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
by a letter stating that his father has died under mysterious circumstances. Upon returning
home, fartand to open his mind to the possibility that his father's death and
his hometown of Eterno was not everything that it appeared to be. Welcome to
ethereal embrace, that's me, Vartan. I think the number one thing that
I've learned about demons like this Morisey is that they cause so much trouble that
it makes me turn down food, and that just makes me angry. Now,
you wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Day four, late morning,
the hidden Cave. Yeah, short rest is an hour? Yeah? Is
it an hour? I thought it was twenty minutes. I think it's an
hour. But I'll give it to you guys. So you guys, it's
not quite an hour before he gets there, but I'll give it to you
a plus. You're making your way to put the the alarm spell and then
you double trick your trap and you cast the hallow spell. But I'll give
you guys the short rest to prep for this boss fight, all right,
and you guys hit the save point just to make sure. Yeah, yeah,
okay, so you get everything set up. While you're getting a set
up, you cast the hallow spell on the ground, and Cody says,
Vartan, where did you learn all this? Since I got back into town,
I've been finding stuff that my dad left for me and helping my friends
like they've been. They've been helping me learn all this stuff. It's it's
uh, I don't know. It's been a long two days. And he
opens his mouth like he's about to say something again, and Magno grabs his
elbow and says, Graystone said, to leave it be, Please, just
leave it be for now. Let's focus on this creature coming down the hallway.
Okay, what's that all about? What was he leaving me? Yeah?
What's that all about? Like Cody says, She's right, we need
to focus on the issue at hand and not on trivial things. Forget about
it. We can talk later, all right. Okay, By the way,
I already know about the whole thing. Yeah, we remember, I
read your mind. I recall all you saying that, so you might as
well. Just come out with it now in your own words that you choose
I and Magno gives him a side glance but doesn't interrupt him anymore, and
he says, I just think that it is Ovic will interrupt him and just
say, look, Cody's right, we need to concentrate on this thing that
is coming down this tunnel right now. Whatever insane crap is going on in
this village, we'll deal with that afterwards. We need to prepare for this
fight. And Cody gives another sideways glance over to Magno, like what in
the world, all right? So you guys are resting, focusing, getting
prepared, and all of a sudden the alarm spell does go off, so
you know that this thing is cruising down your way, and you guys,
do you write? I mean, I know one of you has the dispelling
stone that you wanted to write in action for any other actions that you want.
Are ready? What is throwing? Is that a dexterity thing? Yes,
not going to be me. You have a plus three. But I
also, I mean I would have to cast a spell on my quarter staff
for it to be actually magical, something like I would have to cast green
flame Blade on my quarter staff to make it do anything. So I can't
do anything besides throw the stone. If you'll have magical weapons, well activating
stone, you throw the stone, it breaks his item, shuts all of
it down, and we can just use magic free league in here. Okay,
Oh yeah, yeah, you're right, that's fair. I have to
worry about it. Um my deck is alment is plus three. That's higher
than mine. Barton, I guess zero. What about Cody or Magno?
Do we trust them to throw the stone? I do. Magno's got a
plus three to her dexterity and Cody's got a plus two. All right,
I mean, I guess by I might as well throw it. About how
far down the tunnel did you cast the alarm scrorel? It gave us like
a minute. Okay, I guess yea. I will recast emboldening bond,
so we've got our d extra D four again. Okay, so that the
alarm goes off, you've guys have cast at more Z comes running out into
the field of view for you. Cody draws his sword, Magno draws the
dagger from her belt, and you already had my hammer out, my swords
out. More's he sees you, but he's taken aback that you're all here
waiting for him, and it is still more Ze still looks like tell Mika
so, but it's tell Meca running full speed and then coming to a complete
stop when he sees you. And yeah, so you guys had your actions
ready, go ahead and execute them. Who wants to go first probably probably
buy it with the stone? Right, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna use
my um Yeah, there we go, thirteen. Okay, I used my
inspiration. Did you head your D four? Oh? Okay, well my
first one was eleven and if I add my D four maybe I can this
would count as an attack, right, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
okay, um, I'll stick with the thirteen that I rolled with inspiration.
UM plus a D four sixty so that actually hits. So your dispelstone
smashes right into the right leg of more Z and shatters on the leg.
So roll one D six plus your dexterity bonus for the throw for damage five
cool. More Z screams out what in the fuck and who else had actions
ready? Why? I never I never called the ready. I was just
like prepared, holding our weapons, waiting to see what happens. With the
dispelling stone. All right, So more Z will quickly throw a round metal
ball at the ground, and not directly at you, but at the ground
near where you are, and it hits the ground and rolls over, and
little sparks of it come come to life as the ball hits the ground and
starts leaching toward the ruins. But then it just fizzles a lot to nothing,
and Morezis says, what did you do? I told you we were
gonna get you, And let's roll initiative really quick. Nine eleven and Morrisy
has a twelve. I'm putting Cody and Magno together for ease, and they
got a five. So so Bio with a fifteen. You go first.
