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Chapter Text

It all started when Luke Carder was only twelve. His best friend, Kaycee Hobbes, had found some of her deceased grandfather's old card games.

Sandwiched between regular playing cards and Karnoffel cards were a dozen packs of Inscryption. They were evenly split amongst the four types of cards; Deathly, which is full of undead zombies and skeletons, Tech, which is full of robots, Magick, full of wizards and magical gems called Moxes, and Beastly, full of animals and natural elements such as trees and boulders.

After finding a positively ancient rulebook for Inscryption with leather-bound covers and spine, and a gilded cursive 'I' on the front cover, Luke and Kaycee taught themselves how to play and printed out a piece of paper with the game board on it.

The game board is comprised of a four-by-four grid of card-play spaces, the eight in the middle two columns being the in-play spaces and the other eight being the pre-play spaces. The way the spaces work is that, before a card can be in play, they go into one of the four pre-play spaces one each player's side, then, on the player's next turn, that card is in play and can do damage.

When they played, Kaycee used a mix of tech cards, which are played using a resource that builds up every turn called Energy, and Magick cards, that are played using Mox cards, while Luke used Beastly cards, played using sacrifices of other cards, and Deathly cards, played using bones, one gained for each card killed.

This started Luke's love of card games and Kaycee's dream of creating games, which both intensified after they read the signatures of the creators; Lesnik "Leshy" Sobol, Poe Kaminski, Grimora Patel, and Magnus "Magnificus" Johnson.

"Episode 33 of The Lucky Carder Podcast. So, to continue our conversation from Tuesday, what gave you the idea for Catch Monsters' most famous card, Birchkin, Mr. Mullens?" Luke said after turning on his microphone and starting his recording.

"Daniel, please, and I was inspired by nature and the natural pacifism possessed by nature spirits in mythology," replied Daniel Mullens.

Suddenly, the Pokemon theme started playing from Luke's phone, signaling to him that he was being called by his now girlfriend, Kaycee.

"Just a moment, Daniel. Hi, Kaycee,"

"Heya, Luke. Guess who has agreed to be on your podcast?" Kaycee replied.

"Who?"

"Only the creators of Inscryption! Only the catch is that I'll need to get a copy,"

"And why's that?"

"Gamefuna is making an Inscryption videogame and it's up to me to come up with a story, so I'm going to base it on the creators."

"Alright. Send me their addresses later. Love you."

"Love you, too."

"Alright, Daniel, where were we?"

Around a week later, Luke arrives at a retirement home containing three of the four creators of Inscryption, Lesnik, Grimora, and Magnus. Poe had refused to retire from Botopia Incorporated.

Walking through the faux oak doors, Luke set his bag on the receptionist's desk.

"Hi, I'm Luke Carder, I called ahead for a meating with Lesnik Sobol."

"Woof, you picked one mean bastard to pay a visit.

"Am I allowed to see him?"

"Yes, let me just check your bag for any contriband."

After checking his bag, the receptionist, whose name tag read Rebecha, lead Luke to Lesnik's room.

"Hello, Mr. Sobol. My name's Luke Carder," Luke said after the door was opened.

Chapter Text

"Episode 34 of The Lucky Carder Podcast. Could you say your name for the recording?"

"My name is Lesnik Sobol, but my friends and my family call me Leshy. My friends and I created Inscryption."

December 5th, 1932. Inside a small, two room log cabin. A five-year-old Lesnik and his mother are packing blankets, clothes, and, strangely, durak cards alongside an envelope containing a letter and instructions on how to play durak.

"Are you ready, moja láska?"

"Yes, mother."

"Do you know what to say?"

"In a quiet lagoon, devils dwell."

"Correct. Now, it's time to take you to Poland."

After sneaking through the border of Ukraine shared with Poland, a group of Soviet border patrol with bloodhounds started to chase the mother and son.

They ran with the vigor of a slave escaping their enslaver, going to a small Polish pub that moves Soviet citizens to Western countries for a small fee. Opening the door, the mother throws her son into the pub, telling the barkeep to keep the door locked, no matter what they hear.

Unfortunately, the mother was caught by the Soviet border control, dragged back into Ukraine, and shot. Lesnik would never forget this event.

"So, Mr. Sobol, what did you contribute to Inscryption?"

"It's Leshy, and I made the general rules as well as the Beastly cards."

"What made you want to make Inscryption?"

"I was inspired by my mother. See, when I was ten, my mother sacrificed her life to get me out of Ukraine during the Holodomor, and one of the few things she gave me before her death was a deck of durak cards and instructions on how to play. That way, I could keep my culture. So, to honor her memory, I decided to make a card game. But, if you mean specifically the beasts, I saw plenty of beasts while living in a cabin in my thirties."

"Do you have children?"

"Yes, Peter, Anthony, Travis, Trixie, and Dr. Miles."

"How about a wife?"

"Yes, my lovely Wanda, a woodcarver by trade."

"Thank you for your answers. I think it's time for me to leave. Have a great day, Leshy."

