Fifteen years.
It has been fifteen years since he came, and usurped the Black Throne. The Dark Lord. The Crimson King. The Bloodtide. Mountain-cleaver, river-splitter. The Grand Tyrant of the West, whose shadow stretches to the horizon! He who consumes the tears of the innocent and shepherds the souls of the dammed! The Great Chain That Shall Bind the World!
It has been fifteen years since the Devil King of Heaven saw fit to bestride this lesser plane, and bring it under his dominion as its one king! Its one God! Fifteen years since he unleashed his fell legions upon the world! Tirelessly, his generals - the Seven Demon Lords of the Earth - have driven his armies ever onwards, intent on total conquest!
Well, actually, not quite tirelessly.
Because you are one of the Devil King's Demon Lords, and holy hell if you're not exhausted.
Though you've only been one of the Dark Lord's chief lieutenants for a relatively short time (shorter then any of your peers, at that), you've been working yourself to the bone. Commanding the legions of the Black Army is an endless stream of meetings, orders, and marching. And reports. Expense reports, after action reports, tactical reports, readiness reports. Just... reports.
You're bloody sick of it.
Aaaand apparently, the Devil King could tell. After the last meeting of his Council of Shadows, he took you to the side, pressed a small obsidian key into your hand, and told you to take a vacation to a 'little place down south'. He'd already sent some of your staff ahead to prepare it, so there's no point complaining.
So, the key in your pocket and with a little 'spending money' in your hands, he'd all but shoved you out of Grimstone Keep and onto the open road.
It's tim-
Wait.
Which Demon Lord are you again? In the rush, I must've forgotten.
You are...?
[] The Death Knight: Once a figure of great chivalry, you were struck down in your prime by a necromancer, who ripped the head from your body and resurrected you as a dullahan. You... promptly split him from crown to groin then tossed his phylactery in a fire, as including a rite of obedience in his resurrection spell apparently slipped his mind. You wandered the land for a time, until joining the Devil King's legion. As it turned out, very few martial positions were open to the undead - a bit of discrimination the Dark Lord intended to abolish.
[] The Orc Warlord: Impossibly tall and brutally broad, you stand out among your kind for your immense strength... and for your status as something of an intellectual. Having spent several years in the Infernal Court, you are not only fluent in Daemonic, Troll, and twelve different dialects of Black Speech, but also an avid storyteller and reader. When you replaced your father as chieftain, you elected to swear your tribe's choppers to the Devil King, following rumors that he possessed strange tomes of light and manuscripts dominated by iconography.
[] The Elven Archmage: Foes of the Devil King be weary, for you are a prodigy magus of great power. Your tribe elected to join the Devil King at the time of his ascension, and have always been highly placed within the hierarchy of power. Your magics are grand and mighty, though your fellow Demon Lords think little of you, attributing your rise to... other factors. That you are so innately skilled at magic that you... actually lack much of any technical knowledge about its mechanics may also add to their dismissal.
Ah yes, of course.... Well, regardless of that, you've temporarily shed your duties as a Demon Lord to retire briefly to an estate the Devil King has prepared for you. Which was...
[] ...a small dwarfen mining outpost that was converted into a tourist trap after a cave in revealed a beautiful subterranean lake. The tourist trap eventually drew in the wrong kind of tourists, and the dwarfs were run out by a band of halfling bandits. Who were then slaughtered by a clan of goblins. Who were then eaten by a tribe of kobolds. Who... actually, a lot of people died here. Huh.
Pro: Granite countertops
Cons: Granite bedframes
[] ...an ornate castle atop a tall hill. With ornate turrets, flying buttresses, and terrifying gargoyles, this citadel was obviously expensive to create... and is more expensive to maintain. Which explains the fate of the fate of its original owners: A family of nobles who become so indebted they had to declare bankruptcy. The Devil King bought up the property at a fraction of its full cost, and the rest is history.
Pro: Gargoyles are awesome
Con: Gargoyles are creepy
[] ...a country villa, which consists of a manor house within a small walled settlement that came with the deed. The previous owners were vampires, who brought in the locals as a food store and as tax payers to feed their other addictions. But a scandal with a member of the falling in love with a human forced them to sell the property and skip town, and everything has languished since then.
Pro: Peasants
Con: Peasants
Well, regardless, you've spent the last week riding through the countryside to your new abode. Actually, you're out of the Devil King's territory and in a sort of... no man's land between him and the Forces of Good℠. Technically, you're at war with this nation, but neither the Tyrant or the local Archduke have put much thought towards each other, so you suppose its fine.
What's less fine is that, as you come within a few miles of the estate, you see a rather impressive pillar of smoke rising within its contours.
Wasn't this supposed to be a quiet vacation?
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So. This is a thing. If you're familiar with it, this is something vaguely based off of Konosuba as an idea, though I hope to put my own twist on things. I'm gonna grab the next two slots, then feel free to post.
