"Dynaheir..." Laska sighed. "I don't believe it... This can't be written by her! It says she's buying slaves! Somebody must be using her name or something."

"I am afraid that this is her handwriting," Viconia replied, holding the letter in one hand, while rubbing her chin in puzzlement with the other one.

"Maybe a Doppelganger?" Laska tried. "We've had plenty of dealings with those buggers."

"No... No," Viconia shook her head. "Doppergangers can only mimick appearance, not things like handwriting..."

"But Minsc said she was killed while he watched..." Laska all but shouted.

"Hmmm," Viconia said, apparently in deep thought. "Minsc says he watched while they killed her, but..."

"Okay!" Laska threw her hands in the air only to violently punch the wall a moment later. "I am now officially freaked out!"

"I am perplexed as well, abbil," Viconia nodded.

"Okay, okay," Laska tried to control her breathing in order to calm down a bit, but control was never one of her best qualities. "Let's assume that the person who wrote that letter is actually Dynaheir, then how do you explain her ordering slaves? She'd never approve!"

"She could be charmed... or she could be being coerced, but the fact of the matter is, that I don't know for certain either..." Viconia replied.

"I mean," Laska said and started pacing across the stinky room in the sewer-complex, "this is Dynaheir we're talking about..."

"We might try tactfully asking Minsc some questions about Dynaheir's apparently not-so-permanent demise, but considering we'd be dealing with Minsc, that might not prove very useful. Still, he might be the only chance we have of finding out the details, unless we run into that Irenicus of yours along the way," Viconia said. "Didn't Minsc let something slip during your escape from his dungeon?"

"No," Laska replied, finally regaining some measure of calmth. "Just what you and I know... He told me Dynaheir was killed while he watched and he was getting quite agitated when he did, and since we still needed to escape from that damn hole-in-the-ground, I decided not to press the issue."

Viconia sighed heavily. "Look, there's nothing we can do about it now, so let's save this conversation for a later time. We should deal with the business at hand first, and I don't think it's wise to fret about this while the arrows, spells and swords will be flying over our heads."

"I don't think I can get my mind off this 'little' mystery," Laska sighed. "But I will try..."

"Good," Viconia grinned. "Getting yourself killed will end our quest needlessly early."

"The voice of reason as always, Vico..." Laska grinned uneasily.

"Heh," Viconia snorted. "I am just as preturbed about this as you are. I just hide it better..."

"OY!" an angry, gruff voice shouted from the doorway, coming from a grey-haired, burly dwarf. "Are ye two yap-dogs comin' or goin'? Me axe is dying fer blood, doncha know?"

"Indeed," the voice of Keldorn sounded from behind Korgan. "No doubt the slavers are already aware of the happenings at the Copper Coronet. We should make haste to the slaver-compound, lest we risk them relocating and taking their victims with them."

"We're on our way, jalukken," Viconia shouted. "Will you be alright?" Viconia asked her shook-up elven friend.

"I will be," Laska sighed. "But I could really use a drink right about now."

Keldorn did not know what had transpired between the two females of the group, but both seemed to be in deep thoughts. His gaze drifted to a silent Viconia, but he didn't look for long. Her eyes glowed a deep red in these dark caves, even though her eyes seemed perfectly normal in the daylight. But here, her powerful Drow infravision, gave her a eyes a most feral look. Keldorn gathered Laska was in a simular state of contemplation, so he decided to be extra observant, since Laska was taking point.

'Dynaheir... How could this be? Laska thought to herself as her party moved through the dank hole that was the abandonned sewer system. She had told herself and Viconia that she would not dwell on this letter until later, but she simply could not get the whole thing out of her mind. 'I had always hoped you'd be alive, but this...'

"Oy!" Korgan shouted from beside the tattooed elf. "Be I that boring to ye?! I be sayin' this be a smelly dank hole, what smells like longlimb shite!"

"Oh, do not be so touchy, Korgan," Minsc added. "You weren't in the sewers of Baldur's Gate! Why even Boo shudders at the memory! He could barely breathe..."

