Rudolph Van Richten

==== Van Richten’s tale is a sad one. A scholar and doctor from the Hexen Confederacy, he married his childhood sweetheart, Ingrid, and together they bad a son, Erasmus. When he was fourteen, Erasmus was stolen away by Vistani and sold to a vampire named Baron Metus to be used as a companion. By the time van Richten found his son, it was too late and the baron had already transformed Erasmus into a vampire spawn. Erasmus begged his father to end his suffering, which van Richten did by pounding a wooden stake through his son’s chest. Baron Metus avenged that deed by killing van Richten’s wife, and van Richten has lived with the horror of his family’s destruction ever since. After destroying Baron Metus in turn, van Richten sought revenge against the Vistani and took up a life of hunting evil monsters. ====

==== During this time Van Richten came across the Vistani Ezmerelda D'evenir. Having fled from her people she sought out the legendary monster hunter, imploring him to train her. For a man as bitter as Van Richten and her being vistani it would not have been a great shock had he slew her then and there, but for reason evident only to the man himself he now only spared her but took her under his wing. Although naturally gifted she was stubborn, perhaps another trait the pair shared, and over time, as her skill grew the pair would find themselves in conflict more and more. They eventually parted ways upon the realisation they were too alike to work together. ====

==== Van Richten then traveled to Barovia to kill Erebus Krais, the greatest vampire of them all. Van Richten had studied Krais for years and knew he couldn't hope to best the vampire in a straight-up confrontation. He waited for the right moment to strike, not knowing his protegee has journeyed after him into the mists. ====

==== There, Van Richten encountered a party of adventurers, themselves trapped in the dreadplane. Forming an alliance after saving one of their party, the group ultimately triumphed after many a fraught adventure and much loss. Having completed his greatest feat and healing the bond between himself and the woman he had come to see as a daughter the two set off to eradicate the last of the curse of Krais. ====

==== Sometime later the two became separated and Van Richten, fearing Ezmerelda has been taken, rushed headlong into a trap. The right hand of Krais, Rahadin had set up a plan that was twofold. In his dreams he had seen a way of tracking down the object of his true vengeance and eliminating those who tracked him across Aletrias. Van Richten was tortured and infected with the blood of the vampire he had helped slay a year prior, himself slowly turning into the very thing he had pledged his life to destroy. ====

==== With the help of the band of adventurers Rahadin had lured in, Ezmerleda was able to free her mentor and the two were able to say goodbye, Rudolph Van Richten watched one last sunrise before the woman he loved as his own child out him to rest. ====