So tired. If I am going to spend any more time with these people I will have to teach them the importance of the finer things in life. We stayed up all night dealing with this statue, and once we finally got it their bright idea was to ride to town with it, meet Jacob, chat a bit, and promptly ride back out with barely a break for shopping, much less a good meal or a good rest. How do they stay awake so long? I nearly fell off Epimetheus this afternoon.

We met up with Jacob's caravan yesterday and convinced him to take us along as fellow travelers. After we stopped for the night and they set up their tent, which was quite impressive, Vernon and I went to talk to Jacob and explain why we were really there. He was not impressed with my plan of making sure the locks on the wagons weren't opened, but we were sure that the statue was with him and would probably be moved that night. Fortunately Kestrel found out that of the people who had joined the caravan most recently, one of them was not in the camp. Vernon managed to follow him (without telling us, and the less said about that the better) and apparently saw him meeting with some other people. We intercepted him on his way back to the camp and managed to subdue him enough to tell us where the statue was even though he was apparently quite afraid of his crime boss associate, and we also recovered some troll statuettes that Jacob later told us could be turned into trolls. I can't imagine why we would ever want to do that, so we sold them to Jacob for a good price.

Vernon tracked the crime boss to a hidden cave. Some of our less intelligent people wanted to rush into the cave and confront him but clearer thinking prevailed and off we went to meet Jacob in town and then to return the statue.

While in town I bought many of the things I should have been told to buy before we left. I get a cloak and a good pot for boiling water and some soap and a tent and best of all, a very well-made bedroll that came with a warm blanket and a feather pillow inside a strong cloth case to be used outside. Tonight will be far more pleasant and far less vermin-infested, I expect.

Feb 26

Much horse-riding ensued.

Feb 27

And again. The idiots would not even stop in town for another serving of that delightful ale or a hot meal. Again I question their judgement.

Feb 28

As we were about to ride into Pavalar, a man in black caught us from behind. His horse appeared to move at an unearthly speed, and this was explained when he revealed himself as a Belar. He demanded the statue, and pointed a staff at us asking who had it. As I had it wrapped in my bedroll, and he seemed unable to figure that out, I remained "in stunned silence" but actually coming up with a cunning plan, that being to yell at Malif to use the opal Tera gave us to call her. Kestrel and Vernon did some foolish things as expected and were magically injured for their reward, which seemed quite reasonable to me and another good reason not to volunteer for this ever again. Tera arrived and erected some sort of wall between us and the Belar and had a dramatic magical duel with him, which she appeared to win handily. She told us that that was Klaus and we would find out more later. I tried to give her back her statue in the interest of avoiding further attacks, but she said it would be best if we took it into town ourselves. I assumed that this meant that, regardless of her earlier warnings to keep this mission secret, the veil had been lifted and a victory parade was awaiting us. This was not to be.

We rode into town with little fanfare, and Pippy (the boy who had invented some dragon stories for us before we left) sold us some oddly named rocks that we could water and turn into pets. They sounded entertaining, and only 1 gold piece, and as the trolls had made us rich I bought one. This was promptly confiscated by the Inner City guard as we went in. I have sent Kestrel out to teach the boy some manners and recover our money, but in retrospect he may not have been the best choice. We returned the statue and talked to some non-Belar people there about our trip, and then I went off for a well-deserved meal and rest.

I intend to study more over the next couple days and increase my powers, and then retire to a satisfying and peaceful life in the orchestra here, with only my fine bedroll to remind me of these unpleasant days. I do believe I will find some ale again though.