Character development

There are a few hairy corpses that now form rugs of undead on the edges of the shadows, but it is not those beasts that move. Out from the shadows, a man limps out, his foot mangled and poorly splinted, his eyes round, his hand full of powder and the gnarled wood twig in his other hand pointed toward the elf bard that called out. Behind him and on his left, with a Mācuahuitl sword held high is a Tabaxi Jaguar, similar to the cats that plague Jacob's home jungle but more jaguar like and dressed in jaguar armor. On the other side of the man is a Quetzaldaun, more owl than man, and with the markings of a Qotal plumaweaver. They all stand menacing the strangers that walked into their hideout. No word is spoken.

As the tension builds in the temple room, a little girl runs out of the shadows, laughing and dashing into the arms of Huatzicahualtumila, the Eagle Knight who squats to the floor to receive her hug. It is Camihuatl, the girl with the water vase, that had brought the party together in the first place, those weeks ago in the fountain square of Baya, so far south and on the coast from here. "Huatzi! My mother foresaw I'd see you in the House of Tezca!"