maybe just have it told to the player that they should seek things by: talking to villagers.
if the player is informed of other elements of the randomization that pertain to them, like attack range and type, then why not this too?
Yes, in the game mechanics section it mentions talking to entities, and it mentions a quest having been woven into the world. It might be good to just connect those two concepts right there. I am still figuring out the way game mechanics work though
I am still thinking about a game mode where there is no fighting, and another where there is no dialogue. But I think having no dialogue and no fighting will be bad ... like there's nothing left to do. So at least one of these would have to be on.
So without dialogue, maybe at least you could buy things (which I do not have yet), otherwise there would be no point to having non-hostile creatures.
Sorry just thinking out loud. It's easy to turn game mechanics on and off, but making them actually work as a game is a different challenge.