She's gonna cass green flame blade on her weapon, which sucks. Oh not
twenty to hit roll again to see if you get another twenty. Noay,
So I brandish a weapon, which is my quarter staff, and make a
melee attack with it against one creature within five feet of me. On a
hit, the target suffers the weapons attack and attacks normal effects and can cause
green fire to leap from the target to a different creature. Yeah, that
sucks, but she she'll just hit him with this quarter staff. You cast
green flame blade on your quarter staff, but you would have to leave the
hallowed section of ground to make it to where he is to hit him.
Yeah, okay, so you leave that ground, you make your way and
make your attack roll. So because it was a crit it's six plus ten
sixteen damage. Wow, okay. And then she steps back away from him
using power word ope, which grants the castor the ability to slide right by
or around an enemy without provoking an attack of opportunity or reactive ability. And
she does that because she uses sorcery points, which is quickened spell makes it
a bonus action. All right, anything else, that's it. More Z
takes a quick glance around and a panicked look on tell Mika's face and turns
around and books it in the other direction, just starts running back up the
cave the way he came from. Does not want to fight you, takes
off running. Definitely feels outmatched. Oh and I'm just gonna say he missed
it on the way in, because we did we roll damage for the Giant
the Black Night or as M, So we'll just say he stepped over on
accident on his way down. But now that he's running back. He triggers
your trap. Shit, So I'm thinking it's gonna come down sideways, like
as he starts to turn around and run away, like the trap comes like
it lets go like he hit the trigger and it's coming down sideways, like
to swing sideways in front of the door, and just just connect with him
to stop him from running. Connect it does and give me one D ten
plus four damage. Hey, okay, that knock him prone. I'm gonna
make a roll for a save for it, and it does knock him down.
He rolled a seven, so it knocks him to the ground. Well,
first it knocks him off his feet and into the sidewall of the cave,
and then he falls to the ground right as he was running away,
all right, and that is well let me see you. Yeah, that's
more. As he's turn and now it is to Vartan, I'm gonna walk
over to him slowly. What he's like, what fifteen feet away from me?
Now? Yeah? Ye, all right, someone walk over to him
slowly and I'm just gonna raise the hammer up and put that spike right right
right above this fake tell Meka, and I'm just gonna slam it down into
him like trying to like impale him into the floor. Give give your attack
roll. That's twenty one that hits. Yeah yeah, yeah, I'm just
one handing it like I'm not even doing too I'm just one just just slamming
it down and into him. That's fourteen damage yikes. Okay, and extra
attack. I'm gonna go ahead and put a second hand on it, and
I'm gonna just shove it down further that that six foot spike. I'm gonna
completely like embed it into the ground. Okay, do it up? What
what? What I get advantage on the hit? I would say, So
you're in melee range and he's on the ground like this, I'm not taking
the spike out of him. Yeah, yeah, for sure. That's sixteen
that hits, and I want a bonus action and the U for Bolk's justice.
The hammer turns like a purple what's it say? It starts glowing with
a dark purple hue. And that is thirteen piercing damage and and three life
steal damage all right or is it the chronic? Yeah? Three life?
Still, so I gain I gained three HP yep, yep, you get
three HP from that. So and that expended one of your five chargers of
life steal on the on the warhammer. So yeah, with the dark purple
hue like when when I stabbed into it. Uh like, maybe that purple
hue like goes from tell Mika to to me like through the air, yeah
yeah, like or or maybe it maybe it it channels through the hammer like
it like does it and then it comes up through the hammer and it heals
me. Yeah, like I just like electricity pulsing through the hammer like it
like, uh like it's draining. Yeah, yeah, no, that's cool.
I like that awesome. So he lets out a howl of pain.
He is just it's gotten lit up by you guys, and very unexpected,
very unexpected events have just happened for him, and he couldn't even run away.
And it's now over extern. All right, I'm going to cast Toll
of the Dead. You point at one creature you can see within range,
and the sound of dolorus. That's probably not pronounced right, but I've never
heard anyone to say that word out loud. The sound of dolorus bells fill
the air around it. It takes one. It's got to make a wisdom
saving throw or take one. D eight necrotic damage. If the target is
missing any of a tip points, it takes one D twelve of necrotic damage
instead. All right, so wisdom is a flacid twenty. Okay, so
he didn't take anything, Okay, but I still cast the spell. Does
the does the magic react? Does it seem like anything's getting sucked towards the
the room? Little sparkles like like what happened with the little ball thing?
Yeah happened, but it doesn't actually draw any magic away from your spell.
