<strong>A Village in the Canopy - Kelcis's Home</strong><br/><br/>The saurian alpha responded to Eshalu's answering threat first with open (though not quite slack-jawed) surprise and then, gradually, grim disappointment. "I suppose that they cannot always be wrong," he said gloomily. "Just as well, I suppose, that they deal with you after all. One can only expect so much from barbarians."<br/><br/>So saying, he turned his attention back to the group as a whole. Some portion of his focus, though, remained on Eshalu, partly from her proximity and partly, no doubt, from the lingering threat she present. "I have no true authority to pass judgement on you for your trespasses on our land, your destruction of the beast which you killed, or your theft from our gardens. You committed all of these crimes in ignorance, no doubt, and I have argued on behalf of other such criminals in the past. But I will not do so for you."<br/><br/>"However, as I believe we all understand, you are not lost travelers in need of shelter and protection. You are scouts for what I can only presume is an invasion. The wisest course of action, perhaps, would be to see you all dead here and prepare myself for whatever punishment such defiance of authority would bring. You will all be dead within a few months, but that is plenty of time for you to sow all sorts of trouble." He waved a clawed hand dismissively. "But I will not do this, either. Even if I did not think it would cost me my life to do so, your arrival is too great of an opportunity to pass up."<br/><br/>"Regardless of what you may think, we know little of the island's mysteries. All those who did perished with its rising, and many others with them. We and it are branches of the same tree, but it is hidden from our minds just as we are hidden from its. This is a blessing as much as a curse, as I am sure that you can guess. It hates all things which walk upon two legs. One way or another, it will be your undoing." Kelcis spoke the words rather matter-of-factly, either not recognizing or not caring about the dire implications they held.<br/><br/>"You may choose to believe me or not, but that matters little. What does matter is that I can make your life much easier in what time you have left. So let me ask you: what is it that you seek here? If it does not act against us too greatly, I will do my best to aid you in pursuing it, so long as you likewise agree to meet with the matriarchs and cause no great trouble in doing so."<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">More "Negotiations"</div><div class="spoiler_body">Social rolls might be applicable here to verbally outmaneuver Kelcis, convince him that you're agreeing to his terms with no intentions of doing so, and so on. His social skills, as I've emphasized, aren't great. But he will be suspicious enough to resist.<br/><br/>Also, Reliyian is quite certain that there's some magic here, but it's muted to the point of being nearly non-existent. And it isn't quite here. Somewhere in the village, perhaps? </div></div>