Due to some violent content, bruntal 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, Fartan discovered something evil fester and
beneath the city of Eterno. With the help of some very unlikely allies,
Fartan 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'm really glad I got this bread from memory for this walk. Oh man,
thought just crossed my mind to tell me to be in needn by that
Morrissey. It almost makes me not hungry. Well almost day one in this
streets of Eternal, you guys make your way to the Temple of the Twelve.
Do you go in through the front door or do you stick to your
normal I think we'd go through the front door this time. It depends.
So we want to see Bestial first or Tellmica first, because Tellmica is usually
in the back of the garden. Oh yeah, that's right. That is
during the day, so she should be in the garden most likely. Yeah,
that's up to you. Yeah, let's go say hi to tell Mika.
You know, she was the first to greet you when you got into
town and she brought us food, and that would be nice to check up
on her since I mean she is being eating on so yeah, yeah,
definitely all right. So you make your way back around the side of the
building into the back where the garden is, and you remember where the tools
are that you tripped over that one time you were trying to be stealthy.
Oh yeah, don't don't step on that, thanks, And you see tell
Mika in the back tending to some tulips, and she hears you come up,
and she stands up from you know, digging on the ground, and
she's like, oh, Vatan, it is so wonderful to see you.
Come. Come here. Let an old lady get a good look at you.
Oh yeah, uh uh, imagine you're feeling a lot better last time
I saw you. She takes a couple steps toward you, but she is
she she seems to be like her face looks a lot it's got a lot
more color back to it, and she seems to be doing a lot better.
But she does kind of have a bit of like an older gait to
her walk now, like she just seems a little bit older after everything that
happened. But she says, I am feeling much much better. Thank you
so much. I've been trying to get in and say thank you for days
now, but Emory says, you were resting you. You are so wonderful
to come and save me the way you did. I cannot repay you.
Well, I didn't do it alone. By I was here, oh bye,
here was helping me too. I thank thank you, Baya, She
says. Of course, I can't imagine what you must have gone through,
and I apologize for not seeing it earlier. I can't imagine how it must
have felt alone in that basement dungeon. It it was horrible, but it's
not your fault. You're not to blame. You did everything you could,
and I I thank you for that. Oh I have something for you,
an item that was left by Kirian. I meant to give it to you
back when you first arrived, but then I was taken hostage by the more
z you see, so I hadn't the chance to give it to you.
It is that what you're here for. Oh no, we were here to
talk to best deal. Oh well, she starts yelling at the house,
fast deal, Vatan and buyer are here to see you and h Bass Steal
come out here. And she rests her hand on your forearm like you know
little old ladies do, like you know, telling you to wait still for
a second. She says, well, when you've finished with Bassteal, and
she gives you a couple of little pats on your arm, come on inside
and and I will I'll show you what your father left for you. Okay,
no, thank you, tell Mika, tell me go. Waddles inside,
shouts a couple more times that Bassteal before he finally comes out the bell.
Before he comes out, I'm gonna and after she walks away, I'm
gonna look over to buy it and be like, I wonder if people were
just shy because they don't know your name. M hmm, they don't want
to Maybe yeah, could be. I would think they would recognize me from
when I was young, but maybe not. I've aged, so maybe I
should introduce myself to everyone, you think, Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, I mean that might make it easier for him. Oh, and
help you then pass their shyness because they might recognize you a little bit,
but they can't put there you can't put the name on it. Yeah,
that makes sense. And tell Mecaus too, it's are looking great? Oh
yeah, oh they are. Bastille comes walking out the door at that point
and says, I hear you woman, goodness, gracious Vartan, it's nice
to see you. Hi. I'm by Oh Baya, it's nice to meet
you, and I would say the same. However, I'm not pleased with
how you're speaking to Priest. Tellmica. You know she was calling you for
us. You don't need to raise your voice at her in that manner,
and you should be a little bit more appreciative of what she has given you
a place to stay, as well as a little bit more sensitive to what
she just went through. So maybe use kinder words with Priest. Tellmica in
the future, right you are. I'm sorry. It's I know I'm not
the most personable person, but that's no excuse. You are right, yes,
And speaking of another thing that you're sorry about, I hear that there
is a piteousness of robins coming to the town. Yes, that's also my
doing. What all have you heard so far? Well? That there are
eight Robins in this particular piteousness that are coming to town. They will be
staying at Cody's. The reason they are coming is because you are writing letters
to Robin Torment about the goings on of this city that so graciously welcomed you
in. Yes, that is all my doing. You are right and and
what you're saying so, hey, we've gone through a lot recently, and
you should know about me. Now. I'm a man of science, and
I do follow the Church of Grayhawk, but to a scientific means, Yes,
Robin Torman is a man of faith. He's a He's a decent man.
