Shatil was a young priest of Zaltec in Palul and the brother of Erixitl.[1]
Description[]
At around the time of his death in 1361, Shatil's head carried the spiked hair customary to priests of Zaltec, which were made from dried human blood taken from sacrifices. His arms, face and ears were also covered with scars created by ritual penance. [2]
History[]
Before becoming a cleric for Zaltec, Shatil assisted his father Lotil a master featherworker and follower of Qotal who made magic pluma items. [3]
Considering his sister and his father Lotil weak for their compassion, Shatil decided to join the clergy of Zaltec.[4] His sister was kidnapped by Kultakans at around the time when he began his apprenticeship to the priesthood around 1350.
When the Golden Legion arrived in Maztica in 1361 DR, he had become the prime assistant of the high priest Zitli in Palul and had performed more than 100 sacrifices himself. [5]
Erixitl returned to Palul at around the same time as the Golden Legion were nearing the village and Shatil reunited with for the first time in a decade. He embraced her and attributed her return to Zaltec's kindness. [6]
Naltecona the ruler of Nexal, decided to lay an ambush for the Legion when it arrived in Palul. The Legion were going to be treated as welcome guests in the village, while thousands of Nexalans warriors would surruond them and destroy them. Zitli conspired with the Nexalan high priest Hoxitl in order to arrange this ambush against the Golden Legion at Palul. Under Shatil's suggestion, Zitli decided to use Erixitl as a translator, since she had learned to speak the language of the foreigners from Faerûn.[7] What Shatil didn't realize when he suggested his sister to Hoxitl and Zitli was that Hoxitl had been searching for her to kill her for some time, because the Ancient Ones had prophesied that her existence would spell doom to the plans of Zaltec. Hoxitl took great delight when he realized that Shatil's sister was the woman he was searching for, but he didn't reveal to Shatil that he had plans for her other than translation. [8]
He had difficulty convincing Erixitl to agree to be a translator, as she didn't want to talk to the egionnaires whom she had witnessed killing so many people in Ulatos when she was living there before her return to Palul. Shatil, however, convinced her by telling her that if she was a translator then perhaps she could help them avoid this outcome. Shatil did not explain to her that the real plan was to lure the legionnaires into an ambush and kill them. [9]
He and Zitli were at Zaltec's pyramid in Palul during the false party held there to welcome the legionaries. The legionnaires, however, discovered the plot and attacked the Nexalans first. Shatil was shocked when he saw the fighting power of the legionnaires killing many Nexalan warriors. Shatil drew a sacrificial obsidian dagger and stood at the door of the pyramid during the battle in order to protect Zaltec's icon. Zitli ordered Shatil to flee and bring news of the catastrophe to Hoxitl. Shatil wanted to stay there to defend the icon, but Zitli insisted and led him to a secret underground passage from the bottom of the temple. Zitli gave him a parchment to gave to Hoxitl and sealed him in the passage just as the legionnaires were breaking into the temple and approaching the altar. Zitli sacrificed himself in order to close the hatch from the other side and allow Shatil to escape[10]
Shatil waited until nightfall, in order not to be seen, and emerged from the passage beneath the temple in Palul. He saw the devastation in Palul and was immediately attacked by one of the Legion's [[war dog}war dogs]]. The dog bit his wrist, but Shatil succeeded in killing it with his sacrificial dagger. Shatil ran barefoot and still bleeding from Palul to Naltecona, taking an entire day to reach it. He delivered the parchment to Hoxitl, who was able to see the hidden magical message contained within it. When Hoxitl explained that Naltecona planned to surrender to the strangers following the battle, Shatil was horrified and thought that they should fight them. Shatil then asked Hoxitl to join the Viperhands in order to destroy the strangers. Hoxitl agreed to Shatil's request and also healed the wound from the war dog. [11]
Hoxitl inducted Shatil into the Viperhands with a ceremony at the top of the great pyramid of Zaltec in Nexal. The blood of a sacrificed Kultakan captive was used to brand Shatil during the ceremony [12]
After the Legion had taken up residence in Nexal and taken Naltecona as their hostage, many Viperhands, including Shatil wanted to take vengeance on the strangers, but Hoxitl forbade them. He then explained to them that there was a woman whom the Ancient Ones had prophesied could defeat all of their plans and she needed to be eliminated before they could attack. Hoxitl then finally revealed to Shatil that the woman was his sister Erixitl. [13]
Shatil had difficulty accepting that his sister was the threat that Hoxitl claimed her to be, but he nevertheless submitted to the decision of the Ancient Ones. Hoxitl considered that Shatil was the best choice as assassin and the high priest also gave to him the Talon of Zaltec to help him in his mission.[14] Hoxitl directed Shatil to go to the home of Halloran, a deserter from the Legion, who had been close to Erixitl before the Legion's arrival, in the belief that Erixitl would go to his home when she returned to Nexal.
