attack in from, at least. Joy pulls out his revolver and fires at the cultist driving the truck. 

Temperance's shot frosts a bit of the frame. Joy's shot hits the car door and skims off.

Penny charges at the car and climbs on top!

Three of the cultists lean out the windows and shoot at her - though only one hits. The driver gets the key in the ignition and accelerates suddenly, zooming towards the road.

Pennie holds on for dear life, laughing even as a bullet impacts her armor. "NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" She then attempts to leap at one of the cultists leaning out of a window in order to grapple them and ride them to the ground.

The cultist, who only had his head and arm out of the truck, ducks back in. Pennie misses and hits the ground.

Temperance flinches at the sight of Pennie hitting the ground and run towards her. The car is outside her range now.

Pennie performs an absolutely perfect spin to a stop and lands on her feet. She watches the car leave her behind.

"Aww... Damn it."

She then sways for a moment before falling over onto her back.

"Pennie!" Temperance approaches.

Joy rushes after her, glancing after the car and then shaking his head and kneeling down at Pennie's side to try to help her. 

Temperance tries to stabilize her.

Tama helps!

They're able to stop the bleeding between the three of them.

Once she's stable, Joy leans back, catching himself just before he runs a bloody hand through his hair. He looks down the road, and then hums, "Well, at least we're all in one piece?" 

It's great that Tama could help save the day. She hops on Temperance's shoulders.

"Some a bit more than the others. Now what do we do?"

(Joy is briefly distracted by how cute Temperance's familiar is.)

"...Oh. Right," he looks around, "Hm... We should look for Marcel, I think. Even if we can't catch up to those cultists, he knew where some of their bases were, didn't he?"

"-And obviously we should get Pennie to someone who can actually heal her."

"Penny first? And we should pick a place to reconvene?"

"The mayor's house, I guess? Seems like the most obvious spot to find each other again, if we don't run into him on the way back into town." 

"Heh, good enough. We at least would've the excuse to update him on the situation."

"Yep," and he leans down to try to lift Pennie.

"Oof- what is she carrying, rocks?" He mutters, setting her back down as gently as he can, before looking back up at Temperance. "Can you take her bag?"

"Sure." Temperance takes her back, and possibly some other easily removable equipment.

That makes it a bit easier. He lifts her carefully, and then nods back towards town, "After you, milady."

Tama gives a courteous nod and leads the way.

Pennie, at least, doesn't start bleeding again while they carry her back. The mayor gets her slotted pretty high in triage.

Great. If that's likely to take a while (he has no idea what healthcare is like in this particular town), maybe they should go update the mayor and see if Marcel is around while they wait?

Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Maybe the mayor will know how to get in touch with Marcel?

They did seem to know each other! To the mayor's house it is!

Mayor: is in residence. He seems highly stressed, and is pacing when they arrive. He looks relieved. "Thank God. Are you all alright?"

"Well... as far as we know no one is dead yet. But Marcel seems to have vanished, and Pennie is with the healers."

"When did you last see him?"

"The last time we saw was when he left to track the cultists."

"But I think Pennie mentioned that he was with her before she found us - we should give you the whole story, really, as much as we know it, shouldn't we-" he recounts what he remembers of their recent adventures for the mayor, from the dragon to finding the cultists in the ferry lot to dropping Pennie off at the hospital. Once he's done, he checks with Temperance to see if she has anything to add.

She adds a few details and things he missed.

"Concerning. Still, Marcel has proved competent in the past... I must hope he's okay."

"I guess that's about all we can do," he agrees. He covers a yawn, "...Hm, if all we can do is wait for him to get back, we might as well get some rest? I hope there's vacancy at a hotel somewhere..." 

"We can check on mine? You didn't have plans to where you were going to sleep tonight?"

He scratches an ear sheepishly, "I usually don't bother with hotels," he admits. "I can sleep just about anywhere, and I need a lot less than most." 

"You could sleep on my floor if nothing else. Main problem will be if Tama decides that the bed is hers." She whispers.

He glances at the familiar,  "Well, there's plenty of floor to share between us if she does," he says. "Thanks, I'll take you up on that."

And back to the mayor, "I suppose we'll come by in about eight hours to check in again, if nothing changes in the meantime. Hopefully Marcel will have shown up by then."

"Alright. Take care, you two. I can make sure your teammate is updated about your location, too, when she wakes."

