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 Eterno. With the help of some very unlikely allies,
Vartan works to uncover the mysteries of his hometown and put an end to
the nightmares that plague his people. Welcome to ethereal embrace. I'm Baia,
and I guess we're on our way to ask future Emory or is it present
Emory, well future from now Emory present when we ask her Emory if past
Emory ended up keeping track of that spear Day four at the crime scene of
the murder. Okay, and then I'll blow it out. So you blow
it out, and the window starts to vanish again. The black and gray
smoke curls through the air before attacking Vartan again and entering his mouth, ears,
and nose, and he collapses to the ground. Vartan, unconscious,
sees a new vision, an enormous monstrosity with tentacles erupting out of its back
furiously whips its tentacles around in the air. Two humanoid creatures fly around the
creature like flies around a horse's head. The two flying combatants alternate between blasts
of powerful magic and physical attacks. In a diving attack, the humanoid with
a long sword darts down, dodging an onslaught of attacks from the tentacles with
a clear target of the monstrosity's remaining eye. In a quick motion, the
monster twists its head and in an attempt to dodge the attack as well,
bites the attacker. In that perfectly timed moment, the second humanoid throws a
spear as if we're a javelin, and lands the blow and the roof of
the monstrosity's mouth. An explosion roars through the air as the spear detonates and
the creature's face irerupts into pieces. A tooth flies free and grazes Vartan's arm
moments before one of this warriors land on the ground. The gash isn't deep,
but you definitely feel blood trickling down your arm. Susan catches her breath
as she summons the spear back to her hand. She calls out, do
you have as much fun? As I did. Cody responds, Susan,
besides Abigail, I don't think anyone has as much fun as you do,
and then he lands into view. Just as he lands, bright flashes begin
to explode into Vartan's vision. The scene changes from the battle where Susan and
Cody conversed and reforms back at the beach. It's the same beach as before.
Bodies rest all around Vartan. Vartan, you can see more details now.
There are ruins next to all the corpses, all drawn in the blood
of the victims. Then an enormous creature begins to rise from the ocean.
Vartan wakes. Ugh, oh maya, oh that's what the hell was that?
Are you okay, Vartan? Yeah? Yeah, uh. First of
all, First of all, Cody, Cody's the first one, her first
person, the tavern owner. Yeah. Oh man, wow, oh,
I got anything coming out of my nose. No, but that smoke went
back into your face again. Uh yeah, I saw it coming. Who
yeah, uh yeah, Cody was fighting with with my mother. That spear
is awesome. It explodes, it flies back to you. That's it's pretty
cool. But uh yeah, Cody, Yeah, Bartender tavern owner. Interesting,
he might be able to help us now that we know what he is
or who he is. Shit. He's friends with her though, or at
least in the dream I just had, they were fighting together against a big
tentacal monster. I mean, he seems friendly with the town. Do you
think he'd be more likely to protect people here or more likely to have some
kind of first person camaraderie? Oh no, I think we need to go
talk to Emory. Oh yes, definitely. How has Brasskane taken all this
in like the whole window? And that's a good question. So you stop
and you look back at Brasskane and he is looking very sick, very sick.
Emory, we need to go to Emory. She's the right. Goodness,
what's it called Apothecary? Hey, Braskane, you're doing all right?
He is kind of teetering and he drops this sword to the ground. I
don't feel so good. Yeah. I'm gonna go over to him and and
like grab him to steady him. Hey, hey, I did you come
in contact with something? I don't think. So he's burning up to the
touch, so when you grab him, you can feel his whole body is
burning. Yeah, we need a priest or something. Well, we seem
to have a few. Tell Mika Bastille, where are they, Tell Mika's
at my house. Yeah, we got a we got a portal stone like
this is this is the time to use it. But stopped yaking and throw
that thing on the ground. I'm gonna pick him up. I'm just gonna
pick him up and hold him under my arm, just like because he's tidy
compared to be all right, So you pick him up and you head into
the portal. You all head to the portal, and you're back in the
basement. Yep, okay, And somewhere on the far side of town,
you hear Graystone say they left us. Well, they got a plan.
They're gonna put her in prison. Yeah, I guess they're going to.
So you appear back in the basement and you've got you've got brass Kane with
you, and yeah, you head back upstairs. Call for hey, tell
Meca. She is up like making breakfast already and sees you come up through
the basement door and and she's like, oh, well, oh no,
what is going on. We think brass Kane got poison. We need we
need your healing magic. Oh, yes, I'm all right, and she
starts to mosey on over and she's like, Dove, Morgan, would you
mind minding the eggs while I do this? They're on the pan. Now,
okay, not much of a cooks, but okay, so little old
lady tells you to go finish cooking for her so you don't bring her breakfast.
And she kneels down next to brass cane and she says, oh,
this is a very serious poison. But yes, I think I think we
can do this, and she begins casting greater restoration and heals him. All
right, we delayed his death. I think you stopped his death. She
says, he's gonna be weak for some time while his body tries to recover.
H do you want to put him up in your bedroom, Vartan?
