Due to some violent content, Parental discretion is advised. In the year two
forty seven, in the Age of Judges, Fartan was summoned home after the
death of his father. Upon his return, Farten discovered something evil fester and
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 that plague his people. Welcome to Ethereal, embrace. Hey, that's
me Bartend. I really wish that guy would have given us more info.
Maybe we can get more later. I really don't like hurting people, but
sometimes I just see red, especially when innocent people are about to be hurt.
Day two. You three stand in the woods around the camp side of
the cultists. Two of the cultists are dead, one is still frozen and
thawing, And out of nowhere you hear a rustling of brush, and a
dwarf in full armor busts out of the woodline into the little camp, clearing
and brass Cane says, oh my god, you lost me back there,
My my stupid dwarf and legs couldn't keep up with you. Giant running through
the woods. Vartan Cheese, what happened? Well, we saved amber and
two of your gardens as she got well, uh oh, we found the
cultist. Yeah, we took care of him, but we got one to
question. Distracted by brass Cane, you turned your tension just for a moment
away from the cultist, and when you motion back that you have captured one,
you notice that he had thought just enough that he was able to stick
out his tongue and slam his chin down on his shoulder to bite through half
the tongue. What the hell? Blood just starts oozing out of his mouth
and he starts screaming in pain, and brass Kane says, oh my god,
what are you doing? Could somebody stop the blueding? If I cast
here wounds, would that would that grow his tongue back? It would probably
stop the bleeding. But his tongue is in half. Yeah, it's not
grown it back. That's unfortunately. He should be a lizard. So I
have, so Morgan's got into you know, run up to him, you
know, kind of slam a hand over his mouth and quickly cast cure wounds
to stop the bleeding. So at least he doesn't die, so, I
mean, I'm sure that's not a you know, a massive amount of pit
points lost, but there's five points back to him. Now that stops the
bleeding, and he spits out the last bit of blood, more like drools
it out because you know, he doesn't have a top half of his tongue
anymore to make the spinning motion. But he like leans forward and globs of
blood finishes coming out, coughs a couple of times, and then yeah,
he looks over at you hand seems very self satisfied. Jeez man, what's
wrong with you? We need to restrain him, like to where he can't
move anymore. And because he's already tied up some, isn't he? Yeah,
he's tied up by Grayhawk. What are we going to do now that
he can't talk? I mean, I guess we could try to make him
right, that's true. Yeah, hands work, make him right out everything.
Yeah, I don't think he needs to be able to touch or grab
anything the hell. I mean, I guess if somebody could, I don't
know, read his mind or something. I don't know. Yeah, I
can't help you there, Well I knew you couldn't. I can't either,
I'm sure we can figure something out. Let's just get out of this clearing
from his body language. I think that there's more of them around. I
just want to knock him out, like just I don't want to kill him.
I just want to just knock him out, knock him unconscious. Okay,
hey, yeah, so one swift hit. We'll do the trick all
right, and be like we need to make sure nobody else is around us,
and then I'm just gonna like just take my hammer, like the the
front of my hammer and just hit him in the head knock him out.
He collapses to the ground knocked out, and brass Kane makes his way over
to Amber and helps lift her back up off the ground and puts her arm
around his shoulders so she so he can support her because she has that gash
in her leg. I just picked the dude up by the ropes that he's
tied up with and carry him with one hand like a bag byas thinking to
herself, Ah, twelve hells, what am I gonna How am I gonna
tell Vartan And she just follows along, where are you headed? Hopefully taking
I think that we'll tell brass Cane to probably take this guy into custody.
They have like a brig or something. Yeah, and then Baya is going
to say, we should probably to Vartan, we should probably head back to
your house and regroup talk about what we know. Yeah, yeah, what,
Yeah, that sounds good. What We'll just drop him off. I'm
gonna toss him in the in the cell, like just chuck him like a
bag, you know, on the floor, and be like we need to
keep an eye on him all the time, Like we can't let anybody get
to him, do not let him touch anything. Just leave him tied up
for now. Okay, I'll take care of it. We don't need him
killing himself. We could give him we can. We need information from him.
I fully understand Bartan. All right, so uh bye, back to
the back to the house, Yeah, I think so. Yeah, we
can walk Morgan back to back to the tavern. Yeah, Morgan, do
you want to go rest up a little bit and then maybe we can all
regroup later. Yeah. It's been a long night or been it's been a
long day. Been up since early early in the morning dealing with this.
