Backstory

You will be traveling from far south of Maztica, from the secluded great river near the temple city of Pichu Uma where the sun god lives and rules over all of Lopango. As a noble woman of the Amazon tribes, you bear terrible responsibilities to maintaining the light and keeping it from harm, especially in these says where terrible men in great floating houses can escape their lands to the East and break through the magical barrier known as the Trackless Sea. Blackness and night and all manner of corruption of the light is coming. Even the gods of Maztica are restless and prepare for the defense. Your god has been communing with the peaceful Qotal the Feathered Dragon to the north and they see war and sacrifice as both the True Lands and the Invaders take more and more extreme magical measures to subdue the other. The threat is that other factions will take advantage of this divine battle and seek their own agendas as had happens when the demoness Obsidian Butterfly rules the solar eclipse and neither Sun god can protect Maztica. You know these cosmological battles since angelic blood flows in your veins, though it is much diluted. The desire for justice for the living and the natural world aches and envies that divine power as any one in your position of responsibility would.

I come from a large family with many siblings vying for attention from parents who are loving but overburdened. My father comes from a long line of nobles whose wealth was greatly diminished in his lifetime, due to his refusal to have dealings with the most powerful but unethical merchants in our community. I grew up under the burden of regret and bitterness of my father. He sees me as the child with the most potential to excel in business dealings and regain the family's fortune, but my personal calling pulls me toward the light and it's protection. So, I have sought out training and meditation for the upcoming battle, rather than focus on my family's standing and fortune. Yet, I still feel strongly the sense of justice and duty toward my family and hope that my upcoming place in the battles for the light will secure my place in legend and in the hearts of my parents and my many siblings. My signet ring is focused around the majestic eagle, who soars above the land, keeping a watchful eye, and who is ready to do battle for those in need.

The eagle is the spirit animal for the Eagle Knights who protect Qotal whom I mentioned is the Maztica god for peace and learning and civilization. This, despite the fact that Qotal himself is the Feathered Dragon or in the Payit tongue, the quetzalcoatl. You will be well received in all civilized lands with that signet. I wonder if the ring marks a long standing interest in the Maztica pantheon beyond your Lord of Light in Lopango. Maybe there are black sheep amongst your family that have adventures north, practice the pluma magic and knows the ways of Maztica more than they let on. Know anyone?

Hmm. My father's eldest brother was always suspected to be closely connected with those involved in pluma magic. What was his name again? 🤔

Ah yes. The one who had a foreign sounding name, Aapo. It means father of many nations. Maybe the gods at his naming saw that he would span national boundaries? Or perhaps unite them? Until your father assumed control and withdrew into conservative practices and retreated from such international issues.

He lives in the cliffs of Melchora, where he can keep an eye on the villagers living in the valley, should they need his help. But his home is up a long and treacherous path that dissuades all but the most determined visitors.

That is far indeed. When not in the temple at Pichu Uma, you will be with family in the Capitol. You will need to leave your home on Mt Cuzcalac where the nobles of the Natican have ruled a great city and journey not on a pilgrimage toward holy Pichu Umo where your sun god Intiri resides, but rather to the dark north and the last peak of the Melchora known as Apu Rock

Your uncle Aapo seems to like his residence to have a view of the dark lands to the north, the True World of Maztica. Beware this path as it leads through high jungles filled with Cayma and Drow and Jungle Orcs. Make it there and your uncle will greet you warmly. How do you proceed? Have you prepared your spells from your Druidic spell list? You may desperately need them.