Uh uh no, I want to put him in the basement where nobody can
find him. I'll just say that's probably a good idea. Uh yeah,
yeah, yeah, you better hurry up and ahead and there before Morgan burns
your eggs, I'll take care of him. Thank you so much. Tell
Mika you mind throwing an egg on from me too. I thought you were
still in your bedroom, so there is plenty of breakfast for everyone. Oh
wonderful. I'll be right back. Oh oh, I think I smell a
little burning you hear her going in the kitchen. What are you doing Moregan
cook? And uh, I'm gonna I'm gonna grab like some pillows, maybe
a throw off of the the couch, like a like a couch or something,
and uh carry him downstairs with that in the end of the basement and
be like, hey here, I'll try to make it comfortable for you,
but uh, I would stay down here. Oh okay, thank you,
Vartan. And he's gonna fall asleep. Just just pass right out at this
point, all right, just hide everything in the basement. Yeah, he
falls asleep right next to the dragon heart the tar too. I don't mind
that, tark. Yeah yeah, I'll head back upstairs. All right,
So where next? Fuck? We probably need to see Emery? Yep,
yeah, memory, Yeah, head on over. I don't think we need
to really talk about it, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, So
it's fast forward. You go back upstairs. Tell Mika grabs you and loads
you up a big plate of food to go that you can eat while you're
walking to Emory's. Wrap it up in a wrap. Yep, yep.
She tells you she does have service today, so the townsfolk will be there
at service. But after that she's going to start talking to the people about
leaving if there are still concerns about it. But she kind of leaves it
at that, and she's, you know, saying that while she's packing up
your meal, not really giving you a whole lot of room to talk.
And then she to you and you all head off to Emory's where you you
know, Crosstown into the bricks and Emory's at the crack of dawn, like
she normally is getting her shop up and running. Our heroes will be right
back after these messages. Hello listeners. If you are enjoying the show and
would like to take a look at a way to support the cast while getting
yourself some nice perks, please consider our Patreon. We offer ad free listening
as well as this entire season. If you select the binge here or hire
on our Patreon, Plus, you'll be directly supporting our cast for their work,
as our team over at Creative Typo have begun to pay our voice actors
for our performances. So check out our Patreon at patreon dot com. Ord
Slash Creative Typo. I would also like to give a big shout out to
our executive producer from Patreon, Nick Nead. Thank you, Mead. We
truly appreciate your support. Now back to the town of Eterno. You all
head off to Emory's where you you know, cross town into the bricks and
Emory's at the crack of dawn like she normally is getting her shop up and
running. Hey, Emory, what are you doing of Atan? What's going
on? I'm gonna get really serious, like a really serious look on my
face and just be like, Emory, remember that time I talked to you
through that window? You found a lantern? Already? Is that now?
Yeah? That just happened, so it's no longer in the future for you.
Well, I was wondering when this would happen. Yeah, I'm glad
you remembered this. Did my father ever find the spear and fix it?
I believe, I believe he did fix it, but he never brought it
back. I think it's stayed there on the other side. So he's the
one that opened up the portal and let the demons in. Well in our
side. I don't think he meant to do it. I think it was
an accident. Yeah, well we do believe that he fixed it because Susan
is back. Well, did she say anything, uh, you know all
the the cultest murders that have been going on. Yeah, yeah, she's
uh, she's the leader of that. Hmm. I'm having a hard time
here because Emory was questioned when Kirian like died and when the demons came the
first time, and she said she had no part in it, that she
didn't know anything, and we were like, yeah, she probably just did
whatever Kirian told her to do because she didn't have a memory, like yeah,
and now she has her memory. She's the first one too. No,
she's not a first she's a bad guy. She's a bad guy.
That's what I'm here. Yeah. Yeah, I'm still I'm still telling her
that. I'm still telling her those things because I'm wanting to. I'm reading
her reaction because I've already picked up on it. Yeah, Morgan's kind of
starting to side eye her too a little bit, kind of she's not really
reacting. She's not really reacting like your responses are definitely, sus she said
you killed her, Emory, and she's coming to hunt you down. Say
to that. No, no, that's not what we agreed to. It
wasn't me Emory hold On Vartan hold on a second, Emery. Why don't
you seem surprised that Susan's here? From what I understand, everyone thought she
was dead, Morgan, Susan is one of the first people. She can't
die unless a core is destroyed, and Kirian fixed that core, so it
was never really destroyed to begin with, so she can't be dead. She
just didn't want to be here. Yeah, that's that's true. But uh,
I mean maybe it's just me. I don't know you all that well,
but you seem a bit nervous. Were you expecting her to come back
or were you hoping she never did? Quite honestly, I was hoping she
never did. But I mean, I guess now that Kirian's dead, it
doesn't really matter. Was she just like in love with Kirian or something?
Yeah, she was, That's what I was thinking. You don't really have
much of a reaction to she's leading the murders here, like she's the one
that's killing your friends. Well, she went a little, you know,
got a little angry. Told the end there after you were born. I
don't really know what happened, but anyone that just packs up and leaves their
family, there's something not right about it like that. I don't feel good
about her. I just don't trust her, and so coming back with a
pack of cultists. I mean, I guess I'm just not surprised by anything
she would do. Hm hmm, that's fair, all right, not the
answer I was expecting. You seem to have your memory back memory. I
have some memories, the ones that Kirian taught me about. I still have
big gaps from certain places in my mind, but Kirian helped me over the
last few years with a couple of key things. It took me a while
to believe him. H Do you have any information that would possibly be useful
to us if we want to go? And why would we want to destroy
the core? Do you think that destroying the core will close the portal?
