Blunderball

The Beggar's Sovereign

Challenge #1: Write an adventure story using a character, setting and MacGuffin suggested by three different fellow participants. The character must be an autobiographical description of the person who suggested it.

Character: An engineer who prefers to solve problems with a hammer – but in down time enjoys drawing and singing folk songs. Enjoys outdoor pursuits as long as any trip culminates in a visit to a good old fashioned pub with a hearty meal and a tankard of cider. ()

Setting: The fully furnished and richly decorated throne room of a long-abandoned castle. Why it was never cleared out or looted is uncertain, only that everything remains, dusty and mildewed and occasionally a little moth-nibbled but otherwise untouched. ()

MacGuffin: An enchanted coin that can be spent to bribe anyone to do anything. ()

The sight was a wonder. Though the castle itself stood crumbling and forlorn – a bleak ruin atop the only high ground on the Fell Tor Mires – this one room was immaculately preserved. Where other chambers had been cleared of valuables and others fallen in all together, this room – the throne room – held every trinket and tapestry it might have done when it was constructed. Indeed, thought Lara Jones as she gazed about the straining tables and crowded shelves, it had probably gained quite a few new treasures since then.

With a sudden mechanical rattle, the door swung shut.

Lara would have turned to look at it, but her attention was instead drawn to the figure who had pulled the lever. The figure on the throne.

"You seek the Beggar's Sovereign, I take it?" His accent was unfamiliar: nowhere in the world had she heard a voice quite the same.

"Yes," she answered plainly. "It belongs in a museum."

"Ha!"

The laugh echoed around the chamber as the figure stood. His posture and the thinness of his limbs suggested extreme age, but his movements were precise and swift, his eyes bright beneath the hood.

"Many before you have come in search of the Sovereign. But what you – what no archaeologist – could ever understand is that it is no mere talisman. No mere portion of gold."

"Then what is it?" Lara asked.

"It is greed..." the figure paused. "And it is power. For any who lay eyes upon the coin will do anything to lay their hands on it too."

"You seem to know a lot about this artefact. Have you seen it for yourself?"

"Oh, yes."

The figure stepped closer, and Lara thought she could detect a faint rattle as he moved, much the same as when the door had closed of its own accord.

"The Beggar's Sovereign has been in my possession many times. You see, I was wealthy when it came to me. That coin may be unique, but once spent it is easily recovered with common silver and hired steel."

"So it is still in your possession?"

"Alas, no." The figure sighed and the sound was tinny, like air passing over an open pipe. "Though I could show you to the one who holds it now."

"That's awfully kind of you," said Lara, choosing to ignore the sinister chuckle that had followed the offer. "Who did you give it to in the end?"

"Though the Beggar's Sovereign charmed many who sought an audience with me – though it won many friends and appeased many foes – there came at last a visitor from whom that coin could not be reclaimed: a strange rider upon a pale horse. But though this rider cost me my coin, I gained a greater gift still."

The figure closed his fingers around the hem of his hood. Except, Lara saw, they were not fingers but rods of gold.

"Behold!" cried the figure, revealing his face at last. "The immortal body of King Ordulf, fashioned by the hands of Death himself!"

Ordulf's whole frame was forged of gold, countless oscillating wheels and ticking cogs working busily inside. There was another faint rattle as he drew a dagger from his belt.

"I don't know if you want to do that," said Lara.

"Really?" King Ordulf hissed. "And why is that? For what reason should the Deathless King fear a mere scholar of archaeology?"

"I'm not an archaeologist," explained Lara Jones, retrieving a hammer from her satchel. "I'm an engineer."