Turns out J was a really hard letter to come up with something for, but eventually I found Jewels, as in the jewels which a dragon will keep in its hoard. Ladies and Gentlemen, today we visit the vast mounds of treasure that dragon’s keep, known as: The Dragon’s Hoard.

Why would anyone try to fight a dragon? Given how armoured they are, with frightening attack, both mundane claws and teeth and magical fire breath, it seems like an almost impossible task. But the answer is simple, people are after the many treasures that dragons keep for themselves.

Piles of glittering coins, priceless jewelery, chests heaving fir to burst with precious gemstones, weapons, armour, long-lost magical items, even scrolls and books of forgotten knowledge, the dragon collects it all into one vast pile that they sleep on each night. Dragons use their hoards as a measure of self-worth, and they never grow bored of it. They will know every single item in their collection, down to every last coin, and even if a sneaky thief manages to get in and steal a single item, they will know that it is missing and hunt the thief down to retrieve it.

A dragon has to amass its own hoard from scratch. When wyrmlings leave the nest, not one coin of their parent’s hoard goes with them, and having played with their parent’s hoard, the need to hoards treasure is with them from the earliest ages. Of course, dragons can overcome the natural inclination to hoard wealth and enjoy other meaningful activities in their life, but it has been said that even those dragon feel an itch in the back of their minds to take some treasure and make a nice little pile of it in their home.

So what exactly is in a dragon’s hoard? The board answer is anything that it deems valuable, or of wealth, and is very individual to each dragon. A dragon’s hoard will tell you what that dragon values the most, books and art pieces, or the traditional gold and jewels? Both are hoards, but they are the hoards of very different dragons. A dragon’s hoard can also tell you about the history of the area, given that they live for far longer than human they will collect items at all ages. It will also tell you about the environment they live in – a dragon living in a swamp will not keep anything that can be ruined by the waters of the place. Since dragons jealously guard their hoards, they are unlikely that have anything from too far away from their hoard since they need to protect it, so item will generally be from the local area, unless some terrified people have brought something from their own culture with them as a gift for the dragon.

Some examples of thing that can be found in a dragon’s hoard are:

  • Coins
  • Gemstones
  • Artwork (sculptures, painting, tapestries, statues)
  • Clothing (helms, dresses, cloaks, boots, slippers, belts)
  • Furnishing (bookcase, chest, chair, desk, mirrors, lamps, tables)
  • Jewelry (amulets, necklaces, bracelets, crown, earrings, pins, rings, scepter)
  • Musical Instrument (bells, drums, fiddles, flute, harp, lute, lyre, organ)
  • Hard Materials (bone, crystal, glass, ivory, metal, stone, wood)
  • Soft Materials (cloth, feathers, furs, hides)
  • Adventuring items (from adventurers who have tried and failed before)
  • Knowledge items (scrolls, books, maps)
  • Trade Goods (food and drink, cosmetics and perfumes, dyes and paints, metals and textiles)
  • Magical Items

So there we go, and run down of the famous dragon hoards. If you were a dragon, what would you collect to be in your hoard? Personally? I would have lots of jewelry and gemstones, with a fair few scrolls and magical items in there.