In the forest an elf moves silently along one of many paths made by
various animals.  The elf is a forest elf which explains his presence in
the forest.  Though he is tall for an elf, and carries himself with the
walk of one who has seen the finer points of human civilization, he is none
the less one of the very best at what he does.  He likes to survive.

   Silently he moves through the forest muttering, "Blasted bills... The
Gatekeeper better appreciate what I go through..."  He follows a little
used trail, a sheening blade held out before him, just slightly outlined
with a blue light, and stops at a certain outcropping of moss covered rock.
Looking around carefully under the glimmering sunlight filtered by the
leaves and needles of the forest he pulls out a small sack from under the
outcrop and counts three large green jewels out.  He grumbles about lost
wealth and nasty battles to get it.

   He places the small leather sack back into the darkness under the
outcrop and continues up the trail until the trail ends.  As it ends he
steps into the brush and disppears.

   Well, not really, he just steps into the brush.  Past the brush is a
clearing about 75 paces across and shaped as a circle.  In the middle of
the clearing is a large gray rectangular pegmatite, it's granity surface
pocked by two holes in the place where eyes might be.  Lanoi grudgingly
places two of the three gems into the sockets and steps back.

   Five minutes later, after much waiting and wondering if the gems were
quality enough, the "eyes" of the monolith light up.  Lanoi moves quickly
towards it and says, "What is green?"  The monolith shudders for a moment
and then says in a voice like the grating of stone against steel, "West."
The jewels in the eyes then disappear.

   Lanoi grumbles a bit more.  Then finds an animal trail west and follows
it carefully.  After a day of traveling west he begins to become annoyed,
almost to the point of not noticing the small band of forest wights
converging upon him.  At the last possible moment that he could have waited
till in fear for his very life, Lanoi pulls out his sword to see it glowing
startingly blue.  The wights run screaming into the darkness that has
befallen the forest.

   Blue light doesn't scare everything, though, as Lanoi soon finds out.
Whistling from behind, a wood handled knife nearly skewers Lanoi's head.
In the heartbeat of a second of time that occured after that Lanoi drops
from sight and finds cover behind a large rotting stump.  Not hearing
anything else from the forest he carefully glances about, and finally over
the stump to narrowly miss being mashed by a spiked club.  Lanoi jumps out
of the way as two forest trolls converge upon him wielding nasty clubs.

  A club swings over Lanoi as he ducks low and jabs with his sword,
imbedding it deep into a troll, which screams horribly as it notices the
wound.  Lanoi pulls the sword free and quickly parries a blow from the
other troll.  The first troll looks at it's wound and before your eyes it
heals completely.  Lanoi is obviously unhappy about that.

  While dodging another blow from the second troll, Lanoi notices another
troll in the trees with a bow.  There is a snap of an arrow loosing, and in
the space of time that it takes a speeding arrow to reach a target, Lanoi
moves his sword to deflect the arrow.  The arrow then goes into the first
troll, exploding.  The third troll screams and joins the second in
attacking Lanoi.

  After a series of non-fatal fatal blows to the trolls, Lanoi jumps clear
of them and races through the forest, in the direction that they seemed to
have come from.  Fighting with a 60 pound long sword is quite  tiring, even
for an athletic elf such as Lanoi.

  With no warning whatsoever, Lanoi barges into the troll village and
scatters troll children in his haste.  Pausing briefly to mutter his
apologies he continues to run.

  Suddenly in front of him a door opens and it is either hit it or go
through the wicket wall of a troll house.  He chooses the house and finds
himself face to face with an angry troll lord.  The troll lord, though, had
just been sleeping so did not know anything about anything when Lanoi took
his gold crown.  Grinning Lanoi exits the building to confront the angry
troll mob.  He yells loudly, "It's bad luck to have your shoes untied!"
Three fourths of the troll mob look at their feet as Lanoi escapes through
a seldom used cleaning facility back into the forest.

  Three days later he wanders into Edgekeep with a bag.  He goes to the
Savings and Loans and sells a troll crown for 12500 gold pieces.

  One could then hear him muttering, "Ah, what I wouldnt' give for a good
troll burger right now..."  If one watched one would also see him muttering
to himself as he entered the Twisted Dagger Inn.