[Pepper studies Sharon for a long moment, trying to first place her and then figure out whether new arrivals could be so new as to miss the bone creature attack. She comes down on the side of yes, and proceeds to explain.]

A couple weeks ago, a pair of creatures attacked the town's market square. There were a lot of casualties, and while the creatures were eventually brought down, a lot of people were throwing around a lot of very different sorts of firepower, and some energy weapons as well.

I was worried that they'd gone after the town again, and someone had brought out something really big.