I've worked with him for many years, but he is definitely much more
more ingrained in the theology around gray Hawk and him coming here is I'm sure
to do with the demons, and he's going to want to find out what's
drawing them to our plane and see if something in this town has maybe disturbed
the balance with gray Hawk. So he doesn't know about the Morrissey right,
correct, He he does not. He just knows about the zill Do we
have to worry about him wanting to use the power that surrounds eternal, that
makes it eternal for everybody that's here. Do we have to worry about him
trying to use that for the church's purpose? Maybe? I don't know.
We've never come across something so powerful that I'm aware of. Granted I'm not
a Robin Well here, let me let me ask you this. Folks that
are of the faith of gray Hawk like him, not of the scientific nature
that you are. What have they done in the past when anything powerful is
involved? They typically take it back to the nest in the Emerald Mountains.
They generally don't let it stay out where it's attainable by the public. That's
not something they can do here because the very foundation of this town is the
power. I agree with you, I am not sure what we are going
to do well, so we don't want them asking too many questions. We
would like them to leave as swiftly as they arrive. So if you have
any thoughts on this, we have been or we will be dubbed the detectives
of the city, the Eyes of Eternal or Eternal's Eyes, however you see
fit, and we will be conducting the investigation. So all inquiries shall go
through us, is what our plan is here. Now do you think that
us just telling them that is an ongoing investigation, will make them leave and
believe that it's under control, or are they going to try to take over
the investigation. I think that's a genius idea. I will know the Robin
that comes with the piteousness. The doves don't really report to the Robin.
They're their own entity. They're there to protect the Robin, but he is
by no means in charge of them. They are more prone to follow legal
rules and jurisdiction in a city like this. So while I would venture to
believe that it would probably not deter Robin Torman from poking his nose around,
it will probably keep the doves in check at least to some degree, unless
they suspect you of doing something strange. So what we really need to do
with this investigation is constantly turn up dead ends to the point that Torment will
feel like we're wasting his time, and with Cody charging an arm and a
leg, he's not gonna want to stick around here. That law. That's
the plan. I do have to admit though, the last correspondence I sent
included information about the portal in the cave. Oh now, I don't know
that he received that communication before he had sent his own communication stating that he'd
be coming here, but there is a chance that he knows about the cave
already. M We're we're gonna have to play that by ear because if he
doesn't know, we don't want to give it away. But if he does
know, it could be an issue. Yeah. Well, I think we
got it taken care of if he doesn't know, but if he does know,
we do need a backup play. Maybe we can talk about that at
dinner. I think I have an idea involving Emery and we can basically make
it look like we destroyed the cave and the portal. Yeah. I mean,
I'm gonna pull one of those parchments out and be like I could probably
destroy it myself. Yeah, what did you tell the Robin about the portal?
In my letter? I sent a detailed description of the rooms that were
on the ground below the portal. I don't know what they mean, and
I had asked him to look at the archives and the nest to see if
there was any old languages that we could decipher the script from. It was
really sent with best intentions, I promise you, and refresh my memory.
You weren't able to read those roots, right, I cannot know? All
right, Well, let's hope that that correspondence hadn't reached the robin before they
took off, and go from there. If if he has somehow deciphered the
runes or knows about the runes, then we will make it seem as though
we destroyed them. It seems like our best bet at this moment or to
at least destroyed the portal. Yeah, and we could. I guess we
can. It's more to talk about at dinner to night. I don't know
if it helps, but I have taken over tell Mika's priestly duties while she
recovers from the incident. I am also hoping that this will allow Tellmica to
play the victim card, maybe a little exaggerated, and hopefully this will deter
Torman from pushing Tellmica too much about her history while he's here. Understood,
maybe we can even invite tell Mika to stay with us for a while while
she recovers. But yes, let's let's go say goodbye to Tellmica. It's
for your help, best deal. You're welcome, And again, I apologize
for any undo stress I've brought upon the city. I'm glad you're feeling better
though, Oh thank you, I mean honestly glad that somebody like you came
along and is willing to work with us rather than somebody else coming across that
information. Yes, let's hope it works out for the best. Now I'm
gonna go get back to my duties and I'll I'll let you get back to
Tellmica you know your way to her office. I assume, Oh yeah,
yeah, thank you. Our heroes will be right back after these messages.
