61. A remote town asks the characters to clear humanoid lizard-creatures out of a tunnel system nearby, as they have been raiding the town. A group of the creatures were captured a few days ago, and are being held in a stockade.
The tunnels begin at the base of a hill, and soon twist downwards to a damp underground cavern system.
Assuming the characters begin the indescriminate slaughter of the poor creatures, they soon discover the women and children, and signs of a thriving lizard-creature community. Finally, one of the elder creatures who can speak the language of humans in this area is brought forward and begs the slaughter to stop (he has learned by hiding near the human community and listening for many years). If the characters take the time to listen, it turns out that they claim to be peaceful creatures who have lived in these tunnels for hundreds of years. They have kept to themselves until now, as their food stocks have been depleted - the fish supply in their underground river is growing less and less with each passing season.
Their first trip out was to visit the human town nearby to attempt to trade for food, but when they tried trading with the humans their contact party was attacked and captured.
Returning to the village, the characters disciver the villagers natural fear and hatred of the creatures does not allow them to believe this story, despite it being true. The captured creatures are without their leader, who was killed in the initial encounter with the town. Unfortunately he was the only one able to speak the local language (learning in the same way as the elder mentioned earlier).
The reason the fish supply has run so low is that the townspeople have dammed the river to power a flour mill. A small grate allows water to pass through, while the fish are unable to pass.
If the elder is brought to the village to attempt communication, it might be possible to help the town and the creatures to negotiate a symbiotic truce from which both will benefit - the lizard-creatures will use their great fishing ability to produce food for both communities, as well as providing repairs to the dam (which are performed far easier by amphibious creatures who can breathe underwater than by the humans), while the humans in return will farm the area to provide additional food, and will provide tools to the lizard-creatures and teach them how to use them. Neither community need be short of food ever again, and both can benefit from the expertise of the other.
Of course, the characters may simply decide to slaughter the lizard-creatures...