So I need to go back and debrief with Sean anyway and see what her
investigation has yielded, So yeah, tavern sounds great, all right, so
we we take Morgan to the tavern and then Fartan and buy it go back
to his house. Okay, and Morgan standing outside the tavern door as they're
walking away, just kind of watching because starting to feel like only partial conversations
are being had, but I can't quite figure out why. And you just
saw Vartand do some of the most epic fighting you have ever seen, and
extremely quickly. It was. It was quite something. I'm anxious to tell
my friends about it. Okay. So you walk into the tavern and you
see Sean up at the bar having a drink. With the several empty cups
in front of her, you assume she maybe has had a few drinks.
Okay, so Morgan's gonna walk up behind her just kind of clap her on
the back. Rough day, Sean, one of those Oh no, they're
all empty? Can I get what she was having? Cody brings over a
glass and sets it down in front of me. He says, Yep,
no problem, I'll add it to the tab, thanks Cody, and he'll
walk away. Yeah, it was a terrible, terrible day. Okay,
I bet it wasn't as bad as mine, but you go first, Well,
my Mark is an absolute way stiff space. He's useless and I don't
know why he's running the city guard, and he kept disappearing into people's houses
and I'd have to track him down, Like what does he even do here?
Did you try talking to him? I mean, I know you kind
of have to be a little covert, but these people are actually kind of
nice. And no, that's such a strong suit. I told him that
he needed to talk to me before he went and did stuff, and he
did not like that. So he's obviously not a faithful member of the church.
That's probably true. Yeah, yeah, I kind of get the impression.
There's not a lot of emphasis on faith here while among some of the
locals. But yeah, maybe maybe try to be less yourself. I mean,
I'm cool with you. You know, I'm cool with you. I
like you. I mean we get along really well. But ah, people
can be a little i don't know, cut off by you. Sometimes It's
probably because I'm the better warrior, but I get it. I will try
to be less amazing when I'm around him. Maybe that'll put him at ease.
I'm sure that'll help I'm sure that'll help. Did you learn anything at
all? The city Guard is just a small group of citizens here. They
have barely any training. I think if there is a serious threat here,
we will need the doves engaged. That's a good thing we're here then,
I mean, I've we we already had a massive encounter. I mean you
were how much were you listening to earlier when they were talking about the more
recent murder and things like that, like human murder? Yes, I I
heard that when we were at the stables, but only what they said there.
Brass Kin refused to give any more description. Yeah, so I was
out with Vartan and we went out to the crime scene and and well,
I mean, you know how I love my murder mystery scrolls, and I
got I got to employ some of that stuff I've learned. It's really really
cool. They think I'm really good at this. Yeah, you know,
you'll you'll learn a lot from those scrolls. Jokes on them, exactly.
See, I'm going to be the best at this. But okay, so
it looks it turns out that this is like it's it's a cult murder.
Like there's a cult here and they're ritualistically I mean ritualistically killing people and and
they're laying bodies out in the shape of runs. They actually tried to take
out some of the townspeople that were investigating in the woods, and you know,
so Vartan and I we had to we had to go out and we
had to stop him. My god, you're a great fighter. I think
Vartan's got you beat by leaves and bounds. Man. I hope you get
to see him fight one day. He's fast, and I mean he he
can. He can do things that I swear I've never seen anybody do before.
Interesting. Yeah, but yeah, so we managed to question well,
I don't think we actually question. I think we just froze him. And
well, no, I guess there was some questioning going on. I wasn't
really paying attention. I kind of was, but it wasn't making a lot
of sense. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Vartan froze this guy. This is what I mean. Weird. Yeah.
Yeah, he froze the guy solid and started yelling questions at him, and
the guy was just giving us, you know, the typical you know,
I'm not gonna tell you anything type stuff, you know, And so I
don't know, Well, then he bit his tongue off. The guy did,
Yeah, guy bit his tongue off. Did Vartan make him bite his
tongue off? I don't. Can Vartan mind control people? He says he
can't. I asked him if he could read the guy's mind after he after
he cut, after he after he bit his tongue off, and he said
he couldn't help with that. No, it doesn't make sense. But yeah,
I mean, and so, yeah, so we know that it's a
cult. We know that there's I mean, from the information that we were
able to put together, there's at least well or at least there was at
least twelve of them here, and there's probably a leader here somewhere. But
that's as far as we've gotten. And Vartan said he wanted to go home
and regroup, and I needed to come debrief with you. So that's kind
of where we are. Interesting. Could you redraw that run? Sure?
