Kerikki 'Rikki' Nentovya
Kerikki Nentovya - or Rikki, as she prefers to be called - is an adventurer of some renown native to Etera.
Biography and Early History
As far as Rikki's concerned, there's not much to tell. She grew up under the care of her mother and her grandfather in an unremarkable village built in a hilly area about 36 miles southwest of Babel. Noisy, energetic, and blunt to the point of rudeness, Rikki could be trying to many at the best of times. Even as a child, though, Rikki had a certain something that made her frank nature and extreme self-assuredness refreshing and even invigorating instead of exhausting - a pat on the shoulder and a confident word from the young girl would often leave one with a burst of zest and confidence, if only for a little bit.
'Energetic' is a bit of an understatement, though - growing up, Rikki was a ball of zeal and perpetual motion that her mother could only just barely keep in check. Her grandfather, a fairly powerful man in his prime and still fairly active even in his old age, had remarkable success funnelling his granddaughter's energy towards rudimentary martial arts. Rikki took to this training with aplomb, but somewhat predictably, was a bit too enthusiastic in demonstrating her training to others around her age - roughhousing and picking fights with bullies and the like.
Fear from her mother that she would eventually bite off more than she could chew (for all her natural strength and agility, Rikki was surprisingly fragile) prompted her grandfather to introduce the girl to a monastery in the mountains to the northeast, at which he had trained, once she reached fifteen. The light-bodied monks of the Order of the Hand of Aktur saw some potential in the girl and agreed to take her on as a student without much fuss.
The next five years of Rikki's life were spent almost entirely in monastic training, with allowances for family visits and letters sent home. Her masters were strict, but fair, and drilled into Rikki the essence of asceticism, discipline, and self-restraint. The more spiritual and meditative aspects constantly eluded her, but Rikki thrived under the physical conditioning and more formal martial training. In particular, the forms that combined strength, agility and grace greatly appealed to her as a way to style on her opponents while beating them up, and the thrills and risks of combat vitalised her in a way few at the monastery had seen. Strangely enough, Rikki also adapted a more reactive style of fighting - her training tempered her impulsive nature, and she found that studying opponents more carefully and waiting for just the right moment to strike was often more effective than just blindly rushing in. She also discovered a propensity for self-recovery that was very clearly magical (important for someone who tended to challenge anyone she could to a fight - often punching far above her weight class) and more consciously began to utilise her ability to inspire and instil courage and zest for life in people.
During this time, it was discovered that Rikki had some sort of celestial essence: though she could never properly get into the meditative mindset, on the rare occasion she would tap into something that caused her skin to take on a metallic sheen and summoned wisps of gold woven through her otherwise dark hair. The celestially-touched amongst the Order tutored Rikki for a time, allowing her to more freely access this celestial spark she apparently possessed. Once she realised what was happening, it was surprisingly easy to call upon this 'divine' form, and she could maintain it seemingly without strain or limit until she chose to release it. The metallic tint wasn't just for show, either; the form apparently granted a modicum of resistance to most weapons (though not energy-based attacks).
Unfortunately, despite her relatively high aptitude for acrobatics and combat, Rikki simply couldn't parse even the basics of ki gathering and manipulation - despite her insistence, her magical abilities certainly didn't count. Due to this, as well as her disdain for the more esoteric aspects of her training and for meditation in general, she was deemed a failure as a monk and was released from the Order's tutelage. With all her newly gained abilities, though, Rikki found that returning to her simple village life simply didn't appeal to her; with her mother's blessing and a send-off spar with her grandpa (who Rikki still couldn't even touch in a fight), she set off to seek out more challenges and leave her mark on the world - hopefully for the better.
Personality
Rikki is generally loud, boisterous and a bit of a blowhard. She generally has little patience for tact or subtlety, and acts with as much flair as she can muster; manipulation annoys her, and she much prefers getting straight to the point and avoiding flowery prose, parables and metaphors. She greatly enjoys a good fight and relishes the opportunity to show off her abilities - she has a lot of talents, in her opinion, and never enough time or opportunity to display all of them. She's aware that she can only do so much even with all of her talents, though, and is more than happy to share the spotlight with others when necessary and lend them her power. She tends to get quite heated in response to what she sees as injustice and malevolence, and her annoyance at her awesomeness being challenged is a mere whisper compared to the legitimate anger she feels at the suffering of others.
Despite her own ability to influence others (albeit mostly in a positive manner), Rikki has some disdain for mind-controlling magic and tends to be rather grumpy if bested with such. Aside from that, she's quite enamoured with most kinds of abilities, martial and magic alike; part of the fun in fighting is seeing what all others bring to the table.
