Due to all the Harper-induced delays, the party arrived in Imnesvale, as night was about to fall. Located in a lush, green valley covered in forests and fertile farmland, Imnesvale was a quaint little farming community, with the focus on little. It consisted mainly of only a few small houses gathered around a central fountain, and several of the buildings were even partially built inside the hills surrounding the valley.

There was not a person on the streets, lights were dimmed and doors and windows bolted shut. There was, however, a light source emanating from the largest building in town : A two-story building with a large set of stables attached.

"Well, here we are," Laska announced.

"We must hurry and get inside," Keldorn mumbled. "We know not our enemies, and it does not pay to be caught off guard."

"Okay, then," Laska said and jumped from her horse. "You put the horses in the stable, Keldorn, why don't you book us some rooms. I'll go look around for a bit..." she said.

"Aye, aye, Queen Elf," Korgan chuckled. "Any more orders?"

"Stand on your head and drink five ales through your nose," the tattooed elf retorted.

"Is that even possible?" Viconia shook her head.

"Why not?" the elf replied, looking very puzzled. "It worked for me..."

"I don't even want to know," Viconia sighed.

"Well," Jan cheerfully announced while Keldorn and Minsc saw to getting the horses safely inside, "then you don't want to be hearing about my uncle Joost either. He did plenty of strange things too, you know, but they made perfect sense to him, of course. Always did what the voices demanded of him, you know?"

"Voices?" Viconia sighed. "I know I'm going to regret asking this, but, please elaborate..."

"He had this hit song back in the fifties," Jan said and sang cheerfully. "You're never alone with the voices in your head. They're telling you to do it, and they want that stranger dead!"

"I'm sorry I asked now," the Drow sighed.

"Anyway, he started a Dolphin farm off the coast of Sembia. He bred and trained this WHOLE flock of over a dozen prime-bred dolphins and trained them for twenty years to be premium turnip pickers. Sadly, he didn't realize that dolphins didn't function as well on land as they did in the sea."

"Lovely..." Viconia muttered uninterested. "Shall we get inside?"

"Not before I tell you how he came to his untimely demise. You see, his wife, his turnips, his kids and even his voices left him for a richer gnome, so he decided to commit suicide by walking into a griffin-cave... But not even they wanted to eat him, so he decided to drown himself... he floated back to the surface. He tried to shoot himself, but the crossbow-bolt missed his head by a mile. He tried to poison himself, but he had an over-active liver. He tried to hang himself, but the cheapskate made his own rope from bits of string which broke. He tried to jump of a high building, but was rescued by a kindly avariel who was passing by. Eventually, he tried to stab himself in the chest and finally succeeded..."

"So the story is over?"

"Nah, he only succeeded in nicking his shoulder and the blood attracted a horde of vampires. Sadly, he still didn't get his wish. Whenever you get to Sembia, look for a very tiny vampire with a big nose and say 'hi from Jan for me', Vicky," he said, then noticed he was completely alone. "Vicky, where you?"

Laska was surveying the edge of the forest from town, making sure she did not get too curious and would not cross the river to have a closer look. She still didn't know what she was dealing with, and, no matter how powerful a warrior she was, she drew the line at being turned inside out. Something about this mission really scared her.

She knew she was being watched... aspied from afar. And not from the three boys her sensitive ears had pick up earlier, but something from the forest... something that had the hairs in the back of her neck standing up. To her dismay, she found her overdeveloped mental undead detector was starting to send tingles through her body. She knew undead were in the area, but very far away...

"Come, come on! Ask her, man!" the halfling teenager spurred on as the three boys, two human, one halfling finally emerged from the shadows. Grateful for the distraction, Laska whirled around.

"Errr, hey, pretty elf babe," one of the boys shakily announced. Laska chuckled inwardly. These boys were barely fifteen years old, a difficult age...

"Yeah, we were, you know, wondering..." the halfling said.

"Why aren't you inside?" Laska asked. "There's something bad stalking out there, you know?"

"Oh, that doesn't scare us!"

"Yeah!" the halfling announced. "We're tough!"

"I... see," Laska all but chuckled.

"Yeah, and, well, we, uhh."

"We like to try ale now. We're men, and we're old enough now!" the halfling pounded his chest.

"But Vincenzo keeps say we too young and need adult supervision to buy a drink..."

"Say no more laddies," Laska chuckled. "Let's go..."

"Hey," one of the boys whispered his friend. "She's already taking us for a drink, so maybe if we'll ask her really nice she'll let us see her without any clothes on!"

