The Walkingstone Myth

The tribe of the Swiftwinds is ancient, it extends back beyond most human memory, to a time even before the Americas. Through all of this history, only two things have been a constant: the tribe's loyalty to each other and their shaman, the Nightwalker. He is the one who walks the Night. He is their guide and their protector. He is the one who keeps them together.

The story of Nightwalker is not one to be told here. What is of interest is something that he did. When the tribe came to a new land, a place they believed would be safe, they settled, setting up camp and making themselves a home. Nightwalker was uneasy but the Greyhairs told him he was being overly suspicious and to be at peace. Not satisfied with their response, he went into the wilderness to seek the source of his unease. He found nothing and returned to the tribe, still unsettled and now frustrated. What he returned to, though, was not his people as he'd left them. They were afraid, petrified and scattered. Children had been dying, murdered in their beds, marked with a brand and laid out. The Greyhairs were scared, the people were scared and they all wanted answers.

Nightwalker consulted the Ancestors but their wisdoms were silent. More children were dying, he needed to find an answer but all of his avenues of investigation were closed to him. In his desperation, he called upon the most ancient of spirits and begged for help. The One told him of a being that would help him and all he need do is create it. The being was the Walkingstone, the truth seeker. It would never rest until the lies had been revealed and the solution found. He formed it out of the spirit of the tribe and it became bound to them, forever to lay dormant until summoned when it would inhabit the body of the best placed person to solve the mystery.

The Summoning

The most recent summoning started over fifty years ago back in the United States, in the state of Oklahoma. A native american school teacher was accused and convicted of a murder he didn't commit. The horror of the rushed investigation and the slander and dirt thrown up by the media stuck to the tribe. Nightwalker called upon the Walkingstone, unaware that this would stretch it to the edge of its capabilities.

Unknown until now, every time a Walkingstone falls, another rises to take his place. It would not rest while the guilt or innocence of the tribe's beloved son was unclear.
There have been five so far in this current quest:

1. Matthew Swiftwind (deceased)
2. Steven Blackbear (deceased)
3. Jack Standingcrow (deceased)
4. Julian Swiftwind (missing, presumed dead)
5. Beth Jiménez (current)

As you might gather, Beth is an anomaly. The entity passed to her when she was witness to the abduction of Julian Swiftwind, the previous host. Since being possessed, she returned to her home in South America. Soon after she was visited by an old Native American man who would only identify himself as Nightwalker. He told her what she was and that she must know something or have access to some kind of information that the Walkingstone wants or needs to complete its task. He told her that until she worked it out, he would remain with her as her guide.

Beth did all she could to maintain her normal life. She used what free time she had to help Nightwalker find the truth but the pressure she felt from him and his tribe was too much. She wanted out, an escape. The final push came when it become clear that the previous hosts had been hunted down by a demon by the name of Oriax. It was tracking her, slowly getting closer to her and her family. Beth couldn't take it. She chose to confront the beast but she didn't quite get the reaction she'd expected.