Due to some violent content, Brontal discretion is advised. In the year two
forty seven, in the Age of Judges, Fartan was summoned home after the
death of his father. Upon his return, Bartend discovered something evil fester and
beneath the city of Eternal. With the help of some very unlikely allies,
Fartan works to uncover the mysteries of his hometown and put an end to the
nightmares that plague his people. Welcome to Ethereal, embrace. Hey, that's
me Bartand oh man, I am tired. I find that more as it
was not easy. You know, you know what, I could go for
a good night's sleep right now, ain't you know what I mean? Maybe
maybe maybe I could get a snack before passing out. Oh, it looks
like there's a snack already here for me. I normally wouldn't have biscuits and
gravy this late, but I'll make the exception. Oh wait, what why
does this biscuits and gravy tastes like slugs? That's odd? Am I dreaming?
Vartan lays in bed. The window curtains are open. The stars in
the night sky are the only light to be seen. Giving the room an
ethereal feel exhausted, Vartan closes his eyes to fall back into the warm,
inviting embrace of sleep. Before sleep can take the fur bog, however,
he begins hearing voices from downstairs, drifting up the stairs into his bedroom.
Graystone says, I understand that a marine, but I need him to wake
up. It has been over a week, and Emory says, in a
hush tone, gray Stone, he would not be any good to you right
now in the state that he's been in. He needs his rest. Have
you been able to determine what is wrong with him? He's tired, Graystone.
He put his body through a lot and he'll need some time to recover.
Fur bag or not, He's not invincible, you know, he needs
some time to heal. Bastille says, the robin will be here in less
than two days. Tired or not, Vartan will want to know and he
will want to be a part of it. It's late. I will let
you know how he's doing in the morning. Emory, please just said good
night, Graystone. Moments later, the sound of a door clicking closed quietly
drifts up the stairs. Exhaustion finally wins the hero over and Vartan falls back
asleep. Day one, Vartan wakes on his stand. Next to his bed
is a tray, and on the tray there are three separate cups that all
appear to hold liquids. Oh man, I'm hungry. Oh what's this?
I'm gonna drink all three cups of liquids. Okay, So one of the
cups of liquids is a tea of sorts, another is a simple cup of
water, and the final cup is a cup of broth. The tea and
the broth are kind of warm, like they've been prepared for you this morning,
not boiling hot, like they were just done up, but warm enough
to know that somebody prepared these and dropped them at your side this morning.
Yeah, I'm not gonna hesitate. I'm thirsty and hungry, all right,
yeah, yeah, okay, I had nothing happens to me? Do I
feel nothing happens? Yeah? Yeah. I mean they definitely help you feel
full, but you're still kind of hungry because you're always hungry. Okay,
all right, Oh man, that was not the best taste in broth I've
ever had. But oh h, I wonder what buy an Ovic are up
to I'm gonna head out and look for by A. Hey Ovic. Okay,
So you head downstairs and you find Baya. She will be reading different
books, any books that she can find in that library. Okay. So
you're in the library and Vartan walks in and finds you sitting in the easy
chair reading. Oh hey, Vartan, how's it going? Oh? Not
too bad? All right? Oh, I guess I got some pretty good
sleep. Thanks for leaving the broth and the tea and the water for me.
It hit the spot waking up. Oh I didn't leave anything for you.
Oh all right, I should have. That would have been the smart
thing to do. I apologize, but I'm glad it was still warm.
Oh m, you see somebody come in here? You know. To be
honest, I have not been paying attention. I left my staff in the
other room. I have just been devouring these books. I read this book
called Eyes of the rune Keeper, and I learned how to read everything.
I can just read it all. It was the most amazing book I think
I've ever seen. Oh man, let's so, I've just been obsessively reading.
I don't even know what time it is. It must be morning.
Oh yeah, man, what I fell asleep kind of late last night makes
sense to me. Oh, I walked by Olvic's room and knocked on the
door. Didn't get an answer. You heard from him, Yeah, he
mentioned that his work was done here and that you no longer needed him,
so he was gonna be on his way. Oh, I like to say
goodbye to him. All right, Well you know Ovic how he is.
Yeah, well, you know that broth didn't quite cut it. Um still
a little hungry. I was thinking about heading down to Cody's. Oh,
yeah, that sounds lovely, and Baya just grabs a couple books and says
for light reading, you know, on the walk. Yeah, of course.
All right, head up, you had out two Cody's. It is
kind of morning, but it's late morning, which means that Vartan slept in
as far as he knows. Because you're also an early riser, so the
townsfolk is already out doing townfolk key things. And you make your way across
the path, passing by the Temple of the Twelve, and make your way
to the last stop, tavern. Inside the tavern, you find Cody.
He's busying himself cleaning, prepping, you know, kind of hustling around,
and you see that not only his Magno assisting him, but there are also
two other people, two other townsfolk who appear to be assisting, like helping
prep stuff in the in the tavern, Cody says, oh, hey,
Vartan, how's it going? Not too bad? Uh? Yeah, sorry,
I got something in my throat. Just just woke up. I was
hungry, so I headed on over here. Oh yeah, absolutely we can.
