Wynmore Wendall: Bells in the Deep - Part 2

"Wynmore Wendall: Bells in the Deep" is a narrative retelling of a single-player Dungeons & Dragons campaign run by ChatGPT. The images included in this post were created by ChatGPT's image generator, based on descriptions provided throughout the campaign. The story was driven by AI and shaped by decisions made by a human and his dice rolls along the way.

Previously:

• Part 1

Oakbarrow

The fight was over. Two of the drowned sailors had collapsed into heaps of seawater, seaweed, barnacles and ruined clothing. The young deckhand Harlowe remained only because Wynmore Wendall had held back, knocking his former crewmate unconscious instead of destroying him. Captain Stenfold stood amid the wreckage of the tavern with an explanation long overdue. One of the tavern's terrified patrons suggested that he provide that explanation elsewhere.

"Fair," Wynmore thought, brushing away splintered wood chips.

Wynmore extinguished the flames of The Employee of the Month, rolled his eyes at the captain, and hoisted Harlowe’s freezing, waterlogged body over one shoulder. Without a word, he gestured toward the ruined tavern door—after you, Cap.

Stenfold understood. The three men left the tavern and headed to the old stable behind it, now mostly used for storage after the attack on Oakbarrow. Wynmore deposited Harlowe onto a pile of hay and finally received the truth about what had happened aboard his old ship—or at least as much truth as Stenfold had managed to piece together.

The strange wreckage Stenfold had found before the shipwreck had not belonged to a merchant vessel or warship. It had been a funeral vessel. Someone, long ago, had taken a body out to sea to ensure that whatever was inside it could never return. The little wooden structure found among the wreckage had not been a shrine at all, but a warning. Inside it lay the small black iron bell Stenfold had already described—a bell with no clapper because it was never meant to ring.

But the bell wasn’t the only thing Stenfold had salvaged. Beneath the wreckage, chained down as though someone had been desperate to keep it there, was a black wooden coffin reinforced with iron bands. Carved repeatedly into its underside was a symbol: a circle broken at the bottom, with three lines descending from it like dripping water. Stenfold didn’t know its meaning, nor the name of the creature imprisoned inside. He only knew what it could do.

When released, the creature chose someone. It could take that person’s face, voice and memories. Then it began showing the living images of the dead—or perhaps versions of themselves as they would appear after death. On Stenfold’s ship, it chose Wynmore Wendall.

Wynmore had been among the first to encounter it directly. Before the storm, he had heard knocking from the ship’s hold and gone below to investigate, with Harlowe following behind. They found the coffin already open. Inside was a drowned corpse. Then the corpse opened its eyes—and became Wynmore. Wynmore remembered none of this. Stenfold remembered him returning to the deck pale and shaken, insisting the coffin be thrown overboard. Stenfold refused, still convinced his crew had surrendered to superstition.

Determined to prove the bell was nothing more than an object, Stenfold picked it up and rang it.

Every sailor aboard heard something. Not simply the bell—their own names, called from beneath the ship. The storm followed. The crew began seeing drowned versions of themselves wandering the deck. Wynmore encountered his own double again, and—consistent with the man he would later become—punched it in the face. The thing retaliated by seizing Wynmore by the head. Wynmore screamed, and whatever happened in that moment tore a hole through his memory. Everything connected to the coffin vanished from his recollection.

Stenfold later found Wynmore unconscious near a broken section of railing. Soon afterward, the ship tore apart and everyone was thrown into the sea. Everyone aboard died—except Wynmore. When Stenfold and the others awakened aboard the wreck on the ocean floor, Wynmore was the only sailor missing.

Stenfold had developed a theory. The creature had been attempting to take something from Wynmore—perhaps his memories, perhaps part of his identity, perhaps something more—but the destruction of the ship interrupted the process. Wynmore escaped before the curse could finish whatever it had begun. That was why the others remained bound to the drowned wreck, and why Wynmore remained bound to the thing inside the coffin. The unfinished connection was also why it wanted him back.

Wynmore considered the situation, then asked the question that mattered: “Cap… what would happen if I confronted that thing… and destroyed it?”

Stenfold believed he knew. The crew had fought the creature before. They had damaged the coffin. They had attacked the thing inside. They had even apparently managed to destroy it once. It always returned—because the bell remained intact. Stenfold had come to believe the three central components of the curse were linked: the bell, the creature inside the coffin, and Wynmore himself. The bell called and bound the drowned. The coffin housed the creature. Wynmore represented the unfinished connection. If the bell could be destroyed first, Stenfold believed the creature could finally be killed permanently. And if the creature died, the drowned crew might finally be allowed to die as well—properly.

What would happen to Wynmore was less certain. Destroying the creature might sever the connection harmlessly. It might even restore the memories taken from him. Or the creature might decide that if it could no longer possess the ship and its crew, all it really needed was Wynmore.

Wynmore reduced the plan to its essentials: destroy the bell, kill the creature, keep himself alive. It was a start.

Before leaving, Wynmore searched the stable for anything useful. Despite his famously unimpressive investigative instincts, he uncovered exactly the sort of equipment the situation demanded: a heavy iron sledgehammer, fifty feet of hempen rope, and a hooded lantern with a flask of oil. The hammer, in particular, seemed promising for destroying a black iron bell.

One considerable logistical issue remained: the ship had sunk at sea, and Oakbarrow was nowhere near it. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the curse had already solved that problem. Stenfold explained that the wreck was no longer reachable only through ordinary geography. Since the bell had begun ringing again, it had created what he called a drowned road, a supernatural passage connecting the wreck to Wynmore. Stenfold himself had escaped through it. The nearest entrance was an old millpond roughly an hour outside Oakbarrow. When the bell rang, sufficiently still bodies of water touched by the curse could become gateways. Stenfold had stepped from the wreck into the drowned road and emerged from that very pond. The passage would likely remain open until sometime after midnight.

They had a route—and a deadline.

