Raika

A monk with the ability to transform into felines. She was part of the Plague Slayers later in life.

Her beginnings

Born and raised in the martial monastery of Tekelakay ’Ekbrot, Raika was destined to become a monk in the monastery. Her mother was part of the Marro City Guard, and during her in-depth training at the monastery, she met her father, a monk at the monastery. Less than a year later, they were having their nuptials.

The monastery, tailored towards mastering one's inner feline and help with the training of the city guards, would not have been considered an ideal place for raising a child. But Raika grew happy and content. She learnt to master many of the poses she saw the monks using almost as soon as she learned how to run. Mastering her inner self and meditation would take her quite a lot longer.

Raika never really considered like outside of the monastery. She enjoyed Marro, but only on small doses. She enjoyed the peace and quiet of the monastery and its challenging physical and mental lifestyle. She became one of the youngest teachers in the monastery's history (the youngest catfolk), which made her parents gleamingly proud.

by MGatta (through HeroForge)

I thought I was born for it. I was sure of my destiny. But maybe my destiny was to meet you and the others. But then, what did my thirty years of service to the monastery mean?

Raika talking with Feven'ha

Lean Years

We didn't believe the rumours about the plague in Marro. Even when it started, it did not seem that bad. Turns out the bloody disease is just slow. Painfully slow... Was it the same for you?

Raika talking about her plague experience with her companions

by MGatta

Raika's elderly mother contracted the plague and Raika started to forgo her duties. She became sloppy, careless. She stopped putting the monastery first and focused on keeping her mother alive. She used her powers to transform into powerful felines to hunt food for her. She would travel to other cities, seeking cures or ways to stop some of her pain. In an occasion, she did not have money for such a cure, and she used her renown and position at the monastery of the Tekelakay ’Ekbrot as an assurance of payment.

When her mother eventually died, Raika tried to make amends and help in the monastery. But it turned out that while she was great at managing the monastery during times of peace, the chaos brought on by the plague brought out the worst in her. She was irritable and irascible, lost her temper and her patience, and the whole situation was clearly over her head. When she received a strange message asking her to come to Bastelia'hu for a mission to investigate the plague, she had no doubts. She would go to the end of the world if necessary to erase this disease from the face of the world.

Species

Golden catfolk

Alignment

LG

Conditions

• Plague Mind

Circumstances of Death

She died in the dream of her mind-controlled colleague and companion, Akatina. Thanks to her sacrifice, all other Plague Slayers were able to escape from the dream.

Eyes

Light blue

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Reddish in the back, very light and spotted in the belly area

Personality

Stoic and kind

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The Plague Slayers

• Padauk'ha: Centaur wizard and leader
• Feven'ha: Centaur cleric
• Irlana Morningborn: Talarak halfling druid
• Akatina: Vanara alchemist
• Metku'ha: Centaur paladin
• Ovva Zhok Katal: Tengu rogue
• Zaga: Centaur barbarian
• Tyraga'ta: Human bard
• Raika: Catfolk monk

by MGatta (through HeroForge)

An impossible mission

When Raika accepted her mission, from the hands of the King and Queen themselves, she did not fully realize what she was getting into. She just wanted to do something to make amends and help everyone. Once the training began, however, she started to reconsider her decision. The training brought back unwanted memories of the plague in Marro.

Raika, whatever it is, you need to let us help you. Your weaknesses only make us all weak if you let them fester and don't let us help you. We all have weaknesses, that's why there is nine of us: when one falters, there's eight of us to help.

Feven'ha trying to convince Raika to open up

Feven'ha, a centaur cleric also chosen for the mission, soon noticed the issues that Raika was going through. She tried to help, but Raika wouldn't buldge or admit to what she was going through. Soon, Raika's lack of progress was stalling everyone's progress: the group's mission was in danger, and they hadn't even left training. Feven'ha had a few suggestions to help Raika, but in the end, having someone to talk to who did not judge her, was what helped the most. A few months later, the group, who had decided on the name Plague Slayers, started their mission.

Investigations into nowhere...

The Plague Slayers spent more than half a year talking with people around Bastelia'hu and the Tall Belt. Asking questions about the plague, trying to establish a timeline, a pattern, common symptoms... Soon it became clear they needed to travel to Tiel. While everyone was convinced that the plague started in the neighbouring continent of Tiel, given how long the early symptoms took to show and how isolated some of the communities were, the group was not convinced.
The group spent a whole year travelling in Tiel. They faced many difficulties. What was once a well-connected country, was now, full of isolated communities wary of strangers, often, outright hostile. There, the group lost Metku'ha, the group's paladin, to a horde of will-o-wisps. He was the first, but he would not be the last.
The group decided to investigate the plague's occurrence in Oceasile, and crossed the ocean in the aptly named ship "The plague inquisitor". They arrived in Pertkwugo, the first ship to do so from overseas in many years. The Plague Slayers brought much wanted and unwanted attention, but this also allowed them to interview many people, including the transmutation professor, X.