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back to the town of Eterno, and you guys split apart and you go
into the temple through the backdoor. On the way to tell Mica study you
do notice that the door that leads to the basement now has been locked,
with multiple locks on there now, so it's nice and securely closed with no
access to the basement. Obviously there's been some kind of trauma that has been
put into place saying not to go into the basement. It's not like pad
locked or anything, but you know, like they're like dead bolts in multiple
places on the basement. Yeah, I don't want something coming up from there,
right Tell Mika's in her office and she's sitting down at this point,
and she has a chest with a letter, and the chest is open and
the letter is kind of sitting on top, and she sees you coming in
and says, oh, Vartan and Baya, I believe that this is what
your father left you when he passed. It was in his will to give
these things to you should anything happen to him. I will leave you to
review the contents of this box in private, unless you have anything you would
like to ask me beforehand. Yes, tell Mika we are having a dinner
tonight at Vartan's house. Would you care to join us? Emory will be
cooking. I would love that I can bring a dessert. I've been making
some walnut bread. Yes, that sounds decadent, wonderful. Well, I
will get back to work on the walnut bread. Then, while you review
the contents of this box. If you need anything from me, you know
where to find me in the kitchen. Absolutely, and anything you need from
us, please just let us know. Thank you, Thank you, dear.
And she gives your arm a little squeeze as she walks on out of
the door and leaves you with the letter and box. I wonder what's in
here. I'm not sure what your father would have left purposefully. Yeah,
guess going ahead, and I'm gonna start digging through it. Oh, oh
yeah, what's the letter. Here's the letter. I will let you read
that aloud. Dere's Bartan, my son. There's only one way to begin
a letter. Let this. I love you, and I hope that your
life has been meaningful and joyful. I do wish I could have done better
over the years, but I will not fill this letter with regrets. I
will acknowledge that when you left we were not on the best of terms.
But even so, I love you and I know you love me. I'm
very proud of you, and I hope your adventures were everything you dream I'm
writing this letter six months after you decided to leave home. I'm also in
trusting this letter to tell Mika for safekeeping, because she would never betray her
word to me and read the contents. What I'm about to tell you is
incredibly dangerous and may take some time for you to process. Know this.
Everything I'm about to tell you is true to the best of my knowledge.
The town of Eterno is encircled by a set of magic ruins. The residents
of the town will never die of old age, though we can still die
from injury. It's an ancient magic and one that I am working and to
understand. A long time ago we discovered this magic. The whole town knew
about how it worked, and praised the gods every day for this blessing.
We'd live care free lives, knowing that we can make anything we needed and
had all the time in the world to enjoy it. Then the first few
deaths happened, accidents in the farms, or around the house, a boar
attack in the woods during a hunting trip. Unexpected events kept occurring. For
a normal city, they would market as simply a life happening. But for
us with eternal life, each death was a devastating blow to our psyche.
Out of fear, the towns folks stopped working or doing anything else they thought
might be dangerous. Then they started hiding away in their homes, unwilling to
take any risk. The quality of life disappeared almost entirely. We had to
do something. It was my wife, Susan, your mother, that came
up with the idea to wipe everyone's memory. The idea was that if everyone
forgot they could live forever. They could live their life again without fear.
She was actually the first to volunteer to have the memory wipe and the first
to receive it. Everyone in town had their memories wipe. Everyone still has
their memories wipe, with the exception of Timor and Graystone and myself. It
is safer this way. The people that wiped their memories did it by their
own choosing. Please know that we never forced anyone. We lived happy lives
again for a long time, and then something strange happened with your mother while
she was pregnant with you. She started to remember. By the time you
were born, she remembered everything, but it was much much more than just
what happened here in Eterno. Within six months of halving you, she was
beyond consolation. She said she had to leave. She said a lot of
things, and many of them were hurtful. I did my best, but
I could not convince her to stay. So she packed up, promised she
could come back in a month or two, then left. She never came
back. She did leave you some items, though I'm leaving them and tell
make us care as well. I wish you could have really known her,
and I wish I could say goodbye, son. I'm very proud of the
person you grew up to be. And then it's signed your paw Kirian.
Oh wow, well mhm, it seems me being born broke the spell on
my mother. Hm hmm. I don't. I don't see that happening to
other people around here having kids. Yeah, it is. It is quite
strange. Do you need a hug? Yeah? I guess we did find
out what she left behind. Yeah, that's a good idea. Can figure
everything else out. I know that you're special, and I hope that you
don't feel bad about being special. And Baya opens the box and pulls the
items out. 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. Baya Rustin, the half Elf Sorcerer, is voiced and played by
Tisha priest Tell Mika was voiced and played by my dog Puddles. Then she
do a great job 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, make of the original Dungeons and Dragons soundtrack. If
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Typo. Remember be safe, we love you all, and stay foolish