There was still the matter of Harlowe. Wynmore attempted the most obvious solution. He grabbed the unconscious sailor by the lapels. “Harlowe.” Shake. “Harlowe!” Shake. Nothing. Stenfold asked whether he was finished. Wynmore was not. He slapped Harlowe directly across his undead, shipwrecked face. Remarkably, after Wynmore followed his unconventional medical technique with an actual successful attempt at first aid, Harlowe woke up.

His first realization was that Wynmore had knocked him unconscious. Stenfold reminded him that he had also attempted to drag Wynmore back to the bottom of the sea. Harlowe conceded the point. More importantly, something had changed. For the first time since awakening beneath the ocean, Harlowe could no longer hear the bell. Whatever effect The Employee of the Month had produced when Wynmore struck him had temporarily loosened the curse’s grip. Harlowe was himself again—and willing to help.

Wynmore apologized for the slap in characteristically Wynmore fashion: “First of all, sorry for slapping you. Just felt like the right thing to do—and it worked, so…” Then he explained the plan. They intended to return to the wreck and end the nightmare. Could Harlowe lead them there? Yes. Harlowe explained that the drowned road had a kind of supernatural current. Once inside, he could feel the direction of the bell. The passage itself would not resemble an ordinary road; it could contain pieces of flooded forest, stretches of seabed, fragments of the wreck itself, even doors standing alone beneath impossible water. But the bell would always be ahead. Follow its ringing, and they would eventually reach the ship. Ignore it, and they might never come out.

Harlowe also confirmed another crucial fact: fire hurt the curse. Wynmore’s flaming sword had not merely injured Harlowe’s body; he had felt it damage the supernatural force controlling him. Whatever lived inside the coffin hated flame. Suddenly, Wynmore’s newly discovered oil and lantern seemed considerably more useful. Harlowe also warned Wynmore not to trust everything he saw aboard the wreck—especially anything wearing Wynmore’s own face.

There remained a practical question: how exactly was Wynmore supposed to use a flaming sword on an underwater ship? The answer was yet another violation of sensible geography. The wreck existed underwater, but the curse maintained much of the ship inside a supernatural environment where people could breathe and fire could burn. Water moved through it unnaturally—flooding some passages, hanging where it should fall, even traveling up walls—but most of the wreck was not truly submerged in the conventional sense. The Employee of the Month would work. And so would fire.

Before departing, Wynmore decided the expedition needed supplies and healing. The three men headed for Oakbarrow’s general store. The shopkeeper took one look at Wynmore accompanied by two men who appeared to have been dead for several years and immediately said, “No.” Wynmore had not yet asked for anything. Ultimately, however, his status as one of Oakbarrow’s heroes proved useful. The shopkeeper still owed him favors and reluctantly supplied two Potions of Healing and a Healer’s Kit.

Wynmore drank one potion immediately. It healed precisely four hit points. Wynmore blinked, inspected the bottle, then stared at the shopkeeper with narrowed eyes. The shopkeeper defensively pointed out that Wynmore was built like a siege engine and perhaps the potion simply had more work to do. Harlowe fared better; his potion restored enough strength that he could walk without looking as though the next stiff breeze might finish what the ocean had started.

Then Wynmore decided the moment called for something else—a speech. He raised one boot onto a nearby chair, cleared his throat, and addressed what he described as "the people of Oakbarrow," despite the fact that his immediate audience consisted mostly of a shopkeeper and two drowned sailors.

Wynmore proclaimed his previous victories against the vine blights, needle blights and vampiric threat that had terrorized the town. He invoked his legendary weapon, The Employee of the Month. He vowed to march alongside the “apparently-not-dead men” beside him toward the millpond, the cursed shipwreck and whatever awaited them beyond.

He raised one finger toward the heavens. “I, Wynmore Wendall, dedicated tavern worker, three-time champion of the underground fighting circuit…"

He briefly reconsidered whether that should have been public information, then pressed onward. "I shall protect this town, if it’s the last thing I do!” Wynmore thumped his chest and delivered his triumphant promise: “I SHALL RETURN!”

Silence followed.

Someone outside recognized that Wynmore was apparently “giving another speech.” Harlowe applauded. Stenfold revealed that Wynmore had never done this during their days aboard ship. The shopkeeper mostly worried about the chair. But when Wynmore finally turned to leave, the humor faded. The shopkeeper called after him.

“Wendall.”

Wynmore stopped.

“Come back.”

Wynmore nodded. Then he, Stenfold and Harlowe left Oakbarrow.

The Roads Beyond Oakbarrow

They traveled for roughly an hour as daylight faded. The deeper they moved into the countryside, the colder and damper the air became. Finally, the trees opened around an abandoned mill. Below it lay the millpond—perfectly still, perfectly black, reflecting none of the evening sky.

Then the bell rang.

GONNNNNNG.

Not somewhere in the distance—from beneath the pond. Ripples spread across the surface, and for a moment Wynmore could see through the black water. A wooden staircase descended impossibly beneath the pond. Far below, lanterns glowed in blue‑black darkness. The drowned road.

Somewhere on the other side waited the wreck of Wynmore’s old ship. The bell. The coffin. The creature that had stolen part of Wynmore’s memory. And perhaps the answer to why Wynmore Wendall had been the only man aboard who survived.

Harlowe stepped toward the water and warned Wynmore to stay close. And if someone called his name once they entered the drowned road, he should make certain he could see who was saying it before answering.

Wynmore looked into the darkness. There was only one direction left to go: onward.

And there, at the edge of the black millpond with the drowned road open beneath them. Wynmore a plan.

Destroy the bell. Kill the creature in the coffin. Keep himself alive.

But were any of those things actually possible?

To be concluded...

A-Town D&D Landing Page

Wynmore Wendall: Bells in the Deep - Part 1

"Wynmore Wendall: Bells in the Deep" is a narrative retelling of a single-player Dungeons & Dragons campaign run by ChatGPT. The images included in this post were created by ChatGPT's image generator, based on descriptions provided throughout the campaign. The story was driven by AI and shaped by decisions made by a human and his dice rolls along the way.

Oakbarrow Tavern

For the first time in what felt like forever, Wynmore Wendall was back at work. Not adventuring. Not fighting corrupted creatures or saving towns from blighted nature. Not wielding a magical sword against some world-ending horror.

Working.

