The heroes bid goodbye to Jubilost and the rest of the gnomish explorers and follow his directions South towards the lizard tribe. Located in a particularly swampy stretch of land along the Murque River, trekking there proves to be both difficult and unpleasant but eventually the party finds an island of dry land in the middle of the swamp and on it the lizardfolk have built up their village.

The low, muddy hummock protrudes from the middle of the widening river. It isn't very large, only about 150ft in diameter but it does raise up about 10' out of the muddy swamp. In addition it is surrounded by a palisade of outward-facing, sharpened wooden stakes and there is a wooden pallisade that raises up an additional 10'.

From inside the walls thin tendrils of smoke rise from a handful of mounds clustered around a ingle larger mound. The village isn't large but likely holds a couple dozen lizardfolk, although less than a dozen can be spied from observing. The rest might be out hunting or inside the mounds.

A simple wooden gate on the eastern side of the hummock seems to be the only entrance to the fortified island.

Walking up to the main entrance is obviously an option. Climbing the wall would be a DC 15 check, or a DC 30 escape artist to slip between the trunks. For infiltration a stealth check would also be needed as the walls have two guards on it watching for danger.

"Well, nobody is trying to kill us yet. I take that as a good sign. Shall we ask to talk to someone in charge?" Kael suggest after observing the village.

There's little point in skulking around if we are planning to talk to them.

Elena nodded in agreement with Kael's suggestion.  No point in skulking about when they were trying to set up a diplomatic relationship.  She adjusted the grip on her glaive slightly, trying her best to hold the long weapon in as much of a nonthreatening way as she could.

"If they're not willing to play nice, how do we go from there?"  She asked, looking around for the others reactions.  "I mean if they start throwing spears, do we back off and hope to make contact some other time?  Or do we break down the gates and...uh, neutralize them as a threat?  Do we leave and come back with our army?"  The idea clearly made Elena uncomfortable, but it was a discussion worth having.

Cara, that little bundle of positive energy, piped up from well below Elena's sightline.

"Well, maybe we can win them over with grace and charm. We're rulers, nobles even by all accounts. They have a king or a chief or something and we do too. If they are halfway reasonable maybe we can strike up a deal. And if they aren't...well I suppose that's when the army comes in, right?

For what it's worth, I vote we step on up and try a friendly greeting."

She pauses, some of the confidence draining from her voice a bit.

"I mean, its just a though, you know?"

Kael shrugs. "If they don't want to talk, I say we just leave them alone for now. Maybe we can try again later. They have certainly not done anything for us to consider attacking their village or strong-arming them into submission. That could change in the future, but we can deal with that then."

"Kael's right. We will adjust according to their reaction." Borric rode up and dismounted once they got close to their village. "No threats. But defend yourself as necessary."

Elena nodded again, somewhat relieved at the party's agreement to back off if the lizardfolk proved unfriendly.  A hostile tribe this close to Rivermarch wasn't a great situation, but that didn't mean they shouldn't make every effort to do things the diplomatic way.

"Agreed.  I forget, who here speaks draconic?"

"Caramip does, I believe. Not sure anyone about anyone else."