Sanity Loss: 1D6
Cthulhu Mythos: +2/+4
Mythos Rating: 18
Study: 24 weeks (Pulp 12 weeks)

The codex is made of unknown animal skins folded into 39 sheets. Each sheet is a square 27 cm by 27 cm (11×11 inches), for a total length of nearly 11 meters (35 feet). All but the end sheets are painted on both sides, providing 76 pages. The codex is read from right to left. Pages 29–46 are oriented perpendicular to the rest of the codex. The top of this section is the right side of page 29, and the scenes are read from top to bottom; the reader must rotate the manuscript 90 degrees in order to view this section correctly. The Codex Eztli is organized into a screen-fold. Single sheets of the hide are attached as a long strip and then folded back and forth. Images were painted on both sides and painted over with a white gesso. Stiffened tanned leather is used as end pieces by gluing the first and last strips to create a cover. The edges of the pages are overlapped and glued together, making the sheet edges hardly visible under the white gesso finish. The gesso creates a stiff, smooth, white finished surface that has preserved the underlying images.

The Codex describes rituals of worship to the god Huitloxopetl as well as a history of the priests of the old god escaping from a sinking island nation, taking with them the teachings of an elder civilization. The writing is in a very colloquial form of Nahuatl pictograms that is difficult to translate.

There are a number of rituals contained within the Codex:

Speak with the Ancient One
Cost: 5 POW, 1D6 Sanity
Casting Time: 1D6 + 4 rounds
Description: The worshipper invokes Huitloxopetl and drinks a mixture of Pulque (ancient agave beer) and their own blood. Within 1D6 minutes after completing the ritual chant, the caster falls into a deep coma-like state for eight hours. The caster must make a successful Hard POW roll (and may make one attempt per hour of the ritual). If they succeed, Huitloxopetl will appear in their dreamstate, taking on a familiar, but unsettling, appearance. If the caster is a worshipper of Huitloxopetl, the old one will answer questions and will be generally helpful. If the caster is not a worshipper, the old one will demand some form of payment for its wisdom – this can be a payment of POW or Sanity, and must by at least 5 or more points.

Consecrate Sacrificial Knife
Cost: 30 POW, 2D10 Sanity
Casting Time: 1 week
Description: The supplicant must fashion a dagger of natural materials – preferably horn, bone, or flint (Art/Craft roll required). The dagger must then be used to kill living beings amounting to 100 POW. The caster pays the necessary costs and from then on may use the dagger to ritually murder a living victim to drain the POW of the victim into the dagger. The dagger’s owner may then siphon POW from the dagger to be used in spellcasting (such POW once used, is drained from the dagger).

Words of Honey
Cost: 2 magic points (plus variable extra), 1D6 Sanity
Casting Time: 1 round
Description: The caster must be able to speak calmly with the target before the spell can take effect. After a round or so of talking, an opposed POW roll is made between the caster and target: if the caster is successful, the target stands struck, numb and dumb, until relieved from the trance by physical assault or some similarly shocking event. The spell fades after 10 minutes, but the caster can extend the time the spell lasts 10 minutes per additional 2 magic points spent to cast the spell.

Black Dreams
Cost: 3 magic points
Casting Time: 1 hour
Description: Brings forth dreams or nightmares portending to the future. May be cast upon the supplicant him or herself, or at a chosen target (the supplicant must be able to see the target). The spell may involve the ingestion of certain hallucinogenic plants or compounds. The dreams are unusually vivid, although the information related is usually cryptic and metaphorical in nature and imagery—may also cost Sanity points, depending on the content of the dream.