Richten House
At a glance
A beautiful estate hidden beyond the Shroud inside its own small, mist-bound domain. Investigation within established that it was the home of Dr. Rudolph van Richten, whose armory, laboratory, and research remain inside.
Access
- A silver Mist talisman given by Vidic guided the party through the blinding Mists.
- Crossing the Mists led to a cobblestone lane and the border of Richten House’s separate mini-domain.
Areas explored
- Grand foyer and drawing room: Contained a woman in a torn nightgown and an ivory urn marked Ingrid van Richten.
- Dining hall: Contained a chair mimic and strangely dust-free portraits.
- Chapel: Displayed religious objects from many faiths.
- Circular bedroom or study: Held silvered weapons, silver dust, and powerful spell scrolls.
- Upper parlor: Contained a smiling ghost searching for Van Richten.
- Girl’s room: Cobwebbed and haunted by a child clutching a doll.
- Boy’s room: Contained an object engraved “Erasmus.”
- Laboratory: Equipped for herbalism, poisoncraft, and alchemy and filled with monster-hunting literature.
- Blue mourning room: Blue furnishings and stools surrounded a medical-style bed holding an unnamed bandaged undead woman.
- Cellar: Wine storage opened onto a séance chamber with a charcoal pentagram, five groups of candles, and the corpses of earlier adventurers.
- Pantry: Haunted by an angry cook endlessly peeling potatoes.
- Ballroom: Haunted by a red-haired, violet-eyed hunter whose death left Van Richten burdened by guilt.
- Trophy room: Held vampire-hunting equipment and memories of the red-haired hunter’s sacrifice.
- Maid’s room: Haunted by a housekeeper hanging from a noose; yielded supplies for a healer’s kit.
- Circular gallery: Displayed beautiful but disturbing paintings of winged monstrosities and deranged people.
- Battlements: Crowded with ravens, including an unidentified creature that grew to the size of a turkey.
- Orchard: Contained a tall black oak with a stool placed before it near the domain’s misty boundary.
Known dangers
- At least one piece of furniture was a mimic.
- Several ghosts haunt the estate.
- The domain is enclosed by Mists, with ravens circling in the distance.
- Lighting the cellar’s five candle groups summoned a hostile vampire-like creature.
- An unidentified bandaged undead horror rested in the blue room.
- Darkon’s erosion of memory continued during the party’s latest rest here despite the estate’s separation as a mist-bound mini-domain.
Current status
The party returned to meet Vidic, formally joined the Keepers of the Feather, and witnessed Erasmus’s visions of Azalin’s disappearance and Van Richten killing his vampiric son. The estate remains a refuge, though it did not protect the party from Darkon’s theft of memory.