12/01/2021 - Auction Altercations, Difficult Doors and Criminals Captured

## Pre-auction Planning

* Ratty goes to seek out Goltorah / Moira – finds an area of the Tavern reserved for the most important people. There are three doors. One is empty. One smells like the lady who organised the auction (Lillian), one smells generally familiar – so could be Goltorah / Moira anyone else Ratty’s seen.
* Blagden sends Ratty to Bayul, Galdor and Grace so they can let him know if they need help.
* Bayul and Galdor get knock at door – a maid gives them some blankets as a thanks for the boar.
* The group use message to arrange the plan – Ratty will stay with the others in Galdor’s hat. Bite = we need help, storm the auction room. Two scratches = Goltorah’s room is empty go break into it. The auction crew will attempt to sneakily steal items until they get caught at which point if Goltorah’s there they’ll try to capture him.
* Next morning, Blagden notices the ring he took won’t come off!! Elyan double disguises Blagden so that he has extra cover if his Beatrice disguise is foiled.

## The auction part 1

* Kunai (Norris the dread), Blagden (Beatrice), Elyan (Caspor) and Ash (Tai) go into the auction. See Moira, Blagden overhears her talking to who he assumes is Goltorah, who says something about a container being ready at the house.
* Blagden sends a double scratch to Galdor to say that Goltorah’s room is probably empty.
* Elyan bids 13,000 GP on one item (Robe of stars) and 1500 GP on another smaller item – all in Norris’s name.
* Norris loudly and frequently proclaims how amazing the magic sword is.
* Ash looks at items / prices whilst paying attention to Goltorah – he doesn’t seem to be wearing the ioun stone.
* Elyan tries to suggest one of the other patrons steals an item – however they are not persuaded and are suspicious of him. Elyan saves the situation by saying “no no, I said these items were a steal!”. She is still suspicious but agrees and walks on.
* Norris keeps calling Elyan pitiful. Elyan goes to bid 35,000 on the sword with Norris’s name in retribution.
* Lillian talks to Norris and asks how he met his friends. Ash suggests to Elyan that he send a message to Talos Chan. Elyan asks the guards to go to the facilities – Norris sees this and shouts out to ask Elyan what he’s doing. He explains, and Norris gives him permission to go. Elyan finds a quiet spot and sends a message to Talos asking him to come asap to arrest Goltorah. Talos says he’ll be there in an hour or so.
* Whilst Elyan and Norris were shouting, Blagden swaps out the goat figurine.
* Elyan puts a fake bid on the mirror.
* Elyan looks at the magic harp and asks Lillian about it to distract her from Blagden, who she was watching closely. He bids 20k on the harp, and 1.8k on the bagpipes. Blagden successfully steals another ring.

## Goltorah’s room

* The others try to go upstairs to Goltorah’s room. Get immediately stopped. Guards say upstairs is invitation only  – Galdor is very upset to hear that they don’t look the part. Bayul says they are with Norris the Dread so should be allowed up.
* Guard goes to ask a superior – superior goes to ask Norris. Norris is like, no, all my people are in here. Norris asks the guard if these others gave names. Guard says no, but they look “distinguished”.
* Guards don’t let Bayul and Galdor go up. They walk away. Decide to try and climb up. Galdor manages to climb up, helps Grace and Bayul up. They are in some random room. Can’t hear anything outside.
* Ratty chews a hole in Galdor’s hat so he can see through.
* They get to Goltorah’s door, but it is locked.
* They try to break it down with a crowbar and kicking. Eventually kick there way though. But they were not quiet and can hear some guards approaching up the stairs.
* They decide to fight the guards. The guards notice Goltorah’s door is open and charge in, but the others were ready quickly intimidate them into surrendering. After confirming that no other guards heard them, Galdor apologises to them and ties them up.
* With the guards tied up, they search the room…Find some clothes of Moira’s. Bayul finds nothing. Galdor finds another notebook. Notes are about his recent attempts at the ritual circles seen in his basement. He has been trying different stones to make it work, thinks he needs to make it to the mountains to get some rock there to summon Kore.
* They decide they’re done with the room, so try to communicate through Ratty, which doesn’t work as Blagden isn’t looking through him. Bayul tries to use Ratty as a phone.
* Grace uses message to tell Kunai that the others are done, and are “messing around with the Rat”…

