Excerpts from: the wise dragon’s demonicon: the card devil:

Of all devils in hell there is none who embodies the term “fairplay” like the card devil does, although they are associated with cards they are also know as game devils for the fact that they are masters of all matter of games like chess and even dice rolling. These devils are known for their charisma and intolerance for cheating, a contract with a card devil that is not respected by the contractor will not only get the soul of the cheater sent straight into the devil’s claws but will turn him into a mindless slave for all eternity…..

…..A card devils magic and abilities more than often involve games such as boardgames but cards are their most powerful asset. A cardevil can use its magic cards to create shields, soldiers, trap monsters and tame them, make them explode upon being shot at people, they are verry versatile devils in combat and never to be underestimated for their polite behaviour and strange dislike for scheming……..

There are also rumors about another strange ability of these devils, they seem to be able to predict the future but only one kind of future that is random and may be giving the devil a disadvantage or advantage depending on the situation. There have been kings who summoned them to make them tell the future of themselves and their kingdoms, but strangely the card devils warned them before ultimately doing as those kings wished, it should be no wonder that remnants of these kingdoms are now nothing but ruins……

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The town of Ursan was a quiet backwater place, it lay close to the border with the Badlands and yet it was almost never visited by soldiers or other travellers. Right now it was night, Ursans towngates were still closed and the people there were all fast asleep, but a couple of kilometres away from there someone was already verry busy.

A boy wearing a cloak and with a book in his hand was drawing a huge magical array in the ground of the forest he currently found himself in. Iskander had worked hard to get this circle precisely good for his plans, if he made one single mistake he would have to deal with the consequences fast!

Iskander had done this once before, the night before he went and slaughtered a group of cultists and made a pact with their demons. Actually it had not been necessary, he could have dealt with them just fine with his normal spells but he had thought he would face a large threat and had hence made a formula that he wrote down in his book to preserve the knowledge, by now Iskanders book probably could be considered a treasure trove filled with info about warlocks, the dark arts and the names of thousands of demons.

He looked at the drawing in his grimoire and then at the ground in front of him, back then he had used blood of a goat to paint it but later study revealed that that was not necessary, he still felt sorry for that poor goat though. It was at those times iskander was happy that he was a warlock and dealt with demons instead of ghosts, otherwise he might have been attacked by angry goat ghosts wanting revenge for that ritual.

“It looks fine to me, Iskander whispered to himself as he walked around it for a final inspection to ensure it had been drawn properly. He had always hated rituals, as a warlock he had had to figure it all out himself, the only ones he could ask for aid with harnessing his powers had and still came from demons and devils who could not always be trusted, he still vividly remembered that time he accidentally summoned hellhound pups and then was chased for a day by their angry mother before he contracted her as well, that had been a bad joke!

If not for the fact that manny of his demons actually enjoyed living in his books pocket dimension to avoid the hellish or abyssal hierarchy they probably would not want his death but pranking him was not something they feared. Higher ranking demons though, Iskander had learned that the weakest ones who saw him as some kind of saviour were actually less keen on betraying him, most higher ranked demons who he had dragged into a pact of chains were not so keen on letting him live.

Luckily enough some of the high ranks were feeling dutybound to serve him after their defeat, like Mephisto or those fiendish soldiers who the cultists had summoned once. They had given him more info on rituals and even though Iskander had not had much time to check them all he had been able to write everything down.

This circle was a masterpiece if he said so himself, the infernal runes and arcane symbols were all made with extreme parience and accuracy, if it was not a powerful dark arts ritual it would look like true art. Iskander turned around and looked away from the circle, “well here goes nothing.” Iskander looked at the book in his hand, “category “C”.” The book opened up and suddenly the pages were moving until they stopped at “demonic names alphabetic category c”, Iskander turned the pages around and soon found the one he was looking for, “summon Rian.”

