087 – The Greatest Hero

In the murky caves below the Everfen a clan of Fungi gathers to the soft, lukewarm blue fire. The light is still sharp in the encompassing darkness. The dripping of moisture makes a solemn music, echoing in the endless tunnels and crannies. The sporelings take the first row, excited to hear about their legendary heroes, mighty mushrooms of renown. The elder calms them down with a wave of his gnarly staff, brush his moss beard and as the light dance upon his roughened expression, he sings the memories, sending his own enchanted spores to implant the pictures in the young minds. What song to sing today? Of the mighty Morda, the Allmother, whose spawn were the first children of the Living Bogs? Perhaps of Wuzzgak the Fleshchanger, whose cuticle and trama could flow like water, letting him change the shape and form of his very being? Oh no… No, tonight they need the reminder of Bravery. The ballad of Thuup, the Hand of the Fens. He was the strongest of the Fungi, his potent body invigorated with the blessings of the Hundred Marshes, his flesh tough as an iron oak, his punch devastating. He was a cunning tactician as well as chivalrous gent! Did he not slay the Mechanoterror of Yore? For he did, with a single punch. Did he not found peace across the tumultuous clans of the Morgulam Hills with great diplomacy and clenched fist? Did he not, even in his latest years, found strength enough to defend the tribe of Olma from the maddened corrupted Beast from the North? And so, the song continues, the list grows, as more and more of his epic deeds are listed…