Due to some violent content. For rental discretion is advised. In the year
to forty seven, in the Age of Judges, Fartan was summoned home after
the death of his father. Upon his return, far Ten discovered something evil
festering beneath the city of Eterno. With the help of some very unlikely allies,
farten works to uncover the mysteries of his hometown and put an end to
the nightmares of plagueist people. Welcome to Ethereal, embrace. Hey, that's
me far Ten. Well, no turning back now. I wonder if this
has something to do with fighting the Avatar Greyhawk. Either way, best to
stay prepared for anything. Better, take a bite of this real quick.
Don't know what I'll get another chance. Day four. You all were about
to fire up the gemstone to go to the portal room. So you fire
up the gemstone, it creates the portal for you. Within sixty seconds,
you and your eleven followers all jump through the portal and into the portal cave.
Not the rave cave, but the actual portal cave. Once you were
all in there, some of the doves light a few torches to get some
additional light, and Torman makes his way over to the ruins on the floor
and says to Morgan, if you wouldn't mind, I need my magic items
now plays just a minute, Torman, I forget which one of us was
carrying them. I think it was you. Was it me? Did I
have? Yeah? Okay, see I don't write things down anymore. I
got used to Nico's notes. Here you are, Torman. Here's your items.
Thank you, Robin. Torman takes the five large gems and places them
in a pattern, touching five points of the portal room of the portal's runs
that are on the floor in specific angles with the gems. He then sets
the Dragon's heart in the center of the gems, and the portal runs light
up, immediately draining the magic from the items. Torman then pulls a roll
of thin wires and a hooked tool from his pack, and he begins connecting
each wire to the nails on the dragon's heart and to one of the corresponding
five gems. Cody and Magno take up their places to be ready to guard
the magic items while you three move well, while the rest of the party
moves closer to the portal wall and a large circular portal spawns into existence,
and you see the dark purple magic wall that you would need to walk through
to enter into the Demonic side, or where you assume might be the demonic
side torment. How did you know exactly where to put these? Is this
that one of the things that was told to you by the voice in your
head? We have arcane texts that tell us about rituals to open longer lasting
portals. But yes, it was confirmed by the voice of Grayhawk that speaks
to me. Okay, good to know. I guess all right, do
you want to go ahead, Torman? Do you want to go first?
I'll go first? Is that okay? With you? Doves? I'll walk
through with you, Robin, Doves, take up positions behind and keep your
eyes open, all right. So the two of you step forward, and
there is this giant, swirling wall of purple mist that circulates and twists and
writhes, and Robin Torman hesitates only briefly before taking a step into the portal
at the same time that you do. The rest of the Doves follow shortly
behind, and I assume Vartan and Baya as well. Yeah, I'm gonna
go ahead and make sure I got my war hammer in my hand, and
uh, like all right, gets better head in Yeah, and Baya just
taps her quarter staff of warning, making sure it's still working. As you
enter the portal, your quarter staff remains silent. You find yourself in a
hallway of sorts. To the left and to the right, there are doors
that lead into small rooms, and as you view farther down the hallway,
you can see that some of these doors are slightly a jar. Torman pulls
the book out of his pack and starts making some notes and looks like he's
kind of sketching out lines for maybe how the hallway would go, maybe trying
to track his path and anything. I'm bizarre here? Or can we move
forward? Torman? How do you speak back to this avatar of Greyhawk?
Well, he here's my thoughts and knows my prayers. Go ahead and make
a perception role or I guess that'd probably be insight, insite insight. Okay,
I'll do insight instead. Oh I'm good at that, I'm not too
bad at it. Well, I got a six for perception and a five
for insight. I got thirteen for insight. I got fifteen for perception and
insight. You notice that as He says that your perception shows that he's like
fiddling with his book and kind of gripping it a little bit harder, and
your insight for everybody that's over ten tell you that he's lying to some degree
or at least hiding something from you. I guess that makes sense, right,
He's all seeing and hearing. Yes, it's all about faith. I'm
not so sure about that. I'm with you on that, Morgan. Something
is not adding up here, Torman. What's the real story with the book?
And the book is my arcane focus? If you will, it helps
me with my divine path. So, just out of curiosity, do you
only consult the book during prayer? Or are you just keeping journals in it?
Ledgers instructions? You just seem to grab it a little tighter earlier.
The book is my safety net, my connection too, my Holy Lord,
so it kind of acts as a conduit. The things you write, they
can see. Yes, you could have just said that earlier. I was
kind of suspecting it, but I totally believed you when you didn't mention it
does grey Hawk right back? Is that what what happens? Yes, sometimes
he does. I mean we're in a demon layer here, Torman, I
think it's probably best if nobody keeps secrets right now, especially you with your
demon book. I just don't want somebody feeling like they can relieve me of
my book. Well, I mean, who knows if it would even work
if we tried. Can let me let me draw a star in it?
