------------- Dawn at Last

The session began at 4am on Darkestnight, with the party hiding in a stone 
bunker from the surrounding skeletons and zombies. Most of the serious 
threats that night had been dealt with during the previous session, so 
aside from some token beating on the door by the zombies there was no real 
threat. Day dawned, and the random undead stopped appearing; Enajien's 
spellfire attack and Selket's arrows made short work of those that 
remained.

Gridley used some undead turning checks to try to remove the negative 
energy that had contaminated the party's possessions. This was partially 
successful: the party's minor equipment was cleansed, but their armor and 
clothing remained quite thoroughly cursed. The party noticed that this 
armor seemed to react badly to undead turning attempts: the armor steamed 
slightly as if damaged, but then sucked life out of the person wearing it 
in order to replenish its energy.

Gridley and Etale prepared spells for the day. Gridley memorized a Remove 
Curse spell and tried to use it to remove his armor. This failed with no 
effect, not even the steam that an undead turning attempt usually 
produced.

The party decided unanimously to ignore the stone circle that had produced 
the curse that attacked them last night, and instead to venture on towards 
Blueport to sell their now-cursed diamonds before the trade ship left.

------------- Too Many Skeletons

Two hours into the journey, Etale's familiar Souffle sent him a panicked 
message: a huge horde of skeletons was running down the road straight 
toward the party. The party retreated into a nearby glade of trees 
(surprising a few ghouls which Gridley quickly turned), then prepared for 
battle. Etale used Haste on Gridley, who destroyed more than fifty of the 
skeletons with four successive turning attempts. Etale used a Web spell to 
trap a dozen more; the rest of the party killed individual skeletons with 
great skill, but were mostly useful in that they kept the skeletons off of 
Gridley.

As most of the skeletons dropped, the party heard cries for help from 
deeper into the forest: Ivellios, the NPC bard, had run off and was being 
attacked by ghouls. Elan and Nailo ran off, leaving the rest of the party 
to deal with the remaining handful of skeletons. Elan and Nailo made short 
work of the ghouls, but Gridley had a slightly tougher time in 
hand-to-claw combat with the undead remaining.

The party buried the ghouls and continued on; Souffle reported only a 
couple of skeletons wandering nearby, and they showed no interest in the 
party.

------------- A High-placed Supporter

After a few more hours of travel, the party met someone else on the road: 
a man who introduced himself as Melestav, the steward of Lord Morgan. 
Melestav was leading a pale-looking woman on a horse, whom he introduced 
as "Sarah, one of Lord Morgan's servants". He brought the party an 
invitation to dinner at Lord Morgan's estate.

The party questioned both Melestav and Sarah, but neither said much that 
was useful. Melestav seemed to hold sincere respect for the party and 
mentioned that Lord Morgan had a business proposition to offer. Sarah 
seemed afraid of the party. Asked if she enjoyed working for Lord Morgan, 
she answered, "You'd have to ask Lord Morgan about such things..." 
Melestav, asked why Sarah had come along, answered obliquely that Lord 
Morgan had wanted to offer the party refreshment if they were hungry. 
(Sarah proved to have brought some food along.) The party had lunch, 
though Melestav professed not to be hungry.

The party initially wanted to push on to Seaspray, but Melestav seemed to 
think this would be a bad idea. He mentioned the powerful aura of evil 
that surrounded the party (due to their cursed armor), and tried to 
persuade them to visit Lord Morgan instead. The party agreed, with the 
caveat that "we may not be able to stay for long".

The party turned off the road shortly before Seaspray, travelling through 
a forested region to Lord Morgan's castle. On entering the castle, the 
party's suspicions were confirmed: the evil aura of an Unhallow spell 
pervaded the building. "Hi!", said Gridley, "I'm Gridley, a servant of 
Pelor!" Lord Morgan looked nonplussed, cast a Detect Evil spell, then 
laughed. "Hello, Gridley. I am Morgan, a servant of Vecna. Pleased to meet 
you."

------------- Interview with a Vampire

Lord Morgan and the party talked for some time. Morgan described himself 
as a supervisor of the trade routes: when undead attacked and destroyed a 
trade caravan, he would return the trade goods to the economy. He also 
mentioned that he was "well-respected" in Seaspray. The party expressed 
their approval of Morgan's activities.

Morgan expressed his respect for the party, and offered to support them in 
conquering Blueport if they would install him as their deputy in the city, 
in charge of trade. He mentioned his ability to control humans as a reason 
why he would be best for the job. He advocated an attack on the city with 
skeletons and negative energy arrows to destroy the positive energy 
shield. The party countered with a plan involving their sneaking into 
Blueport to sabotage the shield from within. Lord Morgan seemed doubtful, 
again arguing that the party's aura of evil would prevent them from 
sneaking anywhere.

