“CIBBL year 4 summer: SCRIBBL Climax Qualifier II: game two

The Meddlers faced the undead Everlasting Vultures of Settra in the second round of this summer's tournament. Timaris Stormwing, the Meddlers' coach, had a headache coming up with a defensive plan since Beldroth Boombark, the team's treeman, missed the game after running into some clawed Oni last game. Thuralin, the ST4 guard elf got fouled last turn and missed the game as well. So Timaris had to field two yourneymen, quickly recruited for the occasion.

The Vultures won the toin coss and decided to receive. In turn 1 they badly hurted an elf and ko'd two others. The Meddlers were down to 8 players before even having moved a piece. The Ancient Tomb Guardians cleverly protected the cage, rendering any leaping blitz on the ball carrier -2d. Timaris decided not to send in his wardancers at this moment, partly because the ball was carried by a sure hands Throw-Ra. Despite thinning numbers, the elves put up a screen and stalled the undead advance. A little to Timaris' surprise this worked rather well until a double skull blitz in turn 7 forced us to use the team reroll (killing the Vultures' skeleton pirate in the process), which was dearly missed next action when a dodge resulted in a 1. Impossible to stop the touchdown now. The Vultures scored in turn 8. It's hard to set up for a oneturner with only 7 players (and no tree) while facing two Tomb Guarians on the line: 0-1 at halftime.

The second half kicked off with a pitch invasion, opening up the lower half of the pitch. This drew pretty much all the undead forces towards the elves. Timaris instructed his team to switch sides, relying on superior movement and elven agility. Meanwhile Vanhir inflicted his second injury of the game (two more would follow), removing a dirty player. Taking some risks, the elves scored the equalizer in turn 3.

Much to Timaris' satisfaction the subsequent drive opened with a Blitz! By then Benethor, the elven kicker, had already been badly hurt, but it still offered an excellent opportunity to the Meddlers to win the game. Despite being under the ball, the elven catcher Nimrodel failed to catch the ball on the kick-off. The following turns were a typical scramble for the ball, eventually resulting in a second touchdown for the Meddlers after some elven magic. The Vultures tried a oneturner, but it failed. Another hard-fought win for the Meddlers!

At the end of the game, Timaris Stormwing inspected the field and recovered the dead pirate's scimitar and turband. One never knows when they might be needed as a focus for an obscure spell... ”