The Vennite Legion Coin

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Uncommon Wondrous Item
Weight Less than 1 lb
Cost 5 gp to a merchant who only weighs the gold. 150 gp to a collector who wants it for what it is. 250-400 gp to a historian or archivist who understands the Empire's Memory property and wants authenticated impressions from the Age of Venn.

Magical Properties

Uncommon. When used in a genuine, willing exchange, the coin returns to its holder within 24 hours. Once per month, grants a brief sensory impression from the Empire of Venn.

The Vennite Legion Coin is a gold coin of unusual weight and excellent preservation, bearing on one face a stylized sun and on the other a five-pointed arrangement that scholars of the period identify as the symbol of the five Spirit Dragons -- the Great Spirit Dragons, who were the empire's patron powers during its height. The minting is precise enough to be immediately recognizable as Vennite to anyone with knowledge of the period, and worn enough to be clearly genuine rather than a reproduction.

They turn up periodically in the ruins of Venn-era sites, in the possession of collectors, and occasionally in circulation -- spent by someone who found them and needed coin, accepted by a merchant who recognized the gold content without recognizing the history. They are worth approximately 5 gold pieces as currency and considerably more to a collector who wants them for what they are. The Risen Venn Legionnaires who still patrol ancient ruins sometimes carry them. Whether obtaining one from a Legionnaire constitutes looting or not is a question Settled Lands law has not addressed.

Properties

  • The Return: When the coin changes hands in a genuine, willing exchange -- the holder spends it freely and the recipient accepts it freely -- the coin returns to the holder within 24 hours. It is found in a pocket, pouch, or carried container, never in the same place twice. The holder always recognizes it when they find it. This property does not function if the coin is given as a gift, stolen, taken by force, or spent in a transaction either party does not enter willingly.
  • The Empire's Memory: Once per month, by holding the coin and concentrating for 1 minute, the holder receives a brief sensory impression from the coin's history -- not a vision, not a memory, but a feeling of a specific moment from the Empire of Venn: a crowd in a market, a soldier's grip on a weapon, the smell of a cookfire from ten thousand years ago. The GM determines the content. The impressions are always mundane. They are also always completely authentic.