Karimar

In my combo of Mega Mod there are two mods that start at the very beginning of BG2 - NEJ and RoT. Looks like there are two ways I could go:
a) through the portal to the first location of NEJ, or
b) through the Irenicus Dungeon to Waukeen's Promenade, taking the PC's I meet on the way.

I have some questions to all those of you who played a similar combination of these two mods.
1. Where to go first? Will I get back from the NEJ locations straight back to the Dungeon?
2. Which PC's should I take with me? AFAIK there are plenty of characters I will be able to join in NEJ, maybe with a small exception of a thief (Imoen, my Charming Rogue, seems to be a must). What about the Drizzt's company?
3. I'd really like to see Boo as Minsc's familiar and further develop Jah as a Priest of Sylvanus, so how to escape the Dungeon without losing them? Without losing a chance of joining later any PC's?
I'll be grateful for any help.

After the first visit on the Island I left Restenford with the "spy quest" unfinished, but I've read that it can be completed during the second part of the quest. Unfortunately, when I tried to talk about it to Peltar there was no dialogue option that would enable it, although Zardahl's diary and his spellbook were in my inventory. All Peltar was interested in was the Assassins Guild issue. So I had to left (yeah, the guy teleported me back to Candlekeep without asking) Restenford with this quest unfinished.
Tried to be a smart-ass and I used CLUA console to get back to Peltar, but still he only asked me about the guild. Is there any dialogue I could run through CLUA to finish the quest?