Brutrumukk & Jub
& The Dungeon Master
The first hour passed by quickly for Brutrumukk and Jub as they spent it in the Feasting Orchard. They easily find their way to Silversong Lake.
As Brutrumukk and Jub approach, the both of them can hear the crowd chatter amongst themselves, before one observant fairgoer notices movement in the water and hushes everyone. The crowd hush themselves, and they turn their attention ahead towards the lake.
Mist gathers at the banks of the shimmering lake. Near its center, a beautiful mermaid lounges in a giant bowl. She begins singing a glorious, haunting song that captivates spectators on the lakeshore. In response, the lake water coalesces into magical sculptures that whirl around her as she performs.
"So that's a mermaid then." Brutrumukk said quietly as he watched the mermaid rise from the water and begin her performance.
"She's quite a sight, ain't she?Palasha's song continues on, with the watery sculptures changing and shifting forms to match the lyrics, and remain in time with her song.
Unfortunately, the beautiful mermaid's performance was met with adversity...
"
BOOOO!"
A voice echoed out from the crowd watching Palasha. She stayed strong and continued to sing, but her watery statues wavered slightly,
Another voice rings out maliciously from the crowd, "
Get some singing lessons!" and it causes the watery statues to waver even more, as Palasha's voice weakens...
"
By the Gods! Have some mercy on those poor cats!" A third voice jeers at Palasha, finally causing the watery statues to fall back into the lake. The mermaid is now completely silent, as she leaps out of the bowl and back into the water.
The crowd is clearly saddened that Palasha stopped her performance because of some hecklers...
As the performance was halted by a trio of hecklers, Brutrumukk's smile vanished once more. This time though, the expression that took its place was a lot more readable.
"Who said that?!" The furious bugbear demanded to know as he looked around, trying to locate the hecklers.
Brutrumukk growled in frustration as he found himself unable to locate the hecklers. But then an idea came to him. Reaching down, Brutrumukk seized Jub and hoisted him into the air and high above the crowd.
"We gotta find those gits!" Brutrumukk declared.
"You should be able to spot 'em from that height. You give me targets an' I'll give 'em all Nine 'Ells!"Jub had been so focused on the mermaid's song he hadn't even noticed the various hecklers. That was, until Brutrumukk suddenly picked him up.
"H-hey, wait-" Jub shouted. It took him a moment to register the bugbear's words.
"O-oh, okay!" He hesitantly scanned the crowd.
Brutrumukk may not have been able to find the hecklers, but thanks to his and Jub's efforts combined, the goblin wizard would find one suspicious figure.
A human seems to be sneaking his way out of the crowd, snickering under his breath. Jub sees this human just in time to witness as his appearance magically changes to that of a half-elf, before they start to move away from the Silversong Lake.
Jub was about to point out the heckler when he suddenly stopped himself. If this man could shape-change, there was nothing to stop him from doing so again, meaning Brutrumukk could easily lose him in a crowd. As the goblin considered this problem, the flash of a smirk appeared on his face. He raised his hand to point at the man again, but this time made a very specific flick of his hand and muttered something under his breath, attempting to cast Prestidigitation, in an attempt to paint an unmistakable sign upon the man's crime upon his back.
Jub easily pulls and manipulates the arcane energy, not just from himself, but also from the Witchlight Carnival. As he casts the spell, a large paintball forms in the color of his choice, floating in midair growing bigger and bigger. When he feels it's ready, he flicks/fires it with a precision unlike any other!
The paintball arcs in the air until it lands just as the heckler reaches the calculated point. The paintball hits the heckler on the back of their the head, causing this half-elf to squawk!
Wait...squawk?
The magical disguise falls to reveal the heckler's true form to Jub: A kenku in a blue dress wearing fake butterfly wings.
The kenku seems to realize that their disguise is gone more than anything and quickly brings up another disguise: A dwarf. But the colored mark from Jub's spell remains!
Brutrumukk watched as Jub cast his spell and followed the paintball all the way to the kenku heckler. A cruel smile stretched itself across Brutrumukk's face as he set Jub down.
"Well that was certainly somethin' to be proud of." Brutrumukk said with an approving nod.
