Chapter 16

This thing against riddles

"Not again!" John groaned. "I hate that place!" His last experience with it had involved certain things he still experienced in nightmares.

"Why in the world did Irenicus leave for that place, of all places?" K'yanae sighed. "Father would throw a fit if I went there." Her eyes brightened at this. "Well."

"You're forgetting something," Arundel said mildly, "Not all of us have infravision. And those of us who have infravision are probably not used to the way one would have to use it in the Underdark."

"Yeah. I definitely don't want to go into there," John said firmly.

"Your soul?" K'yanae shot him a concerned glance. "Hey. You're glowing again."

John closed his eyes and tried to will himself to stop. When he looked – the glow had stopped, but he had a feeling that once he forgot about it, it would start again. Great. : Meri, how long can you replace my half? :

: Till the end of your life, if need be, : Meri told him mildly. : Though you might end up getting some of my personality traits permanently. :

"I'm not in a hurry to get it back," John said, though he winced at the thought of turning into half-Meri. "We can try to wait him out."

"If he comes out," Entreri pointed out.

"There are many exits to the Underdark, and the Underdark itself is a huge place. We'd never be able to trace him." K'yanae said, then sniffed the air. "Someone's coming."

Entreri glanced at her, then at the door, and growled. "Saemon Havarian. Come out."

Saemon Havarian, dressed now in a strange suit of sky-blue leather armor that seemed strengthened at parts with mithril, complete with leather leg guards and high boots, stepped out into view at the doorway, and bowed gracefully, his forest-green cloak sweeping before him like large wings. He was armed now, with a two swords which had a rapier's hand-shielding hilt but which had blades that resembled that of a katana's, except shorter. At his hips he had a small crossbow, and also a case of bolts, both traced in veins of some silvery metal.

"Perhaps I could be of some help." Saemon walked into the room, idly looking around at the carnage. "Irenicus has left for the Underdark, you say – and I know where he would have gone." He looked at Arundel and Peregrine, both of whom were aiming their ranged weapons at him. "Oh please. I am in no position to attack your party." The glance he shot Peregrine was dispassionate.

"You've betrayed us once," John pointed out. "Now, why shouldn't we cut you into ribbons now?"

"Because I know where Irenicus is – and I know what he wishes to do next?" Saemon smiled rakishly.

"Then you'd better tell us," K'yanae said calmly.

"Ah, Lady K'yanae – it is a pleasure to see that you have recovered," Saemon bowed in her direction. "Very well… Saemon has gone to the drow outpost of Ust Natha… which is near the entrance to the elf-controlled area near Suldanesselar."

"Drow outpost!" Arundel exclaimed. "We cannot follow him there, surely."

"Suldanesselar is in chaos and its inhabitants are either ousted, dead, or in tiny, fighting pockets in the city that would soon be extinguished by Irenicus and his allies," Saemon said, ignoring Arundel. "Queen Ellesime has been presumed dead. Irenicus intends to go there after his business in Ust Natha – involving some Matron there – and in Suldanesselar, he would apparently get some part of some great power inside it – and you might not be able to stop him."

"So your counsel is… ?"

"I'd take you back to the mainland, and you go to Suldanesselar and wait for Irenicus there. There's no use waiting outside the exit to the Underdark there – no doubt Irenicus has portals set into the city itself. And unless you wish to brave the Underdark and get to Ust Natha…"

"What's in this for you?" John asked suspiciously.

"I'd like a pledge from Lady K'yanae that the Black Talons – as well as the Thief Guild she is a prominent member of – would not come hunting for my skin," Saemon said blandly.

"And we can actually trust you again?" Arundel pointed out sarcastically.

Saemon shrugged. "Do you have a choice? It's either follow me out of here – believe me, I'd be a better bet than if you tried hitching a ride on any of the pirate ships, even if you could persuade their captains to take you on – or plow your way through the Underdark."