The tavern still carried scars from his last adventure. Upstairs, half of his bedroom wall remained obliterated from the attack on the town, a heavy canvas stretched across the gap where stone and timber had once stood. Repairs could wait. Barrels needed moving, deliveries unloading, tables clearing, customers serving.

On the surviving wall hung The Employee of the Month—Wynmore’s Flame Tongue greatsword. Cold. Quiet. Retired. Wynmore had gone back to punching the clock.

One perfectly ordinary day, the tavern door opened.

A man stepped inside, dripping wet despite the clear weather. Seaweed clung to his tattered clothing. Gray skin stretched tight across an almost skeletal frame, and each step left a black puddle of seawater on the wooden floor.

Wynmore stared. He knew that face. He had served under that face aboard a ship he believed had vanished beneath the waves with every soul aboard.

The figure looked directly at him. “Wendall.”

Wynmore blinked—and laughed. Hard. Surely this was a waking nightmare, some trick of exhaustion, some lingering damage from everything he had survived.

The drowned man simply watched. “You used to do that,” he said at last. “When something frightened you badly enough, you’d laugh first.”

The laughter faltered. The stranger reached inside his ruined coat and set a small, corroded brass plate on the nearest table. It had once hung on the captain’s cabin door.

“I woke beneath the water, Wendall,” the figure said. “And the ship was still there.” He paused. “So were the others.”

Wynmore noticed the seawater around the man’s boots wasn’t soaking into the floorboards. It was freezing them.

“I don’t have long,” the drowned captain said. “You can laugh after. Right now, I need you to listen.”

An awkward silence followed. Wynmore shifted his weight—and his chair collapsed beneath him. The massive fighter crashed to the floor in a heap of splintered wood and wounded dignity.

The drowned man stared down at him. “You got bigger.”

That was enough. Wynmore grabbed a broken chair leg and swung from the floor.

The improvised club connected hard, striking the captain in the ribs with a wet, hollow thud and sending him staggering into a table. Black seawater spilled from his mouth.

“You always were an idiot, Wendall,” the captain growled. But he didn’t retaliate. Instead, he warned Wynmore that the shipwreck had not been caused by the storm. Something had come aboard first.

Wynmore scrambled upright and tried to grapple the thing wearing his captain’s face, but the drowned man slipped free.

Every mug in the tavern rippled. Somewhere impossibly far inland, the sound of a ship’s bell rolled across the town.

GONNNNG.

The captain’s expression changed. “Too late.”

He rushed to the tavern door and barred it. Something struck the other side. Three slow knocks followed.

“Cap’n?” The voice belonged to a dead man—a young deckhand named Harlowe.

Wynmore remembered him. The talkative watches. The moment he saw Harlowe swept overboard during the wreck.

The captain warned Wynmore not to answer. The voice outside shifted tactics.

“Wynmore, you left us!”

The captain snapped that Wynmore had not abandoned anyone. He had survived.

Wynmore looked at the drowned figure in his tavern and finally allowed himself to believe the impossible.

“Cap? … Captain Stenfold?”

“Aye.”

Captain Stenfold had returned—and he had a story to tell.

Three days before the fatal storm, Stenfold’s crew had discovered strange wreckage floating far from any land: ancient timber, torn sailcloth, and a small carved shrine.

Inside the shrine was a black iron bell with no clapper. The sailors wanted nothing to do with it. Old maritime superstition warned against taking strange things from wrecks, especially those the sea had not willingly surrendered.

Stenfold ignored them and brought the bell aboard.

That night, it rang.

Crew members began hearing the voices of dead loved ones. Seawater appeared on deck during calm weather. Footsteps crossed places no one had walked.

Eventually, one sailor saw something worse: himself. Soaked. Dead. Watching from the far side of the deck.

The crew demanded Stenfold throw the bell overboard. Determined to prove they were letting superstition overwhelm reason, the captain picked it up himself.

He rang it.

The storm arrived before sunrise. Everyone aboard died. Everyone… except Wynmore Wendall.

Stenfold claimed he later awakened inside his cabin on the seabed. The broken ship lay around him in darkness, and the dead crew walked its corridors. Sometimes they seemed to be themselves.

Sometimes something else seemed to be wearing them.

They remained trapped beneath the water for years. Wynmore was the only member of the crew who was missing.

Three nights earlier, the bell had begun ringing again. The door to Stenfold’s cabin opened, and somehow the captain escaped.

Now the thing connected to the wreck appeared to be searching for the one survivor it never reclaimed: Wynmore.

Wet footsteps approached the tavern from several directions.

Wynmore knew what came next. He looked toward the stairs.

“Well, Cap…” He ran.

Upstairs, among the scars left by his previous adventure, Wynmore reached the intact wall of his bedroom and wrapped a hand around the hilt of The Employee of the Month.

Downstairs, the tavern door shattered. The drowned crew had arrived. Wynmore raced back toward the fight.

Harlowe stood among three drowned sailors inside the tavern, gray-skinned and rotting, barnacles growing from exposed bone. Captain Stenfold had positioned himself between them and the terrified patrons.

Wynmore started with javelins. The first slammed into one drowned sailor and staggered him. The second flew nearly perfect—Wynmore never missed with the javelin—driving through another sailor and smashing him backward into the broken doorway.

He moved between the drowned crew and the patrons.

Both hands closed around his sword. His brow furrowed.

Quietly, almost reverently, Wynmore Wendall spoke the words that once meant it was time to become something more than an ordinary employee.

“It’s time to clock in.”

The Employee of the Month erupted in flame.

Harlowe stared at the blazing weapon. “What in the hells is that?”

The fight began in earnest. Rusted weapons carrying unnatural cold slashed into Wynmore. He answered with fire and steel. One sailor fell, collapsing into soaked clothing, seaweed, barnacles, and a pool of black seawater.

Wynmore turned on the second. Another swing. Another burst of fire. Then another. The second drowned sailor collapsed like the first.

Only Harlowe remained. He looked at the two empty places where his fellow crewmen had been destroyed. “You’ve changed.”

Wynmore didn’t strike immediately. “What is going on here?”

