Welcome back blog readers. There’s been a lot of great Crawls this month. My favorite so far has been the most recent Predator and Prey, in which Team Cobalt was in top form.
As always in Predator and Prey they had a guest star judge who gets to pick “Predator” (where the party hunts something) or Prey (where the party IS what’s hunted). Since this weeks guest judge was Krag, one of the hottest stars of the West Coasts B class anyone who bet him picking Predator for the party should have just handed the money over ahead of time.
This month’s was especially nasty as Prey since the Crawl took place in the Florida Everglades. Deep swamp is not the best terrain to be running in. As with any choice of Prey the party has to run along a set course and get at least one person to the other end to win. If the person acting as Predator (Krag in this episode) catches them it’s a 2 minute penalty for the team. As if that wasn’t enough the Crawl organizers always have few road blocks to slow the party down. Although team Cobalt did a pretty good job of not only not being slowed much, but actually using the obstacles to slow Krag down.
This week Team Cobalt had an extra member. A kobold who’s name I missed, he was pretty useful on the second obstacle. If we see more of him I might take the time to learn his name. Also after this aired Cobalt Cola finally posted profiles for their team. Looks like Eek the monkey is getting top billing instead of Katherine. After seeing this I can understand why.
The whole team took off running when the starting bell rang, although “run” is a misleading term when they are waist deep or worse in swamp water. They had to stay within the line of guide buoys, which pretty much left them one way to go. They used their head start on Krag well, getting almost all the way to the first obstacle before he was release.
The first obstacle was a pair of walls 30 feet high with a narrow wooden beam connecting them. Fall in and it would take time climbing out. Not surprising Rudolph was in the lead. Those martial artist types can really haul. He scrambled up the ladder and literally leapt all the way across, completely missing the opposite wall.
At this point the nasty part of the obstacle was revealed when an air elemental tried to ram him in mid air and knock him into the muck below. Luckily it missed, but it was close thing. Eek and Kathrine also managed to dodge the elementals on the way across. Too bad the kobolds weren’t nearly so luck and went plunging into the muck.
Charley, the kobold from their first appearance, had apparently liked the slippers of spider climbing enough that he brought his own pair this time. It certainly let him scamble up the far wall pretty quick. So he wasn’t slowed down much. The new kobold used magic to drop one end of the wooden beam to make himself a way to climb up. Too bad even with that the elementals were able to keep him from getting back up the wall.
Rudolph showed he was pretty quick thinker. He shimmied back up the wall and threw a rope the kobold still down in the muck. In a pretty kick ass move instead of trying to haul the kobold up which could have dropped both of them in the muck he just held onto the rope and jumped off the wall. His weight sent the kobold shooting up out of the muck. But those air elementals take their job serious. One of them grabbed the kobold in mid air and actually managed to hold him there. But Rudolph was not going to be denied. He dug in deep and kicked off the wall so hard that the kobold popped out of the elmentals hands and went sailing over the wall.
Throughout this exercise and the whole run Rudolph kept shilling for his sponsors. I’ve changed the channel on cornier commercials than him. Still I have to respect the man’s determination to make absolutely certain that his sponsors get their money’s worth. He’s managed to pick up a sponsorship deal for a CVS knock off. I’m betting he’s hoping to get into something big soon.
Before running off the party broke the other end of the beam and left Krag no easy way across. Good slowing tactic.
After slogging through plenty of swamp the party reached the second obstacle. A 50 foot high wall of chains held together by hundreds of locks. Rudolph was the fastest and got there first. He tried climbing the wall, but the chains were slipper, wet and looked to me like they might have been a little bit enchanted. Try as he might it was almost impossible for him to make any progress.
The new kobold started throwing spells as he ran to unlock some of the locks in one area and Katherine managed to finish the work once she reached it. Between them they got a passage big enough to squeeze through very quickly. Rudolph dropped down and was the last one through the gap. He took a few precious seconds to relock the locks before following the others. Of course since Krag was packing an adamantine great axe it didn’t buy them more than a (VERY) few seconds.
Still they had enough of a lead to get to the final obstacle. Just past the chains they came across two swamp boats. You know the kind with the giant fans on the back. Here were also dozens of sleeping Garicks. Garicks are a little know critter from the swamps. They’re usually pretty harmless, but loud noises (like a giant fan) drive them berserk. So what was the party to do? Choose speed and try not to get mauled or go slower but maybe not outrun Krag?
Well in true Crawler fashion they chose option three. Go slower and turn the obstacle into a trap for their pursuer. They yanked some wires from the first craft so it wouldn’t run and left Eek the monkey on the second craft. Then they took off on foot.
As soon as Krag showed up the monkey hit the start button on the craft and went shoot across the swamp. The video of Eek trying t desperately to control the skiff before crashing into a tree is hilarious. It is THE new internet meme at the moment. Seriously if you live so far under a rock that you haven’t seen it yet go to youtube and watch it NOW. Or if you’ve some magical skills or the crystal ball enhancement for your computer there’s a better quality shot on M-Image.
Of course this left Krag to deal with dozens of enraged Garicks on his own. Of course he hasn’t made it to the top of the West Coast B Class without being able to throw down hard. He smashed into the critters and turn them into jelly quick. Enraged or not after a few seconds of his attention the things RAN for it.
The party might have gotten some distance, but it turns out Krag was just playing with them. At this point he picked up the pace big time. Close as they were to the exit he caught up almost immediately. He smashed Charly unconscious and claimed him as his first victim. Instead of going back to help Rudolph just speed up. That’s exactly what he needed to do. As long as he could set one foot over the finish line it would stop Krag from beating up on his party. Krag managed to drop Katherine as well but couldn’t claim her as captured before Rudolph crossed that finish line.
The final shot of the run was the medics pulling Eek out of the remains of the skiff and him holding one little paw up in the air with a thumbs ups to show he was okay. I tell you I cried just a little. Brave little fellow.
Another team that episode had a slightly better time. That would have put team Cobalt in second place, BUT the other team have 4 people captured, that means thanks to the penalties Cobalt was in FIRST. Which is exactly where they should be after an epic run.