While Kaycee started writing her story, she listened to Luke's podcast. Suddenly she realized the story. Leshy would be one of four Scrybes, the Scrybe of Beasts, accompanied by Grimora, Poe, and Magnificus.

Kaycee picked up her papers detailing the story so far and brought it to her boss, Mr. Lou Natas.

"Have you thought of a basic story, Ms. Hobbes?"

"Yes, sir. It follows four Scrybes, one of which is Leshy, Scrybe of Beasts, who lives in a cabin in the woods with three mini-bosses under him, the Prospector, the Angler, and the Trapper. Then there are three helpful NPCs, the Mycologists, a man with two heads who combines two of the same cards together, adding their power and health, the Woodcarver, who gives the player a totem which will give one type of their cards a sigil, and the Trader, who will sell the player cards for foils they get for extra damage on the scales. One more thing, the Trapper and Trader are two identities in the same body."

"Good work, Ms. Hobbes."

Chapter Text

Rain. Poe hated rain. It came with the curse of wetness and it could instantly ruin circuit boards and could even, rarely, short-circuit Poe's electric wheelchair. Despite this hatred, Poe would have to go out in it. He would have to leave the Botopia Inc. factory eventually, but first, he'd have to finish the blueprint verification. Whenever it rained, it reminded Poe of the day he and his bestfriend had revealed their-

No. Poe refused to relive that day. The reason he had divorced his wife was to focus on his business, he would never again be led astray by pitiful romance.

Pressing the button on the factory's PA system microphone and said, "Isaac Kaminski to CEO's office, I repeat, Isaac Kaminski to CEO's office."

It took less than ten minutes for Isaac to arrive from the inspection division. "Hiya, dad. You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, I've finished checking over the blueprints for the new military drone, I just need you to sign off on it as Chief Inspector."

"Ah, I see. I gotta give the old John Hancock." Isaac said before signing the blueprints.

"Good, now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking my leave. Hand me that umbrella."

Poe carefully lifted himself from his wheelchair, considerably difficult given he had lost his other arm years ago in an accident in the factory he used to work at before starting Botopia Inc., and set himself into his favorite armchair and turned on the news.

The newscaster, a blonde, acne-scarred woman had been talking about some new company before recieving a paper that evudently had a breaking story.

"Game Funa, the world renowned developers of such games as Super Weasel Kid: Radical Road and Catch Monsters: The Videogame have announced a videogame based on the hit card game Inscryption."

This was news to Poe. And, as far as he knew, he had never given this game company permission to make a mockery of Inscryption.

Looking at the framed floppy disk shaped card, the first Tech card Poe ever made, Poe knew he had to do something before this gane came out.

Rain. Whenever it rained, Leshy wanted to go outside barefoot and dance in the rain, but the last time he did that, Rebecha yelled at him for muddying the floors.

Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door to Leshy's room. The old photographer opened the door and saw his son, Anthony, a worker at a fish canery by trade, standing there with a box of Leshy's gaming things.

"Hi, dad. Got your things."

"Thank you, Anthony." Anthony had autism, but that wouldn't make Leshy treat Anthony any less human, unlike others.

"Where will we play?"

"Gameroom, maybe?"

"Splendid idea, môj syn."

In the gameroom, Leshy and Anthony opened the box after finding an empty table, and pulled out the necessities to play a modified version of Inscryption.

"You are a fisherman whose business has started to fail due to overfishing in your area and have decided to go into the forbidden forest to find more fish, taking with you a small menagerie of forest dwelling creatures. Past the trees all you see is a mountain."

After defeating the Woodlands boss, the Woodsman, and the Snow Line boss, the Huntsman, all Anthony could do was fight the final boss, the Fisherman, who is a rival of Anthony's character.

"Ah, so you've finally made it to me, malý rybár. Now you face you biggest threat to your fishing business, me."

And the battle began. Leshy, or the Fisherman sith his carved wooden mask on, played a Kingfisher on the far left, from Anthony's point of view, and a Bait Bucket on the right middle, with an Adder in the Pre-Play space all the way on the right that Anthony overlooked.

Anthony played a Squirrel and the sacrificed it to play a Bullfrog in front of the Kingfisher, put down The Smoke, and sacrificed it to play a Strange Larva on the far right, then ended his turn.

The Bullfrog added one weight to the scale, and had its health decreased by one by the Kingfisher, which then went underwater. The Strange Larva was replaced with a Strange Pupa and the Adder moved into the In-Play space in front of the Strange Pupa.

Anthony drew a Squirrel and put it down on the board, then sacrificed the Bullfrog and Squirrel to play a Wolf in the far-left spot, and ended his turn.

The Wolf added three weights to the scale, one of which was null and void as the Kingfisher added one weight on the other side of the scale. The Adder then killed the Strange Pupa with its Touch of Death sigil.

Anthony drew a Squirrel and ended his turn.

The Wolf did just enough damage to get rid of one of the Fisherman's two lives.

"Got you, dad."

No response.

"Dad?"

