Campaign: Fly By Night, NPC
A dry and serious paladin who was originally an acolyte goddess Bast, and a master of base water magics. She’s rather old, even for Rakshasa standards, and doesn’t hesitate to put her years of experience to use and show off her mastery of the combat arts. Adrasni lived most of the latter half of her life in desolate lands and isolation. As a result, she’s quite eager to hear new stories and tales (though she won’t sit there wide-eyed while you tell them), and she’s quite arrogant about how things should be done like how they were done before. In addition, she’s not very fond of mortals as a whole, and her manners can sometimes be lacking as she fails to read the room or treat others with decency. Despite her straightforward ways, however, Adrasni has not fallen to bitterness in her years alone, and can be relied upon in times of need.
Adrasni is a Rakshasa with pale blue fur and a silvery mane trimmed close around her face and neck. She stands at a good 7’ tall and has four arms, tattooed with patterns of the sea and adorned with wooden beads. Patches of grey fur have begun to form near her muzzle and mane, revealing her age. Adrasni typically does not wear armor unless expecting combat, in which case she adorns armor forged by her kin long ago. Adrasni wears several layers of colored wooden beads and heavy amounts of colorful jewelry when riding into battle, but only leather scraps on a day-to-day basis otherwise.
Adrasni can be surprisingly calm and collected outside of battle, even picking up scholarly pursuits if her offtime. However, battle is all about intimidation, and Adrasni charges headfirst into the idea that she is the more fearsome thing on the battlefield. Adrasni dressed up for the role and gives it her all to make her opponents lose their nerve when facing off against the large four-armed cat demon. With fangs beared, she relentlessly punishes and terrifies her opponents.
Born as a demon amongst the Nine Hells, Adrasni was pulled into Bast’s service as an acolyte up in the North. While in service, Adrasni learned great base magics in regards to the element of water, and provided the land with sacred springs and rivers which sustained life and made pleasant the paths of the dead. Adrasni and her rakshasa kin served Bast for many hundreds of years until Bast was driven out of the lands by the Red Monk. Most of the Rakshasa fled the land with their goddess, and without the divine magics of Bast’s followers, the desert dried up. Adrasni stayed behind, upset by the uprooting of her goddess, and dedicated to still maintaining the land of her god.
Unfortunately, years passed and Adrasni realized that it was unlikely that her goddess would ever return, nor strike back at the Red Monk. Adrasni continued to live in the desert, alone, for many years, and the Red Monk abided her presence due to their mutual desire to keep the land habitable. As time continued to pass, Adrasni began to feel shame for her goddess and her kin, unwilling or unable to return, due to weakness and fear. Rather than abandon her goddess, Adrasni doubled-down: embracing her bravery and strength in staying, and deciding to pave the path to victory herself, then scold the others afterwards.
One time while the Drifters were wandering through the Runic Wastes in the North, they came across a lovely river, which was quite fortunate since they were running low on water. Unfortunately, the water ended up being an illusion of some sort, magical in nature, rather than a hallucination. Upon further investigation, the Drifters stumbled across Adrasni’s home, full of real water and devoid of the rakshasa.
Upon Adrasni’s return, she was greatly agitated to find mortals in her home, and questioned them about what they were on about. After exchanging some confused words, Adrasni revealed the true nature of the North: that it was indeed Ysgard, and explained how the Chaotic Lords had wronged the gods. After determining the Drifters were more clueless than threatening, Adrasni agreed to let them go, and to help out the paladin Gloria, if she could return with some meat of an immortal beast.
Gloria later returned with the haunch from the Stein Ram, and Adrasni agreed to take Gloria under her tutelage as a teacher. Adrasni provided Gloria with her signature trident, the Red Tide, as well as various armor and enchantments. During the final fight with Spielascor, Adrasni was the first ally summoned to aid in the fight.
Following the fall of the North, and the destruction of much of the Runic Wastes, Adrasni realized that while she didn’t pose enough of a threat to the Red Monk, Spielascor DID. She realized that if she were to continue seeking her path to vengence, she would need to follow in the ways of the bard, and go seek out a greater knowledge and power capable of threatening the Red Monk. With armor and weapons in hand, Adrasni set out on a path to greater understanding and strength.
Gloria: Adrasni’s only pupil. Receptive to many of her teachings. Adrasni is a bit hard on her, but strangely proud as well.
The Red Monk: Adrasni blames the Red Monk for her goddess fleening the Runic Wastes, with good reason. While they would seem to be enemies, the Red Monk relies on Adrasni to ensure the river runs through the Red Monastery, and Adrasni recieves proximity protection from the Red Monk.