Tressa's Lucky Coin
Fortune & Misfortune
What worth is a coin that sits around in a dusty coffer? Kingdoms thrive as coin flows and goods move. So stop hoarding your riches and start spending them!
The lucky coin of Tressa is one of the known artefacts of the merchant goddess herself. Valued by other traders across the continent, legends speak of the great fortunes it can give to its holders. It also punishes the selfish and greedy, bringing equal misfortune to those who abuse its power.
Fortune & Fame
The coin’s appearance resembles the standard coin used in most Sichelan trade, the silver six-sided coin with the royal crest of Peripatia on it. The other side has its number scratched off.
Repeated circulation leaves the coin with a few stains and the finer details eroded away, either by moving between hands or lying out exposed to the weather.
(Mis)fortune
Those who own the coin of Tressa are said to wield her fortune in trade. For one to gain such power, one has to be paid in the coin for either a good or a service. Simply owning the coin wields no power whatsoever, if not has the opposite effect by bringing misfortune instead.
Once someone owns the coin, merchants find their luck in sales grow fast. Fate favours them and grants them greater profits and better deals, enough to have their business thrive. Even when the coin leaves their possession, their sales may remain high for years to come.
However, the coin requires to be traded and not to be hoarded. Any active attempt to hoard its power may cause it to reverse its effects, leading to misfortune upon its owner. Profits dry up and customers vanish, only growing worse the longer they keep the coin for themselves. Extreme cases even lead to businesses burning down and work-related accidents stacking up.
The coin eventually will find a way to move hands, either by the will of their owner or by force. Any attempt to deny that only causes greater disaster, often leading to either someone’s injury or death. Sometimes the pouch holding it gets lost during travel, other times its owner loses it while being robbed. Whatever happens, it will inevitably escape one's grasp one way or another.
Financial Records
Because of the way it travels, tracking it down proves difficult for even Tressa's worshippers. Most remain lost for years on end before showing up at a local merchant, only to vanish as fast. If anything, most of the goddess’s devotees do not even look for it out of respect for her beliefs.
Those following her ideals spend it the same day they found it, for its blessing will linger even if it is not in their possession. One common tradition is to spend the coin at the bar, buying a drink for everyone there. Hence often the common phrase to pour something “At Tressa’s expense”.
Contradicting Currency
Speculation goes around whether the lucky coin actually belonged to Tressa, as several elements of it contradict historical records.
The first being the design itself, as the coin has a closer resemblance to modern Sichelan currency than the era Tressa lived in. Though it may still use the same metal as the original, as most old coins got molten down back during the change to make the new ones.
Others believe that there are multiple coins of her in circulation, each one belonging to her coin pouch during travels. This further leads to speculation how many even are out there, believed to be around a dozen coins.
Interesting coin! Would its luck still work on various owners of a house, if it's left forgotten in a dark dusty corner? Or must it be held by an owner, so to say, for its effects to work?
"If you look upon the stars, know that you look upon a light of the past."