"Thank you! I hope the rest of your night is peaceful!" So saying, he offers a little bow to him, and then steps back towards the doors to wait for Temperance to give her own goodbyes. 

Temperance hands her hotel's address and room number and curtsies before saying goodbye and leaving.

Tama on her shoulder nods at the mayor, like she is doing a favor for acknowledging him.

He nods back, smiling a bit.

Joy follows them out, covering a jaw-cracking yawn with one hand. 

Meanwhile, the cultists driving Marcel around aren't being particularly chatty, mostly tense, worried about the group that attacked them.

Marcel, having heard all the commotion, hopes the others are okay. It's clear they didn't manage to stop the cultists, so he's on his own now... and although he left a note saying he would try to leave a trail, he realized that wasn't entirely possible in his current position. He maintains his disguise, listening to the cultists, quiet as they may be.

They don't know where the weird attackers came from and are alarmed they hadn't seen them earlier, and think the attackers might be the reason the tires were flat, and are worried about being followed but they can't change cars easily so they're talking about just trying to lose any pursuers on the highway...

That's going to be a long trip back... let's hope I can drive one of these things. Marcel settles in to wait it out.

The car bumps and rattles a lot, and gets whiny about speeding up, but fortunately it's not too long a drive before they're slowing to a stop and getting out, warning each other to look around for pursuers.

Marcel stirs, listening in case they come to check the trunk.

They're arguing about it; one doesn't want to leave the supplies there, the others mostly want to just get inside - there's nothing vital in the supplies, after all. They can stay in the truck overnight.

Merveilleux. Please, do go ahead and split up so I can pick you off un par un. Marcel licks his lips, carefully maintaining his disguise. It'll make getting out of this trunk easier too.

The one who doesn't want to leave the supplies storms over to the trunk! This moderately alarms his friends; one of them grabs his arm, and starts dragging him back to the safe house.

Marcel breathes a sigh of relief. Would have been trouble if they all watched their friend get dragged into the trunk. Now to get out of here... Feeling around for the latch, he pries the trunk open just enough to peek out and see where they're going.

Seems to be a bunker sort of deal, one door, no windows visible from here.

After ensuring they're gone, Marcel slithers out of the trunk, returning to his humanoid form as he quietly approaches the door and examines the lock.

Pretty solid, with a deadbolt and an inner latch and chain.

Somehow I don't think I can pick my way in here. Although peut-etre I can 'talk' my way in... Better get the others, who knows if there's more in there. He slips back to the car, hoping they left the keys behind in their haste. Not that he really knows how to drive, but it's better than walking all that way.

They seem to have, in fact, left the keys behind.

"Bon. Hopefully I can make it back without crashing. Now... which one's the clutch- OKAY WE'RE DRIVING." Marcel careens off back the way he came, desperately hoping he can get back to the mayor in one piece rather than several.

He does not crash! Though he is plausibly not always in the right lane. It really helps that no one's coming in the opposite direction and this is a two lane road.

Marcel manages to stop the car outside the mayor's house with the aid of a lamppost and quietly slips inside to speak with the mayor.

He's there, and even still awake, though running on fumes.

Marcel tips his hat in greeting. "Good evening, monsieur. I've located a bunker belonging to a group of the cultists. Je ne sais pas if there are more than the three I followed inside, so I thought it wise to return here for back-up."

He nods. "Do you think it's urgent?"

"Peut-être. They already tried to send one to revive the dragon. She's been dealt with, and the national guard should deter them for now. But they may try again, and who knows how many are in that bunker." He shakes his head. "Je ne vois pas l'avenir. Ces trois managed to spook them, but they may yet find the courage to strike again. We can hope they won't try anything tonight."

The mayor nods, and tells Marcel where his teammates are - "I'll alert the National Guard about the bunker, but they'll probably decide that's local business, and my own forces are spread thin right now. You might want to collect your friend Pennie, and bring her to the others' hotel. If y'all come talk to me in the morning, I'll update y'all on what's been done about the bunker, if anything."

"Je compris. We'll see you then." Marcel slinks back outside, opting to go by foot this time, leaving the cult's car 'parked' where he crashed it. Arriving at the healers', he looks around for Pennie.

Findable! Conscious and healed, even.

