Lore

Long before Derceto was built, the land it stands on drew the attention of Captain Pregzt, a privateer whose ship went down off the Louisiana coast during the Civil War. Union gunfire tore his human body apart, but Pregzt had already made a pact with something far older than the war he was fighting — a presence sleeping in the caverns beneath the coastline, one of the countless things the Necronomicon warns "may eternal lie." His remains were transformed rather than destroyed, and what returned to walk the caves was no longer entirely human.

The mansion later built on the site — Derceto — sits directly above the caverns and the ritual chamber Pregzt's followers carved into the rock. Generations of owners came and went without ever suspecting what was sealed beneath their floorboards, protected by a talisman and a monstrous guardian that had taken root in the caves: a thing that was once a tree, and something else besides, kept docile only as long as no one disturbed it.

In the early 20th century, artist and antiquarian Jeremy Hartwood bought Derceto, drawn in by rumors of the estate's strange history. What began as curiosity turned into obsession: Hartwood spent years combing the house for hidden rooms, forbidden texts, and ritual artifacts, piecing together exactly what Pregzt had bargained for and what still lived in the ground beneath him. The knowledge broke him. Hartwood was found hanged in Derceto's attic, leaving behind a suicide note that made no sense to anyone who hadn't read what he had.

Years later, Hartwood's niece — unwilling to accept that her uncle simply lost his mind — hires private investigator Edward Carnby to search Derceto and find out what really happened. In her own account of events, she comes to the house herself as Emily Hartwood instead. Either way, the investigator arrives at the mansion at night, with no idea that Hartwood's note, his hidden research, and the horrors now stirring throughout the house are all pointing at the same thing: something is waking up beneath Derceto, and it wants to finish what Pregzt started.

The investigation leads down through the mansion's floors and finally into the caverns themselves, where Pregzt's transformed remains guard the way to the ritual chamber's twisted, tree-like guardian. Only the talisman Hartwood recovered — and a burning oil lamp, thrown at exactly the right moment — is enough to put the thing back to sleep and collapse the passage behind it, sealing Derceto's secret for good, or at least for now.