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 a Robin and his
magic book led us into a demon realm, and now there is a giant
creature saying he's been waiting for us. Nope, nothing could possibly go wrong
in this situation. Day four the Amphitheater. Welcome. I've been patiently awaiting
your arrival. Ah, and who might you be presumptuous to come to the
realm of demons and deal in names? But you may call me Yagnalov Yagnilov.
All right, you've been expecting us, how I've been expecting someone from
the human realm to come here? Yeah, we just want that staff and
this guy over here with like some magic items or something, and we'll be
on our way. The staff actually belongs to his mother, and then I'm
gonna wave the staff belonged to someone named Curion. Oh that's uh, well,
that's convenient because that's that's also my my father. Yeah, that so
you knew carried Yes, very intimately, he puts on a very creepy smile
on his face that you can see from under the hood, and he says,
are you here to make the same deal Kerrid made? Well, I'm
not exactly sure the deal that he made. We're still trying to figure that
out. Maybe you could help us with that, Ye, you can write
it down. I don't know. Are you guys moving closer at all?
Or are you all standing like up at the top on the ring very far
away? Still? Yeah, standing yelling, Yeah, just just yelling,
shouting across the cathedral. It's it's like, I think I took like one
step forward when I asked the question and then just haven't moved since. I
mean, maybe we could figure something out here, because uh, I mean,
he's dead now, so I don't I don't know what kind of kind
of deal he made. The deal Currion had with me was that he could
repair the damaged spear and was promised not to be harmed by any demon while
in the Nine Hells. He could even take the spear with him to return.
O should he see fit? Why do you live it? Here?
My side of the deal, I swore I would never use the spear to
open a portal to that realm of humans, but once per year the spear
was granted to me so that I could smite an enemy of my choosing within
the Nine Hells. Oh. Hey, after I've already slain the one that
I chose for this year. Kirian did not come to reclaim the spear when
I was done. Oh so I could stay here. Oh I'm guessing that
was Kirian that you get killed? Right with the Morrisy, I could not
kill Kirian in the Nine Hells. Now, I'm talking about in the hold
on what? Okay? So basically you made a deal with Kirian. Kirian
wanted to come down here, fix the spear, take it with him,
but allow you to use it once per year to just as a I guess
a death note to one person in the Nine Hells, and only in the
Nine Hells, right, yes, okay? And then he would come back
and get the spear well, Kirion was murdered up there on the earthly realm
by demons. How tragic you say. You couldn't harm him, kill him
in the Nine Hells, but nothing prevented you from ensuring his death. Not
in the Nine Hells. You wanted to keep the spear for your own,
didn't you. There are some advantages to this. Unfortunately, once I had
taken the life that I wanted to take in the Nine Hells, I could
not touch the spear again until the one year mark eclipses. Oh well,
I mean so I should be able to get it, right. Would you
like to make the same deal Kirian did? Well, I mean I would.
Maybe I don't have to make a deal. Maybe I could just grab
it. What makes you think I would allow you to leave this place?
Should you grab it? Well? I mean, oh wait, and get
that far I was. I was just spitballing here. I mean, it
looks like it looks like you're one person and we are many. Maybe you
just let us take the just take it and we'll be on our way.
Yeah, you said Carrie could take it. I mean, I'm I got
Kirian's blood in me. Maybe that counts for something. Curion entered into a
pact with me. If you enter the same pact, I will allow you
to take it, but you cannot remove a magic item as powerful as this
to just disappear with. Okay, let's let us talk it over real quick.
Certainly, take your time. And he uses his free hand and makes
some motions with the quill in the air, leaving a nimbus blue looking text
and it forms into a contract. And then the contract, which is now
parchment, flutters down to the ground and kind of away from him in front
of the pedestal where it rests. Should you decide to sign off on that
agreement, make a deal with the devil. Okay, guys, so you
know, we can't make this deal. I mean, just we don't know
how good or bad this this guy here is, and just to give him
carte blanche to immediately assassinate anyone he chooses in this and hells, yes,
but still I'm not entirely sure we can just take it. The Robin has
studied all kinds of texts. Maybe he knows this Yagnaloth by reputation, Maybe
he knows something about him. Maybe he's right here right, yeah, guard
and pull him over with my arm around his shoulder, okay, shoulders all
right? Yeah? People him away. He's like, what what is it?
