Chapter 43 – Summoning Fails

Name: Trey Bon

Level 9

Class: Infernal Summoner

Name: Jason Foreti

Level 6

Class: Alchemist

Name: Izumi Yoshida

Level 1

Class: None

Name: Ashe Landry

Level 10

Class: Rogue

They’d been traveling for weeks, and had just crossed over Yosemar’s border into the country of Otare.

The villagers of Vork had been kind enough to provide them with a map. It was crude and hand-drawn, but it did the job of giving them a decent idea for the path they needed to take. With bounties certain to be put on their heads, they needed to get out of the country and fast.

“The Lawless Lands is where you need to go. To the settlement called Teretog. You will not be safe from the crown’s agents while you remain on the continent, but there… or perhaps even in the Deadlands of Ornthas, you will find refuge from the hunt. Find passage through the country of Otare - they have illegalized the practices of necromancy and demon worship, that includes just being classed as a warlock or infernal summoner. But they are very lax with their laws regarding such things. As long as you bribe the right people, they’ll leave you alone.”

Those were the words that Elandry had spoken to them before they’d left. Sure enough, on the way to the western coast they’d been attacked twice by passing groups of men who’d heard about their appearance. Izumi and Trey were the two who stood out the most, with Izumi’s foreign complexion and Trey’s demonic features screaming out ‘BOUNTY’ to those daring enough to try and take their heads. A couple of Trey’s group had grown in level due to the failures of the attacks, but it had left Izumi and Ashe seriously shaken each time.

The Lawless Lands were a collection of hundreds of small tropical islands - and a couple larger ones - on the northwestern side of the Lost Kingdom of Ornthas. Ornthas itself was a small continent - or a very, very large island - whichever you wanted to classify it as. The lost continent was located across the sea to the west, and was quarantined by surrounding nations due to the plague that had set in there. This plague, the villagers had said, could turn even the living into undead. It was why the once prosperous ancient civilization had fallen in millenia past. Without the proper antidotes people did not venture there now, but the antidote was found in abundance for the right price amongst the adjacent islands of the Lawless Lands. Adventurers, treasure hunters, pirates, and people looking to hide from the outside world sought refuge and riches on this deadly frontier.

Trey and the others hadn’t liked the idea of journeying into a cutthroat society of criminals, but Elandry had told him it was their best chance at surviving. Teretog, the best known settlement in the Lawless Lands, was a trading hub for the black market. You could find anything there: from slaves, to lost magics, to treasures brought in from the wreckage of Ornthas... and the outer world’s kingdoms dared not go to claim it for their own due to occasional outbreaks of the plague. Expeditions from the surrounding kingdoms had been undertaken in decades and centuries past, but most of them had led to utter ruin with thousands of lives being lost.

There was one thing that particularly piqued Trey’s interest. It had been said by some of the villagers - that aside from the undead, there were good amounts of demon tribes living there in the ruins of the ancient cities. Apparently, demons could not be turned into undead… so the plague didn’t affect them. Whether or not that was true was something to be seen, but the idea of acquiring new minions there was of interest to him. He’d now tried the summoning circle before, but had failed spectacularly the two times he’d attempted it. Demons had appeared both times, a minotaur and a creature called a razorclaw... But unfortunately they’d immediately left before he’d been able to speak with them. He’d been unable to force them to stay within the circle, and now completely understood why his ability was considered the most basic of the summoning circles.

His disappointment was apparent, so Rivia had told him that ingredients or offerings would sometimes entice demons to stay longer depending on what those offerings were. Trey still had one minion slot open, and he figured he’d give it another shot. He was feeling lucky today.

So here he was, overlooking the coastal city of Bravana along a frosty hillside and watching merchants go in and out of their own free will. From here, there seemed to be no checkpoints of any sort, and it looked… run down. The proper term back home would have been ‘ghetto’, but it didn’t feel right considering this was a medieval setting. Shoddy homes and shops were bunched together in ramshackle rows and dirty streets for a couple miles out until reaching the docks in the distance... where dozens of merchant ships and a couple galleons of war were parked. Billowing smoke from numerous chimneys were also in abundance, and the land around the city looked rather barren with a sincere lack of trees.

Trey cleared his throat and mentally prepared the spell over a flat spot on the frost-covered hill. “Ahem. Are we ready to try this again? Do you have the rabbit?”

Napoleon scampered over to him and dropped the fresh carcass at his master’s feet. “Rabbit rabbit for master!”

