Due to some violent content. For rental 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'm not sure exactly what it would take for me to join a
cult, but I can guarantee you one thing. If I ever did join
a cult, coffee would definitely be involved. Day three, they're coming and
he nods his head over to Morgan and Sean as they're approaching. Now,
hey, Vartan, I brought Sean up here. I think we're past the
time for subtrifuge. Yeah, but that does require a little bit of cooperation
from brass Kane, and I know you're not gonna like this, friend,
I already hate it. We filled in Morgan on some stuff and she's on
our side on what we're trying to prevent if you say so, Well,
it sounds like the Robin is trying to get to the portal. Yeah,
yeah, we think the the Robin is trying. Hold on, hold hold
on, hold on, hold on. She looks at Sean, because Shawn
is not not read in on any of this, so I can only imagine
her face is going what Sean short version, Torman's more than just a jackass.
He may actually be genuinely evil, and we need to stop him from
trying to do what I think he's trying to do. And that's why I
have my concerns about Brie. These people can be trusted, and if you
trust me, you can trust them. You know, I trust you.
But that is a pretty tall accusation about a robin after what I've seen,
believe me, it's not that tall. It seems like your Robin's trying to
evacuate the town so he can open a portal to where demons are gonna come
out. And I guess he's trying to get rid of the collateral damage.
I mean, that doesn't seem too evil to try to prect protect the townsfolk
to release Let's put it this way. You know all that magic stuff he
brought with him all that junk we had to haul across three weeks of travel.
Yes, he needs it to open the portals. I tell you how
powerful that portal is. It's the only way to open it. All right,
I will trust you, but I won't act against him until I see
proof for myself. Fair enough. We need to do our own investigation,
and we cannot involve the other doves until we know where they stand. Brass
Cane, you need to work with Sean here. He I mean, do
it for me, friend, Fine, I'll do it for you. I
don't like it, though, Yeah I don't. I'll be honest with your
bass deal. I don't think she likes you either. But this needs to
stay between the five of us for right now, and not like last time,
Brasscane, six of us. You guys forgot timor behind it? Well,
I guess he would think five of us actually, because there's no Bia,
it's never mind. Okay. Baya looks directly at Sean and says,
we don't have to worry too much because the entrance to the portal has you
know, we closed that a long time ago. He can't get in there.
How did you close it? It exploded. Interesting, Well, what
do we need to do next? We need to figure out I think we
need to look into the magic items, like we didn't we never inspected all
these well, I mean, we didn't know there was a bunch of that
all this stuff was being brought in. I wonder if some of those items
might be part of the recipe. Do you have something I can use to
lure him out of his room and maybe create a diversion for you to gain
access to his room. I was thinking about demanding, but I mean,
this is our town, and if somebody's danger in it, we need to
or if somebody is a suspected danger in it, we need to figure it
out. But I guess we don't need him to know that we're onto him.
We weren't allowed into the Robin's room. I am sure what we're looking
for is behind that door? Is there anything I don't know? Brass Cane,
Maybe can you come up with some reason to take him away from the
area and take breath as well? I could take him to the murder scene.
Actually, if you take him to the murder scene, watch him see
if he's not shocked or if something sparks familiarity. Oh, make sure it's
one of the bloody ones. I have my concerns about what his plans are.
Definitely, we're concerned that it's not a coincidence that the Robin showed up
at the same time as the cult. That's all so well, this ought
to be fun. Oh, you'll have fun. You'll enjoy this part,
all right? So is that the plan? You go to Cody's. The
brass Cane and Sean will go talk to Robin Torman and dove Brie, tell
them about the murder scene, have them come out of Cody's and and give
you access to their room, and Timmern set up the barn. Okay,
all right, so the huddle comes to a close. You guys all go
your separate ways. Sean spearheads the conversation with dove Frie, almost dragging brass
Keene along, which he didn't really have to act for because he didn't really
want to be doing this to begin with. Robin Torman gets very interested in
the murder scene, and they are quick to follow. Timrin does go back
to his barn to see that happening, to oversee the building of the structure.
Tell Mika who left you guys there already went to make a list for
each one of the townsfolk to start working on the different things they would need
for their emergency bag. And you find yourselves in a pretty much empty in.
I mean, even Cody's out trying to help diffuse the situation that that's
happening with the townsfolk, trying to like help people out. He's giving people
food and he news travels fast trying to calm people. Yep. Yeah,
so he's helping the best he knows how So, Yeah, the inn is
pretty much wide open. Yeah, all right, let's go check out this
room and see exactly what it is he brought with him. Yeah, can
I roll to see if there's any magic or anything on the door? You
most certainly can arcana. Yeah, either arcana or investigation, it doesn't matter.
I rolled a net one, okay, only once, so you don't
find any magic on the door whatsoever. Alright, she reaches for the handle
and turns it. The door is locked, though, wasn't expecting that.
