Mystery Auction
Pinned to The notice board
A short and neat parchment advertises:
Mystery Auction: Last day of the month, noon - Blackstone Warehouse.
Join us in the realm of lost trinkets and items needing new homes. From everything spanning furniture to weapons, you never know what you might find, BUT know that you will find something worth your time!
Prices are marked, but negotiable… unless someone else has their eye on the same prize, in which case the item goes to the highest bidder!
Just 1 gold to enter - Untold treasures wait inside.
Ways to approach
Who doesn’t love an auction in their games? Especially when everything involved is a complete mystery and you have a character that lives to haggle. Sure, there is going to be a massive amount of things that probably won’t interest an adventuring party, but for a 1 gold entry fee you know there has to be a few good things in there. Patrons who are already familiar with the auction know it’s a race to find the good stuff for them, once the doors enter they’ll be running inside to find the good stuff first and make an offer. Will your players race in too? Or will they be smart and wait by the auction desk and scope out what everyone else has bought?
While you could use this as an opportunity to sprinkle in fun magic items that you haven’t found a good location for, it’s also a good way to sprinkle in some fun NPCs who may find a use for some resourceful adventurers, or a macguffin to kickstart a quest! If you’re looking for a real twist, consider how the owner even gets all of these items, and how is it that there is something here for everyone, including your player characters. Could it be a cunning thief that scoped out people who were interested, and is pawning off goods? Or perhaps it’s a fey or demon entity that’s after more than mere gold in trade, something your characters don’t realize until it’s time to pay.
