Due to some violent content. Parental discretion is advised. In the year two
hundred and forty seven, in the Age of Judges, Vartan was summoned home
after the death of his father. Upon his return, Vartan discovered something evil
festering beneath the city of Eternal. With the help of some very unlikely allies,
Bartan works to uncover the mysteries of his hometown and put an end to
the nightmares that plague his people. Welcome to Ethereal Embrace. I really hope
that dove Brie was not too put off by the whole Vartan and Bias situation.
I know I'm finally getting used to it, but well, anyway,
I'm really glad we found Anelin now to investigate a murder again. This should
not seem like business is usual here. Day four, the crime scene of
the third murder hey By, Yes, there was definitely a struggle here.
It's not like the Briars. She actually fought back and might have seriously wounded
one of them. Maybe they're out of the paralytic. I don't know what
that word means. Maybe they're out of uh and she flips the papers to
the spell with the I think it's the chasms or Chas mays. Oh,
well no, it's like here, I'm gonna point it out and I'm be
like, you could definitely see she was fighting them, yeah, just kind
of deducing with all the cult magic going on. They were using a paralytic
to I guess render their victims unable to fight back and maybe they're out of
it. I gotcha. That did not click in my head. Yes,
so there's a spell here that you can use to paralyze people, make them
not able to move. Didn't that use the stingers though? Yeah? That
used the stingers. We got rid of those, we did. Maybe they're
out so, or maybe Mirror caught them by surprise or saw something that she
shouldn't have, so hold on. She should have had a partner with her.
Whoever was her partner might be our doppelganger, Ah could be. Where's
more. She should be here by now, right, But Mirror wasn't a
dove, she was a guard right, correct, So brass Kane would have
assigned her a partner. Oh, Braskane's here right, yeah? All right?
Hey, uh bras Kane, I'm on over here. Yeah, are
you seeing what I'm seeing here? I am it looks like a struggle.
Yeah, where was Meir's partner? Or who was Mere's partner? He scowls
for a second and then looks across the room at Dove Anelin and says,
I think maybe we should wait until Brie gets here. Yeah, yeah,
that's a good point, and he kind of nods at Anelin like indicating it
was her. All right, then, yeah, we'll wait. I want
to somehow distract Anline, make sure she's gonna stick around far to end,
maybe ask her her thoughts about the crime scene. Maybe she'll see something that
we didn't in the past. Ones. Yeah, hey, uh Anlin,
Uh right, Dove Anelin, yes, uh mind coming over here. I
just want some fresh eyes on it. Uh. I don't I don't know
if you've had the chance to see the other crime scenes, but uh,
do you see anything out of place here? Anything odd to other than I
mean obviously a brutal murder. She starts talking about what she sees around the
crime scene and things that she's noticed before, and it's all stuff that you
have already picked up from this crime scene. But you do a good job
distracting her and Morgan, Brie, and Greystone all show up after a couple
more minutes. All right, does Morgan recognize the house from the outside.
I mean, I would say at this point, you've walked the entire city
through your travels, but there's nothing really that stands out about this specific house.
So nothing specific from when I was patrolling with Brie. Nope, the
night before, No, nothing specific from the night before. And Vartan,
you'd probably know this was one of your father's properties, but he sold it
to Mirror years and years and years ago, so this was this was her
house. Yeah, this was Mere's a home. Yeah, well, Morgan's
gonna walk in. Hey, far Tan, this looks too familiar. What's
going on? Uh? Man, this one's a little bit different. There
was definitely a struggle here. Mirror did not go down easy. And uh,
I mean, as you can see here, somebody was really wounded.
It could be fatal. Actually, uh they fell right here. That's a
it's a lot of blood and that's definitely not Mere's blood. Thinking she might
have been outnumbered, I'm gonna ask out loud, so yeah, I want
to check the y'all. Y'all, y'all stay in here, continue the investigation
in here. Me Morgan and by are gonna head outside and see any points
of entry that stand out or exit of the murderers. Brass Kane nods his
agreement, but keeps his hand on his side short sword. Okay, are
the windows covered up with blankets again? Yeah? Or curtains or whatever?
