I actually intended 174 and onward as a two-parter, but, actually, it's now a five-parter. 
Hope you like!Tnt 175 : Laska's Inferno : Pleased to meet you. Hope you guessed my name.
Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith
---Sympathy for the Devil. The Rolling Stones
The heat blasted in Laska's face as she opened her eyes. Still feeling a dull pain in her chest, but no longer feeling as if she'd been split in too, Laska slowly crawled up, sitting up. She was greeted by a desolate landscape, the slope of a huge volcano, where magma-streams sluggishly wounded their way down, as did some waterfalls nearby. Oddly enough, there didn't seem to be a peak or a bottom to the volcano... not one she could see, anyway. Where the top would be she could only see thick fog, and at the bottom that was much the same. The landscape consisted of many slopes and crags, making travelling rather difficult.
Laska noticed she was sitting on a stable plateau. She stood up and slowly made her way to the edge, looking over it. She couldn't see anyone near her, and in the distance she could see three identical volcano's far away, also without identifiable top or bottom. On the volcano she was one, however, she could see a river of black, arid water racing through the crags below.
"That's the river Styx," she heard a familiar voice behind her. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
Laska whirled around and grasped for her blades, but found her scabbard empty... not to mention that her armor was gone and that she was wearing her casual clothes. Weaponless and without armor, she was confronted by a huge Balor... one she recognized. It was Naraphim, the demon summoned by Ardulace in Ust Natha which was to destroy Suldenesselar, but ended up destroying Ardulace herself. Even without weapons and armor, she was determined to go down finding, even though she knew very well that she had very little chance against the tall muscular creature in front of her.
"Don't worry," Naraphim sighed as he spoke in deep bass voice. "I won't hurt you. Do you know where you are?"
Laska was puzzled as the demonic creature passed her, apparently more eager to move on than to fight.
"I'm not sure where I am," Laska spoke with apprehension in her voice. "But I'm pretty sure I'm screwed."
Naraphim snorted. "And what led you to that colorful conclusion?"
"Biggest tip-off : Last time I looked I had a huge hole in my chest... now it's gone, so... I must have died. This can't be Arvandor! But... I did die, didn't I?"
"Not even remotely," Naraphim nodded. "Again, do you know where you are?"
"Not in a place I want to be," Laska said, putting her guard down as the demon didn't seem to make a move to kill her. Making a run for it wouldn't be an option either. The plateau she was on was stable, but all around her the area was sloped and craggy, and making a break for it would be a flight that would quickly end in a lava-stream.
"Shall I just tell you? We'll both be standing in cobwebs before you'll guess right. You are in Gehenna," Naraphim nodded. "One of the Outer Planes. It's also known by its more dramatic names as 'the Fourfold Furnaces' or 'the Oven of Perdition', but nobody who lives here uses those pathetically cliche names. I wouldn't recommend calling it by these names in front of the locals. As planes go, it's not a bad one, though I prefer Carceri."
"Didn't get into heaven, did I?" Laska chuckled. "Which was it? All that sex I had or all that booze I guzzled down?"
Naraphim snorted. "Not even the deva's are that anally retentive. And, no, you are not in Hell. Gehenna is a more... independent plane."
Laska snorted. "No pubs near, are there? I went through all that trouble and still I didn't get my spirit back. I could use a stiff drink and a guilt free snog right about now"
"The Crawling City happens to be near," Naraphim added. "No doubt there's a bar and several succubi looking for company there. But I'd rather you consider your surroundings first."
"So, this is Gehenna. Big whoop," Laska said. "If I'm dead, I want there to be snogging and boozing, and no stupid volcano's."
"You really don't know? You didn't sense it as you came here?" Naraphim said, not revealing his thoughts about that. "Very well, this is Gehenna. Khalas, to be more precise. Gehenna also just happens to be your father's old home plane. He held a pocket-plane of considerable size far from the main four levels."
That said, Naraphim clapped his hands. "Ardulace!" he called. A few moments later, the ghostly form of Ardulace floated into view. The face of the former Matron Mother was dejected, devoid of expression. She mere stared and spoke the words 'yes, master' in a monotonous voice.
"Ardulace," Naraphim said. "Place carry my suitcases."
"Is that?" Laska pointed at Ardulace.
"Yes," said Naraphim. "She makes for a good servant. I shall keep her on for a century or so and then set her spirit free to join Lolth in her realm."
"I thought you were going to mold and maim her spirit for all eternity," Laska said.
Naraphim folded his arms and snorted. "I only said that because that's what you mortals always want to hear. Gotta think of my reputation. Now, let's waste no more time and go to the pocketplane."
Naraphim waved his arms and the entire area started to shimmer.
---
Laska appeared half a foot above ground, and landed gracefully on her feet. She noticed she was standing on black obsidian stone. It was a craggy slag that was miles wide. Over the edge, the mist literally formed an ocean of wispy clouds and, in the distance, she could see the four volcano's of the Fourfold Furnace.
