Can we make a copy of the Scrolls of Jo Lan and trade them for a copy of the Cookbook? I remember that Xanatos wanted them both and it seems pretty harmless and is a good show of "trust" to an "ally". The items seem to be valuable due to the info inside and not anything intrinsic.
Yeah, just photocopying the scrolls and exchanging that for a photocopy of the Cookbook seems like a fair trade to me.
Okay people are sleeping on the talisman here.
First off it's A part of a set of it doesn't combo with other Talisman I'll eat someone else's hat.
secondly the ability of astral projection is some high grade magic
thirdly RUSS suggested we get it. He doesn't do impulse buys he believes that thing is extremely useful and valuable.
Forthly it gives the user the ability to enter DREAMS and fight POSSESSION. That's extremely important considering a certain Triangle in our future.
and finaly we have low key goal to collect them all and complete the set. There's no way there isn't a magical effect there
It seems like an obvious hint the Dream Queen is after Russ too.
[ ] 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.
Yeah, plus, if Xanatos doesn't get the book then
Okay.
Final thought.
So far, David Xanatos has mostly been doing impulse purchases, since our Intrigue rolls have been providing us with information about how he reacts to stuff.
Owen Burnett is his expert in all things Occult, whose loyalty is just about absolute and whom Xanatos trusts implicitly in all matters, including the wellfare of his son. Owen has, by design, a wooden persona with strict self-control.
This has gotten a reaction out of him.
In conclusion, I think that Xanatos is going to go for the Encantus, on Owen's advice, and I think that it is going to be the Merlinian one. If I am right about his motivations, this would be about his son and beating him here may genuinely upset him.
Of course, it is possible that all this also applies to the Talisman thanks to our poor Intrigue roll there, but I think this interpretation best fits the clues we have regarding the Encantus.
If Xanatos does go for the Encantus, we could try and work out an exchange of information deal with him. Photocopy the Encantus for us and we'll give him our personal attention on a project of his for one turn, with only minimal questions asked.
[ ] Plan No Risk, No Reward (Morgana edition)
Is what I want to vote.
You now have a good idea of what a relative cost is when someone has a 'passing interest' and is 'fairly interested'. It's up to you how you think you should extrapolate that out for the big ticket items.
We got told to consider how much people are betting point wise on items based on level of interest in the previous rounds. Now, mentioning this is an obvious hint to not dump all our points into one object under the understandable logic of wanting to secure it. However! Take notice that we only have enough points to spend on two items max at base bid of 7.
Now consider this,
why bother mentioning to us or hint to us to not spend all our points on one item if that was infact the only way to be sure we get an item? This implies to me that going for two items is infact a perfectly viable strategy. Take into account that Xanatos was interested in the Cookbook and Scrolls, which we had at 1 point above the minimum and only got the scrolls due to a roll. I'd go further to postulate that fairly interested would be 2 above the minimum, which we would still beat at 10.
............... Also, I have an idea although I don't know if it'd work as an write in.
[X] Plan If The Glooms Can Pool Their Money Then We Can Too
-[X] Let Xanatos know that you noticed Owen was the only person other than Janna looking at the Encantus and how much Xanatos was spending in general.
--[X] Propose pooling together your points at a 3-4 point split to buy the Morganian Encantus at the base 7 price, as no other groups seem interested besides theirs, so working together eliminates the competition anyway. Doof and Xanatos would share ownership of the book and treat deciphering/learning from it as a joint project, with whoever contributed more points to buying it keeping it while the other gets a photocopy. It has the least interest out of the two Encantus', but it will also be the more dangerous one to learn from since it's safety features are removed. So pooling their resources to make sure no accidents occur when learning from it may be wise.
---[X] "Hey, Xanay, only our groups are interested in the Morganian Encantus, so do you wanna pool our money and study it together to mitigate the danger? Contribute at least 3 points and I'll cover the rest, but whoever contributes more keeps the original copy in their territory. "
----[X] If Xanatos rejects the deal Spend all 17 points on the Yáng Talisman.
-----[X] If Xanatos accepts the deal then spend 1-4 points on the Morganian Encantus with Xanatos chipping in the other 3-6 points to make a bid of 7, which should be enough as Owen was the only other person besides Janna interested in the Morganian Encantus. Spend the remaining 13-16 points on the Yáng Talisman.
Hey, Magica never said we couldn't work together and pool our resources to buy something. I mean, the Glooms are doing it, and they sure as heck aren't one person. Plus, if it's not explicitly in the rules then it's not against the rules! All it would take is a quick 2 sentences to ask too. For example: "Hey, Xanay, only our groups are interested in the Morganian Encantus, so do you wanna pool our money and study it together to mitigate the danger? Contribute at least 3 points and I'll cover the rest, but whoever contributes more keeps the original copy in their territory. " Doesn't have to be this verbatim, just get the idea across in the least amount of time possible. Xanatos is a smart man, he can extrapolate that by our groups we mean Owen and Janna and that by original copy we're implying that we'll make a photocopy of the book or at least notes.
Xanatos is being a loot goblin right now, and probably doesn't have too many points left, but we know he has a minimum of 5 points left as we beat him on a coin toss at getting the scrolls. So he might have been planning to bow out this turn anyway due to lacking the remaining 2 points he needs to bet on anything. Or, even if he is planning on betting this turn, then he probably would have considered betting on the Morganian Encantus since Owen is interested in Enantus' and the Morganian one is going to be the cheaper bet. But we can make him able to shift funds around to put more points on other items while still getting the Morganian one. Plus, unless he only has 7 points left and wants to risk them on the Salem book or something, this deal ensures he'll walk out of the auction with one of the big items.
So to Xanatos Logic it out.
If Xanatos has only 5 points left, then he has no reason not to contribute those 5 points in helping us buy the Morgana Encantus. We'd then be spending 2 points to make the base 7 bid and spend a comfortable 15 points on the Talisman.... or even 16 if Xanatos has more than the 5 points we know he has at 6 points. Xanatos gets a win in essentially an extra auction/loot item he gets to keep in his territory as well as help studying it.
If Xanatos only has 7 points left, then if he was planning on going for the Manuel he may turn us down. We spend all 17 points in a guaranteed win for the Talisman.
If Xanatos only has 7 points left and he was going for the Morganian Encantus, then he will cover most of the cost for it at 6 poijnts, as we imply we have enough to out bid him anyway, so he might as well ensure access to it. We get to bid a comfortable 16 on the Talisman.
If Xanatos has far more than 7 points left, and is not interested in the Morganian Encantus, then he may reject us if he plans to bid on one of the higher contenders, like the Merlinian or Talisman.
If Xanatos has way more than 7 points left and plans to go for the Morganian Encantus and something else already, then he may accept our offer in order to spend more money on ensuring he gets the higher bid item. He accepts the offer and we bet 13-16 points on the Yang Talisman; both of which are good bids.
In 3/5 of the scenarios above Xanatos accepts our deal and we walk away with at least joint custody of one item and the Yang Talisman and joint custody of the Morganian Encantus with our ally.
In 1/5 of the scenarios the lowest we bet on the Yang Talisman is 13, but we're still likely to walk away with it or at worst just joint custody of the Morganian Encantus with Xanatos.
In only 1/5 of the scenarios does Xanatos have reason to reject the offer, as in all 4/5 scenarios he benefits.
I like those odds.
