It may, of course, be a bug. Just about anything in the game can be caused by a bug. Barring that possibility, however, chances are that you somehow annoyed Lothander--he's a pretty finicky fellow, and sometimes, if you don't do things just right (and Lothander doesn't tell you what "just right" is), he says that you screwed up, and now all of you are gonna die--your party from the poison, and Lothander from the geas. And even if you go kill Marek, you're still suffering the effects of the poison. Bummer! After fighting Marek, ALWAYS scroll upward and look for the text message "You have been cured of Marek's poison." If it's there, you can rest easy. If it ain't......well, let's see if you can beat the rest of the game in under 10 days, game time.

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Boots of Stealth: 1125 gp
Shadow Armor: 7875 gp
Slipping an Oil of Firey Burning down the back of Sarevok's armor: Priceless

Well I can't finish the game in under 10 days (I just ain't that good) and I re ran the last save game from just before the whole poison quest and did it again, and nope - no you've been cured message, despite dealing with both assasins. Think that game is doomed unless I can find a hack to take out the poisoned flag. Can such things be done?

YES, it CAN be done, thanks to the brilliance and generosity of those who have gone before (and I'm not talking about me). Get thee to this page, young man:

http://www.execulink.com/~cmohan/aru...g_scripts.html

and download the AI script that magically rids your party members of Marek's poison (by conveniently juggling a few Global Variables).

Tragically it didn't work! The script does indeed do what it said it would ("you have been cured of Mareks poison" popped up, but 2 days later all my guys promptly drop dead. I guess the whole install is probably stuffed, so I will have a go at a reinstall. Thanks for your help though.