There was really just one thing to do before heading back to the Grand Dukes. May as well.
In the Blade and Stars, Shaella, priest of Leira, awaited the report on our quest for the Great Book of Unknowing.
"Elnaedra sees through the mists of the Lady that you are strong and worthy adventurers," Shaella said.
"But your name was Shaella?" I asked her back.
"Elnaedra knows not of whom you speak and you are but strangers to her."
"I have searched every inch of Candlekeep and cannot find the Great Book of the Unknowing which is said to be housed there," I reported to her.
"Then the Lady has been kind to you for you have found it. Walk well in the mists of Leira," Shaella said. Elnaedra. Whatever she's calling herself now.
And with that, she left. That was that.
I felt a twitch in my forehead.
What the heck was that all about?!?
---
Back to the Ducal Palace! Before reporting to Liia Jannath and Belt, we, uh, collected our payment from the Dukes for services rendered in the form of loot on the 3rd floor of the Ducal Palace.
Loot on third floor:
Bastard Sword +1, Arrow +1 (×20)
Splint Mail +1,
Oil of Speed, Potion of Cloud Giant Strength, Potion of Heroism
Mage scrolls of Agannazar's Scorcher, Fireball, Chill Touch, Horror, Color Spray, Haste, Slow, Clairvoyance, Ghost Armor, Protection From Normal Missiles,
Cursed Scroll of Stupidity, Cursed Scroll of Petrification,
Wand of Sleep (×2)
and plenty of gems and money. Yay!
Liia Jannath and Belt were glad to be reunited with Duke Eltan, and congratulated us on his rescue. Liia Jannath had finished divining where Sarevok had been teleported to, and kindly teleported us to that location.
---
That location turned out to be the Thieves' Guild.
"What is this?! It seems like everyone's crashing in on the Thieves' Guild these days. First that huge armored guy, and now you! You better tell me what you're here about, and right quick, or you're in a lot of trouble!" one of members said to us.
I recognized this as Denkod, one of the thieves. "We're tracking down Sarevok… the huge armored guy. Where did he go?"
"He went down the stairs right over there. He was sure in a hurry. If you're going after the guy, it'd probably be good of you to get a little more prepared than you look. Down there's the thief warrens, and they're really dangerous. Go talk to Black Lily over in the store room by the stairs. She'll give you some good prices on equipment. I even hear that she sells some magical stuff."
As Denkod said, down the stairs were the thief warrens which were dangerous and one should be prepared before going in.
And there's really no rush to chase Sarevok at this point. As I explained before, Sarevok isn't defeated, but his plans certainly are. After fleeing to the Undercity with his remaining allies, Sarevok has been cut of from the resources of the Iron Throne and any hope of taking over the city of Baldur's Gate. All that's left is to put him into the ground.
Or talk him into surrendering. We did promise that much to Tamoko. We would fail to do so in the original game, but I was willing to try again here.
In other words, we finally caught a break! We can now take a long rest and examine all our loot!
Four Wands of Sleep… I regret even buying the first one. Like the spell, Wands of Sleep only work on enemies up to level 4. Very useful against large packs of weak enemies, sure, and best of all it can be used by anyone with Intelligence 9+. It's just that the party has two Rings of Wizardry so Imoen and Neera both have plenty of Sleep spells to control fights with. On top of that I have an ever-growing pile of Sleep scrolls. I suppose I should keep one Wand for rare times when our mages run out of Sleep spells and sell the rest.
I also suppose that if I were playing on a more game difficult setting, I would be making use of the huge assortment of resources at my disposal more often rather than being so stingy. For example, I could have had Khalid, Jaheira and myself use various strength potions and Potions of Heroism more often, even though we didn't really need it.
Let's look over what we have left.
-Shandalar's Quest (Ice Island)
-Durlag's Tower
-Mendas's quest (Isle of the Balduran)
-Thieves' Maze, Undercity and Final Showdown with Sarevok
-The Final Showdown with Sarevok ends the game, naturally. So that has to be last.
I could go and complete the Thieves Maze and Undercity and turning back before completing the final showdown with Sarevok. With the Thieves Maze being such a royal pain to navigate though, I wasn't too keen on going in and out of it multiple times. But was it really wise to face Sarevok's crew after being weathered down by both the Thieves Maze and the Undercity, though? I wasn't so sure. Maybe I should just suck up the pain of the Thieves Maze and Undercity first.
-Shandalar's quest is pretty simple and shorter than the rest, if I recall correctly. Certainly did not need special consideration.
-Mendas's quest had some elements in it which strongly encouraged that we do Durlag's tower first.
So how about Thieves Maze, Undercity, Shandalar's quest, Durlag's Tower, Mendas's quest then finally the Final Confrontation with Sarevok?
Yes, that makes sense. I'd be pressed to explain to the party why we weren't prioritising Sarevok and go on long adventures.
Still, I had some preparations to make first. A quick trip to the docks was called for, to look for someone who could sell me something. Hopefully there's some construction work going on...