"We have a choice," Peregrine said quietly. She was bent over Yoshimo's body, and her hand glowed emerald.

"Oh?" Saemon gave her a look of studied curiosity. "And what would that be?"

Peregrine smiled. "This is the essence of a geas." She held up her hand. "I propose to place it on you and geas you to us… such that we would be sure you would not betray this party."

Saemon paled, and looked to K'yanae.

"Go on," K'yanae said mockingly. "It's only a reassurance of trust. If you're so reluctant to have it put on you, that'd mean you're up to something, aren't you?"

Saemon bit his lip. "I have… something I ought to tell you then. Irenicus gave me a silver blade which has been bringing me a bit of trouble lately."

"What sort of trouble?" John asked wearily.

"It turned out that the blade, though powerful, is some religious object of a group of githyanki," Saemon said unhappily, "And they are desirous of getting it back."

"Give it back to them, then," Arundel voiced the logical solution.

"On most times they seemed more interested in killing me first," Saemon said dryly.

"In other words, you're very happy to take us along so that we can save your arse from monsters," John said bluntly.

"We still need a way out of here that doesn't involve the Underdark," Peregrine said mildly. "The geas would prevent him from any other betrayals… or do you have others you wish to voice now?"

"None," Saemon swallowed. "Look, we don't need to put that on me…"

"As I said, it's only a reassurance." K'yanae said coldly.

"You should probably understand my reluctance to give you something that could allow you to kill me easily," Saemon said with a note of pleading.

"We could kill you now," John let his hands start glowing theatrically. Entreri growled an assent.

Saemon glanced quickly at them, and then his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Do it, then."

**

They got out of the city with some difficulty, considering that it turned out another reason why Saemon needed them along was because his ship was under guard, and they had to kill said guards. Since at nightfall there was also some strange barrier that disallowed ships from getting out of Brynnlaw or coming in, K'yanae and Entreri also had to be sent to steal a Horn of Passing which was in the Pirate Lord's mistress' room. Said mistress, being engaged in activity (to put it mildly) with another male who was obviously not the Pirate Lord, was too caught up to notice.

However, when they were boarding the ship, said mistress appeared leading the Pirate Lord and ten more pirates behind them, where Saemon was accused of theft. There was a small, highly amusing (to John's current personality) scene where the Pirate Lord killed his adulterous mistress, and a further scuffle where the party managed to massacre the pirates, after which they were able to leave. Finally.

The trip was distinctly lacking in incident. Arundel was greatly relieved to see that his golem was safe and sound in the hold, and now spent a lot of his time there fussing over it. Peregrine was normally with Saemon – since she had placed the geas, Saemon had been geased to her, and though it didn't seem to be working, he was still striving to persuade her to take it off him. John had a feeling Peregrine rather enjoyed the method of persuasion, but she wasn't giving in.

K'yanae and Entreri had taken a room to themselves, and spent a lot of time inside it or on the deck conversing. So it was such that John was left with hardly anyone to talk to except for Meri, to his annoyance, and so was half-relieved when one day everyone was called up to deck by the frenzied shouts of the crew. Apparently a githyanki ship was gaining on them.

That wasn't particularly exciting either – after John and Meri engaged in a short mage-battle with the approaching ship and threatened to burn it down, the githyanki elected to send a representative onto their ship, where they retrieved the silver blade and both sides agreed not to bother each other any longer.

Eventually they docked back at Athkatla, where the only amusing thing that happened was that Arundel had to pretend to be the captain of the ship, and both K'yanae and Saemon had to hide, the city being notoriously drow-unfriendly. They were only able to restock afterwards – K'yanae got Yoshimo's leather armor repaired for her to wear. She told them she felt strange wearing a dead man's things, but there was not much choice, and Yoshimo's armor, the same suit taken from the dragon's lair, was of good quality.

And though Saemon vigorously protested, he had to follow them to Suldanesselar as a member of the group. Rumors were that an elven camp of Suldanesselar exiles had gathered near the Underdark exit, and that they had been strengthened by some outside military force. Though as per normal, the attitude in Athkatla seemed to be that elven business was elven business, and to hell with them.