'A diversion... Thank you, gods!' Laska thought. "Oh, yeah," Laska half-smiled. "That was bad for all concerned."

"Unlike these, the sewers of Baldur's Gate were unfortunately in constant use. We had disgusting, smelly water, carrion crawlers, spidernests and rotting corpses to deal with," Viconia said.

"So all things considered, Korgan," Laska chuckled. "You're just a light-weight if you're complaining about this patch of Amn."

"Hmmpf," Korgan huffed and held his axe a little tighter.

"Wellllll," Minsc suddenly spoke up while sniffing the air. "Ah, Boo knows another difference! We didn't meet any Otyughs in Baldur's Gate!"

"Oty..." Laska started to say, but would never finish her statement. She suddenly found herself grabbed by the neckline of her chainmail, and jerked backwards by Keldorn, just in time to avoid being caught in the gaping maw of a very disgusting specimen of the Otyugh family. The slime and grime covered creature slowly moved forward and bellowed a mighty roar, trying to intimidate its new meal.

Its victims weren't passive about being a meal, however, and the Otyugh suddenly found one of its tentacles missing at the hands of a grinning dwarven beserker.

Cursing herself for letting the Otyugh get the jump on her, because the thoughts of Dynaheir were keeping her occupied, Laska decided it was finally time to save the mystery of the missing Invoker for later. She drew her swords, but immediately, Ipsiya started to protest.

*'HEY! HEY!'* the enraged moonblade shrieked. *'You can't stick me into that snarling thing! I'll be houring for weeks!'*

"Tough luck, sister," Laska shouted and slammed both her swords into the Otyughs head.

*'ACK!'* Ipsiya wailed in annoyance as the grime on the creature splattered all over her beautiful blade.

Keldorn, Minsc and Viconia joined the frey and put their own swords and flail to the task. Jan stood well back while red glowing orbs of magical energy shot from his hands and slammed into the sides of the creature.

Eventually, the Otyugh let out a final, disbelieving bellow and rolled over to his side, dead as a doornail. Just before it let out a final breath, the creature convulsed and a hand made from blue stone shot from its mouth.

"What the hell is that?" Laska asked, while Keldorn picked it up.

"I haven't a clue," the aged paladin mused. "Strange. It feels like marble, but it is warm. The warmth seems to come from inside the rock."

"Keldorn," Minsc broke in. "Boo says it might be wise to keep that handy hand in hand for now, and Boo is always right!" he added, backed up by a merry squeak.

"Better pocket that hand, suliss," Viconia chuckled. "If there's one thing I've learned during my travels with Minsc is that Boo's instincts are always right."

"As you wish," Keldorn said and stuffed the hand in his pack.

"Talk to the hand, baby!" Jan chuckled as the party once again continued on their path through the sewers.

Their continued path led the party to a small rocky intersection. This particular site seemed to be hewn out of the rocks of the sewersystem. Several pieces of broken equipment lay on a rotting wooden table.

"What's this here?" Laska asked.

"It seems like an excavation-site," Keldorn said while surveying the small room. "It also seems like the people who were working here left in a hurry..."

"And that it's an obviously long forgotten digsite," Viconia added.

"I wonder what they were excavating in here," Jan wondered. "Pre-historic turnips? The graves of the ancient gnomish king of the land of Hooplah Dooplah? Fossilized Dragon-poop, maybe?"

"Boo says it might have something to do with those skeletons over there," Minsc announced, and sure enough, two human skeletons were partially uncovered in the face of the rock, locked in what appeared to be a fierce embrace. Laska wondered how they died, and considered that their names, their lives and their fate would be a story that would never be told. All in all, the whole thing was pretty depressing.

"Geez, I feel like a graverobber in here," Laska said. "Let's keep on going."

"Oy, ye be 'angin' on a moment, lassie," Korgan chuckled with a deep voice. "Ye be seein' that little blinker on yon bone-girl's 'and? Should be worth a pretty penny..."

"Nah, let 'em keep it," Laska said and moved to walk out of the room.

