Upon exiting the waiting room, Brutrumukk and Jub see that a door in the distance, at the end of a long hallway, is open and ajar. A giant suit of armor has collapsed into a heap in the middle of the hall.

Should the two proceed down the hall, they may or may not notice a few things. Most noticeably, at the end of the hallway directly ahead of the pair of them, a large pair of double doors is open ajar.





@XxFellsingxX@rush99999

---

Gullop retorts to Zavakri in response to her apology, "You should be sorry! How would you like it if your head was like this?! Huh?!"

A different decaptiated bullywug head hits him with her tongue, stretching out like it's catching a fly.

"Ow!" Gullop yelped indignantly, before the other bullywug head, an elderly noblewoman from the sound of her voice, scolded him,

"Oh quit whining, you oaf! The poor dear apologized! Accept the apology, because you have nobody but yourself to blame!"

Gullop thankfully fell silent after that scolding.

Meanwhile, the scarecrow stands on his perch on the bridge, showing that he's only 3 feet tall, answers Aurora,

"Oh! Yes, I can get you out of Hither and get you to Thither, no problem! But you are right...I do need help myself...I was just telling these guys about it,"

He begins to explain in detail, "You see...While I fled from Thither, I was waylaid by Agdon Longscarf and his goons! They took my original head: The most glorious stag skull anyone has ever laid eyes on! Because of them, I now have this stupid thing for a head," He points at the gourd for a head as he says "Stupid Thing".

He explains, "I'm not sure where it is now exactly, but I have seen Agdon and his crew take things and people, you included, to Bavlorna's Hut! So it might be somewhere in there! If you can find my skull and give it back to me, I'll guide you to Thither,"

He then lowered his head, and also explains, "I'd go in there myself, but I'm too scared of those Mean Ol' Hags. I can't do much to fight or defend myself from them,"

He then turns to Gabriel in response to his lost item, "I'm sorry, I don't know where your set of dice is, but chances are good that they may be in Bavlorna's Hut as well. I hope you find them,"

@Lurking Krog@Dark Cloud@Fading Memory@Cao the Exiled

"I 'ear a sound." Brutrumukk said when he noticed that Jub had decided to join him. The bugbear gnome pointed to a door that stood slightly ajar. "It's comin' from whatever's through that door. Also, look up." Brutrumukk pointed to the ceiling then. "Paw prints. Paw prints what belong to an ogre sized cat. We're close, booyagh..." Brutrumukk reached into his backpack and pulled out a set of paints he had plundered from the darklings earlier. "We're close." With that said, Brutrumukk quickened his pace to reach the door faster.

"Right then, we will search Bavlorna's hut for your previous head. We were planning on taking some time searching in there already. We seem to have lost a few of our own belongings to those brigades. " She asked ignoring the bullywug heads. Aurora was hoping that the head would be in the hut, as well as maybe some of their missing gear. To much had happened already that was problematic without certain items, at the very least finding other gear could help them.

She turned to her companions and gestured towards the hut. "Shall we make our way back and see if we can find any of these things?"

Jub didn't even try to hide the mixture of annoyance and exhaustion in his features as he followed after the barbarian. However, he didn't bother saying anything as Brutrumukk had proven time and time again that once he put his mind to something, he was never easily swayed. Jub simply nodded as he followed Brutrumukk towards the door.

Moving past the door, Brutrumukk and Jub find themselves in another large hall. To say that it was quiet and peaceful would be incorrect.

A familiar macaw is screeching and swooping at two large grinning cats, "You damned pests! Get lost!" One of the cats have their giant paw over Aaliyah who is shouting in a complete panic from her translucent, spherical prison, "Stop it! Let me out of here! What do you want?!" The cats are tossing her prison out and about like it was a simply toy.



"Such fortune! Such fortune!"
"You little servant, shall help us find the treasure!"
"Ishaan's had his time with it, now we want it back!"