As the group set out from the city gates, the guards only gave them a passing glance, to Saemon's relief, which he voiced later, along with reiterated arguments as to why it was a bad idea to force him to follow them, but a stare from Entreri put a damper on his protests.

Synchronicity, at least, was behaving, and after they got out of sight from the gates, it dumped them at the outskirts of a large, orderly military camp that flew, at the gates, two large, proud flags that featured the symbol of a black talon on a field of crimson.

**

"Father!" K'yanae flew into Zaknafein's arms. The old elf smiled and murmured something into his daughter's ear, and Neira somehow managed to hug them both. The party was gathered outside the central tent in the Black Talon encampment, and John was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable for looking in on something that was obviously private.

Eventually, K'yanae let go and grinned at Zaknafein. "What took you so long?"

Zaknafein snorted, and raised an eyebrow at Entreri. "Weren't you warned not to break the tracer? And the both of you had to lose your collars, so we had no damned idea where in the Nine Hells you were. Since some of the elven Talons have ties to Suldanesselar, which would probably have been the least hostile to us in this region, we sneaked down here to try to get some information, and found that they'd been displaced from their city."

He waved an elegant hand at a group of gold elves, dressed in elaborate, green elf armor. "That one with the helmet is their current leader – Duke Eldron. There was a bit of a confusion in which both of us nearly ended up fighting each other, but we've sorted it out."

"So what are you doing here?" K'yanae asked curiously.

"We figured that you'd eventually follow Irenicus here," Zaknafein said mildly, "He is in the city right now, as we speak. Didn't want to commit to an attack until I got some news from you." He smiled a little maliciously. "Not to mention it doesn't matter a lot to me if Suldanesselar were to fall."

Duke Eldron sighed. "I have told you, your Grace, that you will be paid when the coffers of Suldanesselar are open to us again."

Zaknafein had winced slightly at the 'your Grace', but he shrugged. "K'yanae, do you want to continue chasing this Irenicus?"

"John Constantine helped me get back what Bodhi took from me," K'yanae winked at John. "So I suppose I'm bound to help him get back what Irenicus took from him." Her fingers were twitching a little, and John realized that Zaknafein was idly observing them, as if understanding a code, but not making it obvious.

"Ah, I see," Zaknafein straightened, and glanced at John with piercing eyes. "You intend to enter the city to seek him out?"

John nodded. "Though there are some things about him I'd like to know."

"No doubt these gentlemen would be very helpful," Zaknafein inclined his head at Duke Eldron impatiently.

"We still need the Rhynn Lanthorn, that was lost to us due to the accursed Irenicus, to open the gates, your Grace," Duke Eldron told Zaknafein. "Without it, no matter how much I tell these… people, there is not much we can do."

"Didn't I say?" Zaknafein feigned astonishment. "I have the Rhynn Lanthorn."

"What?"

"Or rather, I know someone who has it." Zaknafein stepped back a little, and twitched the tent flap aside. A rather singular-looking personage emerged, shielding his eyes from the light. "This is Jarlaxle."

Jarlaxle was a dark elf, shorter than Zaknafein, but with a considerably louder presence. He wore a wide-brimmed, velvet hat on his head, a royal purple in hue with a band of fabric in burnished gold, from which several large grayish feathers were held, that dangled down to brush at his back. His angular face had one eye covered by an elaborate, ruby-red eye patch, while the other one twinkled merrily, the sensual mouth turning up at the corners into a self-satisfied smirk at the elves' astonishment. He wore dark leather armor that bared well-muscled arms caught at times with high bracelets, where eight bangles of differing materials gathered at his wrist, over the soft gloves, and from his neck also hung a large collection of medallions, necklaces and whatnot, all of which looked as though they had hidden properties. A beautifully wrought rapier hung at his hip, along with a few wands, and he wore breeches of soft leather that ended in high black boots.