For a moment, Harlowe’s personality broke through whatever force controlled him.

He told Wynmore the storm had not been the beginning. The bell had not been the worst thing Stenfold brought aboard. Something else had been tangled among the wreckage—a coffin. Black wood, iron bands, no name.

Stenfold had brought that aboard as well.

According to Harlowe, Wynmore himself had gone into the ship’s hold after knocking began coming from inside it. Harlowe followed him. The coffin was open. Something was inside.

“At first it looked drowned,” Harlowe said. Then it looked at Wynmore. And took Wynmore’s face.

Wynmore had apparently stood in the hold of that doomed ship and seen his own drowned corpse lying inside a mysterious coffin. He remembered none of it.

Whatever had been controlling Harlowe reclaimed him.

“Come home, Wynmore.” Harlowe tried to seize him.

Wynmore planted his feet and refused to be moved.

“Right,” Harlowe muttered. “Forgot about that.”

The fight continued, but Wynmore no longer wanted to destroy his former crewmate. He wanted answers.

He surged forward and struck Harlowe twice with The Employee of the Month, deliberately controlling his blows.

Harlowe absorbed the first devastating hit and somehow remained standing.

For one moment, his real voice returned.

“Again.” A plea.

Wynmore obliged. The second blow dropped him. Unlike the other drowned sailors, Harlowe did not dissolve. He remained on the tavern floor, unconscious, seawater trickling from his mouth.

Whatever he had become, Wynmore had managed to keep him alive—or at least intact. The battle was over.

The tavern lay devastated. Broken tables. A destroyed front door. Seawater across the floorboards. Wynmore’s javelins scattered among piles of seaweed and the remnants of drowned sailors.

Harlowe lay unconscious at his feet. Captain Stenfold stood nearby. And now Wynmore knew his old captain had withheld something enormous.

The bell had not been the only object taken from the wreckage. There had been a coffin. Something had been inside it—something that looked like Wynmore.

Stenfold slowly looked at the flaming greatsword in Wynmore’s hands.

“Before you start swinging that thing at me…” He swallowed. “…I can explain.”

To be continued...

Part 2

A-Town D&D Landing Page

FanX Flashback - Lita Panel Highlights [FanX 2025]

WWE Hall of Famer Lita looked back on a career built by taking chances during her FanX 2025 appearance, from discovering professional wrestling as the perfect mix of athletics and rock ’n’ roll to main-eventing “Raw” with Trish Stratus and returning years later to win championship gold with Becky Lynch. She also reflected on the responsibility she felt to make opportunities count for the women who followed her, the growing representation in today’s wrestling landscape and a few current stars she wouldn’t mind stepping into the ring with.

I also had the chance to meet Lita for a few minutes during the convention and chat with her briefly, and she could not have been nicer - personable, gracious and remarkably humble for someone with such an accomplished career.

Here are a few of the highlights from her panel:

On how much notice she had before unexpectedly wrestling on “Raw” and winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with Becky Lynch in 2023:

Lita: Let’s just say we were on the East Coast, right? So live at 8? Yeah, okay.

I don’t know if we were, but I’d say for sure the doors were open when I was told that day - maybe 5, 5:30, something like that.

The plan was to come back for WrestleMania, but not to have a match before WrestleMania. So I had set up my training to get ready and still give myself a month of training, but that had not started before that day.

So my first training for my WrestleMania match was winning the tag titles that day.

Much like the very first Royal Rumble, you got to see the first time I touched the ring after a large gap.

Not ideal, but you just kind of cross your fingers and hold your breath and go for it.

I made a career out of it, so why should it change now?

On how she first decided to become a professional wrestler:

Lita: My origin story is not very orthodox. I do not recommend it.

When people ask me how I got into wrestling because they would like to wrestle, my answer is: Google a wrestling school near you. That is going to serve you much better.

But my origin story was, I was playing in bands as well as competing up and down the East Coast in judo. Both were just passions of mine, and both were taking up my free time.

I did not grow up with wrestling, but when I happened upon it, immediately I was like, “Wow, this is magical.” It’s like being a rock star and an athlete in one gig.

So I thought I would combine the two - combine my judo competition with playing in bands - and try to figure that out. And how little I knew about it. We did not have the internet. You couldn’t just ask Siri or Alexa or Jeeves. Even Jeeves wasn’t around yet.

It was almost like when you’re in elementary school and you have career day and you’re like, “These are the career options you can have.” It was like I had just discovered a new career.

And as an adult - I’m in my early 20s here - people would be like, “How’s it going?”

I’m like, “Great. Do you know what? I’m going to be a professional wrestler.”

And I’m saying it like Mighty Molly, like, you know, “All right, whatever.”

So, yeah, it was basically starting from a foundation of zero.

I will say the rock-star background and the judo did kind of come into benefit, but I had zero background other than that as far as how to infiltrate the - at least then - very secret society of professional wrestling. I did all right.

On main-eventing “Raw” with Trish Stratus in 2004 and feeling responsible for making the opportunity count:

Lita: Steph [McMahon] and I had the first main event when I won the first title, but they don’t call it that.

The reason they call Trish and I the first main event is because [the Stephanie match] had all the bells and whistles. The Rock was our special guest referee, Hunter [Paul "Triple H" Levesque] was down there, Kurt Angle was down there, the Hardy Boys were down there. There was a lot going on.

Whereas Trish and I, it was just Trish, just Lita, nothing else, closing out the show.

Moderator: So how was it when creative came to you and was like, “We have something for you. You’re going on last”? Tell me about that experience, what it meant to you then and maybe what it means to you now.

Lita: If you’ve been a fan of WWE for any length of time, you know things change at the very last minute all the time.

I had already conditioned myself to never think something was happening or get excited about something until it was in your hands.

So even when they told us, “You’re closing out the show,” we’re like, “Yeah, cool. The match will get cut. It’ll get moved. They’re going to do something else.”

The show gets rewritten five times a day, sometimes from scratch. That was not out of the ordinary.

So we were cautiously optimistic that it might be a cool night at work, but not really able to be excited.

[She explains that “Raw” was two hours at the time, with important matches usually positioned to open the show, bridge the two hours or close the night.]