I reach for the handle and really turn it. You need to make a
string check on the door handle, all right, I got this seventeen on
breaking the door handle and lock. Okay, yeah, yeah, so you
the door handle is not a round handle, it's the kind that's got like
that, the you know wing that slides out from it. So you just
push harder and harder and harder down until the mechanism on the inside snaps and
the winged handle just kind of goes limp and drops down to you know,
where the clockhand would be at six o'clock, and the internal workings fall into
the center of the door and you can walk right in. All right,
man, I feel like I'll give you guys this investigation rules. But all
you're doing is looking for things to investigate. So investigation to look for where
his shit is? Fifteen? Okay, So Bias sees a small chest hidden
in a little corner area of the room. Try it, you know,
half heartedly covered up, but it's got some ornate decorations on it and rune
right on the front that you do recognize as magic. What is the room?
It's an alarm spell, so if somebody trips it, it'll make a
loud noise, like a really loud noise. Well, there's the probably the
magic item. Does anyone know how to dispel an alarm spell? Does it
only trip if we open it? I would assume. I mean, maybe
if you threw it against a wall it might trip as well. Why don't
we just take it? Then he doesn't have it, and then we can
figure out how to get into it. Well, we could just burn it,
I mean that would probably set the alarm off, but at least it
will be destroyed, right hopefully. We don't know exactly which items he has,
so it's possible fire won't destroy them. She like readies a fireball in
her hand. Are we sure? I mean, maybe if you could just
burn off the ruin, I mean, I'm pretty sure I could pick that
up. But well, that set off the alarm. Did we say that?
Yeah, you could pick it up. It shouldn't set up off the
alarm unless you throw it. How the alarm's bell typically works. I rode
pretty low on my investigation. Yeah, I'll pick it up, Like,
all right, I guess we're going with Morgan's plan. You pick it up,
I guess we'll run. Yeah, maybe they'll think the cult is took
you. Nothing happens, so no, no alarms go off, nothing,
nothing you know, over the top goes off. But it might be in
his head. The alarm might be in his head. Remember, we did
that, the little jingle did Yeah, we we did that. We said
that in case somebody came into the cave, Well, you should probably run,
Yeah, we should probably run. Good idea, where should we take
this thing? Do you want to put it in your room for now?
It's close? Yeah, that would probably be the easiest. But he can
cover for us. He'll check the other rooms. But it might buy us
some time. And I don't know. You guys still people in town.
Maybe you know someone who can dispel the trap? Yeah? Maybe, yeah,
unless it already went off in his head, that is the concern.
Maybe it's premity though. Is there a card outside of Cody's I don't remember.
Let's just let's go to your room real quick and we'll figure it out
from there. Let's get I think we need to get out of the tavern
and get to my house. We can put it. There's a wheelbarrow outside
of Cody's. Is there a tart? Yeah, let's let's wheel barrow and
tarbet all right, and just straight to your house. Yeah, let's run.
We are terrible criminals. Okay, yes, all right, let's go.
All right, We're going to go through the garden steck around the okay,
all right, So you go through the garden and you slip around the
Temple of the Twelve and you're wheeling this wheelbarrow with a chest in it and
go thing covered over the top of it, at tart covered over the top
of it, and yeah, you make it all the way back to your
house without incident because the three people that you've passed all rolled really low.
So just just just getting some supplies from Cody. We're about to take them
to the take them to the bar, and make sure you head down that
way. Hmm. Our heroes will be right back after these messages. Hello
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Nick Mead. Thank you, Mead. We truly appreciate your support. Now
back to the town of Eterno. So you get back to your house and
you're home alone, it's uh, yeah, I'm curious, Morgan. Morgan,
do you remember how to get to the portal, the one in your
basement? Oh? Okay, well that yeah, I was just checking.
Okay, thank you. Do you know where the basement door is? No,
wasn't paying attention. Okay, Oh that's even better. Good, good
follow up there by. Oh, here's the Uh, I'm gonna dig around
in my bag a little. I got a lot of stuff in my bag.
Now, oh, here's the rainbow egg. This should work. I
don't think we'll need to get Emory. And I'm gonna cast a spell on
the chest. Do you throw it? Yeah, just just crush it in
your hand when the egg knows that you want to use it, and it
will crush in your hands, all right, And I'm just gonna crush it
easily. Just then sprinkle it, I guess, yeah, on the chest
while he's sprinkling. While he's sprinkling, these these rainbow stone pieces. Morgan's
just going to look at him and utter disbelief that was in your bag the
whole time. Really well, I didn't think about it till we were here,
right, Okay, Sure, the run goes away and the chest unlocks
itself because it was a ruin of warding on the chest, and it was
an arcane lock on the chest. So both dissipate. I'm gonna brush all
the pieces off my hand and reach over and grab a like a chunk of
bread and be like, whoever wants to open it? I guess I'll take
a look. Inside is a glass. It appears to be glass, some
sort of glass onyx colored large heart, and it has two nails hammered into
it. And I will give to anyone who wants to try and identify this
in our canna check a DC fifteen. I got it. Yeah, Oh,
I got a NATA. Yeah, I got a twenty one. Oh,
Morgan sucks, which would have been a twenty five wisdom. So you
both recognize this something you've never seen in person before, but it is a
dragon's heart. And then the two nails pounded into it are strategically placed to
preserve and harness the magic energy from it, so the heart itself can recharge
and store magic energy. That's all that's in there. Yeah. Wow,
so that's a big heart. Yeah, it's a big heart. Well,
why don't we pull the nails out and then put it back without the nails?
