Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2578000" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 453“Do you fear Graz’zt so yet, that you tremble even to speak his name?” Arun shouted, lifting his holy sword between himself and the demon prince. “I will have my vengeance!” Adimarchus screamed, his yell a pulse of dark energies that sent quivers of sharp pain through the minds of everyone gathered in the chamber.  Most of them weathered the release of power, but Morgan seemed particularly stricken, staggering back before the potency of the true master of Occipitus.  Several of the statues crumbled, and others seemed to briefly come alive, clutching at the sky or clawing at the sides of their heads as if they were the targets of the demon lord’s despair.  “I think you pissed him off!” Beorna yelled at Arun, as the two dwarves charged forward.  Tendrils of flame abruptly burst out of the plasma column.  At first it looked like some dire new attack from the Prince, but they coalesced into a humanoid form, over thirty feet tall, which stepped forward and enveloped Adimarchus with its long arms.  The dwarves hesitated, not so much from the heat radiating from the elemental—both had been warded against fire—but out of desire not to aid the demon lord by inadvertently hitting Dana’s summoned creature.  Their hesitation did not last long.  Just a few seconds after it had grappled Adimarchus, the elemental disintegrated, torn asunder by a full series of attacks from the Ashen Blade.  The Prince’s arms and body bore marks of black char from the elemental’s brief embrace, but it was clear that he had not been seriously injured.  But the demon lord now found himself under heavy attack.  The marut had lumbered forward, and now bashed Adimarchus with a pair of heavy blows from its massive fists.  It may as well have been punching a wall of adamantine; although it defied reason for the huge creature’s impacts to have no effect upon the much smaller Prince, somehow it was the inevitable that was repulsed.    Still, the attacks kept coming, the companions pressing their assault with everything they had.  A cold iron arrow from Dannel’s bow clipped the Prince’s shoulder, doing minor damage but at least proving that he could be hurt.  A single drop of utterly black fluid separated from the wound and dropped to the ground, burning a small hole through the very fabric of Occipitus.  The warriors swarmed around the marut and unleashed their own attacks, stabbing at the Prince with perfectly aimed attacks that did very little, even Arun’s holy sword glancing harmlessly off of Adimarchus’s ebon body.  The zelekhut flew overhead, lashing at the Prince’s body with its spiked chains, trying to knock the sword from his grasp, but failing utterly.  Surrounded by foes, Adimarchus calmly unleashed a horrid wilting upon the spot where he stood. The inevitables were not affected by the spell, but the same could not be said for the companions.  The wilting was utterly devastating and utterly irresistible; they best they could hope for was to fight off the worst of its effects.  But Adimarchus’s spell was more potent than that of any mere mortal caster. Dannel and Mole were nearly killed outright by the released power, the elf collapsing, gasping to suck in air through his desiccated lungs.  The others were hard hit as well, but they did not hesitate, continuing their attacks despite their ineffectiveness thus far.  Dana, flying above, her skin crinkling painfully with every movement, cast a mass heal that poured life back into them, washing away the effects of Adimarchus’s dread power in a single gesture. Thus far, they seemed to be holding their own.  They even started to inflict damage, as Morgan leapt into the battle, looming over the smaller forms of Arun and Beorna, using his superior reach as he thrust his blade into Adimarchus’s shoulder.  The Prince snarled as the point of the ancient weapon, its fragile iron empowered with Helm’s divine power, sank a few inches into his body.  When Morgan drew the weapon back, its tip smoked with black blood.  The marut, seeing how ineffective its attacks were, gave up its physical assault and merely enfolded Adimarchus’s body in its huge arms.  The serpent-tentacles sprouting from the Prince’s back snapped and tore at those mechanical limbs, but the inevitable stoically absorbed the attacks, trying to hold on. The grapple had an effect, but it didn’t last long enough to turn into a tactical advantage.  Adimarchus, perhaps reminded of his captivity at the hands of Graz’zt, screamed and vanished, teleporting out of the marut’s grasp. “Where is he?” Arun asked, searching the chamber.  But Morgan looked directly up, to the summit of the dome, where the black figure loomed above them.  This aspect of Adimarchus lacked the power of flight, and he started to fall, but then he… shifted, and the angelic form of the demon prince spread his wings, a beautiful but corrupt avatar of destruction. “I purify you!” he shrieked, unleashing a word of chaos.</blockquote>

Verification