The Great Sage Who Took Romance Too Far

After chatting a while longer, both sides finally understood who the others were.

The two men were Sal and Montaron, both peripheral members of the Zhentarim. As Montaron put it, they were the sort who "get sent to the front when there's a dangerous job, then turn invisible when it's time to share the rewards."

That told them plenty about the halfling. He claimed to know a warrior's skills and a little druidic magic, but even after joining an evil organization, he was still an evil organization member with a smart mouth.

Perhaps the halfling would have been better suited to doing stand-up comedy or performing comic duets.

Sal, by contrast, looked like a classic member of an evil organization. The gloomy mage in black robes rarely spoke, but his words were often full of resentment. Had someone seized his family estate a few times? Or had a few engagements fallen through?

Pan Long felt that if Sal had been born not in this world but in one where suffering made people stronger, he might have forged a divine body and gained eternal life in just a few years, given how fiercely he railed against heaven and earth.

The two men really had received orders from the Zhentarim leadership. They were to wait in the forest east of Candlekeep and, if any clueless-looking young people passed by, hoodwink them into going back to the Zhentarim. As for a reason... Montaron said he could make up ten in a second.

As he put it, "At least a hundred strange things happen across this continent every day. Pick any one of them, and it's enough to fool young people who don't know much about the world."

"Then make one up right now," Imoen said, unconvinced.

So Montaron did: something had recently gone