"Aranwen!" the priest of Therassor spat out bloodily. "Call a full retreat. We cannot withstand this onslaught further."

Realizing the truth of his words, the companions turned and fled from the zombie horde.  Even as he turned, Moreno felt a blow rain down upon his back, staggering him in the process.  He was lucky. 

Midge on the other hand, was struck hard enough to lift him from his feet, where lay lay crumpled on the ground.  He tried to rise, saw his companions fade away into the wood, raised a hand towards them... and then, the crush of zombies was upon him.  Striking, pulling, tearing.  The cidal felt excruciating agony as his left arm was ripped from its socket, before he mercifully felt nothing else.

Cedric was bruised, battered, slipped down into the mud.  The young man tried to regain his feet, but felt the crushing weight of the dead and their cold hands bearing him down into the mud, into his own grave.  The pain, the terror, the sheer alone as not only his friends, but even his god seemed to abandon him in his time of need were the last things Cedric ever thought.

Soon, the survivors made their way back to the camp.  Kith thankfully regained the ability to move, but even as Ch'dau sat her down beside the stream, the hateful giggling of a ghoul could be heard from across it.  Would it be wise to cross the stream and risk encountering it with the wounds that the companions suffered from?  Should they make a stand here, at least hoping that the stream would slow the ghoul down?  The horde of zombies pressed ever closer, uncaring of pain or suffering or grief...

"Mel!  Are you reading the gol parallum again?" a voice sternly intoned - clearly already knowing the answer. 

The young girl snapped the cover shut and hung her head, answering sheepishly.  "Yes, mistress."

Valdaria shook her head and pursed her lips.  "You know that the knowledge of parallel outcomes is forbidden to acolytes!  It is intricate, confusing study limited only to masters.  Come back in a decade or two if you wish to pursue it further, but if I catch you with these volumes again before you earn your next ring, you'll be on privvy duty for the next three months!  Is that clear?"

The Magister's priestess shook her head and carefully replaced the volume as her acolyte slunk away, dejected.

Bwahaha... I LITERALLY laughed out loud when you segued into commercial.  I'm really glad that my office is isolated, people would be looking at me like I was a lunatic.

(I was joking?)

Awesome.  +2 to all saving throws for my players who sign up and redeem at least one offer with it (thus making them "count" for me). 

I saw that you signed up.  Yay for using it! 

It's easy peasy.  Gonna knock down some more Disney cards shortly. 

As a DM, I find that fireball is a WONDERFUL spell.  Players feel so strong, so POWERFUL... and they seldom read the spell description, much less consider the actual area of effect.  Fireballs indoors are FANTASTIC. 

Flaming Ch'dau demise would be pretty metal, just sayin'.

That said, Cedric is a cleric, he doesn't have fireball.  He is using the 2nd level priest spell "produce flame".  It's not a strong spell, though it can set things on fire...

Give it a shot! 

Hey folks.  I figured I'd share this for you in Spamvertize - where you can easily ignore if it doesn't appeal to you.

Early this year, my wife got me going on Ibotta.  She'd been trying for a few months, but I just hadn't bothered to look at it... and I feel silly for waiting.

The deal is that it's a free app for your phone.  It has all kinds of retailers (Target, Wal Mart, Best Buy, etc) - plus an online retailer section.

The in store stuff is pretty cool.  They have all of these offers for stuff you are probably buying anyway.  A dollar back on Fruit Loops, fifty cents on bacon, a dollar on Klondike bars, and so on and so forth.  You scroll through, add the offers, then submit your receipt after you finish shopping.  Within a day (usually, within a few minutes), they credit your account. Once you hit a certain threshold - I forget, I think it was ten dollars or something like that - you can withdraw the balance onto various gift cards, paypal, venmo, etc, etc.

I started Ibotta in February, took a break with the baby's birth, picked back up.  In May, I cashed out a hundred dollars.  As of today (July 29th), I'm at another $87. 

No, you're not going to get rich... but you're getting cash back on stuff you are already buying.  I use this as a way to help save for our Disney World trip next year - I withdraw and immediately buy Disney gift cards with it. 

