Adamant

Adamant is a tiefling warlock/fighter and a player character. He joined the Arsonists when they helped him avoid confrontation with villagers in the Northmarch, and agreed to let him travel with them while he looked for his friend Arianna.

## Appearance and Personality

Adamant (or "Adam") is a tall, green-skinned tiefling man with clear orcish heritage. He has slightly pointed ears, small tusks, and long, bull-like horns. He has a tufted tail like that of an ox or bull, and hooves like that of a draft horse, with both feet marked in white socks. His build is tall (6'6"ish) and strong (16str) but relatively lean. He has cropped brown hair, a close-cut brown beard, and brown eyes. He has a scar across his right eye and a piece missing from his right ear. When casting spells, his eyes become a solid black across the iris and sclera.

He wears gray and white full plate and carries a heavy black maul. He often wears a long leather and fur cape to brace against the cold.

Adamant is first and foremost stoic - he's been through hell, literally, and it's given him a perspective that makes most threats on the prime material seem less daunting by comparison. He takes his oaths very seriously, and believes that reneging on deals and promises freely made is very bad luck. He is not very good at being good, being raised in the hells gave him a warped perspective, but his loyalty to his allies, particularly the aasimar Arianna, has helped him learn how to behave on the prime material plane. He is very distrustful of most people and places, including both marchers and other tieflings, but believes in fairness and tends to respond to people in kind. He always prefers a direct approach, as he is neither terribly clever nor terribly stealthy. His strategy in life is to barrel through things when they are not how you want them to be, and stubbornly refuse to budge from the things that are good.

Adam likes to work with his hands and likes to express himself through metalworking and woodworking, enjoying being able to make things on his own terms. He is curious about his orcish heritage, but feels very disconnected from it and even wary of it.

In general, his demeanor is gruff and sometimes intimidating or unsettling, but he can make a staunch ally to those who have proven to be reliable.

## Backstory

Adamant was, before his birth, sold by his mother into the service of a devil. He was raised in the hells and spent his life enslaved to a powerful fiend in the city of Dis. He primarily worked as a blacksmith, weapons dealer, and occasional bodyguard on behalf of this fiend, and spent the majority of his life chained to a forge. He would create armor and weapons that his master would enchant.

When Adam was about 27 years old, his master came into the possession of a captive from another plane - an aasimar cleric named Arianna. His intention for the aasimar was to place her soul into a hellish weapon in order to power a series of magical enchantments. While the fiend spent a few months preparing the enchantments for the maul that Adamant had forged, Arianna, unbeknownst to the fiend, befriended Adamant. She persuaded him to attempt to flee with her, and they came up with a plan to turn the fiend's enchantment against him. Between Arianna's quick thinking and persuasiveness, and Adamant's strength and knowledge of the enchantment, they were able to sabotage the fiends plan and instead force the fiend into the maul, imprisoned and serving as a source of magical power.

Adamant and Arianna, after arming and armoring themselves, fled from the city of Dis. They fought off a few of the fiends that attempted to capture them, and avoided the notice of other fiends and other dangers, including narrowly missing Tiamat herself. They escaped through a temporary portal to the prime material plane, which opened up in the Northmarch, near the city of Witchhaven.

As tieflings are reviled in much of the Northmarch outside of the corrupted town of Witchhaven, the pair set up a base of operations in the city. Arianna frequently left to pursue her goals, often with Adamant behind her. A week or so before Adamant met the Arsonists, Arianna had a sudden disappearance after claiming she was going to do something dangerous. Worried for her, Adamant set out to look for her, and ran across the Arsonists along the way.

## Relationships

### Arianna:

Adamant made a deal with Arianna when they were in the Hells together that she would help him escape from his master, if he would agree to aid her. They succeeded in their mutual escape, but Adamant still considers that deal in effect - he promised to help Arianna and watch her back, and so long as she wants him to do so he intends to keep that promise. He finds her curious, chaotic, and high-energy personality a bit baffling, but he genuinely cares for and respects her a great deal, and feels he owes his chance at a life on the material plane to the friendship she was willing to extend to him.

### The Hellish Maul:

The Hellish Maul is Adamant's heavy black hammer, containing the essence of his fiendish patron. Where once his master held Adamant captive as a possession, now the reverse is true. The angry and vengeful devil inside the maul can speak telepathically to Adam through his warlock bond, and often screams into Adamant's head. Adamant is usually well able to stoically ignore the insults, threats, and attempts at psychological manipulation, but they do sometimes make him tired and frustrated, and he is genuinely concerned about the state of his soul, the continuing connection between him and his weapon, and the possibility of the fiend breaking loose or falling into the wrong hands.

### The Arsonists:

Adamant is appreciative towards the Arsonists after they gave him a lift, let him Send Arianna, and cleared the corruption out of the town of Witchhaven. He finds Vahlka to be a likeminded individual who he respects, and often gravitates towards her during downtime when they are quietly recovering from battles. Barkley's mannerisms sometimes confuse him, but he likes her down-to-earth attitude, loyalty to her friends, and simple, straightforward way of explaining her perspective. He respects Lucius's magical talent and intellect, and doesn't mind his low-charisma mannerisms, but considers the half-dragon to be ill equipped for dealing with fiends and both empathizes with and pities him for his predicament with Dispater and Dagon. He is suspicious of and deeply confused by Godfrey and actively annoyed by Boulder and her awkward attempts to flirt with him.

## Trivia

* Adamant is a Taurus, obviously
* The Hellish Maul has the same voice as Darth Maul from Star Wars
* The pain absorption armor that he is wearing is armor that he crafted and his master used to force him to wear, so that if they were attacked Adam could absorb some of the damage from the fiend.
* Adamant's tiefling mark is located over his heart. I have not decided what it looks like and i probably never will because i'm lazy.
* Yes his horns are a huge pain in the butt, he has such a hard time finding a comfortable position when he's trying to sleep.

## Quotes

* "Momentum can do a lot. Continuing to move and fight through when you're in a bad place, and not budging when you find a good one, I think that sounds like the best way to do things." -- Adamant to Vahlka after they killed Daggerspine

* \*the loud noise of hoof beats and clanking armor, followed by an irritated grunt\*