Kib can't so much flee. He can shriek - he can lurch in the direction of the nearest house and try the door - it's locked. He can amble briskly...
He can break into a run when the snake gains on him and fall flat on his face.
And he can get eaten up.
And it's too bright too bright too bright and he flings his arm over his eyes.
So they set up starting conditions and by turn seventeen Kib has incited religious warfare, had several different people's children held hostage, and, indeed, deployed an imaginary bioweapon.
Well. He can set up an instrument in his headquarters that allows reading thoughts osanwë has coded private - a necessary measure to protect peoples' children from being held hostage - and force an unreliable agent of his into a marriage with the threat of execution so he can take advantage of her new husband's ability to read her emotions at any distance.
Kib introduces the concept of the suicide bomb to get rid of the device - oaths can control thoughts just fine, right, if you swear them that way? possibly in a language you don't know? to get them past the mindreading long enough...? - and sneaks someone in to take advantage of that death-in-case-of-rape feature that Elves have and now the unreliable agent is a suborned widow.
The only one of these to genuinely rattle Maitimo is the oath; he stares at Kib in fascinated horror for a moment before saying, slowly, that yes oaths can control thoughts just fine and all his operatives should just swear to want whatever he wants them to want, shouldn't they, that would be efficient.
Well. That depends on what they think Maitimo wants them to want, doesn't it. If you're going to leave an opening like that Kib can have all sorts of fun. Point of order, what happens if they have inconsistent information on the subject?