#quarantineme

[[ Hello there! Great question, it's been a while since I've read those books so please forgive me if I'm forgetting finer details like potential skip arounds in the timeline, but iirc those earlier books were pretty consistently all set within the same time for each book.

You're correct, Artemis did spend at most a year trapped in Menzo. When Regis left him to die at the end of The Legacy, that was in the year 1357 DR. Artemis reappears in the next book, Starless Night, which concludes with him leaving Menzo after forming a temporary truce with Drizzt and Catti-brie, and then going off on his own. Starless Night also takes place in 1357 DR.

Looking at the years of the books preceding and following these two cements that Artemis was in Menzo for at most a year. The events of the book after Starless Night, Siege of Darkness, are set in 1358 DR, and those of the book before The Legacy, The Halfling's Gem, are set in 1356-1357 DR. I suppose one could fudge the years a bit and make an argument for Artemis being trapped in Menzo since 1356 DR, but the timeline of the earlier books were pretty well-established, unlike the more recent books which don't even specify years most of the time, so I think the later books describing Artemis' time in Menzo as "years" is due to the good ol' Salvatore tendency to be inconsistent.

As for how/why/when Jarlaxle and Crenshinibon make their way to Calimport, the events of The Silent Blade covers it, but I can certainly understand if that coverage wasn’t satisfactory. To recap, and I apologize if I go over things you already know, Jarlaxle tricks Drizzt into giving him Crenshinibon by sending a doppleganger underling disguised as Cadderly Bonaduce to intercept Drizzt’s party as they were headed to the Spirit Soaring to seek out Cadderly in an effort to destroy the Crystal Shard. Iirc, there wasn’t a specific reason given for why Jarlaxle coveted the shard beyond the usual one of his fixation on collecting rare and powerful magical artifacts, plus he’d much rather see the artifact in someone’s possession (preferably his) than having it destroyed. 

Meanwhile, after wandering aimlessly for 7 years (another luxury of a specified time frame) following the loss of his sense of purpose and identity, Artemis arrives in Calimport without understanding why he brought himself there. Eventually, his path leads him to the murder of Pasha Basadoni. Jarlaxle has been looking for a way to carve out his own place on the (surface) world and saw Artemis as an opportunity that he could use, but Artemis was useless to him in his despondent state, so Jarlaxle stages that fight in  Crenshinibon between Artemis and Drizzt in which he orchestrates events to make Artemis believe that he successfully killed Drizzt in order to restore Artemis’ focus. And from there, the Sellswords Trilogy happens. 

So, we know that Jarlaxle comes to Calimport in 1364 DR, and unlike the more recent books, there’s actually a reasonable chain of logic explaining why that is the case. Jarlaxle does lose track of Artemis in those 7 years after Starless Night, and while Jarlaxle is portrayed to be able to find anything that he wants to, Artemis is one of the few people who can be his match, so if the assassin had his mind set on laying low and avoiding all things drow following his traumatic experiences in Menzo, it makes sense that he was able to totally elude Jarlaxle. Jarlaxle does pick up on Artemis’ return to Calimport very quickly despite Artemis not making substantial waves until the assassination of Basadoni, but this can be explained by Jarlaxle having been biding his time in those 7 years while stationing informants in locations that Artemis would most likely turn up in again. Besides, 7 years is not that much time at all for an elf. 

Given that Calimport was Artemis’ primary stomping grounds, Jarlaxle certainly would’ve had a lot of eyes and ears there peeled for any mentions of Artemis, so when Calimport’s criminal underworld went abuzz with rumors that the infamous assassin had returned, Jarlaxle most certainly would’ve investigated. 

Man, all of this is making me nostalgic for a time when things in these books made sense. Sure, they were never the pinnacle of literature, but I miss the days when we didn’t have to contort into pretzels to try to reconcile them with logic. :’)

Helps a lot love, I guess what always gets me is the 7 years of Artemis doing ???? and how plastic the new books treat established cannon

[[ Please pardon my answering this as a separate post, that’s a question that I’ve put a lot of thought into as well. XD

Here’s the short answer: Training. Athletes in our world spend most of their time training, with top end ones doing something like 5-6 (some reports say 7-8) hours per day, 6-7 days a week. If we go by D&D rules, to avoid any possibility of gaining the stackable condition of exhaustion, he’d have to rest 8 hours each day that he spends doing strenuous activity, which training would constitute. He could certainly push himself and spend less time resting, but this would make him susceptible to gaining levels of exhaustion, which has the following effects in 5e:

In practical terms, what this mean is with even 1 level of exhaustion, his senses would dull and his ability to perform certain tasks would be hindered. At 2 levels of exhaustion, he would only be able to move half as quickly as he would normally, which in D&D terms applies strictly to the distance that he can move per turn, with each turn being around 6 seconds. Things like how quickly he can draw his weapons, how fast he can bring up a blade to parry, block, or attack would be hindered by 3 levels of exhaustion. At level 3 exhaustion, he’d also have a much harder time resisting various effects like being poisoned, being charmed, being incapacitated, and even being killed instantly by certain attacks. The rest of the chart is pretty self-explanatory. As you can see, in both D&D and real life, not getting the rest you need can really add up quick. 

Moving away from the D&D mechanics side of things, while Artemis is certainly someone who pushes himself to the absolute limit, he’s also someone who is very careful and very dedicated to efficiency, so it stands to reason that he’d understand the importance of taking the necessary amount of rest. I don’t see him ever willingly putting himself in a state in which his senses and abilities could be compromised. He’d be the type to train 7 days a week (or by his world’s terms, 10 days out of each tenday) and rest the necessary amount each day. In theory, he could train for longer, like 12 hours a day, and while a long rest would clear up any chances of exhaustion accruement, pragmatically speaking, that’s not a good idea as that would increase the acid build-up in his muscles, which causes fatigue soreness, and damage if it persists. With any of those, it’d mean that he wouldn’t be able to train as long and/or as effectively, so it would be something he’d try to avoid.