The most stunning thing about this strange elf was his cloak of shimmering colors, iridescent and painful to look at for too long, and a certain look that he had that warned all that this elf was not to be trifled with. Perhaps it was the wicked grin, or the calculating look that got into his eyes when he looked everyone over efficiently to see which would be a threat, or the casually familiar way he rested one gloved hand on the hilt of his rapier. "Even with a spell, the light is still strange to look at, " Jarlaxle told Zaknafein lightly. He spoke in the Common tongue, without a single trace of an accent.

Zaknafein shrugged. "That's your problem."

"Jarlaxle… aren't you Silaran's father?" K'yanae frowned. "I think I heard something about that."

"The same," Jarlaxle agreed amiably. He held a strange, twisted thing in one hand, which looked nearly like a battle-horn. John surmised that it was the Rhynn Lanthorn, whatever the hell that was, by the way Duke Eldron and the elves stared at it. "You must be the lovely K'yanae Do'Urden." He stepped forward, catlike, and kissed K'yanae's hand with archaic formality. From behind K'yanae, Entreri growled.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" K'yanae grinned.

"What a way to speak!" Jarlaxle eyed Zaknafein. "You resemble your father already."

Zaknafein snorted. "Jarlaxle is a weasel, K'yanae. You know what pests are like – they keep coming back no matter how hard you step on them."

"You wound me, old friend," Jarlaxle said archly.

"How did you get the Rhynn Lanthorn?" Duke Eldron demanded.

"Actually, I have been in communication with Jarlaxle and what was left of his Bregan D'aerthe – I told you it was a mistake to get too close to House Baenre – ever since the Talons have camped here," Zaknafein told Jarlaxle, who shrugged. "In exchange for my aid in sorting out some things in the city, Jarlaxle agreed to give me something that he said that you lot would be very interested in." Zaknafein gestured at the Rhynn Lanthorn. "Since he is a thief as well as being a liar and a scoundrel, I doubt you need to ask him how it got into his possession."

"What things in the city?" Eldron asked, confused. "Suldanesselar?"

"No, Ust Natha," Zaknafein replied. "There were a few problems involving a lich and Bregan D'aerthe soldiers. We also managed to have a bit of fun with a balor that one of the stupid Matrons was trying to summon." He and Jarlaxle exchanged amused looks. "Turned out they were trying to sacrifice some silver dragon eggs… "

"Silver dragon!" Eldron gasped. "You mean the Lady Anariel's eggs? The drow have them?"

"Irenicus somehow managed to steal them," Zaknafein explained, "And so the silver dragon – Anariel – was not able to exert her normal influence on Ust Natha. Hence the attacks on Suldanesselar. We got her eggs back to her – though it was a close thing – and the balor took out its anger on the Temple of Lloth, since we made it such that it could only roam that part of the Prime Material Plane for an hour before it had to return. That was Jarlaxle's idea," he added after a pause.

"Turns out an hour was enough time," Jarlaxle agreed, smirking. "Ust Natha is in disarray now. Anariel has her eggs and has had her revenge – for all that she is a silver dragon, she doesn't seem averse to going on killing sprees."

"Dark elves – those dark elves, are evil." Duke Eldron said with a hint of self-righteousness. "The Lady Anariel was entirely justified in what she would have done."

Jarlaxle rolled his eyes at Zaknafein, who grinned.

"What I was saying," Jarlaxle continued, handing the Rhynn Lanthorn to Eldron, "Was that if you try mounting an assault on the city now, I doubt you'd need to fear recrimination from the back. Anariel has been very helpful by closing up the city and trapping the other dark elves in it." He glanced at Arundel, frowning slightly. "You look familiar."

Arundel held out his hands. "Have I met you before, then?"

Zaknafein's fingers twitched at Jarlaxle, who grimaced at him, as if he were forced to carry on with his suspicions. "I believe I've seen you while you wore another color… and were claiming to be some sort of Vhaeraun priest."

