"Well, we've found the cult, alright," Laska whispered to her companions.

"Aye..." Korgan muttered in reply. "This be a lot of loonies fer sure..."

After crawling across outcropping of rock, the five companions lay on their bellies, trying to remain undetected. The outcropping offered a good view of the chambers of the Cult of the Eyeless in the depths below. And there was a lot to see. Only minutes ago, they had witnessed a failed initiation of a former follower of Helm. It was a bloody affair, indeed. The high-priest Gaal and his followers chanted haunting tunes in the name of the Great Eyeless, while he slashed the unfortunate Helmite across the eyes with a sacrificial dagger. The Helmite then collapsed in searing pain, after which Gaal pronounced the Helmite unworthy of serving the Unseeying Eye and had his acolytes unceremoniously throw the screaming former Helmite in the pit under the altar... It was all Laska and her friends could do to keep an enraged Inquisitor from storming the cultists to finish them off in the name of Torm...

In the past few hours, a lot of information had been dropped onto the group. Descending deeper into the dungeon on Ipsiya's guidance, made it clear this was no simple search-and-destroy operation.

The memory of one particular meeting still lay heavily upon their minds. They had come upon a group of diseased people, followers of the dead god Amaunator, whose shade still resided inside the temple. Amaunator had spoken to them, giving rise to radically different reactions. Keldorn showed the dead god quiet respect, while Korgan was making fun of the 'deadish ruleboy' behind the avatar's back... Viconia was engaged in thinking happy-thoughts, namely wishing the same fate on her former goddess, while both Minsc and Laska were fairly indifferent to the whole thing.

The shade then told them of the Great Device, the once which the beast that led the cult was seeking... All in all, things weren't looking up. Laska was allowed to take the half owned by Amaunator, to make it whole in the dungeon, and bring it back to free his undead followers.

While musing back to these recent revelations, Laska felt her unease return. This time, she was getting even more nauseous then when she passed like the sleeping Lich.

"You seem pale, Laska," Viconia remarked silently.

"Something powerful is out there," Laska whispered back, amazed at Viconia's powerful Drow infravision. "Something very undead too..."

"Och!" Korgan chuckled, a bit too loud for everyone's liking. "'T'll be truly dead when the beastie meets with me Axe!"

"We move..." Laska whispered, while gesturing the group to follow her. "Keldorn and Korgan? You take on that small group on the left... Minsc? You and Viconia take out that group on the right... I'll take care of Gaal myself..."

"Oh, sure," Korgan snorted. "Ye be takin' all the fun fer yerself, lassie!"

"Oh no, she will not..." sounded from Gaal, just before the group was in the proper attack position they had agreed upon.

Gaal turned around wearing a feral grin, while more cultists appeared from the ajacent chamber. "Did you think I would not notice you?" the eyeless high-priest shouted, "Did you think I need eyes to see? Did you think I do not posses the holy magics of the One True God?"

"Shar would disagree, iblith!" Viconia retorted.

Gaal said nothing, but raised his arms in reverant prayer. There was the feel of powerful magic in the air as the prayer concluded. A magical passageway opened, giving an Undead Beholder access to the inner sanctum. Immediately, a sense of extreme nausea overcame Laska again, like always when she was near the legions of the undead. Taking another look at the beast made her experience yet another bout of revulsion. The Beholder was a lump of rotting, yet preserved flesh. It's central eye was covered with a milky film, completely covering its pupil. Most of the smaller eyes on its stalks were missing, but even these were brimming with power...

"They have the rod, oh Great One!" Gaal shouted in exitement. "It shall be the first step in attaining your everlasting reign of terror!"

"Never!" Keldorn shouted. "Foul beast! Myself and my brave companions shall fight you to the bitter end, for honor, for right and for the gods!"

"Oy!" Korgan shouted to Keldorn. "Ye daft ol' longlimb! We be fleein'!"

"Ey?" Keldorn replied in suprise and turned around just in time to see Laska helping Minsc to dive down that same hole where the Helmite was tossed in only moments ago!

"Coming?" Laska asked the inquistor. "Fighting this battle here will only get our asses kicked!"

Taking another look at the evil monster and its rampant followers, he thought of his family again. 'Maria, Vesper, Leona...' he thought while staring in the dead eye of the Undead Beholder. 'When we're better prepared then...' he grimaced as he and Laska jumped down the long tunnel simultaniously, both yelling for no apparent reason.

Once they were down the slanted shaft, the companions landed in a small underground compound of tattered buildings. Almost immediately, Laska's senses were assaulted by the nearby presence of a large number of undead. This time, they weren't very powerful, but they certainly were of great numbers.

*And here I thought you were taking me AWAY from this place*, The voice of Ipsiya sounded in her mind. *Instead you take me deeper into this hole?!*

'Ipsiya...' Laska threatened mentally, but was answers with a silent huff from the Lady-sword.

"Oh..." Korgan mocked to the moon-elf, by speaking in a higher pitched tone. "Whatever monster could be in these here sewers. Oh, I bet we could kick ass in those sewers! Well, I donnae fancy bein' chowed down by a daft beholder that be already dead!"

