Swamped

"Hang on," Rivers says suddenly. "Can't we just drop off whatever Pubert was supposed to deliver to them? Not like it's going to be much use to us."

"I'm pretty sure that was just a ruse," Pubert says. "It's just a lodestone that changes colors - a little unusual, but not really valuable. Supposedly they were willing to pay a good price, boss thought it was for some festival or something, but I think they were just trying to lure the wagon out."

Yvonne looks thoughtful.

"That sounds familiar..."

Another arrow strikes the wagon.

"...but I guess now's not the time to get into it. I think they do really want the lodestone, though. At the least, it's more valuable than Pubert here realizes, and our pursuers might know that."

"Might be something," Corvus says. "If this was an ambush, then they won't call it off for the lodestone, even if it's the main thing they want. But if we threatened to smash it, that might get them to negotiate."

"Or we could just drop it," you say. "They might not call off the whole ambush, but they'd probably split up and send at least a few of their members off to, well, wherever they plan to take it."

Another arrow interrupts.

"We really don't have a lot of time to argue about this," Corvus sighs. "I say we make the threat."

"Great. And how do you suggest we tell it to them without being shot at?" Rivers asks. "Do they even understand our language?"

"Probably?" Pubert says, cautiously. "I didn't handle the price negotiations, though, so I suppose it could have been done in a different tongue."

"Good point," Corvus sighs. "Okay, fine, I'll take a minute and if nobody can think of a safe way to tell them what we're threatening to do, we just drop the stone and hope for the best."