Severe the Heads

Chapter eight arrived to accompany the Stamina Challenge Workout video. Not only did the challenge video challenge our players, but our BattleMates in our story faced their own Stamina challenge when they get attacked by a group of Relentless Dead. This attack, however, was the missing piece as to who is behind all of the chaos!

**The Story: Severe the Heads**

**As your head emerges from the water the seaweed mask disintegrates. Was it a reaction to the air or had its time just ran out? Another second and would you have been underwater without a mask? You'll never know. But as another head surfaces and another, their masks evaporate as well. Let's hope it was the reaction with the air. You swim to shore and pull yourself out of the water onto the sandy beach and collapse.**

**Every limb aches and your lungs burn, but you're alive and by the looks of it so is every one of your brave band of survivors. As your soldiers wring out their clothes and make sure their weapons are intact and have a place to dry, you send out a small party to gather wood for fires. For what seems like the first time since the initial attack on the castle, things are seemingly falling into place. Before long, three small fires line the beach in a tight triangle, weapons and clothes dry and the smell of fresh fish cooking fills the air.**

**With food in your stomach and dry clothes on your back, you're able to think clearly for the first time. You stand to see if you can make out where you are. In the distance to the southwest, you notice a large plume of smoke rising into the sky. As the sun begins to set, the last rays create a beautiful scene through the smoke, but the realization that the smoke most certainly comes from your home makes it hard to enjoy the sunset.**

**For the first time you realize you’re actually able to choose which way you want to travel. Until now, the path had been pretty much defined for you. Now, the lands of BattleMoor lay wide open before you, but where to go? Returning southwest to the castle seems out of the question. You could head to the east into the mountains in search of sanctuary with the White Monks or make the even father trek to the west to find the Blue Monks in their mountains by the ocean. It would be nice to thank them for helping you make your way through the trap infested staircase.**

**As you contemplate your options, the desire to understand why this has all happened takes hold. The explosion of the ancient doors of the castle and the singular focus of the Relentless Goblin, Sitting Silverback and Renegade Assassin worry you. Something is not right in the land of BattleMoor and with few other options, you decide you must figure out who is behind the attacks.**

**A crack of a branch in the darkness too loud to be an animal and everyone freezes. As slowly and quietly as possible everyone gathers their weapons. "Douse the fires!" you whisper and then all that remains to light the beach is the crisp clean light of the full moon that has taken hold of the night sky. It casts ominous shadows across the beach as your party stands slightly rejuvenated and poised for an attack.**

**A figure emerges from the shrubs that line the beach. It stands awkwardly as if it is unsure of how its body should hold itself up. Its eyes glow red in the moonlight. Twenty more sets of red eyes join it at the edge of the beach. You know those eyes. "Relentless Dead!" you shout. "Severe the heads, it's the only way to stop them."**

**The next twenty five minutes test everything you know about yourself. The Relentless Dead's onslaught lived up to the stories. They indeed did not stop fighting until Manesh was able to severe their heads with his mighty blade. The will to live is the only thing that allowed you to keep fighting during the battle. Somehow the desire kept your arms moving and your legs from collapsing.**

**As the beach lay strewn with the once again lifeless bodies of the Dead, you have your soldiers throw the heads of the zombies into the water to quiet the night air. As the last head sinks beneath the water, it hits you. The Temple Priestesses must be behind the explosives, the focused attacks and the assassins as who else could raise the dead to fight for them! It is clear where you must go. You share your discovery with your band. The sense of purpose seems to settle them. It is decided. To the northern mountains of fire!**

**The Workout:**

**Stamina can be a test of your will. Good cardio will surely help, but understanding the little voice inside your head is really your voice can make a huge difference. If the little voice is saying things like, "This is too hard. Just give up. You don't want to be doing this anyway. There are so many other ways that don't involve enduring this." Then you better believe whatever you are trying to accomplish is going to be harder.**

**However, if you can train your little voice to stay positive and encouraging then your body can take over and push through to accomplish more than you might believe is possible. Thankfully, you are not actually faced with a horde of undead soldiers that can only be stopped in a very specific way who are attacking you. You are just working out.**

**One of my acting mentors says, "Seriously, no one is going to die, but if you knew that might happen if you messed up, you wouldn't make the same mistakes again and again." When failure isn't an option, people do incredible things. Her brother is a navy pilot and lands aircraft on carriers for a living. He confided in her there is a brief moment every time he comes in for a landing where he thinks for a second, "If I mess this up, that's it." And every time, he let's that go and he lands the plane. Failure is not an option if you don't let it be one.**

**Keep fighting, keep training, keep pushing, just keep going. If you have to pretend you are fighting off twenty Relentless Dead to make it through the workout, great! Do it. Make sure every one of them looses their head.**