# Ahkai ![[The Rose of Igoda/99 - Attachments/Characters/PCs/Ahkai.jpeg|635]] > [!info] Public campaign record > This page deliberately stops at what Ahkai has revealed or demonstrated at the table. His unrevealed backstory is not recorded here. ## Category Player Character / Inscribed Magic User / Torraxian ## Appearance Ahkai is heavily sun-tanned, with dark wavy hair tied back and short facial hair. He wears layered dark leather and cloth armour with a weathered cowl and cloak. His upper arms are usually bare while his forearms are wrapped in pale bandages. His armour, shield, weapons and other equipment carry fine inscriptions, and a black-and-gold [[The Rose of Igoda/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Ahkai's Mask|mask]] normally hangs at his waist. ## Known Facts - Ahkai first joined the active party during the race to the Bardic Circle Mansion, appearing behind them through the [[The Rose of Igoda/10 - Threats & Phenomena/The Popping|Popping]]. - He had already seen the party escaping with [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Rose|Rose]], followed them towards Hy-Soran and was later displaced before reappearing in Berran. - In Session 8 he finally explained his connection to [[The Rose of Igoda/05 - Nations & Regions/Torrax|Torrax]]: **"Torrax raised me. Torrax trained me. Torrax used me."** - He described Torrax as a machine in which everyone works for Torrax and people are treated as cogs in something larger. - Ahkai had access to sensitive information and learned that Torrax was hunting the Rose of Igoda. - He learned of [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Nezphu|Nezphu]], whom he regards as another child being used by Torrax rather than an enemy to be blamed. - He explained that the Empress's elite agents, the [[The Rose of Igoda/06 - Factions & Organisations/Shuyet|Shuyet]], were sent to recover Rose and failed. - Ahkai believes Torrax then approached [[The Rose of Igoda/06 - Factions & Organisations/Zinabda|Zinabda]], where Rose's name appeared on a bounty board with instructions to find rather than kill her. The exact chain of command remains his inference rather than a confirmed fact. - Knowing first-hand what Torrax does to children it considers useful, Ahkai chose to find Rose before Torrax could take her. - In Berran he approached the [[The Rose of Igoda/06 - Factions & Organisations/The Thieves Guild|Thieves Guild]] for information. He did **not** join the Guild. - He followed the party after seeing them escape the Bardic Circle mansion with Rose and deciding their actions looked protective rather than mercenary. - His [[The Rose of Igoda/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Ahkai's Mask|mask]] can alter his appearance. - His [[The Rose of Igoda/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Ahkai's Inscribed Coins|inscribed coins]] can carry practical magical effects, including light and repeated sound. - Ahkai approaches magic through inscriptions, prepared symbols and physical objects. He describes the power behind this as **Heka**. - In the Valley of Moons, Ahkai was the first person to hear Rose at all: faint, strained breathing that nobody else could detect. - From the Torraxian tunnel he saw Nezphu and an adult figure he believed might be the Empress, and heard references to the Architects, the Éterüm, the Divine, the Seventh Iteration and the Ko'vatar. - In Boristov Sokah's office, Ahkai grabbed two papers before hiding behind the desk and later held the Minister of Defence at bowpoint when Sofia was discovered. - Those papers, now tracked as [[The Rose of Igoda/14 - Books & Records/Boristov Desk Papers|Boristov's Desk Papers]], revealed an Elarisian attempt to turn a Shuyet asset and political discussions concerning [[The Rose of Igoda/05 - Nations & Regions/Nuanstar|Nuanstar]]. - After Rose survived, Ahkai knelt beside her, promised to protect her and gave her an inscribed desert-rose coin. - During Session 8, Rose secretly popped into [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/The Archer and Cask|the Archer and Cask]] while Ahkai was inscribing equipment. She brought an oversized bow intended for the blonde, stick-like woman seen during the previous pop and said the two of them could stop the rot together. - Ahkai encouraged Rose to communicate from a distance rather than repeatedly popping in person, demonstrating **Message** as an example. - Rose made Ahkai promise not to reveal something from that private conversation; the exact scope of the promise was never clearly defined. - Ahkai's familiar is [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Kephri|Kephri]], a dark mongoose introduced to Tilly and Sofia in Session 8. - Ahkai experienced roughly four missing days between his own disappearance and reappearance, while the party later discovered that roughly thirty-one days had passed during their larger sequence of transitions. - In Session 9 Ahkai begins his first sea voyage aboard the Moonlit Bounty and describes the open water and stars