And everything was going so well. This journal entry is written while sitting on a tree branch while I am on the run from the law. This is quite disturbing. But I best begin at the begining.

Thanos, Bess, and I arrived in Ashabenford this afternoon and delivered the box Captain Ikamos gave us to Captain Hern of the Riders of Mistledale. Inside was an exquisite necklace, worth a fortune, and covered in gems. Captain Hern didn't seem to have been expecting it, or was preoccupied with other tasks, and was uninterested in Thanos' attempts at smalltalk. We left as quickly as we arrived.

As we investigated the town, we found a merchant caravan, guarded by men in black armor, holding a female moon elf prisoner. She used some kind of magic spell to alert us - the three of us heard "helpless" in our minds when we noticed her. Thanos decided it might be a good idea if he and Bess caused a rather loud distraction ahead of the caravan, giving me a chance to investigate the wagon with the prisoner. I agreed this was a good course of action, and we proceeded accordingly. Apparently, we were not the only ones to receive the signal. As I attempted to free the woman -- actually, two; the other, a human, was not visible at first -- I noticed a halfling that was attempting to carry a box for the caravan. Only he wasn't carrying the box; he was dropping it on the ground and apologizing repteatedly to the guard. Profusely. And loudly. I ran to the back of the wagon the women were in and tried to break open the lock on the back of the wagon, but met no success. I then decided to sneak into the front of the wagon and asked the ladies to follow me out. Just then, the back door mysteriously unlocked and opened, so I followed them out instead.

Once out, I heard a voice say to meet at the White Hart Inn. Not knowing who was talking, and needing to regroup with Thanos and Bess, I told the women I would meet them there. I then ran past the caravan to meet up with Thanos, who was just getting ready to pull away -- he had staged a "breakdown" in which the mule came unhitched from his cart. He had an argument with one of the guards, who assaulted our mule! We left before anything further happened, and decided it would be wise to take our time going to the inn to avoid undue suspicion, so we went looking for a merchant to buy the tapestries we were carring. We got 300gp each, so, it was certainly worth carrying them all this way. Bess and I tried to find someone who could tell us what religion the symbol we found was, but could find no one who could (or would) tell us.

After a while, we went to the White Hart Inn and, not seeing either of the two women, or the halfling I saw causing the distraction, I spoke to the barkeep about doing a performance. He agreed, and an hour later, Bess and I performed to yet another stunned crowd. During the performance, I saw someone approach Thanos, and the two of them walked away somewhere for a short time. After we were done, Thanos had already returned and told us to meet him upstairs. I talked with the barkeep to get my payment, and then met Thanos upstairs. We were led into a room with two halflings - one of which was the one creating the distraction, and the two women from earlier. The two women had both put on disguises.

Finally, a chance to relax after a busy day! Or so I thought. I finally learned the names of the people we had attempted to save, as well as the halflings: the one who caused the distraction is Bock "Toadspit" Barleyson. I'm sure I don't want to know where he got the nickname "Toadspit". I can only imagine some kind of shady initiation ritual into some bizarre group of some kind. The hidden one who unlocked the door was a halfling named Fwip Whipson. He seems to have an uncanny knack at hiding and lock-picking, and is handy with disguises. The moon elf is named Rainfall, the human, Larisa.

While talking with Fwip and Bock, we learned that they were also on the Flying Dutchman after we departed at Scardale. Apparently, they overhead the Captain Ikaemos talking to a mage dressed in black about completing a "task", which was apparently to deliver something to someone - that is, he had us deliver it for him. After this, the Captain was killed to eliminate evidence, and an imposter who evidently didn't know much about how to run a ship replaced him.

Before we could learn much more, we heard a ruckus from outside. Fwip went to investigate, and returned quickly. He told us that the Captain of the Guard's wife had been killed by a necklace she put on, and that The Riders were looking for "a monk and a dwarf". Without much time to think, we all agreed on a meeting place outside of town and Thanos and I quickly escaped out the window. On our way to the bridge across the river, we ran into a guard, and had to incapacitate him before we could escape. We were finally able to make it out of the town safely, though.

And so that's how I'm on the run from the law, for the first time in my life. This is wrong. I don't know how, but I need to resolve this and get our names cleared. Actually, I'm not worried so much about our names as finding the people who set this up and turning them in. I'm hoping Brock and Fwip will be able to assist, since they have more information about the people behind this murder. I'm also hoping that we are wanted only for information; I hope we're not under suspcicion of murder. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of evidence that would help our position. The real Captain Ikaemos is dead, with an imposter in his place, so we can't ask him to testify on our behalf.

Right now, Thanos and I have managed to get out of Ashabenford and are waiting hidden, just off the road towards Essembra, for our new friends to find us.

I hope Bess is ok. I regret having to leave her with people we only just met, but they seem decent enough, and Bess can take care of herself. I don't know what Rainfall and Larisa's story is. Best I can guess is they got kidnapped. I'd ask Thanos now, but I want to get some sleep before tomorrow.