See, I'd rather you didn't pulls it back. What about a heart?
The book is mine, they use, it's my connection to my deity.
Well, I mean I wouldn't take it from you. I would just draw
a heart to see if it would even work. What if we draw a
hawk? I think we spent enough time on this. Make a persuasion role.
It's D and D. I'll let you try and persuade him. Well
that's that's that's you, not me. Oh me, Yeah, you're the
one. You're the one I was just throwing in another image twenty four Okay,
well all right, So after a moment, he says, as long
as you don't try to keep the book from me, fine, try to
draw something in I am curious what would happen as well? Yeah, I
promise I won't. Can I Can I write something to them? What will
you write? Just ask a question? Like mostly I kind of want to
write who are you? I'll put a heart on the on the question mark.
Be certain to put that it's you speaking and not me. I would
not want my name, wouldn't Greyhawk? Know? The never mind? I
don't know how much you all right? Do I have to use this pen
that you have or can I use my own? I've used multiple pens and
you can use your own, okay. So she just writes who are you?
Question mark, and then she puts a dash and signs it baya,
and she has a very cute signature like where the why comes up. Torman
watches very anxiously to see what happens with the response, And after maybe a
minute, you do get a response and it says, I am a sliver
of a deity. I am part of Greyhawk. Oh. Baia looks at
Tormand and goes to start writing again. Does he look like he's giving her
the nod to go ahead with as high of a persuasion role as you did.
I will say yes, I will let you. Okay. She just
writes why were you separated? After a moment, it writes back pieces of
Greyhawk were separated at the time of the disappearance of the gods from Euphrae and
then she just quickly writes, do you mean us harm? You get a
response back that says, why would I harm my own children? Creepy?
Okay, she hands it back. Is that enough? Can we move forward
now? Yes? Yeah, our heroes will be right back after these messages.
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Nick Mead. Thank you Mead. We truly appreciate your support. Now back
to the town of Eterno, Bartan, why don't why don't you lead the
way too? Just keep the Robin out of Harm's way a bit more.
Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, Bartan, Actually, let's get up
ahead just a couple of feet, and she wants to talk to Bartan in
their head and say grey Hawk answered with a question and didn't say yes or
no about causing us harm. I don't know why he would want to harm
his children, do you? I mean, are we all his children?
Do you have to follow him to be his children? I don't know enough
about the religion to say for sure. Yeah, I mean neither. Hm.
I just thought it was I just thought it was interesting. Yeah,
it doesn't sit well for me. And that book's kind of creepy. Yeah,
I mean it's it's kind of cool. I mean, Tormond has a
direct link to his god, or at least a part of his God.
No wonder, he's so possessive over it makes sense. Okay, we just
keep walking. So as you walk, knows that you can peek into some
of the rooms as you pass the doors that are slightly ajar. Not all
the rooms have doors that are open, but some do. Peeking inside,
you can see the rooms are small, maybe ten feet by ten feet at
most. They appear to be either empty or have tattered blankets and cloth littering
the floor. Some of it seems like it's kind of bunched up, almost
like bedding for something to sleep on. Each room is lit by a magic
stone that is embedded in the wall. It gives off a low red glow.
The stones either rest on the rest in the wall, or they have
been removed for the wall and sit on the floor next to the blanket.
Each stone appears to be about six to ten inches wide and three to six
inches tall, and the light they give off is very minimal. As you
walk forward, you approach an intersection, one that cuts off to the left.
To the right, you can hear Torman say, I believe we should
take a left here. Bo tell you that, Yes, he is guiding
me. Yeah, I'm gonna whisper to buy a should have got a mat
from Susan. If we're gonna go left on a book's guidance, maybe you
and I should go check it out first. Bar ten Yeah, Yeah,
let's uh yeah, buyer and the doves can guard. I don't know,
how do you want to do this? Yeah, let's just go take a
quick peek and just make sure this is still weird. So you move up
ahead and go ahead and make perception rules with a DC fifteen, got a
ten, I got a thirteen. We're gonna die. So you make your
way up, and it's more of the same right, so it cut off
to the left. You can see the doors that are there. A few
are a jar, most are closed. But as you look down the hallway,
it's pretty dark. Obviously, it turns into black the farther you go
down without any torch light. So it's really just one long corridor that looks
much the same as the corridor you just came out of. I guess it
looks safe enough. Doves bring the robin. They bring the robin. He
you know, walks out in front of them, and they kind of stay
at the back guarding the rear like they have been so far, letting you
take point, and you proceed on. After a little while, you see
another couple innerse and again he gives directions at each one, telling you which
way you should go. He notes out loud to you that the book is
giving direction, but it's not really answering questions right now on how far they
need to go, or how long it should take or anything like that.
