I have no idea how feasible this would be, but assuming Xanatos wins the Yang Talisman I kind of want to offer to trade him our Rooster Talisman in exchange for the Cookbook. Probably an unpopular opinion, I know, but I figure we'd benefit more from another type of magic to teach our Heroes than the flight+telekinesis the Talisman offers, and Xanatos would benefit more from being one step closer to completing the Talisman set than he would from having yet another way to do magic.
 
How unlikely is a bid of 10 on the talisman to win? We know there's interest, but is there 'three points above asking price' interest?
 
I have no idea how feasible this would be, but assuming Xanatos wins the Yang Talisman I kind of want to offer to trade him our Rooster Talisman in exchange for the Cookbook. Probably an unpopular opinion, I know, but I figure we'd benefit more from another type of magic to teach our Heroes than the flight+telekinesis the Talisman offers, and Xanatos would benefit more from being one step closer to completing the Talisman set than he would from having yet another way to do magic.
Nope. Unacceptable. We need the Rat Talisman, as brilliantly reasoned in this insightful post:

A shame it's not the Rat Talisman...could have used that to bring Fiery the Fire Hydrant to life. This is still incredibly useful though, and has Russ' personal star of approval. Generally interested by everyone else...bidding's gonna be hot hot hot!

So it makes more sense if we complete the set for ourselves... Aaaand let Fiery use them, of course.
 
Splitting our money on two items will probably end with us getting neither.

we'll just have to vote on 17 Book and 17 Talisman and see what wins. I'd be happy with either I think but am leaning book.
 
I really want to get the evil Enchantus for Janna, so she can really start learning spells and increasing her Occult stat, and the witch book for alchemy since it'll surely synergize well with the Coffee Machine. So I'm pretty in favor of a 10/7 split (favoring the Enchantus) or a 17 outright in the Enchantus.
 
OK, I want us to bid on the Encantus and Talisman. That gives us 3 possible combinations i'm thinking of:
17 on the Encantus.
10 on the Encantus, 7 on the Talisman.
9 on Encantus, 8 on Talisman.
Any thoughts?
 
I'd go for the Merlin Enchantus myself. The complete lack of failsafes in the Morganna one has me more than a bit leery.
 
[ ] Plan: Expert Advice
-[ ] Spend points on the Yáng Talisman
--[ ] 17

It's part of a set we have, and it's good enough that not only is everyone else interested, even Russ reccomends we go for it. Ordinarily, I'd be down for the encantus, but we already have Janna's knowledge of the Mewni Spellbook and Felldrake and Malifishmirtz's spellbook and the scroll; we aren't hurting on sources of mystical knowledge.
Plus, the Encantus isn't unique. This is gonna be our only shot at the Talisman.
 
OK, I want us to bid on the Encantus and Talisman. That gives us 3 possible combinations i'm thinking of:
17 on the Encantus.
10 on the Encantus, 7 on the Talisman.
9 on Encantus, 8 on Talisman.
Any thoughts?
There's serious interest in the talisman, so you're going to need a bid of at least 9 to compete
 
We can always organize a Heist if we desperately need a magic item. We know what most of them look like.

It's merely a matter of tracking them down then sending one of our intrigue heroes to rob them.
 
OK, I want us to bid on the Encantus and Talisman. That gives us 3 possible combinations i'm thinking of:
17 on the Encantus.
10 on the Encantus, 7 on the Talisman.
9 on Encantus, 8 on Talisman.
Any thoughts?
I'm thinking 7 on the Morgana and 10 on the Talisman. Owen might be interested in the book, so that might be a coin flip, and lots of people are interested in the talisman, but that doesn't mean people are willing to put much more money on it. Could be we'd get lucky and no one puts 10+ on it.

So it would be a risky play, and we might go back home with 3 Income, but we might also get good stuff cheaply.
 
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I'm thinking 7 on the Morgana and 10 on the Talisman. Owen might be interested in the book, so that might be a coin flip, and lots of people are interested in the talisman, but that doesn't mean people are willing to put much more money on it. Could be we'd get lucky and no one puts 10+ on it.

So it would be a risky play, and we might go back home with 2 Income, but we might also get good stuff cheaply.
Why the MORGANA one?
 
Don't suppose anyone could elaborate on what Russ is confronting Xanatos about?

One idea/explanation has been offered. I'd like to offer another.

(Not because I think I'm right, necessarily - just to offer other potential viewpoints.)

Xanatos hired the Huntsclan, today.

This, of course, sounds horrendous - Xanatos paid off a group of murderous, anti-magical bigots to steal an item at a magical auction, regardless of who got hurt? Is he that selfish? That amoral? His assistant is a magical creature! His son is a magical creature? Why would he hire people to hurt magical creatures?

