"...I think we might do something very different for an afterlife. Or - for what the dead are like. I've heard concerns that the dead might grow angry if you desecrate their graves, and debate about to what extent it's possible to interact with ghosts outside of dreams. But never anyone concerned the dead might hurt each other. Or get hurt at all - grave desecration is usually considered disrespectful, not harmful."

"...The concept of 'where' is also a bit - odd, the dead don't go to a separate place from the rest of us. They just - sort of hang around. Kind of. It's a bit more complicated than 'float around without a body' - the separation between minds, spaces, and times is approximately an illusion and it's less of an illusion if you don't have a body. ...At least in my plane."

Jojo looks very dubious.

"In Toril dead people go to Fugue Plane and then Outer Planes," Deekin exposits helpfully. "Celestia, Abyss, Limbo, those places. Depending on alignment and who dead person worshipped when alive. Dead person who didn't worship anybody go to Wall of Faithless."

That is such helpful exposition! She is somewhat less confused and more concerned, now.

" - Uh, explain alignment, worship, and the Wall of the Faithless, please?"

"Alignment - you seemed familiar with the concept of Evil, that's one of the axes, Evil versus Good. The other axis is Law versus Chaos, which is usually glossed as - safety versus freedom? Or, not safety but - society, people doing things not because it benefits them but because it makes things better for everyone else. Worship - various gods exist, and mortals are supposed to worship one or more of them, usually with one in particular as their main god. Mine is Tyr, god of justice. I worship him through prayer, and by following his principles, and by dedicating various actions to him. The Wall..." He sighs. "You have to understand, gods need prayer. It's the air they breathe. So Myrkul, former god of death, came up with a system to... blackmail mortals into worship. If they don't worship any gods, then when they die, they are turned into a brick in the Wall of the Faithless, the vast barrier that surrounds the City of the Dead on the Fugue Plane. There, the Wall crushes their souls and digests their very being over the course of years."

"Myrkul not nice kind of death god," Deekin notes.

She looks pretty horrified! "That's horrible."

"I won't argue that it isn't," Jojo says sadly. "But - we live in the world we live in. The most accessible solution is to live well, spread faith, and save as many as we can."

That sounds like an option for people with less ambition and fewer terrifying Force powers than her.

She frowns. "We all do the best we can," she says, softly, not letting her blooming this is wrong and I will end it show on her face. (But it is, and she will. The future is ever in motion, after all - and so is Anakin.)

"But - it does seem to be drawing us away from the matter at hand, and what we can do about it..." Solve the invasion and get oriented to the world first. What she can do now.

"Yes, I was wondering when the mammalian theology lecture would conclude," Garrus says drily. "Durnan, what're our priorities here?"

"Find out why the drow are attacking, and why Halaster hasn't stopped them. If at all possible, get Halaster to resume normal functioning... or as normal as he ever is. Stay alive. As previously mentioned, one hundred thousand gold per head when you come back, plus any treasure you can loot from Undermountain, divided as you deem appropriate, obviously."

She nods, firmly. "Are there maps of the Undermountain?"

Deekin choke-laughs a bit. "Um, Undermountain not... fixed geography. Not even slightly. Kind of notorious for it. Not usually full-on 'hallways change behind you' mutable, but very rarely staying put from day to day."

...Sigh.

"I'll probably want more of a summary of what - magic - does, here, but I can likely get that while we move..."

Durnan nods. "Any other questions?"

Deekin raises a hand. "How we get out once we go in?"

"Well, you can return to the well's terminus and I'll pull you up. There's not many options besides that, given teleportation is nullified within the dungeon."

"Teleportation not work?"

"Yes. Any magic that takes you from one place to another, even traveling by the planes, is completely forbidden by Halaster's magics. Only his own devices - shimmering portals that take you from one part of the dungeon to another - work inside that place."

"Thanks," Deekin says, scribbling in his tome. "That all Deekin needed to know."

"Do you have anything we can use while we're down there, in the interest of not dying?" Garrus asks. "You being a former adventurer and all."

Durnan chuckles, retrieving the chest from which he took the Pearl of Tongues. "Indeed. While I've sold off much of my old adventuring gear, I keep some items around in case of emergencies, and I want to encourage you all to go through it and take anything you need. There's nothing really game-changing in there, but even a minor enchantment can mean the difference between life and death, if that enchantment keeps an arrow out of your eye."

"Thank you." She moves to peer at the chest.

"...Does the dungeon also bar the soul traveling to the afterlife?"

The chest contains several items! Some rings, a cloak, a belt, a necklace, and for some reason a robe woven out of twine.

"It doesn't," Durnan says. "That, at least, is beyond even Halaster. ...so far as anyone knows."

Garrus peers at the chest with her. "Ooh, cloak of resistance. I could... probably use one of those."

"...I have no idea what any of these are."

Do any of them feel particularly important or attention catching if she reaches out in the Force?

One of the rings would potentially be very handy. The belt would be great. The cloak would be kind of nice, but Garrus seems like he might need it more.

"Oh, sorry, these are - kind of bread-and-butter magic items. The rings are Rings of Protection, they extend a force shield over your skin that makes it harder for attacks to connect. The belt looks like a low-tier Belt of Dexterity, makes you more - graceful, agile. The amulet's Natural Armor, it hardens your skin a bit - my scales are already pretty tough, though, and an amulet that weak wouldn't actually help because it's designed for you soft-skinned types. And you can't wear two necklaces at once, so it's not much use to you in particular. Robe of Endless Twine is... Durnan, why do you even have a Robe of Endless Twine?"

"Couldn't manage to sell it off," Durnan admits cheerfully.

"Cool. You can unravel it into more twine than it looks like it should be made of. And the cloak improves your reflexes, your physical resistance, and your ability to resist mental effects. Which I'm... not very good at."

"I already have superhuman reflexes and resistance..." she says. "'Harder for attacks to connect' would be helpful if I'm ever prevented from moving - I don't have any armor, so I mostly just dodge or deflect attacks. The belt of dexterity would help my fighting style... But if someone else needs it more, I don't think it'd be that major a difference for me."

"I've already got a belt," Jojo says. "I'll take the amulet, if it's on offer."

"Deekin got belt too. New belt all Anakin's."

Garrus takes a ring.

So a ring and belt it is for her.

And Jojo takes the amulet, leaving the Robe of Endless Twine to wait for someone who, for whatever reason, wants it.

"Are we ready to descend?" Jojo asks, his nose twitching.