Dr. Rudolph van Richten (5th Edition)

NOTE: This entry is for the 5th Edition version of Dr. Rudolph van Richten presented in Curse of Strahd. For the older edition character, see Dr. Rudolph van Richten (NPC).

Dr. van Richten makes a notable appearance in the 5th Edition module, Curse of Strahd, though not in his famous persona as the monster hunter and writer of the Van Richten's Guides he is notable for in previous Ravenloft products. Instead, he adopts the guise of Rictavio, a traveling half-elf bard, storyteller, and ringmaster gathering stories and watching out for talent. In reality he is gathering formation and waiting for an optimal time to strike at Strahd, preferably when the vampire lord is in hibernation. Unlike other versions of van Richten, the Curse of Strahd van Richten is a loner because he knows the full extent of his curse.

History

Much of Dr. van Richten's early history before he came a monster hunter remains the same. One key difference is that he did not wholesale murder the Vistani that kidnapped his son Erasmus van Richten. In fact, one of them, Ezmerelda d'Avenir appeared to him one day and expressed her remorse, eventually becoming van Richten's student in monster hunting. However, their relationship frayed after a couple of years, and at, Ezmerelda's suggestion, they left each other's company amicably.

At some point in his adventuring career, a Vistani seer cursed van Richten, dooming his friends to die. Curse of Strahd is not specific to when in his adventuring career or why van Richten's curse was put upon him, though he is aware of it. In contrast, in the traditional van Richten story, van Richten is cursed by Madame Radanavich early on in his career but does not realize how it has effected him until 741 BC (the year before he retires). He thus operates as a loner, to not cause the death of any friends or allies he would work with.

Eventually, Dr. van Richten set his sights upon the destruction of Strahd. By now having adopted the identity of Rictavio, van Richten eventually encountered Yan, an exiled Vistani. Once Yan discovered van Richten's intentions to go to Barovia and seek out the Vistani there, Yan tried to make off with Rictavio's Wagon along with Piccolo. Van Richten caught him and killed the thief, removed his head, and preserved it with special magic oils to be used with speak with dead later on.

Rictavio came to Barovia in the guise of Rictavio and set up shop at a then abandoned tower formerly belonging to the wizard Khazan. Dr. van Richten made Khazan's old tower his own for a time, before moving on to Vallaki and setting up shop there. In the meantime, Ezmerelda heard rumors about her former mentor's travel to Barovia to take out Strahd, and she traveled to Barovia to find van Richten, eventually setting up shop in his old tower.

About a month prior to the current point in the timeline of the module, "Rictavio" came to Vallaki. There he met and purchased a doll of a Vistani from Gadof Blinsky. Noting the toymaker's loneliness and despair, van Richten left his pet monkey, Piccolo with Blinsky for company. Dr. van Richten has stayed at the Blue Water Inn and received generous treatment from the charitable Urwin Martikov.. Dr. van Richten keeps his wagon (and his sabre-toothed tiger) inside the Arasek Stockyards, bribing off its owners to prevent any details from leaking out.

Modus Operandi

As previously mentioned, Dr. van Richten is a loner, posing in his Rictavio guise to gather information until the time is right to strike against Strahd. Van Richten drives a carnival wagon pulled by a horse] named Drusilla. Dr. van Richten uses his sabre-toothed tiger to hunt evil Vistani, for which it is especially trained to do. Currently, van Richten is gathering information on both a)the Keepers of the Feather to learn their allegiances/membership and b)the evil Vistani of Arrigal's Clan at the Vistani camp near Vallaki. Van Richten plans on sending the tiger after the evil Vistani in the camp.

Art

p. 238

Game Statistics

Van Richten has his own NPC game statistics block. He casts spells as a 9th level cleric. He is of Lawful Good alignment.

References

[[category::Animal Handler]]