"Undead Eye-tyrants..." Viconia suddenly mused,."Those are usually slaves and servants of powerful wizards, and are not supposed to have a will of their own. But I've heard stories back in Menzoberranzan about incompetant Drow wizards misreading the spell, which turns the Beholder not into a willing servant, but an actual lich... A very powerful Lich. There are stories about entire houses being brought down this way."

"I would not even dare guess where a beholder's butt is, so Minsc and Boo might not even be able to administer a righteous kick!" Minsc announced.

"Perhaps..." Keldorn mused. "Perhaps we should continue forward into the lair of the beast. The avatar mentioned the beast had the other half of this rod, correct? Perhaps we should find it and combine it with the half we possess. Then, we might be able to defeat the creature..."

"A good plan..." Laska muttered. "If we don't get killed getting there, that is..."

"Listen," Viconia suddenly broke in. "Do you hear that? Shuffling of feet, those... smacking sounds?"

They need not look far for the source. As soon as the five friends rounded about the corner, they came eye to eye with a group of three zombies, feasting on the remains of the unfortunate Helmite. After a brief skirmish, the zombies were dispatched, and Keldorn said the proper burial rites for the fallen Helmite, allowing the poor lad to pass to the afterlife in peace.

"Oy, what be that?" Korgan suddenly asked. "Thar be an ol' rattlin' pipe! Mayhap there be somethin' in it!"

"Treasure?" Laska asked with a smile while climbing up some rocks to get closer to the rusted pipe.

"Aye," Korgan grinned.

"How can you two think about gold at a time like this!" Keldorn hissed.

"Oh, I've seen Laska swigging down a bottle just before a fireball hit, Keldorn," Viconia chuckled.

"I do not believe I asked you anything, Drow!" Keldorn retorted sharply, getting a huff in response from the Drow in question.

"Almost got it," Laska muttered as she reached her arm into the pipe to get at the treasure and jerk it around. Suddenly the pipe gave way, causing the moon-elf to tumble onto the ground a few metres below. While she sat up, recovering from the blow, the 'treasure' dropped from the pipe and onto her head... Then she saw it : It was the gem that annoying tiefling had asked her to bring to the playhouse! Anger flared while the elf sat up and savagely kicked the gem away. The gem richocheed off another pipe, tumbled down a small stairway and landed at her feet again.

"Will you stop HOUNDING me?!" Laska shouted at the gem with her quick temper.

"I be takin' care of this hunk of zircon, lassie!" Korgan chuckled. "Me axe be bloody ready!" Korgan grinned as he slammed his axe home. Unfortunately, the gem was stronger than it looked. A strong fibration worked its way from the axe through Korgan's body, making for one shook-up dwarf!

Laska gritted her teeth as she drew Ipsiya and prepared to slash the gem in two.

*HEY!* Ipsiya protested, but it was not neccesary. Keldorn snatched the gem from the ground before she could hit home.

"Look at you!" Keldorn preached. "You both are behaving like children! Do you not realize where we are? We are a hundred foot underground in a village filled with the undead, being hounded by a foul cult and an evenly foul undead beholder! I will be keeping this gem with me for now, until you two get your senses back! Although that might take a long time, I should think!"

Then Keldorn stomped off, suffering loud protests from both elf and dwarf.

"Ermmm, Minsc is confused," he directed at Viconia, who had been standing at the sideline. "Wasn't Laska in charge of this party?"

"If she is, then Boo is the brains of the outfit... Laska has trouble finding her own socks in the morning!" Viconia chuckled.

The group moved deeper into the underground village, soon to be beset by more disgusting undead. Keldorn slew about seven of the foul beast, while Korgan took great pleasure from slamming his axe in the limbs first, enjoying the sights of seeing the zombies flop helplessly in the dirt. Slaughtering every undead in their paths, the moved from building to building, until they came across a zombie of a more distictive nature...

"Byyyy the Greatttt Feeder, wwwwhat are you doing herrrre, flessssshlings?" The undead mayor hissed through a rotting mouth.

"Great Feeder?" Laska asked, barely being able to stand because of her nausia. "You mean the... beholder?"

"We ttttrrries to be ccivvvilized! The Greattt Feeder providesssss us with mmmmeat..."

"Oh, yeah!" Laska said sarcastically. "I just saw your kinfolk chow down a helmite with knife and fork... You people make me sick! Quite literally, actually!"

"I cannot resssssissssst the ssssssmell any longerrrrrr!" The Mayor suddenly said with a painful expression on his decaying features. "The meat callssssss! It CALLSSSSSS!"

With that, a second slaughter of undead creatures began. Laska and Minsc stormed forwards, slaughtering the mayor and the two Ghoul Lords which flanked him. While Korgan and Viconia were destroying a group of mummies, Keldorn was pinned in a corner by three Skeleton Warriors. Just as Keldorn was about to be overwhelmed, two of the skeletons exploded, signifying that Viconia had started to turn undead with the holy powers of Shar. The battle was soon over. The prize : Gauntlets of Dexterity, which were give to Minsc...

