Mmm. [He doesn't seem particularly up to explaining, but he will anyway.]

Well we only ran into them, because they tried to steal our amulets and the crystal powering this city. The city they're from, Briarlan, they use something else to power their city and it hasn't been working for them. So they tried to steal from us and there was this big retrieval mission.

[There's a look of dread on his face.] I was part of that expedition too. In the end, we did get the crystal back and now we currently have a trade deal with them. [He doesn't sound too please at the idea.]