Venom Wars 4

April 13-15,2007 saw the 4th installment of Venom Wars,the IKV Bayou Serpent sponsered paintball war in Choudrant,LA. We once again welcomed with open arms the crew of the IKV Melota from the Dallas/Fort Worth area.They brought impressive numbers this year,outnumbering the Bayou Serpent crew.The weather left much to be desired.Friday saw a massive storm pass in the early morning that did damage all across the southern US and we were all outside in tents.Some warriors got a little wet but it didnt dampen our spirits.Saturday was drizzley,windy and cold.Even though Klingons can't tolerate cold as well as humans we still when ahead with the first game.

The Ferengi treasure hunt has been re-used for several years now but this year all the containers were hid in one place to cut down on the search time and add to the fight time.Due to uneven numbers,we took on Melota member Dragen and enjoyed fighting alongside him.The Bayou Serpent quickly found the totes and the Melota went on the offensive.Gizmo was especially dangerous in this game.At one point he had singlehandedly taken out all but one Bayou Serpent member.This one went to the Bayou Serpent.

Next up was a new game called the Kard of Kahless.Everyone was given a poker card sealed in an envelope and a tote with 4 extra cards was hidden.Upon getting shot you surrendered your card and who ever had the high card,which was King Kahless,won the game.This one was taken by our mundane guest,Justin Burge.

The final game was a modified version of speedball.Rather than go out and shoot the leaves off the trees trying to hit someone,the ammo was limited.On top of the barracades were 10 rounds so you either had to make your shots count,or be able to get several ammo pods before your opponent.It was done one-on-one tournament style with our mundane guest Justin Burge taking this one also.

By this point everyone had had it with the cold so we lit the fires and started the ceremonies.This was my first year to brew the bloodwine so I got the honor of doing the bloodwine section of the ceremonies.Since I had brewed the bloodwine,I took last dip.However when it came to my turn sQueezinart of the Melota took my bloodwine mug.Just before panic started to set in she presented me with an awesome etched glass with "First Bloodwine 2007" on one side and my house symbol on the other.It was a very welcome and appreciated surprise. Thanks a million to Salek of the Melota for teaching me how to actually brew and for putting up with my barrage of emails with questions.K'Allen did the prayer and death howl for the IKV Kahless' Revenge,Mark St. John of KISS,the men and women of our armed services,and the Godfather of Soul,James Brown.I then took the stage and thanked everyone for coming and began to pass out the awards as follows:

Most bruised: Dragen
Least bruised: sQueezinart
Kard of Kahless: Justin Burge
Speedball: Justin Burge
Tournament Da'har: Dr Gizmo

We spent a lot of time on the trophies this year and it really shows,taking elements from sQueezinart,Gizmo,and Gizmet and making it unique to us.Lt. Sito stepped up and made the event pins as well as a new ship banner.Thanks to K'Allen as well for setting up the field.This year Torsha's 2 little ones got in on the fighting,both with paintball guns and bat'leths! The boys really enjoyed the event,but I think they enjoyed the peep shoot the most.sQueeze brought some of those little yellow peeps and the boys shot up lots of paintballs,completely annihilating the human candy.Gizmo even shot one through the heart,leaving a hole!

Thanks to everyone for coming out! We had a great time despite the weather that happened to get nice on the day everyone had to leave.We look forward to VW5!!!