"Ye be leavin' treasure behind? That be just bloody daft! She won't be needin' it anymore, and by the look o'things, the bone-boy's already scored with her, so..."

"Shame on you, Korgan!" Keldorn broke in. "How would you like it if someone robbed YOUR grave!"

"I be sayin' that if they'd be able to enter me tomb and not get all carved up by the traps, they be earnin' every penny they be takin'! HAR HAR!" Korgan grinned.

"Leave the ring, Korgan," Laska said. "Besides, these skeletons might be enchanted and come alive, which means my undead detector will go off and when they're as close to me as this, I'll barf all over the bloody room."

"Aye, point taken," Korgan sighed. "It sure be a pretty blinker, though..."

A continued trip finally brought the party to the only active part of this sewer, where a trench filled with mucky, smelly water moved towards the docks to be dumped into the sea. This part of the sewers was more mucky and grimy, and it took Laska and her friends a bit longer to get used to the smell.

"Now," Viconia said while holding her nose, making her sound much like one of the clowns in the circus, "this brings the experience a lot closer to that of Baldur's Gate."

"Wait!" Jan suddenly yelled as Keldorn was about to put his foot on a old oaken door, which served as a makeshift bridge. "I sense a trap here..."

Keldorn nodded and took a step back. Jan said nothing and took a small enchanted pebble from his thieves-toolkit. He joyfully tossed the pebble from hand to hand, and finally (when the party started to stare harshly at him) tossed the pebble right on the middle part of the door. Immediately the magical trap activated and a disgustingly green light shot upwards, petrifying one of the wooden beams above the door.

"I thank you," Keldorn said, while he was staring intently at the petrified wood.

"Don't mention it, Keldy" Jan chuckled. "We wouldn't want you ending your career by becoming a statue in a sewer, when there are so much more nicer places where you could become a statue! The park, for example. I bet the pigeons would just love to have you there..."

"I... see..." Keldorn grimaced.

"Ah, don't worry," Jan grinned. "I would have sent my cousin Gerty to clean you once a month. Still, it would take a family of pigeons only a day to completely cover you with bird..."

"THANK you, Jan," Keldorn said, effectively ending the conversation, at least on his part.

"Hey, look," Laska broke in and pointed at a petrified Kobold in the corner. "Looks like that little furball there tried to cross the bridge as well."

"And you were going to mention that, when?" Keldorn asked after letting out a deep sigh.

"Hey, don't look at me," Laska retorted and crossed her arms. "I only just saw the damn thing."

"Hmmm," Viconia said. "Look at that staff he's armed with. It's not petrified along with the Kobold..."

"That's pretty perculiar. Kinda like a albino turnip," Jan said. "But weapons are supposed get petrified if their owners do too. Let's see," Jan said and started casting. A spell shot from his hand and turned the Kobold-statue back into living, breathing, Kobold.

"Why did you waste a spell, Jan?" Viconia asked.

"Well, I thought we'd best get the info on the staff from the horse's mouth, I guess," Jan chuckled.

"No!" the Kobold suddenly yapped. "No, staff, no, no!" it said and dropped the staff to the floor. "I hate this staff. I get staff to get powerful sword from pool, but then I become rock... I say screw sword. I go to Luskan," it said while hopping away. "Me get time-share condo and lay on beach all day long... I say screw sword and screw adventuring..."

"Charming," Laska muttered and picked up the odd staff.

The journey continued, and still the slaver-compound was nowhere to be found. The party arrived in a second chamber, scarcely filled with shubby furniture. More disturbing however, was the find of an almost completely naked man, ajoined by a snarling Carrion Crawler. Drawing their swords, Laska advanced on the creature...

"You have come for the blade, I suppose. Too long in this pit, too long," the old man sighed.

"I have been called Quallo in this place but that name is truth another's. My name is sung both near and far. On the tongues of bards and the lips of fools. This beast that you see, he is a monster to you but to me he is a friend. Would you like to kiss him? He loves affection as well as to taste the flesh of the unwary. It is his one weakness and it has been his gift to me for these long years," the old man crackled.