The imp had been very, very good at catching small animals for them - and had been a great help in finding food. Napoleon had caught well over a dozen of the small animals over the last week, and was proud of his efforts - which was easily seen by the way he puffed out his tiny chest.

“Good job. Are you sure this will work, Rivia?”

The demoness shook her head adamantly. “I never did say it would work, I said it had a better chance of working.”

They were still primarily speaking in the demonic tongue. So over the last little while - Ashe, Jason and Izumi were trying their best to teach Trey and his minions aside from Napoleon how the ‘Human’ dialect was spoken. Progress was being made, and they went over it about 10 hours a day. So Trey and his minions could now each speak minor amounts of the language, but their learning was still far from complete. Talsh’Noc’Un also spoke the dialect well and claimed to speak most of the known languages rather easily, so along the way it had been whispering language lessons into Trey’s head as they traveled per Trey’s request.

Sithis chuckled at Rivia’s lack of enthusiasm, aiming his comment towards the master. ‘50 gold coins says you fail again.’

“Shut it Sithis.” Trey mentally backhanded his symbiote, envisioning the action on repeat so Sithis would get the point. All it did was amuse the unearthly creature though.

Least Summoning Circle (Dark) - Level N/A

The most basic of summoning circles with a low intensity magic signature that usually (but not always) attracts the weaker denizens of the infernal realms. This broad spectrum spell enables you to communicate with the infernal realms of Hell, Oblivion, and the Void, but offers no protection whatsoever from the creatures you summon. You are able to increase the chance for a random target to appear by using double the mana and circling the center pentagram.

The others took a step back as Trey outstretched his hands. “Here goes nothing…”

Immediately upon willing the ability to activate: a swirling vortex of dark mana erupted from his limbs and condensed, turning from a black and green into crimson lights that drew out the needed symbols. A central pentagram came first, then a series of demonic runes surrounding it - symbolizing the words ‘power’, ‘slave’, ‘call upon’, ‘binding’, and ‘infernal.’ The five runes were located at each of the points of the pentagram, and two outer circles each with smaller runes lining them encircled the center. Moving images, shapes, and mana forms flickered about the pentagram at random in orange and red hues. Just as the spell finished creating the outermost circle, Napoleon tossed the rabbit onto the center pentagram and backed away.

A prompt describing the needed chant appeared for Trey to read aloud, and he did so just as he had with the other two tries: “Primordius o va Hellethe o va Voidethe o va Oblivethe. Nekataktra Uvumas.”

The prompt disappeared after speaking the words of summoning, and the summoning circle flared to life with flickers of mana and wisps of light. Then… he waited.

And waited.

Then he waited some more.

“God damn it… it failed again.” Trey muttered to himself, irritation building. “Alrighty. Time to double up on the mana. Get ready everyone.”

The three other Earthborn backed up even further while Atharost’s body flared up with simmering flames to Trey’s right. Napoleon got ready from afar to cast a curse of burden, and Rivia prepared to cast her miracles from where the other Earthborn stood.

Atharost grinned encouragingly at Trey. “Let us acquire a new member… master.”

Trey gave his ifrit friend a quick nod, and doubled down on the mana. As he did, he commanded yet another crimson circle to be drawn around the central pentagram. This doubling of mana would increase his chances for a demon at random to appear, as it was a more forceful calling, but it would also mean the demon would likely be pissed. He would have preferred something to come of its own volition and to speak to it that way, but if he had to... he’d do it the hard way.

The more dangerous way.

But he was not above playing mean and forcing these demons into contracts if he had to. The summoning circle shifted briefly, and then expanded. Then… nothing happened yet again.

“Ugh… Disappointment.”

Trey’s spell utterly failed and the summoning circle collapsed. Facepalming and trying again, he uttered the words for a second time. “Primordius o va Hellethe o va Voidethe o va Oblivethe. Nekataktra Uvumas.”

Again the pentagram appeared along with the other runes of the circle. This time though… it was a little bit different. To his surprise, it grew to twice its original size and began to thrum. Then, with a shudder, the crimson lights flared brightly to emit a low… buzzing sound.

In an instant the demon flashed into their world. A large wasp the size of a man stood atop the circle now, a large protruding stinger two feet long at the back. Six long, shiny legs with black exoskeleton covering them were spread out around the body. The deep red body had thick plates covering it that got thicker along the head. Two sets of overlapping pincers with a long, slender tongue moved about while its blank yellow eyes widened to take in its new surroundings.