You prepare your spells and feed the wild animals that come up the family manor house, nestled in the breadfruit trees of the royal quarter of the city. Gardens surround you and give you peace, but you feel like a geas has been placed upon you. You had merely thought of your uncle and he called back with a summons. You must go learn more about your signet ring. Maybe it has something to do with your destiny. Maybe it has something to do with the pending dooms that the prognosticators divine. Whatever the reason, you plan to leave this very morning. No time to say goodbye to your dozens of cousins. You pack a days rations and hope to find food along the way. You choose to not prepare the goodberry spell. You may need the other spells more on the three day trek through the jungles. If only you had studied more to take the great walk, to jump from the spirit of one Kapok tree to another, sharing in their wisdom. Experiences like that encourage you to advance in the druidic skills of the shaman rather than the priestly skills of the Light One. Still, you learned the priest guard's weapon of the bolt chucker, what some called the crossbow. You strap that to your back and check the sharpness of your plumastone dagger.

You find yourself walking past the garden walls before you realize you were even leaving. Not a time to turn back. You walk onto the alpaca paths and out of civilization out in the tree line of the great continental divide leading to Rock Aru.

A day passes without seeing much more than a snake or a tukan. Camping in a tree, and you are off on your second day. Then you faced it. A spirit animal of the hishna, that foreign magic of Maztica, a jaguar. He faces you like he has been watching you for hours from his tree limb.

I stop and assess the jaguar. I decide to use Animal Friendship to attempt to calm and befriend it. I also use gust to send a gentle breeze of welcome toward the jaguar.

Looking into the Jaguar’s eyes, you get a brief glimpse of the world around you. There is a great movement of strangers toward a single focus point in the stars. You cannot see beyond that nexus. The Jaguar breaks eye contact with you and his growl turns into a purr. He leaps down to you and nuzzles his head in your hands until they are on his neck. You scratch and he leans and knocks your legs out from under you. Hanging in desperately to his neck he runs his sleek body under you and races with you through the jungle. Time you think is running out. You name the cat Time and smirk.

Up the final hill to your uncles house appears before. It is not possible. You have just left your home and the hills are three days apart. No accounting for Time who pads quickly up the path to the outcrop of rooms grown from the hill itself. Beams for the roof are living trees. Silver wire suspend illuminated pinya cones Your uncles tastes in architecture is quite foreign but beautiful.

Yes, I apologize for just getting back to you. I thought it would notify me when you replied, but I didn't see one, if it did. I should be able to post at least once a day, possibly more. But it depends on the day.

"Yes, the old stories are fascinating, Uncle! I have indeed felt the darkness spreading, and I feel called to pursue more of the Druidic arts upon my journey. In your adventures, did you come across any particular animals or monstrosities in this area that I should be wary of? Any battle stories to share with your niece?"

"Good morning child. I am glad you can sleep in this house haunted with memories. The birthmark will certainly make you stand out in Maztica. It may be true that it marks powers of divination. Perhaps you can try it. Use the signet ring as your focus. Here. Sit. I will make breakfast. The solarium is bright and welcoming and will protect you from the spirits that you may draw out of the Great Pyramid.

I have been following the ship and it has broken free of its original path. It lies in great peril. A newly incarnated god now travels on it, to fend off a threat of darkness, a vampire and her thralls. It is a ship divided. The vampire controls half. The god the other. The vampire has taken the ship into caves of wonder where live a green folk, elves who have transformed themselves into bats to worship the ancient bat gods. The green folk ward a talisman of ancient knowledge. The vampire seeks to use it for evil and extorts the god to take half the crew to retrieve it. The god has been told by Uhti to safe guard it instead. In the village, there could be much blood shed. The ship could be lost, or worse, the vampire may acquire the talisman. The god has a paladin and a wind mage to help in addition to the other half of crew, though more importantly, the god is being awakened into other powers. I cannot see past the god's decisions. Maybe you can." He leave you for the kitchen.

The eagle looks at you and recognizes the verbal components. It screeches. You roll for initiative to see Who reacts first.

You get the spell off first and befriend the beast. Your follow up persuasion check is at advantage because of the charm.

The 21 wins. The eagle bows down and nods to the rock outcrop next to her lowered neck.

As you mount the eagle you realize it is but muscle covered in downy and white feathers. You sink into what you thought was his neck. You are comfortable and need only an easy hold on the feathers to stay aloft with the bird when his great wings lift both of you and you climb and then soar over the mountain.