"So," Laska grinned. "Let me get this straight. You live in the sewers, stink like a skunk, use a name that is not yours, kiss and I don't wanna know what with a Carrior Crawler and eat whatever diseased meat this thing here digs up? Doesn't sound quite healthy to me, actually."

"Laska," Viconia whispered in her ear. "This male is being controlled by another. I can sense it."

"Ye just be sensin' the 'daft-old-bloke'-rays eminatin' from that fool over there, Drowsy," Korgan chuckled.

"I agree with Viconia in this matter, Korgan," Keldorn said. "I sense a great source of power here. Not from the man, but from another place in these sewers."

"The eternal jest! The jest of those who believe that hiding equals safety. Find the One and you may understand, the jest, the jest, the jest, the jest, the jest!" the man rambled on. "Perhaps you can solve the One's riddles. You already the key! The first is the hand of Vallah! It was Vallah's hand that cast the One into the depths. His suffering is of prime importance!"

"I see," Keldorn said. "You mean this hand?"

"YES!" the man wept in joy. "And you have two other keys as well!"

"Two?" Laska asked.

"Yes, the staff shall seal the bargain and prove your worth," the man said. "The ring! It is not first, nor does it belong in the third pipe."

"The... ring," Laska said suspiciously, and all eyes of the party turned to Korgan.

"Ach!" Korgan snarled and tossed the ring belonging to the two lovers over to Laska. "So sue me!"

"Is there anything you won't do? Even for gold?" Keldorn shook his head.

"Oy, thar be very little..." Korgan chuckled.

"Finally," the old man continued unfettered. "You must place on the third, the blood of a friend, loyal and true."

"Blood of a friend, ey?" Laska said. "Viconia? Step over here please while I gut you. Please to be bleeding in this cup," Laska joked, and received a chuckle from Viconia.

"They be sayin' LOYAL an' TRUE friend, lassie!" Korgan chuckled. "Ye be carvin' Drow for nothin'!"

"I am loyal," Viconia bluntly stated. "I thought I had proved that by now."

"Aye," Korgan said. "I just be 'avin' a little fun with ye."

"Nevertheless," the old man said adamently. "You MUST slaughter a friend to get the blade..."

Immediately, Laska sped forward and slammed her fist into the old man's jawbone, knocking him out of commission and with the speed of lightning, lopped off the head of the Carrior Crawler.

"What did you do that for?" Jan asked. "Getting antsy? Time of the month? Or do you just hate old men?"

"No," Viconia chuckled. "Laska just changed the rules. She killed a friend, but not one of her own... Sometimes she really amazes me..."

"Like the time I drank two ales through my nose at the Friendly Arm Inn?" Laska chuckled.

"And, just as quickly as it comes, she sends my semi-high admiration hurtling into the ground..." Viconia shook her head while chuckling.

"So," Laska said while she stepped to the edge of a polluted glowing pool, lying directly under four pipelines. "This is that spot that old nutter mentioned."

"Indeed!" announced a hollow voice from the pool. "I am the One..."

"Wow, a talking pond!" Jan said. "That would make a great alarm-system for the garden. You don't know how long it takes to train a dog to speak, and even then they only repeat the word 'ruff' over and over again."

"Silence, buffoon!" the One shouted. "I am greatness! FEAR ME!"

"Why?" Minsc said. "A little water never hurt anyone, and certainly not kindly heroes like us!"

"Watch who ye be calling kindly, boy-o!" Korgan menaced.

"Sooo," the pool said. "You like the sword, huh? You'd like to have the sword, huh? I let you have the sword! But only if you solve the riddle my servant Quallo has told you... Lay the items on the pipes in appropriate order... NOW!"

The room fell silent.

"Eh, NOW!" the pool said.

Again, no reaction.

"DAMMIT, I said NOW!" the pool shouted again.

"Ermmm, okay," Laska said and sheepishly fished a half-eaten sausage from her pouch and place it on the pipe.

"What is this?" the pool groaned.

"Well, you wanted me to put an item on the pipe, and here is one," Laska said.

"I meant," the pool snarled, "the item Quallo told you about, in his CLUES!"