"Quiet, you idiot!" the other boy said as he heard the elven female chuckle. "With those ears, she can hear you whispering a mile away! Don't ruin it!"

"I don't care how many rooms there are left, I just want so get some sleep. I'm exhausted to the point of dropping," Viconia muttered as she was negotiating the price for two rooms with a heavy-set innkeeper.

"Aye, Vincenzo," Willet, the small stable-boy said, "dropping elves are bad for business, so you'd better settle soon."

"Quiet, you," Vincenzo announced. "The price is fives coins for each room, and that's my final offer. You'll get the room left downstairs for the girls, and the smaller room upstairs for the boys. Is that fair?"

"Fine," Viconia said while Keldorn stepped out of the stables, "it's a deal." That said, the Drow yawned while she stepped away from the innkeeper and headed straight to the room.

"Is she always like that?" the innkeeper Vince asked the aged Inquisitor.

"When she's tired, yes," Keldorn muttered. "Tell me, if you will, about the troubles this town is having as of late. As an Innkeeper, you must hear things. What are your opinions on the matter?"

"Glad you asked, glad you asked, dear paladin!" Vince beamed.

"If there's something in this world Vince loves, it's the sound of his own voice," Willet chuckled.

"Quiet, boy! The man asked a question," Vince said. "Never mind the boy. He's an ignorant lout I took in out of pity. A simpleton who doesn't know his place."

"But you love me anyway, right?" Willet snickered. Keldorn smiled. He noticed that, despite their exchange of quips, the man and the boy were like father and son to each other.

"Now, for your question, dear sir," Vince smiled. "My family has been in this here area for a long, long time...an' the tales of the witch, Umar, have been passed down, they have!"

"Oh, no... Yer not gonna go into that rot again, are ye?" the irreverent boy snorted.

"Silence, boy! Perhaps I should give you to the witch instead, as an offering, eh? Leave ye out on the doorstep with a lace of garlic tied around yer neck?" Vince winked. "I can tell you all about the witch, Umar... a tale sure to curl yer ears, if you'd care to hear it."

"Please do," Keldorn said. "This could have relevance to our mission here."

"Ah, you're new heroes come to solve our troubles here, then!" Willet smiled. "Well, the biggest trouble we have here is the problem of horsedung in the stables. Pick up that shovel and start shovellin', soldier!"

"Nice try, boy," Vince snorted.

"Worth a shot," Willet smirked.

"Like I said... my family has been around these parts a long time. We were here back when the witch herself plagued these lands over seven hundred years ago! Umar was a wicked one. No one ever saw her except when she came down from the hills to steal some unfortunate souls. Shepherds, babes, anyone who wasn't careful. She'd torture 'em, you could hear their cries durin' the night. People tried to find her, but only the victims' bodies would turn up...mutilated and dead."

"So do the people who take the time to listen to your stories," Willet smirked.

"Quiet, boy!" Vince shook his head. "Strange thing is, Sir Keldorn, Umar just vanished one day. Maybe she was killed, maybe was not. But every century or so, it's said she comes back to the Hills... People disappear, tortured in the hills. And only sometimes are the bodies found. Once Umar's sated herself on blood she returns to whence she came. This is just like them other times... people forgets so easily. 'Tis the witch, I tell you."

"Interesting," Keldorn said. "There are certainly parallels to the current situation in this township. Do you have more evidence to back up your claim?"

"Well, there was a group o' mages some years back who came. Young ones...apprentices, I gathered. Two fellas and a young lass, sure enough. Aye, true enough. Them three went into the Hills...and they was never found again. Except for the lass' blood-stained journals...I found those meself, out in the woods."

"You mean, you tripped over it when you went to the outhouse," Willet chuckled.

"Could I see that journal?" Keldorn asked.

"Sure you can," Vince smiled and handed Keldorn a copy of a small diary. "I had a copy or two done up by a scribe friend of mine some months back. You can have this one, if you like."

"Thank you," Keldorn said, offering the bickering father and son a nod and headed to his room upstairs. It had been a long day and he was looking forward to a good night's sleep... Unfortunately, he would not yet have the chance.

"Chug, chug, chug, chug!" sounded from three excited boyish voices. Glancing in a back corner of the inn, Keldorn noticed Laska sitting at a table with three young boys. All had cups of ale standing in front of them. The elf had apparently exchanged her chainmail for her casual wear, and as she was downing a large cup of ale in one drought, he noticed that, because of her revealing clothes, the boys were never really looking Laska in the eyes... or at anything else besides her ample bosom for that matter.

"Aaaaah," Laska exclaimed as she slammed down her empty tankard. "That hit the spot."

