Inakha Nulakiano¶

Inakha Nulakiano

"So I don't much understand your fancy plan mister Vampire, and I didn't chiefly come here to stop it. You're ingredients to me."

Goliath monster hunter chasing culinary redemption for her exiled family, armed with a greataxe, a legendary cookbook, and the emotional regulation of a kicked hornet's nest. Conservative workhorse who sees a Gelatinous cube as aspic with extra steps.

Character Overview¶

Species: Goliath
Class: Ranger 5 (Hunter)
Background: Guard
Age: 22
Alignment: Lawful Neutral (sliding toward Lawful Evil more than Lawful Good)

Quick Intro

At the Table

Catalogs monsters and threats in terms of whether it's edible and how to prepare it; takes pride in how fast she can butcher large beasts
Conservative working-class worldview: respects earned authority, believes systems work if people play their part, despises scammers/cheaters
Mood-dependent: delightful, carefree and generous when she's succeeded or been recognized, predatory and destructive when frustrated
Little patience with kids, little empathy for animals; weird ranger energy
Desperately wants to prove her family deserves redemption through one perfect dish
The party's enthusiastic monster butcher who always knows (or confidently guesses) what's edible and occasionally finds "bonus ingredients" during adventures

Backstory (Short Form)

Inakha's parents were their Goliath clan chefs until they served something that poisoned the clan's druid. Exiled to the lowlands, they took what work they could. Inakha being both strong and food savvy ended up guarding the ducal food larders, the very thing that destroyed her family. After cracking skulls during a peasant uprising over food (which she still justifies as necessary), she realized she couldn't stomach that life anymore. Now she travels with a mysterious cookbook, hunting exotic monsters to create the culinary masterpiece that will redeem her family's name.

Playing Inakha

Combat: Aggressive melee controller using Greataxe with Cleave, Horde Breaker, Hunter's Mark and Great Weapon Master for synergic multi-target damage (4 high damage attacks/turn), thrown tridents to Topple fliers. Stone's Endurance provides survivability (~25 mitigated HP/LR) for STR-focused 2-h ranger with mediocre AC (16). Switch to Shield+Trident if cornered.
Roleplay: Direct, practical speech with sudden bursts of culinary passion. Has a hunter's patience when stalking prey but explosive temper when cooking fails. When disgruntled, punt failed cast-iron pots into the woods like footballs, punch trees and use Befriend Animal unethically to get close to deers and wring their necks for dinner.
Party Synergy: Adds flavor (literally) to any adventure by reframing encounters through culinary potential. Creates natural extra investment in party goals when her mysterious cookbook always happens to contain recipes requiring ingredients found near their destination.

Deep Dive

What Inakha Brings to the Table¶

Inakha invites scenes that aren't about lore dumps or destiny speeches but about whether something is fresh, usable, worth the risk. When the party enters a dungeon, she's checking for ventilation patterns that indicate meat storage. When they negotiate with a lord, she's cataloging what's on the table and what that says about supply chains. She grounds even high-fantasy nonsense in sensory reality—the metallic tang of dragon's blood, the way manticore meat marbles differently than beef, whether those mushrooms are actually edible or just non-lethal.

Backstory¶

Inakha was born into a family with status. Her parents were the clan chefs—a position of honor in goliath culture, responsible for sustaining the tribe and feeding those who protected it. She grew up surrounded by the smell of curing meats, the sound of cleavers on bone, and her parents' constant discussions of recipes, techniques, preservation methods.

Then the druid died from their food. Whether it was sabotage, negligence, contaminated ingredients, or catastrophic bad luck remains unclear. The clan never investigated—they simply exiled the family. Inakha was fourteen.

The lowlands were brutal. Inakha's parents found occasional kitchen work, but their reputation followed them. Inakha knew enough about food preservation to land a job as a guard for the ducal food larders. It paid, kept the family fed. It also put her in the position of protecting the very thing that destroyed her family, while her parents scraped by on kitchen scraps.

There was one person in the ducal kitchens who treated her like more than furniture. Chef Matteus, the sous-chef, had big uncle energy—gruff but generous, the kind of man who'd slip her the leftover scraps and quiz her on ingredients. "This venison—how long since the kill?" She was very often right, and that little feeling of accomplishment was pure catnip for her confidence.

