Amokuali Temple

The Amokuali Temple is an ancient Azcelani religious site located in East Carrouban, situated approximately sixteen hours by foot from the settlement of Freeport. It is home to a Death Bat.

In Y17, the Conquistadors (16P) stumbled across the site and took over the area. When the Conquistadors (16P) originally arrived and took over the area, they saw the temple and wanted to convert it into a temple to Caelor (and in doing so, had killed the local Azcelani who had protested at the time, of course). At the time, it was a temple that was, for reasons unknown to the Conquistadors (16P) at the time, completely abandoned at night time, and no Azcelani would dare go near once the sun had set. Some time after the Conquistadors (16P) set up a building site there, one night came and a lot of Conquistadors (16P) died mysteriously, with their heads removed from their bodies. None who entered the temple at night survived. The area was considered unholy, and abandoned mid-build, with the remains of the building site still present.

At some point between Y17 and the present day (Y120), the Death Bat was in some way sealed into a stone form in Amokuali Temple - as a statue. Eventually an Azcelani was able to seal the Death Bat away. However, because of its reputation as a cursed site.

The Death Bat is currently sealed in Amokuali Temple. It can only be freed if blood is spilled inside the temple.

The Death Bat is unable to leave the temple, even when out of its form. During the day, it disappears from the physical world, but reappears at night.

Access from Freeport

Reaching Amokuali Temple from Freeport involves difficult jungle and bog terrain.

The journey on foot was estimated at approximately sixteen hours. Travelling part of the way by river could reduce the overall journey to roughly nine to twelve hours, but still required an inland approach and navigation through the bog.

A Swooping Terror offered a much faster route. Lazarro Altaviti estimated approximately an hour each way if the mount was pushed, with a longer journey if it rested.

These estimates depend on route, weather, and means of travel.

Entrance doors

The temple entrance consists of enormous carved stone slabs without ordinary handles or ring-pulls.

Their heavy hinges are arranged so that gravity encourages the doors to swing shut. Keeping them open requires sustained effort or a suitable prop.

Stone projections around the entrance resemble hooked hands or supports for a beam, so that a beam can be placed on them to hold the door shut from the outside.

During the expedition of May Y120, occupants secured the doors from within using chains apparently salvaged from the abandoned Conquistadan building works. These chains were a later addition, rather than part of the original Azcelani structure. These chains were subsequently removed.

See Treasures Age Old - Session 8 Player Recap.

Inner sanctuary

A descending passage leads past desecrated statues into an enormous chamber whose ceiling disappears into darkness.

The sanctuary contains a stepped plinth that supported the crystalline form of the Death Bat. Lines and geometric channels cut into the floor converge upon it. During the creature’s awakening, these channels carried spilled blood towards the plinth.

Carvings depict kneeling figures, severed heads, raised priestly hands, and bats emerging into a house of darkness. Some were damaged by Conquistadan tools during the attempted conversion of the temple.

Large numbers of ordinary-sized bats inhabit the ceiling.

See Treasures Age Old - Session 8.5 Player Recap.

Awakening of the Death Bat

During the night of 06–07/05/Y120, blood spilled in the temple following the stabbing of Little Foot awakened the Death Bat. Blood travelled through carved channels towards its statue, and the creature emerged from its crystalline Mutite form.

The resulting massacre left numerous dead within the temple. Survivors sheltered in its pipes until dawn.

The Death Bat ceased actively attacking by dawn, but was not defeated. Whether it returned to statue form or became dormant in some other fashion was not established. The temple should not be assumed safe or the creature securely resealed.

Pipe system and mutite resonance

The temple’s elevated pipes provided refuge during the Death Bat’s awakening. Survivors concealed themselves inside the narrow cylindrical spaces until dawn. The pipes are difficult to enter, and poor positioning can leave a person trapped.

The system also produces musical notes through mechanisms including pedals.

See Treasures Age Old - Session 8.5 Player Recap.

The storm has not broken so much as gathered itself around the hill.

Ahead, rising out of the wet black-green jungle, you see the shape of Amokuali Temple: a dark stone pyramid squatting above the bog, its steps slick with rain, its upper shrine half-swallowed by shadow. Lightning flashes, and for a heartbeat the whole structure appears in hard white detail: old Azcelani carvings, broken Conquistadan scaffolds, rotted beams, abandoned stonework, and the remains of a road leading down toward a half-collapsed bridge.

Then the light is gone, and the temple becomes a silhouette again.

The air smells of rain, mud, old leaves, and wet stone. Around the hill are the remains of some long-abandoned attempt to rebuild or convert the place: tools left to rust, timbers gone soft with rot, blocks half-dressed and never moved. Whatever work was begun here ended suddenly, and nobody came back to finish it.

There are no welcoming fires. No obvious guards. No singing, no shouting, no lanterns in the doorway.

Just the temple, dark against the storm.

And somewhere in the thunder, you remember the scraps from Bennett’s books: bats, severed heads, things from another age, and the kind of place sensible people leave alone after sunset.