[ericthered]

"Oh; these are the guys who you asked Maximus's people help fight in the past."

"Yeah, We're calling some of them in again. Maximus feels awkward about having needed our help and wants to make it up."

"I take it we can't just whisk the Shah and the Emperor off to the Villa's guest house for a few months, and call it day. Or we can and the difficult part is getting them out of their dimension."

"The difficult part is that once they leave this dimension, their heirs count. and beyond the immediate families, the heirs have been captured"

"Does the ritual only work on monarchs in name or do pseudo-monarchs, like hereditary dictators, work too? I guess worlds that are over 50% republic are just safe."

"Depends on how formal hereditary is, and on how well-developed the cult of personality around them is."

So 15% is the tipping point?

They've already got both Chinese emperors, and a smattering of monarchs across the globe. So yes.

" How much time you figure we need to hold out for? A couple weeks?"

"So will we only be done the demon lord's dead?"

"Seven days. The killings must all be performed within seven days. If we hold out that long, the demons will likely stop their assualt"

"Teruthian Demon Lords, and in fact, Teruthian demons, don't die. When their bodies are destroyed they return to their home world and reform. Rather quickly, I might add. Killing Skilrune won't stop the ritual: He'll be back in a quarter of an hour. Or less. And we're not 100% sure that Skilrune is doing the killing himself. He might be setting up another demon lord as an ally, so that demon might be doing the killing. We're not sure yet."

"Anyway, I take it the Emperor's in an underwater city at the moment?"

"He's in a submarine already. You should probably pack diving gear and wrap everything in something waterproof."

"Right. More guns, more foam, less explosives, a second microbot hive. Would devourer swarms be effective?"

"Telruthian Demons don't need mass to regenerate, and they have native energy attacks, so they might be weaker than you're thinking. Be careful you don't put a hole in the submarine."

"Hey V, how would you like to pretend to be Emperor of Japan for a little while? ... The demon lord doesn't have some monarch sense, right?"

"A select few demon aristocrats will have a close-range monarch sense... but you're unlikely to be fighting many of those. They'll send in minions first for the most part"


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The demons you are expecting come in the following main varieties:

• Shapeshifters (up to ST 30, regeneration 10 HP/sec)
• Warriors (ST 16, regeneration 3 HP/sec, one 2d6 energy attack from fire, lightening, acid, ice, or poison)
• Aristocrats (ST 35, regeneration 6HP/sec, Terror, mind control via eye contact, occasional extra powers)
• Gate Callers (St 12, Regeneration 1 HP/sec, 400 yard range 50 yard radius 2d6 energy attacks, create portals from miles away after 10 seconds)
• Shadow Hound (ST 19, Warp between shadows, see between shadows, insubstantial shadow form, damage resistance 1/2, no regen, can be properly killed)
• Hunting Spider (ST 25, Binding 10, Illusion died to web, detect web, Paralysis poison at HT-4, no regen, can be properly killed)

You may also see one or two unique demon beasts adapted to the water.