Then came the famine year. Peasants stormed the ducal storages. Inakha and the other guards formed a line. She remembers the moment clearly: a woman reaching for a crate of griffin eggs, magical ingredients that required alchemical refrigeration. Inakha warned her, explained those eggs would spoil, that this was about preventing waste. When the woman ignored her, Inakha cracked her skull with the butt of her spear.

She cracked a few more that night. She told herself it was necessary. It wasn't their food. They hadn't earned it. The ingredients would spoil. She'd warned them. They thought they could put themselves above the rules.

But something shifted. She couldn't keep guarding food for people who had everything while people who had nothing bled at her feet. Her parents noticed the change. When she told them she wanted to leave, wanted to actually learn cooking rather than guard it, they began sharing their old recipe notes, their techniques, their dreams. Inakha realized they saw in her the redemption they could no longer achieve themselves.

Matteus wrote down three names of chefs in different cities. "Tell them Matteus sent you. They'll give you a chance. After that, you're on your own merit."

She studied under one of the chefs on Matteus list for a little under a month before he cancelled the commitment, citing "cooperation difficultues". Wandering, lost, she found the cookbook in a small curiosity shop but a few days later. Or it found her? She's never been entirely sure, but it felt like it was meant to be. The recipes were unlike anything she'd seen. Manticore foie gras? Wyrmling short ribs in Gelatinous Cube aspic? Deep mushroom bone broth and steamed Drider Legs. They were only theoretically achievable, for an accomplished adventurer. If she could master even one of them, create something undeniably excellent and unique, maybe she could prove her family deserved better than exile.

Personality¶

Inakha is blunt, practical, and matter-of-fact about violence in a way that makes people uncomfortable. She doesn't see herself as cruel—she sees herself as realistic. The world has rules. Strength matters. Hard work matters. Playing your part matters. People who ignore warnings face consequences. She learned these lessons from her family's exile and the years spent enforcing order in the ducal stores.

Conservative Worldview She respects what's earned through skill and labor. When everyone gets a say, you get compromise soup: nothing offensive, but also nothing excellent. A good wheelwright, a master chef, a sergeant who's seen twenty campaigns, these people know things committees of well-meaning amateurs don't. She's seen what happens when people who don't know food try to manage food distribution, or when guards who aren't strong enough to hold a line get the same say as veterans. Democracy sounds noble until you need someone to make the hard call, and then you find out that most people will choose comfort over necessity every single time.

She'll always help an elderly grandmother swindled by a con artist. She despises scammers with special fervor. She'll hold up your wagon for an hour while the wheelwright works and not charge a copper, as long as she sees you as honest and decent. But someone who can't be bothered to work? No time for that, whether they're noble or commonfolk: don't try to shortcut your way to what others earned.

Weird Ranger Energy
She has no patience with children and little empathy for animals. Animals are ingredients or obstacles, and children are loud, unpredictable, and have bad taste.

Moody
When Inakha is in a good mood—when she's received recognition, passed some threshold, managed to cook a difficult dish—she is genuinely delightful. Generous, carefree, supportive. When she's in a bad mood—when cooking has failed, when she feels disrespected—she destroys things and becomes predatory. The shift can be dramatic.

Working-Class Coded Responses
She never gets offended by insults, even about her cooking. She just gets something predatory in her eyes and casually invites people to back those words up. "Oh, you think my sear technique is sloppy? Let's see yours then." Prove it or shut up.

She also laughs at others' misfortune for a good solid minute before helping them. Someone trips and faceplants? She's wheezing. But after she's finished laughing, she does help.

Simple Pleasures
For relaxation: dog racing, bawdy street theater, bread and circus. She's never cried over the beauty of a tragedy. She likes things that are immediate, physical, visceral. Give her a tavern singalong over a symphony any day.

Stickler About Hygiene
She's meticulous about hygiene and uses Protection from Poison whenever she eats out and doesn't trust the chef. Obsessive about her mouth hygiene, and in the kitchen also her hands. She's seen what poor hygiene does to ingredients and people.