"This next bit will need a distraction. Make some noise. Throw out some pretty colors. Do whatever ya need to do to keep the crowd's eyes on you and off me." If Jub does as requested, Brutrumukk takes advantage of Jub's distraction and the inherent affinity for stealth that all bugbears possessed to sneak up on the kenku.
At the mention of the word 'distraction', Jub suddenly recalled an old trick he had used during his earlier days. He glanced at the people in his immediate surroundings until his eyes fell upon a young human girl. Perfect. He reached up to his head and carefully pulled back his hood to reveal a small spider resting on top of his head. Jub gave a small whistle to catch the creature's attention, causing all eight of its beady red eyes to open. The goblin reached an open hand towards the spider, who crawled onto his hand as if on command. Jub then lowered his hood back down and attempted to approach the girl as sneakily as possible, so he could plant to the spider on her shoulder without her or anyone noticing.
Jub easily plants the spider on her shoulder without her or anyone else noticing. As soon as Jub makes himself less noticeable, a little boy notices and points to it shouting, "Oh my gods! Julie, what is that?!"
Julie looks at her shoulder and she screams and cries in fear at the spider. This caused many around her to look, and try to help her take the spider off or kill it.
While the crowd is focused on helping the little girl, the kenku keeps walking away, never noticing that Brutrumukk is approaching...
Brutrumukk's cruel smile turned slowly but surely into a downright sadistic grin as he closed in on the kenku, Jub's distraction leaving the bird completely unaware of the danger right up until it was too late. When Brutrumukk got within arms reach, the bugbear sprung upon his prey with malicious glee, seizing the kenku by one ankle and lifting his catch up into the air.
"OI! OI! Look 'ere! I caught the git!" Brutrumukk called out triumphantly as he displayed the disguised heckler for all the crowd to see.
"I caught the shapeshiftin' git what ruined the show!"The Kenku lets out a surprised yell as Brutrumukk caught them and lifted them up in the air. The Kenku was still in their dwarvish disguise as Brutrumukk called to the crowd and shouted in retaliation, using a silky smooth male voice, "
Help! This Bugbear is crazy! I didn't do anything!" The crowd looks at the disguised kenku and look to the bugbear, starting to think that Brutrumukk is falsely accusing an innocent fairgoer...
Brutrumukk's grin faded as the kenku tried to trick the crowd, and an annoyed grimace replaced it as he noticed the crowd was buying it.
"Oh come on! Don't tell me you lot are believin' this git!" Brutrumukk exclaimed.
"A good chunk o' you lot know who I am even! You know I ain't crazy! This git is the git what ruined the show! An' now that I've nabbed 'em, they's tryin' to git their way out of 'ere by gittin' you into thinkin' that I'm crazy!"Jub pushed himself through the crowd so he was closer to Brutrumukk and the disguised kenku.
"Yep, listen to the bugbear, folks!" he called out to the onlookers.
"I saw it with my own eyes! This guy..." He pointed to the kenku.
"He's the one who's been ruining your show tonight!" He paused before adding, for attempted dramatics,
"And he's not even a dwarf!"The crowd murmurs amongst themselves after Brutrumukk and Jub spoke up,
"He
is the Spirit of the Snoring Stone. He helped us a great deal..."
"But...Are they sure that he's the heckler?"
"Why would he lie?"
"Maybe there's some sort of misunderstanding...?"
One member of the crowd looks to Jub when he mentions that the dwarf isn't even a dwarf. They ask Jub, "...If he's not a dwarf, then what is he?"
"Why tell ya when we can show ya!" Brutrumukk answered before lowering the heckler so that they were eye level with him and glaring at the disguised kenku.
"Alright, Bird Brain. Drop the act. Now."The dwarf disguise shows the heckler's fear as their eyes widen. He looks around, and it's clear that they are trying to think. They look like a cornered animal.
He then laughs hesitantly, and he calls to the group, "
It's alright, everyone! I think there's just a misunderstanding between us! Nothing to worry about,"
He then looks directly at Brutrumukk, and he speaks again, this time with a pink fog appearing briefly in front of Brutrumukk's face, "
Why don't we go somewhere private and we can talk things out, yes?"
