Due to some violent content, barental 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 want to know what you think about this Morrigan character. Is she
the murderer or is she someone who's innocent? And it's just a coincidence that
she happened to show up at the exact time that everyone started being ritualistically murdered
Day two in the home of the second victims. Yeah, let's get out.
I'll lock it up real quick and be like we can. We can
talk on the run as you're locking it, he says. I just I
don't want anyone in town to know yet until we figured something out. I
don't want to induce panic. Yeah, let's go all right, So I
am going to say out loud on the run. Yeah, so that's that
wasn't a murder, that was that was a sacrifice. Yeah, there were
there was a tattoo. I didn't see any defensive ones. And there was
a tattoo on the left arm. It was a moon and they definitely drank
some poison before they were stabbed. So I agree with you, ar Tim.
Did the moon have four above it? Yeah? It did. How
did you know? Yeah, that's the Children of the Dead Gods. What
do I know about them? So? The Children of the Dead Gods are
a cult that believes that a long time ago, during the Age of Giants,
the gods took a pact of ritualistic suicide and that is why there are
no gods left on Eufray, but their magic is still left in Eufray because
the gods died here and their magic bled out into the world around them.
So they believe not only that that you can tap into this magic by the
gods, the dead gods that were all children of the dead gods that have
come to be, but also they believe that once they get to a certain
level of enlightenment, as a pack of twelve, a pact of twelve,
I mean, not a pack they're not werewolves. They will commit a ritual
suicide together once they've reached supreme enlightenment, and then they will go be with
the dead gods in the afterlife. Okay, they have very strong ties to
the outworld gods too, like very cuthuluesque would would they commit suicide at the
same would they do their sacrifice at the same time, or all twelve would
be at the same time. Having one person died does not fit their m
O. Shit, they're dead all over the town. Who who's dead all
over town? Yeah? I believe it's the children of the dead gods.
Uh, they're They usually assemble and twelve, well, they assemble in twelves
and they sacrifice themselves. Wasn't sure about the murder. The murder this morning
though, Yeah, they usually all sacrifice themselves at the same time, so
they're being one is worrisome and they may be all over or I'm not exactly
sure. I think we do need to find amber though, and I'm going
to actually take my great hammer off my back while we're running and still run
into the woods. Okay, brass Kane draws his weapon as soon as you
draw your weapon. He he's definitely taking cues from you as we're running bias
says you said, there has to be twelve of them. I don't think
we saw twelve footprints or twelve places at that camp. Maybe they're maybe they're
just a few numbers, so they have to kill others as they kill themselves,
so they equal twelve. Yeah, maybe that could be why it's staggered.
Stagger in the deaths. You said that that, uh, it's suicide.
How does one take poison and then stab themselves in the heart and not
leave a blade? M that's a good point, d you hear, Morgan?
Well, I did see the footprints. I did see footprints in there,
so other people were there walking around. They left. Just as you
finished that sentence, you break out right near the camp site and you see
five robed figures standing there, and on the far side of the camp site
is Amber and two soldiers. Just that they're like the two SOLDI not soldiers,
two towns guard. They're holding clubs. Amber's the only one with a
sword, and they look terrified as these coultists have short swords in one hand
and a knife in the other, and they're like kind of fanning out around
this campground all right and roll for initiative. I'm like, hey, stop
moving, I mean, we're surprised to see them. We are. We
are twelve by you get eight, Morgan got twenty eight? Nice? All
right, Morrigan, you go first. Okay, So from the tree line,
she sees this scene unfold as she immediately reaches for her crossbow. Are
any of the cultists like emptying to actually go after Amber or the or the
guards. Well, so the cultists didn't hear you running in toward them,
so they were fanning out with their backs to you and starting. So imagine
kind of like a mob mentality of five people kind of spreading out so that
they can surround a group of three. They're much better armed than the guards
are, so they Yeah, so you'd have a kind of clean shot,
but all of them look very hostile. Okay, and do they they have
their backs to us? Correct? Yeah, Okay, So I'm just going
to take aim and fire at the one. Whatever one is kind of like
in the middle. It's a ten. So, so my my bolt just
kind of whizzes past his head, hopefully doesn't hit anybody else, but just
kind of whizzes past his head, and I do get a second attack,
So I'm going to quickly reload my crossbow and fire again. Okay, and
that's a nine, So that one also it goes whizzing past, probably passed
another one. Next is Cultist A, and Cultist A is going to be
really focused on their target and start to jog toward one of the guardsmen,
and they have enough movement to get to a guard and they slash at them.
They stab that guard right in the chest. That guard's not dead,
but that the sword went right through their right shoulder. The guard drops their
club that they had and lets out a scream of pain. Now Cultist D,
which is the fourth Cultist in line, does the same, but goes
to attack the other guard and he is not as successful. So he charges
forward with his sword really only enough movement to get up in a hit,
and he slashes and the other guard is able to block that with his club.
And then the Cultist B goes up to attack the first guy that already
got stabbed, and he also goes to attack, but Amber is able to
throw her shield up real quick quick and block it. He does no damage.
