It's pretty confusing, and I showed up late. That said, here's what I took away.

- Moon Mages (Researcher Tozu and Court Mage Miskton) approached the shard guild leader (Cialen) about arbiter and a negotiation.

- Something about an or the Arbiter, an interplanes mediator of immortal-like power. It was trying to broker a treaty of some sort.

- Cialen needed to go to the Turmar family estate in dirge and asked those who attended to escort him.

- Ysei led the way, quiet well I might add.

- There were a lot of strange going ons about about interplane creatures. Some lines of note from Cialen:
......"I suspect everyone is going to get a little worried as word spreads about the Guild entering contract negotiations with an extra planar entity."
......"The opportunities are, not entirely understood to date...That is part of why we're gathering."
......"It's true. I'm still not quite sure what golden words Veahmic has been whispering to keep that entity engaged." (regarding talks with the Aribeter)

- The being was called "Arbiter in Darkness" and was an extraplanar deity. Miskton described it as such:
....."Well. The only person I'm aware of previously who survived an encounter with it was Guildleader Tiv... and he barely did."
....."Exactly what the Arbiter is, beyond an immensely powerful entity from the Plane of Probability, isn't entirely clear."
....."But when I say powerful, I don't mean powerful like, say, one of this harbingers that has attacked recently."
..... [Cialen interjected] "I'm to understand it would be akin to asking what is a feeling. What is a thought. What is a concept."
....."Powerful more on the lines of perhaps one of the Immortals."
....."There's also a story from the steppes about some people who tried to deal with it, and were given what they asked for. Which was generally not what they wanted."
....."Though I'm sure you folks have plenty of experience with being very explicit in writing out terms."
.....Miskton says to Cialen, "Though I'm sure you folks have plenty of experience with being very explicit in writing out terms."
....."It doesn't seem to go out of its way to bother people at least, that's true."
....."And it did help save us all. But guildleader Tiv paid a heavy price for that."
....."I've not heard an update on his status for a while, but last I heard he was slowly recovering."
....."Let's see, it's been a while since I last heard it, but..."
....."One asked for strength, to support his tribe above all others. He was turned into a huge hill."
....."One asked for complete knowledge of the stars... and was given that knowledge. It left him screaming for hours, before he eventually ran off into obscurity."
....."The third one was offered a number of things by the arbiter, but turned them down. He'd suffered much in his life, but didn't ask for power to overcome it, or restoring his lost love ones from the dead, or anything like that. He just asked for the strength to finally cry and properly mourn his losses. And he was granted that, and was better off for it."
....."Who knows how accurate that story is, of course. But there aren't too many other recordings of encounters with the Arbiter."

- Cialen talked about a next step to the negotiation and took his leave of the group.

- There was some discussion among the remaining party members until a pair of starcrashers appeared.

- Attempts were made to deal with them diplomatically, but they were entirely fruitless. Eventually more forceful methods had to be employed. There were some deaths.


All in all, it's looking to be an interesting storyline.

Amazing.