An angry snarl began to form on Brutrumukk's face when his demand for the heckler to drop their disguise went unfulfilled. For a moment, Brutrumukk considered crushing the ankle he was holding the kenku by. However, before he could commit to the action, something stayed his hand. The heckler was a spellcaster. It didn't take much to kill a spellcaster. And if Brutrumukk killed someone in the middle of this crowd without a good reason, the mob he'd been trying to form for the heckler would come for him instead. Violence wasn't the answer here.
"I think we're fine where we are, Bird Brain." Brutrumukk said in response to Bird Brain's request to speak somewhere private, before turning to look at Jub.
"Since this git don't seem too eager to drop their disguise, 'ow's about you use some o' yer booyagh to drop Bird Brain's act for 'em, yeah?""Errr, right!" Jub said. He quickly ran through his list of known spells in his mind, trying to think of any that might help in this particular situation. After a moment of drawing blanks, he turned away slightly as he began rifling through his pack.
"Just, err, give me a moment, my good man." He pulled out a rather old, ratty-looking notebook and began flipping through the pages. Anyone who happened to glance over his shoulder would see scribbled writing inside, accompanied with various arcane symbols and diagrams.
After a few minutes, Jub once again was unable to find anything useful. However, as he was about to close the book, it suddenly occurred to him that he didn't necessarily
need a spell. He just needed the kenku to
think he did. The flash of a smile appeared beneath Jub's hood as he put the book away and he turned back to Brutrumukk and his quarry. He leaned towards the kenku and said, lowering his voice little,
"My feathered fellow, I suggest you drop this act immediately. Otherwise, I, Jub the Peculiar, will be forced to do something rather drastic." With a flourish, he produced what appeared to be a twig from his pocket, a blue ribbon tied haphazardly around the handle. He pointed it at the kenku.
"I will count to three, and if you don't removed your disguise, I will summon a horrible creature that will take the knowledge - very painfully, might I add - straight from your mind." He paused dramatically for a moment, as if allowing that threat to sink in before beginning to count.
"One..."The heckler was visibly sweating when Brutrumukk refused to speak with him in private. The crowd watched as he encouraged Jub to try something.
However, when Jub tried to deceive the heckler, they simply grinned knowingly at the small wizard. He speaks again, this time to Jub, "
You lost something important to this place, didn't you?"
He addresses Brutrumukk and Jub this time, "
I can tell you more about this place...if we go to somewhere private,"
"Two..." Jub started notably sweating, that little smirk he had given earlier gone almost as quickly as it ha appear. However, as he was about to say that final number, the kenku's words sunk in and he hesitated. Lost...? Jub hadn't lost anything. He frowned, glancing down at his pockets and reaching into them, suddenly worried that something might have fallen out. Nope, everything still there.
Then something seemed to occur to the goblin, like a memory long buried starting to dig its way out to the surface. Jub lowered his wand.
"Perhaps..." he began, glancing at Brutrumukk.
"We should consider hearing the fellow out."Brutrumukk sighed in frustration as he pointedly ignored what Bird Brain and Jub were saying. Efforts to make the kenku drop the act had gone on far too long for the lazy bugbear's liking, so he decided they'd have to settle with just telling the crowd.
"Ok, so Bird Brain 'ere would rather us tell ya what they is instead o' showin' ya!" Brutrumukk said as he addressed the crowd once more.
"An' seein' as what I gotta tell ya tell ya now ain't the easiest thing to believe, I get why they'd rather 'ave things that way! Just keep in mind that magic and kenkus are a thing when yer listenin' to what comes next! So 'ere's the thing, this ain't a dwarf I've got danglin' by the ankle! It's a kenku what used magic to not look like a kenku! They did that an' then they shouted mean things at the mermaid to ruin the show!"The heckler was glad to see that Jub seemed to be coming around. But then...things seemed to go south when Brutrumukk called out to the crowd giving his claims. The crowd gasps and murmur amongst themselves. The heckler sighs in disappointment, "
Well...so much for negotiations..."
