C7: The City Mint

This repository of wealth is the stamping and casting center for the official coinage of the Free City of Greyhawk. Its heavy stone vaults are lined with lead, guarded with magic mouth spells and a permanent guard detail of one elite and two standard patrols of the City Watch. Each vault contains a separate precious metal, or coinage already rendered from that metal. About 80-90% of the value is in ingot or bar form. Those entering the mint must pass through a heavily fortified entry hall, followed by the manufacturing shop, and then a small hallway with reinforced granite walls ten feet thick. This room is always occupied by a young mage (level 2-5) assigned by the guild to this temporary duty with the city. He or she always wears a ring of teleportation, and immediately pops to the Guildhall or University of Magical Arts to summon a wizard or two to defend the mint.

The value of money in the vaults varies from day to day, as reserves are accumu lated or coins are manufactured. Typical values might be as follows:

Platinum:1d100 x 1,000 gp worth

Gold: 2d20 x 1,000 gp worth

Silver: 1d10 x 1,000 gp worth

Electrum: 1d8 x 1,000 gp worth

The city no longer manufactures coins of copper, tin, or iron. The rate of inflation triggered by treasure brought to Greyhawk has made such bits virtually worthless.

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C7: City Mint. The official coin-stamping and casting center in Greyhawk is also the guildhall for the Mintworkers’ Guild, a heavily fortified and guarded pair of buildings connected by an external corridor, giving the structure an H shape. A bridge was built recently over the Millstream to allow access to the southern half of University Street, and this has become the only entrance to this windowless hall. One elite and two standard City Watch patrols are stationed here, with a great degree of magical and mundane protection behind them. Reinforcements from the City Watch and the Guildhall of Wizardry can arrive at a moment’s notice.

Platinum, gold, silver, and electrum coins are manufactured here. Copper commons are falling out of fashion except in Old City (where the poor hoard them), thanks to inflation brought on by recent treasure-hunters bringing in huge amounts of coinage, new and old. Older types of low-value coins, such as iron drabs and bronze zees, are no longer madé or accepted in trade; only children will pick them up if found on the ground. Coins minted here are transferred under heavy guard to the city’s moneylenders and other repositories before being put into circulation.

Dwarves were once excluded from entering the Guild of Mintworkers for fear that their lust for precious metals would overcome them. However, the guild voted in 588 Cy to allow dwarves in, following the retirement of three guildmembers who opposed the admission. Several dwarves now work for the guild, and no problems have developed. The guildmaster of the mintworkers is Wilyard Greathand [LN hm F3; hp 16; many protective magical items], who is best described as aggressively paranoid. He rarely leaves the City Mint for any reason.

DM's Notes: The exact amount of platinum, gold, electrum, and silver bars and coins kept in the City Mint is a secret, but the supply is huge. Platinum, in particular, is present in large amounts, as well as valuable metals used in iron alloys when making magical weapons and armor (mithral and adamantite). The Thieves’ Guild manages to skim off a few shipments of coins once they leave the City Mint, but no assault on the mint itself is seriously contemplated, as Org Nenshen (the guildmaster), Lord Mayor Nerof Gasgal, and the rest of the Directing Oligarchy flatly oppose it. The idea is freely debated for fun, of course.