This adventuring thing is scarier than I expected. Actually, I didn't even expect it, really.

Yesterday, the Dean of Arts invited a bunch of students to her office, including me. Apparently someone had made off with her favorite statue, and she wants us to go after it. It sounded like fun, actually, and mysterious. And wow, the Belar asking *me* for a favor? Unbelievable.

There are some things that don't really make sense to me, though. Like, why would someone cross the Belar like that? Everyone knows that they are powerful and good, and why would you cross them? And the really weird thing is that someone angered a powerful Belar just to get a statue that isn't important or all that valuable. Well, she said that it was worth 10,000 gp, which sounds like a lot of money to me, but I guess it's still not worth all the effort. And if you're going to steal a piece of artwork, why would you leave behind something almost as valuable as a replacement? It doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, our first day on the road going after the caravan that has the statue was pretty uneventful. There was a nice girl at the inn where we stayed who had a problem. It seems her husband had to work far away in the mines because they didn't have the money to pay taxes. That seems crazy to me! Anyway, I guess that adventurers get a lot of money, so 15 gp shouldn't matter too much, and that's all she needed. I only had about 35, but I'll get more in the future. I guess this probably doesn't count as a trip expense. She promised to pay me back, but I don't care about that.

Tonight we sleep in the woods for the first time. Outside, even!

Feb. 22

Last night I saw some strange lights in the woods, but nothing really happened. I was on watch, and woke the team up, but we decided not to do anything about it. I get the feeling that Vaugner wanted to go after them, especially after someone said that they might be worth money. But I thought it was best to be more circumspect. Running around in the woods at night chasing lights sounds like a bad idea.

I guess this is a good time to talk about the rest of the group, since nothing else really happened today. They're all pretty different.

Blink seems like an ok guy. He definitely likes to know exactly what's going on, who's going where, stuff like that. That's ok with me, though really he's pretty anal. It's probably a good thing -- someone needs to make sure the details are taken care of. I'm not sure how good he will be in a fight. He's a monk, and I just don't see how punching something can be as good as using a weapon, and not wearing armor sounds dangerous. But I hear monks are pretty dangerous themselves. I guess we'll see.

Errol, on the other hand, is pretty whiny. He doesn't like the outside, he thinks everything is really dirty. He was willing to get drunk for the first time, though, so he's not all that stuck up. And his drumming is pretty neat, though I sort of wish he had some other instrument for variation while riding. I mean, he has a lot of different things he can do with a drum, but it's still just a drum after all that.

Malit is hard to get a grip on. Sometimes he seems like Vaugner, and sometimes he seems really different. I guess he spent a lot of time out in the outer city, which is maybe why I didn't know him that well in school. Kind of kept to himself. I get the feeling that he's got some different ideas than the rest of us about a lot of things.

Vaugner is definitely a weird guy. I mean, I knew he wasn't much like me in school, but I had no idea! First of all, he's completely paranoid. He sleeps with caltrops around his bed! Which, if you think about it, is probably a really bad idea safety-wise. What if we need to fight in the middle of the night, or we're in a hurry or whatever. It'd slow us down way more if we got hurt that it likely will something sneaking around in the campsite. Besides, we have people on watch all the time anyways. Also, he's really disrespectful to the Belar. He referred to the Dean as a "hottie"! Of course she's beautiful, but you shouldn't think about them that way.

And finally Vernon. We always got along, since he hangs out in the stables all the time where I keep my horse. But still, he's really hard to get to know in any non-superficial way. Mostly he keeps all his opinions to himself. He is really diffident and just agrees with everyone. I guess he's just shy. He *is* really good with horses, though, which will be handy.

Feb. 23

Wow, our first fight! Last night, our horses got attacked by some evil carnivorous horses. We killed two of them, and drove off the third.

It was harder than I thought. I kept missing in the dark, and it was frustrating since I was worried about our horses. Blink is pretty good in a fight, though! He killed one of the evil things basically by himself, and hurt another one pretty badly. I finished off that one.

Everyone helped, actually. Vaugner used his sling, and he's strong enough that I bet it hurt! Errol played the drums, and that was pretty cool as well. It definitely made me fight better. It's surprising that just a little banging on drums makes that much of a difference. And Malit shot at them with a crossbow. I was hoping for a little magic, but he didn't do any.

Oh, and Vernon! He also likes to use polearms, but mostly he healed the horses and kept them under control. Which was important, since the horses were terrified.

Well, that's it. We just caught up to the caravan, so I will have to write more later.