Under the Floating Manse

Plot points/Scenes

Components

Goals

The objective is to discover the identity of a possible serial killer amongst the nobles of a rich and powerful Campa.

Hooks

Scores of servants and people of minor importance have been disappearing on and off over the course of several months. There is no great alarm within the government bureaucracy as it is so infrequent as explained away as runaways. However, individual noble ladies have seen to begin separate investigations for personal concerns.

Either as

1. a recently purchased slave knowledgeable in languages and potion mixing tasked with investigating the disappearances in their mistress's staff.
2. a military attaché from the K'ayib Calpolli aiming to fulfill a request from some favoured students back in Sangsalgu Proper to locate a missing classmate.

All the characters mentioned above are servants or lower tier non-locals within the local hierarchy and as such, are only in the district for a limited time. They have three weeks to solve the mystery before they are reassigned new duties elsewhere by their superiors. So, it is possible to leave without having solved the case.

Moral Quandaries

Trial by Ordeal

Making a false accusation or accusing someone without sufficient evidence can result in your being subject to some painful ordeal. This can include consuming a poison untreated, holding fire or submitting to a heavy weight.

Success is determined by luck rolls. If you pass, then the accused suspect is punished. If not, then the ordeal will kill the PC.

Gladiatorial Contest

Accusing anyone, whether rightly or wrongly, without sufficient evidence can result in a trail by combat where you and another warrior in the accused's employ will fight. This will include fighting bare foot, unarmoured and live glass studded Maquahuitl Sword.
Where the winner will be proof of their case.

Cruel Tricks

Certain death can await anyone in this world for arbitrary reasons for religious purpose under normal conditions.
However, this can be expedited against the protagonists if a suspect suspects that they are being looked for.

Human Sacrifice

1. Drowned
2. Thrown off cliffs
3. Pierced by arrows
4. Sicced on by animals
5. Straggled
6. Flint knife on a ceremonial alter

Relations

Protagonists

Bor’n’halle

Bor is a eunuch slave from the Northern Range purchased for his skills as a herbalist in the state gardens and in the palace kitchen. When on duty he is often in the company of Necahual to cook in her private rooms or in managing her collections. Off duty, he is still often in her company or completing tasks on her behalf. Necahual seems to have developed a dependence on him with her husband being away for much of the time.

Anacaona

Golden Flower is an archer woman from K'ayib Calpolli trained to kill intended sacrificial victims for ceremonial purposes. She has pale yellow skin that marks her as a descendent from the wight war's captured tinged girls. This affords her a level of kinship with Necahual who she visits and intends to escort back to Sangsalgu Proper.
Anacaona was petitioned by her sponsorees to look for their child friend whose presence was reported missing by the commoner family hosting her.

Allies

Olli

Intended as Yoliy's replacement once he leaves for the Sacred Precinct at the half way point. Olli is smaller than Yoliy so can experience difficulty in carrying too much or heavy stuff.

Depending on how the players progressed with some influential person, Olli will be given to the players as an assistant. If they have not, then Olli is given over to Nama to help with his non-academic duties.

Necahual

Cuicacui's foreign born wife, and mother of his heir, has an expensive hobby in a collecting foreign gems. She is also a fantastic cook; often spending alot of her time experimenting with exotic ingredients for mīchin mōli recipes that she sells to other nobles.
Her husband travels throughout the alliance as part of his job and leaves her in either of his estates in Atzacualco or Tetzcotzinco. Necahual is a nervous woman which has made it difficult to fully connect with her contemporaries; and is further exasperated with her tinged skin.

She does not believe that members of her household walked out of their jobs, as others have proposed, and is preparing to move her and her remaining staff to her Atzacualco apartments within the coming three weeks.

Cuitlaxaochitzin

An old drunk, jaguar veteran and philosopher from the Āmatlahcuilo school of thought who services both the Tetzcotzinco Cuicacalli and Calmecac as a teacher and private tutor.

He is an alternate option for checking the curriculum schedule.

Tlexictli

Meaning the Fire Navel, Tlexictli is a retired jaguar who manages the comings and goings of the campa's merchant canoes and cargo carrying mace turtles.

He is the first point of contact for the arriving player characters.

Neutrals/Bystanders

Namacui

Meaning "Husband Song", Nama is new student arrival from Atepehucan. His course timetable will be the time tracker that marks the time the investigators have to solve the mystery. He also has other responsibilities such as tutoring, servicing First Lady Tolana and drawing commissions to supplement tuition.

It is imperative that players meet and keep up to date on his progress to determine how much time is left before the investigators are reassigned.

Citlalmina

An atepehucan prostitute who specializes in catering to graduates. Citlal's name means 'meterorite', for she burst onto the scene three years prior from Mist Valley. Her reputation ranges from mixed to subdued since she does not overtly showcase herself in the strict sang society. Yet she is particular well known for a prostitute because, it is rumoured, that she was the first sexual encounter for many influential men during their boyhoods.

As such, she can be a channel for communicating or influencing noble support.