With let’s say 8 hours of training and 8 hours of rest each day, that still leaves 8 hours that are unaccounted for. Over a 7 year period (each Realmsian year is 365 days just as it is with ours), that adds up to  2920 hours, which is a lot of hours that aren’t accounted for with sleep and training. That being said however, his activity types would be limited given the constrictions laid out so far. They’d all have to be “light activities”. One thing that we see a lot in the Drizzt books is that the characters spend their free time in taverns, to an almost silly degree. In some of the books, Artemis would spend literally hours each day sitting around in a tavern, scowling over a tankard of honey mead and literally doing nothing else. While sitting around would certainly constitute “light activity”, what we’re shown just doesn’t seem to fit his character very well. Unless he’s actively people-watching and assessing potential sources of threat among the local population, it’s a horrendous waste of time. Rather than finding any relaxation and recuperation in such an activity, it would likely drive him nuts.

What the books don’t show us are the types of activity that Artemis would likely engage in during his recuperation time. We know that he’s a master of disguise, able to slip between totally different appearance nigh-instantly, but this kind of thing requires preparation and can’t be done with whatever happens to be available at any particular moment. Thus, Artemis would be spending a fair amount of his “free time” working on assembling these disguises. Another way that he’d be spending that time would be moving about, as light travel, meaning no forced marches and no vigorous horseback riding, doesn’t impose any risks of exhaustion. The fact that he totally falls off the grid, even Jarlaxle’s, suggests that he was constantly changing his location, as even if he utilized his disguises to the maximum, Jarlaxle would eventually be able to find him if he stayed in the same place for long periods of time. Heck, Artemis could even be working on his drawing skills, albeit unintentionally, as a way to pass the time, after all he was able to freehand draw the silhouette of Jarlaxle during Promise of the Witch-King without Jarlaxle posing for it. 

Of course, that only addresses what he might be doing in each day. 7 years is a long time, and it wouldn’t be unreasonable for him to be affected by or even participate in events of the world at large. The Forgotten Realms Wiki has a year by year breakdown of the events in the Realms that you can use for inspiration about what Artemis might’ve been up to in those 7 years:

1357 DR

1358 DR

1359 DR

1360 DR

1361 DR

1362 DR

1363 DR

1364 DR

However, these only cover the most major events and/or the only ones that are specifically noted by observers that survived to tell the tale. Some of these can’t realistically be applied to Artemis due to factors like distance, location and plot restrictions, for instance after his traumatic experience in the Underdark it’s unlikely he’d be getting anywhere near the Undermountain or anything underground, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the Bloodstone Lands as that’d mess with The Sellswords plot later, he wouldn’t tangle with the Tuigan and/or the events surrounding them, just to give a few examples.

Artemis could be inserted into some of the listed events, however not until 1358 DR at the earliest on account of needing some time to get as far away from where he was as possible and finding some sort of routine. He should most likely be ruled out from 1364 DR and possibly a big chunk of 1363 DR as well due to needing time to wander back to Calimport. I could see some crossover with the events of the earliest books featuring Erevis Cale, but that might be introducing too much of the small world phenomenon. 

[[ I'm a glutton for punishment. :P

In all seriousness (although the more of these books I read, the more I wonder if my previous statement isn’t in fact the reason), these are the primary reasons that I continue to read these books, not in any particular order:

- I really REALLY care about the Forgotten Realms novel line. Drizzt is unfortunately the only one that wasn’t canned, even if the contents within are more often than not a middle finger to the Realms. People in the publishing circle say that if the Drizzt books continue to do well that it might serve as an incentive for WotC to bring the novel line back, especially if the upcoming D&D movie and streaming series do well too. In all honesty, I think this is most likely a load of bull aimed at selling these books. Heck, perhaps the massive freefall in quality is something Bob’s doing intentionally to make sure only his books continue being published. This strategy seems like one that’ll backfire, but he likely doesn’t care anymore. He’s older now, has made a lot of money off of these books, and when they stop selling well he’s probably more than happy to not write anymore and just sit on his ass and do whatever it is mediocre white men do.

- I’m deeply invested in a certain character (bet you don’t need three guesses as to who :P) and I care about keeping up with his canon. It is true that that canon is in a pitiful state and only continues to deteriorate, but sadly, those events are part of the real Artemis’ experiences. Perhaps one day I’ll finally have enough and throw up my hands, but I’ve always been of the belief that one should know something thoroughly before breaking it, and that’s not a belief that’ll change. Thus, whether want to know this stuff so that I can reconcile what’s going on or so that I can break it in some hypothetical future, I’d need to read it.

- I feel some sort of duty/obligation to since I’ve worked my way to be able to receive ARCs for major publications, of which the Drizzt books don’t belong, but they’re among the ARCs I receive. There isn’t a rule that you need to read ARCs that you receive, publishers send unsolicited ARCs to readers all the time, however my situation is such that at some point in the past, I agreed to read, review, and buy the books of the ARCs that I receive via the means that I receive the Drizzt ARCs. By this point, that agreement is just a technicality, no one’s going to come after me if I don’t do those things, so it’s really more of a personal sense of responsibility than anything else to keep my word.

Hi so sorry the reply has been so long coming!

Ok, basically you can use any brown box dye if you don't mind the red showing through. There are so so many its almost impossible for me to say any one is better than another.