Absolutely, So I grab a napkin, and I take a pencil that I
have with me, and I draw out the run. Huh. Oh.
There was one other thing I overheard Dove Brie and Dove anelyin Dove Brie intends
Dove Brie intends on spending the night with Robin Torman and not rooming with Anelin.
She said this would be the best way to keep him safe. Interesting
scandalous if you ask me a Robin of the church sleeping with a dove in
the same room. I mean, I could understand taking a posting outside the
door. But mmmm, all for some threat. We haven't engaged yet to
keep him safe. M safe. It might just be the whiskey talking,
But girl, M, I think this requires further investigation. I think your
investigation scrolls may pay off for both of us exactly. See, I told
you I knew what I was doing bringing them with me. We can do
some research and then Cody will bring over two more glasses and set them in
front of you and say on your tab thanks. Our heroes will be right
back after these messages. Hello listeners. If you are enjoying the show and
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your support. Now back to the town of Eternal. All right, over
to bartian Ambaia. As you make your way back from the last stop tavern
to your house, you hear the horses out in the stable as you make
your way onto your property. All right, do on some tea? Oh
yeah, oh what Emory might have some dinner and tea already made for us.
Oh yeah, I forgot she was staying here. Yeah, let's go
have dinner. Yeah, well headed, Yeah, is Emory inside? Yeah,
Emory had a stew on the fire. She didn't know when you would
be back home, so she just wanted to get something cooking that could easily
be served, knowing that you had a lot going on today. So when
you come in, she's like, oh, Vatan is it? Is it
just you coming through the door, or is anyone with you? Oh?
By is right? Behind me. Oh, hey, Baya. Hi.
Yeah, I can't remember if I introduced myself to you. I'm trying to
do that now because I feel like maybe people just don't recognize me. So
I'm Bayah, Hello, Baya, I'm Emory. It's very nice to meet
you. I mean, we've met before, but formally, I guess,
you know, in less chaotic times less chaotic, I guess that's subjective.
Probably right. Well, they were walking, I'm going to be filling up
a bowl of stew. Okay, hey, Emery, do you mind Vartan
and I have some wash? Do you mind just taking it to where do
people take their wash washing clothes, clothes washing stuff. We've got some launderers
here in town, but most of the townsfolk do their own and hang it
on the lines. Do you mind taking some of the clothes upstairs from Vartan's
room to our wash basin. Yeah, I can do that. That's no
problem at all. Yeah, let me get you a couple of glasses of
wine first, and then I'll get right on that. Thank you, I
appreciate it. Yeah. So she boars up a couple of glasses of wine,
one one for each of you, and she brings out and sets it
down on the table, and then wanders upstairs to collect the laundry. You're
a sweetheart, Thanks again, Emory for everything. Of course, it's my
pleasure, dear. When she leaves, Baya is going to try to have
a conversation with Vartan. Just starting off with so, Vartan, I used
a spell to peek into that cultists mind when I was asking him those questions.
Oh yeah, I forgot you can do that. So there are at
least eleven of the cultists left. Some of them are spread around town and
some of them are in the woods. Oh well, that that can't be
good. M Yeah. I think it's the fact that they're hiding in town,
maybe staying in other people's houses, maybe staying in some of the empty
houses. I know that we had brass cane searching the houses, right,
Yeah, yeah, we did have him looking through people's houses that aren't empty
as well. We did. We did tell him to do that. I
think that is the best place to start. Yeah, maybe we should tell
them it's a little bit more imperative right now. And I suppose keep an
eye on the the tree line outside of town if they're camping out there.
I mean, everybody's posted up looking out everywhere. Do you think that we
could put the doves to use helping out with that? Yeah, I think
that could help. I mean we wouldn't. We don't want them going door
to door, and we don't want them going out and finding the cave.
Speaking of since Robin Torman does know about the cave, we should probably use
one of those spells that Emory gave you at the entrance of that cave instead
of just having it covered up in trees and actually collapse it. Yeah,
at least the entrance there. I mean, we can always get in and
out via the portal in your basement. That is true. The other thing,
when I asked that cultist who their leader was, they said, Susan.