Chalchiuhhua

The Head Gardener of the Great Garden responsible for tending the blacken hedge maze, the fruiting trees and as jailor for the condemned. Chalchi has worked in the garden for near twenty years and has become a fixture of the landscape in the eyes of the nobles.

Thus, he can grant particular insight into the personal dynamics between noble individual, provided he can be befriended.

Competitors

Cuitlaxaochitzin

Cuitlax, the 'Guts Drunk', is a iztanamacaque with renowned skills in salt spells. She exists within a legal grey area as a warrior. While recognized to be on par with the Jaguar and Eagle Orders, she has not been afforded the equivalent legal rights on account of her sex.
She is, and has been, aggressively challenging these restrictions. Sometimes, going as far as to act on them regardless. For instance, Cuitlax is known to take on many younger lovers at the same time in an apparent reflection of the multiple marriage rights given to higher military orders. Such reports would normally be followed by harsh repercussions. But there are other factors working in Guts Drunk's favour. Solving the disappearances can only add to her reputation in getting the common people on her side.

Yoliyamanipilli

Yoliy was roughly nine years old when his family sold him to the bureaucracy in hopes of improving his future prospects. For three years he has acted as a servant in the speaker household and is about to be transferred to the Great Temple of Tonatuih as a water mouse in one and a half weeks. But before he leaves, he wants to help resolve the disappearances of people he personally knew and to also show to his patrons how much more useful he could be.

Adversaries

Suspects

Who the ultimate perpetrator is would be decided by the GM from the list of three. Each one has there own motive, method and reward for success but fell free to mix and match as you deem fit.

Zyacoatl

An arrogant noble from the Tenula Peninsula in the disreputable Tenayuca Campa. He regularly visits the island's slave market to deliver the most beautiful slaves he can find back to his own manse. His seizure, though justified, would lead to a political schism between the noble tenayuca council and the Advisory Assembly. One certainty is the partial confiscation of Zyacoatl's property on the peninsula being offered to the player characters including his former mansion, paid house staff, slaves and fishing revenues.

Motive

Tenayuca nobles are used to acting unlawfully in their own campa. This nobleman commits these acts to simply see if he can get away with it.

Method

Zyacoatl has ready access to various exotic poisons stored in his private villa home. He travels with tiny containers in his pockets wherever he goes to feel powerful.

Tlapaltecatl

Distinguished with his red eye piece, Tlapaltecatl is the tlatoani of Tetzcotzinco Campa. He traces his decent from the Narin bloodline which makes governing the native population easy. He is generally seen as fair in the courts and politically savvy enough to outplay even the Great Speaker. His outing, though justified, would not lead to Tlapaltecatl's arrest as popularity and claims of combating enemy spies can lead to the populace turning against the characters; potentially becoming marked as criminals themselves. Tlapaltecatl will offer gifts in the form of:

• 40 of finely and richly embroidered cotton mantles
• 40 crimson skirts
• 40 hand decorated blouses
• a bolt of quachtli two arms wide and 200 paces long
• a bale of rough, unworked obsidian rocks
• a sack of 200 cacao beans
• a sack of axe money made from tin and copper worth 800 cacao beans each*
• a cluster of 4 charms

In return for their continued discretion and potentially entering into his service since the characters proved their abilities in their determining the culprit.

Motive

Tlapaltecatl is aiming to remove purported spies belonging to his political rivals or enemy agents from Otoerm Coil.

Method

Tlapaltecatl calls the supposed spies while they are alone to meet in a lonely room where his loyal guards dispose of them in semi-obvious ways, as a message to those who sent them.

Chīmalmichin

The sea turtle is Tlapaltecatl's child bride and as such will not consummate their marriage until she comes of age. Until then, he dotes on her with rare gifts and special favours. One indulgence is a series of tuskin styled statues that decorate several rooms and corridors in her apartments. Her seizure, though justified, would lead to the players banishment from Tetzcotzinco soothed by inclusion into the pochteca class in their first trade mission or a stable position in the precinct's bureaucracy.

Motive

Sea turtle carries an obsession with the tuskin statues in the atotonilco abyss and endeavors to recreate them for her own admiration.

Method

Sea turtle colludes certain members of her household staff into luring victims into her home and entombing their body into similarly sized statues

Backdrops

Locations

Market Palace

A giant multi-level complex for government offices and private residences for the most important officials and their entourage. In the past, it was the Narin king's manse and originally contained a yellow honeycombed vaulted ceiling that displayed a painted history of the family line.

Most of the protagonists, allies, neutrals, competitors and adversaries can be found here as part of their lodgings or workplace.

Great Tetzcotzinco Garden

The great garden is really two gardens: One, the circumferential loop is to provide a recreational area for families on picnic, outside school classes or simply as a lounge area. Second, the inner area is grimly maintained as a tortuous prison to the highest lawbreakers.
The area covers several waterways as part of the chinampas of the central garden beneath the city. Several waste basins and sewer lines fertilize the hedges above and where gases fermenting in the waste water, rise into a victim's breath which alters their perception of their environment and themselves.

The outer perimeter is a common alternate classroom setting for Nama's courses which may otherwise take place on the north wing of the palace.

