30.17 The sage words concerning the dragon of Sapience.

Every Avalon year there is a frenetic period of harvesting during the month of Hindyear. This harvest is the result of the labours earlier in the year of those cities or guilds involved in the working of fields about the land. Crops are thus created and from these crops many crucial items in the land can be fashioned - food, most obviously, but much more beyond as Avalon's harvested flora has mystical properties beyond the mere farming staples. This, of course, is common knowledge to most Avalonians and the skills of Farming and Labours are possessed by most individuals to deal with this aspect of the land.

However, less well known is that deep in the mountain of Sapience - an extinct volcano to the southeast of the continent, sleeps an enormous and immortal dragon. Few have seen this leviathan face to face for it is difficult to enter the well-protected, riddle barred corridors carved into the mountains that lead to the dragon's cave. Recently, though, a great sage descended from the heights of the mountain with claims to have mapped the entirety of its interior. He spoke of a way to awaken the dragon, to bring it forth into the land for a short time, and, most importantly, of a quest to persuade this mighty beast to lend its near-divine powers to benefit an entire city population.

Great golden eggs are the key, the sage did say. Eggs forged by young innocent cityfolk, forged only from gold and smoothed over a period of days by these naive youngsters. Once forged, those possessing the skill of Forging may shift this great golden egg to a furnace and, using essence as a mystical conduit, augment the value of the egg with gems, with gold, with silver or other metals. Finally, the egg filled with as much wealth as a city may wish to muster is taken to Mount Sapience, past the outer defences and into the very cave in which the dragon sleeps.

Then, come the month of Hindyear and the time of harvest, the dragon awakens for a short time and, should it find any city having sacrified a great golden egg to its greedy treasury, it will take to the skies and use some of its powers to repay its benefactor. It can breathe fire to harm enemy crops (and those unfortunate enough to be standing nearby), rain blessings on the fields of its friends by augmenting harvests or steal commodities from about the land and shower them on the streets of the friend-city. It can even defend the homesoil of city gift-givers against enemies in invincible, unstoppable ways. Homesoil being defined either as those location denominated a permanent part of the city being defended or, at times, both those permanent spots AND those fields sewn by citizens of aforementioned city. Thus it is said by this ancient sage and of late the wise of Avalon's great cities have again lent credence to his ancient tales.

Barons, Captains, city leaders, and those with mastery of Forging should read on. The rest of you need know no more.

To awaken the loyalty of the dragon requires the forging and enriching of a golden egg. Barons/Captains may begin the process of forging this egg in the central squares of their home city by typing EGGSTART with sufficient gold laid upon the ground ready for collation. Young cityfolk will then set about the initial task of making the golden egg ready for their elders. Protect these youngsters for they must be given time to complete their task. The great golden egg then created should be taken to a furnace where those with Forging skill can use the EGGFORGE command to add gold, gems, silver or metals to augment its value for the greedy dragon. Syntax here is EGGFORGE followed by the precious metal/gems youwish to add to the egg's value. Refined essence must be on the ground, before the furnace, alongside the valuable items being added.

The great egg is moved using the EGGROLL command, for otherwise it is difficult to shift about and has a divine protection against being destroyed or interfered with by hostile forces. Since the EGGROLL command brings about aggressive behaviour from the dragon its use is limited to those who do not hold duellist, pacifist or protected status. Issue the EGGFIX command to set it by its furnace if you wish it to be immovable by any mortal force, or EGGUNFIX to begin moving it again.

At some point it will be decided that the golden egg is sufficiently filled with enough city wealth to merit presentation to the dragon itself. At this point the egg must be moved, using the EGGROLL command, away from its homeland, to the mountain of Sapience. It must be rolled into the very cave of the sleeping dragon and there fixed, left in the claws of the beast until it awakens at the start of the month of Hindyear. Whether the great dragon acts on behalf of a city will be determined entirely by the value of the golden egg deposited into its treasure trove. What its actions are, during its short period of waking flight, is determined by the Prince or Princess alone.

These settings can be done at any time once the egg has been forged and does not require the presence of the Prince or Princess during the waking period of the dragon for his/her instructions to be acted upon. The dragon will forge out on behalf of a city regardless of the worth of opposing city eggs. Thus, even if your own city egg is of lesser value than that of your opponent, the dragon will still bestow benefits according to the wealth of your own egg. He is, truly, a fickle beast and is perfectly content to bestow bouts of loyalty to all cities or towns either concurrently or consecutively, depending on the worth of the offering.

There may also be years when no city gives over a treasure-filled golden egg to bolster the dragon's horde. It is common knowledge that for every year the dragon receives nothing, the value or egg-worth to the dragon of the egg when it comes to crop augmentation is of threefold value. Thus a three year hiatus will mean you need allocate only 1/9th of the egg-worth to cropaid to achieve the same benefits as - under normal circumstances - the dragon would aid for the full amount, e.g. normally you allocate 1800 egg-worth to cropaiding; in this instance you need allocate only 200 egg-worth to achieve the same ends.

See also HELP DRAGONACT for further commands, mainly for those of sufficient
authority in the city.

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