September 1, 1939. Lesnik was with his adoptive parents on the Northern border Poland shared with Germany, and he had just won a game of Durak.

"I got you, otec!"

"Please, don't speak Slovak. Either speak Polish or Yiddish."

"I'm sorry, fater."

"It's okay, I just don't want you to be bullied for speaking a strange language."

Suddenly, a man burst into their home.

"Rabbi, the Nazis have invaded! We need to get you and your family out of here!"

They went on a boat for Jews emigrating to the United States, around Sweden, and right under the Nazis nose, and landed in New York City. Upon seeing the skyline, Lesnik realized that he was finally free.

Leshy's attention suddenly snapped back to his son. It wasn't 1939. He wasn't fleeing the Nazis with his Jewish adoptive parents. He was safe.

"Apologizes, my son. Let us continue."

Leshy swept aside the cards he had on the board and placed a Bait Bucket in front of the Wolf, which would be replaced by a Great White if killed.

Anthony drew from his deck and got the Urayuli. He smiled, as in combination with his Wolf, Squirrel, and, Black Goat, he could play it.

Anthony played the Squirrel, sacrificed his Wolf for the Black Goat, then sacrificed both his Black Goat and Squirrel to play the Urayuli all the way on the right and ended his turn.

Seven weight were put on the scake and the Fisherman was defeated. Leshy took of his mask, held out his hand and Anthony shook it.

"You are so very smart my son. Don't let anyone tell you different."

Chapter Text

October 8th, 1970. At 11:30pm, Poe was working overtime in his father's factory, owned by Kaminski LLC and overseen by Barry Wilkinson, shredding chairs that didn't meet the Kaminski Standard™ and saving the ones that did. The process was simple, but long and tedious.

At that time of night only Mr. Kaminski and Mr.Wilkinson, who Poe called the Big-Eared Bastard because he heard everything, were in the CEO's office, talking business and drinking whiskey.

After inspecting one chair with a leg too thin to hold up a person he carefully put it into the shredder and put his arm on the opening as a break. Sadly, Poe started to immediately fall asleep.

It was July, 1942. Poe and Magnus were at a party with some of Mags' beatnik friends, who were smoking cigarettes, drinking beer that tasted like piss, talking about art, and waxing philosophy. It may not have been Poe's thing, but as long as Mags was there, he was happy.

Poe thought now was as good a time as any, and slowly intwined his hand with Mags'. To his suprise, Mags didn't pull back or call him a fag, but held Poe's hand back and simply kept talking with his friends.

After half an hour in this position, Poe leaned over Mags' shoulder and whispered in his ear.

"Can we go outside?"

"Sure," Mags whispered back.

When they got up and went outside the dorms, Mag asked what Poe wanted, as blunt as the handle of a paintbrush.

"I... I think I love you, Mags."

"Well, I know I love you, Poe."

That was just like Mags to subtley one-up Poe while still validating his feelings.

Poe took Mags' face in his hands and kissed him.

Poe woke up when his foot slipped on wood shaving and his arm plunged into the shredder, becoming caught in its teeth.

Poe screamed in pain as his arm was crushed, cut, and torn from his body, inch by bleeding inch. With intense strength, he pulled himself out of the shredder and collapsed on the ground, what was left of his arm bleeding profusely, the blood staining the wood shavings. And again, Poe screamed in pain.

Charles Kaminski and Wilkinson ran down to help Poe, putting a cloth on the bleeding stump and quickly getting him to a hospital. In that hospital bed, Poe told his father he would be quitting. He vowed to make his own company and factories that actually cared about its workers.

Luke returned to the retirement home a week after his interview with Leshy, and asked Rebecha where Magnus Johnson's room was.

"Woof, kid. That's a bad decision, going into Magnus' room today. He's painting up a storm and he hasn't slept for days. But, if you really want to meet him, it's your funeral. Down the hall on your left, Room 121."

Luke didn't think that Magnus could be all that bad, after all, Rebecha was wrong about Leshy.

"Mr. Johnson? My name's Luke Carder, I'm here to interview you," Luke said into the door's food tray slot, which looked hastily put together, after finding the door locked.

"Are you a fan of my work?" came a voice from inside the dark room, who seemed to be tall, thin, and weilding a paintbrush with shocking speed from what Luke could see through the slot.

"Sort of... I'm here to ask you about Inscryption."

Luke suddenly heard the door click unlocked. Opening it Luke was shocked to find a man with gray hair and a massive bear in a green robe and wizard hat. He looked like a green-clad image of what Luke assumed Gandalf to look like.

"Come in." It wasn't an invitation, it was a command.

Setting up his equipment, Luke sat on a stool in front of a coffee table and pulled out his notes on questions, then was immediately blinded by the lights as Magnus turned them on. He only then noticed that Magnus only had one eye.

"Are you ready," Luke asked to which Magnus only shook his head yes in response. "Alright. Episode 35 of the Lucky Carder Podcast. Mr. Johnson-"

"Call me by my first name."