We can whip you up some breakfast. Do you want your usual three
of everything? I think I'll have biscuits at gravy? Okay, bye,
you want something m I'll just take some coffee, all right, let me
get three orders of biscuits and gravy. Uh coffee, Uh, some breakfast
wine and some water? H two waters? Actually yeah, biscuits and gravy
with some coffee. I'll get those orders going for your right now. Are
you gonna sit in your normal booth? Oh? Yeah, I mean you're
good with that right by? Yeah that's some lovely all right? Yeah yeah,
normal booth? All right. Sounds like a plan. So he heads
back, stops what he's doing, heads back to the kitchen area, and
you hear him start cooking up the stuff for you. You guys sit down
at your normal booth and uh. After a minute, um Magno stops by
and she says, hey, Partan, how are you doing. Oh,
I'm all right? How about you? Good? Good? I uh uh,
I'm glad to see you up and about. It's it's uh been a
little while. How How are you feeling well? I mean from since last
night? I mean, I guess I feel a little better. I was.
I was tired, but I don't feel great, A little hungry last
night. What what do you mean by last night? You know, whenever
we thought the Moresey. Oh that was twelve days ago. You've you've been
sick for for twelve days? Well, I mean eleven days, I guess,
because you seem fine now. But yeah, that that that was twelve
days ago that we fought the more Zy. I don't buy it. Does
this make any sense to you? You know, to be honest, I
think it does. I did read quite a lot for just one night.
Hm, mag noo. What's everyone doing here? Are you preparing for a
party? Oh? No, actually quite the opposite. We are preparing because
we are expecting visitors in town. There is a group of people coming from
the Church of Greyhawk, and they're going to be staying here. I guess
no one has talked to you about this yet. Have you spoken with anyone
since you woke up today? Or was this your first stop? Yeah?
This is a yeah, this is our first stop. Oh okay, Well
I don't have a lot of the details, but there is a Robin that
bass Deial was talking with someone he had been sending letters to regarding Eternal Just
a few days ago. We got a letter in response saying that this Robin
man named Torman, is going to be coming to visit the town and investigate
what Bastille had said, and he's bringing with him a Piteousness of Doves.
Py what a piteousness? Actually? With your history and religion, make a
roll, Vartan, you'll probably know what this is. A ten um,
Okay, So so you do know that a Piteousness of Doves is a group
of warriors that work for the Church of Grayhawk. But that's all A ten
is really gonna get you. Um. So you have heard of it,
but it it'd be like if you heard the name the Knights of Templar but
didn't know any history regarding them at all. You just know they're a group
of religious knights. Oh piteousness, Okay, I got you. Yeah,
that's what I thought you said. Yeah, so they're going to be coming
into town and they'll be staying here at the tavern and in Wow, that's
interesting. Are you excited? You seem hesitant towards telling us. Well,
I'm not a big fan of the Church of Grayhawk, if I must say
so myself, but Cody is excited to have the coin coming into towns,
so I think it will be good. Plus, Cody's been able to hire
on a couple of the townsfolk that were needing some work, so he brought
them on to help out. Yeah that's nice. I'm glad they're going to
be spending money at Cody's in Parten. Maybe after we've finished breakfast, we
should go talk to Judge Graystone about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Magno, you wouldn't happen to know why, like why they're coming to you.
I really don't have the details. Maybe when Cody comes over with his
with your order, he can answer some questions for you. All right,
I'm just here making the bedrooms up. Most of them didn't even have sheets
and stuff for the the visitors because we never have visitors. So yeah,
ah, yeah, you actually were a good reason not to work, but
I guess I better get back to it. It was nice to see you,
Vartan, and um baya uh yeah, and she starts to move away.
See yeah, Magno, it's good talking to you. She looks over
her shoulder just before she hits the stair to go back up to the second
floor and work on the bedrooms, and says, oh, Vartan, I
it's been a little while for me at least. Um, maybe when you're
feeling up to it, we could do some sparring again. Yeah, it
sounds like a plan. Great, all right, I see you soon.
And she goes back to work upstairs as Cody comes and sets down some coffee
and water and biscuits and great extra Yeah, and it just sets them all
down. Our heroes will be right back after these messages. Hello listeners.
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We truly appreciate your support. Now back to the town of Eterno. Here
you are, how are you feeling? Um? I mean kind of feel
well rested. But Magna was just talking about how I've been asleep for what
eleven days? How many? She said? Yeah, I mean I assume
you've been asleep. We heard that you weren't feeling well, and we kind
of let you recover to the best of our abilities. Who told you that
Fartan wasn't feeling well? Graystone and Emory had been in and out of the
house for a while and they said he had been sleeping. Maybe that's who
left the tea. Yeah, I mean that is that is like Emory.
