Wend Wither's tale - report 19
Wend Wither, MU3 - Session 19 – Jan 18, 2026
DM Bateman – Super Adventure 1 – OD&D
with Meatface, Gene Erikson, Rolfr the Seer, Bulk Mulligan, Primavera Black, Friar Ignatius Bodkin, Gav, Agent John Roberts, Peenor the Peenor, and The Marquis
Super Adventure 1: Wild Wild Fortress. Stopped the rampage of the walking fortress Farandan.
You there, child! Be not afraid, though I come wandering as a ghūl from the desert. It is only I, the sorcerer Wend Wither! Hearken to me! I have a tale to tell, and it must travel on!
I have been long walking - six weeks across the wastes that skirt the edge of this kingdom - walking away from the fall of the rogue fortress Farandan. I will not face the King, for I have my reward already, and seek only to disappear into the dust once more...
But first, I must tell you! You must carry the story! You must tell the people!
I remember. Yes ...
*Ahem*. Yes.
Know now that we live in a new age, for these are the days of the Stranger, the man from the future, from the great metropolis of Yoosa at the end of history. I see it now, each night, the shining city on a hill that haunts my dreams. A powerful culture, ancient and wise, preeminent in their time-not-yet!
Let me set the stage.
Noble Ollie, King of these lands and Bringer of the Light of Law to the Cynocephaly, had put out a call to all rogues and jackals across the desert lands - coin from the royal treasury, available for dangerous men!
A fearsome selection of killers answered this call. Men of the wild north, who bite their shields! Men of living metal, who feel neither love nor pain! Men of raw, walking meat! And I! the sorcerer Wend Wither, far from my home on the lush islands of the Inner Sea...
And of course, the Stranger, the man from the future. From distant Yoosa he came striding, arrayed with the most cunning weaponry devised by the devious philosophers of those people yet-to-be!
Our task was suited to heroes such as we: To stop rogue Farandan, the walking fortress, from trampling underfoot all the peaceful realms of Ollie's domain.
Ollie's sorcerers are of course no layabouts (though perhaps not quite so advanced as those of far Yoosa!), having devised great flying contraptions to deliver us to Farandan. In pairs we rode the sky, swift on the wind, seeking after the fortress.
As we approached, Farandan's arcane eye was upon us - a great lightning cannon, we were told! - and winged beasts rose up to intercept us. These appeared as serpents - dragons! - but we were soon to see that the entire facility had been corrupted by a terrible, conquering Worm.
On my glider, I was paired with a great beast of a man: Bulk - they named him truly! This man, also a hero of our tale, he did not hesitate. He did not sit paralyzed with indecision. Once in range of our opponents, he stood, bare-thewed, and leapt at one of the monsters!
He flew through the air, body twisting in some esoteric fighting technique unknown to me, and struck the beast from above, tearing at its wings barehanded, sword clenched in his teeth! The creature revealed a verminous squirming beneath its skin - the Worm unveiled! - but Bulk did not stop in his tearing.
I swiftly leapt for the now-abandoned controls of our flying machine. These I wrestled with, just as the hero wrestled with the dragon, fighting to stay parallel to their fall, to catch him before he struck the ground. I credit my piloting skill, though this I must confess was my first journey into the middle air!
The dragon defeated, we landed atop a dome of Farandan, just in time to see the Stranger, the man from the future, unleash the great sorceries of Yoosa upon the arcane tower. The philosophers of Yoosa are powerful, cunning and wise, knowing all our current secrets and some entirely beyond our ken. (Ah, to be from the future! To remember everything! To know the wisdom of ages and apply it righteously!) The Stranger, having touched the arcane tower only briefly, fled as it was consumed in a great blast of flame.
Those of us atop the dome scrambled down to the courtyard as all Farandan quaked. The forces of the enemy, alerted by this shaking, rushed out to meet us. Men taken by the Worm! As we slew them we saw it, squirming from their wounds!
These lost souls were commanded by a prince, and the prince had at his service a jinn, and each was terrible in its way. I shan't describe them - surely even a wretched child such as you can picture a handsome prince and a terrible jinn!
Others of our number, having also contended with dragons, joined with us. There commenced a great battle, of which I remember little, for soon thereafter the Stranger unleashed another of the terrible weapons of Yoosa upon our enemies. He pulled a queer, blasphemous idol from his pack, and through it spoke directly to the spirits of the outer dark, asking them to reach down and smite our foes.
And then I fear I lost myself for a time, as everything exploded in a cloud of SAFFRON.
An overgrown wheatfield, rotting. But it smells so sweet...
The sun, setting. Always setting. Burning its afterimage into my eyelids. What is that symbol? I've seen it before, I know...
A robed man, his back to me. Where is his face? No matter how he turns, I cannot see it...
I can hear master's hounds barking again. No, it was one of the other apprentices! Not me! No!
Ah... Forgive me, child, I lose myself in that endless moment, still...
*Ahem*.
When my senses returned to me, there was blood everywhere. Somehow, we had won the day.
Some of us had died. Put these names to memory, that King Ollie may pay restitution to their families. Pay attention, child! This is the most important part! Exalt the names of brave warrior Gav, and strange sorcerer Peenor, and body-thaumaturge Ignatius Bodkin!
Others had fled, and I assume claim no reward. Shun those we will not name, the Man of Living Metal, the Man of Living Meat, and the Crab-suited One.
Two seized control of the fortress, the Stranger, the man from the future, whose unascended name was John Roberts, and his vizier, the one they called 'The Marquis'.
Leaving three to spread the tale: Rolfr, Northern Man and Wielder of Fire. Bulk Mulligan, Wrestler of Dragons. And myself, Wend Wither, a sorcerer of no import. The future man handed us each a sack of gold, and told us to spread his legend far and wide, which is why I tell this story to you now.
I will never tell it again. So remember well!
Child, I place this geas upon you: Gather your family. Go to the capitol, to King Ollie's court, and proclaim to him that the deed is done. I will spare you the coin to cover the journey. Take whatever reward he offers, for I have enough already. I, Wend Wither, sorcerer of the Inner Sea, will return to the desert, to meditate on the stillness of the empty wind.
And hopefully, never to dream. Of far Yoosa...
The take:
- 9333gp
- insanity points