"Okay. Magnus-"

"It's Magnificus. I had it legally changed once I graduated college."

"Alright. Magnificus, when did you meet the three other creators of Inscryption?"

"Well, I met Poe Kaminski and Grimora Patel in my freshmen year of highschool."

It was the first day. Mags, he hated being called Magnus, had put on his bag and walked to the bus stop, sketching a wizard's duel with a pencil the whole way. Seeing the bus nearly packed full of students, he groaned at having to sit with another student.

Seeing the only open seats were next to a girl dressed like an actress, so Mags knew he wouldn't be able to sit by her, and the other occupied by two students, a girl, dressed like she was going to a funeral, and a guy who looked like the word 'nerd.' He decided to sit next to the two oddballs.

"Hi there. I'm Mags."

"What does Mags short for?" the guy said.

"Well, most people think it's short for Magnus, but it's actually short for my stage name, Magnificus."

"Your stage name? Are you a singer as well as an artist?" the girl asked.

"Nope. Magician at childrens' parties."

"Wow, super cool," the guy said sarcastically.

"Yeah, sure laugh it up. Now, what are your names?"

"I'm Grimora Patel."

"And, I'm Poe. Poe Kaminski."

"Well, Popo Kaminski, I'll think we'll get along swell."

"When did you meet Leshy?"

"We met in our college creative studies class."

It was a freezing cold September day, when Mags met the immigrant.

It was a creative studies class, where Mags, per usual, was sketching wizards. Then he saw the Ukranian boy. He was hunched over, cutting paper into cards. He had told the professor he was making a card game.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Making a card game."

"No, I mean what are you doing in my country?"

"I didn't know you were the kráľ around here."

"The what?"

"The kráľ. It means king."

"Whatever, just go back to where you came from, or else."

The next day after school, Mags beat up the kid, whose name was Lesnik, but he wanted everyone to call him Leshy. Mags kept breaking Lesnik's nose every three weeks. But one day, Mags was fed up with Lesnik.

"Why do you stay here, even though I hurt you?!"

"I want to understand you, Magnus."

"I... I..."

Mags was speechless. Why would someone want to understand their bully? Now Mags wanted to understand Lesnik.

"I'm... sorry, Lesni- Leshy."

"As am I, for antagonizing you, Mags."

The next day, Mags introduced Leshy to Grimora and Poe.

"Where did you work before retirement?"

"I worked at a gaming establishment called the Tower of Magicks."

"Do you have any kids?"

"Yes, three. Gelbert, Pia, and Lonnie."

"How about a wife?"

"No. She left without a trace one day."

"I'm sorry about that. Well, that's all the time I have today. Have a lovely day, Magnificus."

Kaycee kept listening to Luke's latest episode, until finally, something clicked.

Magnificus would be a wizard in a tower with three students; Goobert, a wizard turned into acidic goo as a test, Pike Mage, a mage whose head is put on a pike in a hellishly hot place, and the Lonely Wizard, who is in an inky black abyss.

Yes, this was something she could show her boss.

Poe kept reading and rereading lawbooks. Game Funa would not profit off of his and his friends' work.

Chapter Text

The easel sits there, the sketch of a tree-like wizard playing cards with a robot stays a reminder to Mags as to what he lost that day. The day they split ways.

Unable to continue painting, or begin painting, he swirled his brush one of his two cups, accidentally putting paint in his coffee, and used the sink in his bathroom to clean off his palette.

He sat for a long time, staring at the unpainted reminder of his failures.Then, unpromoted, his brain began to reminisce.

August 5th, 1948. Mags sat in front of an easel, painting furiously. His love for Poe had ignited within him a fire of creative energy and gave him the outlook of a child, that is to say, a hopeful outlook. It was a card. An orange gem he called a Mox with 0 power and 1 health that functioned as a power source for bigger, more powerful creatures.

Suddenly, Mags' alarm clock rang out, signaling that it was time for him to get ready to take his magician act to a kid's birthday. He loathed the work, but loved the theatricality. Then, Mags got an idea.

"Hey, my love!"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Do you want to be my assistant for this magic show I'm putting on for a kid's birthday?"

"Sure, it's not like I have anything better to do."

At the party, Poe wheeled in a large box on a dolly, which contained all of Mags magic stuff. Going into the backyard through a white picket fence gate, Poe ran into the mother of tge birthday child.

"Are you the magician?"

"No, I'm his assistant."

"Where is he?"

"You'll see."

"Alright," the mother said hesitantly. "Kids, it's time for the magic show!"

Poe set the box in the grass near the edge of the backyard and knocked softly on the box.

"This, boys and girls, is the show of a lifetime! Prepare to be amazed by the one, the only, Magnificus the Magnificent!"

At that moment the box folded open with such force that it startled the kids, and out popped Mags with a build in magic table and kit.

"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, who's ready for magic?"

The kids hands shot up.

"Excellent! For my first trick, I shall do the impossible and saw my assisstant in half!"

For nearly an hour, the kids were captivated by Mags' magic. Even the parents stopped talking and watched. Then came the final trick.

