Rudolph Von Richten

## Backstory

Rudolph lived a happy life in a small mining village outside of Waterdeep. He studied hard to become a doctor, learned to be a cleric to help heal what medicine couldn't, met the love of his life, had a son, and was content.

One day, a group of Vistani came to the town to look for platinum to trade for. These Vistani were not like the normal ones that usually came through the town. They hailed from a country Rudolph had never heard of. Though a little rowdier than was comfortable, their money was as good as anybody else's and the town welcomed them.

Late one night, Rudolph was awoken to the sound of banging on his front door. When he answered, a small group of Vistani carrying a teenage boy barged past him. Blood trailed behind them. Rudolph yelled for them to put him on a table, and set to work. But he quickly knew that it was too late.

A massive gash in the child's neck festered and bleed dark black. Rudolph recognized Purple Worm venom and knew the Vistani had been inside the mine. He made the Vistana comfortable, and held his hand as he slipped away.

However, where Rudolph expected sorrow from the group, he was met by anger. The group of teenagers looked at him like he had killed their friend himself and accused him of not helping on purpose. They left into the night.

A few nights later, Rudolph got called out to a village a ways away to help a midwife with a complicated birth. When he returned exhausted in the early hours of the morning, he was met with his front door hanging on its hinges. Rushing inside, he found his wife dead in the kitchen, a note stabbed to her chest. "A child for a child." His son was nowhere to be found, but signs of struggle filled the house.

What Rudolph did next would haunt him for the rest of his life. He went after them. And he didn't go alone.

Von Richten knew of a necromancer that lived in the woods surrounding the village. He saw the robed figures that smelled of death come down for supplies, some he had even supplied himself. When he made it to their cavern, Rudolph was met by a lich. Apparently the materials had been for a ritual to help the leader ascend his mortal coil. The Lich was amused at Rudolph's anger, and agreed to help if he just let him have the bodies of these mysterious Vistani so he could see what made them so different. Rudolph agreed as long as it was just the group that had taken his wife and son from him.

When Rudolph approached the camp later that night, he was immediately surrounded by a small army of skeletons and zombies. Before he could even react, they swarmed the camp. Rudolph stood in horror as they ripped and tore apart the Vistani. Men, women, elderly, children. None were spared. "This isn't what I asked!" he pleaded as he grabbed at the undead trying to stop them to no avail. And then he heard it.

A single crying baby.

He turned in horror to see a zombie holding a little baby girl in its hands, chewing off the baby's leg. In a fit of bravery that surprised even him, he picked up a chair and smashed it over the zombie's head, causing it to drop the baby. Rudolph scooped up the bleeding infant and fled into the night, the sounds and screams never leaving his ears.

Rudolph still has nightmares of that night, even after 40 years. But you wouldn't be able to tell. A few years after the Massacre, he was still living in the village, raising the little Vistani girl as his own. An attempt at forgiveness. And then his son came home. As a vampire spawn.

Erasmus had been given a purpose. His vampire lord sent a message to Von Richten, telling him that he would forever be a target for what he did to his servants. That nobody and no place could shield him. Von Richten had to kill his own son right there.

Rudolph then swore an oath. Nobody else in this world should have to go through what he did. Someone had to do something. He gave up his path of healing and turned to a path of vengeance. The next 40 years were filled with the cries of monsters as he traveled the world. He wrote books, some of them quite popular. He gained fame as a monster hunter and a hero. And the entire time, he was searching. For the person who took his son from him. For the person who sent those evil Vistani to his village.

It wasn't until 30 years after the Massacre that he found another Vistani caravan that had these strange platinum coins on them. He knew then, that they could take them where he needed to go.

To Barovia.

This was 10 years ago, and nobody has seen or heard of Von Richten since. Most argue that age finally took what an endless gauntlet of monsters couldn't.