Raiketsu was a Goliath Monk of the Way of the Elements whom the party found trapped in the maze of Unkh’s tomb, on the fourth level of the Tomb of the Nine Gods.1 He traveled with them from the night of the fourteenth of Eleasis, 1492 DR, until the sixteenth, when Takhesis Calva killed him in the Cradle.12
Raiketsu, in the Cradle
“I’ve seen this before…”2
Description
Raiketsu was a towering Goliath. His appearance was defined by immense physical bulk and the hardened musculature of a dedicated martial artist. 1
Personality
Raiketsu favored direct physical solutions and acted while others were still preparing. He punched through a stone slab before Inete could finish the spell meant to open it,3 and he struck the first blow in the Cradle.2
He said little about himself. He told the party once that he had been trapped in the maze for a long time, long enough that he did not know what had become of his previous companions.4
Abilities
Raiketsu fought unarmed, with strikes that carried elemental power.1 With his fists he crushed a living minotaur,1 broke a hole through a stone slab,3 shattered the anchor crystals of the Cog of Blood,5 and cracked an adamantine strut eight feet up its length.2 He could move with a burst of elemental speed, which he used to carry a fallen companion out of danger.5
Possessions
- A potion of greater healing taken from the beholder’s vault, his only one, which he spent to revive Taenae.5
- A cloak of protection, which he wrapped around the body of The Boy and left there.6
- An Orb of the Veil, a mystical onyx sphere capable of deepening his perceptiveness and intuition.
Relationships
Shagambi possessed Raiketsu from the night of the fifteenth of Eleasis, when he touched her mandolin, until his death.72
Taenae owed him her life. When will-o’-wisps brought her down in the Cog of Blood he carried her clear, stood over her, and spent his only potion on her.5 She once called him “Takhesis” by mistake, and explained that this was a companion lost in the Tomb whom the party was still seeking.5
Inete found him in the maze.1 Counting the Boy’s five gifts and the empty sixth place, she said, “Least favorite in this place is Raiketsu.”6
The Boy named every member of the party from memory and stopped at Raiketsu, whom he did not know.8 The Boy left gifts for the other five and none for him.6
Takhesis Calva killed him.2
History
The maze
How Raiketsu came to the Tomb is not recorded. Inete found him on the night of the fourteenth of Eleasis, 1492 DR, held by the magic of the maze in Unkh’s tomb, where he had been lost for a length of time he could not measure.14 He killed the living minotaur that was hunting the party there and fought beside them against the minotaur skeletons.1
With the party
Raiketsu signed Withers’ contract with the rest of the party the next morning.9 That afternoon, when the party feared a doppelganger among them and each proved themselves with a shared memory, Raiketsu pointed out that he had only just been found in the maze.10 That night, in the tomb of Shagambi, he touched the mandolin in her coffin and was possessed by her.7 He and Vonara recovered the twin scepter from the throne room,4 and on the fifth level he fought three shambling mounds beside Taenae and saved her life in the Cog of Blood.35
On the sixth level a dust mephit’s death burst caught Raiketsu, Vogal and Glade.8 When the Boy brought the party into the Dead Fish tavern, Raiketsu, the only one of them who had never been there, asked, “When the fuck did we get to a bar?”6 After the Boy died, Raiketsu wrapped the body in his cloak and left it on him, which was his whole answer.6 At the threshold of the stairs each of the party was shown a vision of their own death. Raiketsu’s was seen by all six.6
Death
In the Cradle, Raiketsu struck one of the struts that held the Soulmonger, and the Atropal turned its head at the sound. A shadow formed behind him. He went to one knee and said that he had seen this before. A hand closed on the crown of his head and crushed his skull.2 The figure was Takhesis Calva. Raiketsu’s soul rose from his body with Shagambi coiled around it, and Takhesis consumed them both.2 His body was lost when the Tomb was destroyed.11
Appendix
Notes
Behind the screen
Coop made Raiketsu knowing that the character would die and would have the shortest tenure of any player character.
The Navel of the Moon, the pearl the party left in the minotaur cages on the fourth level, was a compass to lost loved ones and a lead to Raiketsu’s missing party. The party never learned this, and the lead was not followed.
Appearances
Session 76 to Session 82 · Session 84 to Session 89
Mentioned in Session 90.