Game table

Xoch' tries to hide his alarm and keep his voice calm, but it was difficult. This... this needs to be treated right away. He helps the man sit down and get comfortable, but doesn't leave his side. This situation was strange and I'm worried he'll behave irrationally if given the chance.

To the merchant, What is this thing? What happened to you?

He glances to his companions hoping that they would be able to help.

Tēcuani watches the entire exchange stoically, hardly stirring apart from an occasional flick of the tail. The tabaxi doesn't even react when the adventurers begin ganging up on the suspicious-acting Pochteca. When the obsidian shard in the man's are is revealed the jaguar knight seems to take an interest, peering at it with his mismatched eyes. But still he says nothing.

"That shard must be removed," the jaguar knight growls, "but I strongly suspect just yanking it out will end the man's life. Or worse."

"May I see that scroll?"

If Noone can read the scroll, I'll try my comprehend spell.

"I suppose these Silver Knights never made it to the Mummy King then, if you intercepted them and obtained the message. I'm guessing the Mummy King is King Barchedatl, who was banished in death from Nexal. The message is from Elena? In Abyssal? Is the Church of Dusk something we should be concerned about, and is this the very Elena Lampbright, our friendly pirate nemesis? These Elenas are both after our Codex.

If this is really the vampire Elena with the green aura scroll case who wants the Mummy King to take the hairy beasts to the pyramid, whose green aura obsidian splinter is wanting us to go to Turka instead?"

Kit sighs heavily. "I believe the only way to find out may be to go there." Looking at Quixti, she gets down with Xoch' to see if it's possible to remove the shard from him without killing him. She's not keen on leaving him here if this thing is causing him harm.

The half elven beauty, sinister in her own ways of the world, had taken to the idea of being an avatar for the Goddess of Love. Even in her more devious ways though, she was ever protective of the weak and the loyal. She looked upon the infected arm of the Pochteca and agreed with Xoch' diagnosis. This shard in the Pochteca's hand fused with his blood stream and was magically controlling him.

Her husband feels the pain in her heart for this poor man. Whoever put this splinter here, did so with the careless disregard for life that bespeaks evil. Duke lays a hand on Kitty's shoulder and the other on the pommel of his sword. With sad eyes he speaks to Kitty and Xoch', "I believe I may be able to help."

Her eyes quickly went to her husband's, excited by the words, only to feel a pit in her stomach at the sight of his sadness. Fearing the words being heard by the man, she questions him telepathically.

Alarmed, he quickly nods his head no.

Wordlessly, she nods her head before moving to the man’s other side and taking his hand in hers. She begins to charm him, hoping the suggestion spell will help ease the situation. Gently, she urges, "It would be wise if you didn’t look over at my husband and what he is doing until he is done. You will feel a pinch and then it’ll be over."

Looking around to the rest of the party and then to the man's eyes gazing into his wife's charms, her Knight considers the thought of jealousy but dismisses it. He will be the one gazing dreamily into those eyes again tonight, and he knows there is no reason to fear them or their loyalty. Still, Duke checks with the pensive eyes of the party to make sure they understand the mercy he is about to perform.

Giving death as a warrior and healing as a Goddess's sworn paladin was never a contradiction to the Knight. He was always a mass of contradictions. He wears the silver Aumish metal plate over his sword arm and shoulder with its high ridges to prevent decapitation This strange metal is the style of the far flung Faerunian countries he had traveled in and where he had grown accustomed to strange fashions and ideas. There, in those strange lands, he had met a half elf tavern girl named Sune and fell in love with her, but the tragedy of that time was wiped from his memories for many years. On the other side of his body, his foreign attire is matched by a more traditional bare shoulder blazoned with the colorful inks of the Quetzalcoatl Winged Serpent of Qotal, to whom he had begun training as a paladin. His privileged youth as a temple boy was tragically altered by his years as a pirate under the iron fist of the vampire Elena Lampbright and marked by his pirate's burial-gold earring. Now, he is marked by the orange feather in his hair that Kitsune Calypso had given him as a marriage present. To her, with undying love, he looks, as he draws his sword quietly. He lights it with searing radiant flame. Duke casts a burning smite spell on his next action and swings it in an arc to the Pochteca. With a thud, Dukalu of Ulatos breaks the man's bone in a clean swipe at the bottom of the elbow, searing the blood. Dropping the blade and falling onto his knees, Duke lays his hands on the severed elbow and seals the skin about the cut with his healing grace.

