>>6348169>>6348195>>6348290>>6348320You lower the hammer. The creature goes still, its vertical-slitted eyes locked on the pearly band in your other hand.
Slowly, deliberately, you point north with the hammer's haft. Then you point to the collar. Then you point to the creature itself. You sheath the hammer, holding the collar out—a clear offer.
The serpent-being stares. It seems to weigh its terror against some deep-seated instinct. Finally, it gives a single, sharp nod of its wedge-shaped head.
You follow it, leaving the riverbank with a hundred of your most capable warriors. The creature moves swiftly over the ash, leading you northeast for hours until you crest a rise.
Below, nestled in a canyon where the black sands give way to grey stone, is a village. Huts of woven reeds and mud hug a thermal spring, steam rising into the air. Dozens of the serpent-people move between them. They see you instantly.
A chorus of hostile hisses erupts. Warriors scramble, raising spears tipped with sharpened black stone. Your century of hardened survivors tightens ranks, shields locking, blades bared. You outnumber their fighters two to one.
Before blood can be spilled, a figure emerges from the largest hut. An elderly serpent-woman, her scales dulled with age, leaning on a staff. She moves to the front of her trembling people and looks at you, not with fear, but with weary recognition.
Her voice is dry, like scales over sand, and the words are archaic, but unmistakably your tongue.
"Humans," she rasps. "Should not be here."
Her gaze flicks to your guide, to the pearl collar still in your grip, then back to your face. There is history in her eyes, and a quiet, terrible certainty.
What do you do?
> They are hostile, they attacked you at the river, and they know of a treaty you didn't. Eliminate the threat, take their village and its life-giving spring for your people. Let the Ash-King see your resolve.> Hold your ground. "We are here because we were told to be. Speak of the treaty. Speak of Ssass. Speak of the Temple City. Or we will take the answers from the ruins of your homes."> Lower your weapons. You have leverage: the captive, the collar, and superior force. Offer a trade: safe return of their warrior and the collar, in exchange for information, safe passage, and an end to hostilities.> You are a heir to a sunken kingdom. Draw the Crown of Unyielding Stone from your pack. Display it to her. "We are not just 'humans.' We are the last of a signatory people. Take us to your master."> Write in 