He looks to the side, before directing his attention back to Brutrumukk, and he speaks with a lopsided grin, "
As much fun as this has been, I gotta go! Good night!" Another flick and midnight blue smoke appears in front of the bugbear's face.
Brutrumukk had no chance. Once he inhaled the smoke, his eyelids grew heavy and he fell asleep before he even knew it.
Once Brutrumukk fell asleep, the heckler took his chance and fled the scene.
However, what the heckler didn't realize is that they dropped something: A doll, with a wire around the neck...
"Hey!" Jub shouted as the kenku ran off. He hesitated for a moment, glancing down at the sleeping Brutrumukk before, rather awkwardly, patting the bugbear's head and muttering,
"Err, I'll be right back." He then attempted to give chase.
However, it didn't take much for Jub to lose track of the kenku, as they had a head start and admittedly, Jub wasn't much of a runner. He stopped to catch his breath, then scanned the crowd in hope of catching sight of that telltale mark he had left on the heckler with his prestidigitation. Unfortunately, he couldn't see, and after muttering some curse in goblin, returned to Brutrumukk.
"He's not gonna be happy about this," Jub muttered under his breath before leaning down and lightly jostling the bugbear.
"Oi! Friend! Rise and shine!"Brutrumukk half groaned and half growled as he awoke. Slowly but surely, he sat up and looked around as he pieced together an approximation of what had just happened to him.
"Stupid magic kenku." Brutrumukk growled in frustration as he got to his feet.
"The next time I see it, I'm clubbin' it to death an' mountin' its 'ead on a spike... Fer now though..." Brutrumukk looked to the lake before making a pile on the ground of everything he had on him and turning back to Jub.
"Keep an eye on me stuff." Brutrumukk said.
"I'll be back in a bit." With that said, Brutrumukk took off towards the waters edge and sucked down a good three minutes of air before diving into the lake in search of the mermaid.
"Oh, err, sure!" Jub said as he watched Brutrumukk dive into the water. He glanced around him at the remainders of the crowd, an awkward smile on his face as he did so. It was at this point he finally noticed the doll the kenku had left behind. He picked it up, turning it over in his hands.
Brutrumukk does not see Palasha in the immediate vicinity within the lake. But when he comes back for air, he does notice that the lake does connect to the river that surrounds the carnival. Perhaps Palasha went down the river?
As for Jub, his knowledge of magic comes in handy as he studies the corn husk doll the kenku dropped. He notices the thorny stem around the neck, and he recalls reading about voodoo. This doll...it represents someone, but Jub isn't sure who. But he does realize that the stem around the neck is the most out of place object about this doll...
Now that Jub thinks about it...That kenku wasn't mimicking anyone when he was talking earlier. They were using one consistent voice the entire time, forming their own words!
...Could it be...?
"Mag damn it, nothin's ever simple, is it?" Brutrumukk muttered as he eyed the river and steeled his resolve for the long period of exertion ahead of him.
"Alright. Let's get this done." With that said, Brutrumukk began swimming towards the river, sucking down another three minutes of air and slipping blow the surface as he reached the river's mouth.
Brutrumukk swims down the river until finally he reaches part of the river that's closest to the Hall of Illusions. There, he sees Palasha has taken refuge there. Her head is slightly poking upwards, and the bugbear can see that she is looking at the mime who is standing in front of the Hall of Illusions. She lets out sigh while her mouth is underwater, forming bubbles that rise to the surface as she watches him.
Having caught sight of Palasha, Brutrumukk swam over to a patch of riverbank to come up for air fifteen feet away from where the mermaid was watching the mime. The bugbear steadied himself on the riverbank with one arm as he gasped for air for a time, half from how long he'd been holding his breath and half from the how long he'd been exerting himself swimming down the river.
"Oi oi... Miss... Palasha... The Mermaid...?" Brutrumukk tiredly called out in between labored breaths.
"Could ya... come back to the lake... an' finish yer show... please...? The... kenku git... what was insultin' ya'... is gone now... An' everyone else... was really enjoyin'... the show... an' we'd like... to see... the rest of it..."Palasha turns to look at Brutrumukk suddenly when he reaches the bank and calls to her. She looks surprised before she looks wary. She looks away from him for a bit before she asks him, "
...How do you know the rest of the crowd won't heckle me too...?"