"Oh, ermmm, oh?" Laska said while her party exchanged looks and chuckles. "Well, I hazily recall talking to that old man...Let's try this," Laska said and put a throwing dagger on the first pipe.

"Oh, now you're not even trying!" the pool glowed an angry green. "You're just guessing!"

Suddenly, Laska was shoved aside by Viconia, who defly placed the required items on their respective pipes. "Don't you ever take notes?" Viconia grinned after she finished.

"How can I?" Laska chuckled. "You handle our journal."

"Ah, how nice to see there's at least someone with half a brain around here," the pool said. "Now here's your sword. He's been annoying the hell out of me lately, so good riddance to bad rubbish! And don't even THINK of bringing him back to me. Believe me, two centuries of having that sword around is even more agonizing than being locked up down here. Take him and go... go far, far away. Bye now, don't come back... At least not what you have that sword in your possession!"

Like a sword of great legend, the hilt of Lilarcor rose to the surface. Immediately, Laska made a grab for the two-handed sword and held it expectantly. She was not prepared, however, to hear the sword utter a reasonable facsimely of speech.

"HHHHEEEEERRRRRREEEE'S TOASTY!" the sword yelled enthusiastically.

"Heh," Laska muttered. "A talking sword..."

But the sword seemed more interested in the moonblade Laska held in her other hand. "Whoa!" he yelled. "Lookit that honey! Helllooooo, beautiful!"

*'Keep dreaming!'* Ipsiya huffed.

"Oh, I will!" Lilarcor laughed. "Impressed by the size of my hilt, eh? Eh?"

*'I've seen larger...* Ipsiya told him in an uninterested tone. ' *'In fact, I've never seen smaller and I've dated daggers...'*

"Yeah," Lilarcor continued on his self-impressed rant. "I've got some pretty hefty enchantments cast on me..."

*'Uh-huh,'* Ipsiya said. *'You know, I've heard they go off prematurely.'*

"Boo-yeah!" the sword acknowledged, not getting the double meaning of Ipsiya's words. "Soooo... you're adventurers right? Doing any monsterslaying soon?"

"Well, as a matter of fact," Laska said, "we're on our way to kill some slavers!"

"Ah, the slavers?" the pool broke in. "Yeah, they're just around the corner, you can't miss it. Now please keep going and take Lilarcor with you... Bye now! Don't come back!!"

"So, who wants to wield Lilarcor? Keldorn?" Viconia asked. But Keldorn reply by vigorously shaking his head.

"MINSC WILL!" the kindly giant shouted. "The sword will make a fine companion for my Boo..."

"Yeah-hoo!" Lilarcor chuckled. "Just remember, even though my brother was a +12 hackmaster, but I'm a better sword by FAR!"

"+12?" Viconia asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, errrmmm," the sword said sheepishly as if he had broken a sacred oath, "well, damn, that's just background stuff you weren't supposed to know about... It's just weapon-lingo, no need to elaborate. Just remember: you ain't got it from me, or they might throw me out of the union!"

"Hurry it up!" the slaver wearing a lieutenant's uniform of the Amnian guard shouted to his subordinates, which consisted of several archers, several priests of Cyric and several Yuan-ti soldiers. "We have to be gone before those buggers from the Copper Coronet come here too. You want to blame someone for this mess, blame the ones who ruined us and stop yappin' at ME! You know this was a risk business when you got into this!"

The slavers grumbled and started to pack they assorted illegal goods in wooden crates. The lieutenant was moving towards one of cages where a small girl was locked in. He opened the cage and ripped the crying girl from it.

"BE quiet!" the lieutenant yelled and slapped the girl against the cheek. "Just be quiet! You might still fetch us a handsome price in Cali..." the lieutenant started to yell, but was abruptly silenced by a sharp pain all the way through his chest. He looked down in disbelief only to see a piece of a blade which was violently rammed into his back and through his chest.

"Bet you never saw that one coming, eh?! HAHAHAH! GREAT FUN!" the sword gleefully told him before the lieutenant soul hurtled towards the Abyss, to be torn apart by equally gleeful Tanar'ri.

