The Ixiptla.pdf

A Whispering Vault Hunt by Chris Pramas

Illustrated by Christopher Shy

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T HE I XIPTLA

I NTRODUCTION

This is a short Hunt that I’ve run many times at conventions to intro-

duce people to The Whispering Vault . It usually runs around two and

half hours. I’ve found that a typical four hour convention slot gives me

enough time to let the players create their own Stalkers and then play

this adventure. The historical information used here was taken from the

extremely useful and highly recommended GURPS Aztecs book.

B ACKSTORY

The Unbidden now known as the

Ixiptla crossed into the Realm of Flesh

in the year 1450, attracted to Mexico

by the suffering of a famine and the

grisly Aztec custom of human sacri-

fice. The Ixiptla surely had a plan, had

some reason for crossing the Rift, but

even he cannot remember it anymore.

When he first crossed over and felt the

hunger of the Beast, he had to feed it

with the pain of mortals. He wasn’t

interested in killing his subjects, only

making them feel the pain that the

Ixiptla needed so badly. Usually with

Unbidden, the Beast stage is a danger-

ous time that passes quickly, as does

the hunger. But the Ixiptla enjoyed the

pain so much that he continued to feed,

even after leaving the Beast stage. He

used his regained wits to pursue his all-

consuming passion, and this is how he

became known as the Ixiptla.

The Aztecs had a peculiar custom.

Each year a handsome and fit man was

chosen to impersonate Tezcatlipoca,

the chief Aztec god, for the following

year. This impersonator was known as

the Ixiptla and it was his job to study

divine behavior and to give blessings

to the people. He lived like a god in the

temple of Tezcatlipoca for one year. At

the end of that year, he ascended to the

top of the temple and was immediately

sacrificed by the Aztec priests. After

his living heart was ripped from his

body, his remains were fed to the

Emperor and other dignitaries. No

other human sacrifices were performed

that day.

The Unbidden, having traveled as a

Stranger to Aztec town, learned of the

Ixiptla and quickly determined to

make the Ixiptla his new Vessel. With

his otherworldly powers, this was

quickly done and the Unbidden

installed himself in the Temple of

Tezcatlipoca in 1451. However, at the

end of the appointed year, the Ixiptla

refused to be sacrificed and instead

tore the heart out of the High Priest

instead. Since then, the Ixiptla has

effectively run the town. He now uses

the town as his private reservoir of

pain and his first act was to ban human

sacrifice and banish the priests from

his temple. Killing, he thinks, is a

waste of potential. Much better to keep

them alive and find ever more deli-

cious ways to feel their pain. The year

1452 witnessed the Great Famine, fol-

lowed by a terrible drought. The Ixiptla

was overjoyed by these developments

and intensified their effects in the town

by use of his Life Link. Things have

gone terribly wrong in this unnamed

Aztec town, but only one man had the

strength of will to do something about

it.

T IME

AND P LACE

This Hunt is set in the year 1452 CE

in the great Empire of the Aztecs. The

Emperor is Moctezuma I, a great con-

queror who extended the empire to the

hot Gulf Coast. The culture of the

Aztecs certainly comes a shock to

some 20th century morals, especially

their belief in human sacrifice. The

Aztecs believed, however, that the

first gods had sacrificed themselves so

that the sun might by be created and

kept moving. The blood and hearts

offered up by their priests followed in

this tradition and were necessary in

their eyes to keep the sun rising each

day. Interestingly, the Unbidden has

banned human sacrifice and the

Stalkers, by Binding him and

Mending the Enigma, will be reinstat-

ing a practice many of them may think

barbaric. No one said the Dream was

fair.

T HE C ALL

The Call comes from one of the banished priests, in the

form of a prayer to Tezcatlipoca. His chanting crashes into

the consciousness of one of the Stalkers.

“Mighty Tezcatlipoca, I pray to you in our time of need.

Tell me, o glorious one, why have the sacrifices stopped?

Why doesn’t the blood flow on your altars of stone? The

gods sacrificed themselves so that the Sun might rise, and it

is our sacred duty to do the same. Yet the Ixiptla sits in your

temple while famine and drought ravage the land, and the

your priests hide in fear. Your people suffer, mighty

Tezcatlipoca, the land weeps. Please accept my most hum-

ble sacrifice.”