Name: Mesh Fly

Race: Mesh Fly, Lesser Demon

Class: Hive Drone

Level: 12

HP: ???

MP: ???

SP: ???

DP: ???

Atharost nearly did a double take upon seeing the creature and immediately he began to prepare a spell. “KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!”

To Trey’s great surprise the insect hissed and curled its backside under the front end with a lightning motion and shot its stinger out at Trey. The attack hit home, lodging in Trey’s right shoulder as he screamed out in agony - the projectile completely piercing through and sticking out the other end of his body.

He dropped to one knee, cursing as fire engulfed the insect.

The creature screeched and hissed, trying to take off but only making it a couple feet into the air before Napoleon’s burden curse caused it to fatigue. It flailed about in the air for another couple of seconds as more flames rocked its body, and then fell to land on the ground with a loud thud.

Rivia calmly walked up from behind Trey and placed a hand on the protruding stinger. “You must be careful, master.”

The demoness yanked the stinger out, blood and bone coming with it that caused Trey to scream even louder. The look of pleasure the culn woman got from the act was missed by her master though, and she reluctantly began to heal his wounds while the other Earthborn grimaced.

“God damn it that HURT!” Trey yelled out, getting up and examining the blood soaked cloak along his shoulder. He turned back to the shriveling corpse of the mesh fly, curiously watching his ifrit kick it in disgust.

Atharost gave Trey a look. “Mesh flies. They are linked to a hive mind. You wouldn’t have been able to control it without first taking control of the hive mind itself. That… has never been done before. If it had gotten away, it could have bred an entirely new hive and devoured everything alive in this area. I’m sorry if it seemed like I was overreacting… but although the mesh flies are weak alone, they breed at incredible rates. I have seen the ruins of entire demon societies in Oblivion due to an aggressive hive cluster in the past…”

Trey’s eyebrows raised. Suddenly the pain in his shoulder seemed like a little thing in comparison to what he might have accidentally unleashed on this unsuspecting country - and if this sort of thing was any indication of what could happen while practicing demonology… He could see how it was reasonable that most countries had outlawed the practice. In the few encounters he’d had with people outside of Vork, he’d been shunned due to his status as an infernal summoner. When he wasn’t being hunted due to the bounty that is. Perhaps the bad reputation of summoners was a rightly earned one.

But that didn’t phase him in the least, he was trying again.

He tried and failed numerous times through his attempts. About 2 of every 3 attempts resulted in utter failure, regardless of whether or not he placed double the mana into the spell like his spell description described. Out of the attempts he succeeded in, the following demons were made available:

The first one after the mesh fly was a small, amorphous gray blob identified as a ‘Nisl Shifter’ just before it ate the rabbit and shape-shifted into… nothing. Trey nor any of the others had any idea where it had gone. Cursing his luck and starting to get irritable, he took a break to let the mana recharge.

The one up next was a humanoid, he was old with wrinkled red skin wearing a necklace of odd design and looking rather grumpy. He was also about Trey’s height and clad in deep purple robes. A long tail out the back of the robes extended about his body and two horns a little longer than the culn’s extended out from under the hood. When he turned about to face Trey, his grumpy demeanor took a turn for the worse.

[Ancient Demon Dialect] “Fucking summoners ALWAYS muddle in my business whenever I let my barriers down. Have you come to try and cage me too? How many of you do I have to kill to get it through your thick heads that I am not your PET!”

Purple arcane mana surged about the old demon sorcerer, and before Trey could even lift a finger, identify it, or try to reason with the creature - it vanished. Trey was left with an outraised hand and words caught in his throat.

Then he just shook his head in disbelief. “That’s four of four now.”

Napoleon snickered off to the left but shut up when Trey shot him a glare.

“Perhaps finding knowledge of a better summoning circle would help keep them here longer?” Atharost suggested pleasantly and undaunted. “This is only the very basic summoning circle after all. Have faith, master.”

Trey growled. “Faith doesn’t get me another minion. But yes, you are right. I need to find out how to create a better summoning circle. Let’s keep trying though… eventually something should snag.”

But there was not a snag to be had.

A couple of lesser demons appeared, all of which either attacked him and died in the process or left painful wounds that Rivia had to heal. Some others got away by fleeing back into whatever infernal realm they’d been taken from, and one particularly fast bird-type demon soared off before they were able to capture it.

