"That's millions of times more people than I've ever seen and I travel a lot. How much of an ongoing threat is the apocalypse beast?"

"Uh. Hasn't burned down my mountain yet. We don't really talk to outside folk anymore, communications fell, so I wouldn't know elsewhere."

"What would it be worth to you to take a couple hundred people back with you? We have steel tools to trade and we're willing to work."

" - If we can figure out how I'd do that for free, we could squeeze people in and anyone willing to carve out their own life's welcome, I'll give anyone who objects a good talking-to. But I got here by accident, my ATV can maybe fit me and two more people even if I get it working again, we'd need a vehicle able to hold that many people and I'd need to modify the shit out of it, or figure out something for multiple round trips."

Nod. "Is there anything we can do for you while you're here? Do you need anything for the repairs that we might have?"

"I think it's just outta fuel, but I can make more fuel outta really strong clear alcohol. Which I know how to do with corn, which's a grain, could probably manage with fruit. ...Look, if I find my way home, I'll try and get, I don't know, a double-decker bus or some shit, come back here and haul off as many people as we can cram in, as many times as we can swing it. Maybe someone'll figure out something to stop an apocalypse while we're at it."

"We have alcohol but it might not be the kind you want. What would it take to stop your apocalypse?"

"Don't know. Most likely the beast happened when someone screwed up on self-crafting. Some way to reverse that, though making someone less themselves is hard. Might could return their human mind, if they're don't have it anymore."

"I don't think I know anyone who'd do better at that than people from your home. I assume Carel's already tried asking if you can teach self-crafting and the fact that she's not covered in tattoos means you can't or won't. And I guess there's no safe way to figure out how your apocalypse beast would do against a god. Still feels like I'm missing some way we can help each other but I can't think of anything else."

"Yeah. Problem with self-crafting is I've never done it, and it can get mighty dangerous."

"It does sound like that. Let me know if you think of anything we can do for you."

"Knowing more about this world would help."

"Yeah? I don't know what'll be new to you, should I start with 'humans are divided into groups of people that share a language and customs' or 'Nanem borders Acarthen and Seria to the east and Avarza to the south' or what?"

"Uh, I know the first. Some explanation on what those places are would help. Also the gods, my world doesn't have those in evidence, like how do I avoid running afoul of one."

"You serve a god who's less likely to kidnap and torture people and they'll get mad if someone steals their follower, that's the only protection anyone has. Acarthen is here, that's Carel and Leora's land and people. Nanem's a nation that borders Acarthen on its inland side and has a lot less sea access. Is that the kind of thing you mean by what those places are?"

Yeah this world sucks. They're pretty sure they can do something in the vein of self protection, but, like, what.

"Pretty much. You guys wouldn't happen to have protective magic items, would you? I can probably do something really metaphorical and stretchy with like an evil eye amulet or shit, but that's iffy to rely on."

"You get magic protection by serving a god who decides to keep you safe in return."

"Great. Awesome. Just wonderful. I suppose I should be trying to avoid too much attention? ...Which might could be hard if'n I'm moving around. Ugh, I might actually want to stay in one place until I can reinvent person-craft then, or figure out the dimensional jump..."

"Yeah, I think the safest thing for you to do is stay here and try to get home before you get involved with any gods or wars or anything like that. I'd be glad to have you if you wanted to go home with me but you really don't."

"I'm really starting to see why you'd be willing to take your chances with the apocalypse beast."

"Yeah. ...We're keeping everyone waiting, it's time for lunch. Sorry about that."

Alright. Foodwards?

Yup. The food's all nice, either fresh or preserved, not half-spoiled and cooked in a hurry. They're generous with it, too, making sure the traders get as much as they want. They trade news while they eat, mostly about war and gods and how unsafe everyone is.

They express their enjoyment appropriately, and keep half an eye on the others for cues on manners.

Also listening for news potentially relevant to taking off into the distance, that should be a thing.

If he takes off into the distance he'll have to be careful of the war that's going on. It seems to be happening further inland. Maybe if he kept to the coast he could go around where most of the fighting is.