"Now, for my last trick, I shall juggle five knives!" Mags said, picking up the knives.

For the first minute or so, the trick went well. Then Mags decided to show off. He threw the knives up in the air, the used his palm to push them so the were blade down when they hit the grass. He hit one. Then two. Three. Four. But the fifth was tricky. He pushed, but only hard enough so it was blade down. Then it came down, down and found a soft place to land. It lodged itself deep in Mags' eye and he screamed, pain flooding his senses.

The parents immediately jumped into action, bringing Mags to a nearby hospital. He would never see in that eye again. As compensation, the mother paid for Mags' hospital fees and gave him twice the payment original agreed upon.

After the surgeon removed the eye, Mags kept it. After being offered a glass eye, Mags refused to take it or an eyepatch.

The next day, Mags had the lost eye preserved.

Pulling the eye out of his robes' pocket and thoughtfully rolling it in his hand, Mags knew what he had to do to reignite the flame. He would call Poe and ask him out to dinner.

Dialing the number was a million times harder than anything Mags thought he could do, but, eventually, he did it.

"Poe Kaminski of Botopia Inc."

"Hi, Poe, this is Mags. I was wondering if you're doing anything for dinner tomorrow?"

"No, I'm not. Are you... asking me out?"

"Well, I... I suppose I am. Do you want to have dinner with me?"

"I, uh... sure, Mags. How about Ponderosa?"

"Sounds wonderful. I'll pick you up at around six. Is that... okay?"

"Yep. I'll see you then."

"Likewise."

That was the most terrifying experience that Poe ever had. It was scarier than seeing Mags accidentally stab himself in the eye. But, no, Poe couldn't get distracted. He had to learn all the technicalities of the American legal system, especially if he was going to sue Gane Funa for 'stealing' Inscryption.

Chapter Text

Poe woke with a start. Someone was calling him. Picking up the phone, Poe said in a groggy voice, "Poe Kaminski, who is this?"

"Oh, sounds like you just woke up, Poe. I just wanted to ask if we're still on for tonight," said the unmistakable voice of Mags.

"Wha-"

Last night. The call. The date. It wasn't a dream.

"Oh, um... yeah. Yeah, we are. I'm sorry, I just thought it was a dream for a minute."

"A good dream, I hope," Mags said with a smirk that Poe could feel through the phone.

"Is there any other when you're involved? Anyway, I hope you bring a ramp into your van."

"Why's that?"

"You'll see. See you then."

"Bye."

Poe was smiling from ear to ear. His mood would always be lifted when he talked to Mags. But, he had to get back to work.

His case was almost complete. All he needed was two key pieces of information; Who was developing the story and how?

"Something for later."

Rolling his way over to his room, he stripped down to nothing, grabbed clean clothes, and went into his bathroom.

Getting onto the shower chair was difficult due to his lack of an arm and the height of the metal chair his father had passive-aggressively given him after he quit.

The shower was pleasent and warm and the job of cleaning tedious, but it was necessary. After a thourough job that I won't describe here, Poe grabbed his towel and dried himself off before getting back into his wheelchair.

Getting dressed was almost as hard as getting into and out of his wheelchair, but he was well practised.

Poe was waiting outside of his house in a sweater and jeans, when he saw an ugly green van pull up into his driveway.

The driver got out, opened the sidedoor, and put a ramp on the opening, then turned and waved to Poe. It was, undoubtedly, Mags.

As Poe began to wheel over, Mags looked shocked.

"What, didn't expect me to be in a wheelchair?" Poe said jokingly.

"Well, no... Are you crippled or...?"

"No, I just have arthritis in my knees. Anyway, pick me up and put me in the passenger's seat."

Mags did as told, the used the ramp to push the wheelchair into the van.

At the restaraunt, they reversed the process, and walked/rolled into Ponderosa. They decided to do the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet, got their plates full of food, sat at their table, and began to eat and talk.

After a few minutes of boring conversation, Mags asked a strange question.

"Did you regret our breakup?"

"More than anything."

November, 1947. Poe, Mags, Grimora, and Leshy had just finished making Inscryption, and got into a fight about Poe's lack of enthusiasm.

"You should be thrilled! The capitalist system has blessed us with plenty of bohatstvo!"

"Again, Leshy, capitalism is a very flawed system."

"My dears, please, stop fighting..."

"No, Leshy's right, Mags, we've been blessed by capital. But, I'm still a bit hesitent to devote my life to a fucking card game."

"How dare you! To je všetko, Som mimo."

"Leshy, wait! I'll get him."

"Mags, I think we should go."

"Alright."

In Mags' van, Poe and Mags get into an argument.

"Please, just let me do it."

"I'm not ready, Mags."

"Come on!"

"I'm not ready, Magnus!"

A pause. Overly long.

"Get out."

"W-what?"

"Get out!"

That was the last time any of the four saw each other for a long time.

"Ms. Patel? My name is Luke Carder and I'm here to interview you about Inscryption."

"One moment."