Three hours later and Trey had given up. It had been nothing short of a very disappointing display, and he was over it.

“We’ll try again another day.” Trey said while motioning for the others to follow. They weren’t in enemy territory anymore, but they were still close enough to Yosemar that bounty hunters could be after them. He was also beginning to regret having wasted so much time without results. “Alright. Atharost, Rivia, Napoleon, we aren’t going to have warm welcomes here. You are all demons and I definitely look like a demon, and demonology is outlawed here. However, I don’t feel comfortable sending the three of you off into the nether realms while we have bounty hunters on our backs… so we’re going to wait for darkness to fall. No need to waltz around the city in broad daylight while our heads are wanted in the neighboring kingdom.”

Atharost shrugged. “We can try to bribe the people who make a problem out of it, like that alchemist Elandry told us to do. If that doesn’t work, we’ll kill them. I’m not worried about it at all.”

***

Otare’s coastal city of Bravana was far dirtier than it had looked from afar, even with the snow covering up much of the city. It was one, big, poorly kept industrial complex, with guard patrols few and far between. Originally Trey’d been concerned about not only the bounty, but also walking around with some very unique creatures that screamed ‘ILLEGAL’ to the populace. But since entering the city, Trey hadn’t worried at all about his choice to avoid dismissing his demon minions for two reasons: 1 - due to the almost complete lack of security, and 2 - because even the people that did see them didn’t seem to care as long as Trey kept a safe distance. They didn’t even need to take a main road, completely avoiding them altogether and entering the city through a side entrance in the eastern slums.

Due to the weather, the poor were huddled around small fires along the streets and cuddled up under old and filthy blankets. Again, the complete lack of interest in Trey’s demon minions gave him the impression that people like him were perhaps more common here than he’d imagined. That, or the people here simply minded their own business.

[English Dialect] “Where are we going?” Jason asked curiously, with Ashe and Izumi close behind. His breath was frosty as it came out, and he cupped his hands across his face to keep the warmth in.

Passing another shady character to their right, Trey shrugged indifferently and continued down the dirt roads. Shoddy rooftops, dark alleyways and broken down buildings were in abundance here.

[English Dialect] “To find an inn.” Trey said simply. “We’re out of Yosemar, so we can get a good night’s rest with what little coin we took off those bastards who attacked us last... and then we’ll try to find passage over to the Lawless Lands like Elandry told us to do. Hopefully people outside of Yosemar haven’t heard of us or the bounties on our heads.”

“Can we get some food?” Izumi chimed in with a hopeful smile. “I’m really hungry.”

Ashe eagerly nodded and pulled her cloak tigher. “Me too! How much money do we have left, Jason?”

Jason did a quick check of the pouch on his waist. He’d been designated the money carrier since looting the bodies of the bounty hunters over the last week and hadn’t thought much about it since. Counting the money as they walked and avoiding a glare from a homeless man to his left, Jason counted out loud. “That's… 20 copper and 3 silver. The equivalent of 50 dollars, so not much. Oh look! I think that’s an inn over there! Let’s check it out?”

The blonde man was pointing through a back alley and to the opposite street where a dimly lit sign hung over a doorway. It actually even had the words “Jacob’s Inn” written into the wood. A number of people stood outside the door in heavy jackets, talking to one another and laughing while smoking pipes.

Trey smiled and gave Jason a thumbs up. “That’ll do pig, that’ll do.”

Jason completely missed the reference but didn’t care enough to ask, he was just interested in getting out of the cold.

They made their way through the alley, almost tripping over a sleeping hobo curled up under a thick blanket. Stepping over him and continuing down the dark corridor they came out the other side and onto a larger street with occasional lamp posts illuminating their right and left.

The five men out front smoking pipes with one another all stopped talking and watched upon Trey’s approach. They were all gruff looking, with thick short beards, laborer’s boots and thin gloves. Their eyes focused down on Trey’s demonic features, then scanned over the other three demons before landing on the Earthborn behind them. They then quickly moved out of the way when the incoming party got close.

Trey passed them by without a glance and pushed the thick wooden door aside, then was met with the low glow of candlelight and laughter. It was rather busy, with over three dozen men and women at rectangular wooden tables across the room. Drinking, card games, chess, flirtatious behavior between genders and storytelling were just some of the activities going on when they’d entered. Upon seeing Trey and the others come in though, that all stopped within ten seconds. The room had become quiet, and almost everybody was looking them over.