So... how else to defeat the Battalion?

Since unfortunately we'll never get to sic Rularuu on the Battalion it had me thinking about what other tactics the heroes and villains could use to save their hides (and the world).

A number of powerful artifacts have made their way into the game which individually or collectively may have provided alternatives to the great dimensional muncher.

1) Malleus Mundi, with the demonstrated power to alter behavior and was hypothesized to be powerful enough to whipe the villains off the planet. I think there is some question whether its power is limited to Earth alone or applicable to the universe at large. Potentially having a measure of control over Earth alone could incapacitate a ground invasion. Perhaps it could be used to cause heroes and villains to Ascend or convert them into Rularuu or Dimensionless level caliber beings that could go toe to toe with the entire Battalion. The book could probably be restored by some use of (2) and (3) below.

2) Tears of the Spirit- With an unlimited reading of its powers that purportedly provides reality warping powers when used properly could result in the deletion of the Battalion from reality. The tears are said to have been shed by a goddess which may imply they're underpowered to challenge an incarnate level threat. However they could be used in conjunction with another artifact (restore the Malleus Mundi or restore the PsychoChronoMetron). As in (1), its possible it can bootstrap a hero into Ascension or conversion into a power being like Rularuu or the Dimensionless.

3) PsychoChronoMetron - This would take some work to bring back into existence. Possessing unspecified ability to alter reality and time, it could presumably be used to power up heroes and villains as in (1)and (2), or delete the Battalion from history (for example, by destroying its founder). Requiring major psychic power to make big shifts in history, artifacts (1) and (2) could probably be used to either enhance a psychic hero's powers far beyond anything seen before or boost the PCM to require less power to make drastic changes.

I'd love to hear anything other fans (and devs) come up with.

I really don't think we know enough about the Battalion to know how we could kill them without or without the help of the well.

But, on the topic of the PsychoChronoMetron, any sort of time travel could do it, really.

...give them Hostess Twinkies?

There's no problem in the universe that can't be solved by a handful of T4ed scrappers/brutes being thrown at it.

Perhaps if we used some sort of death clock...

I'd use the Malleus Mundi thusly:

I interpret the Well as not just a conduit of power, but also of storytelling -- a force of destiny, or of 'narrative convenience' if you prefer. Human thoughts, dreams, and memories are all kicking around in the Astral plane, occasionally crossing and overlapping, creating a higher order that's basically the Jungiancollective unconscious. That's where stories go, when they're shared widely enough amd 'resonate' with enough minds... and it's also where stories come from.

The current manifestation of the Well is that bratty kid who refuses to go to sleep until you (the world) tell him a story about Zeus for the billionth time.

Long story short, I'd have the player Incarnates discover this aspect of the Well over the course of their war with the Battalion (and Prometheus, who is himself a "story" of the Well). The players then use the Malleus to rewrite the human psyche to have absolutely no conception of the Battalion, since how much sense does it make that a race could possibly steal and subjugate another race's stories? This leaves humanity utterly defenseless against the Battalion (since they no longer acknowledge their existence), but it also literally poisons the Well against the Battalion, causing them to essentially believe themselves away (well, more likely trap themselves in a pocket dimension, completely isolated by paradox).

Needs some work, probably. Maybe I'd try coming up with a more complete background for the Battalion that gives them some belief that can be exploited or opposed by some aspect of humanity -- along the lines of, they have no concept of hope and the players use the Malleus to magnify humanity's hope just before being subsumed. That gives it a nice thematic kick.

Then we get to fight Rularuu proper, after we face down all of his other aspects. Dang, was I ever looking forward to that (especially Uuralur). So disappointed when I heard they were going to cheat us out of that.

That just sounds like a bunch of horrible reality-altering retcons.

It's already been established that we couldn't win without cheating, so why not have fun with it? Also, that view of the Well is entirely compatible with what's already been established, just a different level of understanding.

It doesn't really do away with the planned "fallout" storylines, either, like dealing with the other ex-servitor races, it just adds a sort of amnesiac angle.

Pandoras box - or a date with Ghost Widow

1. Give Nemesis the Bane Spider Network.

2. ???

3. Profit.

Turn to dimensionless for help.

Next issue dimensionless turns on you