The Dragon Coins
By Henry Swinebottle
Circa 357YL
The creation of the Dragon coins remains shrouded in
mystery, mainly due to the confiscation of all records prior to the arrival of
the Invaders by the Lewisian Emperor in YL 30.
Scholars of the Coins must either study at the University and ply a
senior administrator for access to forbidden records (and are thus sworn to
secrecy ever after, making publishing such an account an impossibility), comb
the countryside for ancient Elvish texts that slipped through Lewisian fingers
during the purge, or speculate endlessly over the few crumbs of knowledge
available to us regarding the coins.
What is known is this:
There are 10 coins, of which 8 can be vaguely accounted for. There are five coins with a representation of
a chromatic dragon (red, black, blue, white, green) and five coins with the
representation of a metallic dragon (silver, brass, bronze, copper, gold). Each of the coins enables the user the one
time service of an Elder dragon from the Mountains East of the Empire. Each of the coins bears a portion of the true
name of one of two dragons on it. The
Werbergians, when they came to the Empire in search of asylum in the year 260
YL, had 4 such coins with them (all metallic), the fifth of which they used to
gain safe passage through the Pass of Bones, which is guarded by the two
dragons named on the coins. One of the
remaining 4 coins held by the Werbergians was given to the Emperor (who in turn
gave it to the University where it has remained for study for the last 100
years) as a gift of gratitude for letting them settle in the desert south of
the Wild Plains. One of the coins was
stolen from the Grand Abbot by the Poison Clan, and its whereabouts are
unknown. Two of the coins are still held
by the Grand Abbot. Four of the coins
are held by a wicked red dragon called Bonescraper in its hoard high in the
mountains somewhere south of the Pass of Bones.
One of the coins is held by a dragon known as the Silverking in the
Hammer Mountains North of the Pass.
Ownership of a coin allows one safe personal passage through the Pass
and immunity to attacks from dragons, but for anyone else to pass with you, you
must invoke the power of the coin.
Therein ends all known information about the coins. The rest is rumor and speculation. The Poison Clan was thought to have absconded
with the stolen coin and settled somewhere in the west near the Imperial city
of Feidvale. The final coin is believed
to be in the possession of a devotee of the demon prince Pazuzu, prince of evil winged
animals, somewhere in a mountain fortress inaccessible from the ground.
Once a coin is used, it reputedly returns to the possession
of either the Silverking or Bonescraper.
The five metallic coins each have printed on them a fragment of
Bonescraper’s true name, while the five chromatic coins have fragments of the
Silverking’s name on them. Legend has it
that the coins were created by the Silverking over a millennia ago to prevent a
war between good and evil dragons that would destroy the known world. Bonescraper only agreed because his five
coins were to be given to a wicked Emperor in the East who reputedly used one
of the coins to have the ancient red dragon light his samovar for tea. Bonescraper knew the evil and greedy emperor
would use the coins quickly to conquer all the surrounding lands, which he
did. But the final coin, the black coin,
was stolen by a demon prince and carried away never to be used. The demon prince learned of the coin through
the Silverking himself, knowing that the prince would covet the world and never
give the coin willingly to Bonescraper by using it. Bonescraper is powerless to harm the owner of
a dragon coin, as are his many children and servants among dragon-kind. The two dragons cannot interfere directly in
the contest, but they can persuade mortal non-dragons to aid them if any are
willing. Legend also has it that if one
of the dragons obtains all five of its coins, it will learn the true name of
the other dragon and gain dominion over all the world, with the losing dragon
as its servant for all eternity.
Use of the coins is no easy feat, as invoking its power
involves the sacrifice of the head of a slain dragon of the opposite type of
the coin used. Thus, to invoke the
Silverking, one must both possess the coin and sacrifice the head of a
chromatic dragon. How the sacrifice is
completed is a secret perhaps only the Grand Abbot himself knows.
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