The sound of metal being places diwn and a carpet being moved alerted Luke to the fact that this seemingly sweet old lady might have a dark secret.

"Hello, dear. Come in, come in," Grimora said as she opened her door.

Inside the room was the most occult artifacts that Luke had ever seen. There were grimoires, animal skulls, talismans, and much more.

"This is an... interesting room."

"Thank you, dear. In fact, I was just about to summon the Bone Lord, a demon from the deepest pits of Hell."

"Oh? Well, um, let's start the interview. Episode 36 of the Lucky Carder Podcast. So, Ms. Grimora Patel, what did you contribute to Inscryption?"

"Simple, the bone mechanic and the Deathly cards. Y'know, I shaped them like gravestones on purpose."

"Interesting. Now, a personal question, do you have any family?"

"Two sons, Sawyer and Royal. I had a husband but he passed away in a car accident long ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

A rainy night in May of 1972, one Kyle Dominguez was driving to work. He hated having to leave his wife with their son, Royal Patel-Dominguez, but he was the breadwinner and he couldn't let them starve.

Suddenly, as Kyle tried to stop in front of some train tracks, he brakes stopped working and he slid in front of the train.

Seconds before his death, he thought of his son.

Back at the house, Grimora was crying. To please the Bone Lord, she had to cut her husband's car's brakes. It was either that or she would have to give up the child in her womb to form their pact.

"Well, that seems to be all of my questions. Do you have anything to say?"

"Yes. I know all about what you and Kaycee are doing with Game Funa. Stop, and the Bone Lord will spare you. Good day."

"I regret trying to force you into it. It wasn't right, and I'm sorry."

"We can talk about this later at my place. For now, let's just enjoy our dinner together."

In Poe's bed, he realized he was finally ready for Mags.

It was like fireworks for Poe. He hoped Mags felt the same.

After, Poe asked Mags a serious question.

"Do you regret meeting me?"

Mags put his hand on Poe's muttonchop and began playing with the hair, deep in thought.

"Not even a little bit."

Kaycee was concerned. Not about her story, no, that was nearly finished with Sawyer, Royal, and herself being undead servants of the Scrybe of the Dead. What Kaycee was worried about was the Bone Lord and what would hapoen to Luke if this game was released.

Then, she scoffed. There is no such thing as a 'Bone Lord' nor does magic exist. But, she couldn't stop thinking about how Grimora knew about the game.

Chapter Text

Poe was blissfully asleep until a hard, boney elbow hit him in the face.

Waking with a start, Poe remembered all that had happened the night before. He and Mags were finally back together, just as his ex-wife had predicted would happen, and he was finally ready for Mags.

To be honest, Poe was scared. Not about sex in general, no, he was scared of people learning who he is and leaving him because of it. If Poe hadn't been scared of intimacy, maybe he wouldn't be a divorcee, but, then again, his fear had led him back to his first love.

It's foolish to wish to change the past, Poe thought, Better to think of changing the future.

Poe slowly got up from the bed, showered, got dressed, and used his wheelchair to go into his study. He knew from experience that Mags wouldn't be up for another hour at least. He reviewed the case for the suing of Game Funa. He knew he couldn't have any cracks or flaws in his logic or that horned serpent Lou Natas would slither right out of his grasp.

"Poe? What's all this?"

That was fast.

"This, my love, is my case for suing the company Game Funa."

"And why are you suing a game company?"

"Because that company is stealing our creation. I'll put it simply. Game Funa is illegally turning our card game, Inscryption, into a shitty pc game."

"How is it illegal?"

"By not getting written permission, in the form of contracts, from the original creators, Grimora Patel, Leshy Sobol, you, and I, Game Funa is violating Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution."

"Oh my god. We need to tell Grimora and Leshy so we all can fight this."

"Not so fast. I may be able to convince to go through with the case, but I still need a key piece of information; how they know about us. You see, I have a friend working on the game and he says that someone named Kaycee Hobbes has come up with a story, mostly, using our lives. She knows about Leshy, Grimora, even your adopted children!"

"Well, the only person I've talked to is this young man who interviewed me a few days ago. I don't remember his name, but if he is using us to pad out the story of that game he'll come for you soon."

"Coniuro te, Ossa Domine. Fac me iussisse."

A darkness consumed the room, and a skeletal hand reached through the pentagram carved into the floor boards that had been covered by the rug.

"What is thy bidding, summoner?"

"I wish for you to curse the game designer Kaycee Hobbes with terrible nightmares."

It was Leshy. He was sitting at a table across from Kaycee. Except, he looked like a 3D version of his game sprite.

"Ah, a new challenger. Hello, Kaycee. Perhaps you have forgotten how this game is played. Allow me to remind you."

It was Inscryption. They played a heavily modified version of the game. Kaycee, with her knowledge of the game, was able to make it into a boss battle.

"Ah, the first boss. Be prepared to feel the fires of Hell."

Leshy picked up something from under the table and put it over his face. It was a ram's skull, bleached white, with glowing red eyes. Kaycee didn't know why, but her very soul trembled at the sight of the skull.