"Go, Laska!" the boys said as they took small sips from their own tankards.

"LASKA!" was shouted from the edge of the table as the paladin had approached them. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh?" Laska chuckled. "Well, these boys were moping around in dark because Vince wouldn't let them into the inn without supervision. So, I decided to let them taste their first ales, right lads?"

"YEAH!" the three boys shouted gleefully at the same time.

"These boys are far to young too..."

"Oh, shut up, square!" the halfling boy retorted.

"What?" Keldorn replied in outrage.

"Oh, I'm just keeping them out of harm's way. Sitting here drinking is much safer than being outside," the tattooed elf smiled.

"View's nicer too," one of the boy said with starry-eyes.

"Shut up, man!" the other boy elbowed him.

But this semi-harmonious picture would soon be shattered by a passing fat drunk, turning his greasy face towards the sitting elf as he uttered the devastating words 'stupid elf'.

Immediately, a vile snarl crossed over Laska's beautiful face as she rose from her seat. "WHAT?!" she spat, "did you just say there?"

"Geez, those ears weren't big enough for you ta hear me? I called you a stupid elf, stupid elf!" the greasy drunk spoke in a deep voice.

"I dare you to say it again!" Laska growled now.

"I said," the greasy man grinned, "that you are a stupid elf, big-ears. Your just as stupid and dumb as the rest of your forest prancing race. Why don't you go marry a tree or something?"

"How would you like me to ram a tree up your big fat ass?!" the elf snarled and flexed her muscles, which were almost not to be seen, but most definitely there...

At this point, Keldorn decided to step in to stop this fight from escalating and moved to stand between his elven friend and the greasy thug. In the background, the three boys were snickering and very much looking forward to seeing her fight. "Now, now, sir," Keldorn started. "Let us all remain calm and discuss..."

"Nrrgggg," the fat drunk grunted and shoved Keldorn away by pushing him into his chest.

"Hey!" Laska shouted. "How can you pick on a defenseless old man like that?!"

"Defenseless!" Keldorn retorted in disbelief... but all time for diplomacy had passed when Laska grabbed a chair and slammed it over the drunk thug's head.

"BAR BRAWL!" Laska shouted cheerfully, and soon enough, Vincenzo's in was a pandemonium of violent chaos. One patron struck another, seemingly not caring who hit whom. A burly villager threw a thin one through the room, while tankards, chair and even tables were tossed about. In the center of the chaos stood Laska, smiling gleefully as she threw punch after punch and kick after kick. Her laugh of joy sounded as she knocked out the greasy thug and send him flying through the air with a single violent uppercut.

"Left! A right! KAPOW!" Willet giggled as he watched the fight from the corner. In the meantime, Vince was calmly writing all the broken furniture on the slate belonging to the respective perpetrator.

Apparently, the three boys were Laska's greatest fans as they cheered for the elf whenever she decked another patron.

Keldorn simply sighed and shook his head. He decided diplomacy was a lost cause and went to bed instead. Walking up the stairs, he ran into Korgan, who was heading down.

"Fight, fight!" the eager dwarf shouted as he ran down. In his enthusiasm, the dwarf tripped and rolled down the remainder of stairsteps, only to land on his feet as he entered the pandemonium of violence.

After helping to clean up, Laska saw that the inn was completely deserted. All patrons had gone to their homes or to their rooms. In any case, she'd had a load of fun. And now, she was getting ready to go to bed.

"Why don't you stay?" the halfling boy asked.

"Yeah! You can settle down and live with us!" the other boy smiled hopefully.

"We want you to become our 'woman'!" the third boy said dreamily, his gaze not exactly focused on Laska's eyes.

"Sorry, lads," Laska shook her head. "But I'm already spoken for." A statement which shattered the boy's fragile teenage dreams.

Offering the boys a single smile, the elf slipped through the door to her room. The room was spacious, and decorated with seedy paintings and soft carpeting. Two bunk-beds lined both sides of the room, which had its own washbasin and bath. A large window was situated between the two bunkbeds, offering a view of the dark forest in the distance. A fully-lit candelabra was the only source of light in the room.

Dynaheir and Viconia had already changed to their night-shifts, stuffed away their belonging and were getting ready for sleep. The rashemi mage had already plopped down on one of the bunks and had tucked herself in.

"I call the top bunk!" Laska said to Viconia.

"Fine," Viconia responded with a yawn.

"What do you mean 'fine'?" Laska said.

"I mean help yourself," Viconia told her elven friend with a certain amount of puzzled curiosity. "What else could it mean?"

