Game table

The trip is magical. Not only is the party in a flying long canoe fashioned by the few Pochtecas that travel back and forth across Maztica, but the party is a cohesive whole including two very new newcomers that have been welcomed with comradery and healing of wounds. That is simply miraculous in this upset age. Pluma and Hishna brothers have gratuitously fallen in with the quest that pirates and barbarians and dwarves and thieves have outlined as holy and right. They have fist bumped and married and mourned the loss of friends. They have deferred to a mysterious body-possessing Mistress of Darkness and consulted oracles, high priestesses, and renegade Silver Knights, bested vampires, gods and mummies and founded a city under the protection of a befriended minotaur, a wind mage and a necromancer mid wife. They have hatched an egg of the great Quetzalcoatl, battled a sea god on his own black coral ship, and flown on the back of a griffin.

And yet, their first quests remain uninitiated. The Goliath is no where closer to unraveling the legend of the Godslayer, the Dwarf has done nothing to repay Plutoq for his revived life, the sea captains have not recovered the map to the hidden temple of the First Man. These quests are coming to a head as the party narrows in on their spiraling path to the Pyramid of the Gods. Each member of the party seems to have business there, though they have made a path from their initial meeting in Baya to far southern jungles of tabaxi and green folk to plead aid from the heirless King of the One Tree, to Ixta to clear the city of thugs and Loliath the Spider Goddess, to the Capitol of Nexal to protect the Temple of Zaltec.

Now their destination is clear. They seek vengeance for ill magic down to a Pochteca. They head down the skies over the House of Tezca along the footprints of Qotal that he made for the refugees of Nexal after the great Viperhand invasion. Each footprint is now an oasis that the caravans of Huatzi use to carry the betrodden from the war torn capitol to the New Town of Turka, south, very close to the caravan path that Kon had initially taken from his dwarven home to Baya to meet his new friends. There, three cloaked figures from the First Man had sent a message into the land to pull the party to them and trap them. Also, the vampire Elena Lampbright, former captain to Duke and Kit, has sent emissary messages to the mummy king to come lay a trap for the party. She wants the true codex to her map that the party seeks. Without both map and codex, the First Man will continue to hide the location of his temple in Far Payit and keep the Chalice of the Gods for himself. She has returned from Far Payit having tried in vain to use the fake codex that the party had allowed her steal. She seeks both knowledge and revenge. The First Man intends to stop both, and has raised his own army of demons and cultists to stop both the traitor Elena and the party that saved the baby in Quezalici, the town Kon refers to in common as New Dawn.

Here in the sands of the desert, the flying party can see the army campfires and traveling patrols of undead and demon spawn. To the left and east are the dwarven mountains that hide the Pyramid. Ahead to the south rises a small plateau of red stone where the Nexalans have established quickly their town. It does not number more than 10,000 while the capitol still holds a million of trapped tiloni that the Silver Order protect and will not let leave. These 10,000 were the lucky ones that the Eagle Knight Huatzi has managed to save and brought here.

The canoe descends on a market road a couple of leagues from what looks like the town. It has a main wooden tower at the end of the road in a tall wooden palisade behind a rough moat filled with hydra infested waters of the last oasis. The rear of the town backs itself up against the red cliff of the plateau and is fortified with ballista in the caves on its face. Griffins nest the top of the cliff protecting the town from attacks from above.

The canoe does not yield anymore to the commands of Xoch' and Stormslayer and obeys other magics that direct it down into an outpost that surrounds a wishbone shaped wooden cradle. Everything around the smooth cradle is extremely rough hewn and has no niceties that would suggest that the garrison houses itself in the outpost at night, when the roaming undead stirred into civil war prowl at night. The soldiers here are packing and filing out of the outpost in search of shelter in the town. The evening glow of the sun that has baked the party in the open canoe now threatens to leave this world into darkness and terror. The soldiers in the outpost quickly lash down the Pochteca's canoe and watch the strangers with wide eyes. The canoe travelers are no Pochteca. A bannered warrior, his headdress proudly displaying colored talismans and umbrellas of native plumage, is clearly the captain here. He approaches but is silent, resting on his long spear of obsidian stone. He grunts.

The captain regards the fighter who responds with a soldiers respect. "Ah! The great Kon, banner guard for the Dwarves, Lords of the Mountains! I should have recognized you quicker. Is it true that you have the face of Kukul and the butt of Plutoq? The Bishop Imsh has told many tales of your exploits but none so grand as how you exploded your own mule to save the caravan! Well met! My name is Eagle Claw, doorman to Turka. What brings you here in a Pochteca canoe at a time when both the new churches are at each other’s throat. Do you bear peace or arms? "

"Please," says the captain. "Let's talk as we walk. Mighty Kondorragust, I'll take your word and the pledge of the Pochteca's canoe that you are for the True People. I see both pluma and hishna and other magics amongst you that I am not familiar with, but hurry. Into the gates, as such they are against this evil night." The captain leads the party up the road to the moot. The dusk deepens into a purple hue and the howl of the night increase on the nerves of the guard, despite being steeled as a pluma soldier. As you approach the palisade on the drawbridge, those not used to Yahcah magic, immediately marvel at the growth of river water trees that organically formed both bridge and fence. There are gaps in the growth for arrow slits, but for the most part, the wood looks strong and dense. Seeing the adventurers gasp at the military architecture, he glows and explains. "Aye, she is a marvel, this new town. We had to fortify her quickly to protect the original caves where we hid against the House of Tezca horrors. We had to resort to jungle magics known by Green Folk guides who taught us the ways of the One Tree. The dwarves refused to help us with any Tumqua stone magic, and the Goliaths of the mountains keep themselves too remote in the mountains to the west. Otherwise there was no building material besides sand and sandstone. Even plumastone was unavailable. But by the grace of Qotal, we had the oasis and its water here in this vast land of fire and undead. With it, we could grow trees and direct them into the shape of the town you see. Thanks to you Kon and Huatzi, we could trade our mineral riches for other building supplies in the western sea port of Baya. Many thanks, great Kon." He waves the city guards to part the trees to allow passage and the party enters a lush garden of wooden houses. Amongst these, there is no keep or castle, but in the center of two districts in the small town are two great churches and no temples. The church on the left is hewn of black wood and rises with spires and filigree arches. The one on the right is mud made, with brightly colored lime washes and domed rotundas and cupolas. "Now that we are safely inside, I can tell you, Master Kon, Huatzi is not here. The churches have assumed leadership in the town, but we are as split as the desert right now. We fare well, but are anxious. The undead do not attack us directly. They position themselves for some sort of civil unrest and bide their time for some event, as yet unknown. Perhaps you can get a better idea from the town ecclesiastic leaders than a lowly captain of the outpost such as myself." Children run about but are called to hearth by their mothers. It is late. Dinner smells abound. More of the men go to man the walls, for night comes.

After a moment where the party had come to some sort of consensus, Eagle Claw comes back over and points over to a road that leads to one of the cave entrances a the rear of the wooden town. He tells you that the older residences are there inside the plateau and there will be a glyph outside the door that will tell you that you have arrived at the one and only inn in town. Walking past the closed shops on this road through town on its sandy path and under the overhangs that grow magically created tree boughs where each store's merchant live, you see some 40 feet ahead, a commotion. What looks like a ruffian in tattered robes is harassing a pair of brightly dressed merchants closing one of the last shops to the night. There are a few other townsmen scurrying along the road to meet curfew, but they pay no attention to the scene that unfolds before the adventurers. No alarm has been sounded and the scuffle has come to blows.

In the shadows on the other side of the street is a shadow of a figure.