Dragon's Gaze

   We’re very excited to have recovered the ring before you, for it took much sifting through firsthand and secondhand accounts, as well as reviewing historical documents. The owner, Dagros Enzag, was…well, perhaps not a celebrity per se, but he certainly had a reputation. Dagros was a merchant and diplomat whose station seemed to rise faster than his lust for gold, which you know is saying something if you’ve ever heard of him before now. 
    According to countless records, Dagros owned several properties across numerous territories, which included—but was not limited to— two stables, two vineyards, a distillery, and several ships of various sizes tailored to everything from merchant voyages, fishing, and pleasure outings. While this alone would hardly spark the interest of members here at the Emporium, the peculiarity around Dagros is that no one seems to know how he amassed such a fortune. 
    No previous family members or generational wealth seem to exist, though of course he may have simply changed his name if his fortune grew from nefarious seeds. But historians and hobbyists alike agree that no one man—nefarious or not—could likely build such an empire in one lifetime (though Dagros was said to be in his fifties during the height of his notoriety, for what that is worth).
    So what secret did he hide, and what does it have to do with this ring? 
Dagros Enzag was said to flaunt his wealth wherever he went with gold drippings and exotic leather, but countless witnesses report always seeing him wear this ring: large and made of silver, with a generous onyx stone at its center. This, however, was not always the case.
    The appearance of this ring coincided almost perfectly (if reports are to be believed) with a surge in assassination attempts against Dagros from what were undoubtedly individuals after his endless wealth. Here, though, reports become muddied. 
    We will spare you specific instances and sources from this report, but it seems numerous attempts at both poisoning and elimination by hired blades were made against Dagros Enzag, but to no avail. Without fail, Dagros would be missing from the location when shadowy figures appeared. Similarly, he would consume poisoned items, yet nothing would follow. As you can imagine, this sparked quite a bit of gossip and, eventually, legend.

Dagros began to earn the moniker “Dragon’s Blood,” with people saying no toxin could take root in him, and would be immediately destroyed. This led to inevitable speculation that Dagros was not only a mage or magus, but a rather potent one—a rumor he doesn’t ever seem to have been documented disproving. This facet of his mystery is also what has drawn eyes to the one piece of silver Dagros was ever seen wearing: this onyx ring, which is where its nickname “Dragon’s Gaze” likely stems from. 
    Did this ring give its wearer protection from potent poisons of would-be assassins? A fortitude envied by those around them? Did it even, perhaps, not limit itself to toxins in the bloodstream…was it a boon to overall health, allowing its wearer to live an unnaturally long life? Or, perhaps in the case of Dagros…was it merely a fashionable decoy to distract from whatever true secrets he held in other means?

Honestly, it is difficult to say. As is the case with most pockets of history and culture of this nature, the longer one survives against the odds, the more legend overshadows fact. The design of this ring—with its sides appearing as sheer cliff faces, while seen from above appearing as hardened reptilian skin surrounding such a deep, dark stone—resembling in part a Dragon’s eye, and worn by someone called “Dragon’s Blood” in whispered tones…someone who lived a seemingly long, mysterious life full of wealth and riches…someone immune to the attacks of common mortals…

Well...we'll let you decide. Was Dagros Enzag a powerful mage? A mysterious diplomat who changed his name after shadowy exploits amassed him untold wealth? Were there never any attacks on him, and he merely inflated his own legend to deter would-be aggressors, wearing this ring as a smoke screen?

Or...do you believe as some do, that perhaps Dagros Enzag was more than that. That maybe, just maybe, he was quite literally a Dragon himself, disguised as a human walking the earth among us for a [human] lifetime before taking to the skies once more and disappearing from the annals of history?

In the end, it matters not. But if this ring did at one time hold any benefits of health and constitution to those who wore it, we hope a spark of that enchantment remains for you to this day.