Still being rather groggy, Laska staggered out of the main tent, only to find that she was in fact the last person of the party to wake up that morning, and that the others were already eating their breakfasts. She shrugged and stretched, letting out a massive yawn.

"Ah, the sleeping elf is finally awake," Jan chuckled. "Reminds me of my cousin Rip van Jansen, who..."

"Who slept for a long time?" Viconia groaned. "Your stories are becoming so predictable..."

"Aha, shows what you know!" Jan replied as he downed his cup of tea. "In fact, Rip was a caffeine addict. Drank so much coffee he actually sloshed whenever he walked. Then there was the great coffee-shortage of '23 and he didn't get a cup for a whole hour... Slept forty years, he did."

"After hearing one of thy stories," Dynaheir sighed, "I feel like doing quite the same..."

Jan hmphed and downed another cup of tea. "My stories are fine. It's the audience that's wrong... Kinda reminds me of the time I played in the musical my uncle Andrew Lloyd Jansen wrote. Umber Hulks, an underground adventure. It was a lovely play depicting the everyday life of Umber Hulks under the ground. The audience loved it, though it was trouble to haul yourself in that suit everyday. Also, since Umberhulks aren't known for their singing voices, that left a lot to be desired too. All went fine until Andrew Lloyd ran away with the box-office money to life the high life on a tropic island. Often enough, he sends us postcards saying 'I have lots of money, so screw you all!'."

Meanwhile, Laska had been exchanging her nightshift for her usual Crimson chain. "Hey," she shouted from the other side of the make-shift dressing screen made from a linnen cloth suspended over a low branch. "Has anyone seen my right pauldron?"

"There it is!" Minsc pointed, to a spot that was just outside the magical illusion Dynaheir had set over the camp last evening. The pauldron had somehow found its way to rest on a large rock just outside the illusion. "Boo has found it for you."

"Nice one, Boo," Laska smiled and passed through the illusion, the force field perfectly attuned to the people inside the bubble.

"Laska!" Keldorn shouted, suddenly remembering the 'floating' mountain lion still prowling on top of the illusion. Glancing upwards, he noticed the mountain lion had already seen Laska as prey and was getting ready to jump the unsuspecting elf.

"What is it?" Laska said, turning around as she had grabbed her pauldron. The lion, not being able to compensate for the elf's sudden movement, sailed past the elf and crashed against the rock.

"Bad mountain lion wants to eat you!" Minsc added.

"What?" Laska snorted and then moved inside the illusion. At the same time the recovered mountain lion prepared to jump the elf again, but it was not able to pass through the force field and crashed against the magical power. Deciding it had had enough punishment, it slipped away through the bushes.

"What mountain lion?" Laska asked as she glanced over her shoulder, not even having noticed both attacks.

"Never mind," Keldorn muttered, his eyes shining with relief. "Anyway, we should break up camp and continue on our way if we want to make good time..."

"Hey, mister know-it-all!" Laska retorted. "Who's the leader of this party anyway?"

"Ach," Korgan chuckled. "Bark yer orders then, elfie..."

"Eeeeh," the elf muttered. "What he said... But AFTER I have me some breakfast..."

After a day of travel by horse, the party finally arrived at their destination in the evening. The light of the full moon illuminated the Windspear area. Windspear was a flat, rocky plateau, its sides smoothed down to steep drops due to thousands of years of erosion. On the south side of the plateau, alluvium had gathered, making the land fresh and fertile. It was there where most farmlands were gathered, but there were no farmsteads. Those, and the rest of the village of Windspear, were at the top of the plateau, about one hundred meters above the ground. There was only a single path leading up to the plateau, and this position had protected Windspear against invaders from the ground ever since its founding.

Leaving the horses to graze on the green pastures below, Laska and her friends made their way through the only path leading up to the Windspear plateau, no one really having a good feeling about the whole thing. The path was narrow, windy and invited an ambush from above. And with no places to hide or take cover, they would have been sitting ducks. Luckily, they were not attacked by anyone during the time they walked the path, but that said nothing, however, about the moment they stepped off the path and stood on the entrance to the Windspear plateau. It was a large open area, surrounded on all sides with steep rocks, the only way out being a narrow passage leading through the rock on the other side of the area. A large wooden platform fastened with pulleys was undoubtedly used to lower carts and other supplies. But most notable were the five creatures blocking their path...