"Look, you can't just say fine and be done with!" Laska offered Viconia a look as if she was seeing ice burning in the furnace. "I mean, you're supposed to fight me for it!"

"What? Why? I told you you could have the top bunk, what more do you want?" Viconia sighed, offering Laska a look as if she was seeing a crazy person standing in front of her.

"I was expecting a fight! A struggle! At least a protest!"

"Look, I just don't CARE!" Viconia shouted. "I'm tired and I want to go to sleep, what more do you want from me..."

"A pillowfight, at the very least!" the tattooed elf replied. "Imoen would have tried to tickle me to death by now!"

"Well, I'm not Imoen, am I?" Viconia shot back. "I'm just a sleep deprived Drow who's about to get very angry..."

"I miss Imoen," Laska sighed heavily.

But suddenly, the Drow's head whipped towards the window. Strolling to it, she glanced outside with narrowed eyes, scanning the darkness with her powerful vision. Puzzled, Laska joined her and leant forward with her elbows on the window-seat.

"Look out there," Viconia said.

"What is it?"

"There, in the distance," Viconia pointed.

"I can't see anything..."

"It's what you don't see that's so conspicuous," Viconia muttered. "There! You see?! There are figures out there that are so dark that they block out the lesser darkness of the forest."

"Yeah," Laska muttered as she noticed a dark figure for a second before it shot back into the forest. "What the hell could it be?"

"I don't really know," Viconia muttered. "And, to be honest, I'm too tired to care..."

"Let's just... close the curtains before we sleep," Laska muttered and did so.

"I would never have dreamt," Dynaheir muttered from her pillow, "thou wouldst give in to fear, Laska."

"It's fear of nothingness," Viconia muttered as she climbed in the bottom bunk. In the background, Laska unlaced her vest and removed it, tossing it on a chair near the bunkbed. "Every sentient creature fears the nothing, why do you think almost everyone fears death so much. Typical extenuation of nihilistic existentialist philosophy."

"Yeah," Laska chuckled as she removed her belt, "what she said."

"Don't unbutton your pants just yet," Viconia said as she lay on her bed. "There are three persons looking through the keyhole..."

"I've heard them already," Laska smiled.

"Come on, man!" one boy whispered softly. "Let me look!"

"Sssshh," the other boy whispered. "She's an elf, she'll hear you!"

"Wow, oh, wow!" the halfling boy sighed as he watched Laska through the keyhole. The elf was leaning on the window-bench now, offering the boys a few of her elven posterior in a very tight pair of leather pants.

"Let me see!" the second boy smiled as she looked at the elf and caught a glimpse of Laska's Blue Dragon tattoo on her lower back. "Wow, I wonder how far gone that tattoo goes!"

"A woman like that will have it go ALLLLL the way down!" the halfling sighed dreamily.

"Wow, wow, wow!" the boy looking through the keyhole suddenly exclaimed. "She's unlacing her top!!"

This statement caused three heads to collide as they all tried to look through the keyhole at once.

"Whoa..." they sighed at the same time as Laska's vest dropped to the chair.

"Look at those beautiful tattoos!"

"There's a topless elf in there, and all you're looking at are her tattoos?!"

"This is even better than my dad's Nude Elf Postcards he keeps in the back of his dresser!" the halfling boy drooled.

"Whoa! She's taking off her belt! She's really going all the way!"

"WHOA!"

So focused were the boys that they never saw the elf approaching the door. Without warning, the door they were leaning against opened, dropping the three hapless boys in a heap into the room. Dreamily, they stared up at the smiling topless elf standing over them.

"Okay, boys, time to go home," the elf chuckled.

"I can attest to that," Viconia snarled as she stood in the middle of the room, red tendrils of malevolent magic forming around her body. Her eyes shone dark red as an orb of red colored energy formed in her hand. The air in the room crackled with power as she spoke : "This Drow is trying to GET SOME SLEEP! That means I don't want to see you three male hormone-bombs in vicinity ever again or I shall kill you where you stand!"

"AAAAH!" the boys shouted. "Let's get out of there!" They shot out the door with incredible speed.

"Well, that's that settled," Viconia said, letting the magic dissipate as she returned to her bed. "Amazing what effect a simple Faerie-fire spell can do, no? Idiot males..."

"Impressive lightshow," Laska said as she closed the door, put the key in the lock and removed her pants and underwear. Tossing her clothes over the chair, she climbed into the top bunk and pulled the covers over her body, reflecting how much she missed her sister Imoen and her lover Rose. She would lay asleep only minutes later.