Due to some violent content. Parental discretion is advised. In the year two
hundred and forty seven, in the Age of Judges, Bartan was summoned home
after the death of his father. Upon his return, Vartan discovered something evil
festering beneath the city of Eternal. With the help of some very unlikely allies,
Bartan works to uncover the mysteries of his hometown and put an end to
the nightmares that plague his people. Welcome to Ethereal Embrace. Cooking is not
my strong suit. I should never be left alone with anyone's partially cooked breakfast.
Ever. Day four, Emoris our canna shop. All right, let's
go talk to Cody. Bye Emery, you evil, evil little person.
Bye. Now, y'all stay safe. We will submarine. Your idea was
to go to the last stop tavern and in and fill Cody in on what
we're doing and hope that he's on our Yeah, you're taking a gamble.
There is that a warning? Is that like a damn warning? No?
No, I'm saying like you don't know a lot about these eternal creatures.
Maybe we ask him, Hey, what you know? I hear that if
your core is broken, you become mortal, and also you know there's like
a demail portal and stuff, and like you're just chill with that. I
don't know. I mean, we could have walked up to him be like,
have you seen Susan lately? Maybe he's I mean, why would he
be here, right, you know, like of all places in the realm,
he comes to Eterno, where Susan used to live, right around the
same time that a demon portal is open. Maybe he's waiting here for Susan.
Maybe he's in love with Susan, like Emrie was in love with Fartan,
and they're not Fartan Kirian, So to be fair, from season one,
he came here because he visited during a war that he was a soldier
in, and then came back here during a time of peace, and he
moved here before Kirian opened the portal back up like ten years before, because
he would Yeah, he moved here right after Tartann had left. Was Susan?
Was Susan still here when he moved here? No, Susan left like
two hundred years ago, or however the fuck oled one hundred years ago,
or however old Vartan is like as soon as Vartan was born. Susan left,
Yeah, which is weird. She was sixteen years old, and we
never we never found out why Susan left, Like we don't know anything about
like any of that. Yeah, I true, she she's basically she said
she went into the portal to destroy her core and make herself mortal and then
she just left. But we don't know why. And Emory was being very
like weird about her. She wouldn't want to if she wanted to like just
be mortal and die, she wouldn't have stuck around a town that kept you
immortal. But why would she want to be mortal and die when she has
a child that's going to live for us, Like he says she lost it
around that time. I don't know. I mean, I'm concerned about the
Cody thing. But you know, we've been we've we've guarded our secrets for
the most part, especially with people that we don't trust. And then all
of a sudden, we're gonna trust an immortal being who came here for a
time of peace, who we know was buddies with Susan. What if what
if we took Susan to the tavern? Well, we can't just take Susan
to the tavern, will fight. Well, no, she would come with
us, obviously, But if we took her there just to kind of gauge
Cody's reaction if they like, honestly, I'd love to see him hop across
the bar and like try to kill her. But if yeah, I don't
know. I mean, we don't know when they saw each other last.
We don't know what terms they were on. Yeah, all of Oartan knows
is what he saw in that vision of them fighting together. They were friends.
Mm hmm. But if she went not like there's a bunch of what
is this is what I would look like with the too pey. Maybe we
should just go talk to Susan. We just talked to Susan, but we
got more information. Now, we know more. We know that the cord
just never was broken, or at least we think so. And we so
if we just go tell Susan, hey, the cor is not broken.
That's why it's still open. Basically, we don't have to do all of
this other stuff. Just go in there and break the break your core if
you want to, Yeah, we'll help you. We got we got a
thing you don't even have to use your magic, open the portal? Do
we know how to use that dragonheart? Last time it played Caught Our Bread
the room absorbs magic. I think it's just got to absorb the magic and
then boom it it's open. Mm hmm. Okay, everybody's talking about absorbing
magic. So I'm kind of curious why you're not supposed to use that lamp
again. Yeah, I want to use it again, so do. I
want to see you use it again? But why is Emery so against it?
We didn't ask her? Well, uh, I think it has something
to do with the black smoke that enters his body. Oh yeah, oh
yeah. So we're talking right outside of Emory's and I'm just gonna pop my
head back in and be like, hey, Emory, what Vaughan? Hey,
what happens if I keep using that lantern? Your father said that if
the lander gets misused, it could mess up the time space continuum whatever that
means. Yeah, I don't know what that means either. It's a Susan
thing. It it's a Susan thing. Your mother used to say it time
space continuum. Hmm, yeah, I don't know what that is. He
morgan uh by a. Y'all read any books about time space continuums, not
me, have we can history? Is that a book that would have been
in Vartan's house that Baya would have read anything? I don't think it would
have been in fart Yeah, I don't think it would have been a book
that you guys know. I think that Susan knows that type of thing because
she's not from this world. Oh oh hey, uh what about the Have
you ever seen it used before? The lantern? Yeah? No, gods
no, Lord, well, black smoke keeps going inside of me. Well
stop using it then, I don't. I'm trying to tell you to be
safe. Oh yeah, I am. I mean it got us answers and
stuff. I was just I was just curious if you knew any more about
it. No smoking, it's terrible for you. Oh yeah yeah, I
only only smoked vegetables and meat. Do you need an apple? Vatan?