The party dismissed Morgan, explaining that they needed to prepare a magic 
ritual and must not be disturbed. They ascertained that Morgan was a 
vampire (as evidenced by his fangs), and that he was more of an 
administrator than a true warrior. After much discussion, they decided to 
rest the night, then kill Morgan after preparing spells at dawn of the 
next day. Fortunately for the party, Lord Morgan had not dared insult them 
by stationing an eavesdropper outside their door; they had made a Listen 
check to see if anyone was eavesdropping, but they forgot that undead do 
not breathe (and thus do not make noise when standing still).

Morgan had given the party a tour of the castle, but had not pointed out 
his coffin. After some searching, the party located a grille in the 
basement, leading to a subbasement containing the coffin. The party could 
not find any secret doors leading to the subbasement; they concluded that 
Lord Morgan probably used Gaseous Form to reach it each day.

------------- A Hostage Situation

Morning arrived, and the party prepared spells. Etale used Haste on 
Gridley, then launched a lightning bolt at the coffin through the grille. 
The coffin exploded, and Gridley launched two Searing Light spells at Lord 
Morgan, instantly killing him. Melestav and two Vampire Spawn servants 
came charging down the stairs to attack the party. Elan and Nailo quickly 
dispatched the servants, and Etale dealt 19 damage to Melestav with a 
Burning Hands spell - doubled, since Melestav was a mummy. Melestav 
grappled Etale and retreated to the stairs, shouting, "Stop attacking or 
I'll kill him!"

Melestav's threat was completely ignored: Gridley summoned a spiritual 
weapon to attack him, Nailo vaulted up the stairs to attack from behind, 
and Etale himself fired magic missiles at his captor (making his 
concentration check to cast while grappled). Melestav came very close to 
killing Etale right there, but failed a grapple check at the crucial 
moment. The following several rounds were a race between Gridley trying to 
heal Etale, Melestav trying to strangle him, and Nailo and the spiritual 
weapon trying to finish Melestav off. Eventually, Melestav died.

Elan broke the slats from the grille, and Selket climbed down to prevent 
Lord Morgan from regenerating in the remains of his coffin. After about an 
hour, Lord Morgan's gaseous form evaporated, and the servants were freed 
from his control.

The party then needed to break out of the castle: ghouls and skeletons 
were surrounding it, beating on the doors. "Oh, no!", laughed Elan. "Here 
we are, besieged in this castle with a spellfire wielder and a 
near-infinite supply of bows and arrows. Whatever will we do?" The party 
broke out of the castle after looting it thoroughly. They brought the 
servants with them as witnesses to their good conduct.

------------- Reception at Seaspray

The party sensed that their aura of evil would make them unwelcome in 
Seaspray. Instead they sent Lord Morgan's ex-servants into Seaspray, 
giving them the (nonmagical) weapons from Lord Morgan's armory to sell. 
"Send us a cleric", said Gridley. "We need to report." After not too long, 
no less than three clerics approached the party: one of Ehlonna, one of 
Obad-Hai, and one of Pelor. Gridley asked them to cast a Zone of Truth 
spell; they did, and he explained that the party was not a group of evil 
undead but rather was under a curse which made them appear so.

The clerics seemed dubious: one of their number cast Detect Evil and was 
knocked unconscious by the evil radiation. ("Yes," he gasped. "Yes, I 
would say that they do in fact detect as evil.") They went briefly into a 
huddle and tried to decide whether Zone of Truth was effective against 
undead... They concluded that it wasn't.

Gridley used an undead turning attempt to demonstrate his command of 
positive energy, and this seemed to lend weight to his story. "I don't 
want to take anything from this town," he said. "Just send word to 
Blueport of our arrival and of our good conduct here." The clerics assured 
the party that they would be sending a detailed report.

Before the party left, the clerics offered to try to remove the curse on 
one of their number. Gridley volunteered. The clerics returned to the 
village for reinforcements; they came back with a total of ten clerics and 
sixteen buckets of holy water. They launched several volleys of positive 
energy at Gridley, who bravely tried to resist his armor's attempts to 
drain his life force. After three rounds, the armor was barely scratched, 
but Gridley was somewhat the worse for wear. The situation ended abruptly 
when a wave of negative energy left Gridley's armor and washed over the 
three chief clerics who had been doing the turning, inflicting some 
negative levels. The clerics broke and ran; Gridley shouted apologies 
after them, claiming that he hadn't meant to do that.

Since the party felt they would be unwelcome in Seaspray, they decided to 
press on to Blueport.