Once we got through the first hour, I was like, “I don’t think there’s anywhere else they can put us. There’s no other match left on the card that they’re going to want to close the show with. I think we’re getting this.”

So it was exciting, but throughout the day I almost felt this duty to play it cool for my own mental capacity, but also... this has got to be solid.

It has to be solid so that someone else can get the main event later.

Throughout our careers, we had always kind of pushed it a little bit. We’d be like, “Just let us - we’ll be off the ladder. It’s fine.” And they’re like, “Ah, it’s fine, it’s fine.”

I felt like that’s kind of how we kept getting our opportunities - sneaking them.

So I did feel a duty. This has got to be solid so that someone else can get the main event later.

And it wasn’t until afterward, coming back through the curtain, that the guys from the locker room were there clapping for us in gorilla position.

That was when I was even remotely like, “Oh wow, we did a thing.”

Even beyond that, they were cutting our time mid-match. So to be able to navigate the production end of things as well, and give them faith that we could handle ourselves out there, was important. It was nice.

On current WWE wrestlers she would be interested in working with:

Lita: Oh, it keeps being more each time I don’t watch for this long, and I’m like, “Oh man, there’s more.”

I mean, come on, Giulia would be the obvious choice, number one, because she does have a modern-day similar story.

First of all, [I was] very inspired by Rey Mysterio, who is, if I had to single out one person that I was attached to, Rey Mysterio.

And so all these years later, for him still to be doing that and having that way to connect with the fans on such a deeper level...

And then, obviously, coming in and cutting your teeth the hard way.

But gosh, I could just start telling you a list of the people that are in the locker room right now.

I loved working with IYO when we did me, Becky and Trish versus Damage CTRL, and I would love to interact with her more, too.

Moderator: AJ [Lee] just came back.

Lita: Yes, yes. Definitely some crossover there with Trish.

On the growth of representation in women’s wrestling and how it can inspire future wrestlers:

Lita: I just knew what I wanted, and I couldn’t even really visualize it because it didn’t exist.

And that was okay to me. It was like, “I just want to do this thing.”

What I love about now is the representation across the board is so much richer, where so many more different types of people can find inspiration in different faces or different stories.

Yes, the time they’re getting on TV. Yes, the matches they’re getting to do. Yes, showcasing their athletic ability.

But the representation - the diversification of what it looks like to become a female athlete, or specifically a professional wrestler - I love that, because I didn’t see that.

And while I didn’t see that as a barrier, I just think it makes a clearer path for people to go after something.

On choosing four women for a wrestling “Mount Rushmore”:

Lita: It’s really difficult.

Normally when I’m with Trish, we just go ahead and both put ourselves on there, so then we take out two spots.

It feels a little weirder when I’m by myself to be like, “Well, so me and Trish.”

But we’ll just stick with it: I’d say me, Trish, Chyna and Charlotte [Flair].

FanX Flashback - Home Improvement Reunion Panel Highlights [FanX 2025]

As a product of the late '80s and '90s, the "Home Improvement" reunion panel at FanX 2025 was a blast. It reunited cast regulars Richard Karn, Patricia Richardson and Debbe Dunning for an hour of reminiscing, nostalgia, and family-friendly laughs. Here are some of the quick highlights:

On what “Home Improvement” meant to her career and becoming part of the cast:

Debbe Dunning: I was working on all sorts of commercials and little bits of shows here and there. When I came in the first year, I came in as Kiki Van Fursterwallenscheinlaw. Remember that?

I was blessed enough to be asked back after Pamela decided to go, and I realized I had a family. I had a place where people tuned in.

It’s a crazy thing when you work so hard and all of a sudden you’re like, now you have a name. You’ve actually made a name for yourself doing everything that you love.

I loved showing up. I loved the fact that my dressing room became a nursery when I had a kid. This show was so good for me.

We had antics. We were a family. When you work with somebody year after year, five days a week, you become like family. Sometimes we’d argue. Sometimes we’d be a little pissy. But at the end of the day, we all really, really loved our job.

I feel like you guys come to our table and say, “This was one of the best parts of our childhood, because this is when our families would meet at dinner on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.” It really left an imprint.

So I feel very blessed to have been part of this show. And thank you guys for not only showing up today, but for all your nice comments. I was here two years ago and I was like, “Oh, I’m definitely coming back.”

You guys are just amazing.

On joining “Home Improvement” at the last minute and when she realized the show could become a hit:

Patricia Richardson: I was a last-minute replacement for Frances Fisher, who’s a friend of mine now and a wonderful actress.

[Richardson explains that Fisher’s performance simply wasn’t the tone the producers ultimately wanted for Jill Taylor.]

It wasn’t that she was bad. It was that, the way the show is written, if you play the wife as a victim, they were worried because [Tim’s character] was seeming abusive.

I’d already been signed with Disney for something that was supposed to happen in September. I had just given birth to twins three months before this. I was not interested in working then.

But they called me on a Wednesday and said, “We want you to start tomorrow. You’ll rehearse Thursday and Friday, maybe Saturday. Monday we’ll do cameras. Tuesday we shoot the show.”

I hadn’t worked in a year because I was pregnant, in bed, and then had two kids with colic.

Richard Karn: Tell them the show that you were supposed to do.

Richardson: The show I was supposed to do, ironically, was called “Home Movies,” and it was by the people who wrote “The Wonder Years.”

It was supposed to be a dramedy about a young husband and wife with a very young child, which was really what I was interested in doing. I’d already done three sitcoms that failed.

[Richardson explains that she and her then-husband, actor Ray Baker, had been through enough pilots to know that big studio-audience reactions did not guarantee a pickup.]

So when we did the pilot, the laughs were like -

Richard Karn: Eleven seconds. Thirteen seconds.

Richardson: They didn’t know who we were. They hadn’t seen the show yet, so they were laughing in the moment without having any context.

I’m sitting there waiting through these laughs - waiting, waiting, waiting - and thinking, “God, we have done so many pilots.” I knew they always stack the audience with your friends, so I thought the reason we were getting these ridiculous laughs was because it was full of friends.