She then shakes her head, and she answers, "
...I can't..."
"You can't...?" Brutrumukk said as his breath slowly but surely returned to him.
"You can't...? Now that's just a load o' rubbish... O' course ya can... Yer show was amazin' before that kenku opened its beak... An' I guarantee ya that no one's gonna open their beaks again... If anyone does... I'll club 'em to death an' mount their 'eads on spikes as a warnin' to the rest..."Palasha blinks at his words, and she sighed "
...You're going to have find some other way to prove that, other than a promise of brutality..."
She seems to think about it, and she seems to gain an idea after looking back at the mime. She snaps her fingers a couple of times, before looking back to Brutrumukk, "
...If...you can help Candlefoot...get his voice back...then I'll return to continue the performance..."
Brutrumukk looked over at the mime, then looked back at Palasha and gave a firm nod.
"Get a mime to speak? Yeah, I can do that" Brutrumukk said.
"Does anyone know 'ow 'e lost 'is voice to begin with or got any other leads I what could follow?"Palasha nods and she begins to explain,
"
The last time I heard him speak...he wanted to ask me something...important. However, while he was in the middle of his speech, he suddenly fell silent. After that...he ran away crying. I'm not sure what happened, but...it's clear that this was not intentional on his part,"
"Hmm... Sounds like there's booyagh afoot." Brutrumukk said.
"An' as luck would 'ave it, I know someone what knows their booyagh. Don't you two worry. Now that the Spirit o' the Snorin' Stone's on the trail, Candlefoot won't be without a voice fer much longer! Don't go nowhere, I'll be back in a bit." With said, Brutrumukk hauled himself from the water and ran back to the lake.
When Brutrumukk arrived back at the lake, he was quick to track down Jub.
"Oi oi, booyagh! Yer needed." The soaking wet bugbear called out as he closed in on the goblin.
"Firstly, I'm gonna need some booyagh to dry me off." Brutrumukk elaborated as he reached Jub's speaking distance.
"An' second, I'm gonna need some booyagh to return a stolen voice to someone.""Gah!" Jub jumped slightly when Brutrumukk returned, nearly dropping the doll in the process.
"A little warning next time! I might have accidentally flung a fireball at you!" Once he recovered from the shock, he raised his free hand to cast Prestidigitation on the bugbear.
"And... stolen voice? What do you mean?""Sorry 'bout that." Brutrumukk apologized for startling Jub as he appreciated the newfound dryness of his fur.
"As fer what I mean, some git came along and stole the voice from one o' the carnies. Now they can't speak. Their usin' 'im as a mime down the river." Brutrumukk moved to collect his things as he spoke. Just as he finished his last sentence, the bugbear noticed the doll Jub was holding.
"Is that a doll? Where'd ya find that? An' why's it got a noose 'round its neck""Hm?" Jub glanced back down at the doll in his hands.
"Oh, yes. I found it on the ground. I think that kenku must have dropped it when he ran off." He turned the doll over in his hands once again.
"I remember reading about something like this... I think it may be magical in some way." As he was speaking, something seemed to occur to him.
"This mime lost his voice you said?" He paused before adding,
"Did you notice something... strange about that kenku from before?"Brutrumukk considered Jub's question as he reclaimed his items and gear and ensured that nothing was missing.
"Now that you've got me thinkin' about it... yeah. Yeah, I think there was somethin' strange about that kenku git." Brutrumukk said before scratching his head.
"They talk by makin' sounds they've 'eard from somewhere else. But that kenku git was usin' only one voice when I caught it. An' it didn't sound weird or nothin'... You thinkin' that kenku git's the one what stole the carnie's voice?""Undoubtedly," Jub said.
"And this doll might have something to do with it. But first..." He looked back up to Brutrumukk.
"Can you show me to where this mime is? If I can see them for myself, it might confirm some things for me.""Right right. Follow me." Brutrumukk said before leading the way back to the place where the bugbear had left Palasha and Candlefoot.
Brutrumukk easily leads Jub back to the Hall of Illusions, where the mime, Candlefoot, stands in front of the entrance. Palasha is still partially hidden in the water, clearly watching him, and both goblinoids as they approach.
