[CENTER][color=598527][h1]Hither[/h1][/color]
[color=00746b][h2]Downfall: Big Barkless[/h2][/color][/CENTER]

[CENTER][I]Confident and strong,
The Gluttonous Bugbear could not ignore the sweet song.
O' Sister's spirits did he imbibe,
The euphoria, no one but he can describe!
Wandering, wandering, until he falls into the drink!
The predator becomes the prey in a blink!
In his last moments, he was empowered
To save his friend, the coward
Before he gets devoured![/I][/CENTER]

[hider=Post Mortem. Brutrumukk Only]The final blows come painfully, but it wouldn't last long. Brutrumukk would find that the din of an endless battle grows louder and louder. But all he sees is darkness in front of him. All he can tell is that he is on a path, heading towards Acheron. 

He also hears his gods laughing and calling Brutrumukk, 

"There he is! Brutrumukk!"
"One of the finest bugbears indeed!"
"Welcome, welcome!"

The gods continue to talk, 
"Ugh, he's infected with wild, fey magic,"
"Eh! It's nothing a little endless battle can't fix! No worries!"
"Yeah, there's always worse influences than that,"

"Oh yeah! Like that pathetic excuse of a goblin he was traveling with, whatchamacallit?"
"Hardly a goblin! I believe it called itself Jub! And it wanted to become a wizard!"

The gods laugh raucously at the idea of Jub becoming a wizard. They continued berating Jub,

"It couldn't even handle it's tribe trying to toughen it up,"
"It even ate garbage!"

The gods laugh even harder. At this point, another sound would catch his attention from behind him. 

It is the sound of the calliope! The very same calliope from the Witchlight Carnival!

Upon hearing the music, memories come to him. They are the joyful memories he had with his tribe as a child, and the joyful memories he has with his friends; Jub and whoever else he considered his friend in the party. In these memories, there was no violence, no bloodshed. It was just him and his friends enjoying everything life had to offer and bringing smiles to everyone around him. 

Brutrumukk notices iridescent light emanate around him. Tiny little motes of white light appear to float around him like fireflies before darting towards the music. When he turns to look towards the sound and follow the fireflies, he sees that there is a doorway, the other side shrouded in light. Brutrumukk instinctively knows what this means...

He can go back! He can live again! 

All he has to do...is walk through that doorway and into the blinding light.[/hider]
As the party reconvenes on the shore, and take stock of the situation, the only thing that seems to respond to them are the croaking of frogs, the buzz of insects, and the occasional sound of birds answer them. Life seems to go on as normal in Hither, callous of the death of Brutrumukk. The bitter voices from the large tree continue to laugh, this time at Brutrumukk's demise, but they laugh among themselves. The party has some time to process and mourn...

Nothing seems to happen for a good long while, giving everyone time to voice their thoughts if they choose to do so. Zavakri herself remains silent, bowing her head and closing her eyes, giving a moment of silence. 

However, after a good while, something catches Zavakri's attention. 

She gives a short gasp and whips her head back up towards the lake in surprise. Her eyes once again change from the normal brown irises, to that of the golden clock face irises. She informs the party surprised and wary, "[b]Blast! A Wild Magic Surge?! What now?![/b]"

The rest of the party doesn't see anything, but they feel [I]something[/I] in the air. A vibrant energy, like electricity, coursing through the air. Jub would recognize this phenomenon. It's the same sensation that occurred when Brutrumukk first drank the hag's hooch. That feeling in the air starts to grow frenetic, oppressive, and possibly even dangerous, until a different sound echoes through the air...

[CENTER][i][color=f49ac2]The familiar, joyful music of the Calliope.[/color]
[color=a2d39c]The very same Calliope from the Witchlight Carnival![/color][/i][/CENTER]

[hider=Mood Music][YouTube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt8R34GsGbs[/YouTube]
1:40 to 2:45[/hider]

Tsak easily remembers something important. Ernest the monkey is the one who operates the Calliope while Marigold the goblin collects buttons. Ernest is an enigmatic one. Somehow his mind was switched with his pet monkey's during a prank gone wrong. She doesn't really know what happened. All she knows is that the prank involved the organ grinder, his pet monkey, a leprechaun, and a great quantity of brambleberry wine. 

But, she has heard in passing that good things happened to people who give Ernest a button, even though he has nothing to give in return but a smile on his face. The common link between them is that they all heard the sound of the Calliope when good things happened. 

[CENTER][I]Brutrumukk was the only person in the party to have given Ernest a button.[/I][/CENTER]

Zavakri seems to stare into the air wide-eyed, as though she can see something that nobody else in the party can. Her clock-faced irises dart to and fro and everywhere as the Calliope music echoes throughout the air. She couldn't help but speak in awe and shock, her hands raised to cover her mouth,

"[b]Th-That's impossible! 
Inconceivable! 
The music is [u][I]guiding[/i][/u] the Wild Magic! Shaping it![/b]"

Her eyes lower towards the lake, and should anyone follow her gaze, they would see something start to rise from the depths of the lake. It's an orb of fiery orange light. As the party stares at it, they instinctually come to realize that it's [I]Brutrumukk[/I]. There may not be a bugbear body, but that orb is what made Brutrumukk...well, [I]him[/I]!

The orb then zooms over to the party and rests in the center of the party. The orb starts to change colors. The change starts to slow, but the changes in colors start to speed up as the Calliope music grows louder! When the music meets a crescendo, the orb gives off a bright white light, forcing everyone in the party to cover their eyes. 

When the light fades and the music starts to drift off and quiet itself, the party can look back and see that there's somebody lying there in the grass in place of the glowing orb. 

An adult forest gnome lies there, seemingly asleep before their eyes flutter open. The gnome has no belongings on them. Essentially, they are as nude as...well, anyone would be on the day they're born. 

[hider=Happy Rebirthday, Brutrumukk!]When Brutrumukk opens his eyes, he sees his party members around him and he hears the animal sounds around him. It's weird! He can somewhat understand the animals around him better than before. 

When he stands up, he finds that he is standing around the same height as, if not an inch or two taller than, Jub and Tsak. Now Aurora, Gabriel, and Zavakri are towering over him! [/hider]

[hider=OOC] [@rush99999] You can now post! Brutrumukk is now reborn as a Forest Gnome, so make sure that all of his Bugbear features are replaced with the Forest Gnome features. [/hider]