The Temptation of Elminster

There's certainly a lot going on in The Temptation of Elminster, but I'm not sure, as I worked my way through the novel, that I was always clear on exactly what. At one point, Elminster's patron goddess asks him to serve an evil wizardess; I'm not sure why. At another point, Elminster is tasked with leaving magical artifacts in tombs and ruins. I understood the reasons for this a bit better, but totally missed the scene where he was told to do this. (Or did I miss it; was it even in the 400+ pages of this book?) Ed Greenwood's writing is vigorous and engaging, but in Temptation, so many characters are introduced, so many plot threads are woven, that it was difficult to keep track of them all, let alone be sure if they were all resolved by novel's end. The titular temptation doesn't even really happen until the last two dozen or so pages of the story. There's a cult of dark wizards whose cruel practices and evil rituals are deliciously described, but I'm not sure why they were in the novel. There is a lot of stuff going on that I'm not sure of it's place and purpose in the book. The Temptation of Elminister is a great hodgepodge of magic and wizards and cultists and elves and plot threads that are so tangled it was impossible to follow them all. I think there was a kitchen sink and some baby-containing bathwater in there too. The book was fun, but not all that coherent. I enjoyed what I read, even though what I read seemed a lot more like a series of disconnected vignettes than a properly plotted novel; like a bunch of D&D modules played back to back without any proper linking material.