Dungeon Raider System

The book looked old but well preserved. Although the pages were ashen and their border was eroded by time, some extracts could still be read. Uriel opened it and realized it was a diary of some sorts, then he began to read it out loud.

"I want to explore Texas before coming back. Those were my parting words and I meant them. Because exploring means to submerge oneself into the unknown, to unravel the mysteries of what lies beyond the very limits of reality. It's been long, too long, and Polly dear must miss me terribly as so do I.

Some days I go out at night with my good ol' pipe and I wonder what led me to uproot my life and face the hardships of the southern wilderness. But then I remember the exact moment everything begun.

I was sick, so very sick. No doctor could heal me, I visited every parish, hospital, barbershop, but no one knew what was wrong with me. It was then, at the verge of death, that an old Indian man with a name too long to be remembered was presented to me.

He was a Navajo that came from the west, and he told all those wonderful tales of beautiful lands, islands within islands and single trees standing at the center of the world.

My feverish dreams mixed with some of his stories, but I remember them. Stories of heroes of past times, of grim creatures and of evil men who could wear the skin of their victims.

But among all those stories, the one that stuck with me was the one about an enchanted metal with prodigious qualities, so strong and sacred it could drive away the darkness and defend mankind from beasts and evil gods alike.

The witch doctor strapped me into my bed and started singing old songs alternating between his tongue and English, and then one different to anything I've heard before. He then started burning herbs and the room was filled with dense smoke I couldn't even see him anymore.

All those herbs, his medicine I reckon, they made me something. They turned me into something. I was a boring man, that I was, but I woke up with a bold heart and a longing for travel. My home, my office, the streets even, they were too small for me. The city was no longer my home and I only found peace in the endless horizon walking under the moon."

Uriel didn't miss how the owner of the diary mentioned an old Navajo doctor, and he wondered if it was the same one he had read about before as it also mentioned the skinwalkers. Nevertheless, the true mystery was whose diary it was.

There were a few hints, but Uriel couldn't be certain and he started turning the pages to find the answer.

"When the first stone of the San Antonio de Valero mission was set, no one knew about the true value of that land. All they knew was how the Apache, the Comanche and the Siux all fought for the land. Something worth fighting for is also worth something, they must have thought.

But the land had value of its own, just like the old Indian man said.

For that land had long been guarded by men, to prevent the creatures of the night from scouring the earth. You must never go there, he said, you must never gather the three relics, he said.

It's been years now, and I laugh every time I remember his warnings, while I smoke my tobacco with the pipe in one hand and the prodigious hatchet in the other. It was only because of him I could find it, and I'll never part from it."

Uriel started pondering about the possible implications of what he just read, but the group was losing their patience as none of it seemed to be helpful in any way. But he knew better, the mention of the hatchet was all he needed to know it was Crockett's diary, but there were a few interesting points that could further his research.

The mention of a language unknown to Crockett was weird, as he most likely could tell the different dialects spoken in Texas. The fact that he couldn't recognize it could mean it was the ancient language Uriel was able to read.

Then, there was the mention of the skinwalker and evil gods, there was too much new information and he really wanted to study it to his heart's content, but time was limited and he could only read the diary until dawn.

"I don't understand how come this place went unnoticed for so long, why no one came to extract the prodigious metal, and yet everyone seems to want this place for a reason.

It's been years since the states bought Lousiana from France, and now they're claiming they also bought Texas. Are they in their right mind? Very much so, someone must have told them about the prodigious metal, someone must have betrayed me.

Let them play their political games, everyone has an agenda these days, but in my name I, David Crockett, declare that the independent Nation of Texas will forever be free."

The next pages were crumpled and most of them was just unintelligible gibberish that made it difficult for Uriel to read.

"I'm so close to finding the entrance, I know it in my heart, but they just won't let me. The Mexicans, the Indians and even the republicans, they're all sided against us. I must tell someone about the tree...

[...]

Santa Ana draws near, they're here to seal this place and I can't allow that, not after getting a taste of what this metal can do. They're hundreds if not a thousand, but two hundred Texans and Texians will spell the death of them."

A whole portion of that page was missing and Uriel was left with no choice but to skip to the last page.

"I found it, but It's the end. Now I get it. I finally understand my mistakes but it's too late. I should have listened to Santa Ana. There's something within that place, something that sends nightmares to the creatures of the night... and now it's awake."