Eventually some of them have made it up to the tops of the cliffs nearby and can look down on him with their gleaming yellow eyes. None of them look like the creature from the picture he was shown, but they vary a lot and they all have the same kind of gem and very similar metal armor over their heads.

"You're just a human with funny ears," says one of the ones looking down on him literally as well as metaphorically. "Are you willing to offer anything for peace or just beg us not to destroy an untrustworthy civilization of people who worship our worst enemies?"

He is silent for a couple seconds while he works out what he will do if they decide to jump on him from up there, but then he composes an answer. "I don't know what you want. I can do magic. I can talk to the people in the city, if there's anything you'd like to say to them. I could try to convert them to my religion instead but I did consider it and don't think I'd be very good at it."

"Does your religion worship people who visit strange planets to kidnap people who have never done anything to them, and turn their prisoners into abominations, and call that healing?"

"...not directly but my goddess was once mortal and her god at that time did do some interplanetary adventuring the details of which were not recorded, and he was Neutral rather than Good which can cover a multitude of errors. To be clear I don't think it was necessarily him, I just can't rule him out. It definitely wasn't Her."

"Well, it might be a step up. Look, we want the stone. If they want mercy they can give us the stone."

"The only things I know about the stone were in the book I read. It said they need it to keep the machines in their city working. Do you know if that's true or not?"

"That doesn’t sound right."

"They could use it for that."

"Yeah, but they don’t. They have it hidden somewhere. They run everything on what they mine."

"Maybe they used the stone up?"

"Oh no, that would be hilarious. I don’t think they can possibly have done that, though."

"The book could be mistaken. I don't know who to talk to who would know differently, but I can try, if it might help."

"You should talk to our leader."

"I am willing to do that."

"Are you, though. He’s big and toothy."

"If I were doing this recreationally then that might matter. I have seen big and toothy creatures before."

"You were scared to come face to face with us."

"There is only one of me. If I am killed taking unnecessary risks there is not going to be another. Talking to your leader strikes me as a necessary risk and venturing into your retreat when I can speak to you from here does not."

"Fair enough. Maybe you want to call him, then. Have you got a communicator?"

"No."

"Hmmm. Me neither but I bet we can scare up someone who does."

"I do, I can call our leader and get everyone talking. Not that there's going to be any point in it, bet the conversation'll just go 'hey, what if you don't hunt and eat the egg?' 'no, we want to eat the egg' 'cool, die' 'no, you'."

"The egg?"

"The Precursor stone. The one we want to destroy because it'll hatch into an enemy and they worship the species it'll hatch into and also the egg is a useful power source."

"...that does sound like it would be very hard to come to any kind of agreement on."

"Yeah. Still want to talk to our leader?"

"Yes please."

One of the metal heads makes a call.

"Turtleduck sky star. Gotcha. Yeah. Gonna put you on speaker so you can talk to this kinda humany-looking alien who wants to talk about peace or something. At least this one doesn't literally worship the Precursors."

"I see."

"Hello. I'm Select Blai Artigas and I am from another planet and here by accident."

"Welcome, Select Blai Artigas. We are likewise from another planet and here by accident. How may we help you?"