So that takes us to Vartan's turn. Our heroes will be right back
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your support. Now back to the Town of Eternal. I am going to
run up my warhammer already out, and I'm going to actually use a bonus
action to add my wisdom modifier and to my attack, use it as my
attack instead of strength, and I am going to use deduce weakness. So
if I hit eighteen thirteen damage, that's my first attack. But what deduce
weakness does is when I hit a creature with a weapon attack during this time,
I learned one of the creatures traits, actions, senses, damage,
vulnerabilities, resistance, or immunities. The GM chooses which information I gain.
Okay, So their first thing is they have advantage on saving throws against being
charmed or frightened. Okay, and I'm gonna raise my hammer up high,
throwing my other hand on it, and I'm gonna try and just slam it
down just on top of their head. Okay, that is twenty two hell
yeah, eighteen damage. First, I will tell you that they also have
an ability called Pact of the Night. A cultist may forfeit their movement speed
to use a bonus action to strike with their moonblade a second time, and
then also that eighteen kills him. So what does that look like? Oh
oh no, it's it's it's It would be pretty bloody just coming down with
with this giant axe from a seven foot nine furball coming down with a giant
hammer, like I would imagine it would he would like crush him. Yeah,
I think it probably explode, like yeah, bones just sticking out like
it'd be pretty brutal. Yeah, yeah, Cory. He collapses down just
as Baya is ready to take her turn. I am gonna yell all of
you need to stand down now after crushing one of their buddies and like two
hits just as an attempt to say something, maybe get them to stop.
It's interesting fighting people who seem to be suicidal. Does bias? Are any
of their lips red? Nope? But you do see they all have vials
hanging on hemp necklaces around their neck with red contents. Okay, I have
a question. I have a spell called rhymes binding ice, and what I
really want to do is bind them so they can't move at all if it's
successful. But what it says is a creature is would be hindered by ice
and have its speed reduced to zero. They don't need any speed to take
an action to drink a potion, right right? Yeah? Yeah, So
if you'd like, we can flavor that up and say that you freeze their
arms with this spell so they can't take the potion, but then their legs
would still be usable to make the movement. So your fruit, you're freezing
their top half from movement and not their bottom half. Okay, Can I
forego the damage or no? I'd be okay with that. Okay, And
there there's three left there's four left. There's four left, and is there
a way I can position myself so I can get all four in a thirty
foot cone, but not get Vartan in it. At this point, A
and B attack the guard on the left, D attack the guard on the
fire right, and E is all the way back by you, guys.
So the most you could get in one shot would be two, which is
A and B which is right by the guy that got stabbed through his shoulder.
Yeah, I'll do that, okay too. All right, so constitution
saves from both. Yes, one got an at twenty and one gotten eight.
So A gotten at twenty and B gotten eight. Okay, so you
forewent the damage. So B is just frozen top and bottom, unable to
move. Cultest E is going to see Vartan and actually attack you. So
he takes his moon blade, his long dagger and tries slashing at you,
but he swings wide and it's more of a defensive slash to try and get
you to back away now that he realized you're there, and that takes us
back to Morrigan. I'm going to take my movement to get within melee range
of the I guess whatever one's closest, and I'm going to attack with my
grieve. So I'm just going to attempt to kick him really, really hard,
and that is a seventeen and that's eleven damage. And since I've got
him, I'm just I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna attack again with my
graeves twenty three to hit another eight points of damage. All right, So
you you run up and you kick him twice, and you hurt him pretty
bad with each blow, but he doesn't quite fall down dead yet. The
guard that got stabbed in the shoulder and dropped his weapon then was protected by
Amber. He turned to flee with a stab wound through his shoulder, and
just as he turned to flee, the cultist ran the moon blade right into
his back and killed the guard, who fell to the ground. The other
guard attacks with his club and hits the cultist for kind of minimal damage for
one point of damage. So he takes his club and goes to hit him,
but it's a very weak hit and the cultist blocks it with his forearm,
and then Amber with her sword out slashes and hits, and she slashes
him across his shoulder and draws blood pretty a pretty deep cut and then she
kind of backs up toward the other guard to help protect him with her shield.
And now it's the cultist as turn to attack, and they will go
to attack Amber, and they hit Amber real hard, so she gets hit.
Her shield is blocking for the other guard, and so she just takes
a hit right on her right leg and gashes open a wound right across where
the armor left an opening. Cultist D takes a swing at the other guard
and and and miss. His Amber shield was there to block it, and
Cultists B is frozen in place. So we are back to var hands turn.
After pulling my axe out out of the bloody mess of the other cultists,
I'm going to like flip it around and go and jab the pointy end
into him like with like full force, like pick him up kind of full
force, is what I'm going for. That's fifteen for sixteen damage that kills
him. What that was like, Uh yeah, I'm gonna just stick that
spike all the way through him as as a lift up motion because I don't
want to hit Morgan on the other side of him, and and then I'm
gonna like flick him off of the tip of it to my right and then
I'm gonna run towards h was it cultist A is still moving an attacking,
and I am I'm gonna go for another attack on him. I want to
hit with my hit with the blood in of my hammer. Shit, that's
a twelve. That's a miss. You just didn't quite make it far enough
to get him, and your swing went just a little wide. All right,
Well that's gonna frustrate me, and I'm gonna action surge and I'm gonna
go. I'm swinging at his head this time, like side side swing.