John slowly turned and stared at Arundel, as did the rest. The elf stood his ground. "I am called the Godless One."

Jarlaxle was quick to pounce on that. "Are you. My memory is quite accurate… if I recall, your name then was 'Dal'sharran'… and you were wandering around cities trying to spread Vhaeraun's teachings, though you disappeared a few centuries ago."

"Jarlaxle… " Zaknafein sounded irritated. "Are you sure about this?"

"We can verify it," Eldron volunteered, with a hard glance at Arundel. "Our sages."

Arundel sighed in defeat. "Very well… yes, I am Dal'sharran. I came to the Surface quite a while ago in an attempt to spread Vhaeraun's popularity here, though I found quickly that there is a violent prejudice against dark elves here. So I settled for changing my skin color in a way that would allow me an excuse not to explain my background, and which would allow pure-blood elves an excuse not to stay in my company."

John was going to get a headache from all the self-revelations. Meri explained to him that this obviously explained Arundel's little insecurities, and several other incidents, but John tuned her out.

"I found friendship on the Surface." Arundel glanced at the party, a little hesitantly. "The Order of the Radiant Heart, for one. Though I kept to my original purpose by building schools to educate the peasantry. Education makes the mind more flexible… most of the time." This last was addressed to Eldron. "I was even invited to Suldanesselar itself once – due to the weight of my name in this part of the world – though I suspected Ellesime saw through my disguise, she said nothing of it."

"You are drow…" Eldron started lamely, no doubt about to launch into some sort of tirade.

"So am I," Zaknafein cut in, with a glance at Arundel. "What was your purpose in joining this party?"

"They helped me against a dragon, now I help them," Arundel shrugged. "And it had been profitable, and enjoyable." He smiled regretfully. "If I am to leave now – I do not mind – though I'd rather see this to the end."

"Are you sure you worship Vhaeraun?" Zaknafein seemed amused.

Arundel chuckled. "Yes. He is more tolerant than you'd know, actually… and I have a feeling he approved of my methods."

"I don't mind him in the party," K'yanae said, looking to John. "Since I'm part drow myself."

"If K'yanae doesn't mind… then I don't particularly care," Entreri spoke up.

Peregrine shot Saemon an look of amusement. "Considering who else we have in this group… I do not mind." Saemon chuckled, though he still looked a little put out with the whole issue of the geas.

John looked down at the panther, then sighed. "I have no idea why all of you are looking at me, but so far… Arundel's a decent sort. Though it seems I can't tell between 'sorts' very well any longer," he added, thinking about Yoshimo.

"Then it's settled," K'yanae said decisively. "When are we reclaiming Suldanesselar?"

"After you rest," Neira smiled. "And you tell us in full what happened."

**

It took a day to explain everything to Zaknafein's satisfaction and for them to rest, eat and clean up, and Eldron, true to his word, answered John's questions about Irenicus – Joneleth Irenicus. Then the next morning John watched the Black Talon encampment efficiently begin to mobilize, and was swept along, still yawning from his nap, towards Suldanesselar. The panther at his side had found some fish (he didn't know how) that had been cooked in the encampment, and was purring its satisfaction. John and the party were around the head of the one-hundred-strong Black Talon soldiers whom were marching in perfect order over the turf, after having left a few score to guard. Next to them, Zaknafein and Neira rode two large, evil-looking horses that John suspected weren't actually horses at all, the way their eyes glowed, and he'd seen what their teeth were like when Zaknafein's steed attempted to play-bite the elf.

Diplomatically, Arundel did not ride his golem, but walked with them, talking to John and Jarlaxle, who didn't seem to have brought any dark elves and probably didn't want to expose his mercenary band to any more losses. It didn't take long for both John and Arundel to like the mercenary… not that they would trust him if it came to that, but that was something else altogether.