Shatil went to Halloran's home and waited for Erixitl to come. He eavesdropped on some of the slaves in the home and when he grew impatient as he realized they weren't there, he confronted them and demanded to know where Erixitl was. He killed one of them with the Talon of Zaltec and the other confessed that Erixitl had gone to find prince Poshtli (the nephew of Naltecona) in order to rescue Naltecona from the Legion's captivity. [15]
Shatil was excited to hear that his sister was seeking to rescue Naltecona and he immediately went back to Hoxitl to report the news, in the hope that this meant that Erixitl was not the enemy of Zaltec after all. He was surprised, however, when Hoxitl continued to insist that Erixitl must be destroyed, otherwise Zaltec would be thwarted. He didn't understand how she could be an enemy of Zaltec when she was seeking to rescue the High Counselor from the foreigners, but he nevertheless submitted to the high priest. [16] He came to understand that Hoxitl neeeded Naltecona to die in order for an uprising to occur that would force the strangers our of Nexal and give power to Zaltec.
They went to Nexal's throne room, where Poshtli had been running the government while his uncle was in captivity and there they discovered a hidden passage that they deduced had been used by Poshtli and Erixitl. Hoxitl instructed Shatil to follow in pursuit and use his relationship with his sister to get close enough to her to make the strike (with both knowing that Shatil might be sacrificing his own life to carry out the assassination if Poshtli or Halloran were with her). [17]
When searching for his sister, Shatil met Halloran and Lord Poshtli, who welcomed him without suspecting his intent. Shatil then learned from them that the Legion had captured Erixitl in the attempt to rescue Naltecona and were holding her in the palace of Axalt. He went with them in the underground passages beneath Nexal and helped them find a ladder that led to a trap door in the roof of Axalt's palace. They climbed up and arrived just as Naltecona was trying to calm down the masses of Nexalan warriors that had gathered in the plaza below the palace. The three of them were quickly discovered by the Legion's sentries and brought to face Cordell, the Legion's commander on the roof of the palace.
Shortly afterwards, Darien the Legion's mage, who was secretly a Drow and a member of the Ancient Ones and a servant of Zaltec, assassinated Naltecona within sight of the mass of Nexalan warriors in the plaza below. Cordell, was shocked by her betrayal, as she had been with the Legion for 10 years in Faerun before she had succeeded in manipulating them to come to Maztica to further Zaltec's plans. She had mistakenly believed that Erixitl had already been killed by a Legion captain whom she had sent to kill her after she entered the Legion's captivity, but Erixitl then emerged on the roof to Darien's shock. Darien teleported away and the Legion entered battle against the mass of Nexalans.
Shatil, thinking over the turn of events and his own lack of understanding of what the purpose of his mission was, determined that it must no longer have been the will of Zaltec to kill Erixitl, as she had failed to rescue Naltecona who was already dead, and the uprising had begun. When he finally met her, Shatil did not act against Erixitl.[18]
The couatl Chitikas arrived and he teleported Erixitl, Halloran, Shatil and Poshtli around the palace roof to chase the Ancient Ones who had come to Darien's aid. They fought them but Darien and several of her siblings escaped with teleportation spells. Shatil explained to them where the lair of the Ancient Ones was located, in the Highcave inside Mount Zatal and they pursued them there.[19]
Hishna snakesin bands that had been carried by Halloran slipped off of him while they were climbing Mount Zatal and Shatil took them. Shatil began questioning his faith in Zaltec as they approached the cave. He had always believed Zaltec was stronger than Qotal and that Qotal's weakness was proven by his exile from Maztica, but now that these signs had appeared signaling Qotal's return, he began to doubt whether Qotal was truly the weak god that he always imagined his father had followed.
They entered the Highcave and were ambushed by invisible Drow who momentarily subdued them. As Darien confronted Halloran and Erixitl, Shatil, shortly behind them, carefully drew the Hishna band he had taken from Halloran and threw it at Darien. The snakeskin Hishna band wrapped around her and bound her, and he was then immediately killed by arrows shot by the drow.[20]
His binding of Darien allowed for Halloran, Poshtli and Chitikas to briefly overcome the Drow, but shortly thereafter Mount Zatal exploded.
Appendix[]
References[]
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), pp. 81–85. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 6. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Ironhelm. (TSR, Inc), chap. 1. ISBN 0-8803-8903-6.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), p. 141. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 8. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 6. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), pp. 86–89. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 7. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 7. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), pp. 96–97. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 10. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), p. 103. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 12. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), pp. 107–108. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 14. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 15. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), chap. 16. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), pp. 120–122. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), pp. 127–130. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.
- ↑ Douglas Niles (1990). Viperhand. (TSR, Inc), p. 132. ISBN 0-88038-907-9.