In the end, the dead were really dead, like they were supposed to be... The group again, moved deeper into the complex, until they came to a chamber even more horrifying than the Undead village. The very walls of that cavern were made out of living flesh. The floor squished under the companion's feet as they stepped on it, and for a moment, it seemed as if Keldorn was as pale as Laska was when they had entered the undead village.

"A hive..." Viconia said to no one in particular. "I've been in a hive only once, when I led a trademission from House DeVir with two of my sisters. This one feels... and smells so much the same..."

"How do they create something like this?" Keldorn wondered.

"They plant a seed of living flesh onto the rocks of the caverns and it slowly expands over the centuries... Or the seed is magically aided to grow faster. The eye-tyrants find it pleasing to look at, no doubt," Viconia muttered in reply.

*Oh great! Just great!* Ipsiya muttered to Laska sarcastically. *I sure get to see interesting places on your travels! What's next? An Umberhulk-farm?*

Despair, mortal! For death is thy familiar! Sounded in Laska's mind.

"Get another line!" Laska shouted as she put the two pieces of the rod together. Power surged through her, as did greed, murder and evil. She thought of her friends, and how the beast had stunned them only moments after they had obtained the second part of the rod, after sneaking across the horrifying chamber. Anger flared as she shot a look at them, only to find them lying on the living floor of the cavern, unconscious. Laska redirected these emotions to the object of her anger. She focused all of the power of the rod at the beastly beholder. Just as she was about to fire the rod at the beast, the beholder hit Laska with a powerful spell. Laska felt the life drain from her as the spell-effect hit her like a brick wall. She flew back through, dropping the rod in the process and after regaining her senses, she noticed the rod was too close to the beholder for her to reach it.

Anger flared as she realised that the beholder was mocking her, daring her to make the first move. Oh, but Laska made her move : she grabbed Ipsiya from her scabbard...

*Laska Leafwalker!* Ipsiya announced, realizing her mistress' intent. *DON'T YOU DARE!!!*

But is was too late. With a feral grin, Laska threw the moonblade at the beholder. The beast screamed in pain as the moonblade shot through its central eye and unleashed her massive power... Laska didn't wait, and rolled forward to grasp the rod. Before the stunned beholder could react, she fired the rod...

The beholder was fried in an instant, it's unlife shattered by the rod's power. For the first time, Laska realized how much power this device really possessed. The beholder landed on the floor like a sack of potatoes, crumbled to the floor as dead as it was the day before the unknown wizard enchanted it. The flesh walls of the caverns seemed to die a little with it as well.

Not dwelling on it, she picked up a fuming Ipsiya from the body and stuffed the moonblade back in the scabbard before it could speak. Then, when she heard her friends were recovering from the beholder-rays, she smiled and put her booted foot on top of the beholder-corpse. "Well... Lets go get something to drink," she smiled.

It was only a small matter to deal with the cult now that it's source of power was gone... The priests of the cult, including Gaal were dispatched without any trouble. Laska took great pleasure in watching Gaal pray for salvation. A salvation which would never come. After a short side-trip to bring back the rod to the avatar for its destruction and to free Amaunator's worshippers, the group led the rest of the Eyeless followers to the surface... For punishment and redemption, perhaps. Of course the Helmites were happy with the destruction of the cult, and of course, they had a new quest for Laska to fulfill, something she said she would do, if she could find the time. They had promised to send them a messenger when the matter would become urgent.

In the meantime, the group of friends was recovering from their ordeals at the Copper Coronet, lounging around with a drink in their hands. Save Laska...

"Ah, Thar she be!" Korgan annouced, as the moon-elf entered the inn.

"Well," Viconia grinned. "Show us..."

Grinning sheepishly, Laska lifted the side of her chainmail a little, to show her new tattoo to her friends. It was a blue longsword, a moonblade, partially covered by a rendetion of a finely pointed elven ear...

"Traditional place, I know," Laska said, "but it came out great!"

"Boo has saved you a cup," Minsc said and handed his elven friend a mug of evermead.

"Thanks," she replied and sat back lazily in her chair. "You know, after all this beholder-business, I'd like some peace and quiet for a day or two..."

"Ditto..." Viconia agreed,

"Here, here!" Korgan said,

"Excuse me?" The voice of a young girl sounded through the inn. "Is anyone willing to hear my plea? Anyone?"

"You!" she suddenly adressed Laska. "You, errmmm, the elf with the pointy ears there... You like have had formal training. Would you be..."

Laska simply scowled, stared at her harshly... and growled a little...

"I'll... I'll come back later..." the girl twittered nervously and slinked back into the mass of people.

"Hey, Vico?" Laska suddenly laughed. "Are there any elves with pointy ears here?"

"Nah," Viconia smiled in reply. "I've never heard of such an elf. Pointy eared elves... The very notion is ridiculous..."