Falling into one of the tunnels sounds like a great idea. Or perhaps Xir'ain could investigate the farm just in time to see Balon come smash down the houses and kill/enslave/eat the locals. Either way, if their first encounter will be a fight, I'm not sure where to go from there. Balon obviously isn't the type to back down, since he conjured a plague knowing fully well that there would some terrible punishment for it. So I guess the next question to ask is whether Xir'ain would be willing to negotiate if he was either matched blow for blow, or defeated. This early on in the RP, the keepers just haven't gained enough power to be capable of defeating powerful rogue beings with impunity. 

You know, something that I've been wondering is what those eels actually do get to eat. Do they just survive purely off of eating the rocks in those tunnels?