Rikki's upbringing along with her tutelage with the Order has instilled her with... not disdain, but an acute discomfort with material wealth and possessions. She sees little value in gold and material things, generally; she would rather directly earn food and lodgings, and excess weighs heavily upon her. For this reason, she tends to give away much of her wealth. She also abstains from most drinks aside from water and tends to eat simple food (although she's never averse to more exotic meals; she just usually doesn't order or cook them herself).
Rikki is unsettled by the undead, generally finding them unnatural.
Known People
Friends and Allies
- Vyaril (Vee): a telekinetic who can summon extra arms and weapons made of force! Pretty strong and fast as hell. Got his powers from less-than-willing experimentation, but he's been putting them to good use! Generally pretty chill.
- Jin: a transformer friendshape! They can do all sorts of cool transformation things - grant wings, make people part liquid, empower them with electric-charged attacks, and take on a wide variety of forms! Apparently permanently now, too. They're pretty handy in a fight, but they have some mindy bullshit, and not the fun kind. Aside from that, though, they're pretty chill and friendly.
- Gabriel Dichroma (Gabe): A sheepman! He can do things with positive and negative energy, apparently. Real handy in a fight, can patch people up and strengthen them! Pretty calm, muses a fair bit. He wants to learn unarmed combat - more than happy to teach him! Also doing a courting/dating thing now, apparently.
- Mushu: A fellow ascetic! An actual proper monk, though. Uses the Drunken Fist style of combat - hits hard as hell, and hard to predict, too. (Too bad it needs booze...) He's pretty chill and weirdly clear-headed considering all the alcohol he chugs.
- Mthandihle (Myth): A catfolk from the warm forests of southern Etera! Met her on a job going up to a dojo. She's pretty cool! She can also do transformy things, but mostly on herself, and has to be all or nothing from what's been seen. Little impatient sometimes (which, can't really judge there) and pretty easy to get along with, generally. Pretty good artist! Also does some dancing - might be good to do a thing sometime.
- Zora Vex: A giant of a girl with hips to match! A pretty damn good cook and grappler. She has a form with four arms, it's the greatest shit ever. She's pretty nice! Has a real fighter's spirit and unshakeable resolve, which is always admirable.
- Nikita (Nikki): Without reservation or exaggeration, the single most powerful warrior met to date. A badass bunny girl who mixes monk ki with kinetic energy to create something greater than its two halves. Looking forward to learning from her and seeing how abilities measure up in the future - got a long way to go, though.
Worthy Opponents
- Vee, Gabe, Mushu and Zora can all go in here as well, honestly. Maybe Nikki as well, but she's kind of on another level entirely.
- Dorian: A powerful boxer and worthy opponent on the path of ascension through violence. He's probably also an ascetic - even more than Rikki is, most likely. He uses a similar reactionary style of fighting, albeit usually less mobile - when he hits, though, he hits HARD. Looking forward to rematches in the future!
- Dorchuk: A small but mighty goblin with a floating tower shield and a scimitar! He uses time and space shenanigans. Pretty damn hard to keep track of! Kind of a defensive beast, though there's a couple things that could work for next time...
Rikki's Dojo Thing! (it's a working title)
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Fed up with the lack of places around on Etera to pursue ascension through violence, Rikki's gone and gotten herself a dojo of her own! It's a simple building of stone and wood, set in a hilly area about 5 minutes away from the newly established settlement of Aventus, with a small river flowing next to it. When not travelling about, she can usually be found training in here.
The pugilist is always accepting challengers of all levels - win or lose, it doesn't matter to her as long as she gets a good fight out of it! (For that reason, detrimental mind-affecting effects are generally always banned in her duels.) She generally prefers nonlethal combat, but is otherwise quite happy to allow most things. Once any rules are decided upon, the two combatants are compelled to follow them until a victor is decided, but their combat can't be interrupted by outside forces - conditions that Rikki is quite happy for, whatever their source.
Tower of Death
Sweet Moves
"... come again?"
Nelevetu Agron has been run pretty ragged by this whole 'Ghostlands raid on the Death Tower' business. Being one of many tasked with fielding recruits to the cause, he spends most of his time these days in interviews, dealing with pleas, and getting sucked into far, far too many arguments. He specifically requested low-tier interactions - power and experience intimidate him quite a bit, and even some of the more impressive applicants technically within his purview have him reaching for his waterskin (it's only a little spiked with alcohol, it helps him relax, get off his case). There have been a few cases where applicants simply had nothing to offer and were clearly intent on getting themselves killed - which obviously he turned away, that would reflect badly on him - but for the most part, the people he's dealing with understand the seriousness of what they're signing up for.
