6th floor
The Gatewarden, Ulraunt and Tethoril were all on this floor, but didn't have anything significant to say to me yet. Ulraunt donated to our party a Wand of Sleep, whereas Tethoril donated a mage scroll of Identify.
Loot on 6th floor:
1,025 Gold, Potion of Fire Resistance, Potion of Healing, Elixir of Health,
Mage scroll of Protection From Normal Missiles, Ghost Armor,
Protection scroll of Protection From Petrification,
Wand of Magic Missiles (12 charges),
Ring of Protection +1
(Imoen led Thethroril away from the chest with the ring of Protection and Wand for me to pilfer)
---
Now that we were done collecting donations from the library, it was time to face Koveras aka Sarevok. Before we walked down from the 6th floor to the 2nd floor though, we had a quick discussion.
"We've been asked by Duke Eltan to bring the two leaders of the Iron Throne, Rieltar and Brunos in for questioning. So what should we do about Sarevok?" Branwen asked. "Can we capture him as well? Kill him?"
I wasn't actually sure if that was possible. For that matter, I wasn't actually sure what we could do. Back in the game, Koveras/Sarevok was protected by plot armor as it wasn't the preordained time to face him yet. I've seen it before with Dorn, where he was invincible because the plot demanded as such. I wasn't particularly keen on trying my luck. Besides, there was a whole lot of loot underneath Candlekeep that is only accessible if the plot follows the original timeline.
Yet, I couldn't very well tell my party that, could I?
"Even if the Duke Eltan's orders extends to other leaders of the Iron Throne like Sarevok, does Baldur's Gate's authority extend to Candlekeep?" I asked Jaheira and Khalid. "I've never seen a Flaming Fist soldier in Candlekeep for as long as I remember."
"It does not. Candlekeep is not governed by the Grand Dukes. Though the Avowed who rule Candlekeep do maintain friendly ties with the leadership of Baldur's Gate, technically Candlekeep is neutral territory," Jaheira answered.
"Uh, I'm pretty we aren't allowed to capture or arrest visitors of Candlekeep. Or kill, if it came to that," Imoen said.
Me being Sonny, I was pretty sure such acts wouldn't fly as well. I had to give this some thought.
In the original game, Duke Eltan does in fact give us the tome so that we can confront Rieltar in Candlekeep, just like he did this time. But if we do confront (and kill) Rieltar and Brunos, what ends up happening is we get arrested by the Watchers. There isn't an option in the original game to tell the Watchers that we were acting on Duke Eltan's orders. Then we were to get sent to the city into the hands of the Flaming Fist for murdering the Iron Throne leaders.
But Duke Eltan is the leader of the Flaming Fist! Seeing as how we were acting on his orders, how would that work? I guess the only reason we are on the wrong side of the law is because Duke Eltan is ill-disposed by the time we get back to the city. Otherwise by rights he would have us released as soon as the party is passed into the custody of the Flaming Fist, if it came to that.
So what to do? How to manage the politics of the situation?
...uh, wasn't there an obvious way of doing things?
"Urm. Should we talk to the leaders of Candlekeep first?"
---
Conveniently, both of the highest ranking leaders were right up here, on the 6th floor. Ulraunt, the Keeper of the Tomes, is the overall leader. Unfortunately in the original game Ulraunt immediately accuses the party of murder and doesn't believe the party after Rieltar is killed, even if the party is innocent. He knows what I am, after all
Tethtoril on the other hand, the First Reader of Candlekeep, may rank lower than Ulraunt but is more symathetic to us due to our relationship with Gorion.
Tethoril may rank lower, but we decided we should present our case to him first as he is less likely to react badly to our orders from Duke Eltan.
By the end of our explanation, Tethoril looked as if he had a headache. "Let's go through this again. Candlekeep has been infiltrated by doppelgangers, one of which was in the main library which has been reported to the Watchers, another found in the Priest's quarters. So that is pretty much confirmed with evidence. Meanwhile, you are here on the orders of Duke Eltan to arrest the leaders of the Iron Throne, Rieltar and Brunos, to be interrogated for their possible role in the Iron Crisis."
"That is correct," I confirmed.
"So there are two separate issues. In regards to the arrest of visitors to Candlekeep, we would need an official letter from Duke Eltan requesting our co-operation," Tethoril said.