Market Temple

Resting on its own island; the titular temple is the one to Yacatecuhtli (the nose lord). Formerly a palace to the only other rival monarch on the lake, its large rooms and spacious quads now hold court to daily shops and stalls. Most rooms, particularly on the lower 4 levels, are sectioned into smaller claustrophobic rooms full of various wares, so business is typically struck and finalized in the open crowded hallways.
Unlike the rest of the complex, the upper 3 floors kept the décor and grandeur and uncluttered apartments to service the nobility and the rich.

Servants are usually sent to acquire products for their masters, but the temple is able to uniquely services the elites who can make the climb and spend a day.

Encounters

Incarnates

An important aspect of sang tradition is the impersonation of deities. Priests or otherwise specially selected individuals would be dressed up in the likeness of a specific deity. Incarnates are venerated as the actual physical manifestation of the god they represent until the inevitable end.
He is chosen a year in advance after the previous incarnate is sacrificed and given a 'performer's education' including courtly speech, singing, playing a musical instrument and a god's finery. There are two incarnates in the campa:

1. Ixcuiname is the Xochiquetzal Incarnate in training for the following year. She is restricted to her study under constant guard while doing the years worth of the performer's education.
2. Matlalihuitl is the current the Tezcatlipoca Incarnate, so spends most of his time parading through the populace with music and song and entertaining nobles with his wit and culture.
   Incarnates are not so subject to the laws and that is the envy of even the nobility. If the players befriend an incarnate they can become apart of his entourage and can get away with entering any restricted section including offices, noble apartments and temples.

Plot type

Timed Murder Mystery

Related Characters

• Cuicacui
• Necahual

Related Organizations

• Oztomecintli
• Pochteca Courts
• The Parlour
• Triple Alignment

Related Locations

• Dike of Cranotuilloil
• Great Tetzcotzinco Garden
• Mixed Lake
• Tetzcotzinco

Victims

• Visitor Chipahuani
  • Youngest member of the Parlour
  • Vanished outside the palace grounds

  • Connected to Anacaona, Cuitlaxaochitzin, Ixcuiname and Chīmalmichin

• Messenger Yeyac
  • Strapping lad with ideally long legs for running between cities and towns
  • Thought to be on a long-term assignment outside the campa

  • Connected to Namacui, Yoliyamanipilli, Tlapaltecatl and Tlexictli

• Gardener Xali-Otli
  • Young under-gardener of the market palace
  • Never returned for work one morning

  • Connected to Cuitlaxaochitzin, Chalchiuhhua, Tlapaltecatl and Olli

• Nemalhuili
  • Joyous wife to a prosperous amanteca
  • Drunk a corrosive substance used for cleaning

  • Connected to Necahual, Zyacoatl, Chīmalmichin and Namacui.

Accusation Mechanics

Within the given timeframe, players have to deduce, through role playing, who they believe may be responsible. However, before can make an accusation they have to build a good connection with at least one character from the nobility.
This is because all the protagonists are of lower influence than those they might be investigating.
Without that backing, the protagonist or the suspect can active the option for Trial by Ordeal or Combat which require heavy helpings of luck or skills respectively.
Alternatively, if players agree on a single suspect, they can combine their social connections to active a trial where players present their evidence. Whether or not the protagonist(s) are right, they cannot make a second accusation and will instead move on to their normal duties/assignments elsewhere.

Namacui Class Schedule

There are twenty days in a week.
Every day last three rounds.

Date	Nepantla Tonatiuh (Morning)	Onaqui Tonatiuh (Afternoon)
Cipactli		Citlalcóatl
Ehēcatl	Demon of the Air
Calli	Free	Day
Cuetzpalin		Under the Earth's Skin
Cōātl	Totonac Legend
Miquiztli	Xiuhpohualli
Mazātl	Xiuhpohualli
Tōchtli	Free	Day
Ātl		Codex Laud
Itzcuīntli		Codex Laud
Ozomahtli		Codex Laud
Malīnalli	Free	Day
Ācatl	Chinampas of Xochimilco	Chinampas of Xochimilco
Ocēlōtl	Chinampas of Xochimilco	Chinampas of Xochimilco
Cuāuhtli	Free	Day
Cōzcacuāuhtli	Ocarina Workshop	Occeppa
Ōlīn	Sorcerers of the Fifth Heaven
Tecpatl		Tuskin Legacy
Quiyahuitl	Tonalamatl
Xōchitl	Tonalamatl

Return to the starting date and cycle through the curriculum two more times to complete the three week period.

Other Potential Victims

• Princeling Pactli
  • Smug son of the lord of Atepehucan
  • Arrives by special request
• Carver Tlatli
  • Staff member of the Narin Household
  • Arrived for work before Nama from Atepehucan
• K'ayib archer Tlazohtzin
  • Anacaona's travel companion
  • Arrives for the same reasons as Anacaona
• Assistant Olli
  • Tends to get lost in dense crowds
  • Can fit in almost any narrow opening

Extra Information

— Regarding Conflict