Immediately, the lieutenant's underlings sprang to life and aimed their spells and arrows at the group of adventurers who has bursted from the secret passage. They hurridly dove behind a stack of crates, while Minsc picked up the girl and, protecting her with his own hulking body, dove behind the crates as well.

"Ambush!" Keldorn yelled. "That was to be expected."

"If we go out there, we'll be turned into pinchusions!" Viconia added.

"Not necesarily!" Jan yelled over the sounds of combat and started casting a spell. He aimed for a decorative metal shield and a ball of flame launched from his hands. It hit the shield and ricoched towards another shield to eventually land at the feet of the confused slavers. The sound of the explosion made the adventurers burst from their hiding place and ran towards the slavers while they were still recovering from the blast. Their swords sang (in one case quite literally) and one by one, the slavers fell.

"See?" Jan said. "I'm an even better shot than my cousin Eastwood Jansen. Actually, there's a funny story about that. You see, Eastwood was riding on his horse, ropin' some turnips when he was..."

"Save it for later, Jan!" Laska said. "We still have some slaves to rescue!"

"Hmmm," Viconia muttered. "You rivvin seem so unaccepting of those not like you, Keldorn, but explain to me how these Yuan-ti got here..."

"Well, there's a chance that they entered through the sewers, or the slavers might have bribed a guard to look the other way. I know of a whole smuggling network for black lotus which relies on bribery, which has been going on for years while the guards don't do anything about it..."

"Slam the sword down, matey. Slam the sword down,
chop, chop, chop, chop-chop, chop," sang Lilarcor, an adaptation of a popular seashanty.

'*Blowhard...'* Ipsiya muttered.

"There are children here, sword!" Minsc menaced. "But neither does Minsc like your rough language!"

Their search ended with the discovery of at least a dozen more children in the compound. Laska decided to send the children, who were overjoyed at being free, back through the sewers toward the Copper Coronet, accompanied by Minsc and Jan, to be out of harm's way. Further search of the old dry-docked boat fielded no more slavers, or at least no more lackeys. Sensing the presence of another, Viconia motioned the party to silence, while they snuck towards the double doors, which led to a luxurious office, filled with art, gold and luxury item, all payed for with bloodmoney, no doubt.

A single graying wizard stood in the office, but faced with such an overpowering force of adventurers, he decided to cease his casting and drop his wands to the floor. The man was a scoundrel, that was sure, but he made the impression of counting on these adventurers being 'good' and thus would not stoop to kill an unarmed man.

"So," the wizard crackled. "You've ruined my operations, killed my servants and freed my merchandise."

"And now we have only you to deal with, vile fiend!" Keldorn snarled.

"Oh, come now," the slaver-wizard chuckled. "Most adventurers are money-orientated. I'm sure we can made a deal."

"Oy," Korgan chuckled. "We nay be needin' a deal fer me to be grabbin' at these shiny lovelies..."

"No deal," Laska spoke in a low voice and stepped a little closer to the slaver-wizard.

The wizard was unimpressed, however. "So what will you do? Turn me over to the guards? I have them in my pockets!" the wizard smiled smugly. "I'll be out on the streets to run my business again before you go to bed tonight!"

"No," Laska grinned, while she put her swords away. "No, I don't think so..."

"Oh, so pray tell," the wizard laughed. "What will you do then? Hurt me with harsh language? I am anarmed..."

The wizard got his answer. With the speed of lightning, Laska's hands shot forward and grabbed the sides of his head. With a single violent jerk, the wizard's soul joined that of the lieutenants, while his body dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"Hmmm," Keldorn muttered. "A rather violent solution, but I can live with it... Certainly considering his last statement was probably true."

"I know of at least a dozen children who would agree with you, Keldy," Jan added.

Yeah, I HATE slavers..." the tattooed elf said. "Come on, let's go celebrate the children's freedom. And I still need that drink..."

"Oy," Korgan chuckled. "Wait fer a blasted minute while I be 'elpin' meself to some o'these golden lovelies.."