As soon as Iskander said “rian” the pages of the book started to glow as an orb of light in all colours of the rainbow floated out and landed a few metres in front of him. As he watched the orb slowly got bigger as it grew arms, legs and a head, when the light faded a strange fiend stood in front of him. The creature had long thin arms with sharp claws and legs built like those of a wolf but with pale greyish skin, it had no wings and it’s head was decorated with long blue hair and long curled horns.

The face of this fiend looked like a human with and unhinged jaw, large teeth and eyes that had catlike pupils. “Hello Rian, Iskander said while closing his book, long time not seen.” Rian, the fiend that had been summoned started chuckling in a guttural tone, “hello master, how is it after your little slip up with Kratos?” Iskander did not even flinch when the fiend talked about it, Rian was a fiend who enjoyed tormenting and tricking people, he was mid ranked and thus not the weakest nor the strongest in the abyssal hierarchy which also made the demon rather arrogant.

But the arrogance in Rians voice did not last for long when the demon spotted the circle behind Iskander. “that circle, the fiend said with a scared voice, you aren’t planning to….” Iskander smirked, sometimes interacting with fiends could be fun too, the disbelief on their faces when you wanted to do something and they could not comprehend what you were thinking was hilarious.

“actually Rian I am planning to do that, Iskander said with a serious voice that left absolutely no doubt about his decision, and you will help me.” Rian backed away, “y-you must be crazy, the fact that you managed to do it once is already a miracle but to do it a second time….?” Iskander smiled, “in fact I am planning to do it manny more times after this, I have not much choice.”

Rian laughed, “not much choice, you have thousands of fiends demons and devils, you could have taken one of those succubi for this ritual, no need to get me into this mess!” Iskander tilted his head, “if I wanted to get the ability to charm people maybe, but for my plans I need to have yours, the power of a changeling.”

Changelings were actually not verry rare in the abyss or in hell, the problem was that they were immensely difficult to summon and even more difficult to bind to a pact, they were almost always mid ranked fiends but their shapeshifting abilities could make them a hard opponent for the higher ranked fiends, devils or demons as well. Rian had been caught by him when the fiend went on a rampage after being summoned, Iskander had had to use a pact of chains on it.

The shapeshifting of a changeling was verry complex, a changeling could change its form into any living creature be they humans, deer or even trolls, dragons were an exception but that was besides the point, the point was that with this circle Iskander could gain that unique ability himself!

“you did this only one time before right, the fiend asked, with thorn if I’m not wrong.” Iskander nodded and took of his right glove, there as black as ink stood a mark, a lightingbolt with two wings at the side, Iskander had gotten it after the ritual ended and he gained a few of Thorns abilities. This ritual was what he called, “the copycat”, he had made it with some help of his contracted fiends and the formula for “demonic fusion”, but instead of fusing with the demon this ritual would grant the warlock the same ability as the demon with whom he performed the ritual.

According to Mephisto who had seen his fair share of warlock rituals this was a new ritual, Iskander had felt proud back then knowing that he had invented a new and powerful ritual for warlocks.

But it came with its drawbacks too, for example if Iskander used Thorns powers he would be able to throw hurricanes and lightning bolts but he would also grow wings and small horns, not exactly a fun experience to have in the midst of combat.

Yet it was an effective ritual that would forever give him some of the abilities that a demon possessed and now it was time to take a power essential to his plan, the power to change your appearance, to become a different person at will. “now Rian could you get in the circle please?”

Rian sighed and walked over to the circle, stepping inside and waiting for what would happen next, a few minutes later a purple glow could be seen above the forest, as if someone had ignited a purple light spell.

Luckily there was no one nearby for as long as the light shone screams of pain and agony could be heard, but no one listened or heard it, only the monsters and beasts did and they hid or ran when the purple light appeared.

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Iskander woke up with the songs of birds and the smell of burned soil, he got up and looked at the ground where the circle had been, it was blackened as if someone came around throwing fireballs at the ground.

Iskander looked at his arm, there next to that of the first mark now stood another, it looked like a mask that showed two halves of a face, Iskander smiled, the ritual had succeeded.