Penny walks by of her own accord, not needing to have been tended to for long and probably left alone for too long. She does a double-take when she notices Marcel, and you can see now as she turns towards you that she has a rather cool-looking scar over her right eye. "THERE you are! I've been looking all over for everyone and I haven't been able to locate any of you, much less something to practice my wrestling on. I need to get even better."

"Vraiment. That way the next time you try to wrestle a car, you'll have a sporting chance." Marcel remarks drily. "I know where the others are. We could all use some sleep, je pense."

"Oh, yeah, I guess I should work my way up to cars eventually. If I can do that, angels will be less of a problem."

"Vraiment. Baby steps, as they say. Now, let's go get a well deserved rest, non?" Marcel leads the way to the hotel where the others are staying.

'The others' are staying in a decent hotel outside of the zone affected by the dragon's rampage. Their room's window, up on the second floor, is dark, suggesting that they're already asleep. 

They can spot Tama sleeping on the windowsill. 

Seeing as the window is occupied, Marcel opts to use the door like a normal person, but finds it locked. With a shrug, he retrieves a set of lockpicks from his pocket and delves into the lock. With a satisfying click he gets it open without issue and slips inside, beckoning Pennie.

Pennie follows, hardly being subtle or quiet since she's put her armor back on.

Joy rolls off the bed inside, coming to his feet and squinting at them, a dagger in hand. Once he identifies them, he lowers it, gives a jaw-cracking yawn, and tilts his head at them, "Could have sworn we'd locked that door." 

...He's buck naked, which gives them a good view of what parts of him are elf-like and what parts are tabaxi-like. It turns out, he mostly resembles an elf in shape, besides the tail and the ears, though Marcel will be able to see that the skin of his chest and legs is covered in darker brown spots, like the patterns on a wildcat, if he chooses to look.

Besides him Temperance half-rises from the bed and hastily covers herself. Her anatomy is not as exotic as Joy's but it is interesting in the typical ways. "Haven't you heard of knocking?"

"Oh you did lock it. But that's never stopped me." Marcel doesn't seem particularly perturbed or interested by what he's walked in on, eyeing the two like a scientist looking at a dissection, with only a hint of amusement. "Knocking is not really... how you say, my style. I prefer not to bring attention to myself. Would have been quieter if I used the window but alas, le chat has a monopoly on that real estate." He scratches Tama behind the ears, finding a comfortable chair to lean back in and pulling his hat down over his eyes. "Pardonnez-moi, et bon nuit."

Tama enjoys the ear scratching, then decides to communicate that is enough by affectionately slapping his hand away. She gets down the window and starts retrieving articles of clothing for Temperance and Joy.

Temperance accepts the help, a girl has to keep her modesty.

Joy will take his clothes with thanks, but he sets them on the nightstand instead of putting them on, instead slipping back into bed and covering his lower body with a blanket. Getting pants on is a little annoying given the tail, and he doesn't really care about modesty, assuming no one is going to scream about him showing his ankles or something. 

"...I guess there probably aren't any other open rooms anywhere," he muses. He glances at Temperance, shrugs, "Good night?" He offers Marcel. 

Pennie is down to her underclothes, and pauses in taking out additional clothes from her bag. "Oh, is that why we met up here? Well, guess I can take a nap on the floor til morning. Have fun, y'all."

Temperance puts enough on so she is not completely exposed. "Wait, what happened to you?" Temperance points at Marcel. "Obviously, you managed to return, but what did you found out?"

"Plenty of time for that tomorrow." Marcel mumbles from beneath his hat, yawning wide and flashing pointed teeth. "For now, j'ai dit bon nuit, so good night." He's made himself comfortable leaning back precariously in a chair with his feet kicked up on a table.

Okay. She figures if anything was on fire, or bite down by a dragon, he wouldn't go to sleep. She cuddles next to Joy.

Joy curls around her and quickly falls back asleep. 

(He purrs in his sleep, very softly, on exhale but not on inhale.)

The rest of the night passes uneventfully.

Joy wakes before any of the others, only needing about half as much sleep as most. He's content to cuddle for a while longer, but eventually gets restless enough to slip out of bed, pull some clothes on, and slip over to the window, doing his best not to wake anyone. He'd like to take a look at the city from the roof, see what the destruction looks like in the light of day. 

The line of destruction is mostly to the north, barely visible from his window. It looks like the panic was mostly well contained, too - still, the streets don't have nearly as many people on them as normal this time of morning, and the national guard seem to have shifted to 'maintain law and order' mode.