"Oi oi!" Brutrumukk called out to the two carnies as they approached.
"I'm back, and I've brought reinforcements. Jub 'ere thinks the kenku git what ruined the show is the same git what stole Candlefoot's voice. An' 'e also thinks a doll the kenku git dropped as it escaped may be the key to breakin' this curse." Brutrumukk then looked to Jub and grinned encouragingly.
"Do yer thing, booyagh."Jub looked Candlefoot up and down and then back at the doll, still clutched in his hands. Yep. This was definitely modeled after the mime.
"Well, I'm almost completely sure now," he said. He glanced up at Candlefoot.
"I'm going to try something. I don't know if it's going to work..." He hesitated, and even beneath his hood, one could tell he was wincing slightly.
"And there is a teeny-tiny percentage that it might make things worse. Are you, err..." He nervously scratched the back of his head.
"Are you okay with those kind of odds?"Candlefoot the mime, blinks in surprise when Brutrumukk called to him and Palasha. When he looks behind him towards the river, Palasha had ducked down into the river, and only came back up when Candlefoot turned to face the goblinoids again. He pointed at himself in confusion as though to ask if Brutrumukk and Jub were talking to him.
He listens to Jub, still confused and a little out of the loop about the situation. He takes a moment to think about it, before giving a silent nod to Jub, as though to say '
Yes,'.
"Alright," Jub said, returning the nod. He then attempted to undo the thorny stem around the doll's neck.
Jub successfully undoes the thorny stem around the doll's neck, albeit pricking his fingers a couple of times. The thorny stem falls off thanks to Jub, and at first it seems like nothing happened.
The mime sighs, "
Maybe it was impossi-" He stops in realization: He just spoke! His voice has returned!
He joyfully laughs, "
I...I can talk! I can TALK!"
He runs over to Jub and Brutrumukk and he eagerly takes their hands to shake and he thanks you, "
Oh Frabjous Day! Thank you! Thank you so much! I simply can't thank you enough!"
He then seems to realize something, and he speaks out loud, "
Oh! Palasha! I gotta find her-!"
"
I'm here," Palasha speaks up as she rises from the river.
Candlefoot stops and takes in a nervous breath. He walks up to her, and he kneels down. He speaks, "
I'm sorry, Palasha...About before. But...what I wanted to ask you was..."
He pulls out a small box with a ring in it, and he opens it before her, "
...Will you marry me?"
Palasha's shy, aloof, and cold exterior finally shatters, as she gasps happily, and she practically leaps out of the water to hug Candlefoot. She exclaims happily, "
YES! Yes, I will!"
The mood brightens significantly, as the surrounding people applaud the two carnies.
After a moment, Palasha returns her attention to Brutrumukk and Jub, and she speaks, "
Thank you. I will return to perform. But be sure to stay afterwards. I wish to give you two a singing lesson as well in return for your assistance,"
Brutrumukk watched eagerly as Jub undid the noose around the doll's neck. The eagerness deflated when nothing happened, but was quick to turn to a grin of triumph as Candlefoot's voice finally returned to him and he shook their hands in gratitude. The bugbear then watched as Candlefoot and Palasha reunited and the former mime proposed to the mermaid. As the crowd applauded the acceptance of the proposal, Brutrumukk let loose a boisterous cheer in honor of the happy couple.
When Palasha thanked the goblinoid duo and offered singing lessons, Brutrumukk chuckled nervously in response.
"Fair warnin', ya may 'ave yer work cut out with me." Brutrumukk cautioned Palasha.
"I don't think any amount o' teachin' could do much about the sorry state o' me pipes. Either way..." Brutrumukk turned to Jub, picked him up, placed the goblin on one of his broad shoulders, and called out to the applauding crowd.
"Give it up fer the 'ero o' the hour! Jub the Peculiar! Returner o' Voices! Bane of All Shapeshiftin' Gits! Booyagh Supreme!"Jub had been in the process of letting out a sigh of relief when Brutrumukk picked him.
