The Woes of the Vampire Hunter and his Apprentice

The Beginnings of Rudolph Van Richten and his relationship with Ezmeralda D'Avenir.

Around 1348   Van Richten travels to Barovia and while he thinks Strahd is in a state of hibernation, van Richten enters Castel Ravenloft and reads the Tome of Strahd. (In my game, he takes the book and the players will find it in his tower.)   1350 At the age of fifteen, Ezmerelda left to seek vengeance against van Richten.   After some time on her own, Ezmerelda was taken in by the d'Avenir family. They were kind and did a lot to cool the fire inside her, though not completely. Ezmerelda took on their name to honor them and also to make it easier to get the drop on van Richten. (I made this up. See the next event below.)   1352   Ezmerelda d'Avenir tracks down Rudolph van Richten to attempt to kill him. Van Richten does not resist, wanting to die after the loss of his entire family and the shame of what he had done. Seeing the sorrow in his eyes stayed her hands for a moment. She asked why he did what he did and so he told her the tragic story of his son and wife. Conflicted about what to do, Ezmerelda decided to not let van Richten out of her sights until she had decided what to do with him. They spent an uneasy time together, but Ezmerelda eventually forgave him. (I made this up to help explain their relationship. I chose the original, horde of undead, origin story for van Richten, so I then had to re think why the two of them are together. This seemed more emotionally engaging than Ezmerelda's original story.)   1354   After hunting monsters for two years, tension between Ezmerelda and van Richten reaches a point where Ezmerelda suggests that they part company with some shred of their friendship still intact, and van Richten agreed.