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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 457653" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 38, “How much for the little girl?”, September 20, 1018, 7:30 P.M.:The auction begins, with Lot One, the Polynesian women, being placed up.   The price keeps rising, largely due to the other patrons in the two front rows.   Lono continues to plead to Hiroshi to bid, but he steadfastly agrees with Mark and Serita.  The lot finally sells for 242,900 gold pieces, which meets the reserve price for the lot.   Lono mutters softly  “Damn.  It’s back to drugging women in alleys.”Lot Two is brought out on stage.  Unlike the previous day’s preview, they were no longer attired in the plain gray clothing, instead wearing what the announcer stated was the “what they had on when captured.”   This lot included the human middle-aged businessman, attired in fine silk and velvet clothing. He had no visible weapons, but was using a fancy cane as a walking stick.  Beside him was his daughter, the bard, attired in a short chain-mail tunic and carrying a lute.  Near them were the three human male fighter crewmembers, each wearing full plate armor and carrying weapons.Also on stage was the human male druid, attired in leather armor, with a hooded cloak, and carrying a sprig of mistletoe.  Beside him was Gritt “Red” Fire-sword, the male dwarf fighter, wearing armor but carrying no weapons.   Next were the two gnome fighters, one middle aged the other younger, both wearing some type of armor and uniform and carrying shields and weapons.At the very front of the stage are the male half-elf fighter, attired in expensive fancy clothing over what appears to be elvan chainmail, and brandishing a fancy looking long-sword that looks more ornamental than practical.   Beside him are the male elf archer/ranger, wearing leather armor and carrying a longbow and the female elf cleric/fighter, wearing a full suit of elvan chainmail, cloak, with a shortbow and quiver of arrows on her back.The bidding starts, with Toshiro entering a bid mid-way through.   The prices get high, but not as high as from Lot One.    It finally comes down to three bidders, then two.   Toshiro’s competitor stops at 161,100  with Toshiro going one higher, and winning with a final price of 161,200 gold pieces.   The sealed reserve price envelope is then opened, during which Hiroshi notices a man two tables over give the “waive the reserve price” signal, indicating that he is the seller and the price offered is sufficient.    The auctioneer states that the price has met the reserve. The group sits idly back as Lot Three, the fifteen Vikings, is brought out on stage and sold for a total 166,800 gold pieces, which is said meets the reserve price.    Lot Four, comprised of the twenty common monsters is brought out.  Again, the group has no interest in this lot, but Mojo decides to take advantage of the fact that both Lannon and orcs are in the room together.  He starts to quietly whisper comments to Lannon, trying to goad the dwarf into losing his cool in front of Kim, and thus eliminate a potential rival for her affection.  Lannon starts to become irritated, but does not say anything.   The lot reaches a bid of 152,000, which is announced to be less than the reserve price.  The high bidder is given the option to raise his bid, but declines, so it will be split into five sub-lots.   The first sub-lot is the two hill giants, which sells above their reserve at 51,700 gold pieces.  Next is the pair of hobgoblins, which is a non-reserve lot selling for 21,000 gold pieces.   The five half-orcs are next, during which Mojo whispers to Lannon “now’s your chance, get’em and kill’em.”  Lannon snaps back, loud enough for Kim to also hear “They’re half-orcs.”  Seeing this as an opportunity to further impress the female half-dwarf, Mojo answers “I think interbreeding adds to diversity.  Don’t you think that diversity adds to the races.  You should try to be more open minded Lannon.”  Commenting on the auction going on, Fiona gestures to the half-orcs, and says “We don’t want them!”  Mojo says “Why not, I’m nothing if not open-minded.”  “In more ways than one,” she replied.  They sell for 51,800, again meeting the reserve.   The five orcs are up next, Mojo whispering to Lannon “Are those earrings the leader is wearing dwarf thumbs?”  Lannon’s grip on the glass he is holding tightens, loudly breaking the glass in his hand.  He starts to turn to snap at Mojo, but stops once he sees Kim-Sung looking at him with a puzzled look on her face.   The orcs, the final reserve group, sell for 31,900 gold pieces.   The six goblins go last, for only 10,600 gold pieces, which isn’t much given that the six slave collars and rings are worth two-thirds of that amount.During the break before the next auction, Kim turns to both Lannon and Mojo and asks “What was that all about?”  