need not introduce myself as I am sure you have heard of me already. These are the scrolls that tell the tales of my many adventures. Alas, I have had a long and exciting life, and I am writing these tales so that none will forget the impact I made on the world nor the impact the world made on me. Perhaps some day my children, and grandchildren will read these stories and seek out the many places that I have been, and perhaps find adventures as I have.

Let me begin by apologizing to everyone that I am writing in common, but to get to the biggest audience I find that I must. I will begin my tale at the point I realized that my future would not be among my brothers. The day that changed the rest of my life and started me on the path to glory.

I had been a fairly uncontrollable child, spending my days doing what I wanted to do, which was getting attention how ever I could. I found that I could do this easily by entertaining those around me. By the time I was 110, I had found that I had the knack and had actually improved enough that some people actually liked my stories and antics. That was when I met Horatio Inveigle, bard extraordinaire, speaker of all languages, and master of the mandolin.

He had been traveling through the woods... for some reason... when he spotted our village. Apparently, he was able to see through our illusions that protected our home, and figured that entertaining some Elves would be better than staggering through the woods for who knows how many days. He came into our village and immediately noticed me. Of course, he couldn't help but notice. After several encounters with him he saw something in me that reminded me of himself apparently, and he asked me to become his protégé. I naturally accepted, and thus began my career as a bard.

After a month we were ready to leave. He always hated how long it took Elves to do things, but that's a human frailty... I said my final farewells to my family and friends, and almost felt like they were going to miss me, but I knew they were going to be happy to not have to deal with the problems I always caused. I promised them that I would be back one day, and prove that I could be someone that would demand respect. As we left, Horatio surprised me with a mandolin of my own, as well as a promise to make me almost as renown as himself... 

We traveled for about a week through the woods, luckily I knew my way around, and came out on a main road that led to a nearby human city called Varimon. It was huge, at least to me, and HI (that's what I called him) smiled as we entered the main gate. Something about his smile told me I was in for the time of my life. I won't bore you with the details of our stay or the years following because they mostly involved learning and practicing and struggling from time to time. I'll just say that I learned everything that Horatio knew, and was able to teach me. My still being young caused a few problems from time to time, but we made out fairly well.

Then in my 120th year, at about the time I was nearing the completion of my training, we were approached by a number of individuals who were interested in our services. Apparently they needed someone of HI's capabilities to help them in some sort of undertaking. HI said that he would be happy to help, but that he wouldn't go unless I was allowed to accompany him. Which the party gratefully excepted. During the following month we had a spectacular adventure, but alas I was always sent to the back of the party... for my safety they would say... where I met and befriended a human sorceress by the name of Draelin. This was also her first adventure, and she was hired for additional firepower should the need arise. The party treated us both as backup... of all the nerve. However, it was this reason that I am able to write these scrolls today.

It seems that this undertaking involved a raid on a monster's lair, and being in the back saved our hides. As those in the front took the brunt of the creature's assault we were thrown back against a cave wall. As luck would have it, this caused a small cave-in which buried us and shielded us from the creature's next assault. When Draelin and I finally dug ourselves out, there wasn't much left of the party and no signs of the creature. I was able to recover a ring, and Draelin a magic scroll. We then set out on our own in the hopes of finding our way back to civilization.

Thus begin the Scrolls of Aramil...