"I am the Bone Lord, and your soul will be mine," said an inhuman voice from inside the skull.

After a game where the Bone Lord marked cards with the Curse of the Bone Lord that would make it so her cards, when sacrificed or killed, would become his cards, the Bone Lord claimed victory and marked Kaycee on the arm with his branding iron.

Kaycee awoke with a start. She had been writing possible ways to turn Poe Kaminski into a character before she had fallen asleep. She itched her arm where the Bone Lord had branded her and noticed that his symbol, a small ram skull, had actually appeared on her arm.

For the next three weeks, Kaycee dealt with these nightmares until Luke sent her his next episode.

Chapter Text

December, 1947

"Attention kids and adults alike! Here's the next big card game! Inscryprion! I-N-S-C-R-Y-P-T-I-O-N! In this gane you sacrifice beasts, summon robots, raise the dead, and cast magic spells! Here to explain more, is the co-creator, Leshy Sobol!"

"Greetings, everyone! My name is Leshy, and my friends and I created Inscryption. This is game for two hráčov, sorry, players-"

Poe shut off the television. He didn't need any reminders of those people. Of their creation. He needed to focus on his work.

Chapter Text

Poe was startled awake by knocking on his front door, a page of a law book sticking to his face as he sat up. He had been working late the previous night to make sure the case was as airtight as possible. Poe wiped the saliva from his face, unstuck the book page, and wheeled himself over to the the front door of his big, empty house.

Opening the door, Poe saw a young man with a bag of what he assumed was a camera or other recording device. "Hello?"

"Hiya, my name's Luke Carder, I was wondering if I could interview you for my podcast?"

Poe thought for a minute. This could be the missing link he had been looking for. "Fine. Come in. Try not to drag any mud in from outside."

"This is Episode 37 of the Lucky Carder Podcast. Could you say your name into the recorder?"

"My name is Poe Kaminski, co-creator of Inscryption and Founder-CEO of Botopia Incorporated. What would you like to ask me?"

"Well, I wanted to ask some simple questions about what you contributed to Inscryption."

"Hey, guys! I came up with an idea for a type of card!" Poe told his three best friends.

"Let us see, priateľ."

"They're machines, robots and such, that can only be played when you have the appropriate amount of energy. You would gain energy, one 'bar' of energy every turn, starting with one at the beginning of the game, to get an upwards of six."

"Wonderful, dear!"

"Now that you have the idea in your head, describe the machines to me and I'll paint them."

"Now for my final question, do you have any family?"

"Yes, three sons, Isaac, Michael, and Devon. Are we done?"

"Yes, thank you for your time."

"No, thank you."

Kaycee was nodding off, inadvertently dipping her nose into her coffee, when the familiar ding of an email coming into her computer. She opened it, listened to Luke's latest episode, came up with ideas, and sent them off to her boss.

She then began to code a little surprise into the Inscryption Beta. A little virus she called 54_D0.EXE that would collect all the dirt in the computer systems and start sending the awful deeds of Game Funa to news outlets throughout the country, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and expose the government conspiracy that formed Game Funa and all of their misdeeds. And Kaycee knew of these things for the Bone Lord had shared his secret knowledge of the evils she had unknowingly participated in.

Magnificus pulled up to the nursing home, and parked his van in the parking lot, removed Poe's chair and Poe, and began to walk towards the entrance.

"You nervous to see them after so many years, Mags?"

"Yes. Are you, my love?"

"Honestly? A little."

Poe had called the nursing home the hour before to let them know they were coming, so the duo simply walked into the game room, and there, on the couch, were their old friends. The sight of them made Magnificus' legs weak. They walked/rolled up to them and began to talk.

Chapter Text

Paranoia isn't paranoia if you're right. This thought ran through Lou Natas' head as he looked through the document that had been printed from the close-by library which had a list of names of employees who had previously accessed the beta of Inscryption. 

He held the list, only one page long, thinking of the utter chaos the virus implanted into the disk had wreaked on the servers Game Funa had.

A simple coder for Game Funa had woken up that day in a relatively good mood, despite the fact that they felt like they had sold their soul to the devil to even get the mediocre job they had, but that’s besides the point. They had only been at work for a few minutes on the Inscryption beta when they got the first message. A little error message from the computer that read as follows:

“54_D0.EXE is asking for permission to edit your files. Give Permission?”

The coder simply pressed “Yes” as they felt that only a normal computer program would have such a boring name. Then, the coder spent two hours working on the code of the beta, adding in the robotic Scrybe of Technology P03’s factory and battles, then got up for just under two minutes to refill their cup of water.

When they returned, they noticed that some of the code looked a bit different than they remembered it , but thought nothing of it and ran the program.

Everything was fine, until they tried to trigger the P03 bossfight, when a clown-like NPC appeared in place of P03 and introduced itself as Sado.