It just is able to say here's what you should do next. So how
far into this labyrinth for lack of a better word, are we At this
point you've walked maybe fifteen minutes. Oh that's not long, not long at
all, But it's kind of hard to gauge because again, all the hallways
look the same. It appears that Torman is making a map of the way
he came both in a textual script, and he also appears to be drawing
you. Notice that as you go, Dove Winter is marking the too with
a blade to point back the way you came. So with each corner and
each crossing, she marks up just gouged in the wall. So she's taken
up the very far back because she keeps stopping to do it. But then
she'll jog to catch up with you. So multiple people trying to keep track
of which way you came in and how to get out. He continues to
lead you maybe another five minutes, and then he brings you up to a
large double door. The double door appears to be made of metal, like
a black metal, not one you're familiar with. Does your book say what's
on the other side of this door? It does not, just that we
need to go in there. That's convenient. Well, I guess we should
see if it's unlocked. Yeah, I'm gonna reach out and grab whatever handle
there is and see what happens. The door is unlocked and it opens,
It pulls toward you. Both the doors do whether you want to open one
or two, and uh appeers to lead into maybe a dark looking cathedral.
From where you're at, you can see that there are stairs that go down
from the entry way, but again, it's not lit in there. Uuntil
you kind of go in for a demon realm, it's pretty demon less so
far. Yeah, it's Cathedral's not I'm getting some bad vibes in here.
Yeah. Do you want to just head back? Nah? No, I
don't think that's an option anymore. No, we're kind of already here.
Yeah, we got we only got a limited amount of time, and so
far, this is the only thing that looks different. I guess let's head
on in, all right. So as you head in, the stairs lead
down to a circular theater style room. It's shaped like a bowl with a
ring of steps encompassing the entire room. There are no seats or chairs or
benches or anything, but it looks like the steps are a little bit taller
than your average step would be, so probably could be used as both seats
or steps to go down. Doors appear to be scattered across the top ring,
so where you came in with the double doors there there are more sets
of double doors that litter the top ring, but in no particular order.
In the middle of the room, a large brazier comes to light, and
next to the brazier is a pedestal on the had a stole is a spear.
Can't be that easy. This has trap written all over it. Hey,
Dove Winter, I just wanted to tell you that it's really smart of
you to carve the direction back into the wall. In case anybody nobody has
told you how appreciative we are of that. I'm not sure why the rest
of us didn't think of it, but thank you for doing that. You're
amazing. Thank you for the compliment. I have some skill in the forests,
and marking paths is definitely something I'm familiar with. Should we go down,
well, tell Dove Winter. Thank you, Thank you, Dove Winter.
Thank you do Winter. Yes, Winter, thank you very much.
You're gonna probably be the one that guide us back out of here now.
As for going down towards that spear, I don't like it. H Well,
technically, well, I guess we do have to bring it to Cody
to destroy. Does it look like it's broken partially or cracked or something something
that's giving any sign of it being trying like it was attempted to be broken
before. Well, no, it was fixed by Well our theory is it
was fixed by Kirion M. Yeah. You can't tell if there are any
cracks or any kind of repairs from as far away as you are. Okay,
maybe if you could get down there and inspect it, you could see.
But from where you're at, no, you can't see. Oh,
should we keep somebody on the door just in case it tries to shut on
us where somebody comes up behind, we can leave two of the doves at
the door, all right, Yeah, I think that'll be smart. So
it's really really dimly lit in how far down is it? About seventy feet?
Hey, Torment? Can I have a piece maybe at the beginning of
your book or something, or at the end, just a piece of paper?
Just rip it out. I have a different book that I could give
you. Do you need it from this one? No? Not from that
one. Yeah, he carries several books with him, so he just pulls
out another one and hands it to you. It's got some herbal recipes in
it, so all right, Baya just rips a couple of pages out and
crumbles them up into a ball and casts light on it and throws it down.
It's pretty crafty. You cast light on it and chuck it down,
and a strobe of light flutters down with a paper wad as it comes down
near the brazier again, kind of a darker burning fire that's down there,
but your light illuminates the area behind it, and a large creature steps out
from behind the pedestal. It appears to be humanoid in figure, but it
also appears to be the size of a goliath from stories that you've heard.
It wears a cloak and has a hood low shadowing their face. One arm
is completely surrounded by the cloak, while the other is visible but wrapped in
a kind of deep blue cloth from the shoulder to the middle of the fore
arm. And in their visible hand they have a very large, dark green
feathered quill between their thumb and their forefinger, and it says welcome, I've
been patiently awaiting your arrival. Thank you for listening to this episode of Ethereal
Embrace, a Creative Typo production. Vartan the furball 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 you would like to support
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patrons at patreon dot com. Forward Slash Creative Typo. Remember be safe if
we love you all, and stay foolish if you're drinking an entire bottle of
fine. I'm off for the next four days.