A history of hardships has taught the secretive dwarven clans who live beneath the hills abutting the western edge of Moonlight Forest caution. Children like Bruno were rarely allowed to play above ground, and only on condition that they remain quiet and never enter the wood. Bruno was afraid as any other of the darkness between the trees, but he was even more curious.

Sometimes he thought he heard music drifting out from beneath the mysterious canopy. One day, he could no longer fight the urge to seek its source. He was not seen again for almost a year. When Bruno suddenly emerged from the forest, it was clear he was changed. He spoke of following “the singers” for days that felt like years. Sometimes they had left him morsels and sometimes their voices diverted aggressive beasts. Sometimes they abandoned him, but they always returned, just beyond seeing.

He began to add his voice to theirs, for he sensed in their strange attentions the desire to teach. Finally, the singers led him home. Bruno’s new, expressive personality could no longer be contained in the Halls-beneath-the-hills. Quietly, he departed and, singing all the while, he walked until he crossed paths with the Carnivale. Before long, he was known as the troupe’s most beloved spinner of tall tales. Only Cassandra believed his fantastical tales of the forest were mostly true, if strongly embellished. All delighted in his magical voice, though, for the way he could tug upon the heart as well as the spleen, drawing tears and mirth with equal skill. Many years Bruno spent happily wandering the realm with his found family, until the rising threat of the Void made such a lifestyle too dangerous and too hard to earn a living.