Okay, yep, curtains, Yep, what's going on? Yeah, So
Braskane let me know that Aneline was Mirror's partner. That's not who Anneline was
with when we came across her last night. Do you know who she was
with? One of the other guards, one of brasknees, But it wasn't
Mirror. Huh, yes, because that kind of makes sense because we were
on this northern More side of the town. Correct. Well, Morgan did
did rounds with Brie, or did a round with Bri beforehead we came.
We came across her, you know, we saw her coming out of a
house, one of the abandoned houses, with the guard that she was paired
with. But I was hoping to speak with her before I went to bed
for the night. But I never saw her and it wasn't and it definitely
wasn't the face of the person laying on the ground in the house. No,
definitely not well. And you said she didn't come in last night or
you never saw her. I didn't see her. I waited up for a
while, but I never did see her come in. Should we confront her
in front of breath here? Well? Yeah, if we're thinking the same
thing that aneline is possibly doppel ganged or mimicked, I don't know what would
you call it. Anyway, if we think it's possibly aneline, maybe we
should make sure that this isn't the mimic. Check her for anything magic that
especially this pocket watch thing in this book. Yeah, on this piece of
paper and check for any wounds. What how many exits does this place have?
Front door, back door? Yep? Any odd footprints? Yeah?
Any any? Are we investigating blood splatter? There are footprints in and around
the house and yeah, there is blood spladder in front of the house.
Yeah, it would be hard to hide that much blood. Mm hmmm.
Which direction does it go? It goes straight south of town, like they
tried to retreat out of to the woods. Yep, out of the woods
again, and it's not very fresh, so the trail would probably they'd probably
cover it up again. Yeah, so we have to keep in mind if
she is wounded, that doesn't necessarily mean that she is the dappel Ganger.
It could be she's the real person that got wounded. The Dappelganger stole her
blood and became her. But where's she been? Yeah? Yeah, okay,
we should definitely talk with her while Brie present. Bree's kind of been
read in on it. As much as I was willing to tell her,
it'd be enough for her to give an order if necessary to make her answer.
He Morgan, did we go out the front? Yeah, I guess
we would have went out the front door. We'll come in the back.
And how about this, Well, it might be better if you talk to
him and talk to Brie to get to check annelin and then I could block
the back door and then I can nod brass cane over to the front door.
Okay, just to make sure she doesn't try to escape. It's a
good plan. Yeah, I'll just I'll go to Brie and make this an
interesting conversation. Hope it doesn't get bloody. Yeah, our heroes will be
right back after these messages. Hello listeners, if you are enjoying the show
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appreciate your support. Now back to the town of Eterno, so we go
back in. I'm gonna go ahead and walk over to Brie. What is
she doing? Is she investigating? Is she talking to someone? Brie is
talking with Annelin about the scene, and you can hear Annelin say that she's
almost pressing that with this being the third death, the Caul is clearly looking
for the portal room and that the Doves and the Robin need to make that
their highest priority to get to the portal. While they're talking, I'm going
to get brass Kane's attention and point at the door and point at the front
door, and I'm gonna post up there. Braskane gets your meeting and posts
up on his side. Excuse me, dov Brie. Yes, it's come
to my attention that this victim was supposed to be paired with Dove Anneline.
Yesterday while doing patrols, I was hoping that maybe she saw something or could
give any insight into anything that happened. And I could you refresh my memory
of still early we saw we saw Anneline come out of a house with one
of the the guards, right, yes, we did, and it wasn't
this one, brass Kane. Is that assignment correct? And Braskane nods his
affirmation and his grip titans on his sword hilt, and dove Brees says Aneline,
is there anything you would like to say? And Anline takes a couple
steps back away from everybody and she's like, I didn't do any of this.
There must be a mistake. I was not assigned to her. I've
never met this guard, Anelin. How do you like your chili? I
I like my chili with I like my chili with meat, beans and cheese
on a bed of crackers. Isn't that how out of character? Isn't the
how of Vartan? And also Braskane there chili, Yeah, seems pretty common.
Braskets plus peppers. Can I do an arcana check to see if,
like I see any kind of magic item on Anelin or some sort of check
to see if I can glimpse like a pocket watch, bulge or something.