as a powerful sense of freedom. - He explains to Sofia that his insistence on Kephri being free to roam is tied to his own experience of never feeling truly free in Torrax. - He discovers Kephri has collected a faintly magical [[The Rose of Igoda/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Silver Scarab|silver scarab]] and keeps it for later identification. - He develops an increasingly confusing friendship with [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Henry|Henry]], repeatedly climbing into the lookout’s working area despite being told not to. - During Edgar’s attack he fights with lightning-infused arrows, Thunderwave and a three-arrow Magic Missile, then abandons his attack to smother the fire around Sofia with his cloak. - Edgar marks Ahkai with Vendetta and inflicts multiple bleeding wounds before Ahkai lands the final heavy lightning shot that drives Edgar to jump overboard. - As Edgar disappears into the storm, Ahkai shouts that **Rose is alive**, meaning Edgar now knows she survived the mansion attack. ## Current Personal Threads - Protect Rose and help find the additional Roses of Igoda she says she needs. - Investigate [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/Dekinsza|Dekinsza]], currently the clearest lead to another preserved Rose. - Understand his own missing time and the wider rules of the [[The Rose of Igoda/10 - Threats & Phenomena/The Popping|Popping]]. - Understand what Nezphu, the Empress, the Shuyet and Torrax's wider plans have to do with Rose. - Learn whether the party can disrupt the organisations hunting Rose without leading those organisations back to her. ## Connected Factions - [[The Rose of Igoda/06 - Factions & Organisations/Shuyet|The Shuyet]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/06 - Factions & Organisations/Zinabda|Zinabda]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/06 - Factions & Organisations/The Thieves Guild|The Thieves Guild]] ## Connected Items - [[The Rose of Igoda/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Ahkai's Mask|Ahkai's Mask]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/09 - Items, Artifacts & Documents/Ahkai's Inscribed Coins|Ahkai's Inscribed Coins]] - Inscribed weapons and equipment - Desert-rose coin, now given to [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Rose|Rose]] ## Connected Places - [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/Hy-Soran|Hy-Soran]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/Berran|Berran]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/05 - Nations & Regions/Torrax|Torrax]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/05 - Nations & Regions/Dharan|Dharan]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/The Archer and Cask|The Archer and Cask]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/Moonlit Bounty|Moonlit Bounty]] ## Connected Characters - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Rose|Rose]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Nezphu|Nezphu]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Kephri|Kephri]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07b - Non-Player Characters/Boristov Sokah|Boristov Sokah]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07a - Player Characters/Tilly|Tilly]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07a - Player Characters/Votoran|Votoran]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07a - Player Characters/Sofia|Sofia]] ## Open Questions - What position gave Ahkai access to sensitive Torraxian information? - What exactly did Torrax intend to do with Rose if she was recovered? - Did Torrax directly commission Zinabda, as Ahkai believes? - What does the Shuyet asset contacted by Elaris know? - What exactly happened during Ahkai's missing days? - What are the full limits of Heka, his inscriptions, mask and coin-based magic? ## Character Arc Notes Ahkai entered the campaign carrying answers the rest of the party did not have and refusing to explain how he had obtained them. Session 8 changes that balance. He finally reveals enough of his history for the others to understand that his protection of Rose is rooted in his own experience of Torrax's treatment of useful children. He is still selective with the truth, particularly when Rose asks him to keep something private, but the central mystery around why he followed the party is no longer unresolved. ## Current Status Aboard the [[The Rose of Igoda/08 - Locations/Moonlit Bounty|Moonlit Bounty]] with Sofia and Votoran at the end of [[The Rose of Igoda/13 - Session Notes/Session 09 - The Moonlit Bounty Stowaway|Session 09]]. The ship is in a violent storm with its deck on fire and mast damaged. Tilly is temporarily absent through the Popping. Edgar has jumped overboard, fate unknown, and Ahkai is bleeding from multiple rapier wounds. ## Navigation - [[The Rose of Igoda/07 - Characters/07a - Player Characters/Player Characters Index|Player Characters]] - [[The Rose of Igoda/00 - Home & Navigation/Campaign Home|Campaign Hub]]