Choosing to banish the Grimm Troupe in Hollow Knight requires speaking to Brumm — a Troupe member who plays percussion — and helping him escape the ritual rather than completing it. Brumm wants to stop. He has been part of the Troupe long enough to understand what the ritual harvest means and does not want to participate anymore.
The banishment is performed through Divine, the Troupe member who swallows charms for permanent upgrades. If the player has given Divine the Grimmchild charm — something the main questline requires — the charm must be reclaimed before the banishment can proceed. Divine eats the Grimmchild permanently if not retrieved in the correct order. Several players lost the charm entirely on their first attempt.
After banishment, the Grimmchild charm becomes the Carefree Melody — a charm that randomly negates damage with a small percentage chance. The functional downgrade is significant; the Grimmchild was a combat assist. The Carefree Melody is barely noticeable. The banishment rewards completion with a worse item, because ending the ritual correctly cost the player the ritual’s primary product.
Brumm, after the banishment, appears sitting alone on a bench in Dirtmouth. He has no dialogue. He is simply there, free, with nowhere to go, having left the only life he knew. Team Cherry placed the outcome of the moral choice in a visual — a figure on a bench — rather than in text.
The environmental storytelling in this game is on another level. Thanks for documenting it so clearly.
The detail work the devs put into areas most players never visit is what separates great games from good ones.