He looks back as if in question. He screeches softly. You do not understand him in the great wind but you know what he wants. "Where do you go little one?"

I climb atop the outcrop and heave myself onto the mighty eagle's neck. Ili is a bit nervous, but the view is lovely. I request the eagle to provide us with transport to the fountain of Baya, or as close as she can get us. "Also, please stay clear of pirates," I add wistfully.

The eagle takes off with you astride him. He sings his high pitch whine and the clouds break free for him and he lifts up through the low clouds until you can see nothing but clouds ten feet below you and 10,000 miles around. He turns his head, his penetrating eyes see something and he dives through the clouds once more. You are over the coast now. The eagle turns its head slightly and cries for you to look. There is a downed giant eagle on the ground bleeding with wolves threatening.

The range on thorn whip I believe is 10 feet. The range on cure wounds is touch. Care to get closer?

As you look from the tree perch, you notice sled tracks and the evidence of beasts of burden who have made a single file down the middle of this clearing. The eagle is wounded on the wing and has a rope tied around her talons and secured to a boulder. Nearby is a small clump of shrubs. It’s obviously a trap.

As you land near the wounded and bond eagle, the area in a 25' square centered on the downed eagle grows vines and weeds. You direct the vines not to entangle yourself or the eagles. The wolves appear to be instead 3 hunting dogs and they rush to attack. It will take their normal speed to get to the entanglement and there they will be slowed to half speed in their dash toward you. So they end their turn in the weeds., not reaching you while you are trying to cut the rope with your dagger.

You fail to cut all the way through and the dogs attack. Your eagle returns the favor.

Your eagle claws and bites at one dog and kills it instantly. The wounded eagle can only bite but make one dog whelp. The shrubs near you throws off a bough revealing two pirate and a ballista with a bolt equipped with a net. What do you do?

You shoot a thorny vine out from your hands to attack the ballista

It strikes the weapon and hauls it out of the blind toward you for 10 feet. The two dogs attack at your heels. They are trained well.

The dogs miss and get thrown into the beaks and talons of the two eagles. One dies and the other gets hurt and runs provoked a reactionay attack by the eagles which finish off the predators.

The two pirates are unable to fire the balista without it being aimed wild by the thorn whip, so they pick up their armed and ready crossbows and shoot at you.

The bolts miss! You are still unharmed miraculously. What now?

You shoot back of course

and miss!. Nobody gets target points today... Your eagle flies up and launches itself at the two pirates, cutting their shoulders and heads. The pirates aim and fire again at the eagle attacking them.

and miss!. Nobody gets target points today... Your eagle flies up and launches itself at the two pirates, cutting their shoulders and heads. The pirates aim and fire again at the eagle attacking them.

their shots...

... hit the eagle and it screams in pain from two bolts to its chest. You turn.

The eagle is in melee (hand to talon) range of pirates. If it leaves to try to fly, it will provoke an opportunity attack by pirates. You are further back, unless you try to mount eagle and then the same thing applies to you.

Ili will take two round to chew the rope

Sorry, I somehow missed your last two responses before I made mine. Oops!

Casting your spell in front of you, the vines still come up in a 20 foot square area right under the pirates.

They both saved against your spell DC of 12. They are in difficult terrain to get out. You notice that the previous patch of vines that you were concentrating on but stopped to concentrate on the new spell, has disappeared.

The pirates are still faced with the giant eagle so they fire.

One more bolt hit eagle. He screams and claws the pirates. And they fall unconscious.

The monkey has freed the grounded eagle. Both eagles are too hurt to fly.
What do you do?

I run over to the eagle with bolt wounds and cast cure wounds on her. Ili scampers over to check the pirates for valuables. I will use my next turn to snare the pirates in their ballista net.

