The Ethertwist Haunter

Overview

Herald of Chronovorus, who takes children and drains them of their remaining years to give to Chronovorus. He presides over The Black Woods, where he spends a lot of his time watching the realms and waiting for the end of time. After completing The Black Ritual, for the first time, it was revealed that the herald was once the Second-born child of the family The Party met while searching for The Pages.

The Herald's Story

The man explains that he used to live in a place known as Snowport, a place to the north that was extremely cold and unforgiving. They wanted to move somewhere warmer to raise their family. The man reveals that the Emperor of The Dawn Empire invited people to come settle in this land they are in, however, the only way to get there is to sail with The Golden Fleet. This fleet of pirates took most of their gold and treated them like filth, with them nearly dying many times. Halfway through the journey, the ship encountered a storm that threatened to snap the vessel in two. In a desperate bid to survive, they made a deal with Chronovorus. In exchange for their second-born's life, they would be guaranteed safe passage to the OFC. The family, weak and mentally broken, foolishly accepted God's tantalising offer. They arrived safe enough but as they stepped foot on the land now known as the OFC, they watched in horror as the wife's belly started to radiate black smoke. With Chronovorus’ laughter as a backing track, the woman's baby disappeared, claimed by the cruel God.

History & Mentions

§	Interactions
Session 27	They began by asking, 'How can we stop what is coming?'. Uti's body slowly came to life as it explained that there isn't a chance to stop what will happen now that it is in effect, especially with towers falling and the sword free. Their second question: 'How did you learn to seal Terathra?'. Uti explained that it was a method theory by the Dwarves long ago. Their third question: 'What are there options to seal Gods?'. Uti explains that the only other way was through The Ancient Pillars. However, they weren't powerful enough to contain the full power of the Gods. Their fourth question: 'Can we trust Xekai?'. Uti explains, "Xekai does more for you than you will ever know. Why do we think The Ethertwist Haunter has left you alone for so long? Why haven't you had as much trouble? Maybe someone has been going ahead and dealing with big threats. Xekai cares for you like a farmer cares for a lamb being sent to the slaughter; he sees you as his best shot at winning. Xekai has a lot on his plate, and you are at the top of his priorities. The Auditors don't think this should be so." Finally, the fifth question: 'Where is The Auditor's Headquarters?'. Uti explains they had a tower south of The Great Wall in The Desert. With that, Uti's corpse becomes quiet.
Session 25	Wurinn Fuuldrusch suddenly awoke from a deep sleep, everything felt incredibly wrong. He quickly checked on Emmeline, who seemed fine until he realised she wasn't moving, in fact, nothing around him was moving and it was all dead quiet. He quickly jumped out of bed, grabbing his great axe, he ran outside to find everyone was still around but frozen midway through going about their daily lives. There were even birds hovering motionless in the sky. Drache gripped his GreatAxe tightly before focusing his breath and used Detect Good and Evil to see if he could figure out what was happening to him. In this heightened state he realised that this was very similar to the feeling of walking through The Black Woods during their fight with The Ethertwist Haunter. With that realisation, he had the sudden and urgent need to leave Uvam. He rushes back inside to write a note to Emmeline: "Something is wrong, I have to leave, be safe my love." He stabs the note into the door before donning his armour and leaving Yakawa.
Session 25	Aidan is just as happy to him and exclaims how great it is to finally not be alone when time freezes. Drache is confused and so explains how a similar thing happened when everyone was infiltrating the Tulan Fort. However, the time when he met up with everyone time didn't resume and this time there was a black mist that he had been following. His sentence began to railer off as he noticed that the black mist was crowding around drache's feet. But when asked, the Dragonborn was unable to see it. As they're talking, they sense some movement coming from behind but are unable to figure out where it is coming from. They turn back to face each other to ask if they noticed anything but neither had any ideas and figured it must be part of all of it. They hear a faint reselling from behind them, however, when they turn around all of the trees around them look like they have died and all their leaves have fallen off. Clinging onto the side of one the tallest trees was The Ethertwist Haunter.