Eventually they joined up with another neat assembly of soldiers, elven soldiers resplendent in the sunlight, about a hundred or so. Zaknafein nodded to Duke Eldron as the Duke rode over on a horse of pure white. The dark elf seemed deadly calm before the battle that was to come.

"There is a guard outside the gates now," Eldron said conversationally. "They grouped last night. About twenty dark elves and some minor demons, ten or so. I doubt it'd prove much of a disturbance."

"Dark elves in the sunlight?" Arundel asked curiously.

"More spells," Zaknafein waved his hand irritably. "Like that specimen you have next to you."

"Specimen?" Jarlaxle protested, winking at Zaknafein. John realized that the mercenary had shifted his eye patch's position to cover the other eye, and that the exposed eye was perfectly sound.

Zaknafein made a show of ignoring him as he turned to speak to K'yanae.

**

They were ambushed when they had walked in a large forest with giant trees that were four metres or more in diameter. Several dark elves burst out of their cover high in the trees and proceeded to start shooting. With an oath, Zaknafein whirled his horse around, his swords flashing, and a few beheaded arrows clattered on the ground. The dark elves were mainly concentrating on the surface elves, and John saw some of them fall, clutching at their wounds.

The Talons responded with a sweep of arrows of their own, and the dark elves dropped, a few of them with more than one arrow sticking out of them.

There was a chorus of terrible roars, and from under a large, fallen tree burst several demons of varying sizes, the largest of which was about eight metres or so in height. It roared, brandishing an immense axe in each hand.

: Meri… can you cast that protection from evil thing? :

Meri chuckled in his mind, and his fingers moved. Blue clouds enveloped people around him – the party, Jarlaxle, Duke Eldron, Zaknafein and Neira and they began to glow in soft, myriad colors. Zaknafein nodded thanks at him, then promptly charged at the large demon. The Black Talon and elven mages were doing the same, though at parts some demons had already engaged soldiers in combat.

It was a rather one-sided fight, once the demons ascertained that they couldn't hurt the glowing soldiers – whom grew in number, and it turned into a messy slaughter that John carefully stayed out of. His philosophy was that if other people wanted to fight demons, that was perfectly fine with him, especially if they didn't notice that he was staying out of the way.

He could see the large demon snarling, its roars shaking the ground, but then it shrieked as something flew into its eye, and it clapped a large claw onto it, staggering backwards, then suddenly falling down with a crash, splintering the large fallen trunk behind him like a matchstick. There was a blur of black as Zaknafein's horse leapt gracefully onto a larger portion of the trunk, the stallion screaming a challenge, then it jumped onto the monster's body, metal-shod hooves stamping.

At that point of time, John stopped paying attention to Zaknafein, because a winged, man-sized demon swooped down from the air at him, four arms holding scimitars. Meri, who had been paying attention, got up a shield against weapons in time for the demon to hit it and bounce off, like some misshapen tennis ball, and plow into the ground, where it was jumped by the panther. John was curious to see how the fastidious panther would kill the demon, which was dripping slime, but Meri was using him to cast some spell.

A circle of white light traced itself out on the ground, then John realized that the air above it seemed to warp a little, as though there was something that was invisible but not quite occupying it. A breeze sprung into existence, teasing up fallen leaves, and then the man-sized demon jerked back violently, as if something had hit it with great force. This continued for a while until the demon's neck broke, then the – whatever it was – went to find more demons to kill.

: What was that? :

: Invisible stalker, : Meri replied smugly. : You can summon it. :

: I realized, : John replied dryly. The panther padded back to him, purring. The stalker attacked a few more demons before finally disappearing in a flash of orange light.

The fight was over quickly, and the soldiers wandered back to regroup and count losses. Zaknafein seemed exhilarated, he and his horse liberally splattered with dark blood that looked black in the sunlight.

Jarlaxle grinned impishly at Zaknafein. "I should travel with you more often. Never had this much fun for a while."

"You're still alive?" Zaknafein exclaimed with mock regret. "Will I never be rid of you?"