## Lunch break

* After hearing that the others are done, Kunai tells the auction crew to break for lunch.
* Everyone goes up to Goltorah’s room to try and ambush him there if he follows, but he doesn’t.
* After waiting an hour to give Talos time to be close, the auction crew head back down for the final hour of bidding.
* Plan is to cause multiple distractions (point out fake items + have Galdor throw down his deck of illusion outside) so that the group can surprise attack Goltorah.

## The finale

* Norris starts the plan by loudly telling the room that there is tomfoolery with one of the item Blagden had swapped for a fake. Lillian looks at it but doesn’t notice anything wrong.
* Norris doubles down with his accusations. Lillian eventually notices the fake and is furious, immediately ordering the guards to lock the doors.
* Blagden panic messages Galdor to do the distraction now. Galdor slides a deck of illusion card under the door as it shuts, causing an illusion of a gnoll to appear.
* The guards attack the gnoll, at which point Kunai crossbows Goltorah in the face whilst saying “it’s business time”. Kunai does muchos assassin damage.
* Shit goes down…
* Goltorah and Moira flee outside, with Blagden, Kunai and Ash immediately giving chase.
* Elyan tries to collect as many guild items as possible (with a focus on securing the harp!)
* Bayul fails to break through the door into the auction even with an action surge.
* Outside, Goltorah lightning bolts the group, doing much damage.
* Bayul finally gets through the door. Gets attacked by the guards.
* Elyan gives Bayul the magic sword, then inspires Blagden.
* Ash summons a constrictor snake.
* Kunai uses his coiling grasp tattoo and grapples Goltorah. “If I’m going down you’re coming with me”.
* Talos’s guards arrive!!
* Elyan jumps out of the auction room with feather fall and inspires Kunai.
* Bayul majestically swan dives out of the window and shouts “lets go”.
* Ash and his snake attack Moira.
* Goltorah magic missiles Kunai, almost killing him.
* Blagden attacks Goltorah but misses, and then gives Kunai a healing potion
* Galdor glides out, and Zephyre arrows Goltorah, killing him. He then attacks Moira.
* Everyone lays into Moira, apart from Elyan, who riskily heals Goltorah as they want him alive.
* Bayul goes over to secure Goltorah, but fails to knock him out even though he’s prone.
* Ash succeeds where Bauyl failed and knocks Goltorah out before hitting Moira.
* Blagden loots Goltorah’s body. Finds some petty cash but not ioun stone!
* Galdor non-lethally whips Moira.
* Kunai is very angry and lethally bites Moira. He literally bites her head off.
* Kunai then tries to kill Goltorah. But Galdor uses ensnaring strike and knocks Kunai out before he can.
* Talos appears at the window. His guards are arresting the other patrons, the artefacts are all secure. He thanks the group for their help. Thanks “Norris” for his earlier advice on law-keeping.
* Talos explains that they raided Goltorah’s mansion yesterday, seized more artefacts from his house. He will give the group all of the guilds items when back in Easthshore, and says that the parents of the Tiefling child will also go with them back to Ilbidor.
* With Goltorah and Moira taken away by Talos, the group wonder what happened to the ioun stone. Someone suggests checking the bag of manifolding. Turn it inside out and find that the ioun stone, 14 GP and a bracelet (the GP and the bracelet Blagden takes) were inside. They’d had the ioun stone for ages (classic), but could at least now confirm that Goltorah was responsible for Kyris’ death.
* So, with the mystery of Kyris’ murder solved, and the guilds stolen items all retrieved, the group began their journey back to Ilbidor to see what mission Dr T had for them next…