Sarevok, buddy, you have a place you badly want the hero to visit and an artifact you definitely don't want the hero to see. So why in the blazes would you keep the book in the place you expected the hero to visit? This is idiotic.
Counting on Abdel not picking up a book maybe?

Abdel and Jaheira slip by the guards (off-screen)
That's why I LOVE adventure novels. Adventuring offscreen! The best there is.

This book always had the habit of skipping ahead and then backfilling exposition
Not bad in itself imho if it's boring stuff. But his choices to skip things are so random.

Reiltar
Is it Reiltar instead of Rieltar in the books? Good thing Abdel didn't meet Elmonster...

I don't know how I feel about an open flame inside a hollowed-out tree, but I guess the druids would know better.
You can treat wood to not be flammable as easily but the chimney is clearly made of stone.

The game very directly points you to Jaheira and Khalid, though, which makes me think that most people probably take them along during their first playthrough, so most people won't see the "friendly" dialogue.
I feel the game was supposed to be played pretty interchangable. You drop underperforming dead group members and you change your party composition according to your surroundings. I mean they put a replacement for Jaheira onto the map, they offer you a Rogue for the traps in the Mines. You get offered several mages before entering the Nashkel Mines. And in Baldur's Gate you get bombarded with Thieves (to maybe get stuff from the shops if you lack in cash) and Clerics (to have support for the final battle).

Davaeorn is a mid-level mage, and a highly dangerous opponent. He's the sort of person who casts Protection from Normal Missiles and Mirror Image on himself first thing in the morning, so he won't have to waste the first round of combat on buffing.
Oh man, Davaeorn. With Daelan my Halforc Berserker being pretty set on decimating the Iron Throne, I haven't done many side quests. Davaeorn was a fight in an of himself. Of course he got the Boots of Speed and Ring of Fire Protection so the Benny Hill Show a serious act in comparison. He died the death of any major mage in the game. Hurling most spells on the thick head of a determined orc and then dying to the Smashy end of his Warhammers.

After that I killed his apprentice though. Innocent or not he is too dangerous with what he knows. Did I mention I feel the darker ends of the alignment table scratching on my neutrality?

Abdel and Jaheira hide in a tree
K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Sorry, couldn't resist.