Can you tell great Hawk to come help us? There's a devil like
a guy down in the room he sent us to you. Look down and
notice that he has scribbled out several things in the book and they are all
unanswered. So the book is being completely non responsive. But you can tell.
I mean, he is like scared and writing some stuff down. Have
you ever heard of anyone named Yagnoloth? Yes? And they are the negotiators
of the Nine Hells. They are not to be trusted. I mean that
seems kind of obvious. I'm seeing dude down there with a quill, I'm
seeing this book right here, and uh, I think you might have been
led to in your book. You think he's the one who's been writing to
me. Do you think it's a coincidence that we come down here and a
giant demon with a quill just happens to be waiting for us, and he
was expecting someone. Come on, Robin, you're smarter than that. This
is a challenge of my faith. I will not be tempted, not by
you, not by these demons. He takes the book and closes it and
puts it in his pack. Okay, but you do see that big demon
down there. You do see that negotiator guy that we were just fled to.
And it's not about your faith, and maybe you know. I'm not
saying that great Hawk isn't real. It's just that sometimes we get tricked by
a negotiator for the devil. I'm gonna I'm gonna turn slightly around. I'm
like, hey, uh uh yeah, yeagnala, were you leading somebody here
with your pen? What does this have to do without contract? It's just
a question, man. He stands there quietly. He's not going to answer
that. I personally take the silence as a yes. Yeah. But it
turns around and looks at Torment and puts both her hands on his shoulder and
looks at him in the eye and says, I've been tricked before in my
life too. I've been lied to. I've loved people who have turned out
to not be great. And I'm not saying that Greyhawk is not great.
I'm saying that it's human or not human? What is? What is Torment?
Tobacsi? I did not know that this entire time I didn't either.
To air is to be alive, you know, tobacsi human elf, you
know whatever. Vartan is tall, I'm a ferbol and it's and it's okay,
come here. And she pulls him in tight and gives him a hug
and like rubs his rubs his back, hoping he's gonna like cry a little
bit. He stands there awkwardly and says, I appreciate the sentiment, but
how does that help us out of this room with that creature? It doesn't,
But sometimes it feels good to be all open before we possibly die,
let go of frivolous things. This book has been active for me for weeks
now. Do you really think the demon has been talking to me for that
long? I don't know if it's been the demon the whole time, but
I think this guy down here let us here. Maybe it's a Sometimes it's
the demon, and sometimes it's Greyhawk. Marzie do belong to this order of
demon? The whole Yugolav family includes the Marzie and the Yagnoloth. Huh.
Interesting, I'm guessing there's something bigger than that guy down there. There are
several things, most notably the Ultralothe. Well I'd like to avoid that.
Let's see if we can make a different kind of deal with Yagnoloth Robin Torment.
Is there anything in the book that might help us out here, anything
that would indicate somebody was looking to make a deal or trying to eliminate someone
specifically. I mean, that's what Yagnolov has been doing every year. He's
been eliminating an enemy here in the Hells. I do not know of anything
in the book that speaks of the Hell's hierarchy and who he was trying to
assassinate. But presumably if there was a deal attached to this spear, maybe
he cannot use it now that Kirian is dead. Maybe he needed someone to
come create another deal with him. All right, So I'm thinking no deals,
because if he can't use it, it's worthless, although it probably puts
all of us at risk. Yeah, but we also need to destroy that
spear. Yeah, I mean, what's to stop us from taking this deal?
