Gertrude van Damme, Vampire Hunter – Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Character Backstory [KIA]

I still hear their screams when I lie down at night. One by one that vile creature slaughters them. I see the terrified look in my mother’s eyes as it sucks the life out of her. The anguished look of my father as it pulverizes him. The petrified look of my brother as he let’s out a desperate scream for mommy, then silence. Then it’s just us. I cover my ears and squeeze my eyes shut in fear, waiting for my inevitable death, but it doesn’t come. It doesn’t come because he saves me, Rudolph van Richten.

It has been nearly two decades since van Richten has taken me under his wings. He’s like a second father to me, although, I think he regards me more as an apprentice. He teaches necromancy and divination magic at the university, and when he’s out of that stuffy ‘ole building, we travel to various locations on tips to slay vampires and their spawn. Such vile creatures, a blight upon the land. van Richten lost his family to a vampire too. I think that’s why he took pity upon me, a new orphan that night, and raised me. In the years that followed, he dedicated his life to the study and execution of vampires.

Rudolph hasn’t returned from his last mission. If he encounters delays, he always sends me a message by mail, but the only mail I have received is an envelope with a strange a letter and a card enclosed. A clue to his whereabouts perhaps? Something is wrong, and I owe Rudolph my life. I will save him, if I’m not too late…

Gertrude’s Death

Gertrude died doing what she was called to do: slaying vampires. In her hunt, she encountered a young vampire by the name of Doru. His father didn’t have it in him to end his wretched life, so Gertrude took it upon her self to do what needed to be done. The young vampire was strong and fast. He out maneuvered Gertrude and grappled her from behind. She couldn’t free herself from his grasp as he sunk his fangs into her neck, killing her.