Raishan


 * &rarr; For episode 80 (chapter 6, episode 11), see Raishan (episode).

Raishan, the Diseased Deceiver, was an ancient green dragon and a member of the Chroma Conclave. As an NPC, Raishan was portrayed by Matthew Mercer.

Appearance
Raishan, as an ancient green dragon, was able to take on the form of others. She had taken on the form of Seeker Assum, a dwarf named Larkin, and (for several years) a young human Fire Ashari girl. Her natural form was that of a green dragon. She had piercing green eyes, gnarled green scales and hide, and arrays of brilliantly white teeth. She was, however, much smaller than the other ancient members of the Chroma Conclave, due to the strange disease countered upon her by a druid half a century ago. Because of this ailment, her body was covered with festering pustule sores and gashes. However, this did not hinder her fighting ability. She was quite versed in Druidic magic and harnessed the poison from within her to do damage.

Personality
Until the rise of Vecna, Raishan was considered the greatest nemesis that Vox Machina had fought. Despite her illness making her physically weaker and smaller, her mind was perhaps the sharpest of the Chroma Conclave. She managed to deceive Vox Machina for some time as Seeker Assum, and concealed her underlying motives even after her identity was revealed. She was innately clever and charismatic, and managed to evade Vox Machina twice.

It was Raishan that brokered the idea that if all five chromatic dragons worked together, they could wipe out most of the controlling Kingdom of Tal'Dorei on the continent. The five together would also be powerful enough to wipe out the most immediate threat to the Conclave: Draconia. The result would be the Conclave members put in a position of power with no serious opposition.

Raishan shares the general contempt of her chromatic brethren for "lesser" races. In her own words: "You act as though the laws of the anthill affect the foot that crushes it." She displayed no regret for her part in the genocide against the Fire Ashari, seeing them as little more than an annoying but minor obstacle in her mission to find a cure for her affliction.

Background
Raishan was cursed half a century ago by a druid after Raishan had killed all the followers at a temple of Melora. The druid gave her last breath to "spite" Raishan. At first the sickness was merely an inconvenience to Raishan; however, it spread and worsened over the years. Raishan became obsessed with finding a cure but everything she tried failed.

Thordak seemed to recognize the disease and offered to rid her of the illness in return for her servitude. They made an agreement to discuss the terms after Thordak returned from marking his domain. But he did not return.

Raishan found out, after years of seeking, that Thordak had been bound to the Elemental Plane of Fire. When she met him there he spoke of plans for vengeance and dominance. He refused to reveal the cure for Raishan's disease until after she found a way to release him. Raishan proposed the Chroma Conclave and prepared everything for Thordak's escape.

Disguised as a fifteen-year-old human girl, Raishan came to Pyrah about four years before the Chroma Conclave attacked Emon, where she joined the Fire Ashari. The leader of the Ashari, Cerkonos, noticed that she did not seem to mature like a normal human and saw that she possessed great power but he did not realize her true nature as a green dragon.

Raishan was still with the Fire Ashari when Keyleth met with them for her Aramenté. It was unclear if Vox Machina saw her humanoid form at that time.

Raishan planned to free Thordak from the fire plane at the celestial solstice. However, the power he was consuming from the heart stone had started driving him mad. Therefore, she decided to initiate the escape at Winter's Crest instead, as she feared Thordak would forget their deal if she waited any longer.

Around the time of the Winter's Crest festival following the defeat of the Briarwoods, Raishan released Thordak by ripping open a rift to the Elemental Plane of Fire in the side of the volcano. After Thordak was freed from the fire plane, Raishan realized that he had never meant to tell her the cure. She planned to kill him and then call back his spirit to tell her how to rid herself of the illness.

Raishan encountered Vox Machina when she and the rest of the Chroma Conclave interrupted Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei III's abdication speech and laid waste to a large group of Tal'Dorei Council members and other political and economic elites in Emon. Uriel died from this attack, Gilmore was wounded, and some members of Vox Machina nearly died, as well.

Upon conquering Emon, Thordak, leader of the Chroma Conclave, ordered Raishan and Umbrasyl to their next objective; they obeyed and flew east.

The next day, after losing her connection to the teleportation sigils in Westruun, Lady Allura scryed across Tal'Dorei. She revealed to Vox Machina that eastern towns, including Westruun, had, indeed, been conquered, presumably by Raishan and Umbrasyl.

For some time after the initial attack, Raishan seemed to disappear, with nobody seeing or hearing anything about her current activities. Shaun Gilmore explained to Vox Machina that attempts to scry Raishan's location had been hindered.

Raishan finally reappeared in Whitestone, where she revealed to Vox Machina that she had taken the form of Assum Emring. She proposed an alliance of sorts with Vox Machina, saying that she wanted to take down the Cinder King, Thordak.

Raishan proposed an alliance, explaining that with circumstances as they were, she thought that Vox Machina had very little choice, much like her. When Vax asked about her motives, she revealed her history to the party.

Raishan assisted Vox Machina during the battle against Vorugal. After Vex'ahlia dealt a fatal blow to the white dragon, Raishan flew down and tore Vorugal's throat out.