Crap! That actually made sense. Duke Eltan, how could you not give us such an important warrant of arrest!
"Regarding the doppelgangers, that is certainly a problem. If there is magic which can penetrate the disguise of doppelgangers, we do not have access to it," Tethoril explained.
I almost wanted to mention their VERY powerful visitor, Cadderly Bonaduce, chosen of Denier the god of knowledge. I was almost certain Cadderly could suss out doppelgangers at-will. But that could negate my trip to the catacombs later. Erm.
"In the mean time, there is a matter of the purpose behind the doppelgangers' actions. Do you know what their objective is? You say the Iron Throne has used doppelgangers to replace members of rival merchant consortium in Baldur's Gate, but Candlekeep isn't such an organisation."
The party looked at each other. Meanwhile, Neera looked right at me.
I had to choose my words carefully. "Our current running theory is that the doppelgangers work for Sarevok, a high ranking member of the Iron Throne, and he intends to use them to murder the top leaders of the Iron Throne who are currently meeting with members of the Knights of the Shield. He is currently disguised as a monk named Koveras. Since I'm here, he's probably hoping I end up murdering the Iron Throne leaders for him when they refuse to come quietly to Baldur's Gate."
Wait wait wait. Now that I think of it, Sarevok's grand plan to get me to murder the Iron Throne leaders while they are in Candlekeep makes no sense. Sarevok is NOT privy to my orders from Duke Eltan. Sure, I've read the letters that Rieltar and Brunos are currently in Candlekeep. And even if I refuse to kill them Sarevok had doppelgangers waiting to kill them instead. But Sarevok had no way of knowing I'd come to Candlekeep to confront them. How could I without the tome of high value supplied by Duke Eltan?
Then again, perhaps Sarevok had an inside source in the Flaming Fist? Angelo comes to mind. But then, Angelo would not have had time to inform Sarevok I was coming to Candlekeep since I only knew I was going very recently-
Ugh, nevermind. It's a small plot hole. Don't examine your favorite works of fiction too carefully, folks.
Meanwhile, Tethoril looked like his headache had turned into a full migraine. "Doppelgangers are here to murder guests in the library, or alternatively agents of Duke Eltan will do so instead. What even is this setup? Is there no way to avoid murdering guests of Candlekeep within these sacred halls?"
In the game? Not really. I just shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe cooperate with us, let us arrest Rieltar and Brunos in the presence of an escort of Watchers?"
Tethoril glared at me. "I'll do my own thinking, thank you. You were right to bring this problem to my attention. But I will have to discuss the correct course of action with Ulraunt. I doubt the doppelgangers would be able to replace a mage of his power so easily."
"Better hurry. Doppelgangers may strike and kill Rieltar and Brunos as soon as there's indication that their plan is at imperiled."
In the mean time, we decided to stick with Tethoril while he meets Ulraunt. We couldn't very well be accused of murder while we had an alibi that were we in the presence of the two top leaders of Candlekeep, after all.
---
In the end, both Tethoril and Ulraunt ended up following us around to check for threats together with a contingent of Watchers. The infiltration of the sacred library by bloodthirsty doppelgangers had been confirmed, so there was no way the leaders of Candlekeep were going to let such a huge threat to their security go unchecked.
We were visited the second floor first, but the monk named Koveras was nowhere in sight.
"Where's Koveras?" I asked.
"Does such a person even exist?" Ulraunt asked, with a skeptical eye turned to me.
We asked around if anyone had seen Koveras. Thankfully, Bendalis once again confirmed that there was indeed a Koveras, and even told us that the monk had made himself scarce as soon as there was commotion. People had witnessed the strange monk moving downstairs in a hurry, so he may have even left the building.
Okay, I have to admit that this made sense. Once we had taken steps like this, Koveras was naturally going to make himself scarce. What a shame! I had already imagined how the conversation would go since he would try to taunt me while in disguise. I cherished the opportunity to taunt him back.
(Loot on 2nd floor: Mage scrolls of Chromatic Orb, Mirror Image, Melf's Acid Arrow, Luck, but it's not like we could pick these up in the presence of Tethoril and Ulraunt).
"We can leave the task of investigating where this Koveras fellow went to a Watcher. In the mean time, we had better make sure the guests on the third floor are safe," Ulraunt said.
"You mean the fugitives," I added.
Ulraunt stared daggers at me but led the way to the third floor wordlessly.