Undead Showdown (14-17 Ready'reat 586 OY, 12/13/99 RL) Fingle, his attention drawn by Axel practicing his Fireball, rejoined Axel at Earundir's tower. While waiting for Axel, Fingle was suddenly seized with the fear that he was about to be attacked by giant rats! But there were none around, and the fealing rapidly subsided. The two of them, with Jana the mule, set out cross-country for town as night fell on Miraburg's topside. As they rounded the highland's above town, they spotted - through breaks in the cloud cover - a large fire burning outside town. They decided to make directly for the flame.

Meanwhile, at the ambush Camen and Shinshi had orchestrated outside town, confusion in the ranks had led to a lumberjack/militiaman torching the bonfires prematurely. Disgusted and fearing that the enemy would be alerted to the ambush, Camen ordered a general withdrawal of the troops back to town.

Axel and Fingle arrived at the deserted ambush site, found the dwindling bonfires, and narrowly avoided the concealed pit traps. Then they went to the town and rejoined the others. The night passed uneventfully.

In the topside morning, the heroes (Camen, Axel, Fingle) commandeered Miraburg's hammership to seek out the undead. They were joined by the elven archer Sidith, from the Golden Lightning. After flying around the darkened backside for a while, and getting their map backwards, Sidith's exception vision spotted some skeletons standing in a clearing near the edge. Fingle tried to levitate her down for a closer look, without bringing the hammership within Dispel Magic range of the mysterious enemy spell-caster. Although Fingle had trouble getting that psionic discipline activated, they eventually managed to spot some non-skeletal leader types on the ground and return to the ship. Then they commenced an aerial bombardment with the hammership's catapult. The undead fled into the forest, but the ship pursued. Luckily for the ship, the cloudy weather of the previous days was passing. The ship's crew got several hits in before the undead hid in dense undergrowth. The ship returned to town.

The next topside night, Camen, Axel, Fingle, Shinshi, Jos, and Sidith returned to the ambush site. They were accompanied by 30 of the town's militia. The bonfire's were rebuilt (but not lit!), the pits were tidied up, and everyone settled in to wait. Shinshi took a position farther up the road where the undead were expected.

Several hours after dark a single skeleton walked slowly down the road. It was allowed to enter the ambush, where it was cut down by arrow fire. Shinshi then reported in that a large enemy force was on the road, and it had split up: a small force of skeletons was moving to flank the ambushers, while a large group of zombies was moving directly down the road.

Fingle and Sidith went to deal with the skeletons. First, they met a vaguely familiar looking man-at-arms, but they soon realized he was a ghoul. The creature called forth nearly a dozen skeletons from the brush. Fingle bravely offered to hold them while Sidith went for help, and she agreed. The ghoul left five skeletons to deal with the levitating hadozee, and pursued the elf with the rest of his troops. Fingle eventually dealt with his attackers with a combination of detonates and fancy axe work. The fleeing Sidith was met by a squad of five militia sent to investigate the commotion, and they quickly dealt with the remaining skeletons and the ghoul.

Meanwhile, the main force of Miraburgers grimly watched from hiding as the zombies - until recently their own friends - plodded towards them. As the first rank followed the road and fell into the pit trap, the ambush was sprung. The bonfires flamed up - illuminating the battlefield, arrows whistled into the undead, the hanging net dropped and ensnared a handful of zombies. Zombies staggered off the road to maul their attackers. Then a magical bolt of fire momentarily streaked above everyone's head, and blossomed into a blinding ball of fire directly above the rear rank of the undead, right where the mysterious leader had been standing. Instantly, the rear rank of zombies was incinerated, several more were badly burnt, as was the remaining ghoul. Camen and some of the troops dealt with the burning zombies and ghoul. Unfortunately, the fireball also injured a number of human troops fighting near "ground zero".

Then a cloud of utter darkness sprung up right where the fireball had gone off. Fighting continued, but then the gaunt, burnt figure of the undead's leader stepped out of the darkness brandishing a large axe. Camen and some others in the front row succumbed to its magical fear aura and fled. From his sheltered location, provided by Jos, Axel unleashed a barrage of magic missiles on the thing. It collapsed with a groan, and its weapon and body disintegrated into a swirl of grey dust. The remaining zombies collapsed as well.

In the aftermath, the townspeople began the task of burying the dead. The heroes recovered several items identified as magic from the enemy: a ring, a broadsword, a longsword, and three sling bullets.

Then, Fingle "heard" a familiar telepathic voice. It congratulated him on the victory, and told him that now it was safe for them to recover "the horn", and that a ship was coming with a large sum of gold to trade for the horn....