3rd of Heat

I pick up this log as we ate a leisurely meal with Tharni. And though it was against his order’s rules, he believed has had unofficial permission to discuss certain topics with us.

While the rest of us settled into our meal of fish and assorted vegetables, Blackhawk seemed eager to start in with the questions. “Why is the Navigator’s Guild being so helpful to us?” Tharni responded “It is not strictly taboo for him to speak with us, and the guild feels that it is important as both our guild and your company will play a role during a coming junction in history. It will be a testing of sorts and the more we know about each other, perhaps that more we can relay on each other. The Navigators plan to take an active stance in the coming struggle, as an active elemental school, they know what is at stake if the wars flare up again.

Blackhawk pressed on, “Was Skellius aware that we (the company) might be special and that is why he sacrificed himself.” But Tharni was not aware of Skellius’ mindset at the time of his death. But Raven jumped in, “It is not likely Skellius saw us as something special. It may have been that he knew he was dying and at the end he tried to save as many as possible. Although it is unfathomable what the elementals may have been thinking.”

Blackhawk pursued his line of questioning as a point seemed to be bothering him that so many seemed to know our fate and yet we do not. Tharni tried to reassure him by saying, “Our guild has the means to see many possible futures that then allow us to choose the best of these futures. And where the elementals are considered, they are very neutral, and do not care for the matters of men. They do have a political structure that resembles a feudal system, but would that have come into play here is unknown.” Tharni then went on to answer some of our questions about the amulets. “Elementals can be summoned without the amulets but only for a short time period. The amulet just represents the bond between navigator and elemental but it is the wealth the navigators deliver to the elemental that purchases the services.”

Raven asked why there are no female navigators. Tharni could only answer that question from his own point of view as a male navigator. “I use the force of my will to bend the elemental forces to his will. Women tend to draw in the elemental magic and weave it. This is different from how Druids work from balance, they do not draw the power into themselves but instead call on powers that perform services. There are no teachers of elemental magic anymore, although the Navigators use a form of elemental magic. The example of the fire elementalists being smashed, not for being evil but perceived as too powerful, taught future student to keep their power to themselves.”

Other information we gathered during the meal. The enchantment on the amulets is not broken upon the death of the navigator just the bond it represents. The amulet the Foxes carried would not have influenced elemental in any manner. We discussed the possibility of summoning Dairo, but was told the expense and power needed to get Dairo’s attention would be excessive. We found that no amulets are unaccounted for except those recently missing.

The conversation then shifted to how secure the Navigator guild might be to direct attack. Tharni assured us that there are 70 masters with 40 available for defense, a substantial guard of well trained marines and many bound beings and in the Bliss inner they are very safe.

With the meal completed, Tharni gave us a continued tour of the Navigator Headquarters. He lead us into what seemed a large amphitheater. We entered near the base of the structure and floating above our heads was a giant sphere of suspended water. IT measured nearing 200 feet across and contained a wide variety of sealife swimming in it. Initially it was hard to determine if the water was actually suspended or contained in glass. Our questions were answered when we saw a dolphin ‘surface’ along the side of the sphere, leap into the air and splash back in. Blackhawk approached and passed his hand into the water, and Tharni assured us that we could swim in it, but it is disorientating. Tharni explained that this was created using Navigator magic.

He then took us through a chamber that contained plants growing in just water. Raven was quite intrigued by the concept and questioned Tharni at length on the magic involved, but apparently this chamber was the source of the vegetables that we ate earlier.

We then were led past the Navigator shipyards where we saw teams of navigators carving their intricate charms across numerous ships. They have other shipyards but this is their largest.

He then led us back to our rooms and told us we have the afternoon free. He was off to receive his ‘punishment’ for tell us so much information. He told us not to worry as he was likely to just be confined to his room.

We continued to wander, with the instructions to just not to pass through any locked doors. They threw us one more feast and Stephen volunteered to provide some music.

4th Heat

In the morning we were led to the docks and a ship preparing to take us back to Bliss. We were surprised to see Tharni serving as master on our voyage. It seems part of his punishment is to leave the Headquarters for a short time. The voyage was uneventful and upon reaching Bliss, Tharni bid us farewell. He tossed us two moneybags, a large one for Moira and the guild, and a smaller one for us. We tried to say we did nothing that deserved such payment, but he said the Navigators contracted us for our time so we could relate our tale during their remembrance ceremony.

We dropped off the guild’s share with Moira and she had no pressing business with us. We then went to our rooms to discovered that the Navigators paid us 500 gold for our time, coming to 83 gold apiece.

While in the room, Martin came by and delivered an envelope. Stephen took the envelope and saw that it was addressed to the “Foxes” and sealed with wax and a crescent moon seal. Inside was a folded parchment, inscribed by a fine Elven hand, “I grieve for your loss ­ G” We made the assumption that this was from Gelmeir. We headed out to Griffon Tower to see if he was in residence, but the tower remained dark. We then decided to head over to the Elfsong for supper and on the was Stephen went off and checked around to see if anyone saw Gelmeir in town. We gathered again around a table in the Elfsong, Stephen related that an Elven noble and his retainers had delivered the message, but then departed again. We had just started to discuss the ramifications of recent developments when we spot Jaden and Lia making their way down the staircase in the back of the hall. We call them over and set to filling each other in on the past few days.