Session 25	Suddenly a wooden tentacle shot out of the ground at the slashing Aidan but missing Drache as he was able to dodge out of the way. They both try looking away from the monster, hoping that it will go away like the last few times. after waiting for a little bit they check again, only to find it significantly closer to them. Aidan calls for Drache to get into the cart so they can try and escape it. They both clamber on and begin to race away. Drache asks if there's a way to kill or hurt it. Aidan thinks back but realises that in the Black Forest, the Haunter is unkillable, meaning their best option is to run away. Even with the carriage moving at full speed, the Haunter seemed to easily keep up with them, firing wooden tentacles at the cart, slowly taking off small chunks as they kept running. As they leave Uvam, a bright white light suddenly appears in front of them, and with no other options, they race into it.
Session 18	Meanwhile, Aidan starts thinking more about his procession and inevitable the fact that he is being hunted by The Ethertwist Haunter. Suddenly, it appears next to Aidan. He manages to look away before taking any damage and starts to have a panic attack and curls in a ball.
Session 18	The Ethertwist Haunter then turns its attention to Mordecai who is trying to get into the wooden building by tearing down the door. He make some headway when the Haunter appears infront of him. Mordecai is now looking him in it's not face. recognising it immediately he looks away. Mordecai decides to use message to talk to the haunter and says "leave, there are easier pray elsewhere". The haunter laughs and replies in kind "There sure is, but you should have freed me when you could". Suddenly it turns around and decapitates the majority of the Elves under the illusion and then disappears, leaving Mordecai covered in their blood.
Session 18	Chenris asks how this could be and the man explains what has happened while he was away with The Ethertwist Haunter. Chenris says
Session 18	Mordecai explains that if they were going to do it properly they might need to redo the entire ritual again since they don't know how it all works. Korrigan asks what the haunter actually said to Mordecai and reiterates its message.
Session 17	The crow returns to The Ethertwist Haunter.
Session 17	Both of them start to panic as they're not sure if they should wake everyone up or let them sleep some more. Obeus is confused as she has never heard of the Herald before so the two inform her the best they can. They decide that everyone needs to be well-rested if they're going to deal with The Ethertwist Haunter. They get back to their conversation about teaching each other to distract themselves until everyone else wakes up.
Session 17	Once everyone has woken up, Drache and Korrigan explain what happened last night and the group decides it is best to get a move on so they can try and outrun The Ethertwist Haunter. The Party decided it was best to take the route that goes through Caalona. Along the way, they encounter a man in the middle of the road with a knife in his leg. They call out whilst Korrigan looks in the foliage on either side of the path and finds multiple Elven Cannibals hiding and waiting to jump them.
Session 12	The Party meet in the councillors hall. its very awkward since people don't know how to approach the subject on everyones mind: Chenris' betrayal regarding The Ethertwist Haunter. Mordecai decides to bring it up and have the conversation. Mordecai states that he's not mad (right now) but is so confused since Chenris is normally the very logical one, he also wants to know what is so important that he couldn't burn it. Chenris himself is confused why he did it since again its not a logical thing to do.
Session 11	Korrigan, ever the propionate of free will, is left to stew in his frustration over being forced to do something against his will. That and the ongoing frustration of not knowing who the trait of the group is, springs to action. Interrupting the group's strategy meeting, he declares he knows how to find the betrayer in their ranks and uses his fey pact to summon Merek The Wise to his aid. Upon realising what is happening Merek starts to profusely sweat with worry and fear and timidly asks what is required of him. With a manic laugh, he tells Merek that if he uncovers who is responsible for failing the ritual and not banishing The Ethertwist Haunter, then is free of his debt. Merek is frozen in fear before being hurried off to do his job. Satisfied with the results of his actions he turns to the rest of The Party and asks what preparation for the war need to be done. A moment of hesitation, Genevieve † gets back to explaining the the dire situation the OFC is in. Even with The Emerald Fort troupes, they are still out numbered at least 5 to 1. The Dawn has more airships, warships and heavy duty weaponry at their disposal as well. She also makes note that even though the OFC does have access to ships and airships, these are all small and/or merchant vessels meaning if they are all lost then their nation will be crippled in their trade capabilities after the war, even if they were to win.
