Corco's Villa (IC)

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

In the night, an Ice Knight Shaman from the grand order comes out of the building and starts looking at you.

"A little help, please? You seem to have misplaced something..."

[ericthered]

"Misplaced something? Is this for the lodge?"


He looks V up and down.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Misplaced something? Is this for the lodge?"


He looks V up and down.

"It is indeed meant to be in the lodge. I suggest you examine it more closely and not leave it unattended."

And with that, Vassarious melts into the air around them and secrets themself away to watch.

[ericthered]

The knight shaman looks at the block of ice. He seems confused. He puts his hand up against the ice, and suddenly it dawns on him what he has. He shouts for the others, and they come. he shouts about an Ice Melder being there. Everyone wants to know which one.



Someone eventually sees the note on the block, and tears it off to read it.

[ericthered]

Seeing no PC response...


The two agent's of Corco gather their things, and go back to the tunnel, trusting the grand order to handle things from there. In the tunnel, they call Corco to ask for a ride home.



Gurdo answers "Yes, we need back! we have an immediate mission for you! Demon Lord Skilrune is invading Ming-26. He's attempting the coronation ritual. We need you to protect the emperor of Japan, and stop the demons from capturing him. We'll get you back here, and into the submarine as soon as we can."

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Seeing no PC response...

Well, I didn't think there was much left to do. Though I'm not sure if this is going to fix anything or the steam in the teapot is going to find somewhere else to escape from.

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Yes, we need back! we have an immediate mission for you! Demon Lord Skilrune is invading Ming-26. He's attempting the coronation ritual.

"What's the coronation ritual?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

We need you to protect the emperor of Japan, and stop the demons from capturing him.

"Protect one guy? Do we need to keep it on the down low, or can we persuade the local authorities to accept our help?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

We'll get you back here, and into the submarine as soon as we can."

"Well make sure it's not that broken one that only flies in space."

--

"Is there any time to heal? Switch equipment? Research these demons? How do you stop a demon anyway?"

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well, I didn't think there was much left to do. Though I'm not sure if this is going to fix anything or the steam in the teapot is going to find somewhere else to escape from.

No, they'll have some drama go down. But it won't involve bringing back the stone melders, who had gained the motive to finish the job of scouring the planet of intelligent life.

"What's the coronation ritual?"

"A way for a demon lord to establish ritual control over a world. If they get ritual control, they essentially become a god on that world: they know anything they want to know, completely control the weather and natural disasters, and their followers just reform on that world after they are killed. If a demon lord gets ritual control over Ming-26, all we can do is pull out. If they fail, we can push them back with various allies."


"The ritual itself requires the demon lord to personally and ritually kill the monarchs of at least 50% of the world's population. The emperor of Japan is the monarch of 15% of Ming-26."

"Protect one guy? Do we need to keep it on the down low, or can we persuade the local authorities to accept our help?"

"We're entering Ming-26 in force and fighting an open war. When there is a full-scale demon invasion we pretty much have to. So go ahead and be open about who you are and what you're doing. If you can protect the emperor, and your counterparts protecting the Shah both hold out, we will be able to defeat the demons."

"Well make sure it's not that broken one that only flies in space."

"Which one? Never mind. Its a functional submarine. The Ming-26 Japanese are very good at underwater construction."

"Is there any time to heal? Switch equipment? Research these demons? How do you stop a demon anyway?"

"Terithuan Demons are well understood. We have lots of material on them. We'll send you a primer. For now, you hurt the demon until its in multiple pieces. They're tough, and they regenerate like crazy, put they will eventually die... by which I mean return to one of the demon worlds and reform. It's all in the dossier. But we need you on the submarine quickly so we can mask it."


"We'll have a healer at the portal we pick you up at. You can have 30 minutes to switch your gear."

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

No, they'll have some drama go down. But it won't involve bringing back the stone melders, who had gained the motive to finish the job of scouring the planet of intelligent life.

And with a mounting crisis and two world hopping games that share players in this one, we never see it again. :P

Originally Posted by ericthered

"The ritual itself requires the demon lord to personally and ritually kill the monarchs of at least 50% of the world's population. The emperor of Japan is the monarch of 15% of Ming-26."

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

"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."

"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."

Originally Posted by ericthered

"We're entering Ming-26 in force and fighting an open war. When there is a full-scale demon invasion we pretty much have to. So go ahead and be open about who you are and what you're doing. If you can protect the emperor, and your counterparts protecting the Shah both hold out, we will be able to defeat the demons."

"So 15% is the tipping point? How much time you figure we need to hold out for? A couple weeks?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Which one? Never mind. Its a functional submarine. The Ming-26 Japanese are very good at underwater construction."

"I believe it was in the plane pool? All I remember was the co-pilot complaining it was supposed to be a submarine. Anyway, I take it the Emperor's in an underwater city at the moment?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Terithuan Demons are well understood. We have lots of material on them. We'll send you a primer. For now, you hurt the demon until its in multiple pieces. They're tough, and they regenerate like crazy, put they will eventually die... by which I mean return to one of the demon worlds and reform. It's all in the dossier. But we need you on the submarine quickly so we can mask it."

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

Originally Posted by ericthered

"We'll have a healer at the portal we pick you up at. You can have 30 minutes to switch your gear."

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

"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?"

[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"


**************************
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.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

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

"Well great to hear that things have calmed down over there."

Originally Posted by ericthered

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

"I take it they pulled off a decisive strike and they're barely into that week so far. Are the remain heirs secure or is it possible they could go for a second week?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

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

"Well it's a good thing I managed to get some practice in last week."

I'll drop a point on SCUBA

Originally Posted by ericthered

"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."

"Well, they're smart enough to identify targets at least, not those prototypes that disintegrate literally everything until the batteries run dry."

Originally Posted by ericthered

"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"

"Hopefully we can keep the pretense up for at least a day or two."

Originally Posted by ericthered

For the surveillance bots... those literally don't have a weight listed. The hive for each one is 10 lbs, which is quite a bit. Its billed as a charging station, but it probably also works as transport and control. After the base investment of the hive, I'll let you have one swarm per 2 lbs of weight.

I found the figure on UT37; it's 2 pounds to a square yard