Wuntvor 02: An Excess of Enchantments (Craig Shaw Gardner)

Rating: 4
Year: 1988
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
Read again? Yes

Team Wuntvor have finally reached the Eastern Kingdoms. Wunt hopes to convince Mother Duck to help cure the allergy curse on the sniffling, sneezing, stuffy-headed-so-they-can't-use-magic wizards of Vushta.

Mother Duck isn't interested in helping Wunt. She's got an agreement with the Netherhells!

But her plans are far, far worse than handing Wunt and his friends over to the demon horde.

They will star in her fairy tales (even the Brownie, who really hates being called a fairy).

Once upon a time....

This phrase is part of the spell. Wuntvor finds himself as the Young Adventurer seeking the home of the Sun. He makes camp after a day's travel and is joined by a fairy--

--who suddenly breaks character, insisting that Brownies are NOT fairies. They're very sensitive about that. Brownies are an industrious tiny people who make shoes! Fairies are tiny people who hang out in the woods and frolic with satyrs! They couldn't be more different!

The spell is broken. Mother Duck, struggling artist, shows up and makes a few changes, amps up her spell, annnnd--ACTION!

Once upon a time...

Wuntvor is a traveler crossing a valley. A sign warns of danger ahead. The next bids him "BEWARE!" His trail leads to a bridge and the dangers that wait beneath...

Then one of the "trolls" drops out of character and breaks the spell.

Mother Duck is furious, but quickly regroups. A new story begins.

Once upon a time...

Wunt now walks in the woods and meets a tiny man--a tiny man who is NOT a fairy, but a Brownie--and who offers him seven wishes. One wish for a weapon, squandered on the magic sword he already carries.

Second wish, true love. The Brownie leads him to a tower. After a brief conversation with the resident Damsel, Wunt finds himself buried in an enormous fall of golden hair. He climbs, they talk, and he learns that he must defeat the Dragon beneath the tower to rescue the Damsel...

With each interruption, a new story begins. Each time he seems to be alone, Death shows up, trying to take the prized Eternal Apprentice only to be thwarted. There seems to be no escape from Mother Duck's stories.

Will Wuntvor ever reach happily ever after?