Session 11	The Party are sleeping in the minsters rooms which are very comfortable and even have baths ready for them 24/7, for many of The Party this is their first time sleeping in comfortable rooms with all of them oversleeping due to how comfortable they were. During the night Chenris Tallfellow ‡' cloak was stolen by Aiden Knight. this infuriates chenris cause him to explode at Aidan for stealing his stuff, to which the rest of The Party try to confront him about The Ethertwist Haunter. He says "touche" and heads over the the council room, where they find Genevieve † waiting for them.
Session 10	Much to Chenris' dismay, the party head back to Steelwick to save Steve Ulan. As they are traveling through the rolling hills of The Dawn, Aidan spots a mysterious black figure off in the distance. Drawn in he recognises the creature's uncanny lack of face and the familiar pain of looking at The Ethertwist Haunter too long. Aidan, who had been becoming more and more unstable with matters related to Chronovorus and his black cult immediately yelled in fear and looked away and suffered the penalty to his memory and forgot. His quip of fear immediately alerted the rest of the part to something being wrong questioned the rouge on what scared him so. Upon hearing that he doesn't remember, that group struggle to arrive to a conclusion since they were sure The Ethertwist Haunter had been vanquished long ago.
Session 10	They also start to frantically look around to investigate when Chenris turns to see the herald at the edge of the woods, ever the most pragmatic member of the group, immediately write downs at the haunter is near on his arm before alerting the rest of the part to it presence. Before looking away to save his mind from the psychic punishment of the beast. Now consciously aware of the danger and where it is, the group strategise on how to deal with their predicament. Chenris remembers one of their battles in The Black Woods and tells everyone to close their eyes and ignore the beast. One by one they adhere to his advice, even when it was standing right next to them, letting of a dangerous aura, the group held strong and the haunter eventually retreated for now.
Session 10	Clearly shaken from the unpredictable events that had just transpired, Korrigan realises that someone must not have burned their most prized possession, not only causing the ritual to fail but to make their sacrifice next to worthless. Angered Korrigan devises a scheme to route out the traitor, he suggest to the group that if he charms people one by one then he can exonerate people quickly and reliably as they would be unable to lie to him. Drache volunteers to go first before Mordecai is able to point how unethical this plan is. Chenris, who had be uncharacteristically silent since the haunter had retreated, joined in on the chorus of dissatisfaction. Korrigan immediately becomes suspicious as in his mind, this is a simple and easy way to determine the traitor and if people are against it then they must have secrets they wish to hide. Mordecai counters by pointing out the fact that Korrigan could be the one responsible and he cannot charm himself. Korrigan agrees and offers to be put under the command spell from Chenris to be checked out himself.
Session 01	We start mid combat in The Black Woods where the weird zombie man summoned The Ethertwist Haunter after stealing The Pages. Wurinn Fuuldrusch has two pages so he escaped out through the window. Chenris Tallfellow ‡ misty steps to join Drache. Steve Ulan, while trying to defend Kal † gets impaled by the The Ethertwist Haunter and is downed. Mordecai Reverence had a moral breakdown and leaves without grabbing Steve, asking someone else to get him because he acknowledges he is a Squishy motherfucker.
Session 01	Chenris Spiritual Weapon to distract the haunter and give everyone time to get out. Everyone runs for the clearing and gets out of The Not World. Kal burns the house down which summons a bunch of White Robed mages from Strixhaven, who look at Chenris with distain before putting out the fire.
Session 01	Within the ship the Family had to make a deal with Chronovorus to ensure their survival at the cost of their second-born The second-Born became The Ethertwist Haunter
Session 01	The final bell rang out as they opened their eyes, The Ethertwist Haunter had been dispelled. Finally they were able to watch the father, that they had found to accidentally create it getting to hug his now not faceless son.
Session 00	Inside the mansion, they encountered a spectral old man clutching a page and an infant’s decayed body. Using illusions, Mordecai tricked him into relinquishing the page, but the man’s anguish summoned the Ethertwist Haunter. The battle was brutal; the Haunter’s incorporeal form resisted their attacks, and Steve Ulan fell to its tendrils, his screams echoing through the cursed halls. Drache and Chenris managed to retrieve the page, while Kal’s near-death forced Aiden to act swiftly, saving his life. The group escaped through a flaming breach, leaving the mansion to burn as Strixhaven mages arrived to extinguish the blaze. Their silent judgement weighed heavily on Chenris, a haunting reminder of his past. Weary but resolute, the party moved forward, knowing their perilous quest to banish the Haunter was far from over.