And then Cody destroyed the spear, not us? Yeah, I mean
we could fight him. We don't know how binding the deals are, So
I'm thinking taking a deal is a bad idea. Yeah, that's true.
All right. Well, let's go down there and tell them not do you.
Yeah, Yeah, let's do that. Yeah. As we all jump
at once to go down the stairs, maybe we can discuss something at a
later date. Our heroes will be right back after these messages. Hello listeners.
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Thank you Meed. We truly appreciate your support. Now back to the
town of Eterno. All right, so you walk down these stairs. As
you approach, he backs away from the contract that sits on the floor and
the pedestal. As you walk down the stairs. The contract is closest to
you. The pedestal with a spear is next, there's a brazier relatively close
to the pedestal, and then farther behind that, he has stepped away,
probably a good ten fifteen feet from that, to give you space and maybe
to protect himself. Should we tell the doves go back for their own safety?
No? Okay. I also don't think he's gonna let anybody leave this
room. All right. Well, let's take a look at this contract,
okay, Yeah, and investigate the spear. Okay. So the contract is
kind of what he said. So in the agreement, you can come into
the Nine Hells and you can retrieve the spear should you see fit. You
are considered the owner of the spear, as it would be passed down from
Kirian to his blood. It doesn't have your name on there, but it
just says to his blood, and it promises that you will not be harmed
by any demon while in the Nine Hells. You do notice that it remarks
that you won't be heard by any demon in the yacht, or in the
Yugoloth family or anyone within its employ Should someone outside of their family or their
employee wage war on this area, they cannot be held liable as it is
not within their power. Okay, So there are little clauses in here that
say like that back up their own end of the deal. Now the Nine
Hells, that's just the demon realm. Where is that? Yes? Okay?
There are nine levels of hell, and in these nine levels of hell
there are demons on all of them. So you are in the third layer
of hell where the Yugoloth families go to war with other types of demon families.
The second level of hell is where Bainhold is, which is kind of
like a giant factory place, and the first level of hell is where Tsari
lies, and you don't really know much about the other layers after that on
the way down. The additional things that he did mention in there is that
you would bring the spear back to him so that he could use it when
he called for the spear for his assassination. It doesn't say who we'd assassinate,
but it does say that they would be in the Nine Hells when he
did it, and upon completion of death, he would return the spear to
you should you come retrieve it at this specific location, so he would meet
you here to do it on top of that if you break the deal,
he can either use the spear to gain access to the Realm of Greyhawk,
or he can use other items to go and retrieve the spell or to retrieve
the spear from you and the gray in the realm of Greyhawk. So if
you keep the spear in your own realm, he is then granted access to
use that as a conduit to come retrieve it from you. Okay, we
should probably find out why he killed Kirian exactly, and or at least make
sure that was him, and then find out who he used the spear on
this year in the nine House. Yeah, we're by you know those demons.
Uh, I don't remember what you said. I know you said the
Morisy was was the the Loth family or whatever was? The Chasms and the
Uh and the Zill the Zill are they part of that same family too.
They're not part of the family. They're more like if you imagine the the
families, they're kind of like maybe like guard dogs or they're mindless insect drones
that they put out there so they can follow orders, but they don't make
decisions. Zill and Chasms do not make their own decisions. They are bound
by whatever the Yugoloth family says. So they wouldn't be able to give a
command to go kill somebody because it would be a lot family killing. Yet
one of the Yugoloath family would yeah, yeah, yeah, So amar Zi,
which is one of the lowest level of the Yugoloths, could have been
commanding those zill And chasms like what you had assumed was happening, But they
wouldn't have been able to kill Kirion once he was out of the Nine Hells.
