The game is set on an island known as either Diamond Island or
Undead Island, depending on whether you live on it and how polite you're
trying to be. Its prime production items are undead and diamonds (used,
ironically, for the Raise Dead spell). The party was a group of quite
heavily-armed caravan guards who were trying to rush their cargo of
diamonds to Blueport before the last ship of the year departed;  
unfortunately, this meant they were caught outside of a city on
Darkestnight, the worst night of the year for undead.

------------- Preparations for a Siege

      The game began as the party pulled up outside a stone bunker in
which they hoped to weather the night. (Such stone bunkers were built
along every road, long ago, with just this purpose in mind.) A bunch of
ghouls promptly jumped out from behind the bunker and attacked them.  
(Bunkers are hallowed ground, and undead will not actually enter such
without good reason.) The party dispatched the ghouls with no trouble and
continued into the bunker itself, warned that undead were already afoot in
the area.

      Apparently the warning did not take, as Elan the knight and Enajien
the warrior-mage immediately left the bunker to go get some firewood from
a nearby grove. They were promptly ambushed by some more ghouls. ("I
didn't come to chop wood," commented Enajien, "I came to protect you when
they ambush you while _you_ chop the wood.") Elan was quickly paralyzed
but Nailo, the finesse fighter, arrived in time to save his life.

      Fortified with a strong fire, the party withdrew into the bunker for
the night. Gridley the cleric used his undead turning ability on the
bunker's Keystone to produce a protective shield which would keep
incorporeal undead out. The party barred the door securely and shot arrows
and firebolts at the zombies outside as night fell.

------------- Signs of Trouble

      The first half of the night passed more-or-less uneventfully, as the
stone walls and Gridley's shield kept the undead out. The first sign of
trouble was a call for help from far down the road: an elf, begging
entrance in the name of Corellon Larethian. The party opened the door long
enough to let the bard in. Closing the door in the face of the undead
outside proved more problematic but, with a well-timed Web spell from
Etale the wizard, not impossible. The bard had been strength-drained but
managed to gasp: "Strengthen the barrier!"

      Looking outside, the party saw a huge sphere of negative energy
rushing toward the bunker. Gridley spent more undead turning checks to
strengthen the shield, but to no avail: the sphere crashed into the shield
and quickly overwhelmed it. The lights failed, and several party members
lost consciousness briefly.

      The lights returned, and the party quickly realized that they were
in trouble. The entire bunker was contaminated with negative energy.  
Gridley's barrier had failed, the Keystone was contaminated, and the
shadows outside were likely to attack any second. As they considered their
options, the situation suddenly got worse yet: Edward, the merchant they
had been guarding, suddenly backstabbed the mage, bringing him to the
brink of death. Edward, and most of the pack animals, had been killed and
converted to undead!

      Gridley's last undead turning dealt with the zombie pack animals,
and after a bitter battle Elan's magic greatsword and Enajien's spellfire
defeated the undead merchant. Many shadows attacked during this time,
scoring hits on Elan and Enajien both, but their attacks did not appear to
cause any ill effects.

      The zombies and Edward slain, and the seemingly-impotent shadows
driven off, the party slowly came to terms with their situation. Gridley
decontaminated his wand of cure-light with holy water and cured the
party's wounds. The party tried to remove their cursed clothing but
discovered to their dismay that it was stuck to their bodies.

------------- Clerics in the Night

      The night was not over yet. The next encounter came in the form of 
one Vernon, a "passing" cleric (protected by an Invisibility to Undead 
spell) who wanted to know what had happened inside the bunker. Gridley 
recognized his robes: he was a cleric of The Necromancer, also known as 
Vecna, the most feared god on the island. The party politely refused to 
give him information, and after asking several questions he turned and 
left.

      The party talked to Ivellios, the rescued elven bard, and learned of 
a gathering of evil clerics at a stone circle about a mile to the south. 
Ivellios claimed to have tracked the clerics to the circle on a hunch, 
then disrupted their spell by shooting the leader with a crossbow bolt. 
The party seemed willing to accept this story as truth.

      The story was given extra weight when the party spied seven angry 
clerics of The Necromancer marching up the path toward the bunker. They 
angrily demanded the return of their "power" (though they refused to 
discuss exactly what had been stolen.) Met with stalling tactics, harsh 
words, and a 25-damage critical arrow shot by Selket the ranger, they 
launched an attack on the bunker. They began with Command spells (keyword, 
"Exit!"), which failed as most of the party made their saves. They 
followed with Summon Monster spells, summoning dire rats, wolves, and a 
dire ape into the bunker twice in quick succession. The party defeated the 
monsters with only one casualty (Gridley was dropped by a pair of dire ape 
attacks, but quickly healed by Selket), and the clerics retreated.