T HE G UARDIAN

The Stalkers can summon the

Navigator as normal and begin to walk

the Winding Path. The Guardian of

this particular Navigator, however,

takes a rather peculiar form.

As the Stalkers walk the winding

path, they soon see the Barrier up

ahead. The Barrier looks like an enor-

mous jungle gym that is so complex

and interwoven that it creates a virtual

wall. Standing in front of the jungle

gym is a little girl in a sun dress suck-

ing on a lollipop. She is the Guardian.

When the Stalkers approach she says,

“I’m sorry, but you can’t play on my

jungle gym.”

Stalkers may be amused to see a lit-

tle girl blocking their way, but she is

deadly serious. If they try to get by

her, she says, “You can’t play here

unless you have a note from Mom and

Dad.” The Stalkers may try ploys like

Conjuring notes, but what she’s really

looking for is for the Stalkers to show

her their keys. Each Stalker will have

to show her their “note” for her to let

them through. If the Stalkers do not

play along, she hisses and her arms

turn into masses of writhing snakes.

She will fight them if they do not pro-

duce their keys.

Once she has seen everyone’s notes,

she steps aside. A section of the jungle

gym simply swings open, allowing the

Stalker’s to continue. As they pass

through the Barrier, the Guardian says,

“Have fun in the playground.”

T HE S UPPLICANT

The Stalkers appear in a small,

sparsely furnished room made of

stone. The first thing they notice is

that it is incredibly hot here. The sec-

ond thing they notice is the body on

the floor. This is the Supplicant, an

Aztec priest in his feathered robes. He

lies on the ground in a widening pool

of blood with a slit throat. He also

holds a blood covered knife clenched

tightly in his right hand. After deliver-

ing up his prayer, the priest sacrificed

himself to the gods so that his land

might live again.

Stalkers who are masters of Delve

can speak to his dead spirit. He tells

them that the Ixiptla stopped the sacri-

fices and banished the priests, and that

his own final act was an attempt to

gain the aid of Tezcatlipoca. At this

point, the Delving Stalker will relive

the recent self-sacrifice. Have the

Stalker make a Willpower Challenge

Roll with a Difficulty of 12 or lose one

Vitality. Stalkers interested in finding

out what the hell an Ixiptla is can

make a Difficult History Challenge to

find out. Those who make an Average

History Challenge know that they are

in 15th century Mexico and that

Tezcatlipoca was the chief god of the

Aztecs.

The room itself has little of interest,

although there is a window to the out-

side. This looks out onto a square. The

earth outside is dried and cracked and

the fountain in the square is full of

dust. In the distance an large Aztec

temple can be seen.

While the Stalkers are looking

around the priests room or the square,

they hear horrible screams coming

from the building next door.

F EEL T HE P AIN

The Stalkers burst into the small

house to find a man and woman

writhing on the floor and screaming in

agony. At first glance nothing seems to

be wrong with them but any Stalker

who makes an Average Perception

Challenge sees a large bulge sliding

across the man’s stomach, as if some-

thing were moving beneath his skin.

Then both victims bolt upright and

open their mouths up wide. A

Bloodwyrm (Dangerous Prey, page

65) flies out each of their mouths and

attacks the nearest Stalker. These

Shadows appear as large leathery

worm creatures with many tendrils

and hooks on either end of their bod-

ies. This combat should be quick and

easy, but it serves to familiarize the

players with how combat works.

These Bloodwyrms are the minions

of the Ixiptla, which allows the

Unbidden to share in their sensations.

The Ixiptla is using them to taste the

exquisite agony caused when the

Bloodwyrms tear someone open from

the inside. The injuries to the man

prove fatal but the woman is luckier

and the Stalkers can talk to her

B LOODWYRM Combat

Attack by leaping at its oppo-

nent and Boring into their bodies.

(Attack 12, 4D Damage but no

more than two points of Vitality).

Once the bore attack causes a vic-

tim to lose Vitality, it latches on

and begins to feed off his pain

which causes 2D Damage at the

end of every round. Any Stalker

with at least three keys (i.e. most

Stalkers) who loses Vitality to the Bore attack has to make a Fortitude

Challenge against a Difficulty of 12 or lose a die of Dexterity until they

return to the Realm of Essence. [For the purpose of this adventure, you

can forget about this last power if you think it’ll discourage your players.

You want them to have fun their first time out after all.]

