=============== Minions of Sargon

The game began as the party left the town of Seaspray, heading east
towards the Shining City.  Selket spotted a man on a horse in the
distance, riding very quickly toward the party.  By the time the party was
ready, he was already on top of them.  The zombie leapt off its horse,
attempted to strangle Selket, and was obliterated by an undead turning
from Gridley.  The party noted that he had been a messenger from Blueport,
but was not carrying a message.  They continued on.

As they approached the first bunker on the road to The Shining City, the
party noticed a large group of zombies hiding in the trees, trying
(without success) to look inconspicuous.  They decided to race for the
bunker, but the zombies intercepted them before they got the door open.
Six (large) ogre zombies and three (huge) athach zombies attempted to grab
and squeeze the life out of the party, but Gridley's undead turning dealt
with the ogres while the fighters destroyed the larger zombies.  Etale's
familiar, Souffle, spotted a cleric running from the scene of the battle;
Etale pursued, using a Fly spell for speed.  Etale and Enajien eventually
captured the cleric alive.

Interrogating the kobold cleric revealed that he was a minion of Sargon,
the ogre-mage master of the north.  He said he would be delighted to serve
the party however he could, if only they would promise not to kill him.
The party grudgingly agreed to let him live.

=============== Night in the Bunker

As usual, the party's armor steamed as they entered the bunker.  The
negative energy of the curse was conflicting with the positive energy of
the bunker's Hallow effect.  Eventually the Hallow effect weakened and
dissolved; the party's armor sucked some life from it to replace the
energy lost.

The party reviewed the loot they had taken from the cleric.  Along with
some miscellaneous magic items they found a letter, sent from "Tayric of
Blueport" to the leader of The Shining City, describing Blueport's
encounter with the party.  It described the party as undead, but noted
that the undead seemed to contain living creatures and to have the ability
to use their powers.  It added that "reminding them that we recognize
their undead nature seems to agitate them; when negotiating with them, it
is best to treat them as human when possible."

During the second watch, Elan and Enajien saw the three large zombies the
party had killed stand up and shamble back into the trees.  They fired a
few shots at one of them but did not kill it.  They also noticed that
their newly captured cleric was praying in Draconic.  Elan, who spoke
Draconic, listened in: "O great Vecna, please free me from these horrible
nasty evil creatures who have captured me...  If you could see fit to
return life to my zombies and have them reduce the party to little
squishies tomorrow, that would truly bring joy to my life."  Elan made a
sarcastic comment (in Draconic), and the cleric nearly fell over himself
apologizing; Elan did not otherwise disturb him.

=============== The Road to The Shining City

Day dawned, and Gridley and Arator left the bunker to pray.  Distracted in
their meditations, they didn't notice the three athach zombies until they
were almost upon them.  The fighters rushed out to help; Etale, lacking
most of his good spells, decided instead to restrain the kobold cleric
from doing anything untoward.  The battle was tougher than the previous
day's had been: although the zombies were without their cleric, the party
was without Etale's spells, and the zombies this time had a clear shot at
Gridley and Arator.

The party defeated the zombies, remembering to burn the corpses this time,
and headed off toward The Shining City.  After four hours' travel they
reached the bunker where they had first received their curse.  Since they
had only three hours of daylight left, they decided to stay the night
there.

Enajien, Elan, and Arator opened the doors to the bunker and were promptly
attacked by several nasty ghoul-looking creatures.  The creatures hit the
warriors several times but were unable to paralyze them.  Eventually the
first three ghasts were defeated, and Etale slipped a Fireball and a Web
spell into the rear of the bunker, destroying most of the rest.  Noting
the awful stench and the ambient negative energy in the place, the party
opted to continue to the next bunker before sleeping.

The party was attacked by two zombified dire bats after night fell, Elan
and Enajien defeated them singlehandledly.  (Elan defeated his in the
first round of combat; Enajien took some more time but insisted that he
did not require help.)  After the battle, Enajien forced the captured
cleric to heal him, trusting that he could absorb any spells he didn't
recognize as Spellfire charges.

The party opted to spend the night outside the bunker after all (so that
their curse wouldn't remove its Hallow enchantment).  They stayed for the
first half of the night in two Rope Trick spaces, courtesy of Etale.  
This let most of the party rest peacefully; afterward, the nonhumans
guarded while the humans slept.  The party was attacked by undead dire
bats again, but Gridley turned most of them and Elan and Enajien slew the
rest.

=============== Awaken, O Vecna

As they approached the town of Sunnyside, the party noticed hostiles on a
ridge ahead: a cleric in the robes of The Necromancer was watching.
Subsequent Spot checks reported three mummies and several zombies, but no
clerics at all.  The party formed a line and approached the possible
ambush with great trepidation.

Selket cast Entangle; several party members drank potions of Haste.  The
party engaged the undead without much difficulty, as none of them were
really strong enough to harm the party.  They did provide a nice
distraction, though, as four clerics of The Necromancer appeared in the
air overhead.  "Awaken, O Vecna!", they shouted, slaying chickens and
throwing them at the party.

Etale, Gridley, and Enajien did their best to fend off the clerics while
Elan, Arator, and Selket fought the zombies and mummies.  The zombies and
mummies did not prove a threat; the party's curse, though, seemed to be
aggravated by the clerics' attacks.  The party's armor sucked more life
out of them every turn until, after three turns, the clerics were driven
off and killed.  The life drain gradually subsided, and the party finished
off the remaining undead with no trouble.

=============== Reception at Sunnyside

After disposing of the corpses, the party moved on to Sunnyside.  The town
was entirely vacated except for one paladin toward the rear, who shot a
letter at the party on an arrow, then galloped off toward The Shining
City.  The letter contained a (badly-spelled) challenge to combat from Sir
Adrielin, leader of The Shining City:

"Let us not waste time with Skermishes, with Sieges, with throwing Spells
at one another like Cowards, or with the Needless Destruction of each
other's Towns and Slaughter of each other's Civilions.  Instead, let us
Resolv the Question of who shall Survive, once and for all, in Glorious
Combat before the Gates of our City!"

As a postscript, the letter contained apologies to those who might still
remain alive, captured by the undead, and a promise to resurrect them all
after the battle, if possible.  The party did not seem thrilled by this
prospect.