Aside from some idle threats, they did not speak. Instead, they engaged the party immediately without any hesitation.

Viconia raised her flail of ages high. 'Males!' Viconia was insulted by the very indignity. 'They sent mere males to fetch me!'. The blow of her flail connected with the male that engaged her, sending him reeling back and giving Viconia a few moments rethink her situation. She noticed these males weren't using any of the usual Drow tactics she knew about. In fact, these Drow were acting strangely un-Drowlike. They weren't using any sneak attacks or backstabbing-moves. Before Viconia could ponder this further, the male was back on his feet and engaged her again.

Panic gripped Dynaheir by the throat. No less than five of Bodhi's vampiric servants were attacking her and her friends. She would not allow them to take her back to Bodhi, she wouldn't! She launched a fireball, which exploded against the chest of one of the vampires, sending him crashing into the rocks behind him.

"NOOOO!" Minsc shouted as the five Giant IceWeasels with their dripping fangs were attacking him, his friends and his hamster. Minsc smiled inwardly as a beefy fist connected with the eye of one of the snarling creatures, decking it instantly. "Look Boo!" Minsc announced. "He'll have a black eye for weeks!"

Laska smiled ferally as she moved her blades like a slicer through the ranks of the orcish hordes. Well, not so much a horde, only five warriors. Good warriors, Laska was forced to admit. A particularly ugly Orc rose his two-handed sword, but the elf was quicker. Smiling like a child getting a gift on solstice-day, she slashed Ipsiya across the orc's throat. The orc gurgled in surprise and then fell to the ground, dead as a doornail. 'Way too easy... Laska smiled.

Keldorn was holding his own, swinging his Hallowed Redeemer to parry the blows of the ogre he was fighting. Somehow, the techniques his opponent used were rather familiar, but Keldorn had little time to consider this. Seeing an opening, Keldorn moved in and jabbed the Hallowed Redeemer against the ogre's bare chest... but strangely, his sword did not sink into the ogre's chest. Instead, it was deflected, accompanied with the tell-tale 'twang'-sound of metal on metal. "An invisible armor?" Keldorn muttered in surprise. But then, the ogre stopped his assault... "Sir... Sir Keldorn?" it spoke in surprisingly human voice, which Keldorn promptly recognized.

"Ajantis?" the aged Inquisitor spoke. "Ajantis is that you?"

"How... How can a beholder speak the voice of the noble Sir Keldorn?" he suddenly snarled. "You are playing tricks on my mind..."

"No, Ajantis!" Keldorn tried to reason. "'Tis truly I!"

"HAR HAR!" Korgan shouted as he jumped the ogre-Ajantis from behind, bringing his axe down upon his exposed back.

"Korgan!" Keldorn shouted, but Korgan was in the blood-frenzy. Horrified, Keldorn watched as a snarling Korgan brought his axe down again and again, literally making ogre-Ajantis' blood fly through the air.

"Aye!" Korgan shouted when he was apparently finished with his carnage. "Me ole clanmen won't be causin' anymore trouble, eh? HAR HAR!"

Partially stunned, Keldorn quickly recovered and whirled around, wanting to keep his friends from attacking the other members of the Order. But he was too late. Laska had already killed one, while another had fallen to Dynaheir's spells. A third had been turned into a porcupine by Jan's newly invented Crossbow-speedloader, while the forth lay bleeding at Viconia's feet...

"Well, those orcs will never bother anyone again..." Laska smiled.

"Orcs?" Viconia said. "What are you talking about? These were Drow males!"

"Drows?" Minsc frowned and scratched his head. "Hmmm, I could have sworn these were IceWeasels. Unless Drow men are different than Drow women."

"Don't get me started," Viconia muttered with a smile.

"Vampires," Dynaheir replied. "I saw vampires..."

