To His Holiness Lord Kelrick,
Bishop of Meilarra,
Defender of Faruim:
Please find enclosed the final journal entry of the sorcerer known as Corevidrex, formerly master of the Five Schools and lord over the Forell Dominions. He was found in his sanctum with four acolytes and a broken summoning circle. They had all been slain in a brutal manner.
The journal describes how Corvidrex attempted to summon and bind a warcaptain of a race of demons from an unknown hell. Clearly Corvidrex failed to properly control the demon. I and my party now set out to track this demon down and banish it to its home world. We pray that we can accomplish our task before he causes any more devastation.
We have conducted a holy ceremony to burn the relic that was used to summon the demon. No traces of it remain, save a phial of ashes that have been sealed in a vault where they cannot infect or alter our world.
I am leaving the job of controlling and pacifying the Forell Dominions to Lieutenant Staerk. He is a good soldier, but he will require reinforcements. I recommend two more companies and a full team of clerics and missionaries to deprogram the former thralls of Corvidrex.
Loyally Yours,
Garrick von Hausrik,
Paladin of Meilarra,
Order of the Sacred Star
***
Several years ago, I gained possession of a relic of an unknown hell. I devoted my life to the study of that relic, and today I stand ready to unleash its power to summon and bind a demon that will give me the key to unimaginable power.
I remember well the day I received the relic from one of my agents. To an untrained eye it would resemble a scroll, but I saw its otherworldly nature immediately. It was made of paper, but a paper of higher quality than I have ever seen: strong and crisp and white. The ink was likewise of excellent quality, and I saw immediately that the penmanship was unlike any writing I had ever known.
I took it back to my study and immediately placed it in a magic circle to contain any dangerous powers it might contain. I spent days carefully probing it, searching for magical traps or malevolent spells. I found none; the relic had no traces of arcane power save for the lingering remnants of whatever random force propelled it from its home dimension to my own. Only after I assured myself of its safety did I begin to handle it.
The roll of paper was bound with a band of a strange and wondrous substance that could be stretched to many times its original dimensions, yet instantly reformed to its original shape when released. I made a gift of this to a fellow sorcerer, and she was most pleased with it and uses it as a focus for wondrous magics. But I kept the paper for myself, for I saw that the true power lay in the study of it.
When I unrolled the "scroll" I saw something wondrous: the paper contained images of such detail and quality that it must have been produced by a master artist. I have seen the illuminated manuscripts produced by monks, and this was far superior. It was a completely lifelike depiction of strange and demonic beings and events. Upon closer inspection I saw that the images were produced not with brushstrokes, but by an infinitude of tiny dots. The craftsmanship was extraordinary; surely this was the document of a great ruler.
I then discovered that the relic actually consisted of many leaves of paper, stacked up and folded twice. There were four separate bundles folded in this way, and all of the bundles were stacked up and rolled together. There was no binding. This was a great mystery to me. Who would go to the trouble of producing such fine paper, excellent penmanship, and wondrous artistry, but not give it a proper cover or binding to protect it from the elements? I assumed that it had been in some kind of protective case that had been lost.
The language was incomprehensible to me, of course, mere scratchings of demon gibberish. But great sorcerers have ways of learning new languages and deciphering the bizarre and arcane. I applied my prodigious intellect and my vast reservoir of spellcraft to the learning of this hellish language, and within mere months I gained understanding of it and began to study the relic.
I saw that it was a summary of recent events of their world, doubtless an intelligence briefing prepared at great expense for a puissant lord. I deduced that a relic such as this was produced every single day, and my respect for the wealth and power of this unknown demon lord grew.
I could infer a great many details of the unknown hell from this document. And it was a hell, make no mistake of that. It was a world filled with death, disease, corruption, and devastation of unimaginable scope and scale. But it was also a world of power, ruled by beings who possessed unthinkable strength, intellect, cunning, and domination over all of all the forces of nature. It was a world where the elite demon lords had attained pure and total mastery of the entire planet, crushing it relentlessly beneath their iron heels.
I saw tantalizing glimpses of arcane tools and potent spellcraft wielded in the service of these demon lords. I saw how they ruled their world with wondrous arts and shocking power. I wanted that power for myself. And the relic provided me with a way to attain that power.
It had a True Name and an Image.
There was a section describing the exploits of a demon soldier, and the honors the soldier had attained as a result. My head spun with the possibilities. Here were all the details I needed to summon a demon soldier of the most powerful combat organization that exists in the entire multiverse. The raw combat abilities of this single demon would make it a force powerful enough to tip the balance of power on my world. If I bound it into my service, I would have a nearly unstoppable minion.
But the demon offers far more than simple power. He is an officer, a commander of demons, a master of their arcane arts, a graduate of their elite demon training school. He must have vast knowledge of the many arcane arts that his demon tribe uses to dominate their world. He will teach me how to master the world as they do. In return I will offer him blood and virgin sacrifices suitable to his desires.
If he refuses to cooperate, I will bind and torture him until he gives me what I want. I have his Name and his Image, and a relic of his world. I am a master of summoning offworld entities, and, demon though he may be, he cannot hope to master the willpower to resist me or the intellect to outwit me.
I begin the preparations. Tonight I will complete my ascent to power and gain the ability to dominate this world. I look forward to crushing my enemies, unleashing the power of the demons of Earth and watching the land run with their blood.
Captain Anthony James Miller, U.S. Army, from Hickory, North Carolina, planet Earth, prepare to serve the great Corvidrex!
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