Posted to the MAngband mailing list by Keldon Jones.

Hi,

	In celebration of Halloween, I hacked my MAngband server to plague
the town with undead, and sent a plea for help to the members of the mailing
list.  In response, a lot of people visited to help fend them off, and so I
wrote up the story of:

HALLOWEEN

by Keldon the Ranger

	I was shopping around the Town, selling much of the loot that I had
gathered during my last trip into the Pits of Angband, when I heard a
bone-chilling scream.  Looking around, I spied the animated skeleton of a
kobold, lurching its way down the street.  I quickly shot two arrows into it,
when it fell unmoving onto the stones.  Thinking that it was very odd to see
any of the undead in Town, I decided to explore a bit and see if anything
else had found its way up.  In the far distance I could see many more --
rotting zombies of orcs and kobolds, more skeletons, and even some ghosts
floating above the serene lakes.
	I hasted towards the town Tavern to raise the alarm, and then headed
out to lead the fight against the hoards.  Fortunately, I had a large cache
of arrows in my quiver.  As the undead pressed their way closer to town,
more valiant heroes came to the defense.  Warriors, mages, and even a mighty
paladin came to the town's aid.  After a long battle, the first wave was
defeated.  However, this was only on the north side of the town square.  Who
could know what lay on the other sides?  We hasted to the west side, where
even more undead awaited us.  With extreme difficulty, this group was also
destroyed.
	Then things became even worse.  Night fell.  A few of us carried
lanterns, which we lit.  But still, we could not see the enemy until they
were upon us!  We retreated back to the center of town.  The mages and I used
our magics to light the immediate area, which helped immensely.  The undead
would come in waves from the darkness, when I fill would them full of arrows.
Fortunately, I had just enchanted my long bow with scrolls from Ga-nat the
Alchemist.
	After the immediate area had been cleared, the warrior Slayer and I
headed to the east to scout that area.  We were very quickly besieged by
several of the very powerful orc skeletons.  Retreating, we noticed that even
more lay ahead!  We were surrounded!  Thinking quickly, I cast a short
distance phase door, which got me out of immediate danger.  Looking back, I
could still see Slayer, fighting desperately against the skeletons.
Determined to help, I began firing arrows into those surrounding him, helping
to reduce their number.  Unfortunately, it was to no avail, and Slayer fell.
As his torch hit the ground and sputtered out, I lost sight of the remaining
undead who had killed him.  With a heavy heart, I retreated back to the
Tavern.
	The fighting continued on into the night.  Many more sacrificed
themselves fighting against the monsters.  Would the masses never stop
coming?  Fortunately both the Weapon Smith and the General Store had a large
supply of arrows.  Finally, the sun rose.  All around, the streets were washed
in blood.  Bodies, the remains of zombies, weapons, armor, food, torches, even
gold lay scattered and untouched.  Fortunately, the remaining undead seemed to
have all been vanquished, or perhaps they had retreated.  No one knows from
whence they came, or if they would ever return.  This would be a day never
forgotten.



[AUTHOR'S NOTES]

	First of all, let me say that I'm by no means a writer, and this is my
first effort in "creative writing" in at least 6 years.  I hope I didn't
offend any of you with better tastes in writing.
	For the most part, all the events above really happened on the
development MAngband server.  Of course, some literary license was taken for
some parts.  Most notably, the sun actually rose and set a few times, but it's
a better story if it only lasted one night.  The whole incident with the
warrior Slayer really did happen exactly as it was printed.
	I'd like to thank all of those people who dropped by to help defend
the town, Darren Hebden (keeper of the Roguelike News page) for giving this
event a bit more advertising, and the person on rec.games.roguelike.angband
who suggested putting all those junk skeletons around town to spook the
townspeople.  That gave me the idea to set this up.
	Please send comments, suggestions, or your own Halloween MAngband
stories to keldon@umr.edu (Keldon Jones).  Also, visit the MAngband home page
at:

	http://www.umr.edu/~keldon/mangband


	Keldon

PS.  This has been posted to rec.games.roguelike.angband and the mailing 
     list.