Before Lannon can answer Mojo says “He’s a little unstable upstairs, I think you need someone with more stability.”Next up is Lot Five, the Hengeyokai.   They are brought out on stage, unclothed while in biped (half-human, half-animal) form.    They are of the cat, falcon, fox lynx, and rat sub-races, the cat and falcon being female, the other three male.   Upon command by the auctioneer, they change to their full animal forms, then upon command again, change to full human forms.   Again unclothed, it is clear that all five are young and healthy.  Mojo comments “How dare they make them parade around without clothing.”  “Like you’ve every complained before,” states Lannon.The bidding starts, with considerable interest in this lot now from the two front rows.  Toshiro enters the bidding, which gets up to 160,000 before slowing down to only three active bidders.  This becomes two at 1,800, but doesn’t stop until Toshiro’s final bid of 197,200.  The envelope is opened, and it is announced that this is below the reserve price.  Toshiro is asked if he wishes to raise his bid.  He increases it first to 199,000 then to 202,000, both of which are said to still be below the reserve.  He is given one final opportunity to raise the price.   Not wanting to bid too low again, he raises it to a full 300,000.  It is announced that this is above the reserve (way above, in fact).The final lot is brought out, consisting of the five half-minotaurs, four male and one female.   They are all attired in armor, and carrying weapons.   The males wear armor and tunics that leave the head, arms and legs free, and the female is in a full suit of plate mail.  Much to the party’s surprise, they are all wearing holy symbols and accoutrements like those worn by Silver Moon member Vincenzo, and other Chaotic Good Twin Gods clerics.   Other items on their person, such as necklaces, anklets and pouches, of a style and with markings that resemble those made by the this-world-equivalent of Native Americans.  It is announced that the four-armed leader, while half-human, is only one-quarter Minotaur, the other quarter being a Type III Demon.  This catches the attention of many of those present in the audience.    The bidding begins.  Duegar keeps urging Toshiro to put in a bid.  Toshiro turns to Cassie and Aradyn for advice.  While they had both been previously opposed to this idea, the revelation that these are chaotic good Twin Gods followers has them now undecided.  The bidding soon gets above 200,000, which Cassie tells Toshiro “Too much,” so he remains seated.  The price finally gets up to 252,000.  It is announced that this is less than the reserve price, and the high bidder, a Chinese aristocrat wearing fancy clothing at a table with a beautiful young lady and two burley bodyguards, does not increase.   The lot is then split into three sub-lots.The first sub-lot put up for bid is comprised of the three two-armed males.  Bidding quickly gets up above 100,000, then slows.   The previous high-bidder again wins, with a bid of 136,500, which is said to be above the reserve price.   The second sub-lot is the female.   Mojo actually considers putting in a bid, saying  “She reminds me of the nurse-maid of my cousins Marathon and Mycroft.  She was also a humanoid cow.”  Lannon rhetorically comments “And you call me strange?”  She sells for 32,400 gold pieces, and is purchased by a Chinese human dressed as a High Priest of Huan-Ti (one of the two Twin Gods deities).  It is announced that this was the non-reserve sub-lot, meaning that the final auction of the leader has a reserve price.As with the first sub-lot, the bidding quickly gets up to 80,000.  The aristocrat that had been the high bidder and winner of the first sub-lot surprisingly drops out of the bidding at that point, with the field now narrowing to six active bidders.   At 100,000 the bidding narrows to two bidders, when Duegar finally convinces Toshiro to stand and put in a bid of 102,000.   The party members at the other two tables, especially Mark and Serita, give him surprised and angry looks.   They relax as the other two active bidders go higher, and Toshiro doesn’t counter.   The bidding finally stops at 105,300 when the auctioneer starts to announce “Going, going…”  At Duegar’s insistance, Toshiro says “105,400”.  The other bidder reluctantly goes to “105,500,” with Toshiro countering with “105,600”.  The other bidder remains silent.The DM tells the players that this is still below the reserve, but only slightly so, and that there is a seventy-percent chance the seller will accept this price.   Percentile dice are rolled, falling within this percentile, so Toshiro becomes the winner of this sub-lot as the auction ends.</blockquote>

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