of the time outside,
Brave Minnipins lived,
and some of them died.
Lost are their treasures, buried deep.
'Til the dry time came,
and the world was sand,
then Minnipins moved,
to a wetter land.
Lost are their treasures, in the ground they sleep.
And nobody knew
that the Minnipins went
to the land of the valley
where they live content.
Lost are their treasures and the secrets they keep.
In the peaceful land of the small folk, the Minnipins, everything is exactly as it has been for hundreds of years. Everyone is going about their jobs, the Periods (descendants of Fooley the Wise) are in charge, and the Watercress River is flowing. Everything, except... The legendary Gammage Cup is finally going to be moved! Each of the Minnipin towns wants, above all else, to be chosen as the most worthy, the town to hold the Cup.
Oh, and the Minnipins' ancient enemies are mining their way in, too. The evil Mushrooms seek gold, and probably also the destruction of all Minnipins For the Evulz. To make matters worse, everyone is too focused on winning the Gammage Cup to pay any attention to a few fires on the mountaintops.
Well, everyone except oh, them. Gummy, Curley Green, and Walter the Earl are paying attention, but only two others believe them — Muggles and Mingy. Ultimately, they are exiled from their village for their attempts to sabotage their town's chances of winning the Gammage Cup.
They promptly set up a life in the wilderness, off of the Little Trickle stream. Everything goes great, until the Mushrooms actually arrive...
Was adapted as a part of the CBS Storybreak, though it should be noted that the special takes a number of liberties with the story. Can be found here
. The sequel is titled The Whisper of Glocken, and the distant prequel The Firelings.
Tropes contained in The Gammage Cup:
- Ancestral Weapon: Walter the Earl inherited the Swords and Armor (and records of the past) from a many-greats grandfather, who managed to hide them underneath his cottage.
- Cool Sword: Walter the Earl unearths about 50 of these in the fourth chapter or so. Mind you, they start out as Excalibur in the Rust, but they are Absurdly Sharp Blades, Weapons Of Mushroom Slaying, and refuse to harm innocents (Minnipins and non-evil humans in the sequel). That particular cache was essentially a Forgotten Superweapon, and the only reasons the Minnipins even have a chance.
- Encyclopedia Exposita: Every chapter starts with a quote, usually from Gummy's Scribbles, or Muggles' Maxims, but occasionally from other sources."If you don't look for trouble, how do you know that it's there?" -Muggles, Maxims
- Genre Buster: Starts with Slice of Life in a Fantasy world, but moves to a Downplayed Dystopian setting. Then the main characters rebel and create a Robinsonade-esque mini-civilization from scratch. Finally, various Chekhov's Guns fire and the story turns Epic Fantasy.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Most of the Periods. Downplayed in the case of Ltd., who is a far better leader than, say, Minister Fudge, and does surprisingly well at accepting the Mushrooms' invasion, and even organizes a medic brigade.
- Sword Beam: King Gammage's sword shoots these to melt enemy weapons in the cartoon version.
