Idalium Game 64: The Auction at Sea

Session date: Monday, December 5, 2016
Game date: Saturday, March 29, 209 to Saturday, April 5, 209

PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 12689/17000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 14207/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 2, hp 6, xp 2941/4000
Adrien, Fighter 1, hp 4, xp 1669/2000

Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4668/8000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 1420/1500

After pulling off the dungeon heist of the campaign in the last session, it was now time to sell the spoils! As luck would have it, it was right on time for the annual magical auction in Idalium, jointly organized by the Adventurers' Guild and a trading house catering to wealthy collectors, and held each year around the Spring Equinox. After the unfortunate events of last year's auction, this year it was being held on a merchant ship that was anchored some way out of the harbor, for better security. The adventurers made arrangements with the Guild and the Runcible Trading House to have the idol and associated paraphernalia transported to the ship in advance of the auction.

The day of the auction, the party assembled at a specified dock at the river that runs along the west edge of the City of Idalium. There, a small barge ferried them downstream south, past the tanneries, blacksmiths, and other industrial uses that lined the river, past the city walls, and out into the sea proper. As they left the mouth of the river, they could see the large ship waiting, with many other barges and dinghies clustered around it, having ferried many other auction attendees over.

The adventurers boarded the ship and entered the large cabin that was set up for the auction. Musicians played softly in a corner, and light refreshments were laid out. Many familiar faces were present: Lady Mary Jameson, the young and extremely wealthy aristocrat seeking mysterious and occult artifacts; the Baroness Millicent Trenevant, with whom the party were on friendly terms, having once retrieved her stolen goods; the nouveau riche Vincent Patrenzi. And many of their fellow adventurers were here: Rugger's Raiders and Shorty's Sirens, as well as their erstwhile retainer Father Jed and his troupe of reformed bandits. And "Sallies Forth" were here: an adventuring party made up of "Psycho Sally" (formerly of Shorty's Sirens), plus three magical duplicates. And Professor Zinn, the elderly sage, was here, and it transpired he was bidding at the bequest of Caryatid the Green (adventurer Caryatid's magical duplicate, who now lived in the dungeon and was researching all sorts of disturbing things).

To make a long story short, I conducted the auction using a modified system that I borrowed from a Call of Cthulhu scenario that I used during the previous magical auction. A prewritten chart listed which attendees would be inclined to bid on which objects, and rolls of the dice determined whether or not they would continue bidding or drop out. It is a lot of dice rolling and done too often I think it would be tedious for everyone, but as a change of pace restricted to an annual auction, I think it worked well enough, and introduced some randomness into the events of the auction.

In the end, this is how things panned out: Shorty's Sirens won the bidding for a "smoking urn", a brass bottle warm to the touch and continually emitting smoke (said to hold an imprisoned demon) and well as a set of elvish boots and cloak with an intriguing shimmering pattern and silent soles designed to aid in concealment. Jed acquired a protective scroll against magical influence for 25,000 silver shekels. The party bid 11,500 shekels on a set of gold, copper, and tin medallions, but these turned out to be nonmagical trinkets. Gulleck was interested in a suit of wonderfully crafted dwarven plate armor, but so was Rugger, and the party eventually dropped out of the bidding war at 61,500 shekels. Baroness Trenevant acquired some carved ivory divination sticks from the far east and a golden ring engraved with a design of intertwined serpents. Caryatid spent most of the party's money to bid on a "wand of unpredictable magic", an 11" magical wand of rowan wood, whimsically carved and painted in various colors. Vincent Patrenzi won the bidding on a disturbing human skull, with the top cut away and the interior inlaid with silver to form a cup.

As for the party's own entry into the auction, Lady Mary, Baroness Trenevant, and Vincent Patrenzi all bid on this exotic and imposing idol. Bidding started at 125,000 shekels, and the three bid it up until Lady Mary prevailed at 136,500 silver shekels.

The party used their winnings to pay for the wand and medallions that they acquired, and returned to the Rusty Lantern to celebrate their winnings.

