Adimarchus Gets Pissed
The party watched with increasing alarm as the change occurred. Adimarchus’ magnificent white wings tore in half as the feathers littered the floor, leaving four smaller bloody stumps in their place. These gradually elongated taking on tentacle like shapes. The Prince’s skin hardened and a pair of horns erupted from his forehead. Most disturbingly, a sword as black as the void appeared suddenly in his expectant hand.
“Now . . . heroes . . . let me show you the true power of a Demon Prince.”
Turning angrily at the impetuous sorcerer who crippled his angelic aspect, Adimarchus buffeted her with a greater dispelling. Though her shapechange remained, her magical aura dimmed significantly – undoubtedly rendering her more killable.
With a snarl of fury, Grimm launched himself at the Prince’s new form. The Planar Champion moved quickly placing a large gash in the demon’s shoulder, but the remainder of his blows were easily parried with by the Ashen Blade.
“Bearer of the Smoking Eye, I urge you to reconsider your position. Though it may seem distasteful to you now, I assure you that being a retainer at my side is far superior to being a mangled corpse at my feet . . .”
“I’ll smash your skull you demon bastard!!”
Adimarchus’ appeal was cut short as Ike charged into the fray brandishing his deadly warhammer. As he approached, one of the Prince’s tentacles lashed out at him. At the end of the appendage was a row of teeth that bit into his flesh. The physical damage, however, was minute compared to the drain the attack had on his spirit. Losing momentum, Ike’s hammer fell upon a mirror image rather than his intended target.
“Perhaps, bearer of my herald, I can convince you of my power by annihilating your friends,” sneered Adimarchus as he gestured towards Houshang, Rusty, Dalthon, and Gunther. The quartet initially felt slightly dehydrated but nearly keeled over in agony as the horrid wilting continued to suck every drop of moisture out of their bodies.
Grimm had seen enough. This time he put all of his strength into his blows, leaving behind any trapping of finesse. Adimarchus moved to parry but the spiked chain merely pushed the Ashen Blade aside as bloody chunks were ripped out of his body.
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You are an arrogant fool. When you had the opportunity, you could have taken them all in the back and subjugated Adimarchus quickly. Yet you were too cowardly to do otherwise, just like always!
“Get of my mind!! I am the most powerful Alienist in Faerun, you are nothing! NOTHING!!!”
Both Adimarchus and the Bright Axes looked with confusion at Entropy as she seemed to be fighting a losing internal struggle. Within moments, her turmoil subsided as her eyes became almond-shaped and her ears slightly pointed.
“Prince of Madness, see me and know that this body has slain the most powerful beings in Toril. Vlaakith, ruler of the Githyanki for centuries, Nalavara, consumer of the unborn, and Laveth, daughter of Llolth have all fallen before me. You will submit yourself to my will or be likewise obliterated from the multiverse.”
The Prince’s eyes narrowed as he appraised the seemingly new personality of his foe. With his true seeing he could see that she was chaos and evil incarnate – much like himself. Furthermore, the artifacts she carried – the Crown of Corruption, the Soul Totem and the Claw of the Revenancer – all supported the veracity of her claims. The real question is how such a nauseatingly goodly group of adventurers could possibly have accepted her into their ranks. Unless of course she was deceiving them . . .
“Heroes, do you realize who this person is? She is evil personified, the Chosen of a vile goddess of undeath! How dare you presume to have moral authority over me when you associate with such depravity?”
Let them consider their hiring philosophy while I lay waste to them.
Erecting a wall of force to close off Grimm and Tilly, Adimarchus strode over to the spellcasters.
They were ready for him.
Rusty discharged a harm on the approaching Demon Prince, Houshang tried to turn him into a cockroach with a mighty polymorph any object, and Dalthon sent a green beam into Adimarchus’ skull as his true strike empowered his disintegrate.
Despite their best efforts, these utterly failed to stop his inexorable progress.
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Entropy floated in the dreamscape of the Far Realms. Somehow, Winterwood had managed to link to her mind and forcibly co-opt her body. Since the damned elf’s own body probably lay safely tucked away somewhere, he had nothing to fear. However, her body was freely expendable to him. This was very, very bad.
“Don’t just stand their gawking brute, go help your friends!”
Entropy’s [disintegrate removed the wall as Grimm tried to intercept Adimarchus before he reached the rest of the party.
This time, however, the Demon Prince was ready for him – he quickly moved closer to Grimm thereby negating the advantage of the half-ogre’s wide kill circle. By the time a frustrated Grimm had pulled his weapon back for another strike it was too late.
Gunther, seeing that his friend and mentor was in dire peril tried the only thing that he had left – diplomacy.
“Please, mighty Demon Prince, we ask you for a truce. Enough blood has been shed here today – let us go our separate ways.”
Adimarchus did not stop, “Yes . . . I could do that. Or I could just kill all of you and then go my own way.”
As the Ashen Blade tore a swath across Rusty’s chest, the dwarf staggered backwards. Suddenly, his skin turned bright red and he began sweating profusely. It seemed as if a raging inferno inside him was trying to burst outward. Rusty dropped to his knees in horrible agony but fought to stay alive.
“You are stubborn dwarf, I’ll give you that. Now let me send you to the glorious afterlife you so richly deserve.”
A final swing of the Blade severed the dwarf’s spine as he collapsed to the ground.
Without missing a beat, one of Adimarchus’ tentacles seized Gunther and held him aloft and immobile. “Revivify this,” he smirked as the weapon plunged into the Theurge’s gut.
) died both times! Will do my best to get an update before the weekend.
She's the only one with the Soul creatures back-to-life bonus...
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![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
The Ashen Blade is quite the smiter, I hear. 