I was like, “These people are nuts.” I almost wanted to go, “Calm down, calm down. We’re trying to do a show.”

When it was over, I went upstairs and my husband was there. I still thought I would do the show, it would fail, and I could go home and be with my babies.

There had been other shows with a stand-up and a family that had bombed, so I just thought, whatever.

But the script was good.

And even when something is going really well, that’s not a guarantee. In Hollywood, you can do a brilliant sitcom and not get picked up.

Then Ray said, “Well, welcome to the show you’re going to be doing for the next seven years.”

And I was like, “What? That’s not my plan.”

And he said, “It is so good.”

I was stunned. I just didn’t know.

[Richardson says her confidence grew when ABC gave “Home Improvement” a strong time slot next to “Roseanne.”]

And we were up against “Seinfeld.”

And we won. We beat “Seinfeld.”

However, they moved “Seinfeld” to Thursday night, and that became Must See TV. And it became, well, “‘Seinfeld’ is the smart show, and ‘Home Improvement’ is the show for children and their parents.”

Which is a good thing, because now we are really rewatching it, and it is such a safe show. It’s a show that you don’t have to worry about. And it’s also giving a really great lesson.

I feel like you guys have learned something from it and been affected in some way by it, and mostly it’s all been positive.

So when you ask when I knew it was going to be a hit... I felt like it was a hit when I started. I really did.

We were always People’s Choice. Every time we went to an awards thing, we won.

And I really didn’t watch it because I was working so hard. You work a full week, and then coming home and actually sitting there watching the show that you’re on... we would just tape it.

We’d be working when it aired.

FanX Flashback - Sean Astin Panel Highlights [FanX 2025]

Our next FanX Flashback takes us to the Grand Ballroom panel featuring Sean Astin at FanX 2025. Astin covered a lot of ground during his appearance, from the possibility of a long-awaited “Goonies” sequel to his time on “Stranger Things” and his newly expanded role in public service. Along the way, he reflected on joining beloved franchises, what Bob Newby meant to Joyce Byers, why he once imagined becoming a congressman and the simple rule he tries to follow when stepping into an already-successful project: “Don’t suck.”

Here are a few of the highlights:

On whether “The Goonies 2” is actually happening and whether the original cast could return:
Sean Astin: No, he was in Italy at the film festival and said that he finished the draft. I know what you know, but I have a sense of confidence that it’s actually happening. Fans seem to want it. I know it’s been years.

Moderator: Maybe they’ll want the original cast to be in it as well. I don’t know. I mean, would you like to get the band back together in some form?

Astin: I mean, it’s just lived in all of our imagination for so long, probably because of the conventions, that this is what people want. It’s what they want. And we’ve all had different ideas for it. Corey Feldman and I wrote a treatment for it, and we pitched that treatment, and they’re like, “Oh, no, I’m not gonna do that.” So, you know, it’ll be weird if we’re not…

Moderator: Yeah.

Astin: So it’s gotta be good.

On whether he could eventually run for political office after becoming SAG-AFTRA president:
Astin: So before I put my name forward to be the SAG president - SAG president - I talked to my wife and kids. And I think this role is about as much as I’m gonna convince them is okay. I think at this point my wife is like, “We have these dogs, there’s a rocking chair somewhere, we’re gonna, you know, we get to just relax and have each other and time.” So who knows what the future holds in store? I always hate it when politicians who are obviously about to do something are like, “I really don’t know.” It’s like, “Yeah, you do. We already saw the bumper stickers on the back of your car,” right? Whatever. But I don’t know. I always thought I’d be a congressman or something.

Moderator: But this role of union leader –

Astin: Well, yeah. I love “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” anything Frank Capra ever did, [several unclear film references/titles], “To Kill a Mockingbird.” As a performer, you aspire to this great civic virtue. That’s the thing: What can you do to contribute to the lives of the people around you?

And because I’m an actor who’s enjoyed more than my fair share of good fortune working and earning, you might start to buy the press. You might start to believe that you can actually do all that.

So, I have no idea. But what I look for in people who are doing that, I want to see people who are passionate. I want to see people who are honest, but not held to some ridiculous cartoon standard.

And I want to see people who have real, genuine curiosity and passion for what it is that they’re going to be doing, you know, and, like, that. And as much as you go for good leaders, we need to be good people. Like, leaders require good people.

On playing Bob Newby in “Stranger Things” and joining franchises that were already massive:
Astin: I learned about “Stranger Things” coming to conventions. People would come up to me, “Have you seen Stranger Things?” I’m like, “What is that?” They’re like, “No, no, no, it’s Goonies. It’s Goonies. It’s Goonies.” I’m like, “It’s Goonies? Goonies didn’t have big monsters.” It looked a little scarier, but they’re riding bikes, there’s RadioShack, it’s the ’80s.

To me, Bob’s function in the story was to give Joyce and the audience a moment to breathe, because you’d spent an entire season with her in absolute terror with the loss of her son. It was kind of unrelenting cruelty to that character.

So they gave her a few episodes where she could have somebody who was there and cared about her, and cared about her kids. His whole thing was just like, “Bring some puzzles. I want you to be happy.” Boy, that would be pretty great if some of us knew how to do that - just make someone else happy.

[Astin said he appreciated joining a show that had already become a major cultural phenomenon, comparing the experience to entering other established worlds such as “The Color of Magic” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”]

The feeling is, number one, you want to make sure you do your job and don’t suck, right? That’s the number one thing: don’t suck. And contribute. Find some way to contribute to what this thing is that’s being created.

I actually auditioned for a different character. I auditioned for the reporter, the guy who was investigating [Barb]. But then they said, “Can you come back and read for this other guy, Bob?” I was super appreciative that they had accomplished this amazing thing, and I was there to basically help it keep going.

I didn’t know, when I got “Lord of the Rings,” anything about the Tolkien lore and mythology and how well-known that story was around the world, in every language, for generations. I knew it intellectually, but I didn’t feel it like that.

So “Stranger Things,” yeah, it was pretty great to just be able to walk in and feel like I get to be with all these people who are doing this. The Duffer Brothers, the world they created...