Patience and Anger Issues When the food doesn't cooperate, cast iron kettles will be punted into the woods. Uncaring skies will be shouted at. Trees will be punched. Then, stalking into the forest, she might cast Animal Friendship on some unsuspecting deer just to get close enough to wring its neck like a wet sock. She's capable of waiting days for the perfect shot on the hunt, but she can't wait ten minutes for a reduction to develop complexity. She starts fiddling with the steaks instead of letting them rest. She's decisive, forceful, and those qualities serve her in combat but sabotage her in the kitchen.

Sample Quotes¶

"Five hours. FIVE HOURS marinating that venison and it's still tough as boot leather. You know what? Fine. FINE." [kicks the pot into the river, startling the ducks] "We're having trail rations."

"My mother can name every spice in a dish after one taste. My father can butcher a whole oxen in seventeen minutes. And they were exiled because some cranky old druid on death's door couldn't stomach some real cooking."

"The Lich can wait thirty minutes. Do you know how rare Deep Mushrooms are? Do you have any idea what they'd do to a bone broth? No. You don't. So we're getting the mushrooms. There're no rules saying this can't be an epic quest and a grocery run."

"I waited three days in freezing rain to get the jump on that owlbear. Don't talk to me about patience. I have patience. I just don't waste it on things that should be simple."

"I'm not eating that unless I see the kitchen. You know how many 'chefs' don't wash their hands after handling raw chicken? I've seen spoilage kill people. I'm casting Protection from Poison and you can laugh all you want."

"I warned the rioters three times. And that wasn't barley they were after, it was griffin eggs with alchemical cold storage. Those eggs rot fast. It'd just be be a damn waste."

"That bastard charged her three gold for 'authentic healing herbs.' It's parsley. Parsley. No. We're getting her money back. I don't care if it takes all day."

"Not shaming anybody who has kids, but why are they so loud? And sticky. Why sticky? No, I don't want to 'see what they drew.' I'm sure it's very nice."

"So I don't much understand your fancy plan mister Vampire, and I didn't chiefly come here to stop it. You're ingredients to me."

After receiving praise for a dish:
[Genuine, broad smile] "You liked it? Really? Here—have more. Take this whole portion, I insist. And tomorrow I'll show you the technique. It's all in the temperature control—let me get my notes."

Mechanics¶

Replaced Guard background's proficiency in Gambling: Bowl with proficency in Cook's Utensils.
If survivability feels like an issue, consider speaking with your DM to modify the Guard Background and get the Tough feat instead of Alert.

Key Relationships

Parents-Mother Gauri and Father Arpath: They are both ambitious about Inakha's quest, and see it as the family's chance at vindication. They write letters asking about progress but always frames them as gentle questions rather than pressure—which somehow makes the pressure worse. They also send old recipe notes and technique diagrams. Since Inakha left, they've found jobs processing ingredients for the army: Salting meat, malting barley, carrying oats. It's hard work but safe pay. The only big issue is that they're now constantly on the move, following campaigns and moving between empostments.

Sous-Chef Matteus: The ducal sous-chef who saw promise in Inakha when she was just a guard. Represents the kind of authority Inakha respects, someone who earned their position through skill and helps without condescending or strings attached. Matteus was visibly distraught by the famine riots, and Inakha has no illusions he prefered to see her put her strength to better use. Even so, she considers herself deeply indebted to him for believing in her.

Olivia Venn: Tiefling Bounty hunter and monster contractor extraordinaire, who slipped into Inakha's life on a chance encounter in the woods after Inakha took out the Owlbear Olivia had a contract on. Venn works the trade routes, taking contracts for dangerous beasts that threaten caravans and villages. When they travel together, Inakha doesn't have to explain why she's carrying a weird cookbook, or justify her family's exile. Venn just treats her like a fellow professional. They share watches, split rations, and argue about the best way to field-dress a chimera. Much of Inakha's life has been defined by the shame of her family and her own struggle for recognition. Olivia already recognizes her, and that makes her company a luxury. Now they have a cordial friendship, sharing leads on hunts and bounties, and occasionally helping each other out as time and circumstance allows.

