I believe trolls do have gold Wheels in their hoards, precisely because they are not monsters. They are intelligent beings, and when they trade with humans, perfectly capable of determining what humans consider valuable and obtaining it. Also, the solar identity could be a silly human conceit. Everyone knows you mine gold from underground, where the sun never shines. Finally, trolls may value gold for its own sake, as a soft and malleable (or smooth and tasty) metal. I'm sure they don't mint it into Wheels, but they may have ransomed some foolish adventurer for cash. *end quote*
I have to disagree with both. I think the very nature of the supplement (fleshing out a whole Troll tribe, etc), shows us that the authors do *not* think of Trolls as monsters (of floating hit-point blobs as Some Other Game (tm) might do it). The authors might not have considered the runic associations with gold when they put them in the treasure troves.
Which leads me to another point. I can't think of the solar identity as a "silly human conceit". Runic associations just run way too deep for that, especially for magical creatures such as Trolls that are, by their very natures, creatures associated with certain runes. I would no sooner offer a Troll a wheel in payment than I would offer a sundomer a bolg (some of 'em, you can't even push lunars on!).
One more thing. I don't think it's at all weird that gold comes from underground (although I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me they heard of gold falling from the sky either - maybe if a sundomer behind on his mortgage payments successfully DIs ...). After all, Yelm ended up in the underworld after Orlanth whacked him. And Yelm didn't just sulk around, either: he held Korasting (the Trolls' fertility goddess) captive in the underworld, preventing her powers from reaching Kygor Litor and kin, thus preventing the birth of any more Mistress Race Trolls. Furthermore, Yelm drove out all the Trolls from Wonderhome. I could go on, but I think I made my point.
Which leads me to believe that the wheels in the treasure troves are merely oversights (maybe I'll replace 'em with 1d100 lunars if I ever run a game through the Haunted Ruins to avoid the whole issue). Now, can anyone explain why so many menbers of the Sazdorf clan have Detect Gold among their known Spirit magic spells? (arrrgh! <g>)
robert
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