Ah Puch, Lord of Decay
Ah Puch rules the ninth level of Xibalba, adorned with bells, skulls, and the stench of rot. He delights in sudden death and pestilence, yet is bound to the cosmic order of endings and balance.
Story beats
- 1) The Lords of Xibalba convene in darkness; Ah Puch presides over decay, bone, and putrefaction.
- 2) His bell-studded approach announces doom—disease or assassins act in his name when death arrives abruptly.
- 3) Hero Twins and clever mortals who outwit the underworld expose his limits: hubris and predictable cruelty.
- 4) Rituals and incense keep Ah Puch appeased; neglect means plague spreads like a marching army of corpses.
Context & symbolism
Ah Puch personifies the necessary rot that clears space for renewal. His bells invert celebration into dread, warning that joy can tip into grief. Xibalba’s trials show death as bureaucratic, not purely chaotic.
The lord of decay is terrifying but predictable: he governs a realm with rules, allowing heroes to negotiate, bargain, or exploit his pride.
Motifs
- Death omen bells
- Underworld bureaucracy and trials
- Pestilence as punishment
- Rot as cosmic balance
Use it in play
- A bell-laden emissary walks a city at night; anywhere the chimes stop, a plague begins.
- Players navigate underworld paperwork to retrieve a soul, facing clerks loyal to Ah Puch.
- A decaying artifact feeds on neglect, empowering itself when communities refuse to cleanse it.
- Strike a bargain: deliver a rival’s bones to Xibalba in exchange for curing a village.
Comparative threads
- Underworld judges: Osiris’s court, Ereshkigal’s rulings.
- Disease bearers: Namtar, the Black Riders in plague tales.
Hooks and campaign seeds
- A city hears phantom bells each equinox—players must silence Ah Puch’s procession.
- An herbalist needs rot-soaked moss from Xibalba to brew a life-restoring balm.
- Someone replaced a hero’s heart with a bell; find the heart before the bell tolls.