The short young woman standing in front of him, arms crossed and grin wide, very nearly seemed like one of those people. She clearly has at least some martial training, and she's obviously quite fit - not the best he's seen, she probably couldn't take too many hits just from looking at her, and she has vanishingly few scars, which either means she's very good at not being hit or more likely just inexperienced - so he was about prepared to put her down for the raid and get to the next applicant.
But then she said what she said.
"Ah, well," the girl - Rikki or something, she said to call her - raises a hand to scratch sheepishly at the back of her head. "I gotta lotta shit I can do, an' I'm pretty great at beatin' up dudes, but these guys kinda skeeve me out a li'l? I ain't very good at sneakin' - dunno if y'noticed but this is kinda a lot," and she gestures at all of her with a wide grin, "an' I don't got much that could hit like, ghosts and shit yet. I guess I could come with one o' the teams goin' in for the final raid thing, but again, the whole alive-but-not thing's kinda..." She raises her hand and wobbles it a bit.
"... right, so what did you say you're bringing to the table?"
"Ah, yeah!" Rikki perks up and plaps her fist into her palm-up open hand. "Dance lessons."
The recruitment officer stares at her for a moment.
"... dance lessons."
So no, he isn't going insane. Is he drunk? Is she drunk? She doesn't look drunk.
"Yup yup! Turns out I really know my shit when it comes to gettin' movin'." Rikki nods and then perks up. "Ah, yeah! I also got a bit o' gold obviously, you guys can definitely use it way better'n I can," she rummages about in the sack tied to her waist... bow... thing and pulls out a couple of pouches, plopping them on the table, "an' I can also do salves? I think they're called salves, healy herbal pastes. Don't really last too long, though, and only a couple at a time, so. I can help with patchin' up! Probably better not to get hit in the first place, though, which is where the trainin' comes in."
Nelevetu works his jaw for a moment. "... so is this some kind of magical mesmerising thing? Bardic magic? Or the, uh," what the hell is it called, "grig jig? Because those don't usually..."
"Oh, yeah, nah, nothin' magic about it." Rikki shakes her head, and then raises a hand to her chin and considers. "I mean, I guess I could be good enough that people get confused? But nah, it's all natural skill, baby!" She flicks up her hair, putting her hand on her hip.
Nelevetu raises his hands and begins massaging his temples. "Right, so you understand what it is we're asking for here, going off what you said just before. Now, this is just a guess, but I'm pretty sure the natives of the Ghostlands aren't generally fans of sassy little numbers, so if you're quite done with this joke -"
"Okay, I see where yer headin' with this, but hear me out," the young woman says, raising her hands. Nelevetu stares blankly up at her as she shifts her stance and turns to the side, arms out.
"Weird thing about dance, right," she starts, as her hips and arms begin to move. "Most people jus' think it's about movin' yer body an' lookin' good doin' it. And yeah, obviously all that's important, but people don't usually think about what doin' that actually means. A good dancer's gotta be agile an' flexible, quick on their feet," she starts going through some motions as she speaks, gyrating and shifting from side to side, "an' they gotta be aware of every part o' their body - one wrong move, you could mess yerself up, mess up yer routine, an' generally just look like an absolute ass."
The motions she's going through are... almost hypnotic, honestly. Nelevetu has a hard time paying attention to anything else as she begins to sway, duck, bob and weave.
"Strength helps, 'specially if yer gonna be hangin' from props an' things," she flips, catching herself on her hands and starting to spin rapidly in a flare, "but also for shit like this - most o' the really tricky an' impressive stuff y'need both power and speed to do." Her arms drop and she drops onto her upper back with a grunt, switching abruptly into a windmill. "Also need a li'l endurance, but you can get by without, I guess? Definitely helps, though!"
She spins about on the ground and catches herself with one hand, kicking straight up and pushing off, and flips in the air before landing on her feet. Nelevetu blinks and shakes his head as the girl dusts off her hands, panting slightly.
"Basically," she concludes, "the right kinda dance is a total body workout an' shockingly good at teachin' spatial awareness, which is great fer not gettin' hit." She lets out a breath and grins. "An' fun as hell to boot, so you don't really think about how much work yer doin'! Sure ya got people that could use at least some o' that."
The recruitment officer considers the young woman carefully as she stretches from side to side. Well... she certainly looked like she knows what she's doing with this. And honestly, all that was pretty interesting to watch.
"... yeah, alright, I'll put you down for 'combat instruction,' I suppose," he mutters, pulling out a sheaf of parchment.
"Dance instruction." Rikki points with both hands at Nelevetu, thumbs extended at a ninety-degree angle, and winks. "Don't wanna give the wrong impression!"