A week later, they reunited for a short delve into the dungeon. The first order of business was to deliver to the gnomes their half share of the proceeds. Of course, on the way, Caryatid couldn't help but test out her new "wand of unpredictable magic". As soon as they were in the dungeon, Caryatid drew forth the wand, and pointed it down the buried street into the darkness of an old city plaza. She felt the wand's power twitching, and reaching into it with her mind, she released the chaotic power and let it manifest. A bead of glowing light like a burning ember shot forth from the tip of the wand and streaked through the dark. There was a brief glimpse of the stone fountain in the plaza and the four statues surrounding it, and then there was a loud whooof of fire and a gust of heat that staggered them on their feet. The plaza was briefly brilliantly illuminated by the expanding fireball and then all was dark and quiet again. The party excitedly moved forward into the plaza to see the impact of the wand's magic, and in the light of Simon's sword they found that the fountain now lay in rubble, the four statues knocked away from it, lying in several pieces on the cobblestones of the square.

"Excellent!" everyone cheered, and then moved on to meet the gnomes. The gnomes were overjoyed to see their friends and even more so to see their large bag of gold that they delivered. An impromptu party was held in the gnomes' cozy little hideaway. Little seedcakes were eaten, and gnomish tea and ale were drunk. Little gnomes played little tunes on tiny little lutes and tambourines.

Well-fed and well-rested after the party, the adventurers still had some time so they decided to explore a bit more of the second level. They used their new shaft to descend to the room from which they had stolen the idol. The eerie green flames had vanished from the torch sconces on the walls, and the cold fear that had pervaded the room was gone. The adjacent rooms, that had been shrouded in a perpetual magical darkness, were now normal, and the darkness of the dungeon yielded to the cool light of Simon's magical sword. The adventurers proceeded to an apartment at the north end of the level. In the apartment was a stone statue of a woman, and an inscription on her clothing read "I shall guard my treasure until I am wed." Well, in the recent poring over of character sheets, Gulleck's player realized that Gulleck had been carrying around a "stone ring" that they had acquired many sessions ago in a "honeymoon suite". So, off they went to try it out!

Unfortunately, in the bedroom containing the statue, four hobgoblins were already present, examining the inscription on the statue for themselves. They party bantered with the goblins, and the banter turned a bit aggressive, but the party walked out of the room rather than fighting the goblins, whom they have mostly remained on friendly terms with so far (although recent revelations about the origin of the goblins have made this relationship much more awkward). They went into the adjoining room, which contained a fresco on the wall of a jester that would magically move and speak when approached. When they entered, however, they found several giant centipedes crawling on the painting, and the jester was hysterically yelling and crying in Ancient Idalian (which no one could understand). The party took one look at this, shook their heads, and left the room. Heartless!

In the hallway, they encountered four of the berserker "hippies" who lived not far from this area of the dungeon. Caryatid remembered only too well being strangled to death by their fellows, and the party conversed lightly, to avoid disturbing the hippies' mood. Eventually, they parted ways and the hippies entered the room with the jester. The adventurers listened with barely disguised glee and they heard the hobgoblins mock the hippies with sneering condescension. This enraged the hippies, and the two groups fell into a savage battle in the doorway between the two rooms. Gulleck quickly led the adventurers down the hallway around a corner, where they re-entered the bedroom with the statue. While the hobgoblins and hippie berserkers fought in the next room, Gulleck ran to the statue and popped the stone ring onto its finger. A vertical seam suddenly appeared in the torso of the statue and it opened up like a pair of doors, revealing a shelf containing several pieces of jewelry (two bracelets and a headdress) and a golden ring. He removed the stone ring, causing the statue to close again, hurled it into a dusty corner of the room, and bolted back out before the hobgoblins could take notice.

They made it back to the Rusty Lantern without incident. The bracelets and headdress they sold for 2,000 gold darics, earning enough experience points to raise Brother Chase to the second level (allowing him to cast a clerical spell each day!). The golden ring turned out to be a magical ring of invisibility, much like the one Caryatid owned. Quite a successful session!