Adaru

Adarus were cunning, mobile tanar'ri demons with a love for collecting, whether it was treasure, minions, or unique body parts. The venomous fiends were beings of utter corruption, vile treachery and poisonous lies given form.^[1]

Description[]

Adaru demons resembled massive millipedes, 8 feet (2.4 meters) long arthropods weighing up to 250 pounds (110 kilograms). Hundreds of bright orange, armored legs, each narrowing down to a sharp point, extended out from their undersides, propelling their insectoid forms with uncanny grace.^[1]

Their blue bodies were dense and scaly, and also riddled with orifices crusted over with filth that spewed out foul ooze and noxious clouds of thin mist. On their front end was a hideous mockery of a human child's face, one that snapped and gnashed with long, brown, dripping fangs, while at the other end of their twisted shapes was a large, sucking organ, also encrusted in filth.^[1]

Personality[]

Adarus were cunning, pitiless creatures whose very being was defined by the pain they inflicted. Many spent their existence scouring the planes for the mortal who caused their existence so as to reward them with agony and torment unceasing.^[1]

Adarus also loved wealth (favoring jewels), collecting it both to signify their importance and, in the case of coins and gems, to use them as bribes. Disregarding the monetary worth of their prizes, adarus were famous for their trophy-taking. In addition to traditional treasure, they equally enjoyed more gruesome prizes; adarus were fascinated by the shapes of other life forms and so took body parts they didn't possess, still adorned with the fallen being's belongings. They were sentimental demons who used their souvenirs to bring up memories of their misdeeds, chuckling as they passed over their treasures in fond reminiscence of past suffering.^[1]

Abilities[]

Adarus were highly mobile demons easily capable of scuttling, climbing, swimming, and even burrowing (even through solid rock) at great speed. Few types of terrain could prove a serious obstacle for them to traverse, and at will they could cast freedom of movement and greater teleport on themselves. Additionally, the poisonous mist adarus emitted from their bodies slicked the surrounding ground. The gas itself empowered evil creatures and left non-evil ones sickened while within its 60 feet (18 meters) diameter. Meanwhile, the vile sick hindered the movements of those that weren't evil, particularly when they were injured since it caused their wounds, in addition to their special organs, to spray the fluid on the ground^[1]

Adarus could cast charm monster on tanar'ri three times each day had a half chance of summoning around 1-4 babaus each day. They could communicate telepathically with a 100 feet (30 meters) range and could deliver a poison through their bite that sapped the vitality of their victims.^[1]

Combat[]

Adarus functioned best when leading bands of other tanar'ri in battle, but they weren't exactly efficient commanders. Though crafty, they used their underlings carelessly, expending them in great numbers while finding amusement in the massacre and giggling the entire time even if they were on the losing end. Despite their approach to combat, they still assisted their servitors in fights, their first move being ordering them to engage. They went where the fetid mist surrounding them would benefit the most of their allies (and turn the tide against their enemies), and preferred flanking positions that aided their minions.^[1]

Their greatest combat advantage was their speed and mobility; they could fearlessly position themselves wherever they so desired on the battlefield while evading attempts to pin them down, springing forward to bite their foes before moving away to avoid immediate counterattack, such as by crawling up a wall to an unreachable area. If a battle went against them, they would use their greater teleport ability to flee.^[1]

Society[]

Never found alone, adarus favored babau henchmen, their calculated cruelty and abilities mirroring their own and complementing each other in battle. Whether in the Abyss or otherwise, they were always accompanied by a cadre of fawning followers, and despite their predilection to babaus, they were not above using anything as a servant.^[1]

They were intensely aware of their standing in relation to more powerful demons, unable to compete with a balor's sheer brutality or a goristro's bestial savagery. To compensate for this lack of strength, they used their cunning guile to recruit and exploit lesser demons, and many wise and powerful demons had a use for their ability to form brutal squads of followers.^[1]

Adarus wormed their way into the minds of weaker fiends with lies, false promises and cheap ploys, easily fooling the powerless and desperate among them into falling in line, especially if greater standing was on the table. When lies failed, they charmed the fiends in question and "recruited" the weaker demon anyway. Either way, they cared nothing for these minions and sacrificed them on a whim without hesitation.^[1]

Summoning[]

Adarus could be summoned by wicked spellcasters using summon monster IX and by vile clerics in particular by using greater planar ally, though they would demand the sacrifice of intelligent beings as part of their payment.^[1]

Ecology[]

Adarus were the creations and known servitors of the lesser goddess Talona, the Lady of Poison, and large numbers of them infested the swamps around her Palace of Poison Tears, from there spreading corruption and working to expand her influence. At the same time, they scoured the various lands of the Barrens of Doom and Despair looking for larvae and gathering armies to throw at each other in mutually destructive wars.^[1]

In the Abyss, adarus were were said to be born whenever a mortal spoke an untruth that had grave consequences, taking shape in the bowels of the plane before experiencing sudden awareness and a powerful urge to perform wicked acts. They were most common on the 444^th layer, where their vile corruption had turned the barren landscape into a morass of sticky, soupy mud. Dismembered body parts harvested from dozens of countless petitioners, all doomed to spend eternity in the mud's depths, floated on the swamp's surface.^[1]

Diet[]

Despite not needing to eat or drink, adarus nonetheless enjoyed feasting on the bodies of their victims, savoring the torn flesh, exclaiming at the delicious fluids and savoring the morsels they swallowed^[1]