Olivia occasionally runs with a loose network of bounty hunters who take contracts that don't quite fit the usual mold—people wanted for debts, disputes, or offenses against powerful patrons rather than crimes. She's floated the idea of bringing Inakha in on a difficult hunt. The pay would be excellent. The target probably hasn't done anything Inakha would consider wrong. Inakha hasn't said yes, but she also hasn't said no.

Notes for the DM

Dramatic Questions¶

What would make Inakha stop and really think about the lives she claimed during the famine uprising?
Can she achieve redemption for her family without first learning patience with herself?
Is her quest for her family's redemption, or to prove she's different from them?
What if she creates the perfect dish, but it doesn't really fix anything?

Adventure Hooks¶

The Epic Cook-Off (personal arc)

Investigation: For some reason the party is drawn to Inakha's homelands. While there, the party helps Inakha investigate whether her parents were actually sabotaged. Evidence emerges about what actually happened during the druid poisoning: The current clan chef did indeed poison the druid and frame Inakha's parents!
The Challenge: Inakha has a chance to lay forth the evidence, but that won't give her vindication. Only by challenging the clan chef to a cook-off, Iron Chef style, will she be able to clear her family's name in the eyes of the clan.
Legendary Ingredient Hunt: The cook-off requires a legendary ingredient—young white dragon heart, remorhaz venom glands, something that requires a dangerous hunt. The party must help Inakha track and acquire this ingredient while she hopefully manages her temper during preparation.
The Cook-Off: A series of skill checks. The party can provide support but they can't cook for her. Additional complications: Learning the taste profiles of the judges and adjusting the dishes, figuring out if any of them is prejudiced, defending against new sabotage.
Resolution: Win or lose, Inakha confronts what redemption actually means.

Matteus's Macabre Mille-Feuille

After the famine riots, Matteus radicalised quickly, started to hang out with a local resistance group, and eventually ended up poisoning the duke with a tasty baked treat. The duke died, and Matteus was eventually pointed out as chief suspect. Now his closest assistant Delwyn, for lack of better ideas, sends a message to Inakha with a plea for help. She can't even imagine that Matteus is actually guilty. Upon arriving in Inakha's hometown and visiting Matteus in his cell, he's unrepentant and surprised that Inakha would show up. He has volunteered no additional information, and likely faces rough interrogations.

While he's happy to see her, he's also guarded. He remembers her complacency with the powers that be during the famine riots. Inakha now has to decide about what is most important: Her principles, to let the authorities run their course, or figure out a way to save her friend.

But Delwyn's plea for help wasn't just out of sentiment. If Matteus is executed, his kitchen staff will be investigated for complicity, and it won't be a polite talk. Most if not all of them are innocent, but the authorities don't care about precision. Inakha's choice is also about whether to let more violence be visited upon the smallfolk.

Olivia's Manhunt Offer

Olivia has some less than savoury friends, bounty hunters who take contracts for people who may strictly speaking not have done anything wrong in the eyes of the law. She may try to get a skilled ranger like Inakha onboard for a particularly dangerous manhunt. Pay is good, but the reasons for the contract are... finicky. Olivia isn't a villain trying to corrupt her though. She's just a professional with a broader definition of acceptable work.

This is Inakha's friction point: her worldview is built around rules, choices and consequences. But what happens when the target of a manhunt is someone who wronged a powerful person without technically breaking any laws? A servant who embarrassed a noble. A witness who testified truthfully but inconveniently. They haven't "cheated" in Inakha's framework. Hunting them would mean enforcing power without questioning, which is exactly what she was doing during the famine riots. Olivia probably frames it pragmatically: "The contract is legal. The pay is good. What people do after we deliver isn't our problem." And Inakha would have to decide whether that logic sounds familiar.

Ingredient Hunting Hooks

The mysterious cookbook can always be made to contain recipes requiring ingredients found near the party's current destination:

Heading to a Lich's lair? Recipe requiring Deep Mushrooms from the nearby death-touched forest.
Fighting a dragon? A page on rendering dragon fat for high-temperature searing oil.
Haunted mansion? Ectoplasm makes a gelatin with "otherworldly mouthfeel."
Underwater ruins? Fresh kraken ink for pasta dye and flavoring.

