The Danamax Falcon strikes most viewers immediately. The Danamax crest on the back further enhances the royal bearing of the currency. Mostly found in larger denominations, Falcon Coins have feathered textured edges to help prevent shaving.
Holding a Falcon coin and thinking of a specific individual who you wish to send the coin to will cause the coin to fly from the sender, hurtling towards the recipient. The Coins avoid immovable obstacles, generally are impossible to stop, and move quickly, covering distances under one hundred miles in less than an hour. A Falcon Coin that arrives hovers in front of the Recipient, imparting knowledge of the sender to them. The Recipient must take the coin, otherwise it flies back to the Sender. Any physical contact with the coin once it is hovering is sufficient for the coin to deem itself delivered. Most homes are now built to accomodate Falcon Coins, which created a small bubble in the window industry upon their introduction due to a great number of broken windows.
A Falcon Coin is magically obligated to go to extreme measures to reach its target, with no limit to how long a coin will wait until it can access the individual it needs to reach, upwards of years for a few documented individuals languishing in prison.
Falcon Coins are used to pay debts, move money large distances, and flight above popular trade areas is almost impossible due to clouds of coins swarming through the air. A Falcon Coin cannot be used to carry messages.
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? Responses (19)
I love the concept. I would imagine that the Falcon coin could avoid Magpies as easily as any other obstacle, but maybe the creator hated Magpie. Here is an intriguing thought: could someone put a contact poison on a Falcon coin to poison the recipient? Could a recipient put poison on a coin without accepting it so that it would return to and poison the sender?
I could see this being the "underground" way to make purchases-the "blood diamond" if you will. The authorities could build elaborate traps to try to discover the identify of the sender (build a long tunnel that is in the typical flight path of the coins and then close both exits when the coin passes through).
Since the act of sending the Coin involves holding it, applying a contact poison would risk poisoning one's self, but I wouldn't say it was impossible to do.
Interception of a Coin would make for a great adventure, I'm sure.
5/5. Hilarious. The sky might be full of large numbers of coins all making their way to their destinations.
Bloody brilliant. I have to wonder though at the culture that routinely enchants common currency. The image of vast clouds of glittering coins zooming from one end of the kingdom to another is mind-bendingly cool, but that is a LOT of wizards to employ at the royal mint. Still, what better way to emphasize the wealth and grandeur of a city than to show it all, swirling just out of reach?
But here's a puzzler: if the coins avoid obstacles, why would flying be dangerous? Shouldn't they just part around the flying object and go on their merry way?
I've updated the submission to better demonstrate what I intended by 'Avoids obstacles'. The Coins generally avoid buildings, trees, mountains and the like. Birds, people, windows, other things that can break- not so much.
If you're really tall, beware!
Update: Cleaned up thanks to some great comments!
This is a really good idea, and I'm pleased to see that some people have come up with adventures for it. I love items that are infinately practical but still unique. These would add great flavor to a very wealthy kingdom. I understand what you mean by avoiding obstacles. It avoids stationary obstacles, things that when the sender thinks of the person would be in the path, but living things can move into its predetermined path.
Cheka Man actually aroused just one bit of worry for me:
A) You noted that this coin is royal currency - how much is it worth? Say I had a debt of 1000 gold or whatever the standard currency is. Will one coin fit the bill?
B) If it doesn't, how can I send them en-masse. Throw them all in a bag, and hope they all get to the right target?
C) I hope that this coin prompts a mage to make "Gloves of snatching" which can momentarily dis-spell the coin so one could swipe it from the air, while riding say, a broom stick. =p
Overall though, I really do like the concept. In my opinion the only tweak it needs is how it deals with the transport of hundreds of these coins. Sending a cloud of copper or gold or whatever they are made of, seems just a bit...silly. Otherwise, you get lots of points for creativity. I don't think I've ever heard of something like this before.
Good Jorb.
Well, the author states they're mostly large denominations, and I think it's good as it is. Sending 20 000 gp would be as tedious as it sounds, prompting the payer to make a personal delivery. You'd have a large stash of unenchanted currency, and a smaller for distance payments.
I suppose this would have to be true, considering it's most likely a pretty hefty investment to have these coins minted in the first place.
Exactly! Which is why I'm interested in hearing more about the minting & distribution process. It doesn't sound like these coins are as rare a sight as I would assume any enchanted currency to be. If I were going to include this in my world (and I'm sorely tempted to), I'd want to iron out some of those issues ahead of time.
When I was typing this up, I had a short Corran-involved story for the creation process. I decided trying to kludge through it would prevent me from putting the sub up, so I skipped it.
Anyways, Corran created a set of molds (About fifty of them) that are enchanted to make a Falcon Coin. The molds themselves are strongly magical, and any coin poured into them receives the ability to be sent.
I want Falcon Coins to be a bit silly. For very large transactions, the idea of a swarming cloud or line of coins leaving 'contrails' across the skies amuses me.
This is so unique and hillarious that the short description provided is truly sufficient.
I'd add but two things:
*Traceability of the coin: can mediums or the like trace where a coin has been?
*Interception of the coin: I echo a previous comment: could a thieving Potter clone snatch them from mid-air to enrich himself? Sure, their enchantment needs to be temporarily suppressed, but perhaps... perhaps catching them is something only a few extremely dextrous individuals could do, making Falcon Coin theft a way of living for a few, while ensuing most transfers are safe.
What about a cursed villainous falcon coin where the enchantment has been twisted. Rather than hover in front of the recipient, the coin dashes into them, preferably their face, at high velocity. While it is going to be very rare for this sort of thing to be lethal and maybe a bit more of a prank, it could still be fun.
PC gets paid with a twisted coin, which hits them while they are in the middle of a contested melee, or are doing some sort of horseback skill check.
Without modification, the coins could be a serious problem for people who want to be discrete, such as thieves and assassins, a canny and fleet footed, or flight capable person could follow a coin to its recipient to discover who the real assassin is, or that sort of thing.
Holy crap. A culture that uses these commonly would be open to all kinds of exploit attacks. The coins are generally trusted, so victims wouldn't question the legitimacy of the coin until it was too late. What about imitator coins that are fashioned or enchanted to look like the real thing, but are actually full of explosives? What about coins that have had their edges sharpened and are altered to hit the person in the eye? It would take just ONE high profile attack like this for the currency to be banned outright.
This is a hilarious idea! I love it :)
A bit high-fantasy for my games, but it is stuff like this that makes me want to run a Harry Potter level magical campaign.
Harry Potter? Come to think of it I see what you mean.
3.5/5
Nice one, ted. And I salute the comments section! +.5 for generating 'churning minds'
A very innocuous detail but wonderfully thought provoking as showcased by the comments. Just reading through them is a joy and bonus to reading the sub itself.