Vitality

Initiative

Defend

Perceive

Resolve

(although she is traumatized and her

husband has just been killed). She can

tell them that the drought and famine

are slowly destroying the town and

that the Ixiptla and his four female

attendants run the town from the tem-

ple. If any of the Stalkers are rude to

her, or belittle her grief, she will not

cooperate.

If you do not have Dangerous Prey,

here is a brief summary of the

Bloodwyrm. The stats have been

slightly modified for these particular

specimens.

Fortitude

T HROUGH THE T OWN

The Stalkers should have figured

out by this point that they need to go to

the temple to find the Ixiptla. If they

haven’t figured this out for some rea-

son, mention how that large and

imposing pyramid dominates the

town.

Navigating through town is easy

enough. The streets and markets are

eerily empty. Sometimes the Stalkers

will see someone looking at them out

of window, but these people always

drop from sight when spotted. When

the Stalkers have gotten about half

way to the pyramid, they hear a crowd

up ahead. Continuing on, they come a

wide plaza full of townspeople.

Despite the heat, the locals are gather-

ing in the plaza to watch a strange

spectacle.

Eagle feathers, while they other wears

the skins of Jaguars. They all carry

Macauitl, the wooden Aztec swords

rimmed with sharpened flint or obsid-

ian, and shields. The warriors are

obviously exhausted and each bears

many wounds. It is plain to see that

they’ve been fighting for a long time.

About a half dozen bodies lie motion-

less in the sun in between the two

groups.

An easy Perception Challenge reveals

two cowled figures behind each group.

Even as the Stalkers watch, the cowled

figures begin to push the warriors for-

ward and at each other. The Eagle and

Jaguar warriors stagger forward, obvi-

ously more frightened of the cowled

ones than of their opponents.

Reluctantly, the two bands clash. There

are no war cries or surprise charges. The

warriors just stumble together and

began to fight. As blows are exchanged,

it becomes clear that their Macauitl

have been dulled. The crowd is silent

and watch glassy-eyed, while the

cowled figures make certain that none

of the warriors retreat.

The Stalkers can try to interfere in

any number of ways. When they do,

they discover that the cowled figures

are in fact Pain Mothers (Whispering

Vault, page 109). They are the four

female attendants of the Ixiptla and

they are making sure their master has

more pain to feed on. The Eagle and

Jaguar warriors have been fighting all

day, but they use blunted weapons so

the fights are longer and more painful.

The Pain Mothers really enjoy their

work, and react with hostility to any

interruption. If combat erupts, most of

the spectators and warriors seize the

opportunity to flee, creating a scene of

utter chaos in the plaza. Play up the

confusion and mayhem as the fight

goes on.

Note, however, that the Stalkers can

easily walk away from the plaza. They

do not have to fight the Pain Mothers

at all. In fact, it’s better for them to

conserve their strength for their con-

frontation with the Ixiptla. If they do

fight, you might consider lowering the

number of Pain Mothers depending on

how large your Circle is. Four is the

traditional number of attendants for

the Ixiptla, but don’t let that straight-

jacket you. Challenge the Stalkers but

be sure not to overwhelm them.

E AGLE AND

J AGUAR

The Stalkers see that the crowd has

gathered to watch some kind of ritual

combat. On either end of the plaza are

two groups of Aztec warriors. One

group wears war costumes made of

T HE T EMPLE OF T EZCATLIPOCA

After the encounter with the Pain

Mothers, the Stalkers are free to

approach the great temple. It is of typ-

ical Aztec design, with a over a 50

steps leading to it upper sanctuary.

There are no entrances at ground level.

To go in, one must climb up the steps.

Stalkers who try to Dissipate through

the walls will be surprised to find that

this doesn’t work. They can speculate

as to why this is, but they’ll find out

soon enough.

On top of the pyramid is the

chief sanctuary, a large area under a

red roof that brings the pyramid to its

point. Here is an imposing statue of

Tezcatlipoca himself, and a ceremo-

nial altar stained with blood. On top

of the altar lies the body of the Aztec

High Priest. Closer investigation

shows that his chest has been ripped

open and that his heart is missing.

Despite this, he opens his eyes when

the Stalkers approach and says in a

raspy voice, “Please, let me die....” It

should be obvious that he is the Focus

of the Enigma. Kind Stalkers, or

those who don’t get it yet, may try to

kill this man. No matter what they do,

he continues to live in his heartless

state. Only Binding the Unbidden and

Mending the Enigma will set him

free.

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