Are you hungry? I am? She tosses an apple at the door.
I catch it, all right, So, oh, maybe you're rat.
Cody might not be a good idea. He's a wild card to us.
Right now, we at least know Susan is murderous and we can't stop her.
I don't know maybe Cody's her friend, or maybe Cody could help stop
her. I mean, if they're both first people, do we want to
take that chance? If you want my honest opinion, if she thought he
would help, I think she would have contacted him as soon as she got
back. What if she did, then he wouldn't be trying to help you.
I mean he might be trying to still screw over the Robin. But
I've seen those prices. That's horrible. Well, she does want me alive
to kill the Greyhawk avatar. We could always ask Magno if she's seen Susan
in here. She's close to Cody, that's true. Yeah, you could
ask, hey, have you seen Susan come in here recently? We got
to make a decision, I mean, out of character, we are so
distrustful of everyone. We have to start trusting somebody at some point or we're
not going to get anywhere. And right now we've got we've got the first
person over here that we can't stop. But we know of an equivalent power
person who has been friendly to the town. Yeah, that's that's kind of
where I'm at on the Cody thing, all right, And I feel like
Robin Torman he obviously is the Church of gray Hawk, and you're supposed to
be fighting the Avatar of gray Hawk, right according to Susan, So he
probably wants to go down there and worship the avatar. So you know,
maybe that's why he wanted to go down right, you know, undeniable proof
of you know, his god. It's going to be, you know whatever,
maybe help his god rise to Also, why is Greyhawk in the Demon
Realm? Is he a demon? Oh? He's a god, a demon
god. Oh, I don't know enough about it. He's not known for
he's known for being a good deity in this world, like he's considered a
good god in Euphrae. Right, So why is the Avatar of grey Hawk
in the Demon Realm in the first place? Maybe we need to just let
that the god out and will be blessed or something. Yeah, what if
the dragon Heart turns Torment into a god? I don't know. I just
I think the dragon Heart. Okay, so we're gonna go talk to Cody.
Should we just grab the heart on the way, Just let's go do
that, and yep, go grab the heart. Just walk around town with
the one of the most powerful magic items out there. I guess yeah,
let's let's do that. We got the wheelbarrow and tarp we just covered up.
Will it inside the door doors big enough? Our heroes will be right
back after these messages. Hello listeners. If you are enjoying the show and
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appreciate your support. Now back to the town of Eterno. Yeah, so
you make it back home. Go to the basement, grab the dragon heart
in the chest and the tarp, bring it back up, put it in
the in the in the wagon, take the wagon to the last stop,
tabern and in go through the double doors with a giant wagon at like ten
am in the morning, covered with a tarp, while all the doves are
currently eating breakfast and staring at you as you walk in. Yep, all
right, that's where we're at. And Cody's behind behind the bar, cooking
up on the grill, and he's uh sees he coming and you know,
does his standard wave with a avar tan. Yeah, there's a tarp covering
it so they don't see that. It's a chest. Yeah right right.
Oh hey, Cody, what you got there? Wheelbarrow and the tarp?
I see that? Is it? Is there a reason you have my wheelbarrow
with my tarp? Yeah? I was well one. I was bringing it
back. I was bar on it. And uh can you uh can can
you answer your question for me? Uh? I don't know if I should
be the one question? But how do you destroy a core? A core
of what? Uh you'r uh? Yeah? The first one's core. His
eyes shift from the grill where he's cooking up to the sword that's been hung
above his bar, and then down to you, and he says, why
exactly would you need that information? Bartan, Oh, you don't have to
worry about me I'm not talking about yours. Oh, I'm gonna lean over
the counter and go say, there's another first one here in town. How
would you destroy their core? Do you know who it is? Yeah,
but I I don't know if I want to share that information yet. Have
they gone mad? Yeah? Many of the first people after this long have
kind of lost their touch on reality. So how have you kept it together?
I stay out of battles now and out of leadership positions, and I
run a small tavern and inn and a very small town full of nice people
that don't die. Oh, and so's therapeutic. Yeah, it's like a
retreat. Yeah, all right, makes sense. Because you're immortal, you
want to live with other people that are immortal and nice. Yeah, it's
very taxing to watch everyone around you just keep dying. I can imagine that
would be difficult. So a few things come to mind, Bartand First,
you and I are going to have a conversation soon about how you figured out
what I am. Second, I don't want to kill any of the first
people if I can stop it. But if you grab their core and bring
it to me, and you have a good enough reason why I should,
I can destroy that core for you, Cody, would a good enough reason
be they want their core destroyed? I would hate to say or I would
hate to see that, but I can respect one of the first people's decisions
to destroy their own core. What if we also added on top of that
that they started a cult and have been sacrificing people. You might not believe
this, but that wouldn't be the first person, the first first person to
start a cult and kill a bunch of people. Yeah, that would be
a sufficient enough reason. What if also they want to destroy the I'm gonna
lean over and whisper more, they want to destroy the magic that keeps people
from dying here, Yeah, that would be a I mean, unless they
had a good reason for wanting to do so, that'd be a pretty good
reason to try and stop someone. Well, they want to they want to
do that to destroy the portal, the demonic portal that we dealt with ten
days ago, twelve days ago, fourteen, that's the one. Are you
sure they're mad because they seem like they might have some of their wits about
them. If they're trying to close a demon portal by murder and everybody and
murdering people in town to destroy the magic that's feeding the demon portal to keep
it from dying. I guess that's the right word. Fair point. I
will uh, I will concede to that. Yeah, that seems like a
little bit of a stretch to try and close one portal. Do you know
of any other way to close that portal for good? No? If I
did, I would have You don't know how to get rid of the power
around this town either. I wouldn't want to even if I did. Yeah,
yeah, I figured all right, anybody else got anything? So are
you saying that destroying a core is not going to close that portal? Not
on its own, A core is just tied to us. I mean,
destroying a core lets out a big burst of magic energy all at once.