What would happen if we do that? I don't know, but I
know that these nails are strategically placed so that way this dragon's heart can continue
to be magical and not just die. So we could take the nails out
and like let it die and set the nails in the in the chest like
it just happened, you know, like during travel, and then I don't
have a way to do the wording spell back. But then we just put
it back like we found it, and nobody's the wiser and the town is
safer, possibly until he finds another magical item and we don't get we don't
have to fight a robin. Oh well, I mean I've never dealt with
a dragon heart before, But is it going to be that easy to just
pull him out? Bay reaches in and tries to pull the nail out.
Go ahead and roll a D one hundred. Oh okay, fifty eight.
So wild magic surges when you try to pull the nail out of the heart.
For the next minute. Any flammable object you touch that isn't being worn
or carried by another creature bursts into flames. Did I successfully pull the nail?
You did not? No? Sorry? Oh man, I'm old.
Yeah, I'm pull it out. Taken a bite of that bread It turns
to toast? Oh wow? What? What? What just happened to my
bread? It just burst into flames. Well, you were trying to pull
that nail out. There's something going on. Let me let me detect magic.
I'm gonna use my fur bulg magic. Okay, just I guess I
can at least learn what school of magic the heart is. But I'm also
looking around because something just set the bread on fire. The nails are being
powered by transmutation, and the heart is both powered by necromancy and divination.
When I tried to pull the nail out, I did feel a weird surge
go through my body. Did anybody else feel that? Oh my hand got
burnt. Your bread turned a toast? Okay, well that's not gonna work.
That plan is there went up in flames. So that heart it's glowing
kind of dark in light like like there's some kind of necromancy going on and
maybe some divination. Does it sound right? Would there happen to be any
writing on it that I might be able to see? Like, I don't
know, keep the instruction manual close on the heart? Yes, on the
heart or on the nails? There there is some ruine work on the nails,
but it's only partially because the ruins obviously go down the entire nail and
half of the nail is buried into the heart. So transmutation, it's got
that light to it. I don't know what how to do all that magic,
but I mean I played around with my fur bulg magic a little bit.
I definitely know necromancy magic when I see it. Would you happen to
know anyone who might be moderately learned on this stuff? I mean by well,
So here's the thing is that Robin Torment is a Robin for the Church
of Greyhawk. So I'm sure they have catacombs of magic items true that they
have, you know, acquired over the years. Does the Church of Greyhawk
normally use necromantic magic? That's not my department and I wouldn't think so,
But I don't know. I mean, I I fight, I investigate,
but I mean magic is really out of my realm. Yeah, and I
mean that's the thing. Even if they didn't create this, they could have
you know, picked it up at some point and Robin Torman would have access
to it. I am not sure what we can do to stop the Robin.
Even if we get him to leave now, that doesn't mean that he
won't come back. I don't know how adamant he is about getting into the
portal, but if he knows about it and he wants to go in,
he must know something. He brought something with him that has enough power to
open it and keep it open infinitely. He definitely knows something. Hmm.
And I think we need to figure out what he knows. But I I'm
not a mind reader, and I don't even know how we would begin to
ask about this. I can help with that, huh. You can read
minds directed of our team. Uh bye. I cast the spell on Morgan
and says, just think what your favorite color is, say it out loud.
Blue. It's blue? WHOA, Okay, that's cool, that's cool.
I wish I could do that. Well, do we need to carry
this back or something? Or we hiding it it. We can't take it
back. We broke the door. He's going to know somebody was in there
and it can't be there. And unless we can repair the room in the
lock, there's no point in even putting the empty chest back. So can
we I don't. There's got to be somewhere we can put it that he
can't get to. The basement has the spell on it that people don't ever
see the basement. I'm going to touch the lid to close it. Has
it been over a minute? A minute? Right? Yeah? Yeah?
Doesn't pick the chest up and carry it downstairs. Probably put it. I
don't know if we can. If I can get it over in the trap
area or not? Yeah you can, Okay, then yeah, I'll put
it where the trap. The traps will protect it as well as the magic
that keeps people up. Put an old quilt over it. Yeah, bring
the tart, take the tarp down, throw dirt over it so it looks
like it's been there for a while. Bye, go get the tart.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Ethereal Embrace, a Creative Typo 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 Morrigan.
The Human Monk is voiced and played by Nari Quack and I am Nico your
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