The cats answered Aaliyah, while the macaw retorts to the cats, while swooping and pecking at them again, "I remember you! You made a deal with Ishaan, and you're still benefitting from it! You don't get to have that back!"

One of the cats swipe at the bird, while the other holds down Aaliyah's prison with a paw. The cats then look to Brutrumukk and Jub upon noticing their entrance, and they speak,

"Ah, our accomplices have arrived,"
"You want treasure too, do you not? You only need follow us,"

One of the cats then picks up the sphere with his maw, and the two vanish from sight. The macaw screeches, "Get back here!!!"

The macaw remains high in the air as he addresses both Jub and Brutrumukk, "Oi! You two! Help me rescue Aaliyah! Trust me, you don't want to know what could happen if Aaliyah gets so much as a scratch! Follow me, I know where they're going!"

The macaw then proceeds to fly ahead of the two goblinoids down the hall.

@XxFellsingxX@rush99999

---

Assuming there were no disagreements or protests to Aurora's suggestion, the group would make their way back to Bavlorna's Cottage. As they leave, Clapperclaw waves to the party, "Thank you and good luck! I'll wait here for your return!"

The group is able to get a boat from the new bullywug court nearby, in return for their assistance with the revolution, and they'll be able to use it to make their way back to the cottage.



The party is able to reach the cottage without incident, and thanks to the fact that they were not moving quickly like they were before, they are currently able to take in more of the details. They climbed up the four flights of wooden steps rising out of the swamp, ending at a trapdoor in the underside of the cottage, which is perched atop tall, thick wooden stilts and surrounded by dense fog.

The trapdoor leads them into a large room. A recessed pool lined with moldy clay tiles takes up most of this large square room. Stagnant water fills the depression to a depth of one foot. Rising from the pool's center is the head of a stone well that gives off an unpleasant, pungent odor. In one corner of the pool stands a tall, dirty, freestanding mirror in an oval frame, and floating on the water is a large lily pad.

Creaky wooden floorboards are arranged in a ten-foot-wide raised walkway around the pool. This walkway is crowded with shelves, tables, and stools in all shapes and styles. Almost every available surface is littered with stacks of dirty plates, scraps of food, and old junk. Dressing dummies are pushed together in one corner, and a wooden staircase spirals up from another corner. Five closed doors lead from the room.

@Lurking Krog@Dark Cloud@Fading Memory@Cao the Exiled

Though he ran to follow the macaw down the hall, Brutrumukk was in two minds about who to side with.

On the one hand, he really wanted to take the head of the cat ogre that had thrown him off course and was now just assuming that he would forget about that and become an accomplice in whatever theft this was.

On the other hand though, Brutrumukk couldn't deny that the palace's treasure was a tempting aspect of forgetting that inconvenience for the time being. Also, while he liked his chances against one ogre sized cat, he wasn't so sure about two. Two would have been no bother if he was still a bugbear and had all his gear. But now? While he was a barely armed gnome? Brutrumukk was not certain how that would pan out...

But then there was whether or not the cats could be trusted to consider. It seemed they were in the process of betraying some deal they made with Ishaan. Who's to say they wouldn't betray him too. Then again, Ishaan was some kind of nobility. Depending on what kind, the chance to cause him trouble would be reward enough even if he received no treasure.

Though there was a chance that he could get both bloodshed and treasure if Ishaan was the sort of noble who was generous with their wealth. There weren't many, but they were out there.

"Oi! Birdbrain!" Brutrumukk called out once he had caught up with the macaw enough to get within speaking distance. "This Ishaan git what runs the place. Is 'e the sort o' nob what likes to give lots o' treasure to folks what 'elp 'im?"

Aurora moved around the bottom floor quietly, hoping to not draw the attention of anyone or anything Bavlorna may have left behind. She took a little bit of time to look around the room they just walked into. "Keep your eyes open, who knows what useful things we may find in here aside from the scarecrow's head."