I didn’t get to work with Millie. I was bummed out. In the eighth episode, they sent her to Chicago for some reason to get in, like, gang fights in Chicago. (The audience laughs.) I don’t know what happened in that episode.

But she wasn’t there, so I didn’t get to interact with her. That was the only disappointment I had, because I just thought that what they had all created with Eleven was just next level. But I got to hang with my peeps, and it was fun.

FanX Flashback - Zachary Levi Panel Highlights [FanX 2025]

With FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention right around the corner, it's time for that time-honored tradition of scrambling to transcribe a ton of audio clips from last year's convention. But, thankfully, with the recent realization that technology is amazing and we no longer have to manually re-listen to these clips, try to determine what the celebrity is saying over the audience noise, and type it out word-by-word, this process just got significantly easier and faster!

So hey. Zachary Levi has been an awesome guest for several FanX conventions. His panels are always must-see, and he gives some truly thought-provoking and uplifting responses to the fans' questions - and he's coming back in a couple weeks! Can't wait! Looking forward to it.

With no further ado, here are some highlights from his panel in 2025, in which he discussed his greatest hits, hinted at potential projects in the future, and shared some very insightful thoughts about human emotions. Enjoy!

On what he would do if he had a magic purple crayon (like his movie “Harold and the Purple Crayon”) in real life:

I know this is a little lofty for the kids, although drawing a cool jet ski wouldn’t be bad. But I think that we are overtaken with consumption, we are overtaken with materialism, we all are overtaken with consumerism. We all are being programmed to, like, “Oh, I need this thing, I need that thing, and I need the new phone and I need the new bag, and I need whatever all that stuff is.” And the reality is, guys, we don’t need almost any of that stuff. What we need is community - that’s a huge thing. By the way, that’s one of the things I love about conventions: so much wonderful community at conventions, right? So many people that are really passionate about so many things, and you get to come together about that - you get to come together with your love for that. So, genuinely, I would be drawing peace on Earth. I would be drawing good will toward men. Whatever that looks like, that’s what I would be drawing.

On whether the “Chuck” movie could ever reasonably happen:

That’s a great question. And it’s a question that I would love to answer with a “Chuck” movie one day. (The audience cheers loudly.) Listen, listen. So at some point, I might - I might - need everybody in this room, or… Actually, that’s a good question. Who here is a “Chuck” fan? (The audience cheers loudly.) That’s a good answer. So, I am actively - and have actively - been trying to get Warner Bros., who own the rights to “Chuck,” to be open to, at least, allowing me [to make] a “Chuck” movie. I believe that the show - of all the shows that keep getting rebooted or movies that are made from shows - I feel like “Chuck” is so deserving of that, and you, the fans, are so deserving of that, because we did kind of end the show on a little bit of a cliffhanger. If you haven’t seen the show, I won’t spoil it for you, but you should go see the show. And I think we need to resolve that. At the very least, we need to resolve that. So, in order to do that, there might be a moment in the near-ish future - I don’t know - where I might, on [social media], I might post to the world, and I might say, “Hey, go to this website and say - raise your hand - and say, ‘I want this.’” Not only will I need you to sign that petition… I know there’s some petitions that have floated around but none of them have been really official, so none of them have really been […] respected by the [movie studio]. So, to do an official petition or an official website, where I can send all of you people to it and say, “If you want this, let me know”… and it can’t stop at you; you’ve got to spread that all over the world. It becomes your mission, beyond that, right? And if I could get enough of those signatures and even, like, commitments of, like, “I would spend $10” or “I would spend $20,” or “I would go, I would spend money on this thing,” I think we could make that thing happen. And it would be cool, going back to your question, “What would Chuck and Sarah and Casey and Ellie and Awesome and Morgan… What would their lives look like, 15 years down the road?” - because we’re almost there. I know this because of this. (He gestures to his hair.) Look at all this gray!

On his favorite episode of “Chuck”:

I would say, if I had to pick one, um, the first episode that I got to direct, which was in season three - I think it was episode - it ended up airing as episode 13 or something. It was called “Chuck Versus the Beard.” And it was the episode where Morgan finally found out about everything that was going on. (The audience cheers.) And that was special for myriad reasons. One, it was the first one I got to direct, and I was really grateful for that. But one of the most frustrating things about playing that role was I hated that I had to constantly lie to everyone in my life all the time. And it felt a little repetitive eventually. You know, a helicopter is dropping me off in the courtyard, and I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know what that was.” And I was like - you know. So, so - and Morgan was kind of like the first of, of, like, kind of, you know, broke the yoke a little bit to, like, start - then other people started finding the secret. Um, so that was my favorite, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

On his least favorite character in “Tangled”:

I don’t know that I have a… Like, I think all the characters in “Tangled” are fantastic. Like, they’re so fantastically done. They’re so fantastically made. You know, it’d be easy to say, “Well, my least favorite is the evil, you know, Mother Gothel.” But she’s a fantastic character. You know what I mean? Like, she’s - she’s so good. “Mother Knows Best” is such a fantastic song. (The audience cheers.) Um, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh, it would be easy for me to say Maximus, because he was a little bit of a pain in the - (The audience laughs.) Yeah. Touché. Also, some of you have heard me rant about this before: How is it that Maximus got a Pop before Flynn got a Pop?! (The audience cheers and laughs.) That made me angry, bro. Angry. (An audience member shouts, “You don’t need a Pop - you’re gorgeous!”) I - I don’t need a Pop because I’m gorgeous? All right. (The audience laughs.) I love all the compliments. This is good. This is very nice. (Another audience member shouts something.) Okay, enough already. (The audience laughs.) They did. They got my nose right. The Pop got my nose right.

On his favorite part of playing Shazam:

The Wizard chose Billy because of his heart. It wasn’t because he was, you know, hyper-intelligent, or wise, or experienced. He was a child, right? But when you give that level of power to someone, it’s their heart that ultimately dictates how that power affects the world. And Billy had a heart that cared and was sacrificial, and really wanted - literally laid his life on the line in order to save his family and to save the world. And so, I think that’s my favorite part of playing Shazam, for sure.

