"Not seeing the Lawful reasoning for that.  The point is that you don't pay Zon-Kuthon the five gold pieces.  Once that part is settled, Civilization then decides how much it doesn't like Xovaikain continuing to exist, and how much it wants everything else it could buy using the opportunity-cost of the resources to destroy Zon-Kuthon, and takes its own maximal option.  This would plausibly include Civilization deleting itself in order to delete Zon-Kuthon and Xovaikain, but only if there wasn't some better alternative to rescue everybody in Xovaikain without destroying Civilization."

"Not seeing the Lawful reasoning for that.  The point is that you don't pay Zon-Kuthon the five gold pieces.  Once that part is settled, Civilization then decides how much it doesn't like Xovaikain continuing to exist, and how much it wants everything else it could buy using the opportunity-cost of the resources to destroy Zon-Kuthon, and takes its own maximal option.  This would plausibly include Civilization deleting itself in order to delete Zon-Kuthon and Xovaikain, if that was even an option in the first place, but only if there wasn't some better alternative to rescue everybody in Xovaikain without destroying Civilization."