The Negotiants
The Negotiants are an arcane mosaic of crystalline tesserae which float in utterly chaotic arcs and corkscrews, yet conforming to some kind of abstract symmetry. Surrounding the crystals is a clockwork of nothing more than spun glass and refracted light. Thinly tangled loops and thorns and recurved spires whir along without any immediately obvious purpose.
They are found inside the Traders Vault, and are ambassadors of the Arbiter in Darkness. The agreement they have made with the Trader Guild grants Traders the use of Starlight for Lunar based magics. It is not disclosed what the Negotiants and the Arbiter get in the deal.
When studied: You regard the Negotiants; the impersonal benefactors and jailers, the great cornucopia and burden of the Trader Guild. They are the manifestation of the deal struck between House Turmar and the extraplanar entity known as Arbiter in Darkness -- magical power for never touching the Plane of Probability. Their name, or 'Tutors' as some call them, is a polite term for what they truly are: ruthless guarantors poised to take away the boon as quickly as it was granted.
No doubt there is more to the great machine's true nature, albeit out of your reach.
When focused: You focus your magical senses on the Negotiants. The device is drawing Lunar mana around itself like a swirling white cloak, sifting all of it through fractals that taunt your mathematical intellect. Despite the impenetrability of its workings, this is evidently a wonder of Fabrication and Noematics magic. You cannot tell anything else. Roundtime: 9 sec.
MORE INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINABLE FROM TRADERS INTERACTING WITH IT.
When Non-Traders attempt to ask it a question:
You perceive the Negotiants' polyphonous, telepathic message in fluent Gamgweth, "You weren't part of the agreement, ."
The Negotiants chorus into your thoughts in fluent Gamgweth, "You weren't part of the agreement, ."
Your mind hears the Negotiants' many-voiced, symphonic message in fluent Gamgweth, "You weren't part of the agreement, ."
The Loophole Effect
Appeared in the Banquet Room of the Traders Guild on the 8th month of Skull Cleaver, in the Year of the Bronze Wyvern, 428 years, 281 days since the Victory of Lanival the Redeemer, after Dehvra Valdish, Researcher for the Trader Guild, attempted to find a loophole in the contract with the Negotiants and the Arbiter. Starcrashers and Zenzics invaded the city and appeared in the banquet hall as well.
With them were the Contradiction and The Equation.
Contradiction: A growing mass of shadow and light, space appears warped around the crackling contradiction. As if looking at a broken mirror, you see reflections of shattered perspective and prismatic hues split from raw starlight and inky darkness, rippling against the far walls of the room. Frost drips from the air around the contradiction's border and sizzles as it hits the ground, which ripples and groans from unseen forces. You think you see yourself looking back at you, and feel the room dimensions shift.
The Equation: Arranged in a semi-circle, you see an expansive series of equations sketched in crystalline starlight. A dizzying array of building complexity, you have a hard time making sense of it all, or how it relates. You make out a number of defined terms, including "Mean Frequency of Energized Crauyarin", "Variation in Resumption Recall", and "Price of Steel vs. Xibar Phase".
When their business was finished: The Negotiants begin to whirl chaotically, and your head is filled with their crystalline voice echoing, "All possibilities have been contained". Their crystalline form rapidly retracts into nothingness and suddenly, they vanish!
Some information could be gleaned from those who saw what befell next. They spoke of Dehvra stuck in the many possibilities she created in attempting to find the loophole, as though she were a series of after images.
Rafano says, "In the first, her face was bloodied. She was silently screaming, beating her fists against an invisible wall. Then she vanished."
Rafano says, "In the second, her robes were torn. She was running in a panic. She glanced back over her shoulder, then tripped and fell on the ground. All this was silent . . . only images.
Rafano painfully says, "I'm just now remembering that they extracted her implanted crystals from her . . . one at a time . . ." Velenda says, "Avtalia Array."