"Of all the cities in all the world it could have flown into, he thought, it`s flown into mine..."

The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night are just one of the secret sects that meet once a week. Brother Fingers delivers a package to the Grand Master. He has plans to usurp the Patrician, Havelock Vetinari, and replace him with a puppet king. Ankh-Morpork had a king centuries ago, but have been happy enough without their excesses. A simple task. The package is a book, The Summoning, which has the spells to summon a big fire-breathing dragon. The new king just has to slay a dragon, and tradition says the populace will declare him king.

Carrot Ironfoundperson is a 6 foot 6 inch tall dwarf. This is explained by the fact that his parents found him as a baby in the woods, the only survivor of a bandit raid on a traveling party. His parents decide that now he is an adult he needs to know the truth about being human and to find a job in the city to broaden his mind. An exchange of letters lands him a post in the City Watch. He finds lodgings with Mrs Palm, unaware that she heads up the Guild of Seamstresses. Now that the guilds of Ankh-Morpork regulate their own activities the Watch has little to do. In fact the Night Watch is slimmed down to Captain Sam Vimes, frequently drunk, Sgt Fred Colon, fat and lazy, and Nobby Nobbs, light-fingered and possibly human. Within a day of his arrival and onto the beat the rather naive and simplistic Carrot has arrested the Master of the Guild of Thieves. He has memorised all of the City`s rules and ordinances even though most no longer  can be applied

The Seamstress Guild Tuppenny Upright pink
issued in the Year of the Sugnifying Frog,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The Thieves Guild 4p rom the Year of the Happy Goose
                                                                                                                                 demonstrating why thieves are called cutpurses.

  At the Unseen University the Librarian has discovered a heinous crime. Someone has stolen a book from the Library; The Summoning of Dragons, He finds Carrot more than willing to investigate.
That night on patrol the Watch witness a dragon in the skies over the city, and three members of the Thieves Guild are reduced to ash. Sam Vimes visits Lady Sybil Ramkin, known breeder of Swamp Dragons at Ramkin Hall which houses the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons . She can reel off all the facts about the little swamp dragons, and tells him that the Noble Dragon, the only species that could reach the size of the one seen, has been extinct for hundreds of years. The Bretheren membership do not want to be exploited and a greengrocers and a pub are given as examples of how they are exploited. Lo and behold, the dragon reduces them to rubble. The Brethren have a young man ready to play the hero ready and waiting.

Mr Josiah Boggis is Master of the Guild Of Thieves at the time of the events in this book.

The Dragon Sanctuary envelopes were a fund raiser to keep their flames alive. People sent in unused stamps. There are 10 of these to collect

The Watch go out on patrol looking for the dragon`s hideout. It is sighted atop the Tower of Art. It swoops down and destroys the Treacle Mine Road Watch House. An unconscious Vimes is dug out and taken to Ramkin Hall, where Lady Sybil tends to him. Sybil gives him one of her more domesticated dragons, which is named Erroll, and the use of Pseudopolis Yard, to use as a replacement Watch House.

The $1 Civic sport with a dragon perched on top of the Tower of Art

           Wincanton post label featuring Erroll the swamp dragon.      The Watch House 75p stamp from the Merchants Guild
                 A sheet with 20 different coloured dragons was a              Places of Interest series shows the Pseudopolis Yard building
trading scheme collectable                                                                                                  

On his recovery Vimes with the Watch and Sybil are looking for signs of the dragon down in the Shades. They hear a horn calling and head for the Plaza of Broken Dreams. The dragon is there, and so is the hero. The dragon appears to be reluctant to attack and as the hero strikes with his gleaming sword the dragon pops out of existence; Vimes is suspicious that there are no bits of the dragon. Ankh-Morpork accepts the hero as the new king and parties the night away - any excuse. However the dragon is seen that night and Erroll flies up at it. Vimes reports it to Lupine Wonce, secretary to Vetinari, who sacks him from the Watch. A coronation is hastily organised, officiated by the High Priest of Io.

The Shades farthing surcharge, showing how rough the area can be.

The five pence Blind Io stamp

The Dragon attacks, ending the new reign before it has begun and takes up residence in the Patrician`s Palace. Vetinari has been locked in the dungeons; dungeons he constructed on the principle that you should not construct a dungeon you would not want to stay in. The rats there have been trained to look after him well.

The Patrician’s Palace features on the Year of theSpinning Mouse $5 triangle stamp

Wonse is exposed as the Brethren`s Grand Master. He hoped to control the king (no-one had even asked the new kings name), but now the dragon controls Wonce. He tries to claim that Vetinari was behind it all, saying most of the threats against him were self-engineered to test his defences. Vimes joins Vetinari in the dungeon. Vetinari is using it as his office getting messages via the rats. The dungeon doors are actually bolted from the inside.

Palace guards arrive at Ramkin Hall at 3am, to escort Sybil down to the Square. She has been chosen by the dragon to be the first monthly sacrifice. Meanwhile the Librarian has ventured into L-space to find another copy of the book, to find out how the dragon can be controlled. He rescues Vimes from the dungeons and they then free Sybil. The rest of the Watch can see this from the roof of the Bearhugger Distillery, halfway between there and the palace. The dragon takes off and Colon fails to hit it with a crossbow bolt. They have to jump into a pond for safety. The dragon swoops down over the Square when Erroll, who has guts have been a bit dodgy, shoots flames backwards and soars into the air, flying around the dragon. Sybil realises it is a mating display and the big dragon is really female as the pair fly off forever,

Vimes enters the Palace and finds the Summoning where Wonce had hidden it. He orders Carrot to throw the book at him. Carrott obliges with his copy of the City Ordinances, toppling Wonce down five stories through floors that were broken up by the dragon. Vetinari had opened a secret panel in the dungeon, changed into clean clothes and let himself out with a spare key. In return for saving the city the Watch ask for a (modest) wage rise, a new kettle, and a dart board.