“You shouldn’t have let me control your files, friend,” Sado said, then began the bossfight. On all eight of the lanes on Sado’s side, there were glitching black rectangles, in the place of cards, that had 99 health. The coder thought this was likely just a bug and decided to see this through, and played a dev card with infinite attack and health.

After the attack struck one of the black, glitching rectangles, the computer crashed and the servers suddenly burst into flames.

Natas had to be the one to figure out who had sabotaged the disk. He would sell his blackened soul to find out who did it. Suddenly, a name stood out to Natas. The name was Kaycee Hobbes.

The creators had been talking for hours, about the past, about the case Poe had built, and about their regrets. Suddenly, a young girl who looked about 25 or so cleared her throat, getting their attention.

“Hello, my name is Kaycee Hobbes and I’m the one who has been using your stories for the Inscryption, but by the end of today, I’ll no longer be working for Game Funa because I used a virus to destroy their servers.

Chapter Text

"Wait, what?" Poe asked. "You sabotaged their servers all to help us? Why?"

"Because I sicced the Bone Lord on her," Grimora said suddenly.

"You were the one who cursed me? You helped me realize that there is something fundamentally wrong with Game Funa. I don't know what it is yet, but I know it has something to do with a piece of code I found in the game called the Old_Data. It contained this," Kaycee said, placing down a vanilla colored file containing many photos and a report.

The report reads as follows:

We have located the corpse of Adolf Hitler in Moscow and have retrieved the item designated as the Karnoffel Code. The Code seems to be the key to the Doomsday Device designed by the Nazis we found underneath Berlin.

"You really expect us to believe this? Karnoffel Codes, Doomsday Devices, it's all utter nonsense!" Magnificus said after reading the report.

"Says the čarodejník," Leshy said, then saw the confused look on Magnificus' face. "It means wizard."

"In ANY case, this won't help our case. What we need is Luke and your support as key witnesses. Can we count on you?" Poe exclaimed before Leshy and Magnificus could start arguing.

"Yes, I swear on my life."

The trial began a week later.

"All rise. We are here to decide the case of Kaminski versus Game Funa. Will the prosecution say their opening statment?"

"Yes, Your Honor. This man, Mr. Louis Natas, ordered the illegal adaptation of mine and my friends' work, the card game Inscryption, into a video game. My friends and I were never asked for permission for them to do this, nor even made aware of this development until a whistle-blower, Kaycee Hobbes, turned against Game Funa," Poe said, fixing his tie.

"Defense, make your response."

"Yes, Your Honor. My client, the aforementioned Mr. Natas, is no criminal. He is guilty of only negligence and poor planning. He had never run a game company before, much less sword rights to make a video ga-"

"Objection! As shown by Game Funa's aquiration of Super Weasel Kid from Jonah Senzel in 1985, Mr. Natas is a skilled negotiator."

"I see. What more evidence have you, Mr. Kaminski?"

"Well, Your Honor, the characters in the game, known as Scrybes, were based off my friends, I, and our families. Exhibit A, the Woodcarver. Clearly, this design was made following the general face shape and details of Wanda Sobol, wife to Lesnik Sobol."

"What do you say to this, Mr. Natas?"

"Well, I- uh, you see-"

"Furthermore, I myself was plaigarized in the game as a robot named P03. The robot, as you can see here, has one arm and can't walk, just like me. Not to mention that P03 in leet speak is my name."

"I've heard enough. The Jury will now decide on the verdict."

One hour later...

"Jury, what is your verdict?"

"We find the defendant guilty on both cases of plagiarizing Inscryption and using private citizens' likeness without their consent."

"Mr. Natas shall pay $250,000 in fines. Court is adjourned."

The six and their families left the court room and started to celebrate, when Lou Natas tapped Poe on the shoulder.

"This isn't over, Mr. Kaminski."

"It seems pretty over to me, Louis."

Hearing that, Natas walked off and the six victors went to dinner.

Chapter Text

Leshy and Poe were playing Inscryption in Poe's living room while Magnificus was being given a tarot reading by Grimora. It was a lazy Sunday and they were spending it together.

"I see Death in your future, Magnificus."

"No shit, Grimora."

The doorbell rang out and Magnificus got up to open the door.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and Poe picked up.

"This is Poe Kaminski."

"Listen, Game Funa was founded by Neo-Nazis trying to use the Doomsday Device to finish Hitler's plan. We've been on their list since last month when we won the court case. They've already killed Luke. Get out of your house as fast as you can!"

Poe then heard a thud on the floor and saw a woman with a suppressed pistol. Then he saw nothing.

The woman, Amanda, finished killing the Creators and picked up the phone Poe had dropped.

"Hello, Kaycee. We're coming for you."

A week later, Kaycee Hobbes was admitted to the State Mental Hospital after being found covered in blood, rambling about the Doomsday Device and Game Funa. Less than three days after her admittance, she hanged herself in her room.

One year later, a majority of humanity was wiped out by the Doomsday Device (including all of Game Funa's founders.) All those who were deemed "unclean" by Game Funa's founders died but none of the founders or like-minded people could convince anyone to not help survivors.