Raishan assisted Vox Machina in the battle against Thordak. After the red dragon was slain, Raishan walked up to his corpse and began casting a spell from a scroll. Vax'ildan then attacked her, having been told by Keyleth not to let the green dragon touch Thordak's corpse. Raishan fled deeper into Thordak's lair. Vax, Vex, and Keyleth chased after her and entered a lava-filled cavern containing five strange crystalline dragon eggs. From her position at the ceiling of the cavern, Raishan cast Meteor Swarm and dealt some heavy damage to the half-elves.

The rest of Vox Machina and their allies made their way down into Thordak's lair to join the fight with Raishan. Scanlan used the flute given to him by J'mon Sa Ord and the brass dragon soon arrived to aid them. During the fight, Raishan dealt heavy damage to Vox Machina, forcing them to focus on healing each other rather than attacking her. Both Vex'ahlia and Scanlan were temporarily killed during the battle. When most of them were laying injured or unconscious on the ground, Raishan took the opportunity to escape, taking two of the dragon eggs with her and teleporting away with Thordak's corpse.

After Raishan's escape, Keyleth scryed on her and saw Raishan had fled to an island in the middle of an ocean. In the caverns underneath that island was a laboratory full of bookshelves. Within that laboratory, Keyleth saw Thordak's corpse, the two dragon eggs, and Raishan in the form of a humanoid woman with long green hair, furiously searching through the books then tossing them aside.

Vox Machina infiltrated the island where Raishan was and eventually came upon the dragon still in her humanoid form and still looking through books such as Opash's notes.

Vox Machina began their second battle against Raishan. Although the group had fully rested, so had the dragon, and she rained devastation down on the party with multiple powerful spells, including Meteor Swarm. During the battle, Raishan once again killed Scanlan. Keyleth managed to hit her with a successful Feeblemind spell, reducing the ancient dragon to a mindless beast and preventing her from using any more spells. Nevertheless, Raishan still managed to get another kill, this time gutting Percy. Shortly after, Raishan's life was brought to an end by a fierce hammer blow from Kerrek.

Keyleth


The relationship between Keyleth and Raishan is comparable to the rivalry between Percy and Ripley. But unlike Ripley, Raishan thought very little of Keyleth, considering her just another insect among many. She seemed to delight in taunting her over the destruction of the Fire Ashari and treating her like a child, which served to further enrage the druid. Keyleth later begrudgingly agreed to the alliance that Raishan had proposed to kill Thordak but she still reminded the dragon that the last thing she will see is Keyleth's face before she dies.

In their last encounter, Keyleth spoke up against the dragon, keeping her anger in check and mentioning her hope that during her very long lifetime she does not become like her. She gave Raishan a chance to surrender and be brought to justice, a far cry from their first proper encounter in Whitestone weeks before. Raishan refused the offer and instead attempted to kill or enslave them all, but her overconfidence and arrogance became her undoing as Keyleth effectively neutralized her with Feeblemind, destroying her very identity and intellect.

Abilities

 * 520 hit point maximum
 * +14 constitution save modifier
 * +9 dexterity save modifier

Cantrips

 * Minor Illusion

2nd-level

 * Melf's Acid Arrow

3rd-level

 * Counterspell
 * Dispel Magic
 * Haste

4th-level

 * Blight
 * Freedom of Movement
 * Greater Invisibility

5th-level

 * Cone of Cold
 * Modify Memory
 * Wall of Force

6th-level

 * Chain Lightning
 * Contingency
 * Disintegrate

7th-level

 * Prismatic Spray
 * Project Image
 * Teleport

8th-level

 * Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting

9th-level

 * Meteor Swarm

Notable Items

 * Unknown scroll ; cast a spell that looked similar to Speak with Dead (used on Thordak's corpse)

Trivia

 * Raishan can move her eyes independently from each other.
 * As revealed by Matthew Mercer during the Fireside Chat, Raishan's plan had she not been interrupted was to obtain the cure from Thordak using an ancient, torturous version of Speak with Dead. She then would have left with Thordak's eggs and corpse (likely to reanimate it as a dracolich). She would have left Tal'Dorei and established a new lair on another continent (thus becoming a threat for the next campaign).
 * Raishan was the third member of the Chroma Conclave encountered in person by Vox Machina (the first being Brimscythe, whom they slew before the Critical Role stream, and the second being Thordak, from whom they hid while in the Elemental Plane of Fire in ).
 * Raishan survived the episode that shares her name, whereas Umbrasyl, Vorugal, and Thordak were all killed in their respective episodes (, , and ).
 * Raishan caused more deaths among the members of Vox Machina than any other enemy. She was responsible for the deaths of Vex and Scanlan in, and of Percy and Scanlan (again) in.
 * Raishan is the only member of the Chroma Conclave who suffered a killing blow by a guest character (Kerrek); her four colleagues were killed by members of Vox Machina: Vax'ildan (Brimscythe and Thordak), Vex'ahlia (Vorugal), and Grog (Umbrasyl).
 * It was during the battle with Raishan that Cabal's Ruin became exalted, after absorbing a Meteor Swarm spell cast by the Diseased Deceiver.