"So," Corvallis finally said, "the application of the metaphor, I’m guessing, is as follows. Right now the Troll could log out and lose nothing. He’s like a raccoon who hasn’t put his hand into the stump yet. But it looks like he’s fixing to go out with his posse and Find and unHide a lot of the gold they’ve stashed around the Torgai. Then he’ll try to carry it out to a moneychanger. At that point, he’s like a raccoon who has grabbed the bait. If you attack him and he gets killed, or just logs out, he doesn’t get the money he needs."