I won't lie, it behooves me to get you hooked - I get a little referral if anyone installs the app and actually uses it... and if I can get one more person to sign up and use it by the end of the month, I get a $20 bonus. 

But seriously - check it out.  It costs nothing but a very small amount of time, and again, you're just buying stuff that you were already buying (groceries is my big deal, though they do have a bunch of other stores). 

A heroic stand.  Beautiful.  Brings a tear to my eye!

Beautiful photos.

I'm going to give you guys the weekend to make your posts.  I'll push the story on Monday.

Some of you may be enjoying your last weekend, so make it count!

Have a good trip!

We don't have a time zone option.  Everything is at CST. 

I can make that improvement to the site, though.

This would be a hell of an animated series, no doubt. 

Whose gonna volunteer to shave him for that?

You guys need a bard to sing songs of your bravery (and deaths). 

I mean, I probably am evil.  I do enjoy scaring players, and I will kill characters. 

Then again... if there is no true risk, no real chance that the party will fail, that characters can die... how much fun is it? 

Or something like that. 

Y'all call me an evil GM.  I'm not the one who rolled a natural 1 on my attack roll!  Well, I rolled it FOR Aranwen, but still...

I gave him a save chance, and he made it!  What more do you want from me?

That's precious.

I need to know if everyone will go along with Aranwen's plan to make a stand.  I don't see Gib fleeing, despite him thinking it is the better solution, but I need to know that for sure.  Will Ch'dau and the casters follow the order?

For what it may be worth, the evil GM thinks that, statistically, this is your best shot.  Making a stand means that if someone does go down, they will at least have the rest of the party still fighting so as to keep them from being devoured immediately.    The fighters may be able to screen the zombies off of the casters, too. 

Maybe.

I'm not going to lie - this could well be the end of the line for one or more of you (TPK is a real possibility in all seriousness).  But of the options you have left, I think that this is the best choice that you have.

Roger, historically, your picks had to be in before kickoff of the games.  Tann has allowed in the past for people to just drop the Thursday night pick and then to pick the weekend games later, if you so prefer.

Looks like the party leader has a call to make.  Either call might save the group.  Or might doom it (or part of it).

Just to make sure that everyone understands the rules - if you turn and run from melee, every enemy in range gets a free shot at your back, ignoring your shield bonus and most bonuses related to dexterity.  You're talking about roughly ten extra attacks at the group. 

Zombies do suck, but it's a serious risk - especially to those with fewer HP. 

Of course, if you stand and fight, you are committed.  Disengaging probably won't be an option again. 

You guys beat similar odds in the Inn already... but the dice were kind.  I really didn't see y'all getting into this exact situation, so this encounter has become more difficult than I imagined it would be.

Of course, citizen.

All memories up to the last few moments before death are available to the replacement clones.  Friend Computer has decided in its infinite wisdom that memories of death could cause serious mental health issues. 

An unfortunate side effect of this is that it can prevent clones form remembering who may have betrayed them, if such a thing were to ever occur...

Sure, I'll play!

I figured you were kidding, Brom.  Just wanted to toss that out there.  I think that "Gib the fallen priest, saddled with guilt, seeking redemption for his sins" would be an incredibly compelling read, but you might not speak to me after he loses divine favor, so I wanted to be sure that you understood the implications of that.

lol @ every bitch for themselves.

Sorry, nope.  If you're raised as zombies, you have no minds, so there is no RP.  Ghouls have intelligence and cunning, but the change ruins their minds; little but madness and hate and hunger remain. 

An "undead servants of D'hurgen" has some shine to it, though... I can dig it. 

Just going to point this out, in case you hadn't considered it - Therassor's teachings are all about honor and chivalry and doing battle for justice and good and the "right" things.  While his teachings do not forbid retreat in and of itself - it is obviously wise to live to fight another day in many cases - abandoning a companion to an undead buffet will probably be viewed as a big, ugly sin in that religion.

edit - no doubt, great post there, breebles.