Yes, he was only safe he in the Hells, yeah, okay,
okay, by the chasm, yeah okay, but the spear wasn't used
on him. M hmm. So basically, from what I'm getting from what
Nico has said so far is that this Ugo Yagnaloth, probably I don't know,
he said that he wouldn't kill him in the Nine Hells and that's why
he killed them. He killed Kirian in Greyhawk's realm, and I'm not sure
why. Maybe because he wanted to use it more than once. Maybe I
don't know. We're too close for me to say this idea. I will
say he thought the spear was bound to Kirian, but the spear is actually
bound to Susan, which is something I was going to bring up because it's
actually Susan's spear. He had no authorization to make this deal. Yeah,
well the deal was probably was. Oh you probably thought killing Kirian would unbind
the spear, and that's why he's stuck with it. He can't use it,
right, Like I said, I wonder if I could pick it up.
Susan gave you permission, right that she sent us in here to get
it. Yeah, so, uh yeah, an lot. I don't know
if it should be the one negotiating here, but uh so, uh by
this contract, yeah, I don't see how it could be legally binding.
Is this spear not yours? I mean the spears technically not mine, but
there was a Kirians in uh and I know it's not yours either. Kirians
deal held weight. Does it belong to your family? Your bloodline? M
I guess my blood line, but not Kirian's bloodline. If he bets the
mark of your family, he can speak on behalf of its house. Who
does this spear belong to? I think we already told him, didn't We
don't don't tell him? I mean I thought that's what the first thing we
said? But uh, I mean I don't like repeating myself. You mind
if I test something real quick? Do you mind signing that contract first?
Well? I wanted to test the validity, Like what would happen if I
touch it? Like would it like throw me across the room into the wall
or something, or I'm just curious what you what would happen if you touch
it? If I touch it, it begins to burn. Oh if you
touch it and it is your families, I assume you will have right of
it, so I would have right of it, right, I don't need
to sign a contract. The contract is for your safety in the nine hells?
Oh oh okay, that's uh. If somebody want to back me up
here. Yeah, So here's the thing. Is Kirian signed that and then
you murdered him. So I'm not sure signing a contract is good for our
safety, you know. I mean it's either an hour later, is what
it kind of seems like, mister Yagnoloth. The contract gives you safety now
with risk later without it, you have no safety here. Why do you
only offer protection within the nine Hells? Is it just because you want the
option to kill the other half of the contract. This is my realm,
this is where I have power. Yeah, but you could always put in
a little caveat in there that you won't kill us either outside of the nine
realms, like you just won't kill us. Yeah, we can negotiate this
contract a little bit. You don't think I could put a loophole and that
should I choose? You've already got one. Okay, So if we just
walk away right now, you can never touch the spirit again. I'll find
someone else from your bloodline? All right? All right? Well? I
mean, are you gonna make a deal with everybody in my bloodline and kill
us all? And what's the endgame there? It's not a bad idea.
Aren't you supposed to be a negotiator. There's no point in playing games through
this. If you do not want to sign the contract, you will not
and you will die. This contract will have loopholes. They always do some
for you, some for me. If I say I will not kill you,
what's to stop from another chasm killing you? If I say I don't
send demons into your realm to kill you, what's to say I don't speak
to another Robin and send them to kill you. What's to say, I
don't make a contract with the other people in your town to take your life.
I have a terrible idea. Uh huh. I want to take a
closer look at the contract and see if it says anything about if it's destroyed
the spear. There is nothing in the contract about the spear being destroyed,
okay, So if it can't be used as a conduit to get out of
the Nine Hells, that's my thought process. That just means that he can
just release all of the seven hell all of his family onto Greyhawk's realm to
try and find it until he finds it. I think that might be pretty
bad. I have another thought on fixing that problem too, but I can't
say it, like I can't go in fully. I can't fully elaborate,
elaborate on my plan because we can't really talk right now. Maybe I okay,
I'm gonna I'm gonna bend over whispered by. I'm gonna whisper to buy
a very very quietly in our head, say I signed this contract, we
take the spear out, we have it destroyed by Cody, and maybe my
death following that in the final spot that Susan set up and we close the
magic that surrounds Eternal and that'll keep them from getting in. Thank you for
listening to this episode of Ethereal Embrace, a Create Native 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.
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