So Cody, these this piteousness of doves, what are your thoughts on them
coming to town? I know that Bastille had said that he regretted writing to
them. Yeah, so I spoke with Bastille and Graystone and Timerin, and
Bastille did regret sending those letters. But the damage apparently had already been done.
So the Robin doesn't know all the details regarding what happened because Bastille left
out some of the stuff, you know, as far as the mora Z
and some of the details at the end. Bastil didn't compose a letter of
those things. So we're kind of hoping that with Robin Torman and the piteousness
coming in that maybe we can just wrap up the details with the mora Z
into a neat little bow and send them on their way after a couple of
days and maybe no no harm, no foul. That's kind of our plan.
But obviously we're gonna want to keep some of the things that we know
about, maybe a little bit more hush hush. Yeah, what have you
ever known the Church of Greyhawk to make things easy? Yeah? I agree
with you. They don't have a good reputation for that. So trying not
to be too negative and you know, count our chickens before they roost or
whatever that's saying is, but you know, I'm hoping if everybody can stick
to the plan, they'll be in and out and will be good to go.
If not, maybe there are some alternatives to keeping them busy. I
mean, they're gonna want to investigate some stuff, and we've got the city
guard, but there's not really a lot we can do to stop them.
Has anyone just tried to tell them that they're not welcome in the town or
would that Well, that's a bit of a touchy subject. After my conversation
with Bastile, it sounds like the whole reason he came here was because tell
Meca was a bit of an anomaly in the church's records. Right, knowing
what we know about people living forever, tell Mica has been the only person
here from the Church of Greyhawk, and that's been seemingly for at least hundreds
of years, so there's no correspondence from her. There's just one, you
know, one book that Bastile came across that struck his attention, and he
came down here and started sending reports back. So there are some unanswered questions
there, and I feel like we feel like if Bastile had written a letter
to the Robin and told the Robin to not come. Everything was fine,
You're not welcome. The church may have reacted in a negative manner and maybe
sent more than just the one piteousness and Robin. That makes sense. Yep,
Well what's the plan? What kind of story are we sticking to?
Has there been a meeting? Was I not invited to the meeting? What
are we doing? When is the next meeting to discuss? So? I
think it might be good after breakfast for you to pop over and talk to
Graystone. He was in and out of the house trying to speak with you
about what was going on, and he wanted to get on the same page
with you because to the town's folk, you're the one that took down the
Moriz, and quite handily, I must say so. I think gray Stone
wanted to put our talking points together, that you killed the Moriz twelve days
ago and everything is fine here now. Unfortunately, I think I think you
should prepare yourself. He might be wanting to paint your father Kirian as a
scapegoat, saying that he was dabbling in some dark arts and summoned a demon.
I know this isn't true, but I think that might be what he's
gearing toward in order to get the Robin out of town quickly. Eke.
Yeah, I don't think gray Stone would do that, but well, I
think he wants to talk to you about it first before just making that decision.
But I don't know that he has any other ideas in mind, or
at least any better ideas. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm gonna talk
to Graystone about it. But I do think they don't need to know about
the cave unless they do from Bastills. I don't think bass Steel. I
think the last letter was sent just before the cave, so I could be
wrong. You may want to touch base with bass Steal about that. Yeah,
all right, Well, appreciate the information. And what do I owe
you? You know what? This one's on the house the heroes of Eternal
right. Oh yeah, the three of you are absolutely absolutely a legend right
now. So I'm glad you're all feeling better. I'm gonna look at myself
and look at by Oh there's a Oh Ovic's not here anymore. Oh Ovic's
not here anymore? Okay, yeah, yeah. He lifts up the third
coffee cup and puts it back on his tray. Is all right, um,
very good? Well you enjoy your breakfast, and I'm gonna get back
to work preparing for the robin and the piteousness, and I, you know,
just give me a shout if you need me. All right, Well,
thank you, yeah, thank you for the meal. Absolutely bye.
Oh who do you think we should talk to first? We definitely need to
talk to Grace, but we may need to know exactly what Bastille said.
Well, we also should stop by Emories, and if you've been asleep for
eleven days eleven nights, maybe we should thank her. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, you're right. Well, I guess Emory is on the way to
Graystone, so yeah, let's let's go. Let's go talk to Emory and
then head to Graystone, and then we can go talk to best Steal after
we get the information from Greystone, and maybe we'll have to come back.
Maybe we'll bring Graystone with us to talk to Bestial. Yeah, I imagine
Graystone knows what Bastill said, or at least what Bastill told him. Sounds
good. All right, I guess we'll finish eating and head out. Thank
you for listening to this episode of Ethereal Embrace, A Creative Typo production.
Vartan the Fur Bagfighter is voiced and played by Adam Culbertson bay A Rustin,
the Half Elf Sorcerer is voiced and played by Tisha Cody was voice and played
by the Cup of Soup on Vartan's Nightstand and I Am Nico Your GM.
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