From The Unspeakable Oath 21, now available for purchase in print and PDF.
Written by Adam Gauntlett,© 2012. Illustrated by Vicente Rivera Catalá, © 2012.
This Victorian Tale of Terror is based on an entry from Dickens’s Dictionary of London 1888. The following is a direct quote from the Dictionary:
“The Mock Auction” is a swindle, pure and simple. It is commonly carried on in a small shop, carefully darkened by filling in the window with all kinds of ostensible merchandise, and tenanted chiefly by the proprietor and his confederates, who keep up a lively bidding till some unwary passer-by is seduced into entering, and speedily ‘stuck’ with some worthless article at a fabulous price. Should the victim find he is called upon to pay too dearly for his folly, he may, by stoutly denying having made any bid, calling for the police, and, if necessary, showing fight, make his way out again scot free. But he will possibly be roughly handled, probably have his pocket picked, and certainly pass a mauvais quart d’heure.
The protagonists are the suckers in this Tale. They are stuck with a small statuette that doesn’t look valuable. The others in the room are all rough-looking types; in the gloom, they may appear sub-human. The proprietor is a very burly man, nearly a giant, whose leer is far from friendly. There are no constables in sight. There is, however, an odd-looking ikon balanced precariously on the piles of tat that may be really valuable. It is in an eastern European style and may have Mythos significance — but there is no guarantee it is for sale.
The Mock Auction by Vicente Rivera Catalá, © 2012.
Option 1: Cursed
The protagonists have been stuck with a worthless item, and the ikon is no more valuable than the statue they already have. The proprietor is a wizard with some small power and hexes the protagonists with the evil eye or infests their dreams with nightmares. He may remove this curse for a small fee. Protagonists who want to fight back will have to find out exactly how he cursed them; there may be a way to turn his magic back on him.
Option 2: A la Carte
The protagonists’ statue and the ikon are both worthless. Several ghouls are in the crowd of confederates, while the others are humans on their way to ghoulish transformation. Any weakness on the protagonists’ part may provoke a bloody reaction. Showing fight, on the other hand, piques their interest. They may follow the protagonists to their homes, thinking to ambush them later and carve up their tender meats for a banquet. The proprietor is their leader.
Option 3: The Conduit
The ikon is something really interesting. It was created by a devotee of Shub-Niggurath and offers a means of directly contacting the Old One in her Great God Pan avatar form. The ritual needed isn’t known to the protagonists but could be researched, and study of the ikon grants +1
Cthulhu Mythos as well as a 1d4+1 SAN loss. The proprietor is unwilling to sell but can be persuaded. However, soon afterward he is made aware of the true value of the item, and will go to any lengths to get it back.
Want more Tales of Terror to petrify your investigators (figuratively and possibly literally)?
This tale and more available in The Unspeakable Oath, Issue 21!