Yeah, yeah, I guess, yeah, I'll use perception or ARCon it's
the same seventeen. Yeah, she definitely has some kind of magic item on
her person's in her pocket? You can you can kind of tell there's a
magic aura coming off it, Anelin. What's in your pocket? Oh?
Just something I found And she pulls it out and it is a pocket watch.
They eyeballs with twelve eyes on the face, Anelin, can I see
that? Please? I really wish you wouldn't, Brie, I need that
pocket watch, all right? And she takes a couple more steps back and
clicks the pocket watch to open the face and she transforms back into her normal
self, which is a fur bog. Sit. This is a furbogg rerecognize.
Yeah, I was gonna ask, red hair, green skin. It
is Susan from the vision. Susan have Vartan, Susan, it's me by
a ah By. I see you've found me out. What are you doing
here? I'm trying to save this stupid city despite its best efforts. Save
the city, Yeah, as best I can. I'm trying to do it
right this time. What do you mean this time? Well, the last
time I tried to save the city, it didn't quite work out as well
as I thought. All right, I'm mom, what well? Why are
you killing people? Though? Why are you killing the people in the city.
It's the only way to complete the ritual and weaken the magic week in
what magic? Wait, Bartend, this is actually your mom as far as
I know. Does it look like she's aged at all? Well, I
mean, for bogs lived for quite a while, but no, but she
hasn't aged at all, like at all, So she's and she hasn't been
in the city. Susan, you want to save the city from itself by
weakening the magic that keeps everyone alive and murdering other people. The city isn't
alive. The people in the city are alive, and it seems like you
are having the opposite effect of saving them. Look, I know it's hard
to understand, but there's a magic around this city, and a lot of
the people that live here have benefit from that magic already for much much longer
than any normal lifespan. This magic is also put in the city and the
world at risk by keeping that portal open. It's connected, So I need
to complete this ritual and finish the city in preparation to close the portal.
If I can weaken the magic around a turnout and then go in to the
portal and retrieve my core, I should be able to close it completely at
risk of what you said, the magic in the portal is putting the city
at risk, at risk of what of those demons coming in the portals closed.
The portal is not closed. I tried to close it. I tried
to close it the day that I left a turno. I went in and
I snapped my core within it to complete a ritual to keep it from being
powered on this side. It should have worked. I don't know why it
didn't work, and then I should have died a normal death after I came
back, but I continued to live on and now I need to go into
that portal, find my core and destroy it for real this time. Well,
when did you come back. Was it recent? Yes, I came
back to the city maybe a week ago. A week ago Dad died what
almost two months ago now? And he died from the demon's coming through the
portal? Do you know about that? My scouts told me that he had
died. Where did you get these scouts from? These are my people from
These are the children of the dead gods. They belonged to me. But
that's a story you made up with, Timmarin. How are these real people?
After a long enough time, made up stories can have just as much
power as truth. What over in the on the other side of the portal?
Did they come over from the demon realm? No, they're from here
here an e turno. Well not from a turno from outside the city,
but close enough. I am confused. Used, you're confused? What These
cultists are a group of people that I've been nurturing to help me to complete
the ritual. They believe it's for a higher power. They believe whatever I
tell them, But ultimately they're here to help me close this portal for real.
I'm gonna echo Vartan's question, at what cost? You say that this
is a threat, But we didn't even know about it until a priest came
here and sent back information about it. How much of a threat could it
possibly be enough to be killing people that you would consider friends and neighbors.
I would assume you're from here right. Five deaths is a very small toll
to pay for the salvation of an entire world. I'm pretty sure over the
course of the last say, at least two hundred more people have died in
this town by your hand than anything else. That may be so, but
it will not be that way for long. The demons on the other side
of that portal are preparing to come here. Thank you for listening to this
episode of Ethereal Embrace a creative typo production. Vartan, the Furbog Fighter,
is voiced and played by Adam Culbertson. Baya Rustin, the half Elf Sorcerer,
is voiced and played by Tisha Morgan. The Human Monk is voiced and
played by Nari Quack and I am Nico your GM. Please remember to drop
us a five star rating and review on your favorite podcatcher. Music provided in
part by Midnight Syndicate, makers of the original Dungeons and Dragons soundtrack. If
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Remember be safe, we love you all, and stay foolish.