Texas Terror Challenge

On Feb 26th, Team Knight Watch attended the inaugural Texas Terror Challenge, held at Camp Texlake in Spicewood TX.

The Texas Terror Challenge is the brain child of one brilliant Paul Fiero of Desolation Manor fame. Paul has been involved in the art of scaring people since he was a kid. He has a background that includes massive scenario paintball games, commercial haunted houses and role-playing games. His girlfriend admits he "has a very dark heart."  Needless to say, Paul Fiero has a passion for scaring people.

A great rundown of who Paul is and what the Texas Terror Challenge is, can be found here: 

Previous Desolation Manor monsters

The Texas Terror Challenge  premise is that the players are attending a summer camp, but things are not as pleasant as it seems. The players were given tasks and missions that needed to be completed by navigating through the woods. The missions were timed and a great sense of urgency pervaded every task.  The huge complication was that there were monsters wandering around the wilderness that will "kill" you by taking your flags from your belt.  If you were killed, you had to return to the operations tent to respawn.   The event took place over 36 hours in over 100+ acres of wilderness.

We were presented with a cabin in which we could sleep, but we were told that the monsters have full access to the cabins, so sleep was a risky gamble. After 24 hours, all the players were exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally... and we still had 12 hours to go!

Team Knight Watch approached this from a military point of view.  We geared up with both day and night versions of MultiCam. We bought high powered strobe flashlights, GPS units, backpacks, two-way radios, MREs, and hydration packs. We figured if the monsters couldn't see us, we were safe. And if they did give chase, a timely strobe of 2000 lumen of light might blind them enough for us to escape. We felt prepared.

For the first task,  we had to find a roll of duct tape that was located in a nearby latrine building. With this duct tape we were to build a team banner with some of the material provided. It was pitch black outside and we had heard that there were roaming monsters prowling the woods.  We attempted to sneak through the woods without lamps and approach the latrine unseen.  We heard screams off in the distance which really caused the hairs on our arms to stand on end.  We reached the latrine and watched it for a few minutes to make sure no one was around.  I entered the building with my high power strobe flashlight at the ready and cautiously checked around the doors and every stall. Horror-movie sound effects were playing in my own head and I was very nervous about what was going to be in the next stall.  It ended up being an empty latrine, no duct tape and no monsters...only because another team had gotten here first and claimed the duct tape for themselves. 

We ended up using a ball of string that we found to build our banner. We thought that was ingenious.

The whole weekend was full of tense situations like this... sneaking into an objective after navigating through the woods by a full moon.  Watching the objective for monsters, hearing screams and people panicking. We would rush into the objective to snag the mission item, fully expecting a monster to spring out.  The adrenaline was at an all-time high.  We were deprived sleep, deprived of safety, and deprived of our sanity.

Team Knight Watch: Paraic, Brenda, Amanda and Madeline.

Paul talks with a monster during a Desolation Manor event.

We died only once, shot by a gore cannon, manned by the crazy Taz (Dean Rice).  Taz is just as crazy as Paul.  When slowly sneaking through the woods at midnight, a player could hear Taz taunting participants with maniacal laughter and promises of bloody death. 

Dean Rice - a maniac in everyone's mind.

The camp was located on the bank of the Colorado River and the weather was perfect.  A clear sky and full moon allowed for some light to be available during the night...just enough to make you see shadows and jump at the slightest sounds.

Paul Fiero was nice enough to allow Knight Watch Games to do a little self-promoting during the event.  We picked our gothic pieces to tap into the theme and several players/staff showed some interest. Thanks to Paul for letting us set up a table.

We had a great time.  It was grueling, tiring, and tested our physical limits.  It certainly brought Brenda and I closer.  Being so scared that you pee a little, will do that to a couple.  Or, one of you will die from a heart attack.

We look forward to the future of the Texas Terror Challenge.  It is obvious that a great amount of work went into the event. We would like to thank Paul Fiero, Geri Jones, Liegh Hegedus, Dean Rice, the cooking staff, the medical staff, the monsters, Team Chucacabra (Tasha Burns), Team Zombie Hunters (William & Jennifer Howser and Red Rum), Team Super Fast Mother F*ckers, Team Cereal Killers for a great time.  We will see you again!