Allowing Kitty a moment to hug the man, Duke reaches for the arm still seething in glowing evil and wraps it in a cloth. Getting up, he looks to Kon, "Dear Sir, may I have the privilege of putting this message in your Bag of Colding, so that we may deliver it fresh to its sender? Let us use our blades to open a dialogue with his flesh and insert our opinion therein?

I believe we need to make haste. To the Pyramid or to Turka?"

Of course, I'll be happy to insert my opinion many times . Here, let me store that wretched thing away.

I take the corrupted appendage and carefully store it in my bag.

You did well with that Dukalu.

"Thank you Kondorragust, bondsman."

"If someone from Turka can do this to someone with no regard for their life, then I think we should pay them a visit and teach them a lesson."

"Well then. Does no one speak against my wife's suggestion? We are to take this Pochteca's canoe and travel exactly to the place the shard wanted us to go. It makes little difference, since on the Temple to Zaltec's steps, we used the Wand of Azul and discovered that Elena lays in ambush at the Pyramid. It seems our adversaries know we are coming one way or the other. Into battle, shall we?

To Turka and see the refugee city that Huatzi has established in the House of Tezca and where we are told by the shard, the Quetzalcoatl lies." The Knight pulls the canoe forward, takes his favorite seat in the middle and offers a hand to Kitty.

"The shaman has done well by his word and provisioned us with food and water for the trip, though I must say, flying is certainly first class."

Xoch' is not squeamish, and fully supported the paladins actions, but he winced at the swiftness of the strike that removed the mans arm and the strange crystal. He considered the options that lay before them, and felt he could be true to his god whichever he chose, as long as he sought to destroy the evil spreading over the land.

I agree with Kitsune. We have hopefully removed their advantage of surprise thanks to this good mans sacrifice. Let us see that those who work this kind of evil do not live a day longer than necessary.

The merchant stands up with Kitty's help and then walks with her to the canoe. "My apologies and my thanks, adventurers. You came here simply to be provisioned and hail a ride with me. Fate turned on you when the Silver Knights disturbed the mummy's curse of King Barchedatl below. It seems that it was neither the Silver Order nor man's greed that is solely at fault for this. The troubles of the House of Tezca have already tried to thwart your plans and they have certainly disarmed me." He looks down at his wholly healed amputation, but his face still winces at the memory. "I admire your skill at arms, Sir Duke, but I wished it never had been necessary. It was not a contest of arms that brought me into this trouble. It was my own pride at bartering. I fell into negotiations with the wrong sort in the port town of Yahoaoko on the far eastern coast of the desert, where the House of Tezca meets Azul's Sea. I thought they were strange jungle folk, shaman by their manner, but I fear they were an evil sort of necromancer who deal too closely with the First Man. They offered me magic for my wares. They said that the shard would give me great powers. Instead, it held power over my mind. They did keep repeating the name of the town Turka, as that was where I supposed the three of them were heading. You must forgive me. It is only now that I can remember them and their trickery. If the Temple of the First Man is involved with this and there is another vampire that intends to steal from him, then there may be a clash of vampires, the likes of which we have never seen. There were prophets of Uhti in the streets of Yahoaoko that foretold of the world's end with all this strife. I may believe it. That would be enough to throw the desert folk into a civil war. The dwarves of the mountains surrounding the Pyramid and now the new town of Turka, full of Nexalan refugees will be in the middle of it. I wish you all good luck in your quest and pray to Qotal that you should survive it. Please, take the canoe. Just send it on its way back when you are done.
It knows its way back to me. It is the least I can do."