"Ah... right."
Rage of Kanaloa
Through the Cracks
Ah, Lalotai.
Rikki’s never been the best at keeping places straight, but there are a few that have stuck for whatever reason, whether because of their importance (hey, there, Babel) or because of their importance to people she cares about (how do you do, Aventus?). The tropical island paradise with friendly and welcoming people, and the possibility of adventure in a nearby volcano? Rikki had many reasons to keep it in mind just based on what she’d heard about it from other people.
It’s a place she’s always wanted to visit at some point; doesn’t sound like there’s much of a warrior culture - there’s a war leader and warriors, but apparently, they’re more like security for the town - so not much of a chance of ascension through violence. With how good people say it looks and how friendly everyone says the locals are, though, it could still be a lot of fun visiting with friends - and, hey, with Aiuli and her energy wards, even exploring the volcano’d be on the table!
The young human(?) pugilist leaps forward, legs jutting out and aura flaring with sparks, and her foot smacks into the head of a sizable creature made almost entirely of flame just before its arm can slam into a young local all but curled up into a ball.
And sure, they’re having a bit of a problem right now with living bonfires and molten rock that’s actively trying to kill you, but nowhere’s perfect.
The fire elemental - a roughly humanoid creature of flame almost twice Rikki’s size - is sent skidding back from the force of her flying kick, and she stamps her foot a bit to put out any residual flames on her boot before turning to the terrified girl with a grin.
“Hey, there!” she greets, crouching and offering the girl a hand. The girl shrinks back a bit - probably the whole aura thing and the sparks, which Rikki can’t really help, but turning off the flames of Strength helps a bit, at least. “Oh, whoa, hey, it’s cool. Don’t worry - we’re here ta help.”
Aiuli makes a low, soothing noise and waves a wing from her perch on Rikki’s shoulder, and that seems to help a bit more. Rikki smiles as the girl’s fear gives way to a mix of curiosity and wonder at the sight of the snow-white, four-winged eagle.
Getting to Lalotai was easy enough - with Jin’s friend Evi’s ability to open portals to just about anywhere, it was just a matter of picking a place and walking through (though not before putting on her blue and green paints and getting a protective aegis of fire resistance from Aiuli). Honestly, the people in charge here made the right choice calling out to adventurers for aid - between Jin’s transformative abilities, Evi’s control over time and space, and the powers of creation Jin’s other friends Elyn and Alesia bring to the table, evacuating the townsfolk and minimising the damage these targeted attacks are doing is going pretty well, and restoration efforts should be a snap. And that’s just the people from Aventus! Not to mention the varied and vast skill sets of all the other adventurers that answered the call - the more aggressive of the group have already moved to engage the giant magma elementals spearheading these attacks.
Even with all the power and skill on display here, though, no one person can be everywhere at once. And while she’s kind of itching to get in on the elemental brawl, her speed and Aiuli’s warding capabilities mean that Rikki is uniquely suited to finding any stragglers that the other sweeping evacuations didn’t catch the first time around for whatever reason, getting them to safety, and beating back any of the lesser elementals causing havoc on the way.
The young local’s gaze flicks towards where the elemental was pushed, and terror grips her again as she raises a hand to point.
“Look out!”
Rikki needs no warning, though. Her body moves as the elemental closes, flames flaring up instantly around her - the red of Strength mixed with a raging yellow. As the living inferno raises its arm for a slam, the pugilist rears her arm back for what looks like a punch - but then her foot lashes out into the elemental’s side with a burst of cold and enough sheer force to dissipate it completely. Rikki clicks her tongue and shakes her head.
“Really should jus’ have stayed back,” she muses. A quick scan shows no other fire shapes approaching, so she turns her attention back to the young girl as the sparks and flames surrounding her die down again. “You okay?”
The Lalotaiian child nods after a moment of hesitation. Rikki smiles and crouches, offering her hand again.
“Awesome. Let’s get outta here ‘fore more, uh.” What did they call them here, again? “Before more loa show up, yeah?”
The girl looks between Rikki and the eagle on her shoulder, and the uncertainty and a hint of fear in her expression is replaced by relief as she takes the hand offered.
“Okay.”
Rikki beams.
Striking the Behemoth
Part One
The sun shines brightly over the clearing within which a handful of warriors are stationed, their attention on the Meitan woods around them. A slight breeze sweeps through the trees every now and then, accompanied by the rustle of leaves. The men and women present - most armed with short swords and spears and girded in leathers, though one or two wore only simple robes - talk amongst themselves on occasion, but for the most part, keep watch in companionable silence.