Now I can use the big boy spells instead of a can't trip. Okay,
that's my turn. Now that's good. So so Cody and Magno both
run up next to you and make attacks as well, and they both take
pretty big hits with their magical weapons on this thing as it cries out in
pain. Then Cody, after he hits it, he takes two steps away
from it again, so he like runs past it and slashes it with its
with his sword and is able then to make more movement than what you would
have expected from him at this point to get farther away and out of the
reach and it is back to buy a turn. Oh man, she's magic
at it. M Yeah, She's gonna go ahead and walk up to him,
and she's going to m detect thoughts. I suppose to see what man,
I don't know. She's feeling real weird. She's going to talk to
him first. Okay, why did you come here? I came here to
take over this world, at least this realm. For some reason, your
city does not decay. I do not decay when I take a bite of
someone. That's all I needed to hear. She's gonna go ahead and cast
mind spike wisdom saving throw of sixteen. That is a fifteen so failed,
okay, twenty three damage she is going to use. She's going to summon
her hound of ill Omen to follow this guy forever if he gets away.
Okay, ask her bonus action. So you guys have really wrecked more z
up. But he is going to stay pinned down the ground. Where's your
spike stabbing into him? Like leg arm? I was thinking shoulder chest?
Okay, So even with the chest there, he's going to reach out and
try to attack Vartan twice once with its claws. You didn't do this all
from the ground, and so, being pinned down the way it is,
it slashes out at you with its claws, and then it tries to bite
at your leg, but you can easily take a half step back without pulling
your weapon out of it to get out of range. And both attacks miss,
and it says, I swear I'm going to rip you apart. But
it's like gurgling, gurgling blood. Right now, it's pretty it's pretty messed
up. I need to roll initiative food my hound. Okay, yeah,
go ahead and roll initiative and we'll place it in wherever it lands. Seventeen.
Oh, so that's before you. So let's just say your hound appears,
does initiative take on the next turn for the hound, Yeah, let's
just go that way, Okay, cool, cool, all right, So
Vartan, it's your turn. I'm just gonna be like, yeah, I
don't think that's gonna happen. I'm gonna I'm gonna grab the hammer again.
Well I guess I never let go of it, and uh yeah, I'm
just gonna pick it up and stab it into Oh man, I don't want
to stab it now. It sounds horrible. I mean, I granted,
I know, it's like a demon fiend from the underworld that's only here to
like eat everyone in the town. But still it sounds a little dark.
Goodness, there's the reason. Well that's a miss oh well prone, so
I have advantage on melee attacks. Yeah, yep, god damn uh sixteen
Okay, let's say you can add your D four once per turn. Sixteen
hits th sixteen hits. All right, So I'm gonna I'm gonna slam it
because there's already a hole there I need to make another hole. Um yeah,
I'm gonna just slam it into a stomach. Okay, A sixteen damage
okay, and I'm gonna glow it again and bonus action life steal drive it
deeper in and that is a twenty one to hit max damage. That's seventeen
damage plus three life steal again. Actually that that's enough to kill this thing.
Yeah, so life steal. I'm just gonna like drain it, drain
it of all all of its remaining life force through the hammer and just like
drain it all into me. Okay. Yeah, And the purple life force
from this creature all drains through the hammer completely out of the Mori z and
its bodies slowly decayed or quickly decades and fades away from tell Mika's image and
into the hideous demon fiend that it is. Yeah, you guys have defeated.
I'm gonna turn around to Cody. I'd be like, we got all
the time in the world. Talk now, why are we keeping cigarettes?
Is there anything that you guys do with the body of the more Z before
you go? Do you take it with you? Do you do anything with
the gus leave it? We probably shouldn't just leave it, but I don't
know how we would get it back. I rope to it and drag it.
It's pretty shriveled up, right, Yeah, pretty much. It kind
of rotted real quickly. I could shove it in my bag. Yeah,
gross at all. I do have an idea as Baya has been collecting little
pieces of all the things that we have fought. She has demon blood,
a demon wing from the chasms, and she has a bit of the zill
If she could also have a bit of that more Zy, she could work
with maybe Emery to create to mix with that hollow spell so none of them
can never come back. Bayas taking trophies, I know it's gonna connecklace just
ward people. You just grind up the bits and make little um gemstones and
put them in bracelets for the whole town toward them against the evils that may
come. Sprinkle a little bit, Sprinkle a little bit of the demon dust
in front of your door so they can't cross it. Yeah, I definitely
like it. I'm on board. So we're gonna have to drag it through
the tunnel where for our to annas to shimmy because it's a small space and
we can't carry it. Yeah, I'm gonna walk over Untie the rope from
the trap I set up and tie it around my waist and tie it to
the morizy, like, make sure I got it good and in multiple places
since it's all deteriorating already, and I'll tell everybody to go ahead of me
while we have our conversation. I'm just gonna drag it. It also might
be beneficial for Talmica if she ever needs closure for the via therapy she's going
to have to go through long after being trapped in a basement for so long.
Yep, thank you for listening to this episode of Ethereal Embrace and a
Fool's Quest production. Vartan the fur Bag Fighter is voiced and played by Adam
Culbertson bay A Rustin. The half Elf Sorcerer is voiced and played by Tisha
Ovic. The tie Fling Cleric is voiced and played by Chris Johnson 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 Dudgeons and Dragon's soundtrack. If you would like to follow us
on social media or say hello to the cast, details on where to find
us will be in this episode's notes. Remember be safe, we love you
all, and stay foolish.