As soon as we went down the stairs to the Thieves Maze, we got cussed out by a wounded man on the ground. I actually recognised him as one of the local thieves.
"Need a hand? We're down here looking for Sarevok," I explained. "He's due for some payback."
"He went just that way," he said, pointing, "I recognized him from when I was… ehhh… "exploring" the Iron Throne base the other day. I'll be all right, he was in too much of a hurry to do a proper job on me. You've got my blessings if you're tracking him down. The traps ahead will likely claim him, even with that mage he was dragging along with him."
Said mage must be the one who teleported him to safety. Hrm.
"Could you guide me through the maze so I can find him?" Neera asked.
"HA! Er… I mean, no. No, I won't be doing that. I ain't ever seen anyone walk out of that maze alive. Not that you won't survive or anything. I bet you just waltz through without a problem. Yes, sir. I'll just wait here to hear about it though. I ain't got no wish to meet the undead that maintain her, nor the jellies that keep her clean. Gotta… gotta catch my breath, you understand."
"Where does it lead?" Branwen asked.
"I don't rightly know, though it is said there is a city beneath this one. Some archaeologist smart-arsed sage might be able to tell you more about it. It's not a proper city down there, you understand. Just the remains. Not surprising, really. If the site that Baldur's Gate is built on I so appealing, it would figure that there would have been one built here before. I care little: nothing but dead down there now. Get moving. Just you be sure to give that Sarevok a shank o'steel."
I was no archaeologist smart-arsed sage, but I did know where it led. It led to the Undercity. It wasn't a very large area, but it was home to lots of undead and a certain temple. There, we would confront Sarevok and his remaining allies.
First though, we had to get through the maze.
---
Before anything else, I had Imoen cast Invisibility on herself and got her to run around clearing the entire area of traps.
What's so bad about mazes like these? Allow me to explain.
There isn't enough room for the six of us to manevuer in, and it's choke full of nasty traps and enemies with all sort of stupid resistances.
The high-level Skeleton Warriors here had 90% magic resistance, and resisted missile weapons and non-bludgeoning weapons too. They have an incredible Thac0 of 3.
Doom Guards were completely immune to missile weapons, and resisted cold and fire damage, and have an impressive Thac0 of 7.
The various slimes had a whole host of resistances as well, including immunity to missile weapons and piercing. Mustard jellies and gray oozes had complete immunity to magical spells.
What Imoen didn't see were the Invisible Stalkers which nearly immune to missile weapons and had an incredible AC of -6.
With so much resistance to missile damage and magic, we would be forced to melee with enemies. But in such tight quarters, it would be difficult to get our whole party to bear down on our enemies effectively.
This whole maze sucked, hard.
"There's really not much else to do but rely on brute force here," I explained to the team after Imoen came back, having scouted out the enemies and relevant route out while disarming traps.
We were forced to use rather simple tactics. Khalid, Jaheira would lead the charge into melee, with Branwen and Neera close behind. I and Imoen would strike from behind enemies once they were occupied with our front lines. That's it. I considered summoning skeleton warriors
I had half a heart to bypass ALL the monsters here by casting Invisibility on the whole party. Perhaps we should, if our purpose wasn't to clear the path to Sarevok so that we could commit all our resources to vanquishing the final confrontation. So labourously we went, clearing a path through with sheer might.
Quite literally, in fact. Khalid, Jaheira and I drank potions of Hill Giant Strength. Even Imoen drank a Strength potion.
Two green slimes and an ochre jelly went down to our weapons without much issue.
Two Mustard jellies, one got a critical hit in on Khalid, inflicting slow on him.
Two gray oozes went down to backstabs from quarterstaffs, surprisingly enough.
We pre-buffed with Bless against the two Doom Guards. Our backstabs fluffed, but in the end we managed to tank them well enough.
Two skeleton warriors were armed with longbows and twohanded swords. Jaheira got hit pretty hard by one two-handed sword strike.
From there, we took the first fork moving. Thankfully Imoen had scouted out the route of least resistance beforehand so we could avoid more unnecessary pain. We had reached the end of the Thieves' Maze, but someone else was at the exit, lying in his own blood.
It was the same mage who had teleported Sarevok out of the Ducal Palace earlier, Winski Perorate.
Winski coughed. "Well, well, I thought it would be you. Quite the little family reunion shaping up now, isn't it? I knew you would follow; you two are of the same blood. You must take the fight to him lest he strike you down at his leisure. Not that it will matter; you have already beaten him. His plans are in ruins, and his allies are fleeing in droves. Such glorious goals they were, though none understood the true desire behind them. None but me, that is. Unfortunately, I am now expendable, but I expected no less."
"What was your role in this? Why did you help him if you knew you were to be cast aside?"
"What was my role? I was Sarevok's mentor and tutored him in the blackest of rituals. If he had succeeded, there is no doubt I would be among the dead, but my name would live on in his wake. There are things beyond death if you die in the right fashion, and how could there not be a place in history for the architect that shaped the actions of the ascending Lord of Murder? You would not understand; you were born to affect the realms. The rest of us must carve our own place by whatever means necessary."
We had some idea by now, but it didn't hurt to ask someone so close to Sarevok. "So by inciting a war with Amn, he somehow thought he could ascend to godhood?"
Winski smiled, in spite of his wounds. "Tis no surprise that you know his plan by now. You have practically followed his every move. Likely you are driven by the same desires as well, though you have channeled them in a different fashion. No, war with Amn was not his true goal; Sarevok is no profiteer. The slaughter was all he wanted, with enough lives lost in the initial battles to ignite the fire in his own divine blood. He thought death on the appropriate scale would cause him to ascend. Perhaps he would have, but who can really say? If you have the arrogance of a god and can kill like a god, who's to say you are not a god?"
"A god that is hiding from mortal retribution," Branwen said under her breath.
"Oh, Sarevok is not intent on hiding. You have stripped him of any pretense; there is no longer any point in him maintaining his respectable veneer. Only the most fanatical or fearful of his allies stand by him now. He will gather what resources he can and move on. Of course he knows that you must come to confront him and that it is to his advantage to choose the battleground. There is an altar in the Undercity; it was to be where the ritual would take place, but now serves as his last refuge. If you do not go to him, he will strike at you at his leisure."
The most fanatical of his allies being Angelo, Tazok, and Semaj. That's going to be the final confrontation with Sarevok later.
"Uh, why are you bleeding on the ground?" Imoen asked the obvious question.
"Sarevok left me here for my "failure" earlier. He wished me to dispatch the Grand Dukes rather than effect his escape as I did. He would not consider failing as a possibility: a common weakness in those that would be gods. Do as you will: I am resigned to my fate whether it comes now or later."
I gave Jaheira a look. "Uh, his wound is already fatal."
After a cursory inspecting of his wounds, Jaheira didn't see the need to club the man over the head herself. It's not like she enjoyed violence.
We left Winski there for dead.