The Cookbook

Inakha has grabbed a truly weird cookbook that doesn't resemble any other. Here are a few ideas (a smorgasbord, if you will) for how you could play out the secret of the Cookbook in your campaign.

It was authored by a retired legendary monster hunter with strange habits who succeeded at the culinary quest. Finding him or her could provide a high level mentor NPC for Inakha and the group. On a successful Investigation check they may find the author's name hidden in the margins.
A circle of alchemists and mages created it as a log book for their attempts to magically solve the problem of hunger. This would tie into Inakha's backstory about famine. She could for instance at a crucial moment figure out how to cook a self-replenishing stew, saving a city from starvation during a siege.
The cookbook was written as an absolute joke by a respected author and placed in a thrift store on a dare. They thought no sane person would take it seriously. This twists Inakha's story to creating meaning around the effort and faith she's put in, rather than the external validation of cooking.
The cookbook was a genuine attempt by its author to document impossible recipes, but the author died before completing the work. The unfinished nature of these recipes means Inakha must improvise. The cookbook becomes a collaboration across time instead of a finished series of instructions. By cooking the recipes and improving on them, Inakha matures as a cook and finishes the work of the author. Late campaign, she gains the ability to create dishes that buff the party in epic ways. Problem is, the book is unknown, and while her skills are now solid they are still largely unrecognized. She could seek out the living relatives of the author and hand them her finished version, or present it as a thesis at a gastronomic seminar.

Level 5 Build and PDF download

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	12 (+1)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)	14 (+2)	8 (-1)

Combat Stats¶

AC	HP	Hit Dice	Speed	Initiative	Prof. Bonus
16	44	5d10	35 ft.	+4	+3

Saving Throws: STR +7, DEX +4
Resistances: None

Proficiencies¶

Skills: Athletics +10 (Expertise), Nature +3, Perception +5, Stealth +4, Survival +5

Armor: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields
Weapons: Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons

Tools: Cook's Utensils Languages: Common, [+2 common languages from Goliath], [+2 languages from Ranger]

Feats¶

Great Weapon Master: +1 STR. Heavy weapons deal +PB (3) damage. After crit or reducing opponent to 0 HP, make another attack with the same weapon as BA (Hew).
Alert: +PB(3) to Initiative (included above). Can swap initiative with a willing ally immediately after rolling.

Species Traits¶

Stone's Endurance (Stone Giant Ancestry): When you take damage, use reaction, roll 1d12+2, reduce the damage by the total. 3/Long Rest.
Large Form: Once per long rest as a bonus action, grow to Large size for 10 minutes. Gain advantage on Strength checks and +10 ft. speed.
Powerful Build: Advantage on checks to end Grappled condition. Count as one size larger for carrying capacity.

Class Features¶

Weapon Mastery: Greataxe (Cleave), Trident (Topple)
Fighting Style: Defense (+1 AC, included above)
Hunter's Lore: When a creature is marked by Hunter's Mark, learn its damage immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities
Hunter's Prey - Horde Breaker: Once per turn when you attack, make an additional attack against a different creature within 5 ft. of the first target

Equipment¶

Scale Mail, Shield, Greataxe, Trident (×3), Sprig of Mistletoe (druidic focus), Cooking utensils, The Mysterious Cookbook

Suggested Magic Items:

Bag of Holding: For monster ingredient storage and transport
Periapt of Wound Closure: Offsets low AC with better healing
Heward's Handy Spice Pouch: Produces a pinch of any nonmagical food seasoning
Boots of Elvenkind: Cancels disadvantage on Stealth checks for Medium Armor

Spellcasting¶

1st Level: Hunter's Mark (always prepared, 3/LR without slots), Absorb Elements, Cure Wounds, Animal Friendship
2nd Level: Spike Growth, Pass Without Trace, Protection from Poison

📄 Download Level 5 Character Sheet (PDF)

Session Zero Considerations

Content Notes: This character involves state violence and harm against desperate people. Themes of poverty, systemic injustice, and the psychology of enforcers. Additionally: explosive anger, family shame/exile, generational trauma and parental expectations.

Representation Notes: No special representation issues.