No, a cor doesn't. I don't know. Maybe it will, but
a core isn't really tied to a portal like that. A corp is more
designed for the first people. Each one is tied to this world by that
core. It makes them immortal. So if you destroy the core, all
it's going to do is make Susan mortal. Oh, that's how the town
is immortal. Her core is powering the magic that keeps everybody here immortal.
Maybe I always assumed it was the giant circle of ruins that went around the
city. But but you could be right. I don't know, Okay,
maybe right? All right, Well, what do you know? Do you
think there's any way that the circle of runes could be destroyed? Not say
and that we want to. We don't want it to, but do you
think that it could vatan? In my experience, there's no magic that can't
be destroyed or offset. But I don't know how you do it. What
I will say is I do have something that might come in handy to you.
It's a book that I used with your father. One moment and she
disappears into the back room and comes back with a very thin book and hands
it over to you and says, these were the notes that he took when
he was trying to come up with a way to restore her core. If
he can restore her core with these notes, maybe you can reverse that ritual
or something to destroy it. Why do we even want to destroy the core
anymore? Stop a murderer. That's immortal, So to kill Susan, Yeah,
I don't it makes sense. Yeah, I don't see as we would
have an option. I mean, she does seem to want to die.
She I don't understand why she thinks that breaking her core will close the portal
because she definitely believes that, right she seems to, or at least that's
what she told us. Oh well, I was sitting here thinking, I
mean I just got here, so I'm still piecing together everything that's happened in
this little town. But am I understanding that the demons weren't a problem until
probably your father went back in and prepared the core her attempted at least,
But yeah, it's totally his fault. So is it possible. I mean,
she doesn't know the core is intact. Again, what if the core
really does just need to snap it, it'll keep the demons at bay,
nobody'd have to die. Then she's doing this on a big assumption. Yeah,
yeah, maybe we can just go talk to her. I mean,
we just did some detective work and Eyes of a Turno's on the job,
plus Morgan Eyes of plus one, the eyes and the nose. Morgan sniffs
out the eyes and nose of e Turnal. I honestly am kind of back
to my original vote of assisting Susan without killing brass Kane, without killing anyone
else. Yeah, call off or cultists. I mean, also, we
do know that Cody is a first one and he can't die. But if
he's sacrificed but then he doesn't actually die, he could be that fourth spot
for brass Kane, or he can go help us fight since nobody has to
die. We think that the just the core just never got destroyed. Well,
after we sacrifice him to weaken the magic, do it? Are you
going to break Cody's core? No? I mean we just kill him,
but he doesn't actually die, right and we paint his blood in the symbol?
Would that work? No? No, no, well Baya thinks it
would work. Well that's fair. Well, what if just breaking because the
core I mean, I mean it's kind of an assumption on us too that
the core just never got broken. And if the core does get broken,
it might be able to shatter that that portal. Maybe the first People could
fight the Avatar of Greyhawk. Can we shrink the circle of magic that's protecting
e Turno? Can we make it smaller so it's not over top of the
portal car. Yeah, em Marie, can we redo all of these ancient
rooms, like redo a whole cave system down here? Eraise these one no
vatin No, you cannot do you mean like like circumvent it. I don't
know if that's the right word, but like like circumvent it, like cut
it off and then I don't know that probably won't. Yeah, you're right,
h Uh, I don't know. Maybe maybe go ahead, go ahead?
Do you think that Do you think maybe Susan would listen to reason on
not killing anybody else. Maybe the magic's already been weakened some by all the
death that's happened already. Yeah. Well, I mean we can go and
get Cody and maybe he can help us talk with her. And I'm I
mean we can grab a snack too. We want to bring Cody in on
this. I mean, he might be able to help break the core at
the very least, he'll help us kidnap the robin if we go that.
I mean, he doesn't like him if we do go that route. But
I mean, we got we got the we got the thing in the basement,
and I mean we'd be like, Hey, you don't need this,
you don't need to use your magic. We can use this. It'll open
up. We can all go in. You can break your core. I
can fight, dude, maybe if it's even necessary, because the core might
just just break it all right, it's worth a try. Thank you for
listening to this episode of Ethereal Embrace, a Creative Typo production. Vartan,
the furbag 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 Dudgeons and
Dragons soundtrack. If you would like to support our show, or any of
our other shows, you can join our family of patrons at patreon dot com.
Forward Slash Creative Typo. Remember, be safe, we love you all,
and stay foolish our goodness. What's it called? Apothecary right, apathecary,
apathecary, apathecary impatha Orthopackery, the Magic Woman, Magic Woman, the
local wise Woman. 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.
Cooking is not my strong suit. I should never be left alone with
any one's partially cooked breakfast ever. Day four, Emery