Hold On, like, you don't think my mom Susan do? You
can't be sure they never found her body. I'd hate to think that it's
the Susan that I know, But also the Susan that I knew wouldn't have
left you and your father, So yeah, it might not be your mother,
But I just kind of want you to be prepared just in case.
I wonder if what led me away from here is the same thing that led
her away from here? What led you away from here? You never really
talk about that. Well, I just I don't know. There was something
about this place that it was almost driving me away, or like something was
calling to me that was out there, and I never really found that.
I did find a group of people that connected with which also makes me lean
towards it could be my mother Susan that's leading this or that's part of this
cult. I managed to get wrapped up in the cult of Cthulhu. The
cult of Cthulhu, I've never heard of that. I mean there was,
I mean we had sacrifices, not so much going out and brutally murdering people,
but will in sacrifices, and I was the I ended up being the
executioner. Do you think that your past has something to do with these cult
as being here now or do you think? I'm not sure. I'm just
the similarities between myself and possibly my mother if she joined another Elder Guide cult.
Do the bodies being put in the shape of those or laid out in
the shape of those symbols mean anything to you? Did Did you ever come
across anything like that? No, I can't say that I ever came across
those symbols before. This is definitely the first time I've ever seen them.
Honestly, I only know what they're saying because you read them. But I
do know some knowledge of the cult, which I mean I I relayed what
I did in the moment, what I remembered of them in the moment before.
Yeah, hmm. I wonder why they chose eternal And I mean,
if it's if it's yours, Susan, then that would make sense. But
I feel like it would be a bad choice because Death's here would stand out
and Susan would know that. I don't know how much of this we want
to relate to Morrigan. She held her own back there. Yeah, and
I do think that we're gonna need help if there's more of them, Like
the people in this town aren't trained to handle something like this. Yeah,
and Morgan has absolutely nothing to do with this cult. I did ask that
cultist, all right, Well, that's that's good to know. I think
she's someone we can trust. As far as not being a cultist. Her
allegiance to the Robin or the Church of Grayhawk, I'm not sure what that
how that would affect her. I guess morals when it comes to eternal and
keeping eternal and everyone here safe. But I guess we can find out.
Yeah, yeah, bya goes and refills Fartan's glass of wine. Man,
this is this is bringing back, like just flooding me with the memories of
what I did out there. I mean, of course I left the sect
of the cult. I was part of the Children of the Deep? What
made you leave? I got a vision and after the vision, it showed
me that that what the Children of the Deep were doing was wrong. It
actually showed me to a lot of the religions out there. There's a lot
of similarities and what they were doing was wrong, like manipulating people to for
their own gain. And I ended up killing them all right before I got
the letter from Telmika. I needed to stop what they were doing though.
They were luring people in and then having me murder them, so I stopped
it before it could grow. How long were you there, oh, probably
about the last last four years for coming here. And do you think that
killing them was a penance or do you think you still owe the gods?
Well, I haven't had another vision since since it happened. Good, then
you're freeing clear. Yeah, but there's other cults out there like it,
and one happens to be here in Eterno, and just like the Church of
Greyhawk, we can't let them have the power that's protecting this place, that's
for sure. But maybe we can save a few of their souls. Maybe
they don't have to die or bite their own tongues out of their head.
Yeah, and I apologize for I guess I was seeing red whenever I saw
them. And oh no, I really only held back on the one you
froze so we could question them. It's understandable. Artan. I'll try to
remind you every once in a while of your humanity or should I say for
bogganity. You know what I mean. The Artan, Well, we're all
humanoids. Humanity works. I appreciate it. Man. I'm glad, glad
I got you around to help me through this. I mean, honestly,
you're the only person that I trust to tell that too. I think everybody
else would be afraid of me. No, I've seen I've seen you around
other people. I know that you care, and I think that your heart
and your desire to do what's right is what led you down that path.
Towards the end, So let's get some rest and start figuring out what to
do about this tomorrow. Yeah, I definitely need to make it an early
morning. Thank you for listening to this episode of Ethereal Embrace, a Creative
Typo production. Vartan the fur Bagfighter is voiced and played by Adam culbertson by
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
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