On identifying with Anxiety in “Inside Out 2” and the importance of crying:

This is why we’ve got to love ourselves. This is why we’ve got to love each other. Because it’s hard. Life is hard. (The audience applauds and cheers.) I watched “Inside Out 2,” and they introduce - if you haven’t seen it - they introduce Anxiety into the story. I could not stop crying. Like, I - my girlfriend was sitting next to me - (He imitates exaggerated sobbing; the audience laughs.) My girlfriend - I don’t know why I - Also, listen, I’m not embarrassed about this. We should all cry. It’s important. Especially guys. (The audience cheers.) Especially us guys. But I’m watching this movie, and I’m watching Anxiety portrayed in this funny, wacky, animated form in this young girl’s head, and I silently weep. Like, I didn’t want to audibly weep, because everyone in the theater would have been like, “This guy is out of his mind. Like, something is - did he stab himself? How bad is the popcorn?” (The audience laughs.) I could - I just - I saw myself in that, in that Anxiety represented in this form, and it wrecked me. It wrecked me. But that’s beautiful. So, that’s up there. That’s up there as well. But also all the other ones I was talking about. Thank you.

Ronan Vale: Origins

Every hero has an origin story. Some begin with destiny. Others begin with tragedy.

The story of the tiefling adventurer Ronan Vale began with an ordinary day.

Before his life changed in the blink of an eye, Ronan was simply a leatherworker living in a small, close-knit farming community just outside of Phandelver. He was known not for his strength or ambition, but for his kindness, his craftsmanship, and his willingness to help anyone who needed it. Warm and easygoing with a subtle sense of humor, Ronan valued honest work above wealth and measured people by their character rather than their status. He had little desire for fame or adventure. Everything he wanted was already waiting for him at home.

The Vale family operated a modest leatherworking shop that served both local villagers and travelers passing through on the road to Phandelver. Ronan's father, Aldren, was an experienced craftsman with a dry wit and an endless supply of fatherly sarcasm. His mother, Mira, added beautiful embroidery and finishing touches to the family's work while quietly holding the household together with her warmth and wisdom. Ronan's younger sister, Elia, was endlessly creative, constantly sketching imaginative designs that challenged her brother's skills and dreaming of what the family business might one day become.

Every item that left the workshop bore a simple maker's mark: a small rising sun stamped into the leather. To the Vale family, it was nothing more than a symbol of hope and quality craftsmanship—a reminder of Aldren's belief that "the sun comes up for everybody," and that every honest day's work should leave the world a little brighter than before.

One crisp morning, Ronan planned to spend another ordinary day helping around the workshop until an old friend arrived.

Darrak Stonehand, a traveling dwarf merchant who regularly traded between Neverwinter and Phandelver, stopped by with a simple request. One of Ronan's leather satchels, sold years earlier, had finally begun to wear after countless miles on the road. The owner refused to let anyone but its original craftsman repair it. Though reluctant to leave his family with extra work, Ronan was gently encouraged by his parents to spend the day with his friend. Before departing, something unexpected came over him. For reasons he couldn't explain, he embraced his father, gathered his mother and sister into a family hug, and quietly held them for a moment longer than usual. It wasn't a premonition or a warning—only an unspoken expression of gratitude for the people he loved most.

As he prepared to leave, Elia returned a small brass token he had forgotten on his workbench. Crudely engraved with a rising sun, it had been little more than a practice piece years earlier, but she insisted it was lucky. Ronan tucked it into his pocket before setting off down the road.

The journey to Phandelver was filled with easy conversation and laughter. Darrak spoke of distant cities, bustling ports, and the opportunities that awaited someone with Ronan's talent. Ronan admitted he would love to visit places like Baldur's Gate someday, but his heart remained firmly rooted in his little village. Adventure sounded exciting, but nothing compared to the life he had already built with his family and neighbors.

After repairing the traveler's satchel, the pair were preparing to head home when they heard a desperate cry for help. A young boy's sheepdog, Bramble, had fallen into a rocky ravine and become trapped beneath loose stones. Ronan volunteered to climb down on a rope to rescue the frightened animal. His first attempt ended painfully when the terrified dog bit through his leather glove, bruising his hand and forcing him to retreat. Rather than giving up, Ronan patiently earned the dog's trust with a strip of dried venison before carefully freeing its trapped leg.

The grateful boy offered Ronan the only payment he possessed: three copper coins he had earned through a week of hard work. Instead of accepting them, Ronan learned that the money had been saved to buy Bramble a new collar. Believing that honest labor should always be respected, he returned the coins and encouraged the boy to spend them on his loyal companion. Before leaving, the boy pointed out something Ronan had long forgotten—the cracked leather collar Bramble wore had been crafted years earlier by Ronan himself, bearing the same little rising sun stamped into every piece of Vale Leatherworks.

The rescue delayed Ronan's journey home by more than an hour.

It was a delay caused not by fate, but by compassion.

As the sun began to set, Darrak and Ronan parted ways at a fork in the road. The dwarf thanked his friend for the day, joked about returning him home with all of his fingers despite the dog bite, and sent him on his way. Ronan smiled, tucked his patched work glove beneath his arm, and walked the final mile toward home.

At first, nothing seemed unusual.

Then he noticed the silence.

No lanterns glowed in the windows. No smoke rose from evening cookfires. No voices drifted across the fields.

As he entered the village, unsettling details emerged one after another: an unlatched gate swaying in the breeze, a bucket abandoned beside the well, a child's toy left in the road, bread burning unattended in the baker's oven, and homes standing open with no sign of their occupants.

Calling out to his neighbors brought only echoes.

When Ronan reached Vale Leatherworks, he found the workshop exactly as his family had left it. His father's tools rested on the bench. His mother's sewing remained unfinished. Elia's sketchbook lay open, displaying the design of a traveler's cloak marked with a stitched sun over the heart and a handwritten note addressed to her brother: "For Ronan. You'll make this someday."

His family was gone. His neighbors were gone. The home he left that morning no longer existed.

There were no answers. No explanation. Only unbearable silence.

The sun had set.

Ronan Vale's ordinary life had come to an end.

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