Well, he didn't . He hired them to scare magical creatures. They took up hurting all on their own, and Xanatos is not happy about it. See this passage from the update:

Intrigue Check: How is everyone else reacting to this?
DC 100 needed: 70+14+38+10+5+7=144
Success!
Xanatos Intrigue check: ???

One of Owen's eyebrows is raised slightly, and you get the impression that's a deliberate gesture to cue you in on something. You see Xanatos looking outwardly calm, but… underneath that, he looks furious. His brow is gently creased, his fists are clenched, and he generally looks like a deeply frustrated man trying not to let it show.

Owen clued us in on how his boss was feeling, here. The only reason he would do that would be if this were something that Xanatos was mistaken to try and hide - such as, say, his frustration that the people he hired are not listening to orders. See it from Xanay et al's perspective: it's unlikely any of this would be traced back to David, but it isn't impossible. And if anyone were going to notice, it'd be the person who had been hanging around nearby all day, and has repeatedly shown to be shockingly more insightful than his personality lets on. Xanatos might gamble for trying to keep hidden, but apparently Owen was like "Okay, we admit it, we did this, but we did not mean for things to go this far."

100 to 1 that whatever's in the box, it is either an immortality method or a first step to one. 10 to 1 that it's something Demona needs to do a plan, and Xanatos knows about the plan, and wants to stop her, but failed to grab it out from under her. But that's all besides the point.

Why hire the Hunstclan? Even telling them directly that they are not to be harming people, that's an extraordinary risk. Even assuming that there's some way to back out of the deal or make the money and/or power offered worthless - and of course there is, this is Xanatos we're talking about - having your name potentially attached to the Huntsclan? Potentially swelling their powerbase? What could possibly be worth that much?

Well, avoiding something that would damage even more people. In the cold calculations of Xanatos-style rationality, ten innocent lives is worth a lot less than the innocent lives of an entire populace.

Remember all the way back when Goofy initially made contact with Xanatos? He told Owen to send an auction invite to us, and upon Owen pointing out that Goofy, being a Toon, may have stumbled in on the Bazaar by luck alone, Xanatos responded:

"Naturally," ... "And if it is luck, it would be best to manage how Doctor Doofenschmirtz enters the magical community."

We're already flouting the Masquerade just by doing our own thing, and every King knows that. If we decide to take the same approach to the magical masquerade, once we know about it, the magical masquerade, worldwide, is going to be revealed. And people are not going to be kind to something that sudden, that strange, and that dangerous "suddenly" popping up.

What better way to convince us that the Magical Masquerade needs upholding than by providing an object lesson? And then, of course, narrating the object lesson. Just to really drive the point home.

It's the classic Xanatos Gambit. He hires the Hunstclan with the hiring being the primary goal, not the object they are hired to steal. That's just a bonus, a nice buttercream icing once the cake's been dealt with. The primary purpose, the cake, is us, thinking the way about the magical masquerade that we're "supposed" to.

...and if that, plus subtly shifting the Good Doctor to pick up the key for mutual benefits (at zero cost to David), just so happens to also result in Heinz Doofenschmirtz subconsciously adapting a position that, clearly, this Xanatos guy is pretty friendly, cares about innocent people, and really knows what he's talking about; it'd probably be a good idea to listen to him more often on future endeavors, well...

... so much the better. Even if his hired spook manages to catch on to the whole thing, he needs to uphold the Masquerade too. If he can keep Doof away from Xanatos's evil, evil ambitions, and still figure out a way to keep all the pillars standing, more power to him. Xanatos is willing to take a minor loss in order to keep Shego and Doofenschmirtz on his side.

...hmm? What's that, doctor?

"Nice going?" What do you mean, 'nice going'? Was that sarcasm? it sounded genuine, but...

...oh no.

Oh, no, I've said too much. I was trying to avoid being too subtle for him, but that speech on people being dumb, panicky animals was too overt.

Heinz Doofenschmirtz figured out everything that happened here today! Abort! ABORT! ABORT!

(in reality, we're just idiots)
 
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[X] Plan No Risk, No Reward
-[X] Spend points on the Merlinian Encantus
--[X] 7 points
-[X] Spend points on the Yáng Talisman
--[X] 10 points
 
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Moratorium over!
[X] Plan Bad Books, Bad People
-[X] Spend points on the Morganian Encantus
--[X] 9
-[X] Spend points on the Manual of Witchcraft and Alchemy
--[X] 8

My second choice would be the vastly safer:

[ ] Plan Good Book
-[ ] Spend points on the Merlinian Encantus
--[ ] 17 Points

No approval voting unfortunatly, but I'll swap if nessary
 
Considering there are people who haven't won anything at all yet, I'm not sure 10 would be a safe bet on the Talisman. Horvath is pretty clearly here for the Merlinian Encantus, and Pandarus doesn't seem like the sort of guy to bet on the Manual compared to the Talisman. The Manual just seems like a much safer second pick up here, if we want one at all. Focusing on one would be the far safer play.
 
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