Session Length: 4–6 hours
Return Guaranteed: Yes, all characters return to the Ember Charter if they survive.
Quest Type: Espionage/Recovery
Session Tone: High Stakes, can flip from Comedic to Tense at the drop of a hat
Violence Level: Potentially High

As the backdoor game of Fool's Auction was nigh, our motley adventurers gathered themselves and came up with a plan: with their sols so far affording them only one seat at the table, they let Shalo (SHEI-low) lead the charge as their representative, posing as his posse to respond to any attempts at cheating ahead. While Kaeden negotiated their way in, Nyd, still in spectral form, slipped through the wall and hid away somehow undetected.

There, the group saw their opponents, a bronze-skinned elven woman in shimmering silks, a rotund orc "gentleman" in fancy clothes barely holding onto his stature, and a bald dwarven man in a pressed grey suit with a yellow flower in his breast pocket who complained of your late arrival. Sols were exchanged for chips, and the game began. Round after round, your crew managed to slowly push the other players out of the game and keep Shalo in: Nyd and Dyine manipulating the odds, Vaelor preventing the orc's advances, Kaeden using his magic to subtly break another magic crystal, and Grin distracting folks and also upsetting the guards by commiting an (accidental) act of murder right after their noses.

Soon, Shalo emerged victorious! And after the orc and elf left the room, the dwarf donned a large-brimmed green fedora, and slowly started to shift down into Grimaldo, the owner of the Crimson Kursaal. The room then shifted as well, turning into a trophy room full of glittering Sols and priceless antiques. He congratulated the group on the victory, and surmised that they had cheated him at his own game somehow. However, communications began to break down, as the group revealed some of them were from a reclaimer crew.

With Grimaldo doubting the group's true intent intent, he offered them one final choice: to turn a blind eye to his business in exchange for his quiet funding in support the Ember Charter, or to stick to their mission and take him and his operation down— once and for all.