Mage the Awakening: Grimoire - The Map of the Thousand Roads of Xibalba
Forgotten Lore - Issue 3
Background
The Map of the Thousand Roads of Xibalba is not a normal map, and takes the form of an ornately carved jade mask. The map is partly on the mask, and partly seen while wearing the mask. The carvings of the mask are said to depict a number of things. For some it is a map of the night sky, and of the Milky Way and the constellations that represent the celestial beings of the tales of the Maya. The carvings also appear more like tendrils of a tree, and so is representative of the tree of life. But the carvings could also represent the corridors and passages ways of the underworld, Xibalba, the ‘place of fear’. Of course the term Xibalba refers to the dark patch seen when viewing the Milky Way in the night sky, the interstellar clouds of celestial gas which to the Mayans appeared as a dark rift in the heavens. Of course to the Awakened this may be half the truth, for some see the rift as a physical manifestation of the rift between worlds created by the destruction of the celestial ladder.
The mask was discovered by the mortal archaeologist Dr Wilson Fraiser, of the Harvard, in 1931. He and his team had been seeking to emulate the discoveries of their contemporaries, such as Ian Graham who discovered the site of El Mirador. For weeks Wilson and and his team hacked their way through the dense jungle of Guatemala. The dangers of poisonous animals, disease and local tribes cause harm and death to the research team. But, at their wits end, and near lost, the team came upon a valley, unlike any they had expected to find. Before them was a almost desolate plane. No vegetation grew in the dark, volcanic soil, and the skies seemed ever overcast, shielding the land from the sun, even at the height of noon. At the centre of the valley stood the ziggurat, a pyramid of immense proportions, which to the scholarly eyes of Wilson seemed familiar to the designs of the Egyptians or the temples and tombs of the Mesopotamians. The tomb was almost as tall as the Queen’s pyramid at Giza, and and was constructed from dark stone that upon close inspection was inscribed all over.
The team negotiated their way up the pyramid and found their way in. The team used dynamite where human strength alone could not move the megaliths that blocked their way to the treasures they hoped filled the tombs within. 3 days the team spent on the parched plane, and they had some luck in that time in deciphering the hieroglyphs that adorned the black megalithic structure. Many were indecipherable to Wilson and his team, the text of course being Atlantean in nature, and so beyond their ken. But some of the text was a form a proto Mayan language, and they were able to ascertain that they were in as the Gate of Hun-Came.
The night before the day of the great discovery in the tomb, Wilson was plagued by nightmares. He saw the twisting tunnels of Xibalba, the dead that roamed them, the domains of the dead kingdoms and their mortuary lords. The dead sorcerer, Hun- Came whispered to him, and in the night Wilson delved into the depths of the tomb. He came upon the sarcophagus of Hun-Came, and within the ominous stone coffin was the desiccated corpse of the long dead lord of the underworld, and upon his face sat the jade death mask.
The death mask and Wilson’s journal arrived in Harvard in 1948. Wilson and his team were presumed missing and more than likely dead. The onset of WWII had diverted the attention of the authorities, and Wilson and his team were forgotten about, until the arrival of the mask and the journal. The journal itself was dismissed as the mad ramblings of a feverish scholar. Within the mixture of Cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian and Mayan, there were also the maddening glyphs of Atlantis. However, the mask was another matter. It was unique and perfectly preserved and a noteworthy addition to the collection.
In the years since its acquisition the Map of Xibalba has been used by a only a few mages, and has been held by the Mysterium. It was discovered that the Map, while informative when simply examined, provided powerful rotes and lore when worn. It also gave the wearer the constant ability to measure a person’s soul, and to see the dead. But, these effects would not wear off immediately, and would cause the user to be plagued by visions of the dead for weeks to come.
Researching the book
Dicepool: Intelligence + Occult or Intelligence + Academics
Action: Extended - 20 Successes
Research Time (aka time between rolls): 3 Days or 1 Day if character has their own library of sufficient information.
Appropriate Libraries: The Underworld (an appropriate part that is old enough), Wilson’s Journal, Astral Realms, Archaeology, Myth.
Possible Modifiers: Contacts in Archaeology (Egyptian, Mayan, Aztec, Sumerian) + 2.
Rotes and powers
The Map enables a Mage to learn the following rotes;
- Grimsight (Death 1 - page 134)
- Speak with the Dead (Death 1 - page 135)
- Entropic Guard (Death 2 - page 136)
- Soul Jar (Death 2 - page 137)
- Control Ghost (Death 3 - page 138)
- and also the Death 3 Perfecting spell, Open the Avernian Gate (opens a pre existing gate to the Underworld).
Furthermore the Map allows for the version of Control Ghost, known as Control Geist (Death 3, Spirit 3) which allows the same effect, but against Geists. The other spell which is a similar analogue is Control Mummy (Death 3, Prime 3) (we may adjust this in future once Mummy is released).
All Death 1 spells can be cast for free if the user wears the mask, regardless of their Arcanum ratings.
Dangers
The Mask lets you see the dead. But too well. The powers contained in it are barely sealed in, and so leak into those who wear it. A user of the mask for a week suffers the derangement of Hysteria as they see the dead everywhere, all of them asking for the user’s attention and plaguing their waking moments.
Furthermore the Mask taints the user’s aura. The energy known as ‘Sekhem’, manipulated by the immortal mummies, the Cursed, flows through the mask, as the mask contains the souls of immortal Cursed. For this reason the mask is hunted by the Cursed.
While using the mask, Paradox should involve the use of ghosts, Avernian gates or the Kerberoi, who see the mask as an affront the the laws of the living and the dead.
Finally there is rumour that the mask is pushing users to open the correct Avernian Gate which would allow the ghost of Hun-Came to escape the Underworld and possess the mage.
