Shiro Takashi

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It began with a falling star.

When it crashed in the Vale the inhabitants were stunned. What had at first seemed like a celestial phenomenon, a piece of star-stuff falling to Earth, turned out to be far from natural. As the heroes of the Vale gathered at the crash site they discovered the wreck of what appeared to be a flying ship. Amidst the splinters of wood they discovered what appeared to be the only three survivors. The first of those was a cat-headed humanoid. Though they had never come across his kind before the Heroes proved they were Waltdorvians, showing the town’s long-held acceptance of the unusual. They nursed him back to health along with his two companions, a pair of sabre-tooth tigers. The big cats were mother and kitten and when Takashi recovered they learned that for him the mother, Shinomi, was a riding animal. The kitten, Tabi, was a pet as well as a possible future steed. When he finally awoke they learned who and what he was.

It seemed Takashi was from a race known as rakasta, native to the moon of another world. Their control of the void above the skyshield of Mystara though was being threatened by some of the inhabitants of the world below, particularly a group known as the Heldannic Knights. This order of war priests used skyships and voidships to antagonise the rakasta and it was in defence of his realm that Takashi found himself on Krynn. He had joined a raiding party which assaulted the Vanya’s Revenge, the largest voidship the Heldanners had ever constructed, and which the rakasta feared would be used as a first-strike weapon against them. Takashi was known as a kensai, literally ‘sword-saint’, and an absolute master of the katana. He proved it that day when at the head of a force of sabre-tooths (with magic collars that allowed them to fly through the void in a bubble of air) he led the assault down onto the deck and through the bulkheads and gangways to the shrine at the heart of the Vanya’s Revenge. There he held off an army of priests while the magi he had accompanied worked to destroy the magics that kept the voidship flying. Finally he faced the admiral and high priest of the ship, and suffered curse after curse from him as he fought. But his actions held the enemy at bay long enough and the deck shifted under them as the voidship began a slow fall to earth. The high priest, sensing there was no way to save the ship, opted to save himself and prepared a spell to whisk him away. But as the words left his mouth he felt Takashi’s blade between his ribs and the magic went awry transporting not just the priest, but the whole ship, not just to the ground but to a far distant world entirely. As it arrived at Krynn it continued its long fall to the ground.

Marooned on Krynn Takashi felt the only honourable course of action open to him was to offer his blade and its services to those who had helped save him from his wounds, while he searched for a way home. When the Phoenix attempted to return from its other-dimensional prison he accompanied them in their quest to destroy it. Sadly when their path was blocked by a portcullis Takashi attempted to lift it. The gateway was trapped though, designed to pass a stream of electricity through the bars, killing any who held on to it. Takashi was only able to lift it long enough for half the party to slip under, before it proved too much and he fell to the ground, his heart stopped. But to do any less would have been dishonourable.

But the story doesn’t end there. (Even though the DM very much wishes that it did! Ed 17:19, 23 October 2007 (BST)

Shinomi and Tabi wandered off shortly after, heading into the forests of the Vale and living a quiet life away from danger. About seven years after Takashi’s death the elves in the Vale reported seeing Shinomi’s body by a pool and it was assumed that Tabi was the only sabre-tooth left on Taladas. However, during his explorations of the Vale when he noticed its shrinking, Hank saw several sabre-tooths, including pairs with cubs. It seems that more sabre-tooths must have survived the crash than was initially thought and the Vale now has a small but growing population of these cats, adding to the strangeness and wonder of this land.

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"Hmmm... Not much to say about this one, can't even remember how to say his name. Came from a world far away. Perhaps he should have stayed there, because he wound up dead and buried on this one. He had a really nice sword, though. Petty that stupid minotaur Krag insisted on burying it with him."

— Schallat

"Good fighter. He was a bit too caught up on following rules for my liking. Still, he had a nice mount if you are into mammals."

— Krath