Jake, yea you don't have to go anywhere to defeat the keepers of the ring, they are in the ring
A nice feature that I don't think I have ever seen in a computer game. Just right click the ring then click on "Suppress". Which is also what you have to do if you are wearing an aligned item (with a morale level) that gets upset with you. You do the same thing with items that can be upgraded. You know, the items that have one or more additional names shaded below the item name at the bottom. For those right click and then left click "Upgrade". Save your game first though since these are generally the hardest fights in the demo. The suppress fight looks easy at first but the 4 or so red imp towers can fireball you mercilessly so drop them asap.
As far as leadership numbers, it depends on three things: Your class, the items you find/buy, and how many levels of Glory you bought. Glory on the mind list is an awesome ability (especially early on) but eats a lot of runes. It gives +100/+250/+500 Leadership (for levels 1/2/3 respectively). The baton, if you are lucky enough to find it, gives 250 leadership. The upgradable armor items seem to give leadership if you upgrade them successfully. I would think that if you tried to max Glory and you had some luck on items you could hit 2000 with a Warrior or Paladin, and 1000 with a Mage in the demo.