Dragon Dice
Despite the protestations of many clergymen and women, gambling is pretty widespread and always has been. Even the acient dragons of the First Age reputedly loved playing dice games.
History
The First Unmaking devastated dragon society and destroyed many cultural artifacts. Whatever relics that survived had to survive thousands of years of slow decay, callous looters, and Second Unmaking so very very few artifacts of the First Age remain. Even broken tools and trinkets sell for large sums on the collectors' market. Of the ancient Draconic relics still around, dice are among the most common. Most of them are two big for a humanoid to roll, so they are often used as artistic centerpieces. The great prevailence of these ancient dice leads credence to the idea that gamblingwas indeed very popular and widespread in the First Age, perhaps too popular. But could also be a confirmation bias in play because these dice were often crafted of durable materials, so they outlasted other relics of their era."-Akeem of Magicland, Professor Emeritus of Historyby Eron12 with Hero Forge"There are very few legible scrolls or tablets remaining from the the First Age. Most of the documents we have from the First Age are copies of copies of copies and even this is pretty sparse. What is interesting is that even with the dearth of First Age literature, we have not one, not two, but three separate accounts of ancient dragon clergy lamenting on how gambling is corrupting the youth. It's all very similarly written to how contemporary priests complain about gambling. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Significance
-Zajac of the Fumayan Lanternsby Eron12 with Heroforge"Clergy often like to decry the dangers of gambling, especially clergy from the Keepers, Guardians, and Masks. The thrill of games of chance is too alluring to snuff out, especially since it has adherents amongst the Testers, Rovers. Lanterns and more than a few Children and Stewards (plus a lot of Masks like gambling on the down low). It doesn't take much to convince many people to pick up dice and roll them, but a lot of people say 'if it's good enough for ancient dragons, it's good enough for us.' And thus games of dice will never fall out of style in Scarterra."
Item type
Toy
Rarity
Rare
Base Price
5 silver to 100 silver depending on the size and condition of the ancient dice.
Raw materials & Components
Ancient dice surviving from the First Unmaking are generally crafted from stone. The dragons may have made dice out of other materials, but if that's the case, very few if any of these dice survived into the Third Age.
In the Third Age, dice are made up of a huge variety materials, stone, ivory, bone, wood, volcanic glass, and even more exotic materials. Six sided dice are the most common but other types of dice are known.
The wisest and most sophisticated gamers of course favor ten-sided dice though there are rumors of wizards living on the coast who favor twenty-sided dice.
"First Age relics are worth a lot of money to the right collector, but forgeries are all too common. This applies to dice and pretty much any other First Age relic. you might find for sale in a bazaar." -Eknok, tengku merchantTengku #5 by Zeta Gardner
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