Well, that's sure to be a little annoying for any sneaky types up to no good. A category which doesn't include him, given all the good he was up to last night and looks likely to continue to be up to, given the cult situation. Still, those lawful types do tend to jump to conclusions, so he'll have to keep an eye out.

He lounges around on the roof for a good long while, enjoying the morning sun. Eventually he heads back down through the window, padding through the room and out the door to see what kind of breakfast services they have here. He'll bring some back up for the others so they can eat and go over last night in private, once everyone's awake. 

He finds Temperance already up and with a new set of clothes. She winks at him.

He grins at her, "Morning," he whispers cheerfully as he comes back through the door, "I brought some breakfast." He holds up the bag of pastries he'd bought, opening it up to offer her one. 

A lanky arm reaches over Joy's shoulder and snatches a pastry from the bag. No one's sure how long he's been awake, but Marcel seems to have appeared out of thin air at the presence of pastries. "Mm. Pâtisseries pour le petit-déjeuner. Merci beaucoup." He munches quietly on his breakfast, silently crossing the room to look out the window.

He receives a jump and a startled-cat yowl for his trouble. The scare also makes the fur on his tail and ears puff up. He pouts at Marcel's back. 

Temperance is more startled by Joy's reaction and then notices Marcel. "Don't do that!"

Marcel looks at her blankly. "Do what?"

"Sneak up on people with are supposedly to be in good terms with. Specially, if these people are any degree of cat." She waves at Joy and then Tama at her feet.

Tama looks up at Marcel with great dignity and then raises a paw, slowly extending her claws.

Marcel snorts. "Desole, but you would have better luck asking an otyugh to take a bath. C'est ma nature. Besides..." He pauses, popping the rest of his pastry into his mouth and looking amusedly at Tama's display. "You don't last in this line of work if you're afraid of getting scratched. I've got claws of my own."

"It's fine, Temps," Joy settles down on the floor at the foot of the bed, crosslegged, and digs into his own pastry. He smiles up at Marcel, "I'm definitely all the way awake, now." 

...he glances around the room, "Pennie still asleep?"

Temperance sits on the floor besides him. Tama curls up on her lap.

Pennie appears to still be asleep.

"Well, she was pretty badly injured yesterday," Joy shrugs. "If that didn't wake her up... I vote we leave her to rest for now and go see if the mayor has any news for us."

"Sounds like the best course of action," Temperance says adjusting Pennie's covers. "We can leave a note for her explaining where we went."

"Ouais, that would be best. I already gave the mayor a cursory report last night, but it would be best to fill you all in in his presence. Allons-y."

Joy gets to his feet, polishing off his pastry, and offers Temperance a hand up before following Marcel out the door. 

Temperance accepts the hand and composes a note to leave on the nightstand.

The city seems to be recovering, a bit, more people daring to go out and about.

Well, life needs to go on. Giant reptiles or not.

The part near the mayor's office was less damaged than the outskirts, being closer to city center. City hall seems a bit busy.

And is the mayor himself in evidence? 

They can get through to him if they're cheerful enough about definitely being here on official business.

Did someone call for Cheerful? That's his middle name!

His first name, actually. He doesn't actually have a middle name.

At any rate, he will happily chat their way through any guards or secretaries between them and the mayor. They're here to see him about the attack last night, they were the adventurers he'd been hosting who then joined in against the dragon, they just need to follow up on a few things, he'd told them to come by around this time this morning? He hopes they haven't caught the man sleeping, after such an exhausting night. How many people here pulled overnight shifts anyway? They ought to send someone to that bakery down the street for some breakfast, their pastries are divine, and they're very friendly there too, he's pretty amazed by the indomitable spirit the citizens of Jackson seem to have taken in the face of such a terrifying attack. A dragon rampage, in this day and age! Someone's definitely got to get to the bottom of what caused that madness. 

He charms basically everyone - they absolutely should get pastries, yeah, but they're currently a bit slammed still... It was more 'getting woken up in the middle of the night' than a full overnight shift for a lot, but they've actually already sent a lot of those people home - work hours are chaotic right now, though, everyone's coming in on their off day and it's just a mess... Mayor's right this way, there's a gap in his schedule right now - hopefully he's not sleeping, though the poor man would deserve it...