You are out of initiative and so at your own pace you may do all these things. However, as you try to call upon nature’s spirit to cast healing power onto the eagle, your power fails you. Then you remember you have already cast entangle twice and maybe you didn’t actually cast animal friendship because he was already friendly. You have never before cast more than two spells in a day. But you try again, concentrating very hard. Your heart goes out to the eagle, his eyes filled with pain. You apologize to his great spirit that you can do no more, your own heart breaking with the suffering of this innocent animal. Then it happens. You achieve a new level as a Druid. With it comes another spell slot and the cure wounds spell sends healing power through your hands into the giant eagle, curing him completely of his wounds. With that your power is spent again. The pirates are lifted of 6 jewels, a small painted portrait of a pretty girl, a vial of silvery fluid, some hard tack and a sea shell with a rune on it. You bind them and feed Ili some of the hard tack. The other eagle is loose but still it’s wing is injured.

I updated my character sheet (I think correctly). Now I need to roll for level 2 HP.

I updated by HP as well. Let me know if I need to make edits/changes.

I am about to pull everything together. What do you do now?

The injured eagle cries out and you’d goes by it and looks back at you. He screeches.

The eagles are staying together for protection which leaves you on foot. You know the map well enough to know to go to the shore and follow it north

Have I recharged enough to do Wild Shape?

After a couple of hours you see what look to be seamen coming ashore in long canoes From a sailing ship anchored off shore. Led by a handsome young man in chain mail, there are four others with long bows, swords and baskets and large empty waterskins. What do you do?

No wild shape until you have had a long rest

"Sir, I am the daughter of a noble from a village south of here. I had been travelling on foot because I wished to stop and visit my uncle on my way to Baya. My family, of course, has fine carriages and horses I could have taken, but the climb is a bit treacherous for beasts and carriages in this mountainous region to the south."

He helps you aboard the canoe and has one of the seaman take you to the anchored ship. It is more different than you have ever seen. Once up on deck you see the captain at her wheel and are escorted to her.

The halfling leads down below and past the Kitchen where stone pots cook the food themselves. There is a hatch he opens and a small bunk inside with a chest at bottom for storage. Panes of glass let in the rising dusk sunset.

You can’t tell what is truth and what is a lie.

I pull out my agate that my uncle Aapo gave to me. "I have an item of Tumqua magic as well, Teopocatli. I think I will send my uncle a message." I describe the seashell and the rune upon it and ask Aapo if he knows what it may be for.

It was a bit hard to sleep having never been on a sailing ship before. It seemed there was a noise for everything. The bells constantly sounded and rung in the time and rhythm of watches. The dinner was a rousing affair of drunken pirates singing and joking, followed by the obvious sounds of sex and laughter. It all but rattled your royal sensibilities, yet they seemed like happy folk celebrating some victory.

Rested enough, you awake to hear the signals and calls from off ship. You gather your things and go on deck to see the First Mate Dukalu and Ship Master Poca with oil lamps making signals to a lighthouse which answer in similar semaphores in the dark early hours. The lights of a town lie beyond.

You go with Dukalu and Captain Kitsune into the city. It is still easy enough to find the central square in the dark before dawn, even if it by hearing the play of water where an aqueduct drops ice melt mountain water into various cascading basins.

As you reach the end of the street that empties into the square, you hear the sounds of hoops and howlers, as well as the clank of metal, and the sound of a very young girl crying in fear. Getting to the edge of the dim lit square, torches on the perimeter and the growing dawn approaching, your eyes confirm what you have heard. Five soldiers in plate mail and drawn long swords are pushing around a girl of perhaps 10 years old, who is carrying on her head a large pottery that she has filled at the fountain, the water spilling as she moves back and forth to avoid the men's swords set out to trip her in jest. You hear one of the men yell out in broken Maztica common, "Dance for us squaw!" You can see no one else is in the square and all the shop doors are closed. They are 80 feet from you and are at the center of the square.

Azull glyph on a sea shell

You wake from your sleep with a terrible dream. You feel the presence of the First Man in your near future. He wants another tiloni to use for his wife and he will use the war in Nexal to take it. The darkness spreads to Nexal even to the mothers who die in childbirth.