Naraphim was nowhere in sight, and for all intents and purposes, she might as well be standing alone on top of a giant flat slab of rock.
"Great," Laska muttered and kicked away a small pebble, sending it over the edge and into the mists below. She never heard it land.
"SO WHAT DO I DO NOW, HUH?!" Laska shouted out. "What a load of metaphysical bollocks..."
Suddenly, there was a rumbling in front of her, as the ground rose up and split open, resembling a large maw as the fold in the earth was now large enough to allow passage.
"Okay, weird," Laska muttered to herself. But seeing no other place to go to, she headed into the darkness beyond.
Her elven sight was not enough to see a path in a darkness, so she stumbled around feeling the walls, hoping that this cave was actually leading somewhere.
Finally, she saw some light in the distance and followed the path. She ended up in a large cavern with a winding path along a lake of magma. Laska sat on a rock for a moment, finding it hard to breathe, but soon forced herself to push on.
At the end of the path, the only way to continue was over a dried bed next to the lake of magma. Unfortunately, the path was blocked by a rather strange group of individuals, all of which were... herself.
One particularly noble looking version of herself was un-tattooed and wore a golden metal fullplate, wielding a ridiculously huge sword. She smiled and nodded at her. Next to the iron-clad figure at another Laska, one covered from head to toe with tattoos. She held a small casket above her head with the spigot open, leaking a seemingly infinite amount of alcohol into her mouth. A third Laska lay prone on a slab. She was tattooed, but her tattoos were apparently symbols from the churches of Sune and Sharess. Her costume could best be described as a red ribbon and a loincloth. She purred suggestively at Laska. The four Laska was entirely dressed in a black catsuit and matching cloak and looked at her counterpart with an icy stare. And between the other four, a cheerful child, resembling Laska at age 16, bounced around giggling wildly and touching everything she could get her little fingers on. Right now, she was throwing rocks into the magma and let out little cries of joy whenever one would make a great splash.
"Ah, our noble progenitor has finally doth arriveth!" spoke paladin-Laska with flowery tones.
"We're part of this," said dark-Laska. "Great, I can't even kill this useless woman without destroying myself. Imagine being inside of this creature! Being a part of this alcoholic small-minded slut! Oh, the pain, the pain of it all."
"Who are calling small-minded?!" Laska challenged.
"Oh," lusty-Laska drawled and let her tongue slide along her lips. "I wouldn't mind being inside of her," she smiled suggestively.
"You're always on about sex hic," indulgent-Laska said. "There's hic more to life than sex.hic."
At that moment, child-Laska looked up at Laska. "I chase my cat with a big hammer!" she said, before her short-attention-span demanded she look at something else.
"Uhh," Laska blinked. "Hello?"
"Hi!" lusty-Laska stood up and stalked alongside the surprised Laska, finally resting her hands on her shoulders, starting to kneed the flesh. "So... Wanna screw?"
Laska broke free from the embrace and turned around. "Look, normally I'd love to, but this is just too weird!"
Lusty-Laska snorted. "Coward," she said and returned to the slab. "You don't know what you're missing."
"Don't mind her," said indulgent-Laska.
Laska felt the heat of the magma on her skin, even though the others apparently weren't affected. "Mind if I take a quick sip of your ale?" Laska asked hopefully.
"MINE! hic" shouted the indulgent-Laska and moved the keg out of Laska's reach.
"Charming," responded Laska, fighting the urge to drop-kick indulgent-Laska into the magma.
It was then that paladin-Laska spoke in. "Thou must travel beyond us and meet thine guide. Thou needeth only to pass through that yon door. We are merely aspects."
"Aspects of your character," dark-Laska spoke. "Few of many forming one, apparently useless whole. Though we generally get along well... and form a whole that is the alcoholic small-minded slut that you are."
"Stop calling me small-minded!" Laska snarled.
"Except for the corpse-woman," child-Laska spoke up while dismembering a bug with a pair of tweezers. "We never talk to her, and she never talks to us, but we don't like her anyway."
"She of malicious heart used to keep to herself, we all used to keep her down if she got too close," lusty-Laska said. "But she has gotten a lot more powerful lately. She's pushing us around now. Well, she mostly leaves darky here alone, but the rest of us are fair game."
"She makes me sad," child-Laska pouted.
Suddenly, the real Laska got the feeling that she was being watched. After looking up, she saw another version of herself staring down at her from a ledge. This Laska was a desiccated walked corpse, her skin stretched tightly over her bones, her eyes covered with a white film and her hands degenerated into razor-sharp claws. The Slayer watched her for a moment, then turned around and disappeared into the wall.
Laska felt someone pulling on her pants and found child-Laska tugging on it. Child-Laska smiled and held up a small key. "Here. It opens the door over there. Now go through it and kick arse!"
"Honor travel with you, friend."
"G'luck, hic"
"Sure you don't want to stay and... get to know yourself a little better?"
"Try not die. You'll take us with you, you know."
Thanks for reading. Shaya'll be up next.
More on Laska after that.---Weyoun
