Druzy Quartz Pendant

Dragon kind prize their trusted servants as much as any human noble, wherever they come from. When a resource must travel to other regions or other planes and no one expendable will do, the master will sometimes gift their servant a Druzy Quartz Pendant.

Keeping Touch in a Hostile World

For now, the most imperative doctrine in the The Blackfire Ascendency is to keep dragons hidden from all other races until the time comes to strike. Unfortunately, there are not enough dragons to see to all of the Empire's interests, and Kaelyth make generally horrible agents, as they are young and obvious. In these moments, they rely on servants or slaves from those same races that they seek to subjugate. Those who serve willingly, either former members of cults or slaves turned trusted retainers, are sometimes asked to travel to cities in order to carry out tasks for their masters.

Druzy Quartz Pendants were created by the dragon hierarchy to facilitate clandestine communication between servant and master. Each pendant is actually a dragon scale taken from the master and calcified to resemble the quartz variety for which it is named. When worn by the servant, the pendant allows for two-way telepathic communication between the servant and master. While the servant may change over the course of time, each pendant is specifically keyed to the dragon who created it, and its attunement cannot be changed on that end. It is impossible for a servant to remove the pendant without the dragon's permission.

Punishing Consequences

Haven't slept in days ... can I just lay in the wagon?

— -Tarkish Min, Sorcerer

While Druzy Quartz Pendants were designed to facilitate mental communication between parties, they can also be used to torment an unruly servant. Uncreative dragons might simply use the mental connection to strike out at their agent with migraines or other forms of physical pain. More crafty masters can use the mental connection to infiltrate the recipient's dreams, disrupting their sleep, striking at them with realistic nightmares, and even killing them. This form of punishment is uncommon; the last thing most dragons want is a rebellious agent loose in the field. However it is not unheard of. It is also theoretically possible for a dragon to lash out in this way at an enemy who unwittingly wears and attunes to the pendant. That enemy would be helpless before the onslaught - unable to remove the jewelry and with no defense against the attack.

A Tool for the Resistance

Ina? Are you there? I wanted to tell you about my whole day. First ...

— - Jet Ramonson

As rifts have begun to form among the dragons and several of the youngest have fled into the wilds in an effort to help the other races, these pendants have become a tool for both sides. One of the first thing the adolescents did was to craft their own pendants. They then began to disseminate them to trusted friends in human, elvish, and even gnomish settlements. This allowed them to get word to those friends in times of need.

Of course, as with all things, there are drawbacks. In this case, those drawbacks are mostly for the dragon. Many of the other races have difficulty containing their enthusiasm at having befriended even a young mythical creature and can become highly talkative. Some of the younger dragons have come to regret their decisions to part with the pendants. The magic that imbues the talismans also creates a bond - originally meant to tighten the connection between master and servant. In the case of the dissidents, it has been known to create a close link. In one documented case, the owner of one of these pendants unofficially adopted the dragon who attached to him, even though she was technically older than him.