"I'm a weasel, remember?" Jarlaxle winked.

Zaknafein snorted. "One day I'd have to find out how you got to live this long. I'd thought that most of those I'd known in Menzoberranzan would be dead by now."

"Simple, old friend," Jarlaxle flicked the blood away from his rapier and the short sword he held in his other hand. "Just don't die."

**

The massive doors set inside a particularly large tree were wide open – to show a wide landing on which all the soldiers and more could fit. Zaknafein raised an eyebrow at Duke Eldron.

"The Rhynn Lanthorn has ensured that we can enter," the Duke said. "It can break Irenicus' blocks on this entrance."

"What I want to know is… is this a portal?" Zaknafein asked in distaste.

"Yes… but a short one. It leads up there." The Duke pointed upwards, ahead of them to a very thick section of the forest. "Suldanesselar is a city on top of the trees… it guards the entrance to the trees of life."

"Whatever," Zaknafein said, disinterested, as he urged the horse forward. "Come on, Diablo."

When everyone was gathered on the surprisingly empty landing, John wandered to the edge and looked down, over the delicate railing forged of some alloy of silver – and immediately regretted it. They seemed to be hundreds of feet above the forest floor…

Quickly he jerked his gaze upwards, and looked at the elven city of Suldanesselar. It seemed to consist of many such large landings, most of which had buildings of indescribable grace and beauty on them, built of white stone or some equivalent material, and tastefully decorated with carvings and patterns. The city, with its ethereal structures, didn't seem to be able to withstand a siege for very long.

To his far right, many landings away, was the largest landing, balanced on several huge trees, and that had a large, closed gate and walls around it. Behind it was a stunning building whose magnificence managed to put all the others to shame. John guessed – rightly – that it was the palace. If the logic of this world held, Irenicus would be somewhere inside it, and the gate wouldn't open until one solved a series of stupid puzzles.

"How do you open the gate to that?" John asked Duke Eldron.

The Duke blinked at him. "That is the palace. Why would you want to enter?" His tone of voice implied that the palace was not a place for non-elves to impose their unworthy presences in.

"Because," John drawled slowly, "I'd bet you your horse that Irenicus is inside. And knowing this damned world, you'd need to trigger a lot of stupid puzzles to open it, yes?"

The Duke looked offended, though Zaknafein and Jarlaxle sniggered. "Puzzles? Those are safeguards of the highest importance, with trusted guardians of their own…"

"And," John continued relentlessly, watching the chaos of the city, with its occasional bursts of mage fire and meteor storms on some landings, "I'd also bet you all of the guardians are dead and we have to figure out the damned puzzles by ourselves, yes?"

"Forgive my friend," Arundel interceded with a smile before Eldron really got offended. "He has this thing against riddles."

--

Little Notes and References:

Saemon: Well, I liked him… I rather wished he could join my BG II party without any bugs happening, but I couldn't be bothered to fix it so he could. Ah well. I also rather pitied the Githyanki – not to mention that well, it's their holy object. The first time in the game they appeared when I had the blade, I gave it back to them… admittedly, for the next few times I killed them anyway. They're good experience. Heh.

Skipping the Underdark: Yes, at first I intended to include the Underdark jaunt in the story, but it's rather long and not very interesting. Ust Natha has a few question marks. It's supposed to be a city, albeit a small one, but I managed to slaughter all its inhabitants quite easily with my six party members.

There are only three apparent Houses. Jarlaxle was somehow tricked by one of them, and got Bregan D'aerthe into some serious trouble such that he tricks you into getting him out of it. You can kill Jarlaxle… and the only 'Bregan D'aerthe' that comes to his aid is one lousy mage. And one more thing – if you turn up the contrast a little (actually, even if you don't fiddle with the contrast) you don't need infravision to see your way around. It's about as clear as any underground BG II passage.

Names: Sorry, I can't remember the exact ones. Heheh.