"Thank you."

Her presence fades, and the guards enter the room to take the younger Lamm into custody. 

She can be a prim and professional giant fox and give a slightly cheeky report - and update her party too - reveling in the amusement at how disconcerted the guard officers are! They presumably know her by rumor as the one who provided some temporary communication help and all.

Actually, does her party need help or are things contained over there? She did get the guy, and couldn't have done so alone, so, mission success.

As it happens, one of the guards has the same question. He takes out a familiar illusion-magic device, taps the back of the pewter badge, and speaks into it. 

"Bridge squad, are you listening? We've captured the necromancer. What's your situation, do you still need backup?"

"Hold on, which pocket did I put the damn thing in?" Bridge squad replies, somewhat muffled. They continue more clearly. "There we go. Uh, no urgent need for backup, but could one of you contact the nearest orphanage? We've got about a dozen kids here who need a better place to go. Four of the empty sollies are in custody with us, one undead shark dead again, one crocodile escaped into the river."

Yeah something needs to be done about the poor little buggers. Being a fox at them probably won't help, and she feels a bit - squeamish? Something in that vein - about the idea of involving herself much because she's definitely not going to stay involved and. Is very much not and doesn't want to be a mom.

...She piggybacks through the connection to spawn a scrying sensor over there and have a look herself, though. Probably she can drop some gold and toys wherever they end up and that'll assuage her guilt. You can't help everyone but you can help those who are right in front of you!

The kids are not looking any less downtrodden and dirty and mistreated than they did through her scry map. One of them is crying and clinging on to Caron's leg, most of them just seem shocked that their life as they knew it has been overturned, and one with a blotchy scar on his forehead is repeatedly jabbing the manacled human who was in the office upstairs with a pitchfork while Oriana pretends not to notice.

"...I'll be back later, promise," she says to the room at large, and then makes use of the remaining duration of Sinnah's Fly to go back to the raid location.

(After double checking that the necro guy is definitely secure, and adding a second tracking-mark.)

Handing out candy is always a good opening move with kids, right? She has some. Sure, she's a giant animal right now but she's speaking with a normal human voice and doing stuff to make herself look bright and heroic, more Nirvana than Owlbear! A nice distracting not-quite-a-cartoon showing a harmless adventure story might help too.

(She's ripping off Avatar: The Last Airbender, what plot beats she can remember of it, making stuff up to fill in the gaps. The adventurers are running away from the evil fire people! They're in a cool pyramidal city to ask for help! They're going to see the King! The King is crazy and puts them through a bunch of tests!)

The candy is cautiously accepted, with a little confusion at first about why she's not just giving it to the most obedient of their number. Some stuff their mouths immediately, others take a tiny bite or lick of their treats and then tuck them away to savor later. 

The illusion is much more of a success, fascinating the crowd of children, and soon she has a couple of extra orphans who had hid during the arrest coming out of the woodwork to join the audience of her show. 

"You're very good with children," Caron says over the party link. 

"The best I can usually do is just scare them off from causing trouble."

Vavana doesn't say anything, but she does keep sneaking looks at the show herself from a distance. 

"I'm really not. I couldn't stand doing this more than, like, at whim. The show is just - part of some plays I saw once..."

Hey Tamamo, Vavana seems kind of kitsune-like sometimes. Think about it?

(Ehhhhhh if she died and I got her soul right now, why not make her a kitsune, but she's not and I don't.)

No response though. Dang "intervention budgets".

King Bumi speaks in riddles! King Bumi makes them face a monster that turns out to be a tame pet! King Bumi makes them fetch a key from under a waterfall!

King Bumi turns out to actually be a friend of one of the party from before he got frozen in ice for 100 years, and was pranking them the whole time!

"Getting frozen in ice doesn't really work like a Flesh to Stone, does it?"

Whisper: "It does not. He has some sort of - legendary thing going on, though. It was a kids' play... Is someone from an orphanage coming? I have something I need to go do later. And I can't really - adopt anyone - I'd hate it if I had to watch kids for longer than an hour."

It's a little embarrassing to mention talking to ghosts.

"We've sent someone, it shouldn't be long."

It turns out to take almost forty minutes, but then people from two separate Midland orphanages show up in quick succession. 

One of them approaches the party while the other goes to tell the children how the orphanage system works, and seems to assume Weiss is an animal companion. 

"You're in luck, thanks to the crown's support we do have the beds to spare, unlike every orphanage in Cheliax." Hopefully a little flattery and obesience towards her agents will encourage the new queen to keep her husband's funding coming.

The kids also get to watch the next episode then, which involves the gaang deliberately getting captured so they can lead a breakout from an evil prison! The prisoners are too demoralized to do anything for a while, but eventually realize how much they outnumber the guards, and the gaang get them some coal which they can use magic on, and they rise up and take over the prison and everyone escapes! (She's not really thinking about the politics or optics of this. It's the next episode, okay! So it goes next!)

She has, by now, handed out more candy and non-candy treat food like fries, in varieties. These ones are illusions, and accordingly more fanciful. (They still taste good and technically contain nutrition; She checked, once, and it turns out if she spends ten times the energy illusory food can act like Created food. Not worth it to sustain herself, at all, but others, yes.)

"Here," a full picnic basket falls out of her tail fluff with a flourish, "If this isn't eaten in a day or so it'll vanish."

That second episode does get more rapt attention from the urchins, given some of the parallels to the situation they had been in. (And Vavana is wondering whether the people in the story are the kineticists she's heard vague rumors about, people who act as living conduits to the elemental planes.)

"...thanks?" The orphanage assistant says, to the apparently magic talking giant fox.

"You're welcome!" 

The prison episode came to an end a bit ago.

Beeeg stretch.

"I have something to follow up on, I'll talk to you all later?" She asks the rest of the party.

"Go ahead. Good work today. We can handle the debrief if you like."

Back to that abandoned building!

"That guy and his father and half a dozen associates are all in guard cells right now. Fuckin' necromancers... I don't think I even got your name, miss ghost. I'm Weiss. I'm not the best at this, but maybe I can write down anything you know about his crimes and I can testify to it?"

"Zellara Esmeranda. You think the courts will care for the word of a dead Varisian?"

"Delivered by me under a Truthtelling, maybe. I've been making noise. And you miss every shot you don't take. Or something else- If you have any possessions left to will, or want to send last letters..."