Van Richten’s Story

Malron’s Account

When we named him Rictavio van Richten at the Blue Water Inn and convinced him we were not Strahd’s agents, Van Richten told us his story: how he came out of hiding in the tower at Lake Baratok, took Arabelle from Escher on the Luna River and hid her in his carnival wagon, and how Doru forced him into a revolt on the castle that Strahd crushed⁠18.

His story

As it was written down for us:

Until recently, he had been laying low in the tower at Lake Baratok. However, that changed when he saw a Vistana man bringing a wriggling sack to a golden-haired vampire spawn on the banks of the Luna River. (Van Richten recognized the vampire as a man named Escher, a bard from Barovia who had joined the Barovians’ revolt.)

Van Richten attacked the pair, killing the Vistana and scarring the vampire, who fled. Upon opening the sack, he found a young Vistana girl within.

The girl, who introduced herself as Arabelle, was uncertain of why she had been kidnapped. Van Richten used his talisman of echoes to interrogate the dead Vistana’s severed head, and learned that Strahd had issued a bounty on young girls matching Arabelle’s precise and unique description: dark-haired and olive-skinned, with lavender irises. Van Richten and Arabelle agreed that returning her to the Vistani camp would leave her exposed to Strahd, and was therefore too dangerous.

The two returned to the tower at Lake Baratok, where Van Richten had previously hidden his horse, Drusilla, and a covered Vistani wagon that he had first used to enter Barovia. Using his hat of disguise, Van Richten adopted the dead Vistana’s guise and snuck into the Vistani camp by Vallaki to steal three pots of paint, which he used to disguise his wagon as “Rictavio’s Carnival of Wonders.”

Van Richten and Arabelle then traveled to Vallaki, with Van Richten adopting the identity of Rictavio to hide in plain sight. Arabelle has remained concealed in his wagon ever since.

While the tower at Lake Baratok contains a permanent antimagic field that would block Strahd’s scrying, Van Richten believed that Strahd would be well-aware of this fact, and that the tower would therefore be among the first places he looked. As such, Van Richten, who already wore one such amulet, gave Arabelle a spare amulet of proof against detection and location that he had once given to—and then received from—one of his students. (If pressed, Van Richten admits that the amulet once belonged to Ezmerelda d’Avenir, but does not discuss the matter in further detail.)

When Van Richten first arrived in Barovia, he hoped to face Strahd alone, taking advantage of the vampire’s hibernation to destroy him in his coffin.

His plans were foiled when an undead dire wolf attacked a trio of Barovia children, and the resulting battle revealed his identity to the onlooking Doru.

Doru blackmailed Van Richten into leading a full-scale revolt on the castle, threatening to bring an untrained mob to Ravenloft’s doors if Van Richten didn’t lead them there. Van Richten, fearful that such a mob could awaken Strahd and destroy his own plans, reluctantly agreed.

Shortly after entering the castle, however, they were betrayed. Escher, Doru’s “lieutenant,” vanished from the group as they explored the catacombs. Not long thereafter, the mob found Strahd’s coffin empty—and Strahd himself attacked shortly thereafter. Van Richten fled, knowing from his long studies of Strahd that victory was impossible.

Upon escaping Castle Ravenloft and recovering his horse, Van Richten began the journey to warn the Barovians of the vampire’s awakening. However, he was stopped by the Vistani seer Madam Eva, who warned him: “The message you bring shall be borne by another. Should you return to the village while light lingers in the valley, you shall surely meet your grave.”

Knowing full well of Eva’s reputation, Van Richten reluctantly set forth for Lake Baratok instead, weeping bitter tears for the sons and daughters of Barovia.