Swamped

In an effort to work out your next move, you remind yourself of what's happened so far.

As a gesture of goodwill, you greeted them by planting your lance in the desert sands, indicating you had no desire to fight. They responded by firing several bolts at you, only half of which you were able to dodge.

So you pulled your lance back out, knocked one of them off his desert-horse with it, and are currently pointing the end of it at his throat.

They don't seem happy about this, and you don't particularly blame them, but most of them have at least put down their crossbows. So, that's progress.

"Do any of you speak Common?" you ask. You get several unintelligible replies back. Someone seems to point at the man you've got at the point of your spear; you glance at him, and withdraw it ever so slightly.

He holds a hand to his ear and nods, then makes the motions of talking and shakes his head. Then he makes some gestures that look like writing and nods.

So he can understand what you're saying, but he can only speak his own tongue. But he can write in Common, it seems.

"Write in the sand with your finger, then."

He scrawls out as best he can.

LIKE THIS

Perhaps he hasn't mastered punctuation. Well, you can always ask him to clarify if need be.

"Yes, that will do. Why did you attack us?"

He takes a while to consider this.

YOU TRESPASS IN OUR LANDS

How should you respond?