"And I couldn't let those turnip-beetles drill my friends into cheese, now could I?" Jan muttered.

"They were... Knights of the Order," Keldorn sighed. "We killed our own men... Good men..."

"What do you mean?" Laska snickered. "You need glasses, Keldorn, just look at the bodies!"

*'Undoubtedly the old man is going senile,'* Ipsiya announced. *'Even it is was an illusion, only the most powerful of magics are able to fool a moonblade, and I do not sense a source...'*

"Be silent, piece of metal," Keldorn retorted, looking rather sorrowful. "I recognized one of the men we attacked as one of my own squires..."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Laska broke in. "They attacked US first..."

"The Order will not see it that way," Keldorn sighed. "There will be another tribunal..."

"Okay, then," Laska said, "we take the bodies and bung them into that deep looking crevice over there and no one will ever find out..."

"Somehow," Viconia muttered, "I doubt it will be so easy."

"You... would be... correct," a panting voice belonging to a friendly looking well-dressed gentleman who was currently steadying himself against a rock. "Sorry... I mean you... no harm... My... My name is Garren Windspear and... forgive me, but I... ran... all the way from... my cabin... when I heard the sounds... of combat... Sadly, I came... too late. But undoubtedly... the Order already knows... what has... happened... In a colored version... of course... Such things tend to happen... around here."

Giving the man a few moments to catch his breath, the party gathered around the man.

"Garren Windspear?" Keldorn asked. "You are the one who travelled with the prelate before?"

"Yes," Garren replied, "and that is why I found it so strange that a group of the Order has come to Firkraag's aid."

"Why is that?" Dynaheir said. "Thou speakest in riddles..."

"In due time... Follow me to my cabin in the village and I shall explain," Garren nodded.

"Wait," Keldorn said with bowed head. "I... I must see to it that these men are properly buried."

"Buried?" Viconia snorted. "No, if we wish to keep the Order off our backs I shall attempt to raise them in the morning... We can preserve the bodies in Laska's Bag of Holding for the time being."

"Do what you have to do, and follow me, then," Garren smiled.

The party followed Garren towards the village. It was small, rather quaint, but still small. Maybe thirty or so buildings surrounded a small fountain and well, and even thought it was early in the evening, there were no lights burning anywhere, the local tavern was closed and there wasn't a soul out on the streets. The whole village seemed to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness...

"Nice little village," Viconia muttered. "All it needs is an angry mob with torches and pitchforks"

"Hey, is it just me," Laska said, "but does this whole village seems to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness to any of you?"

"What?" Viconia said in a mixture of surprise and disgust. "Where did you dig up that ancient cliché?"

"I dunno, just making a meta-comment, I guess," Laska muttered. "And I think this whole village seems to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness."

"This whole village seems to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness, you say?" Jan said. "I have a funny story about that, actually. You see, my brother's cat was..."

"Look, forget it!" Laska shouted. "I was just saying I think this whole village seems to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness!! Leave it alone!"

"'This whole village seems to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness...'," Dynaheir replied. "That sounds so very cheesy..."

"Look, will you guys leave me alone?!" Laska sighed. "All I said was that this whole village seems to be covered in an atmosphere of chilling fear and hopelessness."

"Yes, and it sounds stupid!" Viconia retorted.

"Ah, that's what you say!" Laska huffed.

"And me," Dynaheir added.

"Check my name on the list too," Jan added.

"Aye," Korgan chuckled.

*'That sounded pretty lousy, Laska.'*

"Minsc?" Laska asked, hoping to get some support.

"Errr, sorry," Minsc lowered his head.

"Oh, great, just great!" Laska sighed. "I wish me never came to this stupid pimple on the butt of Amn, which seems to be covered in a dumb-ass atmosphere of lame-o chilling fear and idiotic hopelessness!"

"Aye, now that be more like it," Korgan muttered.

"NOW, you're being original," Viconia nodded.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Laska said to no one in particular, "these are my best friends in the worlds... pity me."

"Let's just get inside," Keldorn said as Garren led the party into his cabin.