That's a fifteen for sixteen damage, right across the dome, and then on
the back swing right across his head again for thirteen damage, and that kills
him. All right, I'm taking his head off. I'm gonna to say
to Bay, I was like, I don't think any of your fear and
charming stuff is gonna work on these guys. I suppose we'll see. Let's
take care of the ones we have now, all right, I'd like a
good look inside their minds. All right, it's By's turn, So I'm
gonna cast ice knife. You create a shot of ice and fling it at
one creature within range. Make a range spell attack against the target twenty two
to hit, three damage, and he needs to succeed on a dexterity saving
throw as well as the guard that's in front of him hitting him with the
club needs to do a deck save. Well, he got an eighteen on
his deck save and the guard got a twenty one on his deck save.
Okay, well they both passed then that, and then I will cast or
I will use Hound of ill Omen, which is a feature that I have,
and sick him on that on that one, so they get their own
initiative. Okay, we can put them right after you if you want.
So what's your hound due? Okay, I'm gonna have them bite nineteen to
hit and ten piercing damage. Your hound just runs up and starts biting right
at the guys the back of his leg. Okay, well, I'm gonna
go ahead and fire my crossbow at D which is an eighteen to hit and
eight piercing damage. And then I'm gonna go ahead and take my movement to
get within melee range, and I am again going to attack with my greeves.
I forgot to mention before, but part of the damage that my grieves
do is lightning damage, So that's going to be a oney one to hit
fixed bludgeoning and and seven lightning damage of a total of thirteen damage. Yeah.
So that so that does it. Between the thing on his forearm,
the club on his forearm, the ice knife in his back, the hound
of Hell chewing on his leg, and then your drop kick full of lightning?
What does that look like? So when when when my greeves actually make
contact and I'm kind of aiming to kick him in the head, So I
kick him in the head and there's just sparks of lightning just like his head
is like a plasma ball and it doesn't it doesn't explode it, but it
kind of you know, crumples in on the side and he just bam hits
the ground and his hair is singed from the lightning. Yeah. So that's
that's it. That's their turns, and you have one frozen guy for about
another thirty seconds and one of the guards went down, right, Yeah,
he's like dying that I want to run over to him. Okay, I
can use my channel divinity on him, right yeah, okay, I want
to do that. I'll heal him for six HP with with that. Okay,
So he's healed back to a stable position. He's got you know,
five or six hit points, and but he's hurt. He's hurting, a
real bad between being stabbed in the back and then stabbed in the chest.
He's he's rough, and Amber's rough too. Once she realizes you all are
safe, she collapses to the ground and grabs her leg and tries to stop
the bleeding. Bia is going to take those thirty seconds to rip the necklace
off the guy with the poison, yep, and also cast detect thoughts.
Okay, so she wants to I mean, initially, she wants to hear
what his thoughts are. While she when she rips that poison off his neck,
he's thinking, Fuck, I can't get captured. I can't get captured.
She'll never she'll never forgive me if I get captured. Bia says,
how many more of you are there? There are eleven of us, eleven
remained, eleven remain. Okay, she's gonna tie him up. She has
rope and he thought that too. He didn't say it out loud. He
was trying to be tight lipped. But okay, yeah, she's not gonna
lead on that. She's reading his thoughts I guess if you won't answer me,
then I'll just have to tie you up. And she ties him up
and she says, did you murder those people in our town? He says
audibly, go to the Nine Hells. But he thinks in his head of
the scene of him murdering them, he didn't actually kill them, but he
was there when his group of cultists performed the ritual. Where the rest of
you. I'm not answering any of your stupid questions, but he thinks,
hidden in the woods and hidden in the city. Shit, shit, did
you send the Robbins? Go fuck yourself? And he thinks to himself,
no, obviously, we don't want the Robbins here. That's the opposite of
what we want. She looks at Morgan and says, sorry, I just
had to make sure you understand, do I though, we'll just pretend that
you do. Sure, okay? Hidden in the town? Shit? She's
going to say, are any of you in the town and if so,
where? So? When you probe deeper, he has to make a wisdom
save, so I'm going to see if he makes it. He doesn't.
He gets a six. Okay, so he says out loud, not another
word from me, but he thinks, I don't know how many are in
the city. I don't know her plans. Okay, this guy probably doesn't
know anything. Obviously, they're they're cult leader would be the one that we
need to get after. Who's your leader? This is how I got the
Morsey's name. Yeah, I'm gonna make another role for this okay. Oh
and that's a four. Okay, So this is the last question of your
one minute, and you're probing deeper. He says out loud, I'm not
telling you shit, and he thinks, Susan, 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 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.
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Creative Typo. Remember be safe, we love you all, and stay foolish.