Evil in disguise

Unknown to the party, the transmutation professor was not who they claimed to be. They had been posing as the professor for over a year, monitoring the surface-folk and their reactions to the plague. Worried about the Playe Slayers, the professor decided to mind-control one of the heroes, Akatina the alchemist, to have a spy and a potential murder weapon when necessary. The professor also gave them a dead-end for their investigation: a town full of dead elves.
The group parted towards the area where the clan of elves who had all perished from the plague used to live in, hoping to find some answers in their territory. Raika, however, had detected a change in Akatina's way of movement, energy, and demeanour. When she confided these worries over to Padauk'ha, the leader of the group dismissed them. This is something she would come to regret many times over the following years.

Raika's sacrifice

by MGatta

After investigating what turned out to be a dead-end, the group decided to travel further inland. In both of the other continents, plague cases were more severe closer to the coastline than inland. This, however, was the last thing the professor wanted. He had the mind-controlled Akatina create a concoction that would appear as a potion, but which was, in reality, a deadly, and slow poison.
After drinking a dose, those who drank the concoction would start feeling weaker passed a few hours. After the third dose, the person would be bedridden after a few hours, dead within a day.
The professor, however, ignored much about martial arts. Including that many higher-level monks are immune to poison. Raika saw her group debilitate right in front of her eyes. Zaga the barbarian died a month into their journey to the centre of Oceasile. She suspected Akatina, but without any proof, she knew Padauk'ha would turn her down. When the group encountered an old forgotten altar to Desna, a goddess of travel and dreams, Raika decided to try something desperate.

Tyraga'ta's quest to capture Raika's life and death

On that night we dreamed, but it was unlike any dream we had ever had.
We were in the dream realm, that much was clear to me from the start.
Whose idea had it been to spend the night by Desna's altar?
But there was little time to ponder, despite how easy doing so was in this realm...
We were all there. All but Akatina, whose dreaming conscience we could feel, still in her own dreamscape, separate from us.
"I have brought you here, because I sincerely believe Akatina is plotting our demise. Many of you are aware of my concerns. Please, join me, travel with me to her dreams. There, we will either banish this idea of mine, or confirm it, and hopefully, find its root."
Raika spoke with fear in her voice. Fear that we would not believe her. Fear that we would think she was the one who had turned against one of us. But in the plane of dreams, it is much easier to see people's intentions, they hang around like an aura. And suddenly, we all felt the worries and preocupations that Raika had been carrying with her. They were floating in the space, readily felt and almost seen. This convinced us, if not for the possibility that Akatina was somehow against us, at least for the possibility that we would be able to dispel such notions with ease in this plane.
One metaphorical foot into Akatina's dreams soon dispelled us of that notion.
We were submerged in water. An endless, dark ocean. With no light in sight. We pushed forward, and as we did, we encountered nightmarish visions. Bubbles containing... memories? Few of those were Akatina's memories. They simply could not be. There were underwater buildings that defied the laws of logic, gravity, or pressure. There were underwater creatures performing sinister experiments that our Alchemist would have frowned upon on moral and scientific grounds. But there were also memories that were hers, including memories of her poisoning us.
We finally found Akatina's conscience. Wrapped tight in a horribly viscous mucus. We all thought freeing her from her binds would return her to us. But instead, as soon as we started helping us, she started fighting against us. She had power that was not hers. Maybe it was not even hers. Possibly, the memories were a trap, which had brought us here to finish with us once and for all.
Whatever creature had done this to Akatina however, did not count with Raika's unbreakable will and resourcefullnes. Raika expelled us from Akatina's dream. We still don't know how long did we spent trying to either return and rescue Raika, or get out of this dream plane and go back to our bodies. But when we finally managed to return to our bodies and wake up, Raika and Akatina's bodies were the first things we saw.
We woke up to find ourselves in the middle of some sort of circle made up of herbs and insect parts. Raika's disecated body in the middle, in a meditative pose we all knew very well. Akatina's body laid there too, together with ours. Her body, however, was not nearly as peaceful. She laid close to the edge of the circle in an unnatural pose. As fragile as we were, we gave both bodies a burial. Then we decided to rest some more, before contiuing with our journey.
It was then when the Night Monarch, the divine herald of the goddess Desna, appeared to us.
"Your friend Raika tried something very dangerous for the uninitiated. But her heart and reasons were pure, so we helped her. We hope this effort on her part and ours does not go in vain. Rest, knowing that tonight you shall count with my protection and blessing. But you have to be better, or you will never see the end of this journey."
The next day, Padauk'ha asked me to immortalize Raika's sacrifice so that we may all continue with our quest. Three months later, and I still cannot write anything of use...