"Oop!" He looked slightly stunned as the bugbear essentially forced him into the spotlight and, for once, his usual showy persona was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a glimmer of an almost bashful smile beneath his hood.
"T-thank you, yes, thank you..." he said, nodding to the crowd. Sudden bout of shyness aside, though, it was clear he was very pleased.
Palasha chuckled in response to Brutrumukk's warning, and she answered "
Don't worry, I'm not a stranger to bugbear vocals. If I can teach Burly, I can teach you,"
The crowd cheers and applauds Jub as Brutrumukk gives the goblin wizard the spotlight.
Afterwards, Palasha returns to Silversong Lake, with Candlefoot and the rest of the crowd. She continues her beautiful performance, and everyone would be able to note that it sounds much more jubilant. The performance had significantly improved considering the turn of events.
Both goblinoids are also able to notice that as Palasha sings, Candlefoot himself seems to become more colorful himself. His clothes and his general appearance loses it's monochrome appearance, to reveal that he has brown hair, and he is wearing vibrant blue and pale yellow attire.
When Palasha's performance finishes with a crescendo and water sculptures meant to mimic fireworks, Candlefoot becomes monochrome again.
After the performance, Palasha makes good on her offer and gives Brutrumukk and Jub a singing lesson. Thanks to her lesson, Brutrumukk now knows how to use his low timbre vocals in an operatic way. Jub is also now able to sing as well.
After all the unpleasantness, Brutrumukk was more than happy to get things back on track. As he walked back to the lake, carrying Jub on his shoulder all the way there, he told the crowd that followed them all about the shapeshifting kenku and how it had stolen Candlefoot's voice and made mean comments about Palasha's singing. Once the crowd was well aware of the kenku's crimes, Brutrumukk let them know that Jub had marked the kenku with a splotch of blue paint on the back of its head. He instructed them to spread the word of the villainous shapeshifting kenku voice thief and told them to come find him if they suspected that someone was the kenku in disguise.
By the time he was back at the lake and watching the show again, Brutrumukk was firmly back to the jolly mood he'd been in when he first decided the carnival wasn't so bad. The performance was amazing right up to the last note. And when the time came for singing lessons, Brutrumukk was astounded to realize that Palasha was more than capable of improving his singing. By the end of the lesson, the second hour was drawing to a close and the third hour was almost upon them.
"We got one more hour to pass before the big show at the big tent." Brutrumukk said to Jub.
"You wanna decide where we go next?"Jub's shyness melted away as the hour progressed - he chipped in throughout Brutrumukk's telling with own
tiny embellishments and seemed to warm much more to the praise as it continued - but he was still a little more subdued than usual. Even as he enjoyed Palasha's show and took part in the singing lessons afterwards, his mind dwelt on what the kenku had said before:
"You lost something important to this place, didn't you?"Huh. Now that he thought about it, Jub had thought there was something... familiar about this place, but had written it off as simply being a typical carnival atmosphere. After all, he'd only been to one carnival in his whole life. That had been about eight years ago, before he was "Jub the Peculiar", soon-to-be greatest wizard in all Faerun. Back then, he had just been plain old Jub, an outcast from his tribe, never expected to live long or amount to anything, living on the streets in a world that naturally mistrusted and looked down upon him. He didn't like to talk about those days or even think about them if he could help it, but sneaking into the Witchlight that fateful day was probably one of the more pleasant memories from that time.
Well, up until the end, that was, when he realised something was very,
very wrong.
"Huh?" Jub suddenly realised Brutrumukk was talking to him.
"Oh err..." He looked at his surroundings, peering into the distance for anything that caught his eye.
"Erm, how about the Dragonfly Rides?""The Dragonfly Rides." Brutrumukk agreed with a nod.
"Not as good as Dragon Rides probably. But I can't tell, I've never ridden either." Brutrumukk then turned to Palasha to say his goodbyes.
"You an' yer fella 'ave a good night now, yeah?" Brutrumukk said to the mermaid.
"Gimme a shout if anyone says mean things or tries to steal voices again. Especially if it's that kenku git." With that said, Brutrumukk waited for anyone else who wanted to say goodbye to do so and then set off for the Dragonfly Rides, Jub still mounted on his shoulder.
