I was a little disappointed with this district as I was expecting much more government rule and people who made this district their home and other than the Council of Six Building, there wasn't much feel to this district at all or real theme. Take The Slums District for instance. When you first entered that district, you actually felt you were in a shady part of Athkatla and held your purse of gold tight to your waist but I didn't feel any urge or excitement when arriving here.

A few scattered estates to walk in as you please to loot or explore was more of a chore than enjoyable and this very district was one of the last ones I ever needed to bother coming to and what was with the prison itself? You'd think there would have been some use to having secret passages that lead deeper into the prison yet they only went to empty cells. I guess no one gets caught for doing anything wrong in the city and I was pretty let down that there weren't any real colourful characters found within the cells, let along this district to begin with.

The only reason anyone should need to come here is for Viconia, Jan Jansen and to buy a license to cast magic in the city.

There were plenty of choices for me and my party while I was molding it into the group that would eventually go to Spellhold but none of them took my fancy at all when I came across them.

Jan Jansen wasn't going to fit anywhere in my party regardless of arguments and posts I had read on BG2 message boards about how good of an NPC he was. Quite frankly, I didn't need him. Period. I had found that Aerie was by far everything I needed in a spell caster, although her intelligence could have been better, her ability to cast clerical spells made up for this. I also didn't need a thief. Grub was already the one who would set off the traps and take the damage, the only downfall to this were traps that killed by missing a saving throw but rarely have I run into any. Detecting traps I had either Jaheira or Aerie to cast Detect Traps. Unlocking doors or chests I had Aerie cast Knock. As for spell casting, Aerie had been with me since the start and had gathered every known spell the party could find to add to her spellbook. Jan Jansen simply returned to his home in the Slums District and I never bothered with him again.

Now people will argue that Viconia is the *best* cleric in the game and I suppose they're right except for one thing. I don't play my game to get the *best* of anything. I just play it as I see fit for my particular character and Grub simply hates drow. So here was this drow spitting about how I knew her but of course, Grub had no memory of her at all. (For the record, I never played Grub in BG1 so Grub was not following through from the original and that's how I played him.) Grub wasn't about to let some crazy drow who was saying she knew him into the party and watched her burn at the stake were she belonged. If only it was Drizzt instead who was fried.

The last was Anomen, that wanna-be paladin tard who raced home to his mother after Minsc gave him a stare of evil and Boo shat on him for good measure. Well, I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later for as soon as I stepped into the home where Anomen lived, the entire family attacked me. No wonder he was never a true paladin but could have been confused as one, being the tard he was. In my defense, I had to slay each and everyone of them and I removed the weapon that Minsc was using and let him kill Anomen with his bare fists.

My party by the time I had explored every inch of the Government District was ready to roll and was the final party I was going to have until the end. So that brings a question I'm sure some of you might be asking yourself. What of Imoen when you save her from Spellhold?

My answer. What about her? Grub owes her his debt for saving him and he will do the same for her. After that, she can get.