So if it was part of something else, maybe, But just destroying a
core, all that does is exhaust our our magic out into the ether and
break our connection to the old world, to the godless realm. So what
if it was part of a ritual? It depends on the ritual. But
I mean, if the right ritual was out there, then yeah probably.
I mean I'm not as good as some of my brothers and sisters at the
magic stuff, you know, So I was always kind of more of the
warrior type. Well, I feel like the only way to close the portal
is to use that big burst of magic that comes from destroying the core in
a ritual to close the portal. But would that necessarily have to include weakening
the magic that's here? Cody, I don't know if you even have an
inkling of who we're talking about, But they want to kill descendants of first
People in order to achieve this ritual. Why would that be helpful? The
descendants have outworld blood. Our blood is coursing full of magic. Whether we
utilize it or unlock it, it doesn't matter. It's still there. It's
a little gross, but using someone with magic blood to create or to complete
a magic ritual is going to be a little bit more effective than using someone
with non magic blood. Yeah. Oh, what do you know about like
avatars of the gods? Have you ever seen that before? I have met
one avatar during the Age of Giants. It was the Avatar of Salune and
she was mean, but ultimately she was pretty powerful. Yeah. Well,
how do you think like Avatar of Grayhawk or Avatar of Cthulhu would be I
couldn't tell you. I imagine an avatar of Cthulhu would be big and nasty
and scary just to be around. But I mean at some point they're going
to be very powerful, more powerful than most humans around them, probably as
powerful as a first person once they come into their full strength. Anything about
the space was a space time continuum? You know anything about that? The
time space continue? Yes? No, plenty. Do you have a specific
question, because that's like a whole topic that can go on for a very
long time. Well, it's theoretical. Uh what about an item that opens
up a window into a different time and then like the smoke from it goes
into his head after it's done. I don't know anything about time smoke,
So I'm really sorry. I don't think that comes to mind. Okay,
yeah, that's how I saw you. Oh no, sorry, we could
show him. Yeah, we could show you. I could show you tomorrow,
okay, if we're here, all right? Yeah? Oh I was
asking Emory about it. Is there any way to do you think possibly to
shrink the the ruins around the city down to smaller? I guess if you
had enough people casting mold earth to make the ruins come closer through the earth,
but you'd probably have to have somebody manning every inch of the ground around
to shift it all at once. Mm. I don't think to do that.
What if it didn't all move at the same time. I mean,
if if there's not land connecting the ruins, would they still work or does
it have to be an unbroken circle? It would need to be an unbroken
circle. Yeah, and I tried to I tried to break it. No,
I didn't try to break that. I tried to break the other thing
I don't remember to the demon world. Yeah, okay, Well, I'm
not sure what more information we can get out of Cody that we haven't gotten.
I think we still have a decision to make. But as we're in
the inn, maybe we can go and just confront Robin, ask him what
his purposes on coming here and why he wants to meet the Greyhawk avatar.
Just outright confront him. If we want to confront him. I mean,
we've got the chest with us. I mean we can basically tell him we
know what he had planned because of what was in the chest, and maybe
we can find out why he wanted to go in. And he did tell
me he wants to go in, but not why. Yes, all right,
let's go do that. Maybe we kidnap him, maybe we don't.
Let's catch up more on this later, Cody, We're gonna willed this over
here. I look forward to that conversation Bartan a lot too. Yeah,
codype just a point of order, just in case there is a possible maybe
first person in town who may or may not be mad. You might want
to hide your core just in case. Or also maybe if we are in
a big battle later, we could use your help again, because you did
say that you were a soldier type person. Yeah, I'd really prefer not
to take lives if at all possible, but if the city is in danger,
I will strap my sword on. Thank you. I mean demons,
you know, if they're trying to encroach on this world, then yes I
will fight them off. But I'm not going to go take their souls just
because I can. They have their own worlds. Yeah, that's true.
There, I respect that. Thank you for listening to this episode of Ethereal
Embrace, a Creative Typo production. Vartan, the Furbog 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
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Remember be safe, we love you all, and stay foolish.