A ruthless bounty hunter is after Melora; once the group enters Candlekeep, the bounty hunter and some of his friends will appear, and teleport the group to a wasteland area near Nashkel. It seems that the bounty hunter doesn't want to risk his life, and all he needs is Melora dead. If you agree to surrender the local hero, you will be teleported out of the area, and you will have to once again face life without a thief. If you decide to stick by her, you will be left in the area, which seems little threatening by day.

There are a few caves in the area, but aside some unsavoury remains, there is nothing interesting, and you begin to wonder if the bounty hunter is insane. Still, amazingly, the area has no exits, and you appear to be trapped in the middle of nowhere.

In your wanderings about the area, at the entrance to one of the caves, you encounter a half-crazed and severely wounded character, who will rave something about mad druids and some sort of game, a light gem and survivors in the cave, but will be unable to explain more. Upon entering that cave, you indeed find a few more survivors of an adventuring party, who are a bit more coherent. This remote wasteland is the realm of a mad druid, who finds werewolves the supreme force of nature, and is quite amused by their hunting techniques. They had been sent here to rid the place but they had been overwhelmed by the numbers of the werewolves. It seems the only way of ridding yourself of them is seeking a light gem that is hidden in the bowels of one of the caves. However, the cave where the gem is hidden is only populated at night, when the werewolves appear, and the gem itself is guarded by a balor. He will ask you to help him against the druid before you escape.

At nightfall, the mad druid will appear, and propose a game. The exits from the area will be open. If you manage to fight your way out, you will be free. Simple enough, heh? If you disregard the hunting werewolves, it is.

At a cost the balor cannot return to his plane without some fresh souls. If you're evil enough, you may let him have the unfortunate adventurers, and he’ll supposedly leave the group alone. So will Melora.

Anyway, you will fight the balor. But keep Melora.

If you have the light gem, your way out will be a synch, and the only thing standing between you and Candlekeep is the mad druid. Once you arrive in Candlekeep, you will again be ambushed by the bounty hunter, but after werewolves and a balor, does one really care?

Dar will be recognized by one of the bandits’ troops you met on your way. He'd say that some of the half-orcs and orcs in the area had created a new religious settlement and are preaching the peaceful leaving and self-sacrifice to redeem their races for the years of murdering and being evil. These converts had a prophet who went to Candlekeep to seek the Great Wisdom, but did not return. In his absence the village was assailed by traditional slavers, so here is your favourite "free the slaves" quest in the bandit camp settings.

The evil way would probably be re-selling the slaves to the merchant who was going to buy them from the previous captors removed occasionally by our hero. The noble Half-Orc will urge you to find the "prophet" in Candlekeep. It turns out he works for your old friend Winthrop in the Candlekeep's Inn and does not want to go back. Under some pressure he will say that he was basing his teachings on a rare book.

Some local druids in a grove who are striving to maintain balance found that the book is heretical to their teaching and divided it into three parts. The “prophet” tells you that you can get one part from the druids. You'll need to complete a side quest in the Druid's Grove to get the first part of the book and ... rithellium (yes, yes, I know, those rithellium weapons dropped in Halruaa were really cool).

A mad druid-monk in Candelkeep holds the second part of the book. He will give you all sorts of riddles and even if you answer them correctly he will accuse you of trying to destroy the balance and attack you. One against six has never worked. If you feel sorry about slaying the helpless kid, you may steal the second part of the book from him, as well as the tattered piece of parchment with the hint on location of the third part. Melora will be glad to help.

Here is the riddle for you:

Though it's rumoured ... (*the next few of words have been worn away, except before the Y you can just make out the feint marks of where three letters were once written*) ...y where coin is plentiful, (*once again the words are illegible*) ... dwell within its walls have no use for its trinkets.

And another one:

My first you put on glowing coal
And into it you put my whole
My second really is the first
My third mislikes the winter's cold

Solve the riddles, remove the guardians and retrieve the third part of the book.

The whole book can then be brought back to the enslaved settlers.

I found the first two books, but going off the hint from the tattered scroll I can not figure out where the third book could be. I've looked pretty much all over every new area and have come up empty... I'm sure it's something simple that I'm missing, but I really want to get past this quest so I can dump Dar and pick up Taffic.

City of coin - Athkatla. Graveyard District

Dar will leave on his own, no need to dump him.