A young half-elf perks up suddenly, ears twitching, and looks to the sky. His brows rise before furrowing, his lips parting slightly, and the halfling next to him raises a brow before following his gaze. Something in the sky has caught the half-elf’s attention: a form moving through the air.
A bird? No, the shape seems off… It looks to be growing, as well, and it almost looks and sounds like…
“... iiiiiincOMIIIIIIIIING!”
The rest of the group jerks as the silence is shattered, heads darting up towards the source - a figure falling fast and headed straight towards the clearing. Before anyone can really react, the figure lands, the impact sending air blasting through the trees in all directions.
It takes a moment for the group to realise, but the figure hasn’t touched the ground - the collision occurs about twenty or so feet up in the air, and whatever landed is still up there. The warriors look up to see a young woman grinning down at them, perched in a crouch on nothing.
“Heya!” she calls, raising a hand to wave. “Sorry ta drop in on ya like this.”
She chortles a bit, purple eyes shining with mirth. The aura around her, visible to the naked eye, flickers with red flames balanced by a soothing white; she’s only a couple of inches past five feet, but it makes her seem significantly larger, somehow. Her skin is bronzed, and wisps of gold weave through the otherwise dark hair tied back in a ring swept slightly to the side. She wears simple yet stylised clothing - a bolero jacket and sarashi about her chest, pugilist wraps about her hands and upper arms, pants slightly puffy below the knees accentuated with a sash tied about her waist, and solid boots with studs along the shins.
Another woman, fair-skinned, clings to her back, supported by an arm. Her thick, light brown hair reaches her upper back, and she raises a hand to push a handful out of her face, blue-grey eyes looking around and taking in the trees around and the warriors staring below. Dressed in a simple long-sleeved tunic and form-fitting pants, she would easily pass for human if not for the plush, snow-white wings extending from her back, currently tucked in close to her body, and the fact that her legs end in bird’s feet with sizable talons.
A dwarf reacts first, straightening up with a nod. “Kerikki Nentovya.”
“Tha’s me!” The wingless woman’s grin widens. “Jus’ Rikki’s fine, though.” She releases her passenger, whose wings spread to hover, and hops down towards the ground three feet at a time, as if dropping onto sturdy ledges or tree branches instead of thin air. The sun glints off her skin ever so slightly, some notice. After a beat, her companion swoops down after her.
The dwarf grunts. His companions are recovering as well, some of them recognising the dancing pugilist. “Borgrim Jagskin. We were expecting yeh, but yer friend...”
“Ah,” Rikki’s companion starts, wings fluttering slightly, “I, I am Aiuli. Um, hello.” Her hand falls away from her hair and wavers before going to her forehead in a salute, and her shoulders stiffen. “We are here to help with the Behemoth!”
Borgrim grunts again, and Rikki snickers out an “at ease, soldier,” and pats at Aiuli’s back.
“Right. Camp’s this way. Let’s get yeh set up.” The dwarf nods to the others and turns to walk into the woods, and Rikki and Aiuli follow, the rest of the group spreading out around them.
~o~
While she and Aiuli have a fair bit to offer in the way of supplies (if not directly, then in the creation of tinctures and salves), Rikki’s main contribution to the forces amassed in the woods around Meita to tackle the Behemoth problem is in training. Specifically, in the art of combative dance. An unorthodox combat style, certainly, but as anyone who’s heard of her - and that number is not insignificant - or seen her in action knows, she’s made it work quite well, and she’s gotten pretty good at teaching others her combat style, or at least the basics of it. Where she can, she also lays the groundwork for the ‘light body technique’ that she and a few others are known for (though there’s only so much she can do with the time they have - it took her several years to master, after all).
Less frequently, she shares her knowledge of herbs and empowering paints for those wishing to learn to make them on their own; she can manufacture the paints pretty quickly and they last a long time, but she is only one woman. Plus, ‘give a man a fish’ and all that.
She is approached after one of her more advanced combat sessions by a delegate asking how she thinks the attack on Behemoth should proceed. Her insights are… fairly straightforward, though - she’s a fair few things, but tactician isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, ‘jump on an’ kick as much ass as ya can’ isn’t really a viable strategy for most of the people gathered (most people, it turns out, can’t just leap several miles in the span of a few seconds, though the pugilist is pretty sure anyone could do that with enough training).
Rikki wasn’t invited for her tactical acumen, though - her fighting ability and her abilities to heal and empower others should prove quite useful in the battles to stop the menace that the Walking City poses. Her excitement at the prospect and her confidence in